Being suspended three feet off the ground for nearly three hours is the kind of feat that earns a reputation for sheer resolve.
If the image sticks, it comes to represent years of discipline that never reached the screen.
This is how SEA Games Sambo gold medalist Mark “Mugen” Striegl entered the mainstream pipeline.
All 3.6 million viewers of the sixth episode of Physical: Asia would have seen a body pushed to its limit, sustained only by grip strength, controlled breathing, and the refusal to quit.
Looking back on the Hanging Endurance round, Mark says the challenge fell squarely into the mindset he had already built through decades of practicing mixed martial arts.
“Going back to Physical: Asia, with that mentality from wrestling, I knew that that type of challenge specifically would just be a battle of mental toughness and muscle endurance,” he says.
Be that as it may, what was not suspended was disbelief about the kind of person who would emerge once the endurance stopped being televised.
The Hanging Endurance image primes you to expect someone rugged—almost intimidating—who seems to live permanently at the edge of exertion.
Instead, Mark appears unexpectedly fresh, stripped of the grit the iconic footage seems to promise.
The body that endured looks lighter in real life, and less interested in projecting the weight of what it has done.
That dissonance lingers as he moves through shared spaces. People glance, hesitate, then do double takes—with others having that millisecond glimmer in their eyes when they finally realize who he is at their second turn.
The image precedes him, but the person does not behave like it.
ATHLETE FIRST, CELEBRITY SECOND
After years of learning how to control his body down to the smallest margin, Mark does not seem particularly interested in controlling how he is perceived.
When he arrives for the shoot at Summit Studio, he apologizes for being late after misjudging traffic. He does it once at the lobby, then again after everyone has settled in.
While preparations are underway, he reaches into his duffel bag, pulls out a lint remover, and begins fixing his own clothes. There is no entourage stepping in, or some person-in-charge passing along instructions to someone else.
He shrugs off the tag of being grounded: “I’ve been hearing that since the show came out.
"For me, it just feels like common sense. I follow the golden rule: Treat others how I wanna be treated.”
Still, Mark clearly has both feet firmly on the ground, as his inclination to booking ride-hailing bikes shows.
“My go-to mode of transportation is either MoveIt, Angkas, or JoyRide. Sometimes, I book all three when traffic's really bad and it's training. I train across town from BGC where I live.”
Recognition tends to happen in transit rather than on set: “Sometimes, they recognize me, and that’s funny. They [riders] ask for a photo either before or after the ride.
“There was one funny time since the show came out where we were at a traffic light, and I was on the back of a MoveIt, and the person in the car next to me realized it was me and rolled down the window, and then gave me a fist bump.
“And then the another girl on another MoveIt or Angkas also recognized me, and said hi. That was funny, just seeing people at the traffic light.”
Despite the growing visibility, he likes to maintain a low profile.
“I’m a jock. I’m an athlete first and foremost. Much of my clothes are sweatpants. Overall, I’m pretty low-key, a low-maintenance kind of guy.”
He remains uncomplicated in his personal style: “Can’t go wrong with the classics: Reebok Classic shoes, nice JAG jeans, and a plain black tee.”
His lack of pretense extends to how he approaches shoots, where he requests zero Photoshop to preserve the closest version of his true form on screen.
“I don’t like it. I think it’s too obvious when you can see the abs are paint-brushed,” he explains in objection.
“People shouldn’t be deceived. If a guy doesn’t have abs and suddenly has a six-pack—and you’re promoting a healthy product—that’s deception. If you Photoshop someone to be lighter or leaner than he really is, then that’s fake.”
LESSONS FORGED EARLY
True to Mark’s agenda of keeping things 100% real, what played out during his most viral moment from the reality fitness show was not something anyone can simply come up with on the spot.
The mind’s hold on a person’s capabilities is not an abstract idea to him anymore. In fact, this was one of the earlier lessons he learned as an aspiring wrestler.
“That’s something I’ve always known from wrestling, to be honest. Because wrestling is such a tough sport.”
He is direct about it. The body, he explains, is never the real limiter.
“I know that the body will always give out if the mind gives out, right? So, you need to have a strong mind.”
It is something he encountered early, repeatedly, and without much room for negotiation. He remembers learning it as a teenager in wrestling camps in the United States.
“In my early teenage years, the wrestling camps I go to were very famous for being really, really tough. They're called J Robinson’s wrestling camps. And it was notoriously difficult. A lot of people, like up to fifty percent of the campers would drop out and go home.”
He adds: “At these camps, I remember reaching the breaking point during workouts where the instructor would say, ‘Ten more push-ups.’
“You’d think that you didn't have another five in you. Like, literally. But then somehow, you’d end up doing another 100.”
Those moments restructured how he understood limits: “It’s really that kind of hard-nosed mentality that taught me the power of the mind... just holding on, bracing yourself through the pain, and trying not to let it show, I guess.”
What it took Mark to look the part
Like any young athlete fired up for performance, Mark’s twenties were driven by extremes. His goal was always to deliver. If a shoot required a certain look, he found a way to meet it.
“If I have a shoot coming up—and if it’s a topless shoot, for example—then I wanna make sure that I’m in good shape.”
He recalls, “I’ve had shoots where I’ve dropped five kilos in 24 hours just because they asked for a topless shoot.”
The requests were sometimes so sudden, he had little-to-no lead time: “It suddenly came up, like on 24 or 48 hours’ notice. And then I’m like, ‘Oh my god, what am I gonna do?’”
The solution, at the time, mirrored what fighters do before weigh-ins.
“I’ve gone to the sauna and dropped five kilos,” he lets out plainly. “It’s just dehydration. Just like a fight, just before a weigh-in.”
The results were immediate, if punishing.
“You’re gonna feel like hell,” he admits. “You’re not gonna feel good at the shoot because you’re dehydrated and you’re light-headed."
“But at least your abs will pop,” he says, laughing.
Still, it isn’t advice he offers lightly, or at all.
“Definitely not recommended,” he chuckles. “Not recommended at all. That was in my twenties.”
With age, he has become clear-eyed about the cost of those years swamped with fluctuation.
“I used to balloon up in between fights. Not a ton of weight, but I’d celebrate a little too much after fights and eat and drink too much. I’ve been much better with my diet and my overall shape in my thirties. I’ve just been better overall.”
He adds training, eating, and preparing without having to compromise health for optics on top of his current routine.
Hanging Tough
Achieving the caliber of discipline Mark possesses comes down to persistence. When asked what he would tell people entering 2026 feeling tired, discouraged, or as though they are starting from zero, he advises:
"Just never give up. Never quit. Keep pushing forward always, because you never know when your big break is coming. You never know what’s right around the corner. Just always continue to do your best and have your eyes on the prize—whatever that may be.”
That belief has guided the bigger turns in his career, where instinct often outweighs overthinking.
“I knew how big an opportunity Physical: Asia was—and could be—so, I definitely trusted my gut. I just trained really hard and prayed for the best, honestly.”
That willingness to say yes to the right moment, however, exists alongside a personal life imbued with regimen over whim.
“I’m a creature of habit.”
He works out consistently and avoids making sudden, reactive choices: “I don’t do anything too impulsively.”
His wife likes to joke that there is “never a dull moment,” but Mark sees that energy as career-bound.
“That’s more my career,” he says. “Fighting and getting the chance to join Physical: Asia, stuff like that.”
Routine, for him, is what makes patience possible.
“Fight camps, you have to be patient. Especially in a professional MMA fight, when you know you’re fighting someone in two months. It's just, like, slowly, day by day, it's winding down and you're just thinking about your opponent and you're eating clean every day.”
The waiting becomes part of the work, and what fills the waiting is repetition.
“You’re just going through the Groundhog Day routine of training, diet, stretching. Day by day, it's the same routine. I think that taught me a lot about patience and discipline.”
The Hanging Endurance challenge may have introduced Mark “Mugen” Striegl to a wider audience, but it did not change his order of priorities.
He trains the same way, moves the same way, and approaches his days with the same discipline that predates his fame.
Celebrity, for him, is incidental; the work is not. When the image runs its course, the athlete remains.
PRODUCTION CREDITS
EDITOR-IN-CHIEF: Jo-Ann Q. Maglipon
EXECUTIVE EDITOR: Karen Pagsolingan
PHOTOGRAPHY: Stephen Capuchino
SHOOT PRODUCERS: Khryzztine Joy Baylon, Katrina Gangcuango
CREATIVE DIRECTION: Jeremiah Idanan
TEXT/INTERVIEW: FK Bravo
PHOTOGRAPHER’S ASSISTANTS: Jobo Nacpil
VIDEO: Rommel Llanes, Almarc Rico
BILLBOARD PRODUCERS: Rommel Llanes, Katrina Gangcuango
OOH EDITOR: Rommel Llanes
Special thanks to Jojo Gabinete, Mark Salamat, John Michael De Venecia, Orlando Almerino, Whilma Lopez, Robinsons Land
Shoot Location: Robinsons Cybergate Tower 3 Rooftop and 7th floor
