Shadowing Practice: Gym Bro vs. Sumo Diet Swap - Learn English Speaking with Video
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What happens when a 170 pound gym bro swaps diets with a sumo wrestler double his size?
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I'll be eating the diet that got him his heaviest and he'll be eating the diet that gets me shredded.
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Can we survive each other's extreme lifestyles?
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And who will break first?
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I'm calling it.
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Starting with the most important meal of the day, breakfast.
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Zorig, are you excited?
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Yes, I'm so excited.
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You have a bowl of protein oatmeal made with 80 grams of oats,
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60 grams of protein powder topped with 100 grams of blueberries and 15 grams of almond butter.
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If I eat this, I'm gonna look like you.
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If I eat this, will I look like you?
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Yes.
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Okay, well what do you have in front of me?
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This is water.
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Water.
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I thought sumo's eat a lot of food.
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When you eat a lot of food before the training, you cannot go to too much workout.
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So you go fasted.
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Hard work and after food.
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You have to earn it.
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Yes.
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I should mention this is Zorig, a staggering 6'3", 300 plus pounds, seven-year pro sumo veteran and all-star sumo champion.
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He trains over five hours every day and eats for even longer.
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Well, take a bite.
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Let me know how it is.
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It's delicious.
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It's sweet.
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Yes, it's sweet and delicious.
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Like to hear that.
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But after watching Zorig take baby bites for the next 10 minutes, I had a hunch he was just being polite.
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If you don't like it, you don't gotta lie either.
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If it sucks, you can tell me.
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He hates this shit.
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First time, like I don't know if I like it or no. It's different.
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Yeah, it's different.
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Yeah, yeah.
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How is the water?
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Oh, it's, it's, it's hydrating.
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You should remember that you have to prepare before the training.
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What we do today, when I started, I was crying every day.
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I was thinking I should escape to my home today.
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It's gonna be hard already.
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Well, I don't know now.
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I better get this water down so I can be fueled for my training.
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That's how a real man does it.
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Yeah.
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Are you ready?
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I don't know.
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What's this?
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You will see. Are you ready?
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Yes, sir.
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We started with Shiko, one of the most important exercises in all of sumo.
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This is what keeps even the heaviest sumos flexible and balanced.
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Oh, I'm tired.
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And although Zorig made it look easy, for me, it was anything but.
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I just think I'm not flexible.
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I'm doing good.
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So normally, you know how many of these score they do?
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How many?
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Five, zero, zero.
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500?
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Every morning.
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And when the coach is angry, there's no limit.
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But Zoring decided to take it easy on me and told me I only needed 10.
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That was until he said...
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One mistake is going to stop at zero.
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But luckily, he brought this bamboo stick to help me out just a little bit.
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Why you got the stick?
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If you do a mistake...
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I'm not.
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Okay.
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Up, up, up, up, up, up, up, up, up, up.
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My adductors are so sore.
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That was 10, imagine 500.
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Then we moved on to some basic movement drills, which honestly made me feel like such a noob.
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Imagine the opponent's shape.
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It's one where you take your girlfriend.
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Oh, no. You have to kill the guy.
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Why are you so sweaty, man?
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Do I make you nervous?
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No. Am I making you nervous?
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Yeah, I'm making him nervous.
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And since Zorig saw how little flexibility I had, we decided to work on some traditional sumo stretching.
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Yeah, I can't do that.
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Just sit.
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It's called meat tenderizing.
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Not meat tenderizing, it's a little different.
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When I go to Japan, the first time, two wrestlers, they come, one here, one here, one.
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One huge guy's like this, one huge guy's there, and then the biggest guy slams his back down so his head's on the floor.
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And I listen like my tears.
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His tendon's ripped.
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I cannot move.
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The color is purple.
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One month.
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So you ready to get purple today?
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No, no, no, no, no. Just come here.
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I think.
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And since I was clearly struggling, Zorig decided to help me.
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And we go until here, okay?
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One, two, three.
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Without, without.
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Oh!
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No, I'm not that flexible.
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I can't do that.
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Okay.
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Good, head out, release it.
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Okay.
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Whoo!
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That felt good.
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That felt really good.
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Four, five, nine, ten, okay.
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Next, I needed to learn a little bit of sumo technique to better understand the actual wrestling aspect before my last challenge.
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And now that I've learned some sumo technique, I'm gonna go against Zorig in three sumo matches to see if I can win one.
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Yeah.
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You don't know what's coming.
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Match number one HOTOMARU KC OH MY GOSH TOMARU
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I'm out in there Don't ask me what happened Phil Head in head in good
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Last big chance for Casey to defeat sumo champion Zorig.
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Man, I'm too hungry for this.
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I need some food.
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Which I regretted saying after Zorig picked up quite literally everything at the local japanese market
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which gave me plenty of time to throw together my meal for zorig
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because when his 20 course meal was done there was only one thing i could say am i just starving
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or does this look incredible zorig yeah what did you make
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for me we have a sashimi miso soup fish egg that's a rice three bowls of rice takoyaki
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and all of this we call a tsukamono okay wow healthy it looks very healthy we got
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so many vibrant colors here unlike the plate that i have made you
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which looks pretty much just brown you have 150 grams of
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grilled chicken breast with some nice sugar-free sauce on there we
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have 300 grams of roasted potatoes we have 100 grams of broccoli on the side
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and don't forget on the side you got a diet root beer i think it's about time
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that we dig in
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because i have my work cut out for me here i
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hope the 10 extra like this right you're getting shredded no No extra, you gotta eat that.
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Itadakimasu.
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Itadakimasu.
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Cheers.
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Mmm.
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This one actually good.
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That one's actually good.
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Yes, it's sweet and delicious.
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Yeah, okay, alright.
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You have to try it.
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This is my favorite.
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Okay, what is this one?
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We call this umeboshi.
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Pickled plum.
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I've never had a plum in my life.
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It was the first time for everything.
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Mmm.
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Oh, he's lying.
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Ooh, that's sour!
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Sushi is one of my favorite foods so sumo's know how to do it.
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That's a little bit better than the pickled plum.
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Oh really?
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Yeah.
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Normally you eat this kind of food after training?
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No, so this is actually my pre-workout meal
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because we're about to go lift weights and then I'll show you my post-workout meal later.
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And now you normally eat all of this after training.
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Yes.
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Wow, different beast over here.
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He's on the permabulk.
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I have a feeling we're gonna be here for a while.
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Can you eat all of this?
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You're about to find out.
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And since we were gonna be here for a while, I wanted to get to know Zorig beyond just sumo.
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So Zorig, how long have you lived in the United States?
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One year.
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One year?
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Yeah.
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Can you wrestle pro sumo for seven years?
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Yes.
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What made you want to come over here?
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I like travel and new experience.
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Yeah.
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I also want to try your cooking.
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Yeah?
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That's why you moved here?
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Yes.
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Alright, well I hope it's living up to the expectations.
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And he even had some questions for me.
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How was the keiko?
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Sumo training.
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Oh, it was good.
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I've never done anything like it.
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It was a very...
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I felt like a noob, an amateur, but it was very fun.
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I like experiencing new things just like you.
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When did you start training for sumo?
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I started when I was 17.
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You're 26 now, right?
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Yeah.
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Did you play any other sports growing up?
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I was a soccer player.
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Oh, you played soccer? In Spain.
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You played in Spain?
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Yeah, I used to be in Spain.
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This guy, this guy doesn't tell me anything.
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So how many languages do you speak?
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I speak Spanish and I used to speak French.
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English?
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English is going up, up.
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Yeah.
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But not enough.
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Okay. And Japanese.
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Japanese.
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Russian.
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Do you have a Nobel Peace Prize as well?
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Like, have you ever been bad at anything in your life?
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Yeah.
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Yeah?
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What's that?
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Ladies?
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You know it, right?
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They're tough, man.
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They're a hard one to crack.
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They're a hard one to crack.
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Yeah, they're just hard, hard.
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You got a girlfriend?
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Yes.
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How long have you been dating?
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Seven months.
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Seven months?
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Oh, so you got one here.
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Yeah.
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She's even destroyed.
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I was finding, finding, and destroyed and I go.
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You do some crazy things for your woman, I'll tell you what.
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After getting to know some crazy Zorig lore, I realized I should explore some of the less familiar items in front of me.
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What else should I try?
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What is this?
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And while some were hits.
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Really good, sweet.
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Others, well.
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Octopus balls you know
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when I signed up for this I didn't think I was gonna be not to plus balls
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but another one that's not one of my favorites
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and seeing how many different types of food he eats for
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lunch every day made me desperate to know how long do you normally eat
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because I'm gonna be here for hours normally almost three hour you sit
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and eat for three hours there is no limit of time you have to be sitting until done and they watching.
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Who's they?
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Senior Rikishi.
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So do you ever get to choose how much you eat or they choose how much you eat?
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They choose.
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But unfortunately he was the one deciding when I was done.
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I'm getting so full already.
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Dude my stomach!
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I'm full!
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In Japan they touch the beard and they say your head and this should be same.
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So if my stomach isn't as hard as my head I'm not done.
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So I kept eating as much as I possibly could.
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But as my stomach filled, I stayed confident.
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All of this is getting finished.
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Are you full?
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Almost.
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And because almost everything was high in fiber and protein, it literally felt like my stomach was about to explode.
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But luckily, I had a little probiotic drink that came in clutch.
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That was the sweetness that I needed right now.
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Got me fired up.
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I could eat for days now.
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But just a few seconds later, I was told to try an all-natural seaweed energy drink.
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Did you say seaweed energy drink?
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Yeah.
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This literally just looks like seawater.
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You like it?
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Next time?
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Next time.
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Yes, next time.
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Okay.
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Even though I had been eating for an hour already, seeing some empty plates gave me some hope.
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I'm doing pretty good.
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But being 100% honest, this is easily the most full I've felt in five years.
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But I had Zorig breathing down my neck to finish, even with foods I didn't love so much.
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How is it?
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Next time?
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Next time.
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Next time, yeah.
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Am I done?
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Is this okay?
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Am I done?
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You have to eat all of rice.
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Every grain of rice.
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I'm so serious when I say this.
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My stomach was in such excruciating pain that even a few grains of rice hurt to swallow.
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But when my plates were empty enough for Zorig's liking, I could finally say.
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My last bite of about 3,000 calories or more is done.
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And since we trained like a sumo earlier, it was now time to dig Zorig into my world.
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But first, I had to introduce him to the Gym Bro secret pre-workout.
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I have something for you.
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Oh.
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This is the key to a pump.
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You ever had one of these?
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No. It's rice. For rice?
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It's rice.
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Oh, look.
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That's the key to a good pump.
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Now let's go get one.
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I think my Max is the one.
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He's lying.
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Bro, I don't know why I ever doubted him.
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And this was the first time all day that I felt like I was the one in control.
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Bro, how you already sweat?
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I'm so scary.
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You're nervous.
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I'm nervous.
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Sorry about today at the sumo training.
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Sorry.
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Yeah, yeah, you're trying to say your prayers so I don't kill you too much over here, huh?
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But I found out that, just like everything else, Zorig was pretty good at this too.
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Because although sumos don't look like they're in the best shape in comparison to bodybuilders, they possess insane strength from their rigid training routines.
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But I smiled inside when I heard Zorig say, I cannot be too
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which briefly distracted me from the excruciating stomach discomfort I was still in.
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But I knew if I wanted to get the next massive meal in, we would need to train hard.
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Thank you.
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Good pump?
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Yeah, I don't feel my arms.
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You hungry?
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Yes.
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Thank you for the training.
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No problem.
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Oh my goodness.
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And unfortunately, it's time to start eating again.
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Zorig, where are we?
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We are at Chanko Nabi.
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This is the sumo food, right?
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Yes, they have some vegetables.
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Shrimp, pork, chicken, all together.
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This is my type of training.
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So this is my portion right here.
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I'm good right here, right?
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You eat all until done.
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Until done with this?
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No, no, no. You have to eat all of this.
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Well, you won't be eating any today because you're a bodybuilder for the day.
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So I brought you your meal prep right here.
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We have lettuce.
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We have 150 grams of rice.
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Two servings of G.
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Hugh's sugar-free sweet chili sauce.
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We got a little bit of hot sauce and 130 grams of salmon.
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I hope you enjoy.
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Bink.
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It's a sad world we live in.
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But at this point, I honestly didn't know whose diet I would rather be eating.
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Normally, I'd be thrilled to have a giant hot pot all to myself.
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But after lunch, my stomach was already nearing full capacity.
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So you ate this for seven years every day.
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So this is the sumo food.
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Hard practice.
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Eat hard and sleep well.
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And you're going to feel you're getting stronger.
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So tomorrow I'm going to feel good.
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Call me tomorrow and say how you feel, okay?
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I'll call you tomorrow.
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I'll let you know.
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But that was if I made it to tomorrow.
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It's already starting to hit.
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It's so hot that my whole body is burning up right now.
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And despite the pain, I managed to get...
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One bowl done.
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I'm ready for more.
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But when I got to bowl number two...
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Cheers.
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I may have forgotten it was called hot pot.
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Oh my God.
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My tongue.
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I have no taste, but...
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Could you be a bodybuilder eating like this?
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No. And it felt like after seeing my workout, Zorig got a little bit more curious about my bodybuilding lifestyle.
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This isn't even bad.
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If I'm trying to get ready for a show, I eat less than this.
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Oh really?
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Yeah, way less.
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You feel hungry or...?
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Oh, so hungry, so tired, your body feels terrible.
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Is it worth it?
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That one's hard to say.
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You look really cool and it feels like an achievement.
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Like all of that hard work was to display your physique for one day.
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It's like the pictures I showed you earlier.
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You had that as an achievement for your entire life
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So I think it is I think it is worth it
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because I can look at those pictures
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when I'm 70 years old I'll have them forever and I'll know
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that I did that which is exactly why I love creating videos like this and experiencing different extreme Lifestyles.
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Oh, look at that bowl number two is down, baby.
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I'm gonna be a sumo before you know it I feel good right now.
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Is it hard to watch me eat this while you eat that?
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Yeah, well if it makes you feel any better I don't want to eat anymore
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and after that he decided to make it even harder So now you just put more food into the hot pot.
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Yes.
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And with that, I knew I had to put my head down and eat to impress Zorig.
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And just like before, he kept a watchful eye to make sure I wasn't cheating.
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How do you feel?
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Terrible.
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My head hurts.
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I'm so full.
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But if I was gonna make Zorig suffer watching me eat, I knew it was my duty to push past my limits and earn a sumo's honor.
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You're done.
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Congratulations.
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How was it?
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Makes sense.
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I'm hungry which was the complete opposite of the ripping sensation I felt in my stomach.
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Dude, I'm so hot.
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Like, I'm literally, like, burning up.
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And if I finished all five bowls like he normally does at one meal, Zorig said you have to like this video and subscribe so you see us next time.
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Fifth bowl.
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I am stuffed, but I still have some broth in there.
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You should drink all of this.
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I'm a sumo wrestler now.
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Seal of approval?
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We are now brothers.
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He just said we're brothers.
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Thank you.
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But the night wasn't done just yet because I normally eat another meal after dinner.
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And like I always say, there's always room for a late night sweet treat.
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So Zorik, in front of you, you have a delicious Greek yogurt bowl, 300 grams of zero sugar vanilla Greek yogurt,
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100 grams of blueberries, and 15 more grams of almond butter, but it doesn't look like you have anything for me.
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You're normally done eating, right?
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Yeah, but for you, you need to gain more weight.
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Eat this before bed.
425
What is it?
426
Rice.
427
You just pound rice.
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Yes.
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Do you know how many calories you eat every day?
430
No, I never did.
431
Well, good news.
432
I've been secretly tracking all of our calories and macros with the sponsor of today's video, Macro Factor.
433
And the reason I could is because It is the fastest calorie tracking app on the market.
434
You can simply search or scan your meal in if you know all of the ingredients, take a picture to guesstimate calories with AI, or better yet for meals like Zorig's,
435
you can import a recipe online with a link, make any edits you need and save it right in the app.
436
Which has made calorie tracking for us today an absolute breeze, even when you're eating as many calories as someone like Zorig does every day.
437
And the best part, new users get a 14 day free trial when you sign up using code Casey
438
or the link down in the description box below.
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But Zorg, with every calorie log today, do you know how much you have eaten?
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No. You have eaten 2,031 calories with 171 grams of protein,
441
and this bowl of rice puts me at 7,218 calories with 312 grams of protein.
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That's a lot of food, man.
443
Not bad.
444
Did I just hear him say not bad?
445
Okay, we better start digging in.
446
Oh yeah.
447
A little bit better?
448
No, no, you're lying, you're lying.
449
How is the rice?
450
It tastes just like rice.
451
Like it has the entire rest of the day.
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After spending an entire day eating like Zorig, I have a newfound respect for Sumo's.
453
Oh yeah, he down in this now.
454
He hungry.
455
Because I genuinely don't know how he does this every day.
456
I don't think I can eat any more rice.
457
But surprisingly, Zorig said the same thing about my diet.
458
Do you like my diet?
459
Next time.
460
Next time.
461
And even though they couldn't have been more different, neither of us have gotten this far by taking the easy route, which made me realize we actually had one thing in common.
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Discipline.
463
Because remember, I'm not special, I'm just consistent.
464
Do you want to do one more tomorrow?
465
No, next time.
466
Next time.
467
Next time.
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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson
This B1 speaking lesson is built on the video “Gym Bro vs. Sumo Diet Swap”. The speaker keeps coming back to these words: eat, zorig, sumo, rice, grams. This video has 466 sentences and 3384 words to shadow. The speech runs for 20:39. The speaker talks at a natural 164 words per minute, close to everyday conversation. 82% of the words are among the 3,000 most common in English; the rest is worth studying before you start. 86 of its 466 sentences are questions, so it is good practice for question intonation and short answers.
Key vocabulary in this video
The 15 most advanced words in the video, with pronunciation and meaning:
| Word | Pronunciation | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| sumo noun | /ˈsuːməʊ/ | A stylised Japanese form of wrestling in which a wrestler loses if he is forced from the ring, or if any part of his body except the soles of his feet touches… |
| gram noun | /ˈɡɹæm/ | A unit of mass equal to one-thousandth of a kilogram. Symbol: g. |
| calorie noun | /ˈkæləɹi/ | A non-SI unit of energy, equivalent to 4.184 kilojoules, that can raise the temperature of a kilogram of water by one degree Celsius. This is the unit normally… |
| workout noun | /ˈwɝk.aʊ̯t/ | An exercise session; a period of physical exercise. |
| bodybuilder noun | /ˈbɑ.diˌbɪl.dəɹ/ | A person who uses diet and exercise to build an aesthetically muscular physique, in order to compete in bodybuilding. |
| wrestler noun | A person who wrestles. | |
| plum noun | /plʌm/ | An edible, fleshy stone fruit of species Prunus domestica (European plum) and Prunus americana American plum, often of a dark red or purple colour. |
| flexible adjective | /ˈflɛk.sɪ.bəl/ | Capable of being flexed or bent without breaking; able to be turned or twisted without breaking. |
| pump noun | /pʌmp/ | A device for moving or compressing a liquid or gas. |
| lifestyle noun | /ˈlaɪfˌstaɪl/ | A style of living that reflects the attitudes and values of a person or group. |
| bite verb | /baɪt/ | To cut into something by clamping the teeth. |
| blueberry noun | /ˈbluˌbɛ.ɹi/ | An edible round berry, belonging to the cowberry group (Vaccinium sect. Cyanococcus), with flared crowns at the end, that turns blue on ripening. |
| excruciating adjective | /ɪkˈskɹuʃi.eɪtɪŋ/ | Causing great pain or anguish, agonizing |
| pickle noun | /ˈpɪkəl/ | A cucumber preserved in a solution, usually a brine or a vinegar syrup. |
| seaweed noun | /ˈsiwid/ | Any of numerous marine algae, such as a kelp. |
Phrasal verbs you will hear
| Word | Meaning |
|---|---|
| burn up verb | To catch fire and burn until destroyed. |
| find out verb | To discover, as by asking or investigating. |
| back down verb | To take a less aggressive position in a conflict than one previously had, or has planned to have. |
| come over verb | To affect in a sudden, unprecedented or surprising manner; to overwhelm a person's ordinarily contrary impulse. |
| grow up verb | To mature and become an adult. |
| head out verb | To leave, depart; to go on ahead. |
| pick up verb | To lift; to grasp and raise. |
| push past verb | To rudely force one's way in front of another. |
Sentences worth repeating
Short, complete lines from the video that you can reuse in everyday conversation:
- Can we survive each other's extreme lifestyles?
- If I eat this, will I look like you?
- Why you got the stick?
- Why are you so sweaty, man?
- That's why you moved here?
Grammar in this video
The structures the speaker uses most, with the exact words from the video:
| Structure | In the video |
|---|---|
| Present perfect have/has + past participle — a past action that still matters now | I've learned · have made · I've never had |
| Passive voice be + past participle — the focus is on what happens, not who does it | can be fueled · was told · be thrilled |
| Relative clauses who / which + clause — extra information about a person or thing | that which is · hungry which was |
Pronunciation to watch
The speaker uses 107 contractions and reduced forms, such as I'm, don't, you're. Say them the short way, as you hear them.
- The “th” sounds: thrill /θɹɪl/, breathe /bɹiːð/
- The “sh” and “zh” sounds: excruciating /ɪkˈskɹuʃi.eɪtɪŋ/, shred /ʃɹɛd/, preposition /ˌpɹɛpəˈzɪʃən/, sashimi /səˈʃiːmi/, umeboshi /umeɪˈbəʊʃi/
- Long words — get the stress right: bodybuilder /ˈbɑ.diˌbɪl.dəɹ/, excruciating /ɪkˈskɹuʃi.eɪtɪŋ/, bodybuilding /ˈbɑ.diˌbɪl.dɪŋ/, preposition /ˌpɹɛpəˈzɪʃən/, probiotic /ˌpɹoʊ.baɪˈɑ.tɪk/
How to practise with this video
- Listen to the whole video once without speaking and note the words you do not know.
- Start at 0.75× speed, shadow it sentence by sentence, then go back to normal speed once it feels easy.
- Record yourself and compare with the original, paying attention to words like sumo, gram, calorie.
What is the Shadowing Technique?
Shadowing is a science-backed language learning technique originally developed for professional interpreter training and popularized by polyglot Dr. Alexander Arguelles. The method is simple but powerful: you listen to native English audio and immediately repeat it out loud — like a shadow following the speaker with just a 1–2 second delay. Unlike passive listening or grammar drills, shadowing forces your brain and mouth muscles to simultaneously process and reproduce real speech patterns. Research shows it significantly improves pronunciation accuracy, intonation, rhythm, connected speech, listening comprehension, and speaking fluency — making it one of the most effective methods for IELTS Speaking preparation and real-world English communication.