DEJAN STIPKE STIPIĆ | The Champion's Journey | Interview | The Athlete Insider Podcast #18

Dejan Stipic Stipke has practiced a lot of different sports throughout the years. His sportive career started when he was 6 years old as a gymnastics athlete until he was 18 years old. During this time he developed himself as a gymnastic representative of Serbia and participated in multiple competitions.

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I don't think the gym community is like "ah he's doing a pull-up!" "get him, get him" Yo gorillas! Welcome to the next episode of the Athlete Insider Podcast by GORNATION. My name is Phil and today's guest is no other than the serbian workout beast, also known as Stipke Dejan Stipić. I'm happy to have you here today and yeah we will talk about some workout stuff. We received a lot of questions from the community around about like 100, 150 questions so that's really crazy. We will try to answer quite a few of them and, yeah for the people who don't know Dejan he's like really one of the craziest, yeah you're so long in the game you have an amazing physique, you have like a lot of uh crazy pr's, crazy like achievements in your career so we will talk about that today. Welcome to the show Dejan. - Thanks so much man thanks for the invite. Glad to be here! - Awesome! So let's start with your presentation. When somebody approaches you and you don't know this person, this person doesn't know you how do you, how do you present yourself? I think that changed over the year you know over the years, like like now like, before you know gymnast, uh then like street workout athlete and that's usually like: "What the f**k is street workout?" And i have to f**king explain i work out in the park, i do pull-ups you know stuff like that um, or just athlete but now it's like a mix like athlete and i have my own business, entrepreneur you know so it's like a mix of many other things now yeah. - Okay so yeah like you have a crazy development in the sport, in sports in general as you said like you started as a gymnast, is that right? Yeah yeah i was a gymnast for 12 years. 12 yeah. Since i was like six years old until around 18, i think eight.. just over 18 i stopped. - Okay. So a long time . - That's true. So like how old are you now? - I'm 27. 27. So like uh nine years in calisthenics and street workout, is it right? Yeah, since 2012 so like eight you know but yeah i started at six just being, doing like uh gymnastics competitive, so i was also competing um nationally also like around the balkan area. I was a serbian representative um for gymnastics and then when i was done with that i transferred into like street workout more. Now more into like fitness you know everything. What was the reason back then for you to switch to calisthenics or street workout? i mean injuries most of the part, you know i had a lot of them and because of the injuries and everything i i felt like i hit plateau you know and my limitations in gymnastics and to be honest i never liked it you know i liked the strength aspect of it you know muscle ups, how many pull-ups you can do you know just the strength because every workout we did we started, started the workout with strength and that's my like favorite things like the freestyle you know learning the moves, learning the skills and everything i didn't really like and that's how i got injured you know i tore my shoulder, um broke my hand, i fell on my head like directly on my head from the high bar and that basically was like a career ender you know for me when i fell in my head because from there on i had phobias. As soon as you have a phobia in gymnastics you're done you know you can't be scared. And then the last like year or two in my career i really wasn't motivated, i really didn't want to work out, i started to skip classes and everything and before i was always like on time. 8 a.m., two workouts a day, competing on the weekends you know it was like that for ten years you know like two workouts a day and just grinding and i didn't know anything else. I didn't really play outside and didn't really have friends. School was okay you know but even in school like the teachers and everything are like: "Oh yeah he's an athlete" you know "let's.." you know "let him do his thing" you know "he has a future in that" and then after like when i was like, i think i got injured when i was like 17, 16, 17 when i fell on my head and then it just went down you know and either i'm gonna quit you know or i'm gonna really get injured you know. And at that point i was pretty, like a pretty bad place you know like uh i didn't really want to work out, uh i want, i wanted to injure myself you know so i just don't have to go and work out. It was that like bad place in my head you know. I tried to like break my fingers in training like purposely. - Wow! - Yeah purposely you know do a move badly you know so i like grab the bar and break my finger or break my hand you know. - But who forced you to do, to continue with gymnastics? Was it your parents, was it your self image of yourself or? Ah i think, i think it's everything you know i tried to quit in 2008. I tried to quit and my trainer was like: "You can't!" you know "We need you in the club. You need, you'll take like one week off." and then i take one week off and of course i want to train because that's all i you know do and then i come back and you know it was like that, um i didn't really train for myself i think in that point you know um so i tried to like find like a escape and then as soon as my trainer was like: "hey this is your last competition" you know "you're not gonna do this like professionally" you know i was like: "yup that's all i needed to hear." you know "Bye!" and that's it. That's how i ended. - Wow! But in the beginning of your street workout like uh your street workout career you started with freestyle as well, right? Yeah yeah yeah um that happened in 2012 when i started. So it took like a year maybe a little bit more than a year and a half like break from working out you know between like street workout and gymnastics i had like a a year, year and a half break where i just partied you know party every weekend because for 12 years you know all my like child life and my like teenage years i didn't go out. I didn't go for a party, i didn't have beer, friends like when friends like from uh school invited me like: "hey let's go and play" or whatever i'm like: "i can't because i have another training after" you know so i couldn't really socialize like that you know and um for that year and a half i just like partied, started drinking you know then i had like access of energy what to do, no future so i started like going to football games you know like the hooligan, with hooligans basically and i was like: "oh this is not good" you know and then randomly on tv i saw 2011, or no 2012, uh world championship on Eurosport. It was on tv and i looked at it i was like: "this sh*t is f**king easy." you know "i can do that." and then start basically at that time, they, they, the city opened a park in my city and we were like: "let's go!" you know and then one year later I was top three in the world. Wow! And where do you do you think would you be now if you wouldn't have seen the like street workout on television? I have no idea. Probably in a bad place you know i don't know like hopefully i would either way find a way to work out or in the gym or whatever but i don't think, if i didn't i would be like a f**king bad place. Who knows what you know i don't really think about it. Okay. - But probably something bad. - Yeah and like your, your past made you the person that you are today and without uh like these experience, without the injury like falling on your head etc like uh you wouldn't be where you are today and uh because where you are today like most of the people consider successful and maybe you had to.. I mean yeah i definitely had to you know the injuries and everything, um the people i met you know the people who i started going to the park with like milan, we started working out together you know everything was like you know like the right path like exactly how it should happened and we started like a group, we started working out, we did classes and everything, we had like big dreams you know and boom! you know it took me a year, year and a half but you know i reached like the top and then just built on that. Wow! So let's go into your journey in calisthenics, street workout. You started directly with freestyle because for you it looked easy, it was like a little bit similar to the gymnastics that you did before. - Yeah. - How did you work out? How did it come to continue? Well i didn't really start doing freestyle, we just worked out like proper because i had to gain strength again you know to do pull-ups, i couldn't do a muscle up in 2012. And as a kid when i was like nine years old i could do 10 on the rings. - Wow. - You know like that but in 2012 i couldn't do like anything. So i we got like proper, we did like proper workouts, sets and reps and then slowly did like few moves here and there you know like try to do a the back lever but that's gymnastics, that wasn't too hard you know front lever you know handstands are easy like learn a few like explosive push-ups and you know that's basically it and then we went to one competition in bosnia and people, people started talking about the world cup there like: "oh there's going to be a world cup." you know like "10 stages around the world. It's going to be one in Zagreb, in Croatia." and i was like: "can i get somehow, get in?" because already in 2013 my popularity in the region started like going up you know pretty fast like "what the hell?" and i got a invitation to it and i just randomly just played in the park you know like try this move, try to get like choreography a little bit. And then uh also the federation had like a manual or script what you need to do in a competition to win you know like points or you have to do something on the dip bar, something on the bar, you need something explosive and you need to do a flag to get like the maximum points and i f**king researched and I'm like: "I'm gonna do this, this, this, this,..." and i went to the world cup in Zagreb and i was second, second place. I was like "holy sh*t" you know and i qualified, and i qualified for the final and then when i went there i just improved a little bit on the choreography and just the moves and everything i'm gonna do and then boom! Top Three like all of a sudden and just changed everything. - Wow!" Over night. - Yeah i can imagine like and where do you, yeah like what was the reason from your point of view now? Like was it uh your talent, your background in gymnastics, was it the low level these days? What was it that put you to the top directly? It's a combination of everything. I don't think... It wasn't low level especially back then you know if you do a planche, you had, i forget the names of the of the people because they fell off and disappeared after that but they did like maltese, they did planche, one guy did you know muscle up 360 which back then was like "what the f**k" you know. It was a high level you know like a big competition and everything but i just think because i knew the rules properly and i don't know i think stage presence a little bit. I had the confidence you know to go on the stage and perform and i really worked out a lot you know. In that period i remember i lost a lot of friends in that exact period. As soon as i qualified you know i was like: "i can't party anymore. I can't. I have to you know work out." even my teachers back then and everything they were like you know uh "What you're gonna do in life? You should start working. You should go to college." and i was like: "No i have a world cup in six months." and they were like "oh give yourself a year. If you don't do anything in a year, quit and start working." I'm like "ah yeah yeah sure" and then you know. But i think it was a combination of everything you know the dedication ,the workouts i did, stage presence, read the rules you know what you need to do you know and that's it because there were stronger people in that competition you know but they didn't know what to do you know. They did randomly one move then come down um and you need like to do at least three moves in a row to get points and i did moves who were like, four or five you know. - Okay so like for the people who want to take stuff from this like the points that i took with me, You prepared well, you didn't trai.. uh only work out hard but also smart, you were prepared with a list of stuff that you need to do to get the points, you had the stage experience so you were more calm i guess than the other people, you breathe right. Yeah i, you know like in gymnastics and everything when i, when you compete, you compete in an arena you know you know like big hall or whatever. Okay in gymnastics you don't have that many people but i was on a stage and you feel that rush you know so i basically took that and went on a stage but already because i just like being on stage in front of people you know i don't get nervous like that, it hypes me up. - Nice. - You know and i perform better when people are watching you know so that's also a thing for my like success back then and i didn't, i didn't really uh listen to people you know like the older people and the naysayers you know like "you can't do this, quit!" blah blah blah you know i didn't really listen to people. You can't you know. - Yeah, i think it's a special mindset like what does, what does happen inside of like your head when somebody tells you "Dejan this is, this is no good idea. You won't make it."? Yeah you can't you can't listen to people like that you know. If you say that i can't, i will! You know like i remember even when i was a gymnast back then if you say like "you can't", if you say to your trainer you can't or you know "i'm tired" or something you're gonna get a slap you know like or you do something with bad form or whatever you get you get slapped you know or you get punished. - Okay. - in some way so you can't really complain, you can't really be like "i can't, i can't". You have to you know so i had already that mindset or i already had that competitive mindset. I was also strong so i used to compete like we had like a pull-up competition like in the gymnastic, gymnastic days and i used to compete like my, my number so in 10 sets my like uh number against like three other people you know like they're com.., combinated number of reps against only mine you know and i won and sh*t like that you know so already i was like you know to like compete and be like that. Okay. Well okay like when you, when you said uh let's jump to the present when you said uh that you are um like when you perform in front of people right now it even motivates you more. I just have to think of the uh last two uh like events in berlin uh like the Cali Games uh the i think two years, not like last year so three basically three years ago there was this epic video from you where you walked to the crowd with your back you know and uh the year like last year where we uh met also you competed against Lee so you're still in a crazy, you have this mindset and you have this crazy attitude to, to perform so like what is your current state of workout? What are your goals right now? Just to get overall better you know i don't, i don't really want to compete even back then like Cali Games i wasn't scheduled to compete at all you know especially against like LWT. I wasn't scheduled to compete. I was like uh i was supposed to be just a judge you know and then like a week or ten days before i saw like in the whatsapp group they were like: "oh you against this guy, this guy, LWT against Dejan!" I'm like: "i have to compete? Like then, like then like i'm not gonna come. I don't compete anymore." "oh no just for the public you know just attraction" you know i'm like: "come on." And back then like we, even now in the park, we don't have like a proper pull-up bar. They f**king destroyed it you know. We have a monkey bar and that's it you know. I'm like: "i can't even, don't care. F**k it. I'll compete." and then i talk to LWT because he is also a good friend, so shout out to him, um he gave me the routine and i'm like: "i can't, i don't even have a place where to do a muscle up properly" you know and he gave like his routine and it's like half or more of it is weighted cali and i didn't do weight at cali for a year i'm like: "f**k it! You know i'm not even going to train for it and i went and it was like, the competition was like july i think it was like july or something like that summer and my competition it was like at 2 p.m. It was so hot. - Ah f**king! If you remember it was so f**king hot me not, me not prepared at all and i lost you know and then f**king comments on on instagram from some people "ah you're just like an instagram guy" you know "just fake, you're not strong" and sh*t i'm like and i tore my hands there was a picture on instagram. I tore my hands and everything i'm like you f**king motherf**k you know. So the next day they had like the absolute reps competition so anyone can like join i don't know how many people competed. Yeah. Like 20, 30 days and i'm like "okay i'll compete again you know torn, sore, not prepared at all and i basically won every medal. - Yeah. - Like a motherf**ker. Instagram, instagram bullsh*t. - Yeah. Well what does it mean... - People forget. People forget. people forget. You have to remind people sometimes. Like what does happen inside of you when when people comment something like this? Do you want to explain or do you just want like, what does it make with you? Yeah i think it depends. I think it depends on the comment and my mood if i'm in my feelings or not you know if i want. Sometimes i look and be like "f**k!" you know who knows what kind of place they're coming from. Sometimes you go on the profile and if it's a kid you know or it's like a fake profile who knows who it is you know maybe it's Sabo f**king with me you know you, you can't know you know who it is so sometimes i'm like "f**k it!" sometimes i like to troll you know and i f**king reply and whatever you know troll a little bit and but i don't really get upset that much. I, it's been a long time you know if you go on my youtube you see f**king nasty comments all the time so i just look at it like well what can you say to her like i went through everything. Okay. - Whatever. - Wow. Okay. Present. How does your schedule look like right now? How does your week look like? Training-wise? - Yeah, training-wise. - So yeah um because now i'm doing also like weight lifting and doing olympic lifting, i'm combining basically everything you know i don't do just calisthenics. monday it's upper body strength so it's muscle up, pull up, bench or dip you know combine it like every other week. Tuesday it's lower body strength so olympic lifting and squats. Wednesday rest day and then thursday i do push workout. Friday pool workout. Saturday i do legs. Sunday rest so it's like that. - Okay. More focused on strength. - And right now you always train in the gym? Yeah i have to. I didn't go to the park. i went to the park like a month ago um just for my deload but properly like to work out in a park it's been two years maybe, maybe two you know like i don't see any benefit from it anymore like i need weights even with calisthenics i need at least 20, 30 kg you know for pulls for push-ups i need someone on my back to do a to do a workout like i can't you know to improve that much on the street anymore you know and i i knew that for the past long time you know. For the past like years i knew that i'm not improving you know that i can be much better you know but i listened to other people who commented like uh you know "Be true to just calisthenics, don't do anything else. You should be your only street workout. We want you to be this. Don't be anything else. Be.." you know "..Stipke from the street." you know "Don't, don't touch weight." you know and i was like listening to those people and i knew that i wasn't improving, that i was limiting myself you know and i was like "f**k that, i'm not gonna limit myself anymore" you know and went to the gym, started doing more weights, more weighted cali and then in october last year i started like weightlifting like olympic lifting and a little bit, a little bit of weight lifting you know like gym. But that's it. - Okay, because that's what, that was also a question from the community: why you started with like with weight training with olympic weightlifting? um so basically the reason is that you stagnated, that you didn't make any like progress or..? No no progress in calisthenics, i didn't make i didn't make any progress and weighted Cali, my PR's didn't move for four years, almost five you know i didn't reach any new pr there's no way to even come to that point you know and i was like you know "what the hell" and then when i started doing weights and when i started like programming properly, training for strength in two months i broke all of my records from before. - Wow. - In two months what i couldn't do in four years, almost five. -Crazy. -You know with proper programming and everything. I didn't do it by myself. I also have friends who do olympic lifting and you know and i'm like "how do you work out? how do you do olympic lifting? what kind of rep range are you doing? what kind of..?" you know and i basically took that and put it into weighted cali you know like olympic lifting made me more explosive and stronger on the bar now you know so i could put like bigger weights, i can do more reps you know i always research you know i took like like a little bit power lifting style, a little bit olympic lifting style and then like the gym just like a little bit at the end of my workout you know just to get my physique also like, like proper and because my goal is to look like a bodybuilder, a mix of a bodybuilder and a power lifter but to have strength of an olympic lifter and a power lifter you know but for that you're not gonna be the best in you know muscle up. You're not gonna be a best in bench or dead lift you know but like all around you're gonna be the best you know. - Okay. Wow. - I don't specialize you know. - Yeah yeah you're like all-rounder like you know you're merging, like a generalist uh and maybe that's also something that you've shown, that you've shown in uh in Cali Games at the on sunday at the reps competition because like yeah you you dominated in push, you did everything like yeah. It does.., it doesn't matter, squats you know like those are the people who win usually at the at the competition especially reps you know. If to win you have to like at least be top three and everything you know but to do that you have to be overall strong and today a lot of people specialize which is not a bad thing to do you know but you don't really have a competition just for muscle up and that's it you know. Okay you're gonna win a medal but what what then yeah you know but to win like the overall like to get the big prize and get that accomplishment and you know you have to be everywhere good so i like to do it like that. Yeah of course it depends on your goals like honestly i would be interested in, um there are ,there are athletes who are like crazy crazy street workout athletes and then there are people who say he skipped leg day he doesn't have legs like like what what is your opinion on this? Like uh because i also can understand the people who specialize you know who like do crazy stuff that nobody has ever done like in one particular area. What is your opinion on this? But you can you can specialize in one area but still do legs i mean that doesn't matter, that doesn't mean you have to skip doing other stuff you know like it's cool that you can do 60 kg muscle up or 50 or dip you know but if you can't, like i don't care it's you know i don't care what you do and everything if that makes you happy you know but to look at like the big picture you know why? why? but again like that doesn't mean you have to skip legs. You can specialize and still do other stuff you know that's my opinion. - Okay, get it. - And you can work out if you're doing just muscle ups or specialize in a pull-up what you're going to pull up every day, that's not really you know a good thing injury-wise and everything hitting a plateau like that's also not a good thing. - Okay yeah because the the thing that you said hitting a plateau, trying another sport or like another uh yeah even stimula like for your muscle it doesn't have to be a diff.., totally different sport but just do different exercise, different approaches, different uh like rep numbers etc and then improving on the on the on your basic. - Yeah. - Because like Vadym did the same thing like uh he he also like with CrossFit he improved also in Cali, that's.. - Definitely definitely you know you take the best parts from CrossFit, you take the best parts from olympic lifting, weight lifting power lifting, i'm not doing full-time power lifting, i don't do full-time olympic lifting. I do it once a week you know and i only do power cleans and snatch you know i take like the best best things from everything, even calisthenics there's no point for me to do a full back workout only cali you know this grip, this grip, this grip, this grip, this grip, this grip like the whole workout you know like i do like the compound movements you know muscle up, pull up you know chin up you know and then just combine with other like training styles you know like i do bench, i do like rows a little bit you know for my back. i do some stuff like isolation stuff you know like for the bicep or just squats, just glutes, hamstrings you know but those are like just sprinkles at the end of the workout you know to get that shape and everything to get stronger but again the compound movements, what i do full time still it's cali. Okay. - And i get comments all the time like "oh you're not doing calisthenics anymore" check it check my story i'm doing a muscle up with 40 kg like what do you mean i don't do, what does that mean you know what does that mean i don't do cali anymore. Yeah it's like people who are like too focused like you are only allowed to do uh only do calisthenics that's i think that's also the reason why a lot of athletes who train with weights from time to time aren't like are fearful to say it in front of the community because then they say he doesn't do only calisthenics and they people are really.. I think the community is like that and we are the only community who is like that you know like "calisthenics and that's it don't do weights!" I don't think the gym community is like "ah he's doing a pull-up!" you know "get him, get him" you know "change your handle on instagram" you know "you're not the gym guy anymore. get out!" you know but i think the calisthenics community, street workout community is like a little bit judgmental you know like oh you have to be only purely calisthenics even weighted cali is like "Oh you'r on the edge" you know you have to lift the weight but i think that's like a limited mind because i was like that a little bit you know like before before you know i didn't want to do weights i wanted to be purely cali you know pure to the form and sh*t and that was like that's a bad way of thinking. Okay like let's switch into the position of somebody who starts calisthenics as a new athlete. What would you recommend are the three things that if people changed it in their beginning of calisthenics and of workout in general they would have much more results much more like success? Number one: warm-up because you see a lot of people skipping it and then causes injuries and then again you're at the beginning you know take those 10, 15, 20 minutes, warm up properly and then the number two thing: stick to basic workouts at the beginning it doesn't have to be fancy at all you know basic pull, push, squat you know stick to the basic and again form and quality over the the reps you know how much you're gonna do, quantity it doesn't matter you know especially at the beginning it's better to do five proper pull ups than 12 kipping you know strength-wise, muscle-wise you know it does make sense you know those are the three things i think people should be focused on at the beginning. - Nice i think uh people can uh relate to that like i don't know a lot of people who do warm ups but every professional or like most of the professional athletes that i know they all do warm-ups. - If you don't, you're gonna get injured you know that happened to me multiple times you know i tore both of my shoulders because i didn't warm up. I used to warm up all the time even before that i used to warm up. One workout i didn't warm up and i tore my shoulder and so that's important even now in the gym and when i go i'm the only one, me and my training partner, are the only ones who are warming up properly you know for me i warm.., if you're doing bench a warm up shouldn't be doing a bench with lower weight. - Okay. Or curling with a lower weight, that's not a warm-up you know. Like proper dynamic you know elbows, neck, full body warm-up, even legs even if you're not doing legs warm up your legs you know and no one is doing that, unfortunately. - Okay. Nice um but not nice but uh yeah still let's continue. Something that i'm interested in: you switched um quite drastically with your nutrition um and i'm interested in that why and what are the benefits that you see since then? Why.. I went vegan in 2018 in june. Why? I needed a change you know before that i did keto for two years so i didn't eat any fruit, no sugar, just meat all day and fats you know zero carb basically you know only broccoli and stuff for two years so i didn't have a banana, an apple nothing you know i was always in keto, ketosis um so i needed a change and i was one of those guys in 2013, 14, 15 who was like making fun of vegans you know making memes and shit on instagram i was one of those people and then. But i also have like good friends who are vegan you know like Frank Medrano is vegan, one of my good friends from dubai living now in Canada Khan, he's vegan and i have people like those that showed me like oh you know you can still you know build muscle and be like healthy and everything with a vegan diet so i was like: "okay, okay that's possible" and then after keto i'm like "man i need to get more and more into nutrition learning more on myself and then i can get that knowledge and then you know learn other people" you know because with the app, with the pdfs that we did the nutrition and everything it's better for me to know all types of diets because then i can help different kinds of people and different kinds of clients um so i was like "f**k it i'm gonna switch to veganism" and just cold turkey you know one day eating meat the next two years i didn't eat anything, no eggs, no meat. I had cheese a few times like pizza or whatever when i can't really, when i can't really you know avoid it. Milk no, no yogurt, nothing and i felt good you know like i was the most shredded in 2018, 19 with a vegan diet and i was the biggest during winter. I was 85 kg during winter, the biggest i've been and the most shredded i've been you know with just being vegan. It was easier you know you're full you're eating a lot of plants you know like i'm eating more various foods. For keto you're eating beef, chicken, broccoli, avocado you know like that's it. You're not eating a lot so it's when i went vegan, when i was just eating plants you know zucchini and then this, this like more nuts like just seeds and it was like totally different you know and i again cooked more and like it was like interesting and i improved but again like the the feeling and everything was the same when i did keto. I didn't feel different. It wasn't like oh no i'm not you know like uh i'm not foggy in my head it's you know it's i'm not like getting you like i can do that with keto you know i can do that with vegetarian you know if you know the nutrition and you know what to eat ,any diet can work for you but a lot of people who tried like keto they didn't do it properly. Many people who tried veganism or plant-based they didn't do it properly. You can't just eat one banana and oreo and like broccoli and think you know i'm you know "I'm gonna be good" no you're not gonna be good you know so i think you need to really get into it, research and really get you know into the diet and learn and then you're going to be fine, that's my opinion on it. - Okay, so the main reason that you stick with veganism right now because you said that you can achieve your physique or your results with every nutrition so the main reason is um like the variation of food you feel more comfortable with eating much and getting back into the love of food like cooking more various stuff etc.? - Yeah yeah i just i don't need meat to get bigger, strong so why eat it you know i proved to myself like that i don't need it. I'm healthy. I did my blood work you know like no change, everything good. Then you know i take supplements still like b12 and iron and everything but again everyone should. There's no, there's no need for me to eat meat. I went back to vegetarian now so every two years i changed a diet so i did like flexible dieting, i did keto, i did for i think for four years i did intermittent fasting, i did vegan for two and now for the next two i'm gonna do vegetarian so i'm doing eggs, i'm doing eggs now and sometimes like cheese again and that's it. - So you're just... - again no difference. No difference again. - Yeah. So you see it as a test, as a challenge or like why don't you stick with veganism right now? Do you miss eggs or? - No not really but i just want to see the difference between being vegan and vegetarian. - Okay. Will my body change? How will i feel? Improvements in my workouts? you know stuff like that so in three years we're gonna see what's gonna happen. - And i think in i don't know 30, 40 years people will be able to uh buy your biography and like read about 20 nutrition styles and the guy who tested them for two years each so yeah. Yeah probably like something like that or in two years i'm gonna be back to vegan you know and and that's it but all depends, all depends what's gonna happen and also my training how it is gonna go you know you never know you never know. Okay nice, you talked about blood tests, i see like uh stuff that nobody does but uh professional athletes like warm up etc. What are the habits, like not even workout related, but what are the habits that you do every day that would improve people's lives if they would do it? I think everyone is different but for me i need to have like a schedule you know to work out at the same day i like to eat the same stuff every day, especially now when i'm working and getting bigger i don't want too many distractions and you know like different kinds of foods. I can't have cheat meals at my home so i can't really have good food like chips or anything in my house because i'm gonna eat it you know so like my fridge is empty like i have the food that i have to eat today and that's it. Tomorrow i have to buy again you know i have exactly how much i need to eat, not less not more so that's like pretty strict because if i have food here i'm gonna f**king eat it. That's like a problem like now over the weekend like my girl was here watching movies and she brought chips, i ate it all you know like we can't, i can't have it you know i can't have it here um what was the question? What were, what are the habits that you stuff that you do every day that would improve people's lives? Wake up at the same time every day you know you shouldn't really you know one day wake up at 12 and then one day at 7 a.m. and then you know i think everyone should have like a specific you know time. Work out if you can at the same time. To drink a lot of water. Definitely, I always have like a liter, liter and a half here. As soon as i drink it i get another one. Take your supplements at the same time because you're gonna forget because i always have to have them somewhere here because i forget. I don't really have that discipline and a discipline. How do you.. habit of taking pills so i have to like see them or i'm gonna forget. So you're a really organized person so like you build your schedule, your day with like small stuff that you do the things that you know that you need to reach the goals that you that you want to. - Yeah yeah yeah yeah definitely definitely and if something goes off like i don't go to the workout, my day is f**ked. I don't ,as soon as i don't go to the workout, i don't eat right, i miss a meal, i don't have an appetite um i don't take my supplements you know and and it's like that so i have, i have to go out of the house and do like a workout or something. If i don't then everything collapses. Okay. i don't know it's like that for me. Okay nice so let's get, let's get to the questions of the community. There are a few cheeky ones, a few interesting ones um uh i am like the first thing that i have to say it was it what it was insane how many people have "iam" in front of their uh their instagram handle like. - No way. Like the people that are asked like um Iam ba Iam Iamsimonov like it was crazy honestly in the 150 questions that we had like there were 10, 15 maybe 20 people with "iam" in front and like your instagram handles iamstipke so. i am yeah yeah. It's cool - It's quite interesting quite interesting yeah so um first question from iamsimonov: Your goals 2020? So specific i want to do 200 kg squat, 50 kg muscle up, that's a goal. Those are the two big ones i think. - Okay. Those are the two big ones. - Straight bar? - yeah yeah yeah straight bar muscle up and 200 kg squat. Those are my two big ones. The rest of it i'm not really you know like actively like running for it and even for this i'm not real. For squats i'm pushing it especially now after quarantine like my strength went a little bit, a little bit down but yeah i need to need to get that. Yeah and i think a lot of people now expect like a list of 10 or 20 goals but from my experience it's not healthy to have that much, many goals like a lot of stuff is just coming with it like for example if you also want to do the 90 kg or 100 kg or whatever pull up it also comes like a little with the muscle up but it shouldn't be like you should focus on only two or three things uh like you know to have a clear focus. You can't have ten, there's no way you're not gonna accomplish everything and one year goes by like like that you know like you should have like a few goals here and there in fitness, a few goals like personal life, business and that's the only way you're gonna crush it you can't have too many. Nice. Rodrigocruz asks how to combine endurance with weighted Cali? Endurance and weighted Cali. What does that mean? Does he want to get better endurance with weighted Cali? He wants to get better and in both um, that's how i understand it, he wants to get better in both and he doesn't know how to combine it because like one rep max training destroys your endurance. Yeah you can't, you can't have you know you can't have both, it's pretty hard um you should pick one but like i think weighted Cali will help him with the endurance you know if he does it properly because the stronger you get you know and easier to do pulls and everything it's going to help him directly with endurance. Like for me now i didn't do endurance for f**king two years probably but i can for sure do like 200, 300 push-ups or 40 pulls just because of my weighted cali because i can do like big weights you know like body weight you don't feel like for me to do a body weight muscle up or pull up you don't feel like you're flying you're just just going up and down or same with squats you know so i think focus on weighted cali properly and that will directly help him with endurance. - Okay. - And then when you start endurance then you have to go in all in endurance. - Okay. like cyborg. - Yeah yeah he does like a little yeah a little bit of weighted cali but he does uh i think only 10 or 20 kg you know in weighted cali and then most of it is endurance. Yeah that's true okay. Iamgero is asking: will you ever learn Full Planche? - No. Not a goal? - No i don't have a desire. I don't have a desire to do it. I don't like it. It's, it's a lot of injuries with that with Maltese, with Planche, with Back Lever you know like i'm pretty cautious with it with that you know like biceps f**king tears and everything um so i don't do it. I don't do it and heavy squats don't go with Full Planche. Yeah true like this is a little bit what i meant with uh like generalists and specialists because it's like well but yeah you explained it right. So if somebody approaches you on a competition right now and says "Hey Dejan can you can you show me a Straddle Planche?", would you be able to do one right now? - Maybe for like five seconds, maybe but again i didn't do it in a long time you know like at the competitions like two years ago, three years ago i could still do it you know but i was like a little bit lighter but even for that i never did it you know i never do it in my workouts not even jokingly i don't do it. Okay. - You know but when there's a crowd and then you come to a competition and the organizer is like "oh every judge will do five minutes" push-ups i can always do. I can do a f**king superman push-up and stuff like that but like Front Lever. - No? - Maybe for a second or two no. I don't do it. - Wow. - And Front Lever as soon as you don't do it you lose it. - Okay. You know and i didn't do it for five years. That's a long time. Okay so next competition that we meet each other we do a Front Lever competition. -  Competition yeah you don't even need a timer. Nice uh alexander albaf asks: How do you get and keep your body fat percentage? Nutrition. It's all about nutrition with the with the body fat now i'm around probably 10, 10 percent, maybe 11 you know but when i'm like shredded shredded that's a lot of fucking dedication you know to eat in a deficit, you don't eat too much, it's mostly like fruit and like low calorie vegetables you know protein um it's pretty hard to keep it like really low low and the lowest i got it was like four. - Wow. - Four or five you know but that's like dieting you know no cheat meals, no nothing, a lot of water or a lot of green tea you know like uh fasting. Fasting is the best way i think. - It doesn't sound like fun. No no no this is the best when you're bulking and i can go now and get oreo and eat that and won't affect anything i'm gonna be stronger tomorrow if i have chocolate now you know or a pizza um yeah and i don't care if i have a little bit of fat you know i still have six pack and everything but.. and you need i think especially when you're doing strength training and you're doing that like one rep, two rep, three wrap max you need a little bit fat around the muscle and a lot of water around the muscle and tendons because when you don't when it's dry, then it comes to the pop you know to an injury but when you have like a lot of water in your muscle and like some fat that's gonna like protect the tendons, the ligaments, the bicep and your bigger, the bigger weight you are you can push and pull more weight. - Okay nice. - You need that. That's good to hear let's switch to the oreos after the interview. - Oh Definitely. dorian jacob yelich asks: What's the best advice to all young street workout athletes? Uh best advice. Again f**king warm-up if you want to compete um if you want to compete really focus on the performance and also try to like injure-proof yourself you know so do your like uh strengthening ligaments, tendons, diet should be on point uh focus on the freestyle but don't neglect strength um and another thing that a lot of people don't talk about i think social media you know social media and uh education you know there's not a lot of people who live from street workout you know from going to a competition and that's it you know it's like a limited few people who actually do this as a living you know so i think people should really focus on their education. If they want to be a trainer and athlete you need to get your diploma to be a trainer you know so study and social media aspect you need it today to get a sponsor you know GORNATION everything you're not gonna take someone who has no follow, no following you know so i think people should focus on their content. especially today everything is the wrong content, content is king so i think kids and everything should start like a youtube channel film everything you do really put some effort in that because that will also, people will invite you to a competition if you know you have a good social media because that's going to help the organizer also and that's going to help the sport. And again like the sponsorship and everything because you're going to need money to travel. Okay. Nice that's good advice i think yeah because uh it's a it's a common question that we also get like uh people want to compete who are really really strong but they have like 200, 300 followers um and like it's it's hard to invite somebody it's not the only thing that a sponsor looks at but like honestly it's the thing that you can give back.. yeah, yeah. ..to an organizer. - Yeah true true true because in 2012, 11, 12, 13 social media, instagram and everything wasn't that big you know and if you look at like the people who competed in 2013 it was like me, Vadym, Chris Heria like all of these people Ed from Barstarzz like all of these people really pushed like social media and content and like again like improvement like like uh they're all now big and living from the sport. The people who didn't give a f**k about social media and were like "i don't need it", there they disappeared from the sport you know so people should focus a little bit on it if they want to do this like full time if you don't you can do it out of fun. Yeah. - You know it's no problem. Everyone's different, everyone wants to do a different thing but if you want to do this then you have to focus on so many other things. That's true nice um enzo asks: How to get the protein in without meat and whey? Plants have so much protein, so much. Beans, lentils you know nuts, mushrooms, humus like there's so many plants who have more protein than meat. Yeah. - Yeah like so many like but i think people are.., just go on google and type in you know like plant protein benefits and you're gonna see like f**king a list of of plants who have more protein than f**king meat you know so that's like i don't even think about it, i really don't, i really don't, i eat beans every day and mushrooms and nuts of course like here like i always have like nuts. - Nice. Because i forget and i never thought like "oh i'm protein deficient like i don't have enough" no like i did my body composition uh two months ago and i have more than enough protein in my in my in my muscle, more than enough i think like the normal is like 12, 11 to 13 grams per whatever i have 14. - Wow. so i have more and i didn't eat meat at all so people worry about so many other things like just go on google and type in and you're going to see which plants have protein. - Get it, Okay, that's good advice um How many kg and what height are you right now? Currently i'm 83 almost 84 kg and 171. - 171. And uh also the question: How big are your arms right now? Do you know it? 45. - 45. Okay.Yeah 45 and my forearm is 30.. ah F**k, 35, 38. - Okay. some more than 30, not sure. Okay. I'll put it in the description also like i will ask you afterwards and uh we will put it in the description for the people who are interested in the exact numbers because it was, it was a crazy number, i was scared that the people ask also about different sizes but but i'm happy that they just asked about arms and forearms. - But every, everyone, everyone is asking for that. Yeah i have good genetics for arms like even before if people scroll down to 2014-15 i always had good genetics but everyone is like the number you know like like it doesn't matter, i just now like did measurements like maybe a few days ago because i know people will ask but i don't really stress about the number like how much, how big are my quads and everything, it doesn't matter. What matters is like how you're gonna look in the mirror and like in person like the measurement like exact like centimeter it doesn't matter. - Okay good. Emir asks how to stay motivated even though you want to to quit? That's why you need discipline because motivation won't be.. I'm not motivated at all, i rarely am, sometimes i am you know wha! for five minutes and that's it you know you have like those small bursts of motivation and that's it but that's why you need to be disciplined you know you need to have that schedule, you need to really be disciplined to eat the food, to go to your workout, to do the workout, to drink the water. You need that discipline. That's the only way you're gonna improve and not quit you know like for me you know it's all about discipline and like i have to work out and that's it. I have to stick to my schedule or i'm gonna fail. Like most of the times i'm not motivated you know you wake up and like: "f**k" but i'm still gonna f**king go to the gym you know because of the discipline so people shouldn't rely on motivation that much. Okay and you also showed in the interview that it's more about preparation like putting the nuts there, putting the water there, putting the pills there so the preparation doesn't like gives you the possibility to not have to be motivated. yeah yeah yeah people need to have that uh schedule in place you know like the the waking up and then what you're gonna do after waking up you know go to the gym, come back to the gym, eat and then the rest of the day you also need to be disciplined for the food but it's easier if you have the plan. - Yeah. Because when you don't have the plan you can easily you know move around. That's true and it's easier to to take a wrong decision because if it's just written there work out, do this set, this reps like you, it's written there you just do it like you don't think. - Yeah you need, you need, yeah you need also like a good plan so when you go to the gym you know what you're gonna do in the gym you know you see a lot of people in the park or in the in the gym just looking around "okay i'm gonna pick up this weight because it's free" and then go to the next one and i'm like just looking i'm like "what the f**k" you know "why are you doing that? where are you going there?" yeah you know no it has no plan and then they're not improving and then those people comment on instagram like "you're improving and i'm not" yeah i'm not walking around, yeah i'm not walking around the gym not knowing what i'm gonna do, you know i have like a proper plan. Even with the nutrition like i said like my fridge is like empty because i know what i need to eat i buy those things and then tomorrow i buy again you know because i if i have something bad in it i'm going to eat it. Nice, yeah, love it. Perfect um Marcel asks: Did you graduate? Like he asked three crazy questions: Did you graduate? Are you married or do you, are you in a relationship? Graduate? - Like did you have some, did you study did you like uh what what diploma stuff like that. Yeah i finished high school for, i'm a multimedia engineer so like social media, tv, around that and i have a diploma for a master trainer in calisthenics so a rap certification from uk so i have that uh I'm not married but i am in a relationship for for now a year, 14 months with my girl. - Nice. I just don't post ,i don't post it because that's like private and i don't share my private life on my fitness social media you know like i only post my workouts, my food like the motivation and that's it. I don't really post like my family or friends or like my relationships and stuff like that but i am in a real like committed relationship for the past 14 months. - Nice. Good for you. Because um i guess the reason is that you want to separate the two things that you want to be able to like what is the reason? Because again i have a big following you know so if i post someone on my story or my page i know there's gonna be f**king a lot of people attacking my friends, attacking my relationship you know like just waiting for you know something you know and then lies and everything and then past relationships i had like you know people be with you because you have a big following you know like f**king they just want clout you know "Post me on the story!" Why should i you know but yeah like people clout chase you know they just want to be with you because of the social media or to post you on their story and sh*t like that and i'm not into that um but with this relationship you know everything is great you know and like i didn't post anything like around my like personal life since 2016. You know like there's no need you know it's fitness related, it's around my business, it's around my workouts and that's it you know i stick to that. Okay nice um yes so one of the questions that i had to smile a little because there were crazy crazy uh questions and the one that i took because it was for me, it was the the the most uh like i don't know want to say funny because it's like maybe it's like.. - show my feet. Yeah, no but uh jiren the lover asks: Do you take roids or why did you lose all your hair? Like why did you go bald or like why, why? - Yeah because people don't change and don't get older and don't get gray hair you know people forget that i'm getting older you know and i i started like two years ago with a little bit thinning, thinning of the hair just a little bit here you know on the sides and everyone in my family literally everyone in my family is bald. Everyone, my father, my younger brother he started getting bald when he was 15. My older brother is bald, both of my grandpas were bald, my uncles were bald, like everyone is bald and i was the only one who wasn't and i f**king remember like two years ago like on new year i was like "holy shi*" i'm 25 or 26.., was it a year or two it was like: "holy sh*t i'm gonna be 26 or 25 and i'm not bald" you know like "holy sh*t, maybe the genetics" you know i'm the only one like buff and you know working out still and sh*t like maybe my genes are like you know i missed one generation. Nope! Two weeks after i felt like "oh no!" you know i'm like "really?" then you know like i think it's a normal thing when like guys start losing hair or get gray hair. You're like "oh my god" you know "really?" and then after a while, that went on for a year you know and it stopped, stopped falling out and a little bit falling out but mostly thinning and one day i was like "f**k it, i'm just gonna shave my head" and i just shaved it i'm not with the the razor you know i don't do that shi* because no need but i just shave it off like zero and that's it. I also have a beard like oh! you know What does it matter and what is the second question? Do you take roids? - Oh do i take roids. no no i don't take roids. That's the most common question i think in the past like few years, it's the most common one um which is understandable you know especially someone new coming into my profile who just like maybe start following me like for a few years or a few months or something only a few days you know then it's like "oh roids" or they see like the transformation picture you know like 2012, 2013 or like the big laps you know the improvements and they're like "oh you can't do that you know naturally" but the same people don't know that i was a gymnast for 12 and that i was fit as f**k when i was like nine years old, 10 you know 12, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18 i had a six pack all my life, literally. You know i could do muscle ups when i was nine years old, more now than some people can do it you know yeah back then and i'm competitive gymnast like you know. - Wow. - All of this and then they don't know that you know and then they comment roids or whatever and i don't talk about it because there's no point. Okay now like interviews or podcasts because people ask but usually like whatever you know or a comment like no like i've been training for two decades now. That's more than anyone in the game except the people from New York like beast and zeff but anyone else in the game i think. Who has two decades? Vadym you know like no one. Most of the people are like seven years or 10, 14. So yeah people who comment are usually the ones who don't really follow me you know or they don't follow me for a long time so they have like you know comments like that. It's understandable, i get it. Sometimes i take a good picture when i'm like buff and i'm like "oh look at my arm!" you know like "what the f**k?" you know i look like that i'm like "oh okay i'll post it" Oh post it and let's get ready for the comments you know. - Yeah. Okay. - But yeah it's normal everyone gets, gets that, everyone. - Okay. What can you, what can you do? You can't do anything about it. True nice but i like how you deal with it. But there's no other way you know or you're gonna ignore it you like now in interviews and everything you address it. I would gladly take a test you know but i think not everyone can just go and get a test yeah like i think it's a urine test it's like 500 euros and the blood test i think it's even more, the blood test. i asked that uh one of my friends he's a olympic lifter and he was actually, he went to the qualifier for the olympics for this year so he gets tested like you know often or whatever and i asked them like "can i?" you know "how how can i get tested?" and everything but that's like through the sports team or you know like the representative team and that's like they have to send it to Austria or France and then it's 500 euro like you know but one day i'll do it. - Nice. Yeah then the last question from the community from kabaddi: What supplements make sense for a street workout athlete? What supplements make sense: multivitamin, definitely multivitamin, omega 3, 6 and 9 is good, b12 i think everyone, if you're vegan or not, you need to take b12, uh iron, iron, d vitamin, d vitamin is good and now if you want something more for performance: creatine. Creatine is good. It's the most researched one you know from all of like the supplements and it's proven to work so that's the i think the best one and people should take like one gram per 10 kilograms of body weight so i take, i'm 80 kilograms so i take 8 grams a day. So people shouldn't be scared of that you know um i think that's basically it, what people take. I think whey and like protein and gainer and stuff like that are useless. It's better to eat another piece of chicken you know or a little bit more beans it's going to have more effect than you drinking you know like fucking whey. - Okay. Yeah i think because people spend too much money, either, either way supplements are expensive you know especially if you live in like Serbia, Croatia, Bosnia, Ukraine you know you're if you're not having a big paycheck and everything, you shouldn't really pay attention to the supplements that much. It's supplementation it, shouldn't be just supplements all day every day and that's it. If you have a shitty diet, the supplements won't help you at all. If you have a good diet or perfect diet then the supplements will come into play and then you can invest in that but i think a lot of people are misguided and fooled by the ind..., industry you know you have like bodybuilders and everything even some street workout athletes posing with a shaker and some supplements you know which don't really help that much. You will never see me holding like a supplement you know like that especially like whey or whatever. I'm gonna support like supplements like you know vitamins and stuff and who knows maybe one day i'm gonna have my own line of supplements you know even protein supplements but like healthy ones like from hemp or pee but hemp is the best one you know but like bullsh*t ones mainstream like that no, no. Usually the athletes who do that, they do it for money you know they promote it, they get 500 euros for it and that's it. Fooling kids you know not teaching them about nutrition and workouts you know just "buy my supplements", not my supplements the f**king companies supplements that you got paid for you know and that's going to help you do Hefesto and Planche, yeah - Okay, interesting. It's, it's the truth, it's the truth you know people need to hear that. Supplements won't help you, nutrition, proper programming on your workouts, rest, sleep, all of those things will help you improve you know supplements not really health-wise especially today with Covid you need to take supplements, you need to take supplements, you need vitamin c. Yeah that's also one i didn't mention vitamin c i take, 1000 milligrams and i take 5 HTP that's also for immunity and anxiety and stuff like that because a lot of people are now like panicking anxiety and you have that immunity goes down but the immunity goes down, you go outside, someone coughs in your face, you get Covid. You know this way if you work out properly and you get enough sleep and you have a good nutrition and you take the proper supplement you're gonna be fine. Again you can put the supplements in the description which i take you know and people can get healthy. Yeah nice perfect then um yeah these were the questions from the community. Let's get to some quick questions to end the episode What do you prefer, pizza or burger? - Pizza. Pizza definitely, no question. - Pizza, you said pizza i think two or three times in this episode already so i thought that you will say this. Do you prefer dogs or cats? - Dogs. Dogs definitely. I have a dog. - Nice! Do you have a favorite location for holidays? Oh f*ck! I don't go on holidays that much, i'm usually just working you know even when i travel it's for work but the favorite places which i can like say it's holiday places and everything uh Dubai definitely, it's one of my favorite and i live there and i have a lot of friends and it's like home for me. Um yeah Dubai. - Nice. What would you work as or what would you do if social media just disappeared? Probably a trainer and i will make a social media app. That's smart. That's, that's the answer that nobody gave until now. Yeah and we are making one now so people will yeah for especially for calisthenics so i think people will be happy to hear that. - If you want we can we can jump into your your app um like what is it about right now? Okay so we have already one app which is uh my programs there and the themes for now. We made it uh like eight months ago. It was trending already. As soon as we put it out, it was trending google play for fitness and it was trending for uh also on apple on the number two place so pretty good. Nice. - You know we have a lot of downloads and with that we also gonna make another one soon so this is like an exclusive so we didn't really talk about it yet It's still a secret but it's definitely gonna be the biggest calisthenics app in the world. like no mention. As soon as we put it out it's going to be the biggest app for calisthenics so it's coming. It's a lot of work you know, a lot of moving parts but it's going to be something different and i think something people will really enjoy. Yeah It's going to be cool. - Nice. I'm hyped so i think people uh yeah are looking forward to it. It's made specifically for the community and for the trainers. - Okay. But it's community based you know and it's gonna be free so it's gonna be really good. I'm really hyped for it. We've been working on it, researching for the past few months. We are now in the production part of it you know finishing up everything but it's going to be really good. I'm really hyped for it and how it's going to grow and everything it's going to be really good. - Nice, perfect. Do you have a favorite calisthenics athlete or a hero even? Not really. Not really like i used to, i mean when you're coming up and everything you look up to Hannibal. I looked up mostly for the guys from New York you know um from the staff beast lord vettel Hannibal you know everyone there then west coast Medrano you know people like that me coming up especially um but when you get older and you meet them and everything you know you look at them a little bit differently. They're more friends. You don't look at like a competition or whatever. Same with Vadym you know i looked at Vadym. Vadym was a legend in 2010 you know like i remember watching him you know he's like like my friend and he's in the company and everything you know one of the athletes and everything so like heroes are not really. I really focus on myself you know i don't really look at other people you know what they're doing. I look at myself but yeah i have a lot of friends that i look up to in the game. - Okay. Nice uh do you have a favorite book right now? Favorite book right now um, this year i read the "Five Second Rule". It's a pretty good book. I also read the Nike book.. - Shoe Dog. - from.. i forgot his name. Phil Knight. Phil knight. That's a pretty good book you know like the style it's written and explaining how they you know the troubles they went through and everything so i think the nike book it's really good. - Okay, yeah it's it's called "Shoe Dog" from Phil Knight i think uh so like we'll also write it in the show notes so if people are interested because it's a really interesting book no matter for it or business like. yeah specially if you're starting something then it's really good. Nice um uh the best calisthenics event you've ever been at? The best one i should say the Street Workout Super Final in Moscow when i won the third place. I think the organization was really good, it was in a big arena, everyone was uh treated as an athlete, as a pro athlete you know same for 2014. Everyone was really treated well. Every event in Berlin was really good organized by dan then vito. It was really top-notch and also Baristi Workout, if you remember them. - Yeah, nice! yeah dennis rotano, the King of the Bar. Those are the best ones. - Nice! And last quick question: Body weight or weighted? If you have to decide only body weight or only, let's put weighted and weights together. Weighted. - Weighted, nice. - Weighted all day. It's a challenge. That's only the reason why. It's a challenge body weight is no more a challenge for me you know i moved on from it, i accomplished everything i wanted, i hit a plateau with it you know there's no room for improvements for what i want and in weighted there's a lot of improvements. You can only go up you know especially if you're like a beginner in it you know same for me for olympic lifting or weightlifting and finally a beginner in something you know so that's like "f**k yeah!" you know i'm struggling, doing snatch, i'm struggling learning bench, i'm struggling with deadlifts you know like i'm a beginner again you know, okay not anymore but it'll be like coming out like even now i'm not moving that much weight you know so room for improvement that's giving me like like just a drive for it so it's all the time weight, weighted or weightlifting. i love that mindset like most of the people they imagine being the craziest street workout athletes of the world being able to do maltese like whatever like everything and the people who are there or who have been there um like they realize that there is more that is like you have to have this mindset to keep growing to uh try different stuff and to uh dominate other sectors, let's say it like this. Yeah but again everyone has a different goal you know like once upon a time i wanted to be a really good street workout athlete you know i reached like as much as i wanted you know like top three top ten if i want it and if the injuries and everything that i didn't have i'll probably hunt the number one and then when i reach number one then you know what now? Reach again number one or change? You know same with calisthenics, same with weighted Cali and now with olympic lifting, weightlifting you know everyone is different ,everyone has their own goal, you can't really judge someone but their goal but for me personally i want to be all around good you know not really specialize in one thing. I want to be good at everything you know so when someone is looking at me he's like "holy sh*t" he is doing a muscle up with 50 kg and then the next training you see me squatting 200 and then you see me you know doing handstand push-up with 30 kg you know and stuff like that right that's what i like, being overall like a beast. - Roids, roids. And then, they say, and then they say "Roids!" - What?! And then they say "Roids!" - Yeah yeah that's normal, that's normal anything i do it's gonna be roids you know for for some time and i'm like and i know that i'm gonna get bigger, i know i'm gonna get stronger you know at one point next year i'm going to be shredded you know i'm going to be probably around 80, between 80 and 83 kilograms, shredded you know ripped and then you know comments yeah like this winter if everything goes to plan i'm probably gonna be around 90 kg you know the strongest i've been, the biggest i've been you know and people will be like "Roids!" or "that's crazy supplements!" or but they don't look at like f**king, this is all i do you know i literally eat, sleep and that's it like work out and that's it you know like i don't do anything else and people don't i think understand that. This is my full-time job, work out you know, workout is my job and that's all i do okay with the app and everything, the business that we are building that's, that i can do sitting here you know but working out i'm always like dedicated i always have my meal you know especially now like f**king six, seven meals a day and taking sup.., always remembering taking supplements and you have to also sleep right you know i have to f**king foam roll every day you know like i i have to be injury free. If i get injured i'm f**ked and then you know like there's so many moving parts into being an athlete you know and people only look at the the results and then be like "steroids!" yeah okay, okay, you know i see comments like uh "oh he has a lot of acne on his back" i don't have one f**king, where the f**k who's looking at my back like that? from youtube like even on youtube like there's nothing you know like if you and there's no one around me like i have a small circle of friends so if you talk sh*t i know you're talking sh*t you know because you're not around me like in the f**k well whatever it's cool, it's funny. - Crazy! okay so let's get to an end. Like how can people get in touch with you? How can people learn from you? I know that you offer also like your plans like how can people profit from your experience in the sport? Yeah so basically they can check out my app it's "25/7 fit" on the apple and google play. There's a new app coming soon so hopefully i don't know when this is gonna air but i think the app will be done hopefully in a month you know so people will have time to check whatever else we have. - So in august. You can follow me on instagram, they can follow me on instagram "@iamstipke", Dejan Stipić on facebook. i have my youtube channel Stipke which i'm not active anymore but they could check everything that we have there and i'm going to be active soon but with the app making and Covid and everything it's pretty hard to make content. That's a f**king excuse you know but i'll make content, i'll make content for youtube and yeah be on the lookout for the clothing line Gorilla Gang coming again soon. That's always you know with your guys stuff you know it's hard to make good quality and lost lane landing stuff so we are working now on some new items and it's gonna come out soon so people should look out for it but everything is going to be on my instagram. Nice perfect! So um yes like uh we're coming to an end and before you can say goodbye to everyone i want to say thank you to everyone listening to this till the end because it's like, i think it's, it's the longest interview that we've ever done. It's like. - Oh now way! It's been how long? - One hour and 45 minutes, something like this. - Holy sh*t. Yeah so it's like.. - I'm gonna skip my meal, motherf**ker. I have to eat two meals at once, god damn! - Okay yeah but thanks for everyone like listening till the end that's that's crazy. - Thank you so much. Hopefully people liked it. Yeah true and uh yeah thanks for your time, Dejan! thanks a lot i appreciate it a lot! Thank you bro! - Yh yeah rate this episode, subscribe like all the stuff and - Give a thumbs up!" - Dejan, you can end the episode thanks for your time. - Thanks so much, man! Peace out!