Mind Pump: Raw Fitness Truth - 1047: Build a Competition Level Body (& Should You Compete?)

Episode Date: June 6, 2019

In this episode, Sal, Adam and Justin break down what it takes to build a competition level body and what to keep in mind when deciding whether to compete or not. What is the definition of a competitor? What does a competition body look like? (3:06) The key attributes of a competitor. (7:39) Should competing be called a ‘sport’? (15:43) The pros and value of competition. (19:08) The dark side of competing. (34:27) Creating the avatar of the person who SHOULD compete. (1:04:58) People Mentioned Omar Ventura (@omarv33)  Instagram IFBB PRO Johnny Sebastian (@johnnysebastian)  Instagram Melissa Wolf WBFF BIKINI PRO (@meliwolff)  Instagram Related Links/Products Mentioned June Promotion: MAPS Strong ½ off!! **Code “STRONG50” at checkout** How to Mentally Train for a Bodybuilding Competition – Mind Pump Blog Are You Ready For Your Bodybuilding Competition? - Mind Pump Blog In the Defense of Bodybuilders – Mind Pump Blog Mind Pump Free Resources

If you want to pump your body and expand your mind, there's only one place to go. Mite, ob-mite, up with your hosts. Salda Stefano, Adam Schaefer, and Justin Andrews. So in this episode of Mind Pump, we talk all about what it takes to build a competition level body. We talk about, first off, what is a competition level body? We talk about the leanness, the symmetry, what a physique looks like on stage or what it should look like on stage.

We talk about what it takes to get that kind of a physique, the pros of competing, what are the good sides of competing, and what are the bad sides of competing, and finally, who should and shouldn't compete. So if you've been thinking about getting on stage and showing off your body, but you're not sure if it's right for you, this episode could definitely help you out. And some of you should not be competing.

Some of you will get bad effects from competing, but some of you will might get some really, really good effects. Also, before we start the episode, this month, all month long, Maps Strong is 50% off. Now, Map Strong was designed with a world strong man competitor, Robert Obers, a good friend of ours.

This program is that you can do in your gym. Every day gym, you can go in there, train with weights, but train with strong man inspired exercises. So if you're bored with your workout, if you wanna try something different, if you like fun and challenging workouts, map strong is perfect. So it's half off. Here's what you do. Go to mapsstrong.com, M-A-P-S-S-T-R-O-N-G, and use the code strong50, S-T-R-O-N-G, 5-0 for the discount. And that's it. So without

any further ado, here we are talking about who should compete and what you gotta do to compete. I found out why dogs lick people. Why? Did you guys know this? No, no, this is actually really interesting because my dogs do this all the time. They lick you all the time?

So they actually do, so I have like a couple spots on my shin and on my back of my calf for my psoriasis where it's always like dry and scabbed And they always be line right towards that and they lick the crap crap out of it Oh, that's weird. And I've always wondered like do they sense that I'm in they think I'm injured or I kind of heal it Because they do that with wounds right with wounds. They'll lick their own wounds or if you have a wound They'll do that and so I wondered if they like do they sense that I'm hurt and they see that and then they no No, no scientists as they they've concluded it's because dogs know that we have bones inside of us You're right that you're gonna give me some really good answers dude

I read that this morning. I was done Was really excited I was really excited. I was like, bro, I'm actually curious about this. I've only done a study on this. They're like, keep licking, curious. Bob, keep licking. Maybe we'll get to the bone. Yeah. Maybe they won't know eventually.

It doesn't work. These are the type of DMs that you get, right? These are the people's slides. People send me so many memes now. It's so great. They get you completely. Oh, I don't have to find them anymore. That's awesome.

I just post them. Speaking of people's slide in the DMs, I've been getting a lot of messages in regards to competing. I get asked a lot why I don't compete anymore. And if I think they shouldn't compete, and what do I think about the competitive world? And so, and we just really, we haven't done much around that.

So I felt like we did a lot of it at the beginning, right? When we just really, we haven't done much around that. I felt like we did a lot of it at the beginning, right? When we first started and I was kind of going through my own personal journey, I felt like it was a hot topic all the time. And we've significantly grown since I've been done competing. So I think there's actually a big part of the audience that doesn't even realize that or maybe not even know because we didn't have talked about it. But I definitely think we should talk a little bit about, because it's still, it's rapidly growing still.

I mean, if you look, oh yeah, the shows are getting cra- They're getting more and more- They're adding new categories too, right? That's what I mean, it's still exploding, and more and more people are getting into it. And the question is, are they getting into it for the right reasons? Should they are getting into it. And the question is, are they getting into it for the right reasons? Should they be getting into it?

And what does it kind of take to get into competitive shape? Like that. There's a lot of people look at competing now as a way to challenge themselves or, I wanna get in shape and this will help me get in shape because I'll have a target to aim for. And there's that you know that perceived you know value in it like I did this I was able to compete and some and this isn't just for these types of competitions

I think people apply this towards other types of competitions as well whether it be like OCR racing right or running a marathon or a half marathon type of deal But I guess we should first kind of define What a when we're talking about competitor, we're referring to the stage presentation athletes. So bodybuilding, physique, bikini competitor, you know, figure competitor, that when we're referring to competition, we're talking about people who go up who have to look a particular way and then present that on a stage and get judged. We're not talking about a physical performance type of competition. This is all about the appearance, the look, and that's the one you're referring to right

now. Right. And I think a lot of people, even people that, I mean, if I clients that aren't like big time into actually competing and getting on a stage, but are interested in and intrigued by what does it take to get that level of a physique? Is it something that I can do as just a normal person who is trying to get in shape and should I aspire to do that?

Are they doing something different that I'm not doing? And so I do get a lot of questions even around that, even if you're somebody who is not potentially looking to get on stage with a bikini or board shorts or, you know, what are the little thong, thong underwear for the men at the end of the bikini? The man-kini, that's right. Yeah, the speedo. Yeah.

So, what is a competition level body? We should define that a little bit. Obviously, lean, that's probably the number one thing that characterizes somebody who competes on stage is that they've gotten their body to an extreme lean level. And this is not your standard, I'm lean on the beach lean. For a guy to have a body that really stands out on the beach, they have a six pack, you're talking about a guy who's probably 8, 9, 10% body fat,

which is hard to achieve on its own. That's a very, you know, that's a difficult thing to achieve and you will stand out on the beach if you're anywhere between 8 to 10% body fat. But when you're on a stage, 8 to 10 body fat, percent body fat for a man is fat. Yeah, you lose. You would lose.

They would say you're not soft. Yeah, you're soft. You have to be sub six for sure. Yeah, at least 5% usually lower. Yeah, usually 4% or something like that. For a woman, if a woman is anything, if she's anywhere between 17, 18, 19, 20% body fat, and she's on the beach, she's standing out,

she's lean, she's got a flat midsection, she's got nice lines, nice definition. On stage for a woman, that's too high. On stage, women typically will hit what, the low teens, 10%? Oh yeah, 10 to 12%. 10 to 12%. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Which is an extremely shredded lean body fat percentage.

And I wanted to define that just so people kind of get an idea because I've actually heard people say, they've seen someone on a beach and they'll be like, oh man, that guy could compete and I'm like, no, he could have. He's definitely lean. Long ways to go. But he's not as lean as he would need to be a good on stage. And it's important to know what it takes to get to that.

It's different, you know? The level of consistency, the diet, genetics, the lifestyle, that it takes to take the body to that level is completely different than just being somebody who makes good food choices, exercises consistently. Exactly. Exactly. There's a whole different goal. That's a great point.

I mean, if you had good eating habits, you had good nutrition, consistent workouts, and you're a man, for example, hitting 10, 9, 10% body fat, you'll get there. You'll get there. Very realistic. To get down to 4% body fat, it's a whole nother ball game of consistency and neuroticism when it comes to every single thing that you put in your mouth and how much activity that you're in calories.

Yeah, you have to really press the boundaries, the thresholds of what you've never felt before to get there. So, I think it's important to explain to people why that is, why is it so dear? Why is it so crazy to get to, why is going from 20% to 10%, very realistic for the average person, then why is it so crazy for 10 down to five?

And one of the things that comes to mind right away is that as you get less and less body fat, it becomes more and more difficult. You know, the body, it's healthy for us to have fat on it. It needs to have body fat on it. So it doesn't want to respond the same way. So if you're... It fights it.

Yeah, right. So if you're sleeping well, you're eating well, you have good balance, and you're training consistently and making good food choices, the body will want to get rid of a lot of that body fat. It'll start to use it, the body's working really well. It's not like you're fighting against your body, but as you start to get lower into those single digit body fat numbers, and it gets... Every percent, it gets lower from, you know, as a guy below eight, nine percent, it becomes more and more challenging.

And that's mainly because the body doesn't want to be there. No. And you need it. There's a essential body fat, essential body fat meaning if you start to play with that number when you get competition lean and if you go below essential body fat, your body literally cannot function. Now essential body fat is higher for women than it is for men.

This is why a woman at 10% body fat, it's insanely difficult for her to get to 10% body fat, just like it would be for a man to get down to four or five percent body fat. And I've known female competitors to even get in the single digit body fat percentages, which is just absolutely crazy. It also leaves very little room for air.

So if you're sitting at three or four percent body fat and you make one meal bad choice, you could go up a percent. Yeah, you could go up a percent of body fat. That's crazy. Where if you're somebody who's 20 percent body fat and you are on your road to get down to 10 percent body fat, you can have plenty of days where you have a meal off here or there, or over

consume a few calories, and it'll be okay. You're not going to see this all sudden spike in your body fat percentage. Right. Now, the other thing that they value in competition is what they'll say is like balance and symmetry of the body. What they're trying to do is they're trying to define aesthetics. They're trying to come up with words to explain what makes a physique nice to look at. Because at the end of the day, these competitions, these stage presentation type competitions are all based on a judge looking at you and determining that you look better than the

other competitors based off of their criteria. And what plays a role in that, a big role is your symmetry imbalance. And symmetry imbalance is essentially, does it all fit together? To give you an example of the opposite, if I were a competitor and I were on stage, and my right side of my body looked underdeveloped compared

to my left side of my body. I would not have good symmetry and that would reduce my aesthetic. Just like on the street, if you saw people walking around and you saw a guy or girl and one leg or arm didn't match the other side, you too would think something doesn't look right and it wouldn't look as good or as pleasing to the eye. Balance would refer more towards, do your legs match your upper body? Does your chest balance out your back or vice versa?

Do you have really forward shoulder? That doesn't look like you have good balance or if you have good posture, that looks like you have good balance. Is your bicep and tricep match? Or do you have this just overpowering bicep in this very small looking tricep? Do you have these great looking quads, but terrible hamstrings or glutes? So that's the whole balance and symmetry aspect of

being on stage and presenting a physique that the judges say, oh, that looks really nice. That's just the words they used to find. You just kind of glazed over a good point that I think a lot of people ask me about too that I think we should explain. So they, you typically compare muscles that naturally should be similar in size, right? So a judge will normally look at someone's calves and their, and their shoulders, right? Your, your shoulders shouldn't be like massive in these tiny calves or these massive calves

and then tiny shoulders. They'll look at that. You said chest and back, another great point. You don't want to have this massive chest and then it's really the, they compare, a lot of times it's antagonist and protagonist muscles or to each other, right? They'll compare bicep tricep. It's normally they'll compare two muscles that should be pretty similar in size. And if one is oddly larger than the other, then it throws off that symmetrical look. It does. And it's in, there is, again, it's a subjective sport. These competitions are subjective. You're going to have someone telling you you look better than the other guy. So it's not like powerlifting where if you won, you won. I lifted more weight than the other guy. It's, I looked powerlifting where, if you won, you won. I lifted more weight than the other guy.

It's, I looked better. What does that mean? And some of this stuff is hard to explain. Like, bicep and triceps that are the exact same size won't look balanced. And the funny thing is, that sounds like they should be balanced, but the reality is, when your arm is relaxed, naturally a tricep has a little bit more size in the bicep. In fact, the tricep takes up around two thirds of the total mass of the upper arm.

So a symmetrical balance-looking arm would actually have a slightly bigger tricep than bicep. That's what balance looks like in the arm, but it's hard to explain that for the whole body. We just know it when we see it. And I think originally it was more heavy on the balance of that looking like you're functionally balanced, whereas now it's more like you're an action figure.

Like they've cartoonish. Yeah, it's definitely exaggerated that look a bit. So that's changed on some of them, but they're offering new categories, which I think they're trying to address that issue to make it look like a little more natural look for that. And this is where genetics plays a big role. Genetics are going to, there's certain things that your genes determine that training

and diet can't necessarily overcome. Sometimes it can change the illusion of how you look, but they can't necessarily overcome certain things. For example, the width of your shoulders, the bones, your skeletal structure, how small your hips are in terms of the size of your pelvis, how long your bones are, and then of course the length of your muscles, where they attach, and then the shape of your muscles, although you can influence them somewhat with training, depending on the muscle, you can influence some more than some muscles, more than others.

But a lot of the shape of a muscle is determined by your genetics. So you may get super lean, but still not do very well in competition, just because your genetics don't give you the natural, that illusion of extremist aesthetics. Like for men, for example, the really wide shoulders and really narrow waist, there's stuff you can do

to create that illusion, but at the end of the day, if you have a guy who has naturally wide shoulders and a small waist and a guy who has naturally narrow shoulders and a wide waist, no amount of trainings and offset those genetics. Now, what do you, what do you, what's your guys' opinion on referring to it as a sport? I know a lot of people in the

athletic community get, they kind of shit on it. They do, they get, they get really irritated by people that refer to bodybuilding and bikini and all men's physique as a sport. What is your guys' thoughts on that? I have my own opinion on that. I think I might have fell under that category for a while, like being heavy into athletics and like seeing it more

as a pageant and something that words more of like displaying a look versus, but then getting into the actual training and the diet nutrition, the discipline of it, it made me respect it a lot more and realize that, you know, even though at the end of it, you're getting judged subjectively, the actual work you're putting into it is definitely a sport.

Well, there's a lot of sports that are subjective. That's true, like gymnastics. Yeah, gymnastics is any judge sport in the Olympics is a subjective sport just like this is. But I think it's a competition. That's the important thing, whether you consider a sport or not, you are competing. So if it was art and we That's the important thing, whether you consider a sport or not, you are competing. So if it was art and we had art, you know, paintings up,

that would be art, but the second you judge which one's the best, now it's a competition. So I think that's the more important thing, but I've heard that argument before. Yeah, a lot of people push back on it when you refer to them as athletes, right? So if you say, if you call them an athlete, they go like, what, they're not playing a sport,

it's not a sport, they're not an athlete. And being somebody who considered themselves as an athlete growing up and then is then got into, you know, bodybuilding or competing on stage, my only defense to it, and I really give a shit of what, how you categorize it. But one thing that I will tell you that's a fat is It was more challenging than any sport that I've played the amount of work and discipline that I had to put into

competing At that level was it was harder than any sort of now that could have been partially due to my own maturity level and where I was at in my life and you know What maybe what would have happened if I would have put that same discipline into being a better basketball player. So is it necessarily true that it's more than another sport? No, I don't think that. I think that God, who knows if I if I had the knowledge that I have now about athletics and sports science, boy, I wish I had that as a kid growing up because I think I would have been that much better

than athlete. So I just understood that, I think, and heading into my 30s, getting into competing, I recognized to get on stage like this. It took, and if I wanted to go pro, which I had the goals of doing that when I got started, I knew that the level of dedication to get there was beyond anything I had the goals of doing that when I got started, I knew that the level of dedication to get there was beyond anything I had done before.

Yeah, I think too, I mean, it's the nutrition side. I wish that more athletes took that side more seriously than they do. And I do think that, you know, from that perspective, like going through that process as a bodybuilder, I could see how challenging it is to combine both at a really high level, where most athletes that are on the very top level, they have figured that out. They've hacked the fact that they need to manage their nutrition, their energy levels at a high level

of understanding so that way they perform at their best at their optimal level. So this reminds me of, you know, you saying that, of a lot of the pros of competing. Like the good things, you got from it. Yeah, the good things, a lot of things I wouldn't have expected. To be honest, like when I got into it, it was 100% for business reasons.

I saw that when I opened up magazines and I saw all the articles who was writing the articles, who the magazine was all about were these IFBB pros. It was these guys and girls that had become pro competitors and they were getting all the attention. And the deeper I read the information they were providing, the more I realized that, man, there's a lot of these competitors that don't really understand the science, aren't providing a lot of good information. Okay, so if I can just get myself to that level so I can create myself as an authority, I can help present better information related to health and fitness.

So that was really my motivation. It was not learning anything from it. It wasn't like I grew up wanting to compete. Like that was really the goal. But I actually got a lot of side effects, positive side effects that came from it that I would have never anticipated. And one of those was a much deeper understanding of physiology and nutrition. Even with my background, my experience, what I knew,

there's something different about taking that and applying it at the most extreme level, and then seeing it get expressed in your physique. And, man, did it, it really, really helped. And it also made me. Well, you had to dive deeper. You just had to dive deeper and deeper into nutrition than you ever had before, whereas before,

you worked with clients. Every day people, none of them wanted to compete, all of them just wanted to get fit and healthy. And that's what we communicate to, 99% of time on the show. But when you're trying to get your body down to, you know, 3% body fat and achieve a look on a particular day, because it's not just about getting lean.

It's also about looking a particular way on a specific day, how to peak, how to get your body to get to that place on time, which is a whole other, that's a whole other ballgame. You have to dive really, really, really deep on what affects you. Not just calories, not just macros, but water and artificial sweeteners. These foods make me look a particular way in how I tan and when I'm going to eat carbs, the timing of the food, all these things that really don't make a difference and should not be important to anybody, now you have to pay attention to and dive deep in. Right. Now you have to pay attention to and dive deep into it. Right, so that point, it made me borderline neurotic about every food that went into my body. And then how it changed the look of my physique hours later.

And what that did was it created this feedback loop for me, an understanding of how these different foods can affect me visually, which then gave me a new perspective on what some of my clients may be going through. Like, for example, my understanding of sodium water and carbs and how that affects the look of the physique by the hour. Blue my mind so much that it made me like this light bulb went off. I went holy shit. This is when this is what my clients are going through when they're eating really good. They're training really good.

And then maybe they just they had an extra 30 grams of carbs that day and drank two glasses more water. I mean, so easily done in a day. I mean, so easily can you and still be good. Like, that's like, nothing bad. Like, you're just, you instead of maybe, you know, 50 grams of protein and 30 grams of carbs, you had 50 grams of carbs and 30 grams of protein, which is not a game changer of body fat loss. But, if you pair that with also maybe that day you drink an extra

glass or two of water, it can make the difference of a pound on the scale and you retaining and holding a little bit of more waterway, which then causes you to go, oh fuck I'm getting fat. Or, oh I did something wrong. Yeah, oh I did something wrong. Now I need to go get on that treadmill or oh I need to starve myself the next day or cut way back on calories. Because I felt that.

I felt that and noticed my own emotions, but I knew better because I was tracking so diligently because I was paying attention so closely to everything that I was consuming. I knew I was doing the right thing. It was just like, oh wow, look at that. I had a little bit more water. I had 20 extra grams of carbohydrates.

And now I look a little puffy, and I'm holding one more pound of water the next day. I know better because I understand, so I don't make any changes. I stay the course. Now, it's important to also communicate that, you could also go about that and become less aware of your body. You were paying attention and listening to your body,

and that's what'll happen if you do it this way. If you do it where you just take a diet that some coach gave you and you just follow it blindly, no matter what's happening to your body, then you may do the opposite. But the way you approached it was very positive. You approached it by tracking, paying attention, being objective, which is hard.

It's hard to be really objective on yourself, isn't it? Well, it's really tough, especially, and so I have a lot of empathy for somebody who doesn't have the education or the experience because I think to myself, if I was doing this at like 17, 18 when I was still learning and didn't know much about fitness at all, it would totally would have fucked with my head.

It would have made me go, oh, I'm doing something wrong. And then I would have made a correction. Overcorrect. Yeah, it would overcorrect. And then spun out because of that. And so I imagine this happens to a lot of competitors because they just don't quite have the full understanding of nutrition and how all these things affect our body,

which having to have nothing to do with competing that really took my level of understanding for just the average person You know just to help coach them through these these days like when they when they their message me and say and I don't I don't I don't I feel really below it today and and and me being able to say it's okay Don't worry. We're probably holding a little bit of water today Give it a 72 hours tomorrow. I'm gonna do this with your diet whatever and then watch what happens and me being able to say, it's okay, don't worry, we're probably holding a little bit of water today, give it a 72 hours, tomorrow I'm gonna do this with your diet, whatever. And then watch what happens.

Yeah, and then watch what happens, and then 72 hours goes by. And you look like a wizard. Yeah, and then they're like blown away, and now they trust you. Which that is so key for a trainer is to gain that trust from a client, because how often have you guys experienced this,

where you tell clients you know you're giving the right advice, but then they're doing their own shit because they're not seeing the results. They're not trusting you. Yeah, they don't trust you. The other thing too, I can see is being a pro for competition, and this is for any competition, but for this one in particular, is it gives people a target. It gives them something to aim for. And if you want to hit 4% body fat and look that way,

doing so without a target is very difficult. And I've done this, I've done this. I've never competed, but I did get my body fat to somewhere around 5%. And I did it for, when we first did maps in a ball, and I'll tell you what, I had the target of taking pictures for my program. If I didn't have that target, I wouldn't have done it.

Once I got down to 7%, I could feel my body fighting it. No way would I have continued with the process. I don't know how you did it during that time. I really, I remember you and I were communicating, and for me, I really struggle with pushing my body to that limit without having, like knowing that I'm gonna get on stage and have to present, like, even just for a photo shoot.

It takes a lot of discipline. It's very difficult, and so I could see the benefit for somebody who has, and we'll get into this, I'm sure, but somebody who has a healthy relationship with food, they're confident, they're self-aware, and they're competing, and they're competing, and they're becoming more disciplined as a result, and they're pushing their body to limits they've never pushed before.

What can definitely happen at the other end of this is it's easier for them to maintain just their regular lean body, because they've pushed their body past that. You know what I'm saying? Deeper understanding of what it takes to push your body and get to that level where it looks extreme. That's where I find value in competition. It's really acknowledging that this is an extreme pursuit. If you do it in a way that's healthy, where I'm recognizing that going into it, but then I have a plan

to rebuild and to regenerate, reinforce my joints, go through the process of eating better, again, and bringing myself back to homeostasis, but stretching myself and having a goal for that, there's nothing wrong with it. And especially nowadays, when you compete and you get yourself in that particular shape, a lot of people are doing it to get the perceived authority, to get that increase in authority in order to build their business, for example.

If you compete and you do a decent job and you post your pictures on Instagram, naturally people will perceive you as someone who has a higher amount of authority. Somebody who knows what they're talking about. Well, I mean, look, people are drawn to it because it's, if you look outside and you look even at the gym,

like you just don't see people that... It's hard, are that extreme on that level. Well, most people that walk into a gym are coming into the gym because they want to change the way they look, right? Most people. And I remember having trainers that work for me, and you weren't always the best trainer necessarily, just because you were my most rib trainer, but you definitely attracted a lot of clients because of that, because they see obviously he can do it himself. Yeah.

I want to talk to him because of that. So there is this perception that, and that's what drove me. I mean, I saw... That's why you did it. Yeah, it's exactly why I did it was I was like, man, the people that are getting all the attention that have all the fame on social media are these people with these incredible physiques. And it worked. Yeah, it worked for you.

No, it's what gave me my original traction before Mind Plump even started on my Instagram was showing people. And I also took myself from a very average looking physique. I was out of shape. I was close to 20% body fat. And I don't think I looked like of shape, I was close to 20% body fat, and I don't think I looked like somebody who, I mean, you could kinda tell I lifted weights,

I think when you look at the old picture, but I definitely didn't look in even beach shape. It was a dramatic change. It was definitely a dramatic change, but a lot of people compete for that perceived authority online, and whether you agree with it or not, whether you think it's a good or a bad thing, and I'm sure we'll get into that as well.

The truth is, it does. It does give you a more perceived authority, and if you're a online coach, or if you're trying to build some kind of a fitness or health business, if you look a particular way, people are going to judge that, and oftentimes think you know what you're talking about, or at least you know more of what you're talking about than somebody who

doesn't necessarily look as good. It's also a great confidence booster. I mean, it's something that, you accomplished something challenging. Yeah, I mean, and that's just in general, right? That statement you just made. I mean, in general, if you accomplish something you put your mind to, you automatically build confidence. Man, when you do that with a physique and you get this, because you could go accomplish, for example,

your kid just did some amazing stuff at school and work. Now, we know that because you talk about a share about it, but he could walk down the street and I would never know he had this great accomplishment. When you build a physique like this, when you get this crazy and shaming. There's a lot of positive comments that you get thrown your way.

Man, and I tell you what, that could also fall in the kind of con category too, because there's something that comes with that. It kind of inflates the ego a little bit. I, the attention that I would get with my physique like that. You can't go anywhere in public without people staring and kind of looking at you, which maybe some person, somebody might think they don't like that, but it feels good. I don't care who you are.

It feels nice that people recognize that, and I think that's also could carry over into the business side if you're a trainer who's trying to become an athlete. Well, where I see a lot of the confidence comes, that comes from competing is not necessarily the comments you get from other people, but more so, the challenge of, because a lot of people are scared shitless of standing on a stage, wearing a bikini

or wearing a speedo, getting judged on their body. So they're up there, all these people are looking at them. Not just that, to get into the shape, to be able to do it, and then have the confidence to get up there or overcome your fears to get up there. And then you're done. You're bad nightmare of mine. So I'm saying, stop looking at me.

Two of the biggest fears that people have, one is speaking in public, the other one is appearing naked in public. You're almost naked, you're on a stage. Not only are you almost naked, but you're on a stage and people are supposed to look at you. Not only they're supposed to look at you, they're supposed to judge you. Yeah, I don't know. So you get up there, you do it. I could see how that, and I could see

how it goes, it could go both ways. It could also be bad, but it could also, if it's done, if it's perceived the right way by the person doing it, like what an accomplishment. Oh my gosh, I'm normally such a shy person. I would never do something like that. I stood on a stage, people looked at my body, I did relatively well, and that could totally boost your confidence because it was such a big challenge and you overcame, and that's confidence. That's how you build confidence. Challenge, overcome a challenge,

become more confident, move to the next more difficult thing. And for most people getting on stage and presenting yourself after all this hard work or whatever, making yourself that vulnerable, I could see that being a massive potential confidence booster. Oh, it works out for you. Yeah. Yeah.

Like it was for me. It was when I think back, I mean, I did, I actually dreaded getting on stage. And still to this day, when I talk about competing, I did not like that part of it at all. I mean, I still, it was my least favorite part. I really enjoyed the competitiveness of dieting, the competitiveness of programming, the competitiveness of knowing where to turn it on and off in the gym. Like I thrived in that world.

Like I really liked that. And it was, I was never, I've never been so focused on my training and diet as I was that. So it was an incredible confidence booster for that. But also putting myself out there, like you're saying, Sal, and getting on stage knowing that I didn't like doing it. And then being like, I did that. Right.

And then overcoming it and actually winning, like that was a... Well, think about it this way. If you could get on stage in your underwear and that people look at your body and give you a trophy, you know. Yes. I deserve this. Getting on a stage in business clothes

and talking to your associates probably seems a lot easier. Right, right. You know what I'm saying? So it could make a huge positive in that sense. I think we should talk about, of course, the negatives because the reality is this and maybe you guys can, you know, agree or disagree with me,

but the vast majority of people should not compete. That's my opinion. I think competing should be, is relegated to a very small subset of people, and the most people who decide to compete and diet to compete have no business doing so. And I'm not talking about the fact that they aren't gonna win. I'm talking about the fact that they are not

in a physical health or mental health position to go through that entire process. Because at the end of the day, the competition process, especially when you're dieting for a show and getting close to a show, is anything but healthy? You have to really evaluate your motives first and foremost. And what's drawing you towards that pursuit?

Like if it's a healthy idea, like where you've done a lot of work physically, I've put in a lot of time in the gym and this looks like something that, I could challenge myself in a healthy way. That's great, that's a great mentality going in. However, if this is something where it's like, oh man, I really need to get in shape

and I think this is the way to do it. Yeah, no. Well, this is where I like, this is another place that I like to compare it to sport because when I look at it and the experience that I had with it, I think of it like this. I think, man, if working out and eating healthy is, and we're comparing at this whole thing as a sport,

I look at that as like being a weekend warrior or being somebody who picks up the basketball and plays on the weekends or plays in a men's rec league and you're pretty good at talking to your buddies. But that's like basic going to the gym and exercising and making good food choices. And then going to put yourself on stage

and compete with the best bodies in the country and in or into your state. Now you're at a very high competitive level. You're at least at least even at the amateur level comparing in sport to collegiate level athletics collegiate level sport and the level of a division one basketball player that he he or she has to put into being good at that sport isn't just like a weekend thing, do every once in a while or practice with your buddies or play it directly. You've got to put an unbelievable amount of effort, discipline and understanding in

to do that. Yeah, the thing with sports too is like there's like you're going to lose a lot, like especially in the beginning when you're playing like your skill suck, like you get challenged quite a bit. Like there's a lot going into competing on stage that I don't know if people are ready for, you know, getting bad news. Well, you know, are like having insecurities going into

something like that and being judged and not being ready for that, is that to me, that seems detrimental. Well, look, here's the bottom line, competing on training and eating to look a particular way so that people can judge you on a stage, is exactly the opposite of trying to prioritize your health over your aesthetics. We talk about this all time on the show

that if you eat and train in a way to take care of yourself and you eat and train in a way to be healthy, what will follow will be a decent amount of aesthetics. You'll look good because you'll be healthy. This competition tends to promote a situation where you're deprioritizing your health. First off, getting that lean and doing what is necessary to get that lean

and peak for a competition, the two to four weeks before that, or sometimes the whole 12 weeks of prep for some people, is not that at all, it's all unhealthy. All of it is all about how you look. And so it's kind of this perfect storm of developing a terrible relationship with exercise and diet because it only is about your body. It's all about being obsessed with how you look and if you don't have the right mental

state going into it, you're gonna come out of it worse. You're gonna come out much worse. There's a lot of prerequisites I think. Mentally and physically. I don't think it's just about, I mean, your head has to be in the right place. You should be in a really good place, nutritionally, not just your relationship with nutrition, but your metabolism, even aesthetically and physically how you look. If you're going to get on stage and compete at the highest level, going in and when you're first getting back to get in shape and then deciding you're going to schedule a show is not a smart idea. Yeah, if you're a guy and you've never been to 10% body fat just on your own, then trying

to get to 4% body fat, like if you've ever only gotten down to 12 or 13 or 14%, you're like, I'm going to get down to 4% probably not a good idea. Yeah and two like you got to determine some people think that it's what like what's the average like 12 week prep like what something like that like where where would you say like a good body fat range would be to even consider you know a 12 week prep because I've seen people go in with a really high percentage and then you have to go super extreme and unhealthy just to even pretend to compete. This reminds me a little bit about this conversation

that I had with Omar Ventura and Johnny Sebastian, buddies of mine that are popular in the body building world. And I reached out to them when I first was deciding that I was going to compete. It was after I had into Sal's point, just that he just made right now. After I went from 20% body fat all the way down to 7% body fat, just for shits and giggles on my own, not for trying to compete yet. This was just me getting in the best shape I could get in. And then I decided, okay, I, I want to compete.

I'm going to start to, to build my physique with the intention to compete. And they wanted me to sign up for a show right away. They're like, you're 7% body fat. You can, and I said, no, I said, I need at least another year of building a physique before I even think about getting myself a stage like, oh no, you should do it. You need to get the pr- and their argument I understood because they were trying to get me to get the practice on stage, but I'm so competitive that I didn't want to get on stage until I knew I had the potential to win.

And I had to- I put myself in the best place. Metabolism wise, physique wise, I knew that I was ready for that. And so first of all, I trained for a good, I think it was almost eight, nine months to go from the 20% down to 7%. Then I trained a whole nother year, consistently not missing anything dialed of building my metabolism, building my physique up

before I decided to, okay, now, let's schedule a 12 week competition. And I would say, what do you think Adam? You probably want to aim for like a half percent loss a body fat a week. That's it, that's it. You want more than that, you're pushing it to your heart. And we know that you can lose about a half a percent

to a percent a week, the average body, right? We know that's with consistency. And exactly. So when I go into a show and I decide I'm X amount of weeks out, so for me, most of my shows, I actually only prepped for six to eight weeks. But you walked in them pretty lean always. I walked into them at single-digib body fat. I already seven, eight percent body fat.

Right. Before I even started to cut, I was comfortable with my body fat percentage being around that seven to nine percent range. So I knew that I didn't have to lose, you know, more than a percent a week at all. And I was already in a great place, calorie wise, and I knew, okay, every week I can make change on my physique. That's another big one too, is the damage that, dieting to that level, does to your metabolism. Now, when I say damage, I don't necessarily mean that you're harming your metabolism, Now when I say damage, I don't necessarily mean that you're harming

your metabolism. Although that happens too, what I'm referring to is the slow down, the metabolic adaptation that happens in the body when you're consistently eating at a strong deficit while simultaneously training at a level to increase that deficit through calorie burn. The body tries to adapt to this. So if you're a man or a woman and you're cutting your calories trying to get lean and you're trying to burn a lot of calories, your body wants to make that difference up.

That's known as an energy imbalance. And your body does not want an energy imbalance where it has to burn its own energy stores. It doesn't want that. It doesn't mind an energy imbalance in the opposite where you're storing calories. And it of course doesn't mind an energy imbalance in the opposite where you're storing calories. And it of course doesn't mind an energy balance where nothing's happening and you're just healthy.

But when your body has to tap into its own stores, it aims to slow your metabolic rate down to make up the difference. Now I've seen men and women come out of competitions with metabolism that are just, I mean, so terrible or so difficult to live with in modern world. Like I've seen guys come at a competition

consuming 1500 calories a day and I've seen women consume under a thousand calories they this combined with a shit ton of exercise. So wait, the point you're making at them about going into a competition with a fast metabolism, that is a point that we need to show. Oh, this is, to me is the number one mistake that is made in this sport or whatever you want to call it,

is exactly that. I remember, the last competitor that I helped out was Melissa Woof and great relationship with food, train consistently, good physique already, already in decent body fat percentage, and even when she decided to train with me, I said, listen, we're not picking a show until I've got your caloric intake somewhere that I feel really good about when we

start to cut for the show that you're going to go, you're going to get on stage and you're not going to be at 700 or 900 calories a day leading into it. You're going to be at a healthy place that's not that bad for your body, like looking into be to be at 700 and 900 calories a day leading into it, you're going to be at a healthy place that's not that bad for your body, like looking into be somewhere between 13 or 1500 calories. And in fact, when we were in peak week, she was still eating 17 and 1900 calories for a little 5 foot 319 pound girl, which is a ton of great calories, more calories than a lot of my clients that are 100 pounds overweight would come to me

wanting to lose. So this is so important, because to your point, Sal, the body is inevitable. The body is going to adapt the metabolism's gonna slow when we go into an eight or a 12-week cut. It's just, that's how the body works to your point. So you have to know you're going in there with plenty in the reserve to be able to take away from it

So if I'm heading into a Prep that's going to be eight to twelve weeks. I know that every week I'm probably going to be restricting a little bit of calories or creating a colore colore deficit by increasing cardio or movement So if I'm going to do that. I know that's going to slow the metabolism down. I need to make sure that I'm in a place where I've got room to do that every single week. And then by the time I go to hit peak week or stage, I'm still in a relatively healthy place calorie. Right. Now, why is this important? Why is it important that you go into a prep with a

fast metabolism? Well, here's why. It's not just because it sucks to end your prep at such low calories. It's because you gotta think about, and this is what a lot of competitors do, and this is a mistake, is they don't think about the after. It's only about the competition, they don't think about the after. Well, what do you think's gonna happen

when you go into a competition doing an hour and a half a cardio a day, plus an additional hour of weights a day, plus you're only eating a thousand calories, you're done with your competition, now guess what? Your body's running off of that. And you have to, you're screwed. You're fucked.

And what you end up getting is this insane rebound post competition, both because your metabolism is so slow, but also because your relationship to food is ruined, where you restricted so hard that you can't help but binge post show and you end up getting, you mentioned Melissa, who was under 120 pounds. I have seen female competitors compete at 115 pounds and gain no joke, 20 pounds, and a matter of weeks post competition. I've seen the girls gain almost 30 pounds.

I've seen guys gain 50 pounds in a short period of time post competition. Now why is that a bad thing? Well, we now have studies that show that you will actually not just gain more body fat, of course, but you'll actually actually add fat cells to your body, making it far more difficult to lose the second or third time around. This is why when people compete one or two times, they find it more difficult to come back in that particular shape. Not to mention the fact that, you know,

if you find it difficult now to maintain your relatively lean body because you don't eat that much, imagine what that's going to feel like with a slur metabolism. You may come out of a competition, never even or having a difficult time just getting back to how you were before. And this is what we end up seeing with this, this, this, this, this, this type of approach. And this is talking a lot about the, the physiological things. There's also the, the mental side.

And you know, what I've seen, what ends up happening is this obsession with your physique, which I totally understand because it's almost necessary. Sure. You know, because you, like you said earlier, so you gotta get on, you're getting on stage, you're presenting your body, it's gotta be peaked at a certain time. So I have never in my life spent so much time

in front of a mirror. I mean, all the fucking time. Now, it didn't bother me because my attitude was like, this is a sport I'm getting after, this is part of the game, and I'm owning it, I'm into it, whatever. But imagine somebody with some body images. Right. And that's my point.

I'm heading towards is the person who isn't there yet with their body and they're constantly staring at it and judging it themselves. Boy, that ends up this spiral effect that's really tough for some people to get out of. If you're not okay with your body, if you have insecurities around your body, if you confuse your self-image with your body image, which is most people listening right now. Most of you listening right now have some insecurities around your body, there's parts of your body,

you don't like, oftentimes you may confuse your body image with your self-image, or if you gain weight, or don't look a particular way, you feel bad about yourself. All you're doing by competing and focusing on your body, because you have to focus and look at your body, you are putting that all on steroids. You are taking a fire and you're dumping

a bunch of gasoline on it and it's gonna blow up. And that this is why the worst body image issues I have ever encountered in my entire life. And remember I've been in fitness for two decades I've trained lots of lots and lots and lots of regular everyday people I manage, gyms, I saw tons of people working two decades, I've trained lots of lots and lots and lots of regular everyday people, I manage gyms, I saw tons of people working out and gym members and a lot of stuff.

Nobody has worse body image issues than competitors. And I don't mean all competitors, but the worst ones I've seen were competitors. Well, this was the thing that absolutely blew my mind. Again, I'm getting into this business-wise. I'm not really looking at the competitive space like this at this point. And I remember being backstage and I'll never forget having these competitors. So I'm by myself, right? I don't have a coach. I don't have a team. Most people get involved

in these now or they have a coach. They have a team. So there's like little groups, you know, these little like like high school back there. You get back. There's like 30 to 50 people in the back pump up room. And they all got their little collector stuff. They all got their little collector stuff. They got those guys out there. So, and I'm over here all by myself in my corner in my hoodie and stuff,

all, you know, stand up. I love that stuff. And I'm sitting there and I unzip. And I'm definitely one of the leaner physiques out of everybody that's back there. This is my go to the gym. I'm gonna go to the gym. I'm gonna go to the gym. I'm gonna go to the gym. I'm gonna go to the gym.

I'm gonna go to the gym. I'm gonna go to the gym. I'm gonna go to the gym. I'm gonna go to the gym. I'm gonna go to the gym. I'm gonna go to the gym. I'm gonna go to the gym. Iing to get to that point. So I do appreciate and love the sport like that. I do think there is a lot of cool camaraderie that happens with competitors. And so right away

they all come, came over to me like, who's your coach and what are you doing? And you know, I ask him all these questions. I'm like, oh, you know, I'm a bit of trainer for a long time. I do my diet. And this is what I did. And then we all start, everyone likes to share what they're doing. And I start hearing the food that they were eating. And I was hearing the amounts of cardio that they were doing and the stacks of steroids that they were taking. And this is amateurs right now. And I'm going, whoa, this is crazy.

This is like all bad. Like everybody on the list that's coming up to me, it's giving me really bad information. And I'm not saying anything, I'm just absorbing and listening and communicating and sharing what I was doing, but it was very eye-opening for me. And the further I got up the louder in the competitive world, the more I solve it.

And I kept thinking that it was like gonna go away as I got closer to becoming a pro. Like, oh, the pro is gonna know really had a diet, right? And really had a program, right? And it wasn't true at all. And in fact, what I had found is I found extremely narcissistic, disciplined, obsessed people. They were people that had the ability

to turn the switch on. They have the ability to, if my coach says two hours of cardio day and 900 fucking calories and all these crazy supplements and drugs, I can do it. And they have some of the most unbelievable discipline that I've ever met in my life. But to a point of being very... Disorder. Yes. It's disordered. And when you're competing,

your entire universe revolves around you. The time you're no funding out. The timing of your meals. I gotta get my workouts done at the right time. I have to drink this much water. I have to get this much sleep. So your partners have to either fucking completely revolve around you. This, how many times have you seen this much sleep. So your partners have to either fucking completely revolve around you.

This, how many times have you seen this, Adam? Bodybuilders who have a wife or partner, and that person just preps their meals for them. Fucking, they just stay at home all day long and just, whatever you need or whatever, because it wouldn't work any other way. It wouldn't work to have a partner who actually wants you to be their partner.

That's a rough place for them to be. You see that not working out very well. Competing is a very, I would say of all the sports I can think of, it probably is one of the worst, most difficult strains on relationships because it's a 24 hour thing. It's the reason why you see competitors dating other competitors. It's that you commiserate to go. Yeah, you almost have to. And you, you almost have to be with another competitor

or you have to have a partner who, like mine, who I think was incredible in the situation. Now, mind you, I told Katrina from the very beginning, like, here's the goal, this is what we're doing. And then I'm done. And then I'm done, like I, I, I, I, I, if you were like I'm doing this forever. Oh yeah. No definitely. Oh, definitely. Yeah. And that's cool. There was a moment for her. And it was I believe it was I don't know if it was when I went pro or right before I went pro. Because I did seven shows.

It's how many shows I did I believe. And it was around four or five. She looked at me and she goes, am I going to be like the competitor's wife? Is this gonna be our life? And I looked at her and I was like, just a Paul. Like, fuck no. Cause she, but now what she saw was all the pros that were talking about how much I loved it and I was into it and like,

love in the whole process and I'm competitive and I liked winning and all that sort of stuff. She's like, my patience is, you know, I got some left. Totally. No, and because we did, we made a lot of sacrifices. There was a lot of times we didn't go somewhere and do something because of me, because, and I would just be flat out, like, I don't want to go there. I don't want to go to some party where it's all centered around food and drinking

when I'm four weeks out from a show, like, not what I want to do is get some rest or go go back to the gym and go put some work in the gym. Like that was my whole life for a good two and a half years there and you know, for her to stand by me during that process. I know for a fact that if it wasn't her knowing that there was going to be an end date, she would have never rode through that whole process. How did you, how did you get around?

Because I know you went into it older, already having more experience having trained lots of people How did you and that must have helped you deal with the The disordered eating or the the propensity to to develop disordered eating from competing because Necessarily it it involves severe restriction and then refeeding, if you will, which looks a lot like restricting and binging. Like, how did you, did you start,

because you're a pretty self-aware person, did you see something like things like, oh, I gotta make sure I keep this in check? Oh, 100% I'm guilty of doing it. I mean, one thing that you'll know about me is I'll always admit like this type of stuff. And I've been this way even with experimenting with drugs in my life. I'm definitely the guy who's willing to do some risky shit that you probably shouldn't do. But to your point about being self-aware,

I'm pretty good too about like paying attention to it. You know, allowing myself a little bit of latitude to fuck around and fuck off a little bit, and but also being aware enough to go like, oh wow, I could see where this could get a foothold and this could get out of control. My first two post shows, I'm the guy who put on 30 pounds. Oh, wow. I mean, I just, wooo.

So what did that feel like? You're going into it, you're restricting your diet. Well, let me tell you, here's where I know it gets everybody, is it feels fucking amazing at first. To, I felt more anabolic post show feeding the shit out of myself. So it's just encouraging you to fucking, oh, and e-carbage, oh. Because, so I mean, think of it this,

you're depleted down to two, three percent body fat, some of my shows I got down to. I've been low calorie, low calorie for six to eight weeks consistently. Food is like perfection. No, I'm not getting any cheats or bad food at all. And then post show I've shows done. I can have whatever I technically want. So go to town on every, every fucking bad food you could think of, right? And fill it up now. And what happens is you were so depleted, you were so flat, your body needed so many calories

that it fills you all in. Your muscle, and because you can't, you could eat 10,000, you could eat 20,000 calories, which I've probably done before post show. 20,000 calories. And if my metabolism is used to eating show. 20,000 calories, and if my metabolism is used to eating four to 5,000 calories, I'm not gonna put, but a pound, two pounds of body fat on?

Two pounds? When you're 3% body fat, I just went up to 4%. I still look badass, and now I look filled out, and now I have all this energy, because I've got so much carbs that sugar in me, so my workout the next day is amazing. So I saw how it fed into that of this. Oh man, I'm so keep thinking.

And not realizing, right? People who aren't aware aren't realizing that they just went from extreme restriction to extreme binging. Yes. And forget about the fact that you may be filling out your muscles feel strong or whatever. And actually what ends up happening is people look great

for about two or three days, they keep going, and they gain lots, lots of body fat. But the part that you need to pay attention to is the behavior that you're reinforcing. The behavior which is restrict binge, restrict binge. And this is how a majority of the competitors or ex-competitors that I've ever known to be friends with or even worked with, this is how they tend to eat. They tend to bulk or cut and it's that extreme in both directions and that's the exact opposite of the kind of behavior you want to encourage in yourself for long term fitness and health.

Because you're not going to compete forever. How are you gonna do this when you, and this is what also happens to some people, they stop competing and they don't know what to do. They don't have any target or having driver. That's it. That's the only way they know to have success with their fitness journey. That's right, that's right.

It is by weighing, measuring. You know, that's the other thing too, is like, you become so neurotic about what you're eating, because you have to be so detailed. Stress. Yeah, and the level that that causes you to get to, right, as far as like the, how disciplined you are and consistent with that, and then to turn it off and do the binging thing like that, you get this like, oh, I don't wanna do it anymore, fuck it. But then if you're somebody who really doesn't understand

nutrition very well, then what easily happens is it's the only way you know how to get in shape, which I know you've coached online a lot. I know I have a lot of the people that I get are ex-competitors that are trying to learn how to, how do I get in ex-competitors that are trying to learn how to, how do I get in shape without being like that. Extreme-12 neurotic, right?

About weighing. Yeah, because I mean, there's something to be said for building yourself up to this like super, you know, you identify with this extreme version of yourself now. Like, I mean, that even happens with other sports to where you get to this pinnacle. And then going from there, you just don't feel like it's ever as good. And so you have to redefine what fitness is all over again. And so that's something to consider going into it.

Like, am I really gonna identify with this person that I'm trying to create and then always try and recreate it? Or is this something I just see as a challenge that I'm trying to create and then always try and recreate it, or is this like something I just see as a challenge that I'm gonna move on? Yeah, here's the other thing that we, I think we should talk, you know, cover, is the potential damage that competing has on your physiology like your hormones.

Your hormones are fucked. Now, a lot of competitors mask this by taking anabolic steroids and hormones and so they don't necessarily notice it until they go off the hormones. But people who compete naturally, let me tell you, if you're a guy and you get yourself down to 4% body fat,

your testosterone's gone. It's fucking gone. And it's not coming back until you reverse that and you reverse that and you reverse that at that and give yourself some time women their estrogen progesterone balance all fucked up and they know this because they they well of course they lose their period it doesn't take much to do that but they go beyond that and then to recover from that hormonally can be very difficult I know female competitors who or monally can be very difficult. I know female competitors who their skin gets real bad

afterwards, their period becomes irregular afterwards. They go through all these like more extreme forms of PMS where they feel more irritable or terrible. This is after they try to come out of it. Men, sex drive is gone. They lose the ability to get erection oftentimes during competition. This is all really wreaking havoc on your hormonal system.

Again, a lot of competitors mask this by taking exogenous hormones, by taking testosterone or other hormones, but that only kicks the can down the road. My opinion makes it worse later on because not only did you damage your own hormone system through this crazy dieting process, but then you've also delayed its recovery by throwing exogenous hormones on top of it. And so you're kind of setting yourself up for, you're setting yourself up for some tough times coming up.

It also causes people that go through this, getting this great shape, whether it be through crazy discipline, through drugs or whatever reasons, and now everybody's reaching out to them to learn from them, and yet they still have this really poor relationship with exercise, really poor relationship with food, and now they are looked at as somewhat of an authority. That's the bad side of the perceived authority. You do get more perceived authority, but that doesn't make you an authority. Right.

In fact, I mean, you should be one. Not at all. And this is one of the biggest gripes I have with the fitness people on social media is you have a lot of people who look the part, but have zero idea of how to work with other people, how to train people, how to work with nutrition. They actually know what they did for themselves, and that's about it,

and they should not be advising people on these things. I think it's too empty, because there's a lot of people that will DM, they will ask, they will pay you money, because they just seen your transformation, they've seen what you did. And so they pretty much assume that you can help them achieve exactly what you achieved. And so it's a competitor, they look at that as like, well, yeah, I could tell you what I did, you know. And so it seems natural, but like not realizing they don't have the

skill set to actually like apply it to an individual with totally different verbs. And oftentimes somebody was able to compete because their body was so resilient against all the terrible shit they did to their body. Not realizing that maybe someone that they're working with isn't so resilient. So now they're coaching someone like, okay, well, here's what we're going to do. I'm going to have you do way more cardio, keep cutting your calories, way more, like, okay, well, here's what we're gonna do. I'm gonna have you weigh more cardio,

keep cutting your calories, weigh more cardio, keep cutting your calories. That's what worked for me. And you're dealing with an individual whose body may not be as resilient, and you can cause a lot of problems. I've seen some of the diets and programs that competitors with this false authority have given.

And as a trainer, I look at them them and I think this is not just wrong, this is dangerous. You're doing is bad. It's really, really bad. So, and for somebody who, if you have a fragile ego, you've got a bad relationship to food, now you've got this inflated ego because you did this thing or whatever,

it's going to encourage you to do this even more. So now you're posting more about, you know, here's how you should eat, here's how you should train, and it's not a good thing. It's not a good thing for the fitness industry, definitely not a good thing for the people who get your advice because your advice is terrible.

So when I think about the people that should, or should or should not compete, I think of the things that you have to have. Yeah, let's create the avatar, the person who could compete. Right, because it's not just all bad and you don't have to care just about getting in the bodybuilding world to wanna do it.

I mean, I did it and got out of it and was totally fine about it. So I think you can have a healthy relationship with the whole process. Even though it's not a healthy thing for the body, you can still have a healthy relationship with the process process, even though it's not a healthy thing for the body, you can still have a healthy relationship with the process, sports aren't healthy. Playing basketball at the professional level

is not healthy for the joints, it's not healthy for the metabolism, it's not healthy long term for you, all sports are this way. And I used to say that as I was competing, I would tell people, up until the last couple of weeks, I really dieted and I mean, train just consistently and was diligent, like it wasn't really that crazy.

Until it got to the last couple of weeks where I, and then I would tell people, like, okay, here's where the sport of it, quote unquote, comes out. Now it's getting unhealthy. So how do I, what do I think of, or what do you guys think of, what it takes, or prerequisites for somebody who's considering doing that?

I think you mentally have to be there. You have to have a good relationship with yourself, your body image. You have to have a good body image, good relationship with food and exercise, already having had worked out for a long period of time, already have had eaten well for a long period of time, and you're comfortable with it. You're comfortable of time, and you're comfortable with it.

You're comfortable with your workouts, you're comfortable with your, it's not like, oh my God, I'm so fat all the time or oh my God, I don't look good all the time. It's like, I feel good, this is my lifestyle. You have a fast metabolism, so you're somebody that needs to eat a lot of calories, and you can still maintain a lean body and physique.

You've got balanced hormones, you don't have hormonal issues, you don't have a crazy stressful life, you have partners and friends that are quite understanding. In that particular scenario, I could see that competing could be a fun and a good thing. Yeah, all those factors would create like the, you know, the perfect situation for that, but I mean, let's like really think if that's the case,

like most times people jump in this. Most times it's not that way. If you have bad body image issues, if you already scrutinize your body to detrimental effects, if you have a poor relationship to food where you're like, I struggle with binging or I struggle with, you know, restricting and then, you know, I, my diet is all over the places. It's very difficult. Sometimes I'm, you know, really strict,

and sometimes I'm not. If your workouts haven't been super consistent for like a year or two, where you, you know, oh, sometimes I work out consistently. Sometimes I don't, if you've never gotten your body fat to a healthy lean, and if your metabolism isn't fast, not a good idea to compete. You're gonna make things a lot more difficult for yourself

and potentially cost them damage that could take months or even a year or longer to recover from. And I've actually done this. I've actually had to get people to recover from competition and it takes as long as a year sometimes. Listen, if you're getting into competing, you are competing against the 1%.

If you win at competing, you're 1% of the 1%ers. So before you would do anything like that in any other sport, you would put a ton of practice into that sport before you went against that level of competition. So do yourself that favor and put that practice in. Go in the gym, train for a long period of competition. So do yourself that favor and put that practice in. Go in the gym, train for a long period of time. You should have a good lifting background before you get competitive with lifting. You should have a good nutritional background before you get competitive with

nutrition. You have to be thinking that way. Do not. You do not. You should not be on stage. If you have them been working out for six months, year, two years or more, and you decide that you want to get in shape and you and your girlfriend or you and your buddy, think it's a good idea to schedule a show six months out and book it and then decide you're going to start training for it. You need to put the work in. You need to put the practice in before you decide to get competitive about it. Exactly. And with that, go to MindPumpFree.com and download our guides. They're all absolutely free.

You can also find us on Instagram. You can find Justin at MindPump Justin. You can find me at MindPump Sal and Adam at MindPump Adam. Thank you for listening to MindPump. If your goal is to build and shape your body, dramatically improve your health and energy and maximize your overall performance, check out our discounted RGB Superbundle at MindPumpMedia.com. The RGB Superbundle includes maps and a ballac, maps performance, and maps aesthetic.

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