Club Shay Shay - Phil Heath

Episode Date: December 12, 2022

Club Shay Shay hits the road! Shannon heads over to the world famous Gold's Gym near the Venice Boardwalk to workout with seven-time Mr. Olympia winner, Phil Heath. Listen in as Shannon sits down with Phil to talk about the bodybuilder's career, workout regimen and how professional athletes maintain their fitness. Afterwards, head on over to Club Shay Shay's official YouTube page to check out Shannon's full workout with Phil Heath! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoicesSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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I'm done. Grinding all my life, all my life. Been grinding all my life. Sacrifice. Hustle paid the price. Want to slice. Got to roll the dice. That's why all my life I've been grinding all my life. Phil, thanks for the workout. I really appreciate that. I mean, I've heard of football players becoming professional bodybuilders,

police officers, former police officers becoming bodybuilders, but basketball players. How, why do you want to become a professional bodybuilder? Primarily because I needed a new challenge. Right. And I had to acknowledge at some point in time in playing basketball in college, not getting the burn that I wanted,

that those hoop dreams are going to come to an end pretty soon. Right. And fortunately, I had a friend that was already competing amateur. Right. And was able to go to a couple competitions. Next thing you know, I have a guest poser there saying I should try it. Right. So I say, okay, what the heck?

What's the worst thing that can happen if I try to do bodybuilding? I'm going to get in shape? Right. Cool. I'm just going to get in shape. Right. And I thought, well, maybe I can get in one of these men's health magazines and stuff because I thought I was being real man light-skinned green eyes with a little bit of muscles I might be able to

make it work yeah so I started doing it and actually you know I was very blessed to make it a career you're from Seattle you grew up with Jamal Crawford Nate Burleson Corey Dillon Jason Terry. You got a basketball scholarship to the University of Denver. Yep. So obviously, and I tell people this all the time, if you play high school sport, you have aspirations normally of going to college. And if you play college sport, you probably want to play professional sports. Correct. When did you realize that, you know what, I think given my height and given the situation, I don't really think I'm going to be able to play in the NBA. Sophomore year. Sophomore year, I don't really think I'm going to be able to play in the NBA.

Sophomore year. Sophomore year, I started seeing that transition happen. We had a couple new guys come in, a couple Juco transfers, this and that. And I'm like, this. And then the writing's on the wall with the playing time. Right. When your minutes go down and your production isn't the same and no, not getting the game reps.

Right. The coach is making the decision. Right. And as much as I want to fight that and work harder and ask more questions of coach, what do I need to do? I was that guy. What do I need to do? What do I need to do? I would do it and it still didn't work out.

I had to recognize that this is the team, not Phil Heath's team. I will say our coach did get fired during the year, so I was like, well, maybe he was wrong. Maybe I should have played. But at that point, new coaching staff come in my senior year, and what helped me make the transition was that coach was brutally honest.

He'd say, you know what, I don't know what happened, but if it were me in your freshman year, you would have already been doing X, Y, Z for me. But what I need you to do is be a leader to these younger people. You're a senior. You are groomed. You understand film. Help me out. Right. And I will make sure that you graduate. Whether it's four years, five years, you want to be a grad assistant, I'll help you get a coaching gig.

And I thought, okay, what's your alternative? Well, he said, I'll make your life hell. I said, I'm choosing option one. So let's go make that happen. And I'll be honest, you know, comparing myself to people like Jamal, you know, other guys with Jet and everybody else, that was tough. Right. Seeing the millions of dollars and stuff and all that. Because you see them make it.

You played against them. Yeah. You think, well, why not me? Right. And I didn't let my height be something because I thought, well, I had a 40-inch vertical. I was an athlete. Right. But I had to be real.

I had to be real. And that was very depressing at one moment. But, you know, God makes no mistakes, man. So I thought, well, let's just see what happens if I close that door. Because it's definitely going to close. Right. Let's accept it and move on. Like I said, bodybuilding opened up.

And, man, trust me, I didn't know I was going to make a profession out of it going in. I just knew that it was going to help me deal with the depression that I had not making it to the league, let alone going overseas. And like I said, I had to make a conscious effort of saying, what's the best case scenario for me? That would have been, okay, Phil, you're going to go play ball overseas for let's say five years. Now I'm 27 years old, 28 years old with no job experience. Why did I get these two degrees for? Right.

Now the people that I graduated college with are going to be my boss. Right. When I should, no, no. There's more millionaires at Microsoft than there are, you know, in the NBA at the time. And that was when the G League was going on. I said, no, this ain't going to work, man. Right. This ain't going to work.

You were a shooting guard. Who would you compare your game to? D. Fish. Derek Fisher. All my homies would be like, that's D. Fish right there. Playing with a pro in high school with Jamal. Of course, he's getting them off of you. I'd be left wide open. I'd knock down the jumper

because I knew I wouldn't get that ball back if I didn't. Right. I made sure that I could protect the ball. I was a really good defender. I was very strong. I could pass well. And I could get defenders off me. My handle was good.

It wasn't spectacular. But it was good enough to not turn the ball over and run the offense. And I wasn't never a liability on defense. Right. So that's where my game was. You're the only ex-basketball player that I know that turned bodybuilder, professional bodybuilder. Do you think any other basketball players,

who do you think would make a great bodybuilder? Man, Nate Robinson would have been dope. When he was, yeah, that would have been easy for him. Right. Current guys, Dame Dolly could do it, I think. You know, some of the guys are too tall, I believe. You know, majority of them are too tall. Yeah, they'd have to be 400 pounds.

Yeah, majority of them are too tall. But I would say, you know, I always thought like back when Tony Allen was playing, he was a specimen that could do it. Yeah, absolutely. You know, there were some guys back in the day like, you know, Kevin Willis and Dave Robson. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Like the shoulders and stuff.

Yeah, well, Cam still works out like that. He's in Atlanta. You know, Shaq is really strong. I don't think Shaq can be a bodybuilder. He's just too tall. But he's strong. He can easily put muscle on. Yep.

You hear these stories about Wilt Chamberlain and about how strong he was. We know he was a great athlete. Yes. He ran track in college. He high jumped. He long jumped. He ran the open four. Do you think he could?

Well, he's too tall to be a bodybuilder. But what have you heard about Wilt? Because I think Wilt, actually, as a matter of fact, before he passed, I was out here, and I saw him pass right by this very street that Gold's Gym's on, and threw my hand up. He waved back. Yeah. But do you think guys like that? Because I'm thinking in my mind

i'm like okay if you're a professional athlete obviously you got discipline yes obviously you know what sacrifice two of the major things that you have to have to be a professional bodybuilder 100 wake up with football every morning and listen to my new podcast nfl daily with greg rosenthal five days a week you'll get all the latest news, previews, recaps, and analysis delivered straight to your podcast feed by the time you get your coffee. No dumb hot takes here. Just smart hot takes. We'll talk every single game every single week, but I can't do it alone. So I'm bringing in the big guns from NFL media. That's Patrick Claiborne, Steve Weiss, Nick Shook, Jordan Rodrigue from The Athletic,

and of course, Colleen Wolfe. This is their window right now. This is their Super Bowl window. Why would they trade him away? Because he would be a pivotal part of them winning that Super Bowl. I don't know why, Colleen. Catch the podcast at NFL Daily

with Greg Rosenthal every day. Subscribe today and you'll immediately be smarter and funnier than your friends and who doesn't want that listen now on the iheart radio app apple podcast or wherever you get your podcast um will would have been dope just to see i i would have loved to just see him try because you know me growing up watching him in those con movies. Right. I mean, you know, he was still built. Yeah, he was. Uh, you know, back to other athletes, maybe not in basketball, but

like a... What about football players? What football players do you think can be... Saquon all day. Saquon? Saquon can easily do it. Okay. Those legs that everybody finds over and stuff, I mean... What about Adrian Peterson? For sure. Le'Veon Bell, no question. DK? Come on. He's the only tall dude that could probably easily do it.

Right. Like, with ease. Right. You know, obviously I come from the era, like, growing up, seeing a Deion Sanders. Right. He could have done it, for sure. Bo Jackson, for sure. Yeah, Bo. Herschel.

Easy. I mean, come on, man. You. Because now they have different categories now. Right. So, like, where you may not do open class bodybuilding. Yeah, yeah. I mean, come on, man. You. Because now they have different categories now. So like where you may not do open class bodybuilding. Yeah, I want to do the board shorts. I want to do the board shorts. You could do that. Yeah. Actually, you could do that now. I could do the board shorts. Let me do that. I can do the board shorts. Yeah, we can do that. Do you train? Do you train athletes? Do you want to get in that, you know, train other professional athletes like basketball players, football players? The issue I have with that is the ego with their crew.

It's their crew that want to dictate what they do. Right. And I don't want to disrupt anything they have going on. Now, I have some friends in, you know, NFL, MLB, this and that, that have DM'd me, hey, what do you think of this, this, and this? I'm there for them. Right. You know, one of my really good friends is Tim Grover. We talk, we talk to some of his

clients as well. Yes. Would I want to do that? I believe the person has to be extremely cultureable and I'm not saying this from an egotistical standpoint, they would have to come to me. Right. I'm a man of service. So if they said, hey, Phil, like this is what I'm thinking, or let's say they're getting ready for a photo shoot for a magazine, you know, digital magazine or something. This is what I've been told. What do you think? Where can I meet you? Fine. I got you. But yeah, to say that's what I'm going to do now. No, because it goes, man, like I'm going to deal with some egos. Right.

And I don't know how they're going to accept the diet as well. And then not partying anymore. Right. Because look, we already know the stuff that you guys talk about on your show. These guys go out. And it's hard.

You know, I've talked to different rappers and entertainers and stuff. I'll give them the diet. I tell them to train. But then I see on the IG, they're out three, four in the morning. Right. So it's a waste of my time,

and I don't like wasting my time. Right. Yeah. But I think it would be really hard for you, someone that's so focused, and to, because people want instant gratification. They want, you give them a program, you train them, and in two weeks, well, I don't see any difference. Right, and then they got their friends telling them,

oh, you don't need that you do this. I'm like really It takes time brother like right. Let's let's let's think about this But what I will say is more athletes who are now retired have come forward right because they want to maintain right and they recognize That hey, I Played football. I played baseball. I'm interested in just getting healthier this is what I heard what do you think and I'm like yeah I can be your consultant now yeah how difficult is it to now that you're not competing competitively for you to maintain your weight maintained like okay he was a bodybuilder I can I can see even though he's not competing I can see that he was a body

yeah so because you see a lot of athletes, football players, basketball players, and they just. That's a lack of discipline, I think. I think they also put their identity in just that sport. Right. For me, yeah, I won seven Mr. Olympic titles. In my era, I'm definitely the GOAT. In my era. Right.

I know that. But that's not who Phil Heath is. Right. That's not going to read on my headstone one day. Right. I know that. But that's not who Phil Heath is. Right. That's not going to read on my headstone one day. Right. It's going to read just my name. Right. And what my contributions are to the world. My biggest thing is I always want to live a healthy lifestyle. Right. I wanted I always would say I want to be the black Jack LaLanne. I want to be able to do it all. Right. I want to show that just like I pivoted from basketball to bodybuilding, I should be able to lose weight, which I did. I lost 35 pounds. I'm like 245, 255. I say that's my comfort right now.

If I wanted to do another show, I could easily blow up back up to 275 and then come back down if I want to. If I want to run a 5K, that's one of my goals. Really? Oh, I want to be able to do that. By the time I turn 50 years old, I'm 42 now, I want to be able to say, I want to be able to run a 5K, I want to be able to say, I want to be able to run a 5K.

I want to be able to do different stuff. There's different feats of strength that I want to exhibit to show that I can do, I'm an athlete for the rest of my life. You know what? I was just thinking the guy that would probably be the best bodybuilder of them all, of all the guys we mentioned, T.O. I think T.O. has the best gifts. I think so, too. And I know, given the right motivation, he would do the work. Yeah.

Oh, yeah, he's very motivated. Very motivated. Chip on the shoulder. Yep. He'll do it. Yep. You know, he's definitely one of the, yeah, I didn't even think about that. Sorry about that, T.O., but yeah.

What about boxers? Mike Tyson, Deontay Wilder. I think Deontay Wilder has a. Deontay Wilder would have, but so long, T.O., but yeah. What about boxers? Mike Tyson, Deontay Wilder. I think Deontay Wilder has them. Deontay Wilder would have, but so long, though. He is. Long. Yeah. Tyson, for sure, easily.

Yeah. Spence, maybe. Roy. Roy. Hagler, easily. Hagler, for sure. He was one of my favorites Because he was just thick right I'm trying to think of some other cats man. I guess that's tough because you don't have to be shredded to box right now

But I for a bender yes. Yeah sure. Oh, yeah, cuz he had those round down Yeah, I mean he was who and he you could tell that he was strong. Yes. You could tell he was strong. Yeah, he worked out. I mean, Lee Haney trained him for a while, and then he got too muscle-bound and he needed to get away from that type of training. Yeah. Who's your favorite team? When you watch sport, football, who's your favorite football team?

You know, it just happened this last week with Seattle and Denver, man. I'm from Seattle. I got a root for both. I'm fortunate that they're not playing in the same, you know, conference. We used to play in the same man. I'm from Seattle. I got a root for both. I'm fortunate that they're not playing in the same, you know, conference. We used to play in the same division. I know. And being from Seattle,

watching our butts get whooped every time. I mean, we didn't have a squad at all. So it was great to, for me, it was great to move to Colorado and see you win a Super Bowl and then still live there and see another Super Bowl and then see Seattle win one, I'm happy.

Those are my teams. Like, I always tell myself, you're born in one, you resided in one. You can have two. As long as they're not in the same conference, I can pick them. But I've met so many of these athletes from different teams. I root for the individuals nonstop. You know, I just want them to... I want them all to win. I truly do, and I want them to do it the right way

and stay healthy as much as they can. We want them to take care of their bodies, especially in the offseason. Right. You know, more and less time on the social media and stuff. Right. What about basketball? Who's your team? Who's your player? Oh, my gosh. All-time? Or

just now? Now. Now? Oh, now now oh now that's tough man because i love lebron man he's dope i've always been a laker fan even though growing up in seattle but they they took my team away so you know they took my team away i'd say lebron but then also i like dane dollar man yeah he's a dog bro like and he's sticking with portland like that's the closest team from my hometown that I can rock with. I had a season ticket for the Nuggets for years, so I got to see a lot of good players. But I respect the champions.

I respect guys like Greek Freak, KD, LeBron. These are guys that, I mean, God-given talent. Steph Curry, for sure. I've been fortunate to see his game evolve because i'm old enough to say it he's not a defensive liability he shows so much confidence and in fact he's made more people believe in themselves for shooting that jump shot as far as he can right so i mean those are like the guys that i that i pay to watch right yeah all-time favorite players who jordan jordan all-time i mean for me it's it's i was yeah never thought of seeing i was able to see him yeah play against the sonics one time my

stepdad had tickets and i got to see i was like my jaw dropped i mean it's just incredible you know um maybe young kids don't know but like but like it was just an era. And what I loved about Jordan is that he prevented epic guys from getting a title. Epic guys. He shut it down and he, but my one, that's my one A, my one B is Kobe. Because just the like, fearless. He's fearless. Like, he's like, no. Yeah. He was fearless. Like, he was like, no, and you knew it. Like, ultimate competitor. Right.

Ultimate competitor. I just love high competitive people that will put it on the line all the time and tell you what they're going to do, and they do it. Phil, I appreciate that, bro. All my life, been grinding all my life. Sacrifice. Hustle paid the price. Want a slice. Got the roll of dice. That's why all my life I've been grinding all my life. Wake up with football every morning and listen to my new podcast,

NFL Daily with Greg Rosenthal. Five days a week, you'll get all the latest news and the best analysis delivered by the time you get your coffee. The show hits every single game every single week, but I can't do it alone, so I'm bringing in all the big guns from NFL media like Colleen Wolfe. Subscribe today and you'll immediately be smarter and funnier than your friends. Listen now on the iHeartRadio app,

Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.