Could Spencer Be a Gladiator? 'Legend' Matt Morsia Doesn't Hold Back

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2:34Hello and welcome to Untap. This week's guest is none other than legend of gladiators, Matt Morsia.

2:44Where are you from? I'm from Kent. Like literally on that, you just go down till you get to the sea. That's where I live, mate. Love it. I live in a town where the average age is about 90. It's a nice contrast. I was like, go and do mad stuff and then come back home and it's just quiet and you can just get on with your life and I like it. How old are your kids? Nine and four, almost five. Boys? Two boys, yeah. Lovely stuff. Absolute monsters, mate. Yeah, I know. Genetic. Are they? Specimens. Are they? As well. I'm their dad, do you know what I mean? Also, my wife is also pretty genetically gifted.

3:11So I thought they've hit the lottery, do you know what I mean? Genetically gifted. They've hit the lottery. Do you know what I mean? They're lucky. They're not lucky they are, basically. Are they actually? So, go on then. Take me through the nine-year-olds. He's just a monster, mate. He's just an athletic. Big old thing. Well, I know. Average size, but he's pretty jacked. But you just know it's only a matter of time. Jacked, nine-year-old. Until he realizes his physical potential. You've said before that your physicality when you were younger was kind of a cross to bear almost. Obviously great in being athletic, but you said that you were more imposing than your peers.

3:49I got into I think my uncle gave me a set of like adjustable dumbbells when I was about 14 13 so I just started just aimlessly doing bicep curls in my bedroom and stuff like a little weirdo so I was above average in terms of like muscularity and I think I was genetically predisposed to being more muscular and then obviously when you couple that with actually doing training that obviously helped and I think I always wanted to but like I remember as a kid like I loved like WWE wrestling right so like The Rock was like my hero as a kid. Do you know what I mean? I used to love like... So I think it's pretty common for like young boys, right?

4:25You want to be... You watch like action movies and stuff and you want to be a massive, just jacked, sick guy. And now I am. So that's full circle. So you've always been into bodybuilding? I think, I mean... You're like an Arnold's fan. So technically bodybuilding is like training in the pursuit of competing as a bodybuilder. You're trying to get bigger and then potentially have the aspiration to compete. I've never had any interest in competing as a bodybuilder. So even though I've trained as a bodybuilder at times, I've always been more focused on like function, I think. Like whether that's like strength or speed or now with Glad It is like, you know, doing the specific games.

5:04It's more kind of, because for me, bodybuilding is like just boring, mate. It's like there's very, unless you're competing and you have that objective outcome, if you're just going to the gym to look good, that just gets boring. Do you know what I mean? it's very vague and subjective and it's like, I need more than that. I need a more tangible outcome. I need like, objective goals that I can try and hit. So just trying to look good isn't enough for me. I need to like, I want to lift this much weight. Oh, I want to be really good at this game on this day. Oh, I want to win this competition. I need more.

5:34Do you know what I mean? I need that kind of outcome. So what does a typical kind of training week look like to you? It varies on the time of the year. So when I get nearer, so we film the, glad it is, the TV show's filmed in the summer, right? So when it gets to kind of March, time, I'll go into my more gladiator-specific training. So at that point, I'm training like twice a day, six days a week. And there is an element of having to look and appear big, bulky, good. You want to look lean and there must be diet elements to it. It's a bit of a conundrum, right? Because the priority is being good at the games.

6:05If you're bad at the games, you're a bad gladiator, right? But you need to look good. Do you know what I mean? There's no good being good at the games but looking like a beanbag. You need to you need to look good right so it's combining those two things and they don't go hand in hand do you mean like doing doing some chest flies doesn't make you a better gladiator but you need that shit to look good do you mean so it's getting that balance between doing enough hypertrophy style training to look good but whilst still having enough time to do all of your functional stuff and not that you know the the hypertrophy not carrying over and impacting your functional style training so it is a bit of a balance can you run yeah i'm more of a sprinter I'm not like a, obviously I was a triple jumper for 10 years, so that's very reliant on speed.

6:46So I'm quick, but I'm not an endurance guy. Endurance is not my forte. I'm very much a short burst kind of guy. And even more so that I'm, you know, I'm heavier. When I was a triple jumper, I was kind of, you know, 80 kilograms. I'm now like closer to 100. So I'm not a, yeah, I'm quick over 20 meters. Beyond that, I start to get ugly. Take me through some of the more intense kind of calorie challenges that you've done. You've consumed 25 ,000 calories in a day before. How do you even go about doing that? That's a pretty horrible 20 hours. So these are a long time ago. So basically, going back to my formative YouTube years, I had like three, four, five years of just grafting, making content.

7:29And then the thing I said about there, understanding what's going to perform well, at that point, calorie challenges were like, that was a thing. In the fitness scene on YouTube, it was like 10 ,000 calorie challenge, 15 ,000 calories. So I was like, well, I'm going to make one of those. So I made a 10 ,000 calorie challenge and the video did, was like my best performing video of all time. It got like, you know, not all, sorry. At that point it was like massively exceeding anything else I've ever done before. But then what you soon realize is that's not sustainable content, right? I made those videos because I knew they were going to perform well and they did and they grew my channel.

8:00But you get guys that that is all their content. It's just them doing calorie challenge, you know, crazy, like you said, hot dog eating or eating the world's biggest breakfast. You're going to kill yourself doing that. Doing that stuff long-term is going to have serious health repercussions.

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10:26And obviously that's a very unhealthy way of eating, but it's impressive nonetheless. Yeah, it is impressive. To get that in, and that's why the content does well. Have you come across that Japanese eater called Kobayashi? Do you know who that is? I think I know who you mean. He's absolutely ripped. He kind of looks like you. I think he's a bit smaller. He's got like an eight pack. I'd say he maybe has 5 % body fat, 6 % body fat. Walks around like that. Just huge shoulders, dead hangs in the gym all the time. Have you YouTubed his eating challenges? And by the way, if you're listening to this, like, have a look.

11:07It's the most impressive thing. He takes on a bear at one point, right? In a hot dog eating contest. He eats like 100 hot dogs. He scoffs them down. He does this, how many pints of chocolate milk he can drink in like a certain amount of time. And he has like 20 pints of chocolate milk. It's just like, I don't really understand how it's possible. I know what you mean. And like, that's, it's almost a misconception. So if you actually look, most of the top competitive eaters are very small, like diminutive, slim people, right? Because ironically, being huge, like if you've got a huge amount of body fat, that compresses your stomach.

11:43You haven't got, do you know what I mean? So most of the best competitive, I know, Zagel Lea Shatkova, she's like a small, you know, small girl. She can eat a, like, I've never seen someone consume food so quickly. It's not about your size. what those guys will do is for a start so let's say they do that eating challenge once every two weeks the other 13 days they're eating super clean low calorie diet right because obviously you need to otherwise you'd be 30 stone right they also they train their stomach capacity so those guys will drink like huge amounts of water in the run up to literally stretch their stomach they'll do there's another guy what would huge amounts of water be like is that 20 litres a day 10 litres just literally on an acute basis to stretch your stomach right but they'll also do things like I know another guy, Eric the Electric, he told me that back in the day he used to, again, he's another competitive eater, ridiculous amount of capacity to eat food.

12:32Eric the Electric. Yeah, that's a cool name. He used to go to all-you-can-eat buffets but just eat vegetables. So he'd eat the volume of vegetables, right? Just huge amounts of vegetables. Again, it's not many calories. You're not going to gain fat from that but your stomach capacity just becomes ridiculous. So these guys, they're in good shape because you don't want visceral fat around your organs because that reduces your ability to stretch your stomach. so these guys are in good shape but then when they go and do these challenges like they're just yeah you cannot like you said you can't you're thinking hang on how is that possible based on the size of the guy but you've got to bear in mind they're doing this thing once every so often it's not a daily thing because if it was they'd be dead right or like I said 30 stone it's pretty impressive it's very impressive also very weird though and like I feel like it's a slippery slope you get into that you're like I've now got to do a mad eating challenge for every video which is I used to feel a bit sorry for I mean I really loved watching the show can you remember Man vs Food?

13:25I don't know exactly what you mean. I felt a little bit sorry for him because it's kind of like, he was obviously kind of overweight and clearly very unhealthy, just like touring around America eating rubbish all of the time. And he's now in okay shape and doing much better because he's panned off the show but that was quite a it was a really entertaining but a difficult watch at times because you kind of see him kind of half collapsed. Mate, that kind of epitomises like YouTube and social media and media generally, like people fall into the trap. You basically, you start making things. You make content because you think it's going to perform well, not because you want to make it, right?

14:06So you make it, one of those guys does an eating challenge and it gets loads of views. Oh, you know, I made some money from that. Well, I'll do it again. And before you know it, that's all their content, right? And you need to keep making that content to continue growing your business. But you're like, well, hang on a minute. I don't enjoy this. I'm now really unhealthy. But do you know what I mean? and that applies to other walks of life. I've done it before where you make, again, you do, I don't know, some kind of other fitness challenge I'd rather not do, but you do it for content and you're like, I don't want to keep making, do you know what I mean?

14:33So it's that balance between wanting your content to perform well but still making content that you want to make or at least don't hate making, right? Because that will catch up with you. Let's talk a little bit about Gladiators. Yeah, let's do it. What attracted you to the show in the first place and do you love it? mate it's like as a child like I'm I'm 40 right so as a child that was like prime like in the 90s that was it that was like that was top tier that was do you know what I mean every family in the UK would sit and watch Gladiators I was raised on Gladiators I loved the show like I used to so even up to like five years ago if you said to me what would be like you know what's what is your goal what's like the dream like I I would struggle to think of a better occupation than being a Gladiator do you know what I mean I'm literally a Gladiator that's pretty much I feel like as a as a UK individual that's pretty much as good as it gets do you know what I mean there aren't many things I can think that I would rather be doing so it's just yeah it's just a pretty incredible thing to be doing do you do the celebrity versions as well yeah you've got to let them off easy you know yeah these guys they're pathetic it's like embarrassing yeah yeah it's like it is embarrassing yeah we have to take it easy because otherwise someone's going to die basically did you so how does that work so before do they get all of you lads in a room and go listen and nobody break Pete Wicks, you know?

15:54It's not that overt, but along those lines. I mean, you kind of get the assignment, right? Like I had a... Not this one, just gone the one before. I had Rob Beckett on Jewel. And you're like, well... Do you know what I mean? You just kind of... Does a part of you just want to just bash their head in? Not in an aggressive way. Rob's a nice guy. I like Rob, so no. But I know what you mean. There are some celebrities that I would actively enjoy doing that year, definitely. But in that scenario, no. But I know what you mean. Part of me is like, oh... So who would you love to give a filthy battering to?

16:23Filthy battering? Well, only in Gladiator. You've made that sound weird. In Gladiator, you know. In Gladiator, there are a few politicians and just, yeah, there's a few people. I feel like it's probably risky, slippery, slopeless. But yeah, there are some people that would be very satisfying just to get on power. I don't know how you hold back because you strike me as a very competitive athlete, right? so if you're stood there on the you know on those things where you got what's it called the podiums right dual yeah yeah and surely you're stood there sometimes just opposite like as you say you know Rob or Romesh or someone and you just go this would be great just you know yeah yeah I mean don't get me wrong yeah I still hit him like you can watch the clip like at one point he was on all fours and I was smashing him across the butt cheeks it was quite satisfying Simon had a question I think go Simon has celebrity or contestant have you like kind of liked someone and then like they've done or said something kind of like during the film where you've gone right well I'm obviously going to launch them off yes numerous times so more so for me right so like the nature of my character I am very arrogant and confident so it's natural that I attract a lot of like the contenders come on the show and they all want to try and beat me right they all want to try and beat me and they want to try and like have a dig at me as well so I invite that and that's fine I mean yeah it never happens you know what I mean No one's ever able to do that, but they all have a go every series that happens.

17:49And it's like, yeah, I guess that's a good reflection on what I've done to this point. But numerous occasions where a contender said something, and I've kind of, yeah, stored that in my mind. For a good example, right? Series 2, we had a contender called Moose who was like rapid on the wall, like the fastest contender we've ever had on the wall by some distance. He was flying up the wall. Now, as a gladiator, the event is stacked in the contender's favor because they get head start, right? if you give someone the wall is like 10 metres high if someone's good at climbing the wall and you give them a head start they're gone you're not going to catch do you know what I mean like Usain Bolt's really fast but if you have a 20 metre head start you're going to beat him do you know what I mean he's only so much maybe not but you know what I mean if you get a big enough head start he's not catching you right 20 metres I'd be fine with 20 metres I don't know mate Usain Bolt's pretty fast 20 metres but you know what I mean right you give him a head start no one's catching him now we had a couple of of walls over the series he beat me both times with a head start and he was every time he was given it a big one, ah, beating legend, beating legend.

18:42So in the final, we changed it to a straight race. We removed the head start. We had a straight race. Just because he was so fast. Because it's like, what's the point? Who wants to see, do you know what I mean? It's like, you know what's going to happen. If someone's quick on the wall, they can't be caught with the head start because you don't have time to make it up, right? So we thought, I thought, why not? Let's just make it a straight race. If you're so good, let's have a straight race. And he was like, let's go and beat him, mate. Destroyed him. Got to the top. had time to had time to make a cup of tea chill for a bit do my hair you were still climbing up it was embarrassing but that was very satisfying listen I think it goes without saying that I need to get into this thing you know does it go without saying it does I need to come and see you guys okay yeah is there a celeb special get involved yeah oh man my wife just did it because you've just said you just said to me earlier on your angle was don't you want to really batter the contenders on the celeb special I think that's I wouldn't expect any prescription treatment that's fine okay and that's on camera as well you can take the cotton buds to me as hard as you like my friend I've got a strategy for that podium thing why don't I tell you what it is mate we're going to end up against each other I look forward to it for next year's Christmas special yeah I think you'd be good to be fair I think you'd be good the skillset required to be a contender what are you like with contact though you've got any background in contact I played rugby mate I played rugby at uni and all kinds of stuff mate that's key because what you get you get contenders that are good athletes but they've got no experience in contact so you get injured you've got to be resilient I'm a jiu-jitsu practitioner mate Oh, okay.

20:06You'd be good then. I'm a four-stripe blue belt. And that means one more than you go up to... What's after that? Purple belt. After that. Then brown, then black. But blue belts are good, mate. You've been rolling for several years to be where I am. Tom Hardy's my level. So you must be pretty resilient in terms of taking impact and your joints absorbing force. So I think you'd be good. 100%, mate. You've got good endurance base. Are you quick? Yeah. Explosive? Yeah. Full package, mate. Get on the show. I am, yeah. You're ready. Yeah, I think so. I think so. I think you'd be good I'm more athletic for sure than quite a lot of the celebrities that have done it before I mean it's a low bar do you know what I mean it's a low bar the contenders to this point have been laughably poor do you know what I mean so if you haven't got it's not saying much but yeah you'd be a step up for sure is it only at Christmas by the way that they do the celebrity specials no no so it's all filmed in the summer you film all the episodes in the summer you're really you're keen aren't you I am quite keen to go we film all the series and the celebs special in the summer would you like to see what I would look like as a gladiator because I've mocked it up.

21:09I would literally love to see that, yeah. Okay. How tall are you? How much do you weigh? I'm six foot... Well, hold on. Hang on. We've got some stats. We've got some real stats. Yeah, yeah. I'm six foot in shoes, right? We're wearing shoes as gladiators. How much do you weigh? Currently, I'm about 84 kilos. Okay, so like 5 '8", 84 kilos. I'm not 5 '8". I'm 5 '11 and a quarter. 5 '11 and a quarter, six foot in any shoes six foot you can't factor in shoes we're not wearing shoes start saying I'm 90 kilos if I wear loads of heavy clothes it doesn't count does it what are you talking about it's your height mate you don't measure because I could wear huge shoes where do you draw the line okay I draw the line I could make my hair like seven inches tall no no no it has to stop on your head right people okay you can't wear heels okay the line is drawn at heels people must get measured in shoes what do you mean I'll tell you why because that is a measure of how big your shoes are no just normal shoes then where do you draw the line I'm not talking about stilettos where do you draw the line what constitutes a normal shoe like an inch how high can a shoe be an inch oh so okay so hang on so in the Spencer Matthews height metric as long as you're wearing shoes of an inch any shoes your shoes are at least an inch of an inch you've probably got two inches down there there's less than that mate I don't think so and also by the way like when have you ever met anyone ever who's shoeless swim pool yeah but that's swimming's shit on the beach yeah like we're not on the beach jungle are we yeah not really ancient civilisation no but we're not in ancient civilisations in a house or in a jungle in a house no no no so like when I meet most people I'm wearing shoes and I am 6 foot like you're removing you're removing your shoe no I agree you're right no but when someone says how tall are you you go I'm 6 foot and then you say if I took my shoes off I'd be 5 '11 so you're more like 87 88 kilos really aren't you because you've got like the trousers no I ballooned up over Christmas on that basis do you normally meet people naked then my point is you don't you're saying you're 84 kilos yeah so you're wearing clothes when you meet people therefore that should be no because I weigh myself in the morning you see so I know why I weigh it and you wear shoes when you weigh yourself no so in the morning I'm about 83-84 kilos now I'd be 85-86 there are so this is falling apart there are so many holes you asked me about my height and weight so I told you anyway let's call it let's call it 5 '11 to 6 foot and let's call it 84 to 86 kilos.

23:36I would say to be a gladiator at that size, you need to be an absolute weapon. Well. The only gladiator that is, so that's a similar profile to Nitro. He's the smallest gladiator, but he's a genetic freak. I know, mate. I know Nitro. Yeah. So that's the level of, would you say you're at that level in terms of physical capabilities? No. No. You've not made the way. I'd say that. I'd say you need to be either five inches taller or about 20 kilograms heavier? I'd say that I've got nitro in absolutely anything over 800 meters. Oh, yeah, of course. But anything in terms of shorter... But that's not going to help you on Gladiators, mate.

24:13No one jogs around on Gladiators. That's not going to help you. Jogs around. When you've got a 6 '6", 130 kilogram guy running at you, your ability to run a sub-250 marathon is not going to help. Big trees fall the hardest, mate. And? Are you giving it to me here? No, I'm not. Bloody hell. it's pretty good it's actually it's quite it's pretty sick to be honest I saw it and I thought this is remarkably similar to me yeah yeah yeah actually does it make you actually want to do it yeah yeah let's make it happen okay give it it's actually it's pretty good okay let me see come on I want to see it let me see turn it around

24:54okay I've got some I've got some questions I'm vortex mate I'm vortex nice I've got some questions why Why does your face look so different for a start? What are you talking about? AI's done a mad one there. My face is... It's distorted your face. It's done a bit more than that. Why are you wearing fingerless gloves? It looks like you just come off a bike ride with your granddad. Why are you wearing fingerless gloves? The UFC gloves. Not UFC gloves, mate. Bike ride with my grandfather. That's what it looks like. Also, why? What's happened to your abs? They look absolutely monstrous. Yes, of course, mate.

25:24Unrealistic. That's a few sit-ups and pull-ups every day. What else? No, yeah, that is cool. that looks cool yeah that looks cool but it's just unfortunately if this guy turned up right you'd be out of a job no I wouldn't I'd be like why are you wearing those gloves I'd be like when did you go to Argos to get those gloves that's been my first question and my knee pads the knee pads are quite good I like the knee pads the whole thing do you want to say though why am I wearing a crop top yeah that's not ideal do you know what this is a female outfit it is very much a female you're right when it was when costumes were in the offing right the whole what's your costume going to be like initially I wanted to be like almost topless right I'm so glad that I'm not because every single interview you know when you stood there for ages and ages and ages having time it's horrible what are you talking it literally looks like me it looks like an American steroided up version of you that's what it looks like obviously 10 years of steroids you move to America yeah you go to Argos that's what you look like this is me on anabolic roids yeah that's what that is also the fate yeah that doesn't account for the different face though you actually look like the guy from Man vs Food if he's like that yeah I know I know it looks a bit like Adam Richmond I was thinking that as well I was actually thinking that would be if that person existed that would be quite cool but he also looks quite annoying he looks like he'd be annoying do you know what I mean like his little face that's like that literally is my face it's not though it's changed AI has warped your face mate let's not do that face do that face pull that expression that's not the same that's that's much more that looks better that the guy in that picture is just that looks like you know he'd be annoying that guy would be annoying do you know what I mean hey guys I do feel like we look...

26:59Hey guys, look at my fingerless gloves. You'd be so annoying. I genuinely feel like, actually it looks a fair amount like me. So you are essentially saying that I am annoying. Aren't you? You'd put words in my mouth there, mate. I hate to break it to you, but like you guys all look a bit like this. Do you know what I mean? I look a lot better than that, mate. Mate, you guys would fucking love to look like that. Come on, this is ridiculous. That literally is a much worse version of me. What did you type in? Turn Spencer Matthews into the best gladiator that has ever existed. Shall I reach you there?

27:27And AI said, we can't do that because that's all that place is already taken by legend. We can make you a good gladiator. The original prompt was, generate an image of Spencer Matthews as a gladiator from the BBC show Gladiators. He should be in the costume associated with the show, posing and include the name Vortex because that's the name he came up with. And then that's what got the sort of second image. I prefer the dispenser. Okay, the dispenser, yeah. I then said, can you do this again? That's a bit weird, isn't it? Sounds what? Seedy? Seedy, yeah. Seedy? The dispenser, I just thought. Do you know what I mean?

28:00Well, it's got the word Spencer in it, you see. Yeah, but that's a stretch though, isn't it? No, because I will dispense of other gladiators, obviously, when I'm in there. Do you ever compete with each other? That's not how the show works, mate. Have you seen the show? It's not gladiator versus gladiator. So we're together then? Essentially. Well, we're not. No one. I'm a separate entity. But yeah, technically, we're all gladiators. We'll have a shared goal, which is to stop contenders from accumulating points. And to ruin their experience. You're like Terminators. Ruining the experience. The contender's family are there.

28:28Oh, come on, Jackie. Shut up. Shut up. I'm going to destroy you. I'm going to flatten Jackie like a pancake, mate. Yeah. Like the little weed that he is. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. Or the dispenser. Or the dispenser comes on with his massive high shoes. Why don't I call you? They're dangerous. You won't be allowed to wear those. He's wearing four-inch heels. You can't wear that on the show. It's a health and safety. I'm going to get my license and come and be a gladiator. Get your license? What do you mean? License for what? I'm going to be a gladiator. you don't get a license yeah of course mate I'm just I'm gonna get doing my paperwork and just come and be a gladiator okay that's fine yeah I don't see why not that seems fine yeah I can climb that wall like a rat up a drainpipe easy I don't believe that piece of piss all of it I don't believe that is there anything that you do that's unusual to train for gladiators I do a lot of mad stuff yeah a lot of mad stuff like I push cars like that's one of the games Everest you're essentially pushing a massive wall against a contender so I'll like yeah if you come down where I live you'll see me just pushing my car my wife will be sat in the applying the brake a little bit to be a bit of resistance and I'll just push the car up a hill I will what car have you got?

29:29that's a Range Rover that I'm pushing there don't don't just don't just tee up for you to talk about your car again what are you talking about? I can see this I can see you all right it's completely irrelevant the rumour the rumour I've heard is that you love to tell people about your car that's nonsense who said that? I've just heard it on the grapevine that's rubbish I've just heard it on the grapevine what grapevine? the car that's bollocks on the car scene that's not true that's Simon's fault aka the guy that loves telling anyone about his car that's not true we interviewed listen I'll ask you what car have you got well see you don't even know so we interviewed the Prime Minister actually I saw that that's pretty wild yeah that's impressive Simon pretending what interviews do you prefer that one or this one oh this one this one of course watch out lads no no so I don't know it's obviously an interesting opportunity to talk to him Matt it's awesome that's cool it's a cool thing to do no Simon was pretending that the security at Checkers weren't asking me about my car when they were, we arrived and they said, I was having a chat about the car I got in and he was like, were you just telling them about your car?

30:31I was like, no, of course I wasn't. I just asked anyone, anyone can see the footage. You can hear them in the footage. I saw him chasing people down the street. Do you want to see my car? I do just offer random people I do offer random people lifts actually. Yeah, but loads of weird stuff. I do that. I'll do like, you know, I'll be, climbing is pretty weird in itself, right? Like, and speed climbing is weird because it's very like, yeah, it's quite a, you're just climbing all really, really fast. Like, hanging on stuff, like we'll have, we have a swim pool with hang tough rings over the pool. So I'll frequently be swinging around, yeah, on some rings.

31:07That's lovely. Do you put your kids on them? That's what it's primarily for. They love it. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, but I mean, it's quite like, you know, it's, there's not much clearance over the pool, so it's better for shorter people, basically. Children slash shorter people that get more out of it. Less athletically gifted people. Because they can't do it. You need to be athletic. If you can't hang, if you can't hang, you can't do it. Do you know what I mean? In fact, that was actually quite an eye-opener. So many of my friends, it's like the baptism of fire, they'll come around to my house and it's like, right, go and have a go, see if you can do it.

31:34Most people cannot swing from one ring. They can't even hold their body weight on a... Obviously, you have to be able to hold yourself on a hand to swing to the next ring. I'd say, eight out of ten people can't do it. tragic which is it is tragic isn't it yeah I think schools have failed our society do you know what I mean we should change the physical education system I genuinely believe that it's controversial but I genuinely it's not even controversial is it if your child is at school right and they get to year four and they're struggling to read they're putting reading intervention it's like oh your child's struggling don't worry we'll sort it out we'll put them in a specialist intervention your child could be morbidly obese cool don't worry about it we'll just carry on you're failing children.

32:15School is designed to prepare children for their adult life. If a child leaves school and they weigh 18 stone, that child is not prepared for adult life. They're going to die when they're 40. That should be part of the curriculum. In the same way that if a child can't read or a child can't do basic addition, if a child cannot jog for a couple of minutes or cannot do 10 press-ups, they should be put in intervention to allow them to do that because because they're going to leave school healthier, and they're going to live another 20, 30 years. Do you know what I mean? Yeah, I do think that health is...

32:45That's quite intense, sorry. I was watching it thinking, this is a great Instagram story. I used to be a teacher, I used to be a teacher, I've seen it. Do you go down to your local rugby club? And practice tackling? I've got a friend of mine who is the captain of the local rugby team. Because the thing is, when I first was like, right, I'm a gladiator now, I need to... I haven't played rugby since I was about 18 years old, right? So that's the number one way to get injured. Do you know what I mean? Like doing those contact games, if you're not conditioned for that, you are going to get hurt, right?

33:18Because you're doing a lot of them back-to-back days. So I thought, right, I need to do a bit of rugby. As an adult man, how do you, do you know what I mean? It's quite a difficult thing to orchestrate, isn't it? Do you know what I mean? We've actually got a member of the club here. Moonbeam. Today. He said he's seen you down there. Moonbeam here, Jack, has actually seen you physically. I live in Fosedon and I played with Cal. No way! That's bizarre. So we knew, mate. We had inside information that you were down the rugby club practising and tackling because our very own Jack Moonbeam has actually physically seen you down there, mate.

33:53Yeah, do you know what's funny? It's like, so those guys have done, I'm so appreciative because it's like, hi guys, do you mind just for half an hour letting me just smash into you like over and over again so I can, do you know what I mean? They've done me a very big favour allowing me to do that. They just basically hold pads or just try and run past me. We basically recreate Powerball. They try and run past me, I just try and tackle them to the ground, like, repeatedly. And it's, like, extremely useful because that would be... Otherwise, it would be very hard to orchestrate that style of training.

34:20The training we were talking about earlier, like the stuff you do at home, like the kind of unusual stuff, do you think we could build a kind of gladiator training regime and then Spencer can come and actually try out and see what you think? I'm going to come and hang over your pool all night. Let's do it, mate. Yeah, let's do it all night. Yeah, just stay there all night. You come down for a break in the morning, I'll still be there. Or you're just hanging. Yeah. Strength. Ridiculous. For like 14 hours. Yeah. In a dark pool building. Sure. Whatever. I'm like a bat, mate. I'm going to close the cover every night so you'll be over the cover as well.

34:46So if you fall off, you break it. Yeah. You really actually wouldn't. You might drown though. No chance. Can you swim? Can I swim? Mate, I've braved the Antarctic seas. I actually want to go to the... Antarctica was the seventh Ironman that I did in 21 days. It's quite inaccessible. It's quite... I imagine that's quite annoying to actually get there, right? It's not like a simple procedure, is it? Yeah. You'll get permits and blah, blah, blah. We went via Rio and then down into Punta Reynas and you need permits. Yeah, you need all kinds of stuff. Yeah, but that's cool. I would like to do that.

35:13Yeah. Paperwork. Get me to Antarctica. I'll get you on the flight. It's a deal. As a contestant? Yes, obviously. What's this like laughing about me being... I'm savagely athletic, mate. I would dump tackle some of your peers. Probably not you. Most of them are bigger than me, so I don't think... What's the... When I get invited on, right, I think you're all going to be quite surprised also you're trying to get the balls you're trying to avoid being tackled you're not trying to tackle the bad it it's not going to help you you're all too big to tackle me mate slow alright we'll see Apollo Apollo played sevens for England and in the NFL and he's like six foot six back in the day no like a few years ago yeah yeah fucking ten years ago alright Apollo nice on me we're going to use this clip when Spencer comes on the show and has to leave halfway through because he's crying he's crying so much he has to stop recording and the audience gets empty we're going to use this clip I've not cried since I was six years old that should be your fun fact as the gladiator that's quite sad I've never cried yeah I can't remember the last time I cried I think last time I cried was the first time I saw The Lion King I think when I was about seven when I was younger I watched American Way Off in London that like traumatised me The Lion King was my favourite thing I love it it's quite sad when we fussy gets ripped off the cliff by Scarf oh I did not like that yeah you actually look like you could be you'd be a good like bad guy yeah in like a Bond film I'd love to play a really creepy one do you know what I mean yeah yeah it just lives in a little basement it just keeps the one like the poker player the legends no just one of the like a really cool one that goes down the history is one of the best villains yeah a really creepy one you'd like eat people and stuff oh alright yeah Hannibal was a cannibal he was he was pretty cool actually he's probably one of my favourite villains I don't know if he's that cool he's pretty He's very intelligent.

37:05Very. That's not, that doesn't excuse being a cannibal, mate. Before the time of AI. That doesn't excuse literally being a cannibal. Well, he's also... He's intelligent, so... He's also a fictional character, so I wouldn't worry, I wouldn't get too hung up on it. That's true. You're the one that said you want to do it, mate. It's not... I never said I wanted to be a cannibal. You said, you literally, you said on camera, I want to be a cannibal. I don't recall... It's okay, because I'll be intelligent. Right. Okay. I don't remember saying that. This won't make the episode. So you're a massive fan of the WWE.

37:32you grew up watching it you're obviously very athletic it feels like you're only a couple of steps away from it I think it's a matter of time so I would say like in the UK Gladiators is almost like our WWE do you know what I mean that's kind of the equivalent so for me being a Gladiator for me that's pretty much as good as it gets I'm happy do you know what I mean I'm good that's like yeah good point to be at I have a few remaining bucket list things I'd like to do one of those is I'm not going to be a full time WWE guy because I don't want to live in the US for a start, right? But just doing a couple of one-off appearances, do a little sneaky little WrestleMania, would be good.

38:10I would literally be incredible. I would be the best. I would objectively be the best WWE heel you've ever seen. Can you imagine? Me as legend would be unbelievable. You'd take the name, would you? I'd have to go in as 100%. I am the perfect persona for WWE as a heel. A heel? A heel, the bad guy, yeah. It will happen at some point. yeah just like I said just one or two little just to have done it do you know what I mean I think it's a good idea yeah an American audience would absolutely hate me like in a great way do you know what I mean in the exact way you'd want for that scenario you could fight Logan Paul yeah but he also is it wouldn't work he's also a bad guy similar thing he's like he deliberately is annoying to that's his persona on that show it needs to be someone that's more like do you reckon people like you and him who are deliberately annoying do it on purpose or did you wake up one day and just go oh this fits I personally a lot of the things I do especially on Glad It Is are for my own entertainment do you know what I mean so I'll think of things to say and the thought of like a middle aged woman finding it really annoying makes me I find that so funny like when I come out it's funny now because now I've done it for a while people know I'm you know know that I'm taking the piss so people now almost cheer I'm like oh it's actually better if you boo a little bit do you know what I mean but in a way I prefer I prefer being booed.

39:34Like, we did the live tour recently, and we were at the O2, and like 13 ,000 people just aggressively booing me. I just love it. I literally love it so much. Like, I love the thought that I've managed to do something that has made someone so annoyed or just feel a certain way to that extent that they're either like cheering or like I said, really aggressively like booing me. It's just funny. I find that really funny. Spurs me on. It's probably a good place to be. has anyone ever complained like Ofcom or have you ever had like complaints to the show about stuff you've said like being too mean to stuff you must get some yeah I mean it's like I always if I've got stuff I want to if I've got something lined up that I think is a good one I'll always run it by the production just to make sure just to make sure because it's BBC but no I'm sure they'll be I mean look people complain about TV audience will complain about literally anything so you're never going to avoid that but I'm sure yeah there's probably been a couple of moments in particular that have probably drawn some complaints but nothing mega Is there anything you've run by the production that they've said no to?

40:32Yes. Could you give us an example? No, for that very reason. Oh, nothing mad. Just things that can be construed in a different way. I see. But to be honest, the production team are amazing. The production team, it's like, they are by far the best production team I've ever worked with. They're all just funny. you know like my persona and my what I do is based on people finding it funny so right from day one I was like imagine if these guys don't find this funny I'm in trouble because that's my whole thing do you know what I mean but they're like they find yeah we have the same sense of humour so like when we're thinking of stuff to say that's a very enjoyable experience and so generally speaking the things I want to do they're like yeah that's amazing go for it very rare they'd say no they're pretty much just like if it's fun if it's entertaining go for it

41:24you were talking about um how certain training impacts other training yeah right and you're probably not familiar with this because it's a very fresh idea of this shows but we want to create something called the the apex games right and in order to qualify for the apex games you need to have a 110 for 10 bench yeah and a sub 250 marathon at the same time in your life yeah that's a big like well there's there's very few people that could do it right so chat GPC reckons there's 50 people I reckon there's probably a few more than 50 but but it's pretty like it's it's a pretty good bench base like that's you know your average bloke is nowhere near that yeah yeah yeah you've got to train you've got to have a good amount of like muscle mass to yeah you've got to lift for a while I think to have that in your locker and then also run a 250 marathon without losing the muscle those two things do not go hand in hand by any stretch so that's kind of the idea Yeah, and then the games would be built around like some resilient stuff as well.

42:20It's not like there'd be sprinting, there could be some logging in there, you know, like there could be... Like logging, like with an axe, like who can log the most wood type thing. Like who can sit in a zero degree ice bath the longest. Like just a bunch of shit that's quite hard on the mind, like as well as being physical. Because I think... It sounds like Ross Edgley's dream competition. Yeah, he'd love it. Apart from he's nowhere near the marathon, I don't think. He'd make light work at the bench. That's true. I can't imagine he runs a 250. anyway I'd be intrigued you know what I've never I've never been I think in school I was forced to do a cross country a few times but I've never I've always been like a sprint like a shorter distance explosive guy I would be intrigued if I was to do a little bit of endurance training to see what my ability would be like in do you know what I can't get my head around is like the and it blows my mind that you know that same like I said we're talking about Ross like the ability to just that you know that low level it's like discomfort but just low level discomfort for ages for hours and hours and hours and hours.

43:16Do you know what I mean? I guess essentially also boredom, right? I'm so, I can't, even I think once I ran a 5K a couple of years ago, a 5K mate, and that to me was like the longest thing I've ever done. Like that was, my brain was just, I just lost it. I'm like, how can you do this for, the thought of doing a whatever, like a 10 hour Ironman, I cannot, I cannot fathom how you can do that. It blows my mind. I can't do that. 10 hours is pretty quick. But what I mean is, you know, like an ongoing activity, you've done it, right? You've done like super, I ran for 24 hours. Well, there you go, yeah.

43:46I cannot comprehend how you can do that. It blows my mind. I think that's part of your brain. In the same way that Alex, you know, Alex Arnold, the disclimbs, like, mad things, free solo, right? Yeah, he was a guest on this show. That's sick. So he has part of his brain that doesn't function, doesn't perceive fear. So he's not scared at heights. He's completely fine, right? I think it's the same thing for someone like you that can do, tolerate 24 hours of continuous activity. I think you have part of your brain that obviously just doesn't perceive, you know, pain, discomfort, boredom in the same way as the average person does.

44:15I think it allows you to do that because I can't comprehend doing that. Where would you say that kind of climbers generally rank in terms of athleticism? Obviously with the apex thing, it's fun because those two things are so far apart from each other to try and find people that can do both obviously makes them, in my opinion, extraordinarily athletic. People talk about hybrid athletes. You can get quite a few hybrid athletes that actually aren't that fit, you know, because like you know they can't run a fast 10k or something but they're they can sprint at lift weights so yeah i don't know we're trying i'm trying to elaborate on the on the hybrid by chucking in endurance stuff as well as strength because the two literally are like worlds apart um climbing is a strange one like alex honnold can dead hang using just his fingertips yeah yeah for like quite long periods and if you or i mean we we barely know each other but i i i would put quite good money on you or me not being able to dead hang with our fingertips at all right like not spend any time off the ground which is using just our fingertips so his upper body strength alex honnold's is very different to ours you're obviously more powerful and stronger than he is as i would probably expect to be as well but his grip on things is crazy that's just he can literally hang he can hang with one hand yeah magnus midbar can do obviously doing one finger pull-ups like a pull up on one finger.

45:40That's insane. It's just finger, finger flex strength is like your wrist and your wrist flexes and extensors. It's like a very specific group of muscles. One finger pull up? Yeah, yeah. That's insane. That's like years of conditioning. Because the average person, your finger would just, if you were to strap your finger to the bar, your finger's coming off. Do you know what I mean? I can't even hold my body weight up with four fingers, I don't think. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I'd need a palm. Yeah, that's like a niche. It's strength in a very niche area, which is essentially like forearm grip, back you can kind of those guys are freaks so those guys like i said you watch magnus midbar like because i climb right through the show because of the show i've got into climbing i love climbing now i'm a decent climber right but i'm more like a speed climber and they're people that climbing and speed climbing are very different you ever seen speed climbing the guy like spider-man you just fly up the wall like ridiculously fast i actually remember the first time i ever saw speed climbing and i i i couldn't yeah i was in a hotel i think and i turned the television on and there was speed climbing and i actually rewound it right because it was most the same thing i've ever seen yeah yeah yeah it's wild but that's very different to like normal so he's a climber he's a normal climber that's like technique it's skill whereas speed climbing is more like it's obviously is mastery technical but it's just it's explosive in the same way that like sprinting 100 meter sprint versus a 400 meter hurdles do you mean yeah that's more like the 100 meter sprint is more reliant on like genetic innate capabilities i.e.

46:59like explosive power whereas the 400 hurdles is more reliant on like technique and skill and like you do it over time but that's the same thing like yeah climbers are absolute freaks like it's just unbelievable there you I think you have to do a bit of climbing to appreciate now I do climbing I did a session with Magnus Midbar it's the most mind-blowing thing I've ever seen the guys climbing on holds that are like stick out of the wall by like four millimeters do you mean it's like a yeah you know like a someone those screws in the wall there he's climbing those you cannot believe you cannot believe how someone can hold their body weight on the tiniest little thing it's ridiculous you've seen those videos of those like bodybuilders and powerlifters lifting with a climber and he can just he just quietly he can just fucking go really yeah it's wild I've not seen those videos I'd be really curious to see how strong Alex Honnold is on pulling pulling movements like a lat pulldown he'd be ridiculously strong like you wouldn't believe it how many pull ups do you reckon he can do in a single sitting a huge amount he'd be doing like, you know, I don't know, 60.

48:00He could do endless pull-ups. Like those guys can just, because they're, obviously they're both, like same as Magnus, they're comparatively light, right? But they're freakishly strong with their like pulling-based muscles. So that combination just means, he just climbed that towel for an hour and a half. The average person, after three minutes of climbing, you can't grip anymore. He's doing it for an hour and a half. So that capacity to hold his own body weight is just endless. Do you think, from the powerlifting set, the bench press generally, for upper body, because it's the most detrimental to the running thing, the endurance running, having a big upper body.

48:39Yeah, yeah, I think I agree wholeheartedly. I think it's ironic because to be, ultimately, to be the best at any sport, you've got to be, your training has to be ultra specific, right? So when you, whether you're a powerlifter or a netball player or a snooker player, to be at the top of your game, all you do is that sport, right? If you're a snooker, you play snooker out for hours every day, like, you have to neglect everything else to be good at that sport. But you end up then, ironically, being like shit at other stuff. I've always been a big even when I was a powerlifter I still wanted to be at least remotely functional and like look I didn't want to be a fat powerlift I wanted to be like you know look good as well be aesthetic so I've always liked to be in whatever I've done I've always wanted to retain at least an element of being functional and that you know like the thing of like if there's suddenly like an apocalypse I want to you know what I mean I'm going to survive I want to be able to do that do you know what I mean so I think that's a that's always been part of that I always I think again going back to being a parent I think that kind of forces you as a parent you're like you want to be able to play with your kids and do, do you know what I mean?

49:34You don't want to be out of breath, like running around the park or whatever. So I think that's part of that is like, I want to be a good dad. And part of that is being able to go and do stuff with my kids. So I've always retained the element of being functional. And I believe that's important. Like, you know, just in general health, being a powerlifter, being a top level powerlifter or a top level bodybuilder is disgustingly unhealthy, right? It's not healthy at all. Like you are, you're doing it knowing that you're sacrificing your health to get to the top of the thing. But obviously, ideally, you want to factor in other components of fitness.

50:00Otherwise, you're just going to be a mess. So Apex, pretty bang on then. I would argue... Fast marathoners and strength. Is it the kind of like jack of all trades? Do you know what I mean? Master of none, is that the angle? Oh, I'm quite good at running. I'm quite good at sitting in a nice bath. Quite good at running. I'm quite good at... Just so you know, a 250 marathon is not quite good at running. You're a serious marathoner. Is that world class? It's not world class, no. So you're quite good. You're top 1%, but you're not professional. About billions of people, so you're still talking about millions of people.

50:28So you're in a pool with millions of other people? not really because only no because not millions of people run marathons like millions of people run marathons but that you're in the top 1 % of marathons I agree I agree I agree that that's cool all I would say is I think you're in the top 0.1 % of marathons all I would say is that that's still you would need for that to be an objective criteria like oh you are an apex athlete if you can do these things there's still going to be some like people that disagree right i.e. what about this activity or this sport do you mean what about this event they don't make the rules mate like climbing I'd say climbing is a very very functional practical useful thing get some climbing in there we might chuck a climbing wall in maybe we'll chuck a climbing wall if you do it I'm coming I'm in I'm coming it's got to be able to run give me like six months I'll be fine six months yeah easy money mate mate if you can bang out a 250 marathon in six months I'll give you whatever you like I'll turn you now spoiler alert that's not gonna happen so don't worry about it would you give him the RS6 I'll give him the RS6 if he can do a 250 in six months yeah it's physically impossible yeah I don't want it that bad it's not happening the cars are an r6 in case you have this yeah well cheers matt thanks so much for appearing on untapped uh it's been having me it's been a very fun episode um just leave us with one parting thought then for listeners who are looking to untap their potential what would be your top tip uh i would say take more risks i think like most people live a sheltered uh kind of repressed life they go through like you know a big chunk of their life 30 40 years of their life doing things they think they should do doing stuff that they think is the right thing to do rather than the thing they want to do and not not experimenting and taking risks and saying yes to stuff because they're scared of the consequences and i think it's very rare that you look back and think oh i wish i hadn't done that exciting risky cool thing do you mean but you do frequently look back and think oh i wonder if i tried that cool thing what would have been the outcome so I think the position I'm in now has come about largely because I've just done stuff I've just gone and done an awkward thing or an embarrassing thing or a thing that the average person would perceive as like a risky thing and generally it pays off and if it doesn't pay off then you know you couldn't sleep knowing that you gave it a go and it's generally a good learning experience and you can you know whatever amend it next time but I think just take more risks just do more cool stuff Cheers Matt thanks for coming in I appreciate it That was awesome

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