Mark Bell's Power Project - EP. 335 - Jeremy Buendia

Episode Date: February 24, 2020

Jeremy Buendia is a professional bodybuilder, bodybuilding coach, entrepreneur, and 4x Mr. Olympia Men’s Physique winner. He won the Men’s Physique Mr. O for four straight years, and has been an ambassador for the sport in helping gain notoriety and fans of Men’s Physique bodybuilding. Subscribe to the Podcast on on Platforms! ➢ https://lnk.to/PowerProjectPodcast Visit our sponsors: ➢Icon Meals: http://iconmeals.com/ Use Code "POWERPROJECT" for 10% off ➢Piedmontese Beef: https://www.piedmontese.com/ Use Code "POWERPROJECT" at checkout for 25% off your order plus FREE 2-Day Shipping on orders of $99 ➢Perfect Keto: http://perfectketo.com/powerproject Use Code "POWERPROJECT10" at checkout for $10 off $40 or more! ➢SHOP NOW: https://markbellslingshot.com/ Enter Discount code, "POWERPROJECT" at checkout and receive 15% off all Sling Shots Follow Mark Bell's Power Project Podcast ➢ Insta: https://www.instagram.com/markbellspowerproject ➢ https://www.facebook.com/markbellspowerproject ➢ Twitter: https://twitter.com/mbpowerproject ➢ LinkedIn:https://www.linkedin.com/in/powerproject/ ➢ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/markbellspowerproject ➢TikTok: http://bit.ly/pptiktok FOLLOW Mark Bell ➢ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/marksmellybell ➢ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MarkBellSuperTraining ➢ Twitter: https://twitter.com/marksmellybell ➢ Snapchat: marksmellybell ➢Mark Bell's Daily Workouts, Nutrition and More: https://www.markbell.com/ Follow Nsima Inyang ➢ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nsimainyang/ Podcast Produced by Andrew Zaragoza ➢ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/iamandrewz #PowerProject #Podcast #MarkBell

All right, so I'm what you kind of call a foodie. I like a little bit of variability in the food that I eat from time to time. So I do a lot of jujitsu, like six or seven times a week. I weight train three times a week and I eat a lot of meat, obviously. But what I really like, especially since I'm super busy with work and jujitsu and all that jazz, is Icon Meals because they have all of these different types of meals from burgers to keto burgers to salmon and then really cool different cuts of meat and chicken it's just all it's just so good yeah it's great yeah i love it and they

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Hello. I've gone through a whole podcast. Oh, yeah. I can hear myself now. Oh, you figured out that you were off that whole podcast? Yes. Yes. It was after my mom called me and she told me she couldn't hear my voice when she was trying to listen to the podcast.

I tried to silence him, but it hasn't really worked that good. I'm still trying to figure out ways to deal with this guy. Hey, assholes. But none of it's working very well. Hey, we had a great back workout today, man. Thanks for showing us all that stuff. Of course, man. It was awesome to be out here.

We've been talking about it for a while. Yeah. Yeah. It was finally good to unite, I guess. You know, training, you know, people ask so many questions about training. And there's obviously, there's always training questions about arms. There's always like, hey, how do I get my chest bigger? But I think that like people have some sort of weird fetish with training the l lats training the back and it's like uh there's like a science to it

it's difficult and some of the stuff you took us through today what i liked about it was the to unite oh i'm repeating myself people ask just kidding um you know i what i liked about it the most was the fact that it was just simple. And I found that when we've gotten opportunities to train with a lot of the best, a lot of things have been fairly simple. It hasn't been anything real complicated. I mean, we started with lat pulldowns and ended with lat pulldowns. So we don't need anything fancy to get jacked, right? Yeah, you don't got to overcomplicate things. You know, there's a lot of different variations you can use.

But, you know, simplicity, it's worked for a long time. You know, that's what the legends used and it worked. And, you know, with our training, you know, I incorporate different variations to increase the intensity, intensity of the workout, but when it comes down to it, the training is, it's like you said, it's simple. It's not, there's not much to it. How many times do you usually train your back each week? I'm on a five-day split usually so you know um if i'm trying to bring up a lagging body part i'll train that body part um probably on that sixth day again but um i mean typically on a five-day split i don't like to train more than one body part i train arms together but other than that everything is pretty much

isolated one reason is you know i'm putting everything into that body part i'm not gonna i don't want to you know train uh back and shoulders and do back first and then be gassed off our shoulders because i'm not going to be giving my shoulders everything they need and you're doing like four exercises or so give or take my volume usually like five five exercises and i'm doing between 20 to 25 sets typically i like that because you know as you're saying you're focused in on mainly one body part except for arms. You might be getting two. I think a lot of people have a hard time with motivation.

You know, they're like, man, I'm not very motivated. And I think that when people do go to the gym, I think a lot of times they're just doing too much. That's why, like, I would be demotivated as well if I, you know, try to work every body part every single day, you know, it starts to eat at you out over a period of time. Yeah. And I think a lot of people don't understand this, the science behind training and when they don't see the results,

it can get frustrating. And, you know, there's so many guys you see in the gym year after year, it looked the exact same. They're there every day. Like we are, we see them,

but it's the stuff they're doing on the outside. That is the reason why they're not changing. They're doing the same workouts. They're probably the moment they're in the gym, that's their fitness time. You know, the rest there, you know, 23 hours a day is not fitness related. Their focus on fitness is that one hour a day and they feel good about it. And that's what they did. And they're okay with that. And that's the majority of people, you know, you see a lot of those guys at the gym, you know, but fitness is a lot more, if you want results, there's a lot you got to put into on the outside.

You know, what we're doing in the gym is just a very small part. That's a tearing down of your body. The building up is what we're doing outside. When it comes to building up, I'm curious because a lot of guys like they'll be like, oh, do I need to change out my workout when I'm cutting? And obviously you're very used to cutting and bulking because you've done numerous shows. So when you're, you know, gaining versus when you're trying to drop body fat, do your workouts change or do you try to do the same things? They aren't too drastically different. I mean, yes, I'm

training heavier in my off season when I have a little more body fat in my body. Um, you know, my joints are gonna be healthier. I'm gonna have more energy and be stronger. So I'm gonna take advantage of that. You know, when I'm dieting now for a show, you gotta be smarter. You're not taking in as much calories. Your energy can be a little bit less. You, you know, your joints can get drier as you get leaner and you're become prone to injury so it the the training intensity does change slightly you know the rest times uh decreases like closer to show because i'm trying to be a little more burning more calories you know get the sweat up um and then off season you know i'm trying to bring my heart rate down because i'm trying to get maximum output of each each set to try and grow as much

as possible okay you use like a real wide variety of techniques right like you're not afraid to go through a period of time where you might train a little heavier you might um do sets of 20 um you might do like if something's feeling good i would imagine you might just stick with it and do like eight or ten sets of it i mean um are these some of your philosophies like you might do a drop set you might do an assisted set you you might do force reps. Like, it's just kind of like whatever you got to do to make the muscle grow. Exactly. You know, and those are the intensity principles that we try to implement is, you know, maximizing the pump and getting everything you can out of the set, you know, incorporating drop sets, partial reps, you know, and doing a lot of the principles

that Hany taught me, you know, growing up in the beginning of my career at the FST7 training, you know, it was all volumization and trying to, you know, create as much blood flow as possible, the muscle training safely and properly because, you know, ultimately longevity is important in the sport and injuries are prone to happen, especially when you're dieting down, lifting heavy and with incorrect form, you know, it happens. So with, you know, the training techniques that I grew up in the sport learning was obviously for longevity. And ironically, I injured myself doing an exercise. I was told happens so with you know the training techniques that i grew up in the sport learning was obviously for longevity and ironically i injured myself doing an exercise i was told not to do right and tore my pec what was the exercise bench press you know i was doing flat bench and

i literally got a call from honey like the night before telling me not to do it i did it and i tore my pec and that was uh that was that okay so it's been uh have you hurt yourself before with just doing kind of standard bodybuilding principles you know where you are did it and i tore my pec and that was uh that was that okay so it's been a have you hurt yourself before with just doing kind of standard bodybuilding principles you know where you are doing force reps and some of these things have you ended up with a severe injury from any of that no the most severe injury i had was the pec tear and then i tore my quad partially uh doing a really heavy leg press set but um other than that no i have been just general bumps and bruises that anybody else sure

might have been a little messed up here there might get tennis elbow or whatever i like to point that out a lot to people because when you utilize bodybuilding principles it's pretty safe you know when you're doing like drop sets of say like lateral raises or you're doing some you know even doing some like heavy rows obviously you could shift something out of place and you can hurt your back for a period of time and there's definitely some uh risk to to all of it but usually i think because you're training a lot of times in a fatigued state like you're not fully rested because you may have rested 45 seconds or a minute in between sets i actually think that plays uh in favor of you not getting hurt and also over a long period of time just getting in better

condition which might be counterintuitive to somebody because they might think well if i'm not fully rested i'm going to get hurt but again the weights are not so heavy uh that your form and you kept drilling into us today like look man you know we got to keep this form tight however on the last set the last couple reps if you need to use some body English, use some body English to get the extra few reps in there. Yeah. It's making sure when you are doing those cheated reps that you're still pulling with the muscle you're trying to target.

You know, you're not wiggling the weight up, you know. Okay. Actually, that's okay. So that's one thing that you guys, because I didn't get to, I wasn't here for the workout, but what I'm curious about is what do you see, like what are three things or four things that guys can add into what they're currently doing in terms of like their workouts, as far

as technique is concerned, you mentioned, you know, when you're lifting heavy weights, still concentrate on the muscle you're working on. And that was something that big J drilled into us when we were, he was here too. What are a few other things that you see guys not doing that they can definitely do to improve how they're working out each muscle group? I think intensity is really a really big thing. I think a lot of guys don't train with intensity and they aren't pushing themselves to the set and they're kind of just going through the motions. And I see that a lot. You're going to grow when you're, when you're pushing your threshold, that's when you're going to see the results. And you know, when you go into the gym, you got a job to do and it's to,

it's to push yourself. And I, I think, I think a lot of people nowadays, they train soft, you know, they rely on other things to help them get the results. And it's, you know, it's, it's, uh, I see a lot of soft training, you know, uh, I like to get down. I like to push myself. I like to get aggressive in the gym. That's what I do. Do you think sometimes it can get to be ridiculous? Cause like, uh, you know, I, I, I trained with honey as well and it's pretty brutal. And we kind of laughed about how hard it would be to train. I never trained legs with him, but you did. Do you think sometimes the intensity could maybe be

like overkill to get the results? Hani killed me, man. Some of the workouts I was like, really? Like why so much? You know, but it got me four titles. So I'm not complaining right now. You're right. You know, the training methods that we used,

they worked. I mean, they sculpted a body the way we wanted to sculpt it. And I didn't look that way when I first started. We created that body. We made that three-dimensional body, the thickness, the width, you know, all that. That was the training techniques that we used.

And, you know, it was the consistency also. You know, I was working my ass off since I started. I didn't take any time off you know it was continuous progress every year you'd see five more pounds on jeremy every time i was on stage every year so you know on that topic of like your physique a lot of guys you know that i hear about that do physique competitions a lot of them like avoid things like deadlifts because they're like ah it's gonna it's gonna make my waist bigger if i squat heavy or deadlift heavy and obviously you're known for having like the craziest v taper ever so is there anything you've done specifically to keep your waist trim or is that like genetic i mean there are things that we do to help keep the waist tiny

i mean obviously you know you're not going to see me squatting around heavy or doing heavy deadlifts or whatnot because you avoid those on purpose yeah okay because you are putting external pressure on your on your core and you know you are building thickness those are muscles in your core and they are being used and if you're doing it continuously over time those muscles are going to expand out and grow um i did my off season i mean i made it i had a i put on nine pounds between 2016, 2017. I started implementing more compound movements, deadlifts, middle rows, heavy squats. My body grew like a lot.

I started responding and I grew. Um, but I also knew I had to taper back on that because if I continuously growing at that rate, everything's going to grow together. So I did my off season, I put the size on I needed and then i i trained my way back down and in order for me to target those muscles i just i did you know certain techniques like um pre-exhaust sets before heavy deadlifts that way i can still get the muscles of fire and put tension on it but not having to lift as heavy um squats pre-exhausted leg extensions so i don't have to put as much weight on my back you know these are the things that i was taught to help keep the core tight.

I always strap up when I'm training. I always wear a belt. Breathing technique is important. When I train my abs, I'm exhaling all my air before I contract. Those are the things that I would do to help keep my waist small. In terms of adding size, you think like from my experience with you today, like it seemed like there was no wasted movements, you know,

like we did like a warmup, but like the warmup was kind of part of just getting like a pump. So even though, you know, I think some people, when they have their kind of more intense sets from what I've seen, sometimes some of the sets, uh,

the first few sets are kind of lazy and there's not really much benefit or reward from them other than just getting warm but today i kind of noticed that it seemed like we got into it like right away like after the first set like the first set was kind of like i'd call it a garbage set you just move around a little bit get some blood in there but once that was done all the sets of all four exercises that we did seemed like they were important. Yeah. There's a little, we did a lot of these different technique for,

you know, the last two sets, almost every exercise we implemented some holds, we implemented some, uh, some partials. Um, you know,

there's just some variations that you add to the intensity factors at the end of the sets to help maximize the pump and the blood flow of those muscles. And then probably the most important thing, uh, is, uh, what we're doing outside the gym uh, is, uh, what we're doing outside the gym, right? I mean, what we're doing inside the gym is equally important, I guess, but the, uh, the food is huge. You know, if we're not eating properly, then we can't, uh, look,

look the way that we want to look. So what are some of the, you know, what diet strategy did you employ to win for, uh, Mr. Olympia physique competitions in a row? Diet actually has been my biggest nemesis my whole career. I've not been good at dieting. Dieting has been really a struggle for me. Just eating in general. I don't have a big appetite. I'm not a big eater. So I have to really force myself.

The past few months, I've been really struggling getting my food down. My weight's been stagnant, like 190. And this is the time where I need to be growing. So I got probably three more months before I start my cut for Olympia. So I got 20 pounds I need to be growing. So I got like probably, but three more months before I start my, my cut for Olympia. So I got like 20 pounds. I got to pack on, um, during, during my preparations, you know, meals are just consistency. That's the most important thing. You can't miss meals when you're on prep. You know, every time you miss a meal, you're just slowing your body down. And that's the way I looked at it. Every time I was feeding, I was getting harder. I was getting leaner because it's fuel at that point. When you get your body to a certain point and you get that lean, that meal is actually speeding you up when you're eating. It's not like you're going to be – you're using it right away. And you can feel it.

When you get to a certain point and a certain leanness when you eat a meal, you can feel that meal right away. You feel yourself get tighter. feel that meal right away. You feel yourself get tighter. So for me, it was, you know, it's, uh, it's understanding the process and making those, making the adjustments as you need to get to where you need to be. You know, um, dieting is, it's, it's a chore, you know, it's to me, I don't look forward to eating and it's just another thing I have to do. Yeah. So for yourself, you said you found it difficult to eat a lot. I know like my buddy Andrew here, he finds it difficult to eat a lot and a lot of other guys do. So is there

anything that you've found over the years that makes it easier for you to scarf down the food you need to eat to grow? Honestly, like to get your metabolism spark, you got to just force it down the first few weeks. Like you gotta, you gotta force it. You're going to feel like throwing up. You're going to feel full, but it's, full. But that's the hard part that you got to go through in order to see the results. And that's what I'm battling through right now. I've just been forcing my meals down, getting five, six meals in when I don't even want to eat. I'm still full from my last meal, and I got a plate of ground beef and rice in front of me. I'm just like, shit.

So the strategy I have for that, I put as much food in my mouth at one time because I'm not going to spit it out. I got to swallow it. I put some water in my mouth and try and swallow it. That's what I do. I have a big old thing of water, food, drink of water. Food, drink of water. Just like literally taking a pill. Like you're in an eating competition.

Yeah, exactly. I don't even like her watching me. I don't watch. Look away. I have my videographer over filming me. Like I can watch me eat. I don't watch. Look away. I have my, my, my videographer over filming me for a day in the life we did. And she's like, well,

film me. I'm like, you don't want to film. This is gross. Like I'm just right over my oatmeal to shoveling coming out the side of my mouth. Yeah. I've,

I've found lately that like, I just dumped salt on like way too much salt, but tons of salt on everything. It helps. And dude, it helps so much. And then everybody here, like they make fun of me now. Cause like, too much salt, but tons of salt on everything. It helps. And dude, it helps so much. And then everybody here, like they make fun of me now. Cause like, I'll just, I'll grab the salt shaker and I'm just like tapping it after

almost every bite. And everyone's like, dude, you're going to put some food with your salt and like just a little bit on the top. Right. That's it. That's been huge for me. Yeah. I found this like green chili verde sauce I've been using.

I've been putting that on my meat and it goes down a little bit easier put that in with the uh slow cooker with some chicken do you make like shredded chicken you're talking about like that hernandez salsa one right la victoria okay probably the same thing but either way that should tell a good because it's it's it's already like chewed up for you just like i wonder how i wonder how some monster mash would do for you that's uh stan efforting um he advises people to make you know, rice, and then bone broth on top of it. Just to kind of like give you that liquid to kind of get the food down a little easier. It might be something that would work for you.

Yeah. You get hungrier quicker for sure. All right. And this is something I'm trying to ask every single bodybuilder that comes on to the podcast. When you cut, do your fats usually have to be really low? Yeah, we keep the fats low. Okay. And do you usually avoid red meat uh me no no i love red meat i eat red meat all the time okay even when you're even when you're cutting uh when i i mean we cut it back a lot primarily on like white meat gotcha fish and chicken but yeah i mean we'll do

i'll do red meat probably like three or four times a week. Okay. At least one or two meals a day. All right. Well, we got, we got Piedmontese. Okay. They're, they're a product that are a sponsor of the podcast, but their meat, it's because of the cows. Like you can get one of their New York strips and it's literally like 90 grams of protein and seven or eight grams of fat.

Really? Yeah, bro. It tastes really fucking good. Even the, even the ribeyes have like half the fat of your normal store-bought rib it's so i had to switch from sirloin to ribeye recently because i couldn't i can't just handle gnawing on the sirloin anymore so we've been doing ribeyes and those have been getting down a lot easier for me but it's hard to bring those fat calories down you know i've always found that to be the biggest challenge that's kind of why i don't eat carbs is because I like eating fat.

I like eating fat and protein. What do you think of the carnivore diet? What do you think of some of these new diets? It's fun watching you. It's fun watching you. I can tell you that. He's like, I'm going to watch to see if it crashes and burns or what's going to happen. I don't know how you do it, man.

I don't know how you do it, to be honest. That much meat, I don't know. I'm it, man. I just, I don't know how you do it, to be honest. Like that much meat, I don't know. I'm not a big fan. I'm not a big meat eater either. Like I feel like if I wasn't a bodybuilder, I'd probably be a vegetarian. Like honestly, when I was a little kid growing up, like I would go to McDonald's with my mom and like I'd buy a salad. I'll get a salad. As a kid?

As a kid. That's crazy. I'd get like a little chef salad because I liked the hard-boiled egg in it. I liked the tomato, the cherry tomatoes. That's what I ate. I wouldn't eat McDonald's. I didn't even eat steak until I was like 11 years old. I didn't like red meat.

I, I like chicken and fish. It's like being a bodybuilders against your nature. With the foods you love, it's like you're fighting yourself. That's it, man. It just shows.

I like red meat. I like red meat. Now I don't even, I eaten so much chicken and fish in my bodybuilding career. I can't even stand the sight of it. I don't think I've, when was the last time I ate chicken or fish, babe? Probably like six months ago. I don't know.

I don't, I hardly ever eat it. That's crazy. Remember those old Rich Piana videos, like where he was eating and he like made like his soup. Like he made like a soup thing in the the morning like with his like protein powder and his uh it's like oats and egg whites and shit like that and like he'd never like fully uh have it like you know get real thick because so you could just drink it and he's like i don't give a fuck and he just like pound these giant things that like carbs and protein he was just like i tried whatever way he could get it in i tried blending my my meat and my rice and everything together

and i just i was like if i can do this twice day, it's so much faster to get two meals out of the way really quick. I was like, let's try it. I blended it up and right out. I didn't even get halfway down. I just hit the mouth and projectile. I know a buddy that blended chicken actually. And he did that a lot. Chicken shake.

Yeah. That is so disgusting. I thought putting like Cholula in it would help. No. I think the chicken shake was, i'm sure someone else did it before him but i think derrick poundstone a famous uh strongman athlete did it years ago and then more recently um i forget his name but vanilla gorilla on uh on um instagram he he he did it as well just absolutely i'm not man enough for that it's so it's so gross like especially if you microwave it it's a little warm like

it is kind of vomit it is kind of crazy i guess if you kind of made it like soup though like you kind of drink soup right i guess like a chicken noodle soup like you might drink it at the end or something but i think if you did broth actually yeah i feel like if there was some chicken stock in there right some salt blended chicken it would taste like you know just like a so that's also what we're gonna try it let me know how it is that's also what's been getting me through too is just adding chicken stock to everything so like i have like chicken monster mash basically but like the the stock is like half the bowl you know so it's like i'm having chicken soup but then that with shit ton of salt it actually tastes pretty good on that note do you because i hear a lot of bodybuilders like they avoid salt and sodium do you also do that no

you know i mean i don't over you do my sodium but i don't limit it i mean you need the sodium in your body from to get a pump yep yeah okay also if you cut your sodium out too soon and prep you know you're at least uh aldosterone to stress hormone, which you make you retain water actually. Okay, cool. Yeah, that shit ain't good. No, you did mention one thing also that before you, I think, I don't know if it's before you started working with honey or before you worked out, your body was super different. So how did it change? How did you guys structurally work towards what you have now? Were you guys increasing lat and back volume and decreasing certain things for shape?

Yeah, I've always had a really good chest on me, so that was never really an issue. It was just building up width and thickness and also getting some shoulder caps on me. I had sloped shoulders when I first started competing, no caps to them at all. And I remember I was only 22 when I turned pro, so my body matured a lot in the next four or five years. And with the maturity came the shoulders and the width, I believe, but also the training

techniques that we use and the consistency, you know, I got bigger and stronger as I progressed in my training over the years. And as you get bigger and stronger, lift more weights with the same good form, you're going to build bigger and stronger muscles. And, um, it was always former technique whenever we trained and, you know, intensity, intensity, intensity, like there was never a workout that I wasn't falling, you know, crawling out of when, whenever I got a session with honey, you know, and I transpired that into training on my own. You know, I, I do work out really hard. You see my training videos, people give me shit for screaming in the gym and yelling. I can't help it it i work out hard and i'm not doing it for attention i'm doing it because i'm putting forth my full effort and um yeah you know well you just lose control like i was lifting with

you today and i i like to try to not make as much noise when i'm lifting especially when i'm trying to do bodybuilding stuff because i like to try to concentrate on the movement but it just gets to be tough and here comes some you know you start start making some noise like you need like a little extra uh little extra oomph you know when you're i mean i get i get more i get more out of it when i'm when i'm vocal so yeah that's why i do it and now sometimes it's unavoidable like when we were training with mike like he was doing some shit to me and my mouth just opened and a bunch of weird shit came out you just you literally just can't control it. It's crazy.

I used to be a lot worse. I used to be really bad. I used to be that guy in the gym where I go. Not anymore. How do you get – like you can't really, I guess, get hyped up for the gym as much because you have so much training to do all the time. So how do you get excited to go in there and kick your own ass each and every time especially by recently it's just been looking at myself currently and knowing i'm not where i know i could be you know i'm looking back at old footage

of where i was and makes me hungry you know i've seen the competition skating after the arnold these guys look good if i want to win again i'm coming to olympia to win that's the only reason i'm coming there you know i compete to win and I plan on being the favorite coming in. I know I got a lot of work to do in order to be the favorite coming in, especially after taking a year off. I want the conversation to...

Right now, people are still wondering if I'm competing or not because I haven't really made my surge of putting on the size I need to get ready for the stage. I'm excited for this year. It's like I said, I'm trying to do everything right this time around. And it's a really good opportunity for me to, you know, do things the way I wanted to do them previously. You won four years in a row and then you ended up having the pec tear was the pec tear kind of the um was that something that led to you you know struggling in the next one and finishing fourth or were other

people coming through where it was just getting more competitive like what are some of your thoughts on that um honestly i think i was my best ever um four days out from 2018 olympia um we had me dialed in i was the biggest and hardest i've ever been and it just comes down to the last those last final days you know peaking correctly um i only prepped for like i think 13 14 weeks actually you can be able to work out going from 174 back up to 200 pounds back down to 186 and you had to have your pec uh surgically repaired right yeah the uh tendon off bone muscle off tendon. So they told me it was like, they had a,

like suture my, or I don't know, they use a screw to screw my tendon back in the bone. And then they had to sew the peck back onto the tendon, which they said is like sewing hamburger meat together. So like the first, they told me like it can just rip off anytime. So you gotta be really careful.

You know, I spent two months in a sling. Like most people just take their sling off right away. I, I wore that thing. I didn't come out of it. And, um,

I listened to my doctor up until the point where he told me I'm not going to compete. He's like, yeah, you're not going to compete this year. I'm like, all right, see you later. I'm gonna,

I'm gonna figure this out. And, um, you know, I, I didn't think I was where he told me that. I was like, all right,

I guess it's over, you know? And then, you know, we're hiding. I was trying to game plan for what we're going to do after my career, after the stage. And, you know, uh, that was, uh, we thought we were done. And then all of a sudden I started lifting again and I, I put on size really quickly. And like four weeks, I put on like 10, 15 pounds

and honey, it's like, wow, you know, you look good. He's like, I think you can compete this year. I'm like, ah, funny. No, seriously. I think you can do it. We're 10 weeks out. I'm like, oh shit. You're for real. So let's do it. I'm like, tell me what we're doing and I'm going to win it. Fortunately, I just didn't make my peak. But if we would have nailed the peak, I don't think that I would have lost. The way I looked three days out was the best ever I've ever looked. And you think it was good for you to lose?

I think everything happens for a reason, to be honest. You know, I don't think I would have. I learned a lot from the loss. I went through a lot of stuff from the loss and had my life flipped upside down. But it got me to a point now where there's an understanding of it all. And now I have another chance to do things again. It's a fresh start for me. So I don't, I don't, I don't, I'm not regretting anything that happened.

I'm just, I'm taking it more as a lesson and understanding that I have another opportunity. So I just hope otherting anything that happened. I just, I'm taking it more as a, as a lesson and understanding that I have another opportunity. So, um, I just hope other people see that too. You know, that's the, that's the, that's the most important thing.

Do you think there'll be, do you think it'll be harder in a way? Um, because you have had controversy surrounding you. So then now you're going to go back on the stage and like, oh shit, here's this guy again. Maybe people have developed,

uh, certain thoughts about you due to various controvers maybe people have developed uh certain thoughts about you due to various controversies that have come up and then also you know you you were you know dominant for four straight years and i think admittedly you kind of said that you were fairly cocky of what you were kind of alluding to earlier and so do you think like some of that's going to be like weighing against you a little bit bit? And how do you plan on dealing with that? Just flat out fucking be a lot better than everybody else? Yeah, it comes down to it.

The judges are people within the industry. They're people that are promoters. They're people that I've dealt with in the past. And there's going to be probably some people on that panel that aren't fans of Jeremy Buendia. And I understand that. some people on that panel that aren't the fans in January point deal. And I understand that. And I got six and a half months to, you know,

do things like I'm doing right now and get back on there and recreate myself and, you know, show people that there's a difference between me, you know, two years ago and who I am now. So, you know,

I, I'm honestly, I'm not, I'm not afraid of it because I know, I know what I'm up against. I know what I got to do. And if people are, aren't going to accept it, then I've done my part.

And, you know, I can't control anybody else. As long as I know what I needed to do, I'm going to be solid. So I'm interested to see how it's going to turn out this year, how people are going to respond to me. I don't know. You know, I do have a lot of fans still. I know that. I have a lot of support.

I know I have a lot of people, you know, in the of people you know in the men's physique that follow men's physique really want me back they really want me back as a champion yeah i know that um i'm still you know i still get a lot of love and i know that you know it'd be good for the sport to have you back on top i know a lot of um a lot of celebrities a lot of people that have had you know they've gone through some hard times. They may have put themselves in those situations themselves. But when people shoulder their responsibility and they say like, hey, like this is what I've done wrong.

When they come back, it's usually stronger than ever. You know, Muhammad Ali had to deal with racism, but he also had to deal with being a, you know, draft dodger, right? A black guy in the 60s and 70s dodging the draft. Like, holy shit. You can't come back from that one, you know? But he did because he shouldered the responsibility and his thoughts on it, you know, were communicated to the public. And a lot of people were like, yeah, like, I kind of agree with that.

And then when he came back he got back in the ring he was still entertaining in the ring and i think you know sometimes people are able to put maybe some of their thoughts maybe the people that loved watching them box maybe they were still racist as hell but they still love to watch him fight and they still loved what he was able to do and what he's able to bring the excitement so maybe in this case maybe people some people will be able to kind of detach you know some of those feelings some of those thoughts and also maybe you can flip a lot of those people around yeah absolutely you know and that's that's what that's the ultimate goal is man like i'm not i'm not a kid anymore you know i'm gonna be 30 this

year and um this is the industry that i'm in you know i'm not i'm not going anywhere else and i want to be able to be a part of this and be at a, an active positive contributor to the organization because, you know, I do have a lot, like I said, I have a lot of people that could look up to me and follow me and I want to be a good example for them on how to navigate through and how to do the right things. You know, on that topic of like navigating through everything, I hear Mark said that you said you felt cocky in the past, I guess when you were on top or something so when you look back at that you mentioned everything happens for a reason um i know you like i guess the way you were you learned from that but what do you wish maybe you could have changed in terms of the way you were going about things when you were winning i don't know how you

were cocky or what actions you were taking whatever it was a sense of entitlement man it was also a sense of like of my own insecurity as well i was a young kid you know walking around with you can learn a lot from this in cinema i can i was a young kid walking around the top dogs in the industry you know the greats of the sport you know i was in that little circle trying to fit my way in that circle and i don't didn't really necessarily feel i did long to be there right off bat, but I was already there. So it was like, you know,

the second men's physique Olympia, right? Yeah. I won the second one, arguably, you know, I should've won the first one. I was right there.

Second place. Oh snap. That was my second pro show ever. So I went to Olympia. It was no name and took second. So, um, I got a little tough. What were you talking about?

Oh, um, like where you were, you were like hanging out with the greats and you didn't feel like, you know, it was, it was a lot of, I,

you know, it was just immaturity on my behalf, you know, um, of trying to, and I also listen, you know, listening to the wrong people.

I had somebody in my ear that was, I was doing business with, um, that led me down the wrong path. He, he, he put a lot of shiny things in front of me that i thought i liked and um it got me distracted from the goal and the people that were really

there by my side and it kind of uh created a distance between you know the people on my side and you know what was on the outside and it hurt a lot of things but learning to trust the right people and not getting bad with the snakes is it's something a lot of things but learning to trust the right people and not getting bad at the snakes is it's something a lot of people gotta be careful with you know especially in business especially in industry it's hard because i think that happens to a lot of people i mean even even with myself you know my wife is always well-meaning right and but my wife is like a protector of mine you know like she's like no don you know, we're not doing that or like I kind of understand now a lot better. But in the beginning, when people would come at me for certain things, I was I always wanted to be like, well, why wouldn't I do stuff with that?

Exactly. That sounds like it'd be cool. It'd be a fun opportunity. And she was like kind of the one to kind of show me, you know, to, you know, stick to our guns and to kind of, uh, I guess, you know, do, do our own thing our own way. And luckily for me, she always had my best interest, um, you know, at heart. And, and obviously, you know, for, for both of us too, it was kind of a work in progress to figure these things out, but man, it's hard to figure out, uh, who to go with or who to be with, or, uh, it can be really confusing. And in your position, you had more people probably tugging on you, tugging you in different ways. And, you know, it's hard to maybe develop like loyalty. It's hard to maybe develop consistency with a specific brand.

I mean, we go to the shows all the time, and this guy's with this company, and then next year he's with that company, and next year he's with that company. And then we also see the switching of this guy's with this girl and now this this guy's with this girl now this and we're just like kind of you know watching it all kind of unfold and it it happens a lot but it's not it's not only in the fitness industry like it's it's literally everywhere you know when you when you go home at the end of the day and someone's like well would you what'd you get paid for that? And you tell them, they say, that ain't right.

Jeremy, like you're the whole fucking show. Like what's going on here? Why aren't you getting more? And you're like, I don't know. It sounded like it was going to be a good time. I don't know.

It sounded like a cool relationship. And that's how things end up going South. And then you feel like you're being slighted. And then you go back to the other, you know, and it goes back and forth and it just becomes a giant mess. it happens in kind of all walks of life you know men's physique is a category in which a lot of guys especially guys that compete they're like well everyone looks great everyone's lean um how does one separate themselves on stage because like everyone at the top looks really good

it's like it's different from bodybuilding where like one guy you can tell is so much bigger than the other yeah but men's physique you you like it's just like how do you separate yourself from they don't want you to get too big i was just explaining this the other day to somebody actually i forgot who i was talking to about it's about it's about like proportion it's not size and physique it's all about aesthetics and illusion you know how proportion is your your chest to your shoulders your shoulders your biceps your shoulders your triceps your shoulders your back now take your biceps your back your biceps to your shoulders biceps your triceps it's the overall aesthetics of the physique who is the most balanced proportion who looks the best on stage if you know when i'm looking at a physique i can point something out if i can look at a physique and

point something out you know that's how i'm going to pick my winner the person has the least amount of flaws oh his shoulders look a little small his chest should be a little bit bigger his back doesn't match his leg or back you know whatever you know when i when you look at my physique on stage in 2017 there's not very many things you can pick out that are off everything is right on with everything yeah and um i think that's what wins shows like you go back and look at that top five lineup i probably was like out of the five guys there's one other guy that was smaller than me everybody else had probably 15 pounds on me

four or five inches you know but i but if you see the pictures i look bigger because my proportions my joints are smaller everything was where it should have been i think what comes down to men's physique when you got bodybuilding you know you got you got size you got conditioning you got all those things men's physique you don't got to be the hardest guy to win either you don't i've beat sadiq when i was softer in that olympia he has way more condition than me my body flowed better that's why i won So in bodybuilding, you very rarely see that. What is men's physique in comparison to bodybuilding? Nowadays?

I mean, not so – nowadays, not so much different, I believe. Yeah. Because the guys are getting big. They're getting big and they train hard. You know, a lot of the – you see physique guys jump into classic. You know, there's guys that have done physique that have gone to classic now that are in open. Stan from Venice Golds, he trains with sean rodin i was bigger than him four years ago now he's an open bodybuilder pro jeez i'm sorry i don't get it man like we i was i've trained with you before four years ago we're both men's physique division i was bigger and stronger than

you and then now you're lifting with sean rodin and the biggest guys at Gold's. Does it go from men's physique to classic to bodybuilding? Yeah. Or if you can make 212 for your height, then you go 212s. Yeah. That was actually one of the questions that kept coming in on the live chat was like, what are your thoughts on like having no cap on the men's physique? I think it's going to, I think it's really going to, I think it's going to, we're supposed to have a shift this year

it was announced that people are going to start getting docked for being too big will it uphold I don't know because you still got all the top guys

that are still getting bigger so are they going to have some new guy coming that's smaller and give them the win probably not it's so weird it's like we want you

to be big and jacked but not too big I really think I really think that they have a chance of really clarifying the men's physique division this year with me coming back if i come back in on stage this year i'm not and i bring back a very similar physique that won 2017 that might not be as big as the guys now they might be like this is physique you know they might it might be that way

i might be this might be the year where they have that defining moment when this is what physique is these guys lost because they look like classic guys you know jeremy was about the right size you know seeing that like obviously you pay attention to what's going on men's physique right now and yeah you you're not as big as the other guys but you have what a men's physique guy looks like is there anyone else you see that's currently competing that that looks like a men's physique guy anybody come to mind top guys brandon hendrickson andre ferguson yeah you know those guys are very they're the top competitors for the reason those are the two guys i think about when i think about who my competition is and those are the same two guys i picked out four years ago okay when brandon went home pro i think it was in uh nationals

2015 i saw him get off stage no one up to him i'll be seeing an olympian in a few years yeah he beat me so i know i knew talent when i saw it same thing when logan franklin turned pro in um in uh nationals in 2014 i believe it was he he i knew he was gonna be great and he's one of the guys that jumped from men's physique he He's doing classic and he's going to kill it this year. Okay. With men's physique, what's the weight limit currently? Or is there not one? None.

You got Ray, who was the champ this year, 6'4", probably 225. Damn. 6'4". Ray's huge, maybe 6'3". Maybe 220. Yeah, yeah, yeah yeah he's probably a lot of body weight he's probably 240

off season he's like this wide isn't that wait Classic Physique has a weight limit per height right yeah so Breon and I

weigh the same on stage but he's way bigger than me and we're the same height but why like honestly that doesn't make sense I actually weighed more than Breon in 2018

yeah he was 184 I was 186 we're the same height but he looks way bigger i tried to like enter just everything when i competed so i don't even remember what was what but when i weighed in i was like 20 pounds overweight i'm like am i the first person like didn't you do men's physique too yeah yeah i did men's physique as well yeah i was like the first person like be 20 pounds

overweight for a bodybuilding show i was pretty proud proud of myself. There you go. Oh, man. It was, you know, it was a lot of fun. The diet side of things and the cardio and just, I don't know, how on top of everything you had to be for the whole entire effort was really, really brutal. Yeah. For yourself, do you have to wake up early, you know, when you start your prep? Like, because it's just an onslaught of eating and tanning and posing.

Because there's so much to do throughout the day. You got to make sure enough hours in the day, you got to make sure you get all your meals in. You know, if you're eating every two and a half, three hours, you know, that's 18 hours,

you know, 16 to 18 hours, you gotta be awake. Yeah. So I'm eating those and then therapy and then cardio twice a day. Then you're training for 75 to 90 minutes. You know, it adds up.

It really does. And then, um, top of that, of that, trying to get work done. Fortunately, I do social media and I'm able to be my own boss for my businesses. But there's other people that don't have that luxury and I don't know how they do it. And I give them mad props for doing it because you're working a nine to five, coming home, training, eating, getting all your meals in, taking care of family. And you're still pro or just competing, like Superman right there. What was it like in the beginning for you before you had some sponsorships and stuff like that?

It was fun, man. I mean, I was just a personal trainer at the gym. You know, I worked 12, 13-hour days. I would train my clients, go to my lunch break, eat my meals when I was training my clients. It was fun. It was a good time, you know, and, um, you know, it progressed as things, as, as I competed and social media became about and now everything shifted. I haven't really trained clients in person in

quite some time here and there I will, but nothing formal anymore is there's so much more we can do online with our time. And, you know, I can handle a handful of clients in less than an hour. Did you take to it pretty naturally? Did you gain weight quick? When what? When I was. When you were young.

I think you said you started bodybuilding at like 17, 18 years old. After my senior year of football, I was like 155 when I finished and I graduated like 190. So we put on some size and I quit my weight class, started lifting. Wait, your senior year, you started at 155 and you graduated at 190 in your senior year that was probably 35 pounds yeah there are some interesting supplements for the local max muscle i remember max muscle they always they'd always be hey, we got some stuff in the back, man, if you want to come back. The 19-ore back in the day. Oh, man.

You were saying that there was a lifting coach, or was it your football coach that you kind of upset when you were like, I'm going to go do this. It was my varsity football coach. He ran our weights class for PE. There it is, yeah. And after that senior year, I was still trying to pursue football. I wanted to play in college, and he knew um, some visits I had to go do.

And I went up after the season. I'm like, listen, I got to quit your weight class. He's like, what? You're going to be playing ball next year. Why wouldn't you keep weightlifting? I'm like, cause I got to grow and you aren't getting me any bigger. I got to get strong and big. I'm 150 pounds. I'm five, seven. I got to play linebacker next year and he wasn't pretty he wasn't happy about it but then he saw me like three months later i'm 25 pounds heavier end up getting rid of her bodybuilding show right after i graduated yeah so i fell in love with it right off the bat i grew up in a weight room watched my dad lift and um you know it was something that the gyms always felt like home you know i wasn't like a super popular kid at school so i would you know after school,

I would go lift and go to football practice, come home, go back to the gym. And that's what I would do. I loved a friend of mine the other day on Instagram. He talked about how people are so insecure to go to the gym. And he's like, don't,

don't think that way anymore. Go to the gym because you're not going to find more insecure people in one building than at the gym yeah he's like it's an insecurity farm and i was like damn that's freaking that's our boy jordan syatt who yeah always has great great stuff to say but it is very true like we're all trying to like work through shit i'm happy when i see somebody that's out of shape or not i'm happy when i see him in there it makes me happy i'm like good you're doing something you know i don't want everyone anybody that's feels like they're insecure to go to the gym and anybody that does pick on you, they shouldn't even be there.

They're not the right persons. Yeah, I would, I can't, I mean, I think that would be an extremely rare situation. Maybe it would be like a kid or something like that. It's not mature enough to. I don't know. Social media influencer, social media people nowadays. That's true. Yeah.

Is there, other than being injured obviously and you had to take out time were there any times in like your career where like motivation was just down like you just didn't feel it oh man i was i have had my eyes set on five titles since since i got my second one i got the my champ tattoo on the side of my neck with the tallies every year i got another tally and the whole purpose of starting that was to get the cross tally so you know my whole goal was to get five. And that's what I set out. One of the reasons why is because Jay Cutler, I remember I won my second one,

and Jay looked at me and he's like, I got two more to catch up to me. He said that to me, too. And I was like, I want to pass you. And I got four now. I remember I went up to him and I'm like, I got four. Tied you. And he's like, you got to pass me.

So Jay has always been a really, really, really good guy to me. I love Jay Cutler, man. He is, out of anybody in the industry, I have the utmost respect for that man. He's done so much for the sport, so much for the fans, so much for his peers. You know, it's just every time he walks in the room, like, that's Jay Cutler. You know, he's done such a great job for himself. I told him, like, you know, one day I hope people look at me the way they look at him. I agree with that. he's he's amazing i think uh a lot of people feel that way about him it's almost like how does he do it you know because it but he also he went he went through it you know he

he you know he admittedly like he lost some ground when he was chasing after certain things and it's like that's uh not a great place to be but he learned from it you know you learn from your mistakes you learn from some of those things and i think when you're trying to be the best at something it's really easy to get kind of caught up in your day-to-day yeah very difficult but yeah jay cutler is uh is the man was there anybody when you were young that you were looking at you know like in magazines or flex flex wheeler man yeah i was a huge fan of flex wheeler i thought you know the soul of symmetry man that guy is unbelievable and like i was a huge fan of him i met him in fresno before i turned pro actually i was the same time at kai green that's a funny story um

but i remember meeting him and i was in complete shock i mean i was the guy in all flex magazines i've been looking at since i was a kid yeah Yeah. You know, I was my favorite bodybuilder and it just so happened that he's just as nice of a guy that, you know, as he is a bodybuilder and it was great to see.

So it's nice to see when you meet the guys that you look up to and they are pretty cool guys. I'm really curious. Oh, were you about to mention the current thing?

Okay. Kai is interesting. I love Kai, man, but the first time I ever met him. Does it have anything to do with the grapefruit? Stop! Oh, man.

He went, I don't know about, I don met him. Does it have anything to do with the grapefruit? Stop! Oh, man. He went vegan, right? I don't know. I don't know anything about that. Yeah, me neither. It's even when I haven't watched it three times together. But, you know, like, it was funny because I walked up to him like, hey, man, I'm a big fan of you. Nice to meet you. He's like, sit down.

I'm having my meal. Sit down and talk to me. I'm like, oh, yeah, sure. So I sat down and watched him eat like seven chicken breasts. This is before he became vegan um but i sat down i talked to him and the guy was just so deep and so elaborate just so nice and warm and he just he's very he's he's like a he's like a cartoon character man he's just so he's so anime way he talks he's entertaining yeah but even to this day like i when i saw him in dubai um, just big hug, you know, just lots of respect for each other.

And he's done an amazing job for himself, despite all the stuff that he's been through. You know, he's one of the most loved bodybuilders, if not the highest followed bodybuilder on the planet right now. I mean, everybody flies Kai Green out everywhere. Kai's getting the rolls. Kai's getting the deals. Kai's doing it, man. He's an the rolls kai's getting the deals kai's doing it man yeah he seems like he's loaded up on kratom too the way he's so happy all the time yeah he's he's a very eccentric guy you know he's man of many talents so it's cool to it's cool to

see him progress as he has in the past five six years because he wasn't it wasn't this way for before the gi came out you know that generation iron that video like that really blew kai's reputation up it helped him a lot i feel so he was like the he was like the underdog than that so that made him it was like about him phil was the bad guy that's true you know that's which was also you know that hurt phil's career i feel like it affected him a lot because that a lot of people don't know phil like know that hurt phil's career i feel like it affected him a lot because that a lot of people don't feel like phil's phil's not the way they portrayed him in generation iron at all like he's a very smart individual very very he's a good guy and um you know like the way the video made him look it's just like nobody liked him because of it it sucks i can imagine

he's this champ and people were like oh we want you to lose every year every year they wanted him to lose and every time he won people weren't happy about it and like it's a shitty feeling like you want you want people to be happy for you just accomplish something you put your whole heart into and then people were like oh you should have lost you think he'll come back if he does no one's gonna beat him that's for sure you know no one's gonna beat him if he comes back i last time i talked to him, he said he's not. Right. He seems pretty happy. Yeah, he's happy.

I think he's going to be getting, if he's not already married, I think he's getting married soon. But yeah, he seems to be good. I know he started a supplement company. But yeah, I saw him in Dubai as well with Kai. It's cool to travel around the world and run into those guys. What about the business side of all this? You end up with, because of all your hard work business side of all this? You know, you end up with, because of all your hard work and because all the championships and stuff, you end up with a big following.

You got a lot of people, you know, following your different posts and following your different forms of social media. How do you go about monetizing some of this? Yeah. I mean, it was off to a slow start, you know,

very beginning, you know, it was just sponsors and my own work at the beginning. And then when you're following starts to grow, other endorsements knocking on the door um for myself you know you can't rely on the sponsorships you know first off a lot of companies aren't paying what they used to pay anymore um second you gotta be able to produce for the company and they can track all that stuff now so if you don't produce numbers you're not going to get paid that's a really good point i mean years ago like cell tech or something something like that would pump out like an outrageous amount of money.

I mean, I don't know what was true or whatever, but I had some friends that had some sponsorships and stuff. And it was easily six figures. But like you said, back then it wasn't trackable. So it's just like we like this guy. They like us. And they're going to rep us. Now you have to prove your value. Right.

And that's the difference. A lot of people think, oh, I'm pro, now I'm a sponsor. No, man, you got to be able to sell, you know. And that's one of the biggest things. I'm not just an athlete. Like, I do marketing. Like, I market products. I'm a salesman.

You know, I do content. I create content every day. That's what my job is. You know, I go to the gym, but that's not how I'm monetizing my life. My monetization comes from creating the content, capturing what I'm doing and putting it out there. You know, I, I started, uh, a few years ago, I did my website to get eBooks going and that's how I made a lot of money from my eBooks and online coaching, you know, it wasn't coming from Olympia, you know, I competed once a year and I

won $15,000 for winning Olympia, you know, paid for half my food so you know um you i had to figure it out i knew that i knew where i wanted to be in life i knew i had to find a way of getting there and sitting back and trying to expect sponsors or bodybuilding to get me there wasn't gonna do it so you know peeling back and really understanding who's doing what in the industry, who's making money. And honestly, the first e-book I bought, I heard somebody made some big name made a lot of money on an e-book. So I bought it. I'm like, let me see what this is all about. And I opened up my, really?

You made $50,000 from this? I'll write something way better. And I did. The next week I got on my computer. I wrote my first, my chess e-book and sold like, you know, a good amount of it. Right. And off of that, I'm like, cool, this works. Next thing you know, I write like six or seven more ebooks.

And that's where my majority of my income was coming in for like two years. And then, you know, time has changed. The market gets saturated. People come in, start messing the market. Now ebooks aren't worth anything. And then you got to reinvent yourself, figure something else out. So you always got to try to stay ahead of the curve, you know, and that. And that's been the biggest thing with social media is trying to stay ahead of that. Also understand the algorithms and how certain posts are put up and where your traffic is, where your demographic is, who you're marketing to.

And not only that, but all the ads that are now taking place. With my following, I'm only getting 3% of my 3.3 million people see my stuff. 3%. It's in order for me to get 3.3 million people to watch myself. I got to pay money back to Instagram. That's how they make money. Right. So that's a whole new thing I'm learning all about and trying to take advantage of. Cause up until this point, I use very little Facebook advertise all been organic. And I've done a pretty good job considering I'm only tapping three to 5% of my following. Yeah. So it's, it's, it's very interesting.

I was talking to my dad about how like bodybuilding has led me into the business of things, modeling, like stuff I didn't think I would be doing, you know, and it's all, it's all coincides into what we're doing as a sport. Something we discussed a little bit earlier is I think that it's important

for people to identify, you know, what they're working for and what they're working towards. So you want to have some sort of goal out there, but you also want to understand if you're not in a Jeremy Buendia situation where you have sponsors, Jeremy creates content for himself, obviously, for your own brand, for Jeremy Buendia in general, but also whatever brands sponsor you, you're creating content for, and then you're being paid for that content, and then you're being paid for the performance of that content.

But if you're not in that situation, the rest of us, a lot of times, are working for Instagram, and I think that people aren't recognizing that. It's like you spent eight hours a day on there you but you're not punching in and punching out because you're you know you don't have a time card you know you're not actually going to receive money from instagram on that in that way and so i think it's smart for people to figure out how do i uh potentially monetize this or how do i have some other revenue stream somewhere uh with whatever not not that everything has to be monetized either, because sometimes it's just nice to have a great message out there. Hey, here's a picture of me and my buddy or whatever.

Like that's totally fine as well, but you do have to figure out a way to get paid for your time. Yeah. Especially if you're doing this for a living, man, you can't expect to, you know, and that's, you know, and we're posting on Instagram and doing our thing. And, you know, I post a lot of ads, man. It's my job.

And some of the followers are like, oh, you're a sellout. All you do is post ads. Well, man, this is actually my life. This is what I do every day. So it's not selling out. That's literally what I do day to day. Right. And in order for them to get the you showing yourself super setting shoulders, they're going to have to deal with an ad here and there.

Right? Yeah. I mean, it's just kind of the way it is. We got to make a living somehow. Right. How do you handle some of the negativity online? I didn't used to handle it very well at all. Now, I've just put myself above it at this point.

Yeah. They win when they get a reaction out of me. Don't feed the trolls. The Rock ain't responding to nobody. When they get a response, they're going to be hyped. They get a response from, you know, it's like, oh, I talked to the rock. He responded to me. And majority of them are like, oh, if I ever respond to something, if I go, wow.

Oh, I can't believe you actually responded to me. I'm a huge fan. Why did you just say that about me? Like, oh, just trying to get a reaction out of you. Good job. Now I don't like you. Yeah. It is weird because like some of the most

loyal people like on our youtube channel are just people that want to come and talk shit and it's like dude i don't get it like you spend all this time being our like best our biggest fan you know like it doesn't make any sense to me yeah i just been sarcastic hell lately my people let me say oh yeah i agree with them just be sarcastic and it works people love it like why do you grunder in your sense because i know it bothers you that's why i do it i like doing stuff like that yeah that's like my favorite thing yeah and sometimes you crush people though and it's just like oh my gosh somebody get that man some help yeah i love i love doing that you know you mentioned earlier um that you and honey were at a point talking about life after competing.

Obviously, you're going to compete again. And who knows? I don't know if you have a plan for how many more years you do want to compete. Do you want to compete after you get the fifth, by the way? We'll see how it goes this year. I want to see how this year plays out. If I feel that the industry wants me back, I feel like I want to come back. And it's a good fit.

And that's where my life takes me. And yeah, absolutely. But I'm going to take it one year at a time. I've always taken my Olympias one year at a time. I don't want to think too far ahead. I got too much ahead of me and too much work ahead of me to focus on anything else. These guys are coming for blood.

They don't want me to win. They don't want me to win. They want me on stage, but they don't want me to win. These guys, they know that with me on stage, there's somebody that they did not beat. Andre Ferguson has made that perfectly clear every single time he stepped on stage.

I don't want to win Olympia unless Jeremy's on on stage he doesn't want it why because he didn't beat me yet yeah and i respect the hell out of him for that i love that he like he's like that i want him that his best i don't want anybody coming off because then they got an excuse i don't want you guys because i want you to know i'm better than you you know i say that as humbly as possible but not really you know i want i come win, you know, and a champion has to have that champion mindset. They, you can't, I don't, I'm not there to be on the stage. I'm there to win. And there's so many guys that are there just to be happy to be there.

And the difference between a champion and somebody that's going to take second place. Just happy to be here. What's, what's, um, you know, what's something that, uh, what's like the coolest thing that's happened to you, um, within being in this bodybuilding community. Like I know you've had trips, you know, overseas and things like that. And I'm sure you run into some,

some really cool fans and had some really cool stories. What do you, what do you think is like one or the best two or three things that were happening? Honestly, like helping the, helping a lot of my athletes that don't have much you know i've uh i have some athletes in india and philippines that come from with the villages they don't have

very much great talents my athlete vin in philippines he doesn't come from much saw him at a show won the overall took him under my wing we call him vendia because he's got very similar physique to me and end up turning them pro. Um, I mean, the guys had hardships, you know, he, he doesn't come from much.

He spent all his money on prep to get his visa denied to go compete in Japan. So, you know, when I got that phone call, he's like, dude, I don't have any more money. I got nothing.

Like I just have my baby. I got to sell my car. And I'm just like, shoot, man. Like, like I don't, I don't talk about this cause I don't like,

I don't, you know, I don't put this stuff out there, but it's the fact that what i like about i'm able to help people that i wouldn't necessarily have gotten a chance to know like this guy literally just had his kid lost he didn't have any money he spent all on prep and he was stuck and i was able to you know send him some money to make sure his family was going to be okay the next few months and those you know those things that are really rewarding to know that i got a friend out there i'm a god godfather of his son now you know that's cool it's just those type of things they're they mean a lot you know my athlete in in india you know he won one of my challenges i

flew the kid out to california he hung out with me four days became a good friend of mine now he's he won he he's he's in india now but he's knows all my connections in India. So now he's part of that in India. He's not just some kid from, you know, his dad's a driver. He's not just some kid that has a dad that's a driver for somebody anymore. His name is Ajay, and he's in the mix with Sharu and Manish and all those guys. He's part of the crew now. So now he has an opportunity. And it's really cool to see those opportunities present themselves.

It's because of maybe a little bit of motivation I gave these guys or some encouraging words or flying them out, letting them know there's more out there for them. And that was one of the things with Ben, my athlete in the Philippines, he didn't have that confidence in himself. And I flew out there and I told him, you're going to be a champion one day. You got to start acting like it. You got to understand that your people around you are looking up to you. The Filipino people were so supportive, especially for a champion they love us so you know i'll tell them like you're the champion here you're the first pro in the philippines these people look up to you what first pro in the philippines yeah wow so you are these people look up to you the

first men to be pro in the philippines they love you you know you gotta be able to take on that role because they're look up to you you're gonna be the you're gonna be doing what i'm doing for you to the next person so you know it's coaching him up like we had a seminar and i brought him up like talk he's like what like you're gonna have to learn sometime talk to them these are people will talk to him you know and they love him for it and he's getting better and better at it and you know his following is growing he's and he's doing better he's getting more business and it's cool to see this guy who didn't have any self-belief in himself. And now he's, he has a family,

he's taking care of himself, has a business. He's got a living. So that's one of the most rewarding things. Do you plan on doing more stuff in the Philippines? I do. Do you have family there too? Extended family.

I don't really talk to anymore. No, but I do, you know, I was, I was supposed to donate $20,000 after the last Olympia to a fundraiser or charity in Philippines. And I never got around to it. Not because I didn't have the money to do it.

It is put away. But because it's really hard to find help in the Philippines to get the money to the right place. You never know where the money is going. I've been reaching out to several different people. So if anybody hears this podcast that has a connection for the Philippines, I do have that $20,000 still. I'm ready to donate whenever. So that is something I promise. and i'm going to stand behind and i've actually been kind of dragged the mud for that because i haven't actually executed but it's not the fact that i haven't tried so someone will just walk off with it kind of thing

yeah you never know what it is like i want to go back over there with my money myself and and do some stuff which we might end up doing. Yeah. Yeah. I think that's, I think it's really cool. You know, the impact that you're, you're having on people. And when I've talked to other people like Ed Cohn and some of these other, you know, lifters and bodybuilders and stuff, that's kind of their favorite thing is that they got to travel and they got to meet some like really cool people along the way and then have, you know, a good, uh, strong, um, positive impact, you know, on somebody else's life. You grew up around here, right? Yeah, I grew up like 20 minutes from here. Yeah.

So is it, does it ever, is it ever kind of weird for you where you're like. To come back home? Not necessarily to come back home, but like just to, you know, know that there's like kids in India that are like looking up to you and stuff like that. Yeah. No, it's, it's, yeah,'s yeah i mean it is it's different i mean but now i'm getting more used to especially i've gone over a few times now it's crazy in india i was like we were driving on the main road in india and i we got we're like in our van in the back and this guy was like pulling right next to his honking his horn what's going on pull over pull

over pull over i'm like what is going on and he's like i need a picture with him i'm like you gotta be kidding gotta be kidding i got out of the car on the side of the road and you got like other people stopping pulling over i'm like it's really like yeah they love you here i'm like that is insane we're not even anywhere near a gym we're on a road in like the middle of the city yeah and that's like the that's why i'm so excited about internationals they're so hyped about it. Like China, India, Middle East. They love it, man. It's kind of newer over there.

It is. It's newer. And they're, they're, they treat the bodybuilders like, like celebrities out there. Like they love it. And it makes us feel, we deserve, the athletes deserve it. I'm so happy when I see the other influencers go out there and they get that attention because it's nice to pre-appreciate that here in the U.s like they you know they don't care they don't care you know and um that's just because show the power of the industry internationally right now and it's growing exponentially and

that's you know a lot of people are starting to see that and transition international as far as business goes what's the deal with dubai because like you like i like what like i see so many bodybuilders and physique athletes and everyone just like, they head to Dubai and then they come back. What's, what's the deal with Dubai? It's just really nice upscale. I mean, there's good training. There's good gyms there. Great places to shoot content.

Yeah. Um, I think you're thinking maybe like the training is probably Kuwait. People go to Kuwait to train because of the oxygen. That's the team I'm part of now. Team oxygen. Abdullah is my coach, Brandon Curry, Mr. Olympia now. So I started with him a few months ago, working with them. I'm going to be going out there before prep to train with Brandon, which I'm excited, very excited about. I've been to Kuwait before and trained at the oxygen gyms, and these are multimillion dollar gyms. They're amazing. The one they just opened in Abu Dhabi

has probably a hundred pieces of equipment for every single body part. They have like an arm section, shoulders. They have a forearm section. Me, Rui, Brandon, and Nathan Diascia were all on a forearm circuit machine, all training forms. That's pretty funny. Wow, that's crazy. They're amazing gyms. But people go out there to train, primarily because that's all there is to do out there.

You can do nothing but focus. Kuwait's a dry country. Girls are covered up. And there's, yeah, that's it. It's lifting and it's hot as hell. Okay. Makes sense. That's all there is to do there.

So get some training in. There's good kebabs. Yeah. Good meat. You were mentioning that you're not a big eater, but what does your diet look like? What does your diet look like off-season? Do you have any restrictions off-season? And then what does your diet look like when you start getting into prep?

Off-season, I mean, I don't eat terrible generally. I usually eat like three clean meals a day. Breakfast is like a cup of oatmeal, a couple of eggs, a couple of egg whites, and then I'll like two or three clean meals, shake, and then probably a burger at night or something like that. I'll go out to eat at nighttime or we'll make a big steak and potatoes at home. During prep, it's mostly fish and brown rice with greens. Do you track this stuff or do you just like, you just have the meal set up? We have our meals.

I usually, I mean, when I was working with Hany he would, he would tell me what to eat meal by meal. We don't do macros. Honestly, we got to a point where, you know, we, we were working so good together. Like I knew what he wanted for me. So it was more of just checking in. Hey, I'm doing this, doing this. He's a fucking pain in the ass. He really is.

I would know. Hey, red potatoes. I'm like, I just bought regular potatoes, dick. Like I didn't have time to fucking switch them out yet. You know? Yeah. I had to keep buying different shit all the time. does that feel mark when you tell me yeah it fucking sucks i know we got to we got to a point though like i understood his dieting techniques and i and i knew what he expected for me and um he knew my body really well i knew how to react so uh that last prep was basically just checking him doing this and doing this

um i'm going to repeat today what should i do tomorrow he's okay we'll defeat this or you know whatever just a little tips here and there the first couple preps is pretty right on like giving me a plan um i didn't i don't do a very good job of following meal plans and i just i'd tell him like i ate ice cream last night usually my cheat is like when i'm prep like i i get starving i starve at night you know it's the hardest thing i can't fall asleep so i'll do like a scoop of protein and some uh oatmeal i'll mix that up and that'll be my cheat but i was doing that like almost every night you know to a certain point he's seeing your pictures and he's like this ain't working

what's going on right yeah he'll see me he'll be like okay time to time to clean up what are you doing at nighttime like i'm eating this he's going on? Yeah, he'll see me. He'll be like, okay, time to clean up. What are you doing at nighttime? I'm like, I'm eating this. He's like, get rid of that. He said, you're doing protein powder still, aren't you? I'm like, yeah, I am. How did you know? It's wild.

He can tell everything. By looking at your pictures, you're like, holy shit, I better just tell him the truth all the time. How did protein powders affect you? What was the problem? So protein, I'm not good at proteins. I hate protein powders. I don't digest them well. It took a long time for me to get a protein I liked.

Honey had to come out with the Isogec Naturals. That was the only one I could take because it was made of stevia. It wasn't upsetting my stomach. I can digest it. There are digestive enzymes in it. And since I left Evagen, I've had a really hard time finding any other protein to take and luckily i just signed with rise and rise has a really really good quality protein that settles really well my stomach but other than that man i was struggling i would go to the

supplement store try like everything and just i would even try to vegan proteins to try vegan proteins to see if it helped yeah those taste awful it tastes like dirt yeah it probably made it worse but yeah like honey was you know when i was first like when he was introducing me to some of the diet he was like just telling me to buy like meat and some rice and stuff like that and i was like oh my dairy's probably fine especially some yogurt like yogurt never yogurt never killed anybody and then like i have this like basket full of like you know full of yogurt and then i get a text from he's like no yogurt chubs oh man and i'm like oh man come on 2017 i almost messed up our prep because he told me to go get granola like when we got to vegas

a week out was like four days out he's like get granola just in case we need to load up on it well i got you know i got the munchies on it open up that granola and i was like get a handful here, a handful there. I show up the next day. I'm like, whoa. I'm swolled up. I'm like, what did you eat? I'm like, I had a couple, some granola.

How much granola? The whole bag. He goes, yeah, I can tell. Got to stick you in a fucking sauna or something after that. I peaked a day early in 2017. And he's like, dude, dude we gotta hold this for the next 24 hours i'm like shit we did we held it but it was that was a rough 24 hours so we 2017 i almost ate it away what does um it's kind of weird and you know we've talked about on this show

before but like what does a cheat meal do for you because like when he was prepping me uh he would say like oh you know go eat like a bacon cheeseburger and get some like French fries. And I was like, why am I able to eat that? You know, and then you just fill out. Yeah. So basically, you know, you're putting your body down completely. And he usually had me do it after a lagging body part day. So I got hit, you know, we always wanted to push chest.

We wanted to create more volume on chest. So you usually do a repeat on chest or back day and we're lagging body part. And we want to over nourish the muscle get as much as you can in there over nourish your body is already in a deficit it's going to absorb everything it's going to speed it up you're not going to get fat from one meal it's going to give you a mental break and for me that cheat meal gave me the reset i needed to grind through the next six days until i until i knew i mean knowing i had that cheat meal is what kept me like okay a couple more days hang in there hang in hang in there you know but when he would tell me okay no cheat meal for two weeks i'm like i'm gonna probably get a cheat man yeah i'm not gonna

lie and he like the last the last prep he started he understood that he's like you're i know you're gonna you can't last any longer like eight or nine days without a burger and no really and i wasn't i went i went to denny's like that was my refeed meal i'll go to denny's to get two like eight or nine days without a burger. And no, really. And I was, I went, I went to Denny's like that was my refeed meal. I'll go to Denny's to get two, two burgers and a side of pancakes. That was my refeed meal. Like up until like two weeks out.

Yeah. I was eating that and it worked. I'll come fill out and then I'll be a little watery the next day and then tighten up on the second day. And then day three, I was just better than ever. And I was like, the thing was like refeed next day is a little watery. Second is good third day better than ever and that was like we started catching

on to that so go do your burger and pancakes go do your burger and pancakes and people listening this you know you probably can't do this unless you're actually getting depleted yeah yeah i know don't try doing that if you're like 10 body fat because you're just gonna chub the same. You're just going to chub out. I was curious about this because you're not currently, are you working with Hani for this next prep? No, I'm with Abdullah from Kuwait. Abdullah from Kuwait. So why the switch? Just had some fallout from everything that happened.

Like I said, I had somebody come in between us and I made some poor decisions and I said some disrespectful things after the split up and stuff I wish I could take back. And yeah, that's the situation, man, to be straight.

Okay, got it. Cool. One, actually, it's actually like one person that Nsema and I are always asking bulking questions for. He knows what I'm talking about. Yes. This person they they just

like they they pound food as much as possible till it hurts like they just don't like it and then they'll hit like a plateau and be like oh it's all over for me and he'll keep trying to eat more and more and more and more um would you say like taking like a slight break from and going that direction is actually a good move day after day yeah just every single day that's why we did use d-feed days on bulk when i woke up can you explain what a d-feed day basically i would cut my food in half you know i'd bring my protein levels down cut my food in half give my body a break and honestly i gather you probably do you feel depleted and lose a little bit but your body sensitivity pick back up every day giving yourself that break gives you a little bit of a rest and we did that a few times in my off season.

And it seemed to help because when you're pounding that much food all the time, there's no rest. And then it just kind of gets sluggish and you slow down. Don't feel as well. And that D.P. day kind of just resets you. I think we did it like once every three weeks, though. It wasn't very often. Almost like a little bit of intermittent fasting or something like that? I've never tried that personally. So, yeah. No, I haven't very often. Almost like a little bit of intermittent fasting or something like that. I've never tried that personally.

So I'm, yeah, no, I haven't done it. And for you, like this is a, this is the thing I'm curious about because in men's physique, right?

There's so much muscle that you need to have. And obviously you've won multiple times. So that's the physique that you need to win. But what are you even looking to try to improve now? Like you're, you're not necessarily trying to like get me and yeah, you're bulking right now so you can cut, but is there anything that you need to improve?

How am I trying to improve off my best physique I've had? Yeah. Honestly, like that physique I feel I had in 2017 is the physique that's going to win. I feel about those. That's the standard of men's physique. Okay. That's what I feel.

Honestly, I feel like I can, I can improve off of that. I can come in a little bit harder than I was. Um, but I like that look. I can improve off of that. I can come in a little bit harder than I was. But I like that look. I feel that that look and that shape and those proportions is going to be anybody with more size anyways. Got it.

And in the future, I don't know if you would ever do this, but would you ever compete in anything else? No, because my chest. After tearing my pec, like when I flex it, you can see the pec tear. When I'm standing normal, you don't necessarily can tell the tear. You can see a little bit of a divot here. Yeah. But in physique, you know, we're not contracting. But when I contract, my chest comes in.

So, you know, if I were to side chest, it looks so bad. But if I were to hit like a most muscular muscular like you'll see straight on my most muscular my chest is a little is shorter on the side okay but my doctor did a great job other than you know that little divot my front dog bites it looks okay this was 2017 before my surgery this is when i put on like eight more pounds from previous year and you this is still we this is this this is when i had to try to hold my peak for 24 hours. I was better the day before. Trying to hold my conditioning was hard because I was already there. So I was still a little bit watery during – this is my presentation right here. You can see I'm a little watery right there in the abs.

But during comparisons, I sweated all that out and I got harder and harder on stage. So when we got to the final comparisons, I was rocked out. I pushed all that water out and everything was popping. Dude, this waste makes no sense. Do you use – okay, I was rocked out. I pushed all that water out and everything was popping. Dude, this waist makes no sense. Do you use, okay, let me ask you this. Like, do you ever use any like waist trainers or anything like that? We got something for you soon.

But yeah, no, I've used corsets. Does that help? Like, I feel it does. I feel it helps your breath control more than anything. When you're on stage, you got to control your breathing. You got to keep your abs tight and you can't breathe through your midsection so when you have that corset on and as soon as you win like when i'm training i have to breathe through my chest i can't

push through my stomach so it's more of a training tool than anything um i like to use it as i just sweat a lot yeah that's thermogenic as well i use it during my cardio um i know some people that wear it all the time and i don't i don't agree with that okay i had something that slept i knew somebody that slept in it and it was just like that's not good yeah you gotta take it off to sleep and eat and shit literally yeah starting to take it too far what are some of your best uh lifts because i know you're strong too i've seen you know some of the leg pressing and stuff that you're doing in the gym. And then I've heard that you bench press like 455 pounds, which is a huge bench press for a light body weight.

Yeah. I did 455 when I was like 19 or 20 years old, actually. It wasn't clean. It was sloppy. Yeah, whatever. It was a gym lift or whatever. Yeah. I've done a lot of weight.

I did a clean 425 like two, three years ago before my pec tear. That was always one of my strongest was bench press. I grew up bench pressing with my dad. And it wasn't until I started working with Hany that I stopped bench pressing. So that's what I did in high school. I loved bench press. Other than that, I got strong at squats.

At a certain point, I got up to like 500 pound squat. Deadlift, my max ever was 515, which isn't super great, but at 185 wasn't bad for somebody that doesn't power lift i actually that was the same the same day i did that was the same day i tore my pec at the charity event oh shit so i did the 515 deadlift and went to the 405 bench and i was supposed to be a warm-up set tore it um what are the lists of my strong triceps i got really strong triceps are really strong i can usually push the whole stack down 20 30 times so those are my strengths um my presses are pretty strong did you guys have weights in your in your garage or something like that oh yeah yeah we had a three-car garage that

was transformed into a weight room still to this my dad's house right now two of the bedrooms are weights and cardio machines he's 65 years old old. Oh, shit. He still does it every day. Was he strong? Like, when you were watching him lift? My dad, he hit, my dad hit 495 at 163 pounds at 52 years old.

No way. With no spot. We're talking about bench press, right? Bench press. And in our garage, with no spot. It was crazy. What the?

There's holes in our walls from my dad. He didn't like spotters. He didn't believe in it. He's like, you can't lift weight. You shouldn't be lifting it. Oh, we get it. Old school mentality.

Yeah. So there's holes in the garage or in the oil house. You come down and dump the weight. Oh, yeah. You see here. Whomp. Whomp. Come running out of the garage.

You all right? He's like, yeah. Just 45 went through the wall. No big deal. Did you start lifting with him when you were like eight, nine years old? I grew up. I was there yesterday at my parents' house. wall no big deal did you start lifting with him when you were like eight nine years old i've grew up we were just i was there yesterday my parents house and like he has all the old equipment from when i grew up as a toddler and like we have this black bench and these old dumbbells with the

screws on them right you know little hole the iron plates we have all those like i would sit in my dad's office as a toddler and i can remember the memories of sitting there playing with the weights trolling the locks in and out sitting on on that bench, watching my dad work. He still has it. It's still in his office. And I was telling him, like, you can't ever get rid of that. That's my bench. That's awesome.

That's something I always want. We had a guy that worked for us for a while. He had, like, 20-inch arms, Terrell. Yeah. And Terrell just said, like, his dad just had some dumbbells in the corner of the, like, living room. And he would just pick them up and curl them all the time. He's like, I think that's how my arms got so big. He's like, I'm not sure.

He just had 20-inch arms. He weighed, I don't know, 190? Yeah. He didn't weigh a lot, but he had massive arms. Yeah, he always said that his dad would, like, he's like, if you want to watch cartoons, you got to be doing dumbbell curls. There you go. And so we always gave him shit because he had gigantic biceps and no triceps.

Because that was our only thing, right? We had no ammo because he's fucking shredded, really, really strong. And he's like, oh, yeah, but you got no triceps because that was our only thing, right? We had no ammo because he's fucking shredded, really, really strong and it's like, oh yeah, but you got no triceps. That was all we had.

Cavs too? Oh yeah, well. Didn't have Cavs? Do you train your Cavs by the way? Because your Cavs are massive.

I am Filipino. Yeah, okay. Hey, not even trying to be, like Asians do have amazing Cavs in general. I haven't,

I trained Cavs one time. I actually did with with honey for a photo shoot. He made me do a, we had a three day shoot at bodybuilding.com and he wanted to do day one. He wanted to FSC seven calves. It's a great idea, right? No,

I couldn't walk the next three, three days we're shooting. I'm walking on my toes into the gym. Every time we got done the shoot, I had to go see a therapist to try and break it up. So it was the worst experience. And he thought it was the funniest thing. Walking down the street, I had to go see a therapist to try and break it up. So it was the worst experience. And he thought it was the funniest thing. Walking through the hotel,

like just miserable. He just cracking up. He's like, yeah, that was a good experience. We had a lot of good times together. Yeah. All that stuff.

Fucking kills. Anything for recovery? Like, um, you know, uh, getting massage therapy. You mentioned it before.

I'm very big in, uh, in therapy. I get a lot of soft tissue work cupping scraping um art i have a therapist i see three times a week right now i'm trying to get these issues fixed out it's been adding up but it's really important especially you know i've been doing this for 12 years now you know i i know my body's beat up and in order to stay healthy you got got to keep, keep the, keep everything oiled up. Good. Yeah.

Do you do anything on your own? Is there anything that you do outside all the time? Oh yeah. All the time. I'm always foam rolling, always stretching. I probably spend an hour and a half a day at least every night I'm on the ground watching Netflix and I have my, my mat out and my foam roller and I stretch every night. That's a big deal, man.

Because I didn't do it before and I have to, because because if i don't i'm i'm a pretzel you know my back is so tight and so locked up that if i don't loosen myself up i'm just miserable throughout the day and throughout the night how about any like staple supplements because we know like a lot of people they they have a bunch of supplements like the supplement industry is like we don't know exactly like is this kool-aid or just actually have something it's tough and you know i've made sure i've always aligned myself with brands that i can represent and you know proudly and actually take and you know i was the even for six years and they're a very good brand i was a steel for a short time very good brand now i'm part of the rise and the reason why i'm with them is because there's quality products that i can actually take and support and it's frustrating

because i i can't promote something I don't like. And I've tried doing it before and just so unorganic. It's frustrating. I had a shoot set up and I'm like, don't even want to do the photo shoot because I don't even take the product. And, you know, it's just fake and there's no nothing behind it. And you can't sell something you don't like anyways. I can't.

I'm really bad at lying. You know, I mean, it's the fact that you mentioned that, that like you, you even did that in the past. Like it's, it's a big deal that you even, yeah, you mentioned it. You're truthful about that. You know, there were some things that you didn't feel right about promoting and yeah, you know that now. So that's good.

Yeah. A lot of people out there for money. And you know, at one point in my career, I was too, where I needed it a lot more than I do now. And now I'm able to, at a point now where I'm creating my own income, and I'm able to pick and choose the sponsors that I want. I think the hard thing for people to realize is that you don't ever need it. I think that's the hard part. Like, you think that you need it. You think that you need the money.

But you really, I think a lot of times you really, people aren't as hard up as they may think they are. And if you can figure out a way to be patient and hold tight, then the good things will come your way. I know it's hard to have that perspective, but you don't have the money. You're like, I don't have the fucking money. Like, I need the money. That's why I did the rise. I mean, after everything that happened this past year, I lost all my sponsors. I went through the last seven months of last year up until this past month, I didn't have any income, any sponsor checks coming in.

So, like, I had a lot of people, sponsors knocking, people knocking my door. Hey, you know, I can give you this. year up until this past month i didn't have any income any sponsor checks coming in so like i had a lot of people sponsors knocking people talking about hey you know i can give you this you know if you want and i'm like i don't want to be part of your company yeah i could use the money right now i don't have any income coming in but i'm not i can't do that you know i gotta wait i gotta wait i gotta wait i gotta wait i've had handfuls of offers and i just i couldn't do it until this one came along it seemed right and then that's why i did it because it's the right fit that's great yeah what's coming up it's coming up man i'm excited the olympia is going to be you're going to be a lot quicker

it's going to be here before you know it you got to slap on some weight right six and a half months out i got 14 weeks to pack on some size there's plenty of time to do so i'm bigger than i was i'm bigger now than i was when I started my 2018 prep. Cause of after my surgery, I had literally 13 weeks. I was 174 pounds. When I started, I bulked back up within 14 weeks from when I started to Olympia,

I bulked up to 200, got back down to 186 and took fourth in 14 weeks. So do you have like two different preps? Cause like you're going to prep to like get big first and then you'll prep to cut down. Right. Yeah, exactly.

So it'd be 14 weeks of, of, of getting big. And then it will be, we'll see how, how lean I stay. Cause I can probably, if I can push my,

my actual cutting phase down to like 10 weeks, it's going to be a lot easier. If I stay lean in my office, I see leaner as I'm progressing. It all depends on my body composition. I want to try and see, I don't think I'm gonna get fat. I don't see that happening.

So 10 weeks should be plenty. Yeah. Cool. Cool. Any, any engagements you have coming up? Like you traveling anywhere, doing any seminars?

Not with this coronavirus going around right now. I'm trying to stay away. Trying to lay low. Yeah. I'll be in India this year at some point. I'll be back in Dubai at some point this year. I think that's all we got on the schedule. I'm going and get back out to the philippines at some point this year um but right now i gotta focus on getting my title back i gotta focus on what's in front of me and um i know that there's not gonna be anything more beneficial to my career

than getting and walking away with this title so i've got to put my full effort into it and I got to do things the right way around and, uh, looking forward to redeem myself. You got to cross off those bars, man. Yeah. Yeah. I get that cross tally. Where can people find you? Instagram primarily right now, you guys can find me at Jeremy underscore Buendia, my Facebook

page as well. Um, you guys can get my eBooks at Buendia performance.com. I have various training programs on there, breaking down my techniques on eBooks at Buendia performance.com. I have various training programs on there, breaking down my techniques on my philosophy. So take a look at it. I have an amazing shreddy book for those of you trying to get in shape for the summer. This ebook will get you ripped in just 90 days. No problem. So Buendia performance.com. So I appreciate you guys a lot. Thank you so much. Um, I've been wanting to do this for a long time. Come out here and check out your gym living only 25 minutes. So we come here growing up.

This is an amazing facility. I have nothing but respect for what you've been able to do as far as your branding, you know, the way you carry yourself, the way you've been able to develop a fan base you have. And not only that, but the team you have around here and this,

what you've established here is absolutely inspiring and very commendable. I appreciate that a lot. That's a big reason why I wanted to have you come here. Just in conversations with you on the phone, I was kind of like, man, I, you need to kind of see what's going on over here.

You need to kind of see what, what has been built. And then hopefully I can pass that along to other people. And hopefully it inspires them to maybe want to do something similar. And that's how I saw on her. When I came up, my girlfriend, when I came up here,

I was, I was really going to take this on as a learning experience and trying to figure out what, you know, what you're doing because you've you haven't gotten it figured out you're doing a really good job so you know that's the the track that i'm i'm trying to pursue go on and just have something like this as well after my stage time after my career on stage is to do this i mean you look like you're having a great time

every single day loving life it's it is a lot of fun and i do have a really good uh team with me i'm blessed to have them around me but really just a lot of it just has to do with just being kind. It's really not a lot more than that. I mean, there is a lot of energy that goes into it all, but trying to be fair, trying to put myself in other people's shoes and have perspective from their vantage point of how they may feel something's not fair or something's not right or something is too hard or whatever the case is you know like uh i think what i think something i learned over the last several years is that my like my feelings towards something really doesn't matter that much. So like if you're mad at me for something, my feelings towards it are kind of irrelevant because you're pissed about it. You

feel you've been slighted. You feel you've been wrong. So then what I need to do is I need to say, okay, let me put my feelings aside and let me think about what's actually happening here. And let me examine this and let me try to be reasonable about this situation. And then I try to put myself in your shoes and I say, oh, that's why he feels that way. OK, now maybe I can spin the conversation into something that sounds more favorable to you. Let's just say you wanted a raise or something like that. Or that example is pretty easy. I could say, hey, you know what?

I know that you feel that you want a raise and you have worked your way towards that. I definitely agree with you. But here's the three or four things that I'm going to need for us to be able to do that because you've already been doing this work. You've already been paid for this work. But for us to get more value out of you,

for you to provide more value to us, here's the three or four things that i think would really help push you to get that raise do you agree with that and then we might negotiate might have a conversation further oh yeah i think i could do that well here you go you know and then you know what i mean like just little things like that has helped a lot. And even with people's personal lives and outside of just, you know, raises or whatever it might be the topic, uh, those are things that have helped me. And I, I've been really lucky just to have an amazing family, an amazing dad. My dad is like, is my idol. He's my mentor.

And he's the one that, you know, I go to for all kinds of stuff. And he gives me quotes from the Bible and praise for me. And you know, next thing I know things are getting taken care of and things are working out pretty well. So I'm really lucky for that. Andrew, where can people find you?

You guys can hit me up on Instagram at I am Andrew Z. Please make sure you're following the podcast at Mark Bell's power project at MB power project on Tik TOK and Twitter. Thanks to Seema for the idea of putting up the Jay Cutler poop story. Day one, it got like a thousand views. I'm like, oh, that's cool for us. It was like, oh, okay. Well, TikTok is insane, right? Oh, yeah. You got to show it to him.

Wait, do you have a poop story? Do you have one? Yeah. Oh, wait a minute. She might know one. No, wait a minute. Uh-oh. Birthday surprise.

I shit my pants recently. Where was I when I shit my pants? We were at the winery. The where? We were at the winery for my birthday. You were wearing white pants. Yes! You were right!

White pants. Here we go. I took her for her birthday to a winery and we went out one night and we were drinking some wine. I was wearing white pants and my stomach was bothering me.

I thought I let out a little silent one. Never trust a fart. It came out and I felt it. I was like a little silent. Oh, never trust. Dude, it came out and I, I felt it. And I went, I was like, Oh shit. I looked down like,

I don't like pants. I go, babe, babe, I just shit my pants. She's like, what? I'm like,

can you see? I had a fucking shit mark in my pants. Oh, it was great. I thought it was like, I actually talked about it on my Instagram the next day. I thought it was funny. How'd you get out of it?

I just, yeah, we ended up going home and that was the end of the night, I think. Everyone's there for you guys. You're like, we got to leave. Yeah. Oh, that's funny. You got to leave. No, no, no. We really have to go.

You don't understand. Yeah, that's funny. I shit my pants. That's amazing. We got to show them that jay cutler yeah sorry i'll pull it up afterwards but anyway so that like after like the first day like i said it got like 1500 views whatever i was like oh whatever no big deal for some reason last night it jumped up to 38 000 views out of nowhere i'm like tiktok is amazing like so anyways make sure you guys are following us on tiktok at mb power project and huge shout out to pete montes for sponsoring this episode

if you guys found this episode because you're into into germany buendia you're into bodybuilding or you just want to look jacked and tan um their beef is second to none like in simo was saying um there's a flat iron steak that's 90 grams of protein uh and eight grams of fat for the entire cut i don't know how they do it but it tastes better it's tender it's juicier it cooks quicker head over to pete montes dot com that's p-i-e-d-m-o-n-t-e-s-e dot com at checkout enter promo code power project for 25 off your order and if your order is 99 or more you get free two-day shipping if my name was insima yang where would i be that that would be it. InsimaYang on Instagram and YouTube. InsimaYang

on TikTok and Twitter. Mark? At Mark Smiley Bell. Everywhere you can find me. Strength is never a weakness. Weakness is never a strength. Catch y'all later. What up, Poopcast? I hope you guys enjoyed this conversation with four-time Mr. Olympia Men's Physique winner Jeremy Buendia. It was really cool to finally get

him here. It's been a long time coming just because of our connections with Hany, even though he admitted on the podcast that he made a couple of mistakes along the way, kind of some growing pains. But it's really cool that he's owning up to it. He's not hiding from any of the mistakes he's made and really just kind of growing up right before our eyes. We wanted to send a huge shout out to Blanket underscore H2. Blanket, they just left us a review on iTunes. And it's, this is a great one. Blanket says, this podcast changed my life after just one episode. Quote, in no way am I exaggerating when I say that this podcast changed my mindset. After one episode, I have been hooked. I am learning new things all the time and implementing big changes into my diet and

ways of thinking on a daily basis. The tips and tricks for fasting have really helped me start to overcome my food addiction tendencies, and for that, I am so grateful. By far my favorite podcast out there. I want no music being played in... Wow. This one. Wow.

Sorry about that. By far my favorite podcast out there. I want no music being played at my funeral. Just the power project. Blanket underscore H2. I mean, hopefully that's amazing. We've never gotten that type of a compliment before so much so that it made me stumble all over the place. type of a compliment before so much so that it made me stumble all over the place uh hopefully no one's dying anytime soon uh but i mean that would be epic if you know here lies today blanket h2 and then you just hear mark doing a really long fart noise as everyone's all upset anyways uh sorry about that if you listen in right now if you would like to hear your name and your review read on air head over to itunes right now drop us a rating, drop us a review, and you could hear your name at the end of a podcast, just like our man, Blanket underscore H2. We'll catch you guys on the next one. Peace.