RAWTALK - MR OLYMPIA RONNIE COLEMAN ON STEROIDS, BODYBUILDERS DYING YOUNG, & NEVER EATING VEGETABLES

Episode Date: May 5, 2022

Come strike a pose with one of the legends of bodybuilding RONNIE COLEMAN! It was awesome to sit and talk about gym bro stuff.Ronnie gives us perspective on bodybuilding before social media, training, health, injuries, fitness, and steroids. We also tap into his life, childhood, careers, bodybuilding stories, family, and the future of bodybuilding.SPONSORS: JAVY: If you love coffee, go to: https://buy.javycoffee.com/rawtalk and get 25% off your order using my code RAWTALK. Thanks to Javy Coffee for sponsoring today’s video! @javy.coffee #drinkjavyFITBOD: Get 25% off your subscription or try out the app for free when you sign up now at https://fitbod.me/RAWTALKBETTERHELP: Take charge of your mental health and get 10% off your first month with BetterHelp at https://betterhelp.com/RAWTALKBLUECHEW: Try BlueChew FREE at https://BlueChew.com when you use our promo code RAWTALK at checkout--just pay $5 shipping.SUBSCRIBE HERE: https://www.youtube.com/c/REALRAWTALK?sub_confirmation=1LISTEN ON APPLE PODCASTS: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/rawtalk/id1294154339FOLLOW RAWTALK PODCAST:INSTAGRAM | https://instagram.com/getrawtalkTIKTOK | https://tiktok.com/@askrawtalkFOLLOW BRADLEY:INSTAGRAM | https://instagram.com/bradleymartynSUBSCRIBE TO RAWTALK PODCAST CLIPS: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCvzSBNBOK599FqzrTZS8ScQ/?sub_confirmation=1SUBSCRIBE TO LIFE OF BRADLEY MARTYN: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCWTQG2aMDYKGDqYEGqJb1FA/?sub_confirmation=1SUBSCRIBE TO FITNESS CHANNEL: https://www.youtube.com/bradleymartynonline?sub_confirmation=1RAWGEAR: https://www.rawgear.com (CODE:RAW)

I have, this is, this is probably to this point, one of the most, me personally, one of the most exciting podcasts that I could ever do for so many reasons. You were the guy that when I was 16 years old, I would watch your videos. Like, this is way before the internet, way before social media, way before YouTube, Instagram, all this stuff. I'd watch your videos. And I told you earlier than Jim, I have to admit that I'd pirated them. I feel bad. But this is the one and only Ronnie Coleman. You are a fucking legend.

The things that you've done is amazing on so many levels. But I want to talk to you a little bit about, before we get into a lot, a lot more stuff. I want to talk to you a little bit about your childhood. Like how did you find bodybuilding? How did bodybuilding become your life? Like, I know you played sports. I know you played football. When were you like, this is my thing, right?

Oh, that's kind of hard to say. I grew up in a small town, bodybuilding there. What we had? What town was it? It's a bath drop Louisiana. Okay. Right close to Monroe, Shreveport, those bigger cities. Yeah.

But we just had football, basketball, track, and powerlifting. That was it. Yeah. And we didn't have a whole lot of sports, but nobody did bodybuilding. But, you know, I started lifting. uh like as a kid you know just for fun yeah at 12 okay the reason why i started because when i was a kid growing up you know i was real active always out in the streets yeah playing and everywhere i went every time i would go to the store go to the supermarket do what always asked me

if i worked out i'm like no before this is before you worked out before i worked out yeah okay this I was like 9, 10, 11 years old. Yeah. So after a while, I'm like, man, why did everybody ask me if I worked out? So were you just, like, you were just already muscular? I was real muscular as a kid, you know. No working out. No working out at all.

I was still real muscular and people could see, you know, because it looked like I worked out all the time, but I didn't. So I'm like, man, I wonder what I would look like if I actually started working out. So I started working out when I was 12 years old and immediately fell in love with. You know, I got the weight set, my house. I'm working out every single day doing curls. I didn't know what I was doing. Of course, yeah.

I'm just, I'm just working out, you know, just trying to get, you know, a little muscles on me. Yeah. And like I said, I fell in a little with it. And by the time I got the junior high, I was playing football, you know, we didn't have, I was on the track team. We had football, basketball, track, and that was it. Yeah. The guys at the high school saw me like, man, we want you to join out powerlifting team when you get to high school. So, because you're real muscular right now.

You look like you're kind of strong. I'm like, I'd love to. And as soon as I got to high school, I started out on the Paloiting team. Right. And they taught me proper form, you know, how to work out of the power lift. This is at 12. This is at 14. 14, okay.

Because that's when we started in high school. go back then. So I immediately fell in low with, you know, power lifting right away, so I doing meat, you know, I didn't do real good, you know, because, you know, I'm new. I'm new and I'm still learning. Yeah, of course. I'm having fun, having the time of my life. And, like I said, I just fell in love with powerlifting right away. And I, you know, I worked out every single chance I got. Yeah. So when you found bodybuilding, I'm curious, what did the people in your life, like your parents, what did they think about you doing bodybuilding? They, my mom always supported me in everything I've ever done.

You know, when I played college football, she came to, every chance she got to come to a game, she was there. Yeah. Same thing in high school. And when I started bodybuilding, same thing. You know, every single chance she got to come to a show, she was there. Yeah. And she always supported me 100% in everything I did. Yeah.

So she loved it. loved it she loved it did did anyone ever doubt it like did you ever feel like there was anyone in your family or like your circle no one ever doubted nobody ever doubted me they always gave me 110 you know my whole family did my brothers my sisters everybody supported me 100% and they came to all my shows and they're one that they could you know yeah they didn't get the chance to travel out of town too much but when they could they would be there yeah so they always supported me so when you found bodybuilding and it was like This is, when did you realize that you could be great at it?

Because as we know now, one of the greatest ever. Yeah. Eight time, like you're, you've actually, I think you have the most wins ever in the IFBB. At one time I did. And then Dexter, I think. Oh, yeah, he just kept competing forever. I didn't find out I could be graded until I won my first Olympia. Okay.

Okay. So this is crazy, though. Okay. So you were training, you were training in. And you won your first, that's when you realized you could be great at it, when you won your first Olympia. When I won my first Olympia. A lot of people don't know it, though.

I worked full time, the whole time I was training, you know, getting ready for the Olympia. My first Olympia I won, I worked all way up until like two or three days out before I left to go to the show. As a police officer. As a police officer. So, you know, the whole time, you know, doing bodybuilding, you know, I'm just doing it because the guys told me

to give me a free membership to the show. gym yeah I just started bodybuilding until I was about 24 25 years old yeah and the only reason I did it because I I never forget it like it was yesterday the first time I went to the gym he's like man you pretty big guys you up doing it bodybuilding I'm like no dude I never did bodybuilding I'm I'm not into that prior to that you were just power lifting power lifting so you were so your your core before body and it was 100% strength. Yeah, just strength.

Okay. Never, never ever. For years was able to sound like bodybuilding. For years? For years, yeah. Never did any bodybuilding. Never wanted to do any. And I went to this gym probably like the first three or four days in the gym.

He was like, man, you need to try this bodybuilding thing. I'm like, no, dude, I don't want a bodybuild. I just want to, you know, get a good workout in and go to work because I always went to work right after I, you know, trained every day. And he just kept, he kept telling me, man, I think you could be Mr. Olympia, world champion. And I'm like, no, that's okay. I don't want to body bill. I just want to, you know, get a workout in and go to work.

And this is that 26 years old. Yeah, this is that, like, when I first went to the gym, this is my first three, four days in the gym. He was telling me all this stuff, you know, and I'm like, no, I don't want to do it. I don't want to body build. I just want to work out and go to work. work. That's all I want to do. You know, I'm not interested in bodybuilding. So when did you realize, oh, this is, this is my, this is my future. This is the thing that I'm going to go towards. When did you realize that? I never really thought about it. You didn't? I didn't because

I was working full-time police department. Yeah. Making real good money. I had nice cars. I had, I had corvettes. I remember seeing all this in the videos. Yeah, nice trucks. I had two or three vehicles and I had my own house you know yeah I had brand new house and everything and I just never thought about being a professional bodybuilder full time yeah it was just bodybuilding the secondary work for the police department is is my primary object right so when when when when it became full time and you knew that it was like the thing that you were going to do did you know that you would be that great like that you would have that many titles No, no, no.

I never even thought I could win the Olivia because, you know, I was a police officer. Yeah. And that's really what I wanted to do. I wanted to have a career with the police department. And I said I was making real good money and things were going real good for me. I had like two jobs. besides working for the police department, I worked at Dennis on the weekend.

Yeah. And then I will work out, work at a place called Western Warehouse of the booth store. I was just thinking, how did you balance all this? Well, you know, I was always a hustler.

Yeah. I just like, how do you have time to get the meals in? I just took my food with me. I took my food to work. It only took me about five, 10 minutes to heat it up, and I can eat it right there in the car.

Yeah. So, you know, that was never. And it's just never a problem. There were some days where, you know, I didn't get a lunch, lunch break because I was so busy. Yeah. So what I would do is when I got a call, you know, I would, like to do an accident report,

it takes about two hours. So while I'm filling out my accident report and I'm eating at the same time. Okay. So because I can't get a lunch break because I'm so busy at work. I wonder if people were making jokes like this big guy, like eating his meal. See, they didn't see me because I always went home to do my. I was kind of smart in a way I would work

in the area where my house was okay so I could always go home this is so funny to me I would go home to get the meals to get my meals yeah I would go home you know use the bathroom or take my bathroom break yeah I made sure every time

I was working for the police department my house was in the same district that I worked then so that made it that much easier for me yeah what did the other like police officers think that you're because you were like a used you were a jacked bodybuilder well you know most of the guys didn't really pay attention to other guy everybody was you know trying to survive i got everybody's on their own they're doing their own thing they're taking care of their families you know they're trying to make as much money as they can so

everybody just stuck to their own things stuck their own business they were never really concerned about you know what other guys had going on because they were too busy trying to you know take care of their families and provide for their families so everybody wasn't concerned

with what I was doing yeah so when did you stop being a police officer and just full-time body build probably after I won my third Mr. Olympia so you won three yeah this is this is so crazy to me because like people listening to this on the internet watching this now it's just such a different world now with social media with like you know the fact that people can create their

own brands or sell their own products to be be sponsored there's so much money in this industry now that didn't exist and wasn't relevant when when you were in your prime and even on your way up um i guess my question in that regard is like do you think that social media has changed bodybuilding? Oh, tremendously. Yeah. Because you can be a millionaire just from posting on the internet.

You don't have to do bodybuilding or nothing. You can just, you know, do your own thing and make millions of dollars just posting, you know, you working out. Yeah. Being in shape. Being in shape. Talking about a teaching people.

Yeah. Making your own stories, you know. Yeah. Do you think it's changed the competitiveness in bodybuilding? Oh, for sure, yeah, for sure. Guys don't have to be so involved in just being a bodybuilder. Yeah. Because they got these other things that you can do with social media.

You can make money from doing other stuff besides just bodybuilding. Yeah. So back then, you know, we didn't have social media. So when we competed, you know, everybody was competing, you know, for the money, you know, to make money off bodybuilding. Now they got so many other avenues from social media that you can make money from. Yeah, and what I found interesting we talked about this generally where we were training was you guys never in that era really got a chance to see each other.

So there wasn't like, oh, you know, you could see like, you know, Chris Bumseck could see his competitors coming up now and these people can see each other because there's so much content being made along the way. Yep. You guys are just like completely in the dark. and you saw them that day and you were like, oh shit. You didn't see that your competitor

until the day of the show. Leading up to that, you never knew what anybody was doing, how hard they were training. Yeah. Nothing. You didn't know anything about what the other guy was doing.

So I find this so interesting because this dynamic, this concept, like, for example, I did social media from the very beginning of social media, like about 2011. Instagram started at the end of 2010. So like I started October like excuse me not October it's it started in October 2010. I started in like

I don't know what the exact date was like the next year 2011 and it had just started like Instagram and so I didn't have examples of like oh I can do this on the internet and become a social media person because there was no one doing that like it wasn't a thing like I guess in a sense kind of pioneered that. And I find it interesting, like you and the bodybuilders back then pioneered like bodybuilding in its entirety. But I find it interesting now in the question I'm trying to get to is because of there's so much comparison between people. Yeah. Do you think that it's changed bodybuilding? Like it seems like it's like a different, it's a completely different sport almost now. All right, guys, quick interruption. This podcast is sponsored by BetterHelp.

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slash raw talk you guys get a 10% off your first month with the link right there again that's betterhelp dot com slash raw talk and yeah let's get back into this podcast yeah like in just in general the comparison of if i saw you on the internet and posting this or doing that and i'm trying to do it or copy it or I got to you know now I'm worried about what you might look like on stage versus like what I'm saying is prior to social media even when I trained you just did it you almost did it because you really really loved it and this is something we talked about in the gym do you think that people now do stuff just because they see someone else doing it and be successful at it or they really because I thought about it but I think the guys are just doing what they want to

do and really not concerned with other guys doing because you really can't control it so as far as that aspect goes I think they're doing it their own way yeah and because what I see a lot of guys aren't about what

anybody else is doing yeah because you can't control it basically yeah so it doesn't seem because there's so much other stuff going on now yeah the guys are not like 1,000% invested in the bodybuilding.

Yes. You know, there's so many other avenues. Like, guys are starting their own supplement companies. Every day. I mean, that's been the last thing you ever thought of when we were competing. Guys,

you know, doing other stuff like, you know, starting their own t-shirt company. Yeah. You know, because of social media, you got so many other ways of making money.

Yeah. So you don't have, have to be like totally involved in the bodybuilding and this is what I'm trying to say the thing that I think I find so interesting and for people listening kids listening who like want to be great at bodybuilding or want to be great at social media like I became great because I did it because I loved it and there wasn't examples of like and we're talking about purpose and passion there wasn't examples of I can make money if I do this right yeah you being a bodybuilder it wasn't like oh I can like look at these other bodybuilders or I can you were just doing it

because you loved it. Yeah. And then you became the ultimate success of it. Yeah. And that's the thing I'm trying to draw. Like, there's a lot of people now who see stuff on social media and they go, oh, I want to do what that person's doing or I'm going to kind of copy that person's like, oh, they did this and then they did this.

And then they started this company and then I'm going to mimic this. And then the genuineness, like the purposeful, like the passion in it is a little different because maybe they're doing it just because they saw someone else do it versus like this is all I know. Like all I knew was training. All I knew was like what I was doing. Yeah, yeah, exactly. And I was posting it, and then it became a thing that, like, oh, wait, we can make money doing this.

Because when I started social media, it wasn't like that. When you did bodybuilding, it wasn't like that. Not at all. So what I'm saying is I think the people who, like, could be, and this is for people listening, like, if you really want to be super successful at something, I think you really have to give a fuck about it beyond just making money. Yeah. Because you became a great bodybuilder, a legendary bodybuilder because you really love that shit. And enjoy it and look forward to doing it each and every. single day. Yeah. And that was my, you know, ultimate passion. The thing that I look,

that I look forward to doing each and every single day, every day, like I was telling me, we was working out, you know, that was my hobby. Yeah. So I look forward to just working out and training hard and going heavy each and every single day. Well, that was something I found crazy. You said you, you, it reminds me of me. It's like before I got on the internet, like all I did was it wasn't to shoot content. It wasn't to, you know, lift girls do all the crazy stuff. that I've done over the time, I literally, like, would try to lift heavy every day. When you were saying that, I was like, this is so interesting because, like, that's exactly how I trained.

Yep. Not that it was the best correct way to train to, like, optimize my results if I want to be a power lifter and see the most progress because I know that I need to take days off, rest days. But, like, I found a lot of, like, similarities. I was like, that's literally all I ever did was, like, I'd go in and try and lift as heavy as possible, no matter what. No matter what. And you didn't every single day I trained.

You did that. That's the way I trained. There was never any, like, you know, well, I think I'm going to go like the day. Yeah. Because, you know, I've been training heavy for the last five, six days in a row. Yeah. To me, it was like, I'm going to see how heavy I can go today, the next day, and the day after that, and each and every single day. Yeah.

So it was always about how heavy can I go today? Yeah. You didn't complicate. Like, nowadays it's like. How much stronger can I get? Nowadays, you, you like, there's so much. comparison or there's so many like oh try this training method or that training method or this thing and it's it's interesting because like you one of the best bodybuilders period and i and i'm

telling you this before in the gym i don't think there's ever going to be another bodybuilder at your at your level size symmetry strength combined and win that many titles i don't think that's ever going to happen again and i think it i think it came down to like the fact like i said earlier like you really loved it for it yep and look forward to it each and every single day yeah and never had any bad days maybe one bad day that I can think of a bad day when I you know didn't feel so good I didn't get sick a lot maybe once or twice during my whole career yeah that you know I got like a stomach bug or something once or twice yeah and I think that day that I had a bad day I came down with it while I was in

gym yeah yeah but you probably still finish the session I finished what I was doing yeah and like okay I'm out do you have any regrets training wise or body building wise oh no no when you doing something that's your hobby is something that you really and truly enjoy doing yeah you don't have no regrets yeah yeah the only regret I had is when I was doing that 800 pound squat I didn't do six reps but I knew I had six in me but I didn't know that until I put it up because that was my first time I was trying it.

Yeah. If I had done it, you know, before that day, I ought to have got six Cs of Reps on camera and I would have been fully satisfied. But because I didn't do it, that's the only regret I ever have in the sport. That's the only regret because I knew. And as soon as I put it up,

I said, man, that was like. It was life for real, you know. Yeah. And I could have got at least three more reps. But because I had two in my mind, because I, you know, deadlifted it before. Right. That's what you were going to do. You thought you were going to do.

That's what I thought I was going to do. I was like, if I could get two, I'll be happy. Yeah. And not thinking, you know, this is going to be light, you know. Do you have any other PRs that were off camera? Because I, because this is something. The only one I got is the front squad. But I tried six plates on camera, and I didn't take into account the bounce of the bar.

The whip. Yeah. Yeah. When I went down, it was bouncing so much, it just bounced right off my chest. Okay. And I'm like, man, I know I could have got more than four, whatever I did. So that next week, you know, I went in there, and I was like, okay, I'm going to do it nice and slow and take this bounce away. and I can do more, and I did 10 reps with it.

Yeah, fuck. And that wasn't on camera. It wasn't on camera. You know, we didn't have all these cell phone cameras and all this stuff back then. It's so different. It's so different now, man. Yeah. But that's the only thing that I, PR that I didn't get on camera.

Yeah. That I wished I would have got on camera. Yeah. So with like your injuries, like the back stuff, how many, how many surgeries have you gone through? See, 13 so far. Yeah. I've had eight back, three hip, two neck. Yeah.

Do they cause you pain, like often? No, no, not too often, you know, but my whole career has been painful, you know. But because I'm having so much fun and enjoying myself, you know, I can block it out. And plus, I have a real high pain tolerance. Yeah. Like when I herniated my dist, I told you by the third, when I hurriedated my disc in the gym that time, and I finished my training session, you know.

What year was this? It was 1996, I'll never forget it. I had six plates on there, and I normally do 12 reps with six plates. But I took a week off, you know, right out of the Olympia. And I'm coming up on rep number eight, and I heard a loud pop, it sounds like gunshot actually. And so as I did it, I dumped the way because I thought the guy behind me had hit me.

I didn't know I heard any of my diss, you know. I turned around like, dude, did you hit me when I was coming up? Because we always hit each other. Yeah. He's like, no, man, I didn't touch you. I'm like, what was that loud pop? He's like, I don't know, but I heard it too. Yeah.

Yeah. Like, man, for me, go on to the next exercise. And I didn't, you know, I didn't get 12 with it, but I, you know, I almost ate. So I was done with that one. I went, did my leg press. I did some walking lunges, and I did some, what it did? Hamstring. I did my hamstring and quad I got always together.

I finished my workout. I went home and put my uniform on, took a shower eight, and I was going to work. Yeah. And I'm like, wait a minute, my back still hurting. Because normally my back always hurting, you know, when I did legs, always hurt it. You get like a back call. My whole life. Yeah, I've always had the back problem.

I'm like, man, something's wrong. It ain't supposed to hurt when I'm going to work. Yeah. That's when it stopped. Right after I got in the car to go to work, that's when it stopped. This day it didn't. Stop. So I like, something's wrong.

So instead of going to work, I went to the hospital, found out I had hernia this. And then did you take time off? Did you keep training? I took time. I took two weeks off because I was in, much pain you know that I couldn't work out yeah but I was getting ready for the Arnold Classic so after that two weeks I'm like okay I can't take no more time off I just got to deal with this pain yeah you know I'll be all right and I went back to the gym and first thing I did

was squats yeah well that's that's how I hurt my back see you're like you see if I can do this yeah let me let me let me make sure I can still do squats and if I can still do squats I'll be all right yeah and I could still do scores I just couldn't go to 600 what I could do was 315 for like 15 20 reps you're just doing volume yeah yeah so I'm like okay I'll be all right you know yeah you just kept training slowly slowly I trained through slowly I worked my way back up to six plates that's so crazy by the time by the time I you know was getting ready to go to the show I was back up to six six plates yeah so that was it yeah so let's

Let's talk about, let's talk about the, like the actual bodybuilding, bodybuilding career and like your progress in it. You, I saw a photo of you and from what I understood, at least on the internet, they're like, oh, this is Ronnie's natural here, right? And you looked incredible. You look like a top, like I would say classic physique competitor right now would look. And how also, when did you start taking gear? I think I was about 30 because I never I never forget that

Flex Wheeler was the one coming up and he was winning all the shows and I'm like man what is he doing to win all these shows and you know I'm gonna go have to talk with him How'd you won anything prior to that I hadn't won anything Okay

And I was I still was getting like Third and fourth Okay The top three are qualified for the Olympia We're talking about pros though still You were still competing Yeah In the pro circuit

as a natural bodybuilder. Yeah, but I would make the top three. So I would get like third and that would qualify me for the Olympics. And just to be clear for everyone listening, all the other guys are probably on. Yeah, yeah. Okay.

I didn't really care about that. Of course, yeah. But I got tired of not placing high than third. Yeah. And like I said, Flex was winning. So I'm like, I'm going to go have a talk with him and see what he's doing. So he told me everything he was doing.

And he told me, told me he even told me who I could get some get gear from and everything yeah so I went you know talk to him and I finally figured out you know what I what exactly I had to do and I just did everything he told me yeah was it was it was it was it I'm very curious about this because I could never know right it's like in your shoes what kind of amounts like what kind of gear were you taking was it testosterone was a trend like what man it was so long ago I don't forgot what he what all he told me

I can't even remember I remember him saying Winstraw so in a world he said what does he tell me it's been so long ago I can't remember all what he told me

but I just I just did whatever he said he was doing and then you just and then you kept just doing that each each show yeah but it was like say it was media you know I won my first show right after after that.

Yeah. Yeah. But it wasn't a lot. You know, I wasn't taking a lot. It was just small amounts here and there. Yeah. All right,

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Enjoy yourself. and whatever he told me he was doing work for me too yeah I mean I think genetically I think anything would have worked for you yeah and I and I was 30 years old at the time because it was 1995 when I won my first show yeah that's that's how I correlate that's how I remember everything yeah I won my first pro show in 1995 that the Canada Cup and it was right out the flex that told me what all he was taking so you were But do you remember, though, they seemed to be moderate amounts? Yeah, yeah, it wasn't that much.

It was moderate amounts. Yeah. It wasn't a lot, you know. I remember it was like maybe two or three things. Yeah. And, you know, a few peels here and there. And did you continue that throughout? That was the same thing you always did?

Same thing I always did. That's all I knew. All eight, all eight Olympias that you won. No, no. Once I hooked up with Chad Nichols now, I remember he totally changed everything I was doing okay he put me in he probably doubled everything I was doing he increased it yeah okay yeah from what what I can remember but uh it it worked whatever whatever he told me to do worked every single time yeah he increased my

cardio increased my vitamins I was taking a lot of vitamins and minerals Yeah. Increased that. My food, my food almost, almost double. Yeah. Everything pretty much double when I got with him. Yeah. And I heard, so I heard this from Jay that you were just like an animal when it came to,

obviously your training structure, but also your food, like you never missed. Oh, no, no, no. You were just, like, you had a meal, you had it, you ate it no matter what. You finished it no matter what. Yeah, everything was structured. Everything was done at the same time each and every single day. Is it just, is that just your personality, you think? That's just, yeah, exactly.

That's just the way I was structured back in those days. I did everything according to a certain plan. I did everything according to a certain time of day. Yeah. You know, and because I had to come up with something that would work for me because I worked full time. Yeah. The police department, so I had to figure out, you know,

What time a day I was going to do this, what time of day I was going to do that. And I did everything the same time each and every single day. Yeah. Everything was structured to fall at a certain time each and every single day. Right, right. When I worked out at the same time, when I had a certain meal, it was the same time each and every single day. Even if I was busy doing something, you know, I may have missed a couple, but I made them full. yeah for sure so i have a question on the same line of of uh kind of stuff what do you think about

now like like a lot of these bodybuilders are dying cedric had recently passed away um like there's you know some some guys who aren't as in the sense in the circuit of bodybuilding but like boston lloyd i recently passed away obviously you know rich passed away in the past but even even more like pros are are passing away here and there yeah that's unfortunate uh everybody's body is different though you know so yeah everybody has their own way of doing things it's kind of hard you know when I was coming up we had one guy die and they'd started drug testing every show yeah before he died because of diuretics of course you know yeah very hard on the body so they start drug testing for

diurex every show and nobody passed away nobody died or nothing until they stopped and I'll never forget it when they stopped they stopped so he died in what year was that 1995 or 96 I think who was it did he die on stage he died on the he died on the European tour I know I know I wasn't mr. Olympia back then and I think it was he was it was than 96 or 97. Yeah. Because, yeah.

And they drug tested every single show after that. In the IFBBB? In the IFBB. Well, I thought they didn't drug test in the IFBB. Yeah, they did. Because one guy died. Yeah. And, you know, and the vice president wasn't having it back then.

He knew what that would do to the sport. Yeah. So it was a drug test and it was a real one. Yeah. It wasn't no fake one. You couldn't say, you know. Yeah, I took the test, but it wasn't a real test. It was a real test.

And if you fail, they took your prize money. Really? Yeah. NASA failed. They took his money. That was in 1997. Were they testing for diuretic specifically? Because they knew that everyone was on gear.

They were testing for diuretic specifically. Okay, so it wasn't like you're on gear, you can't. No, no, it wasn't for any gear because he didn't die because of that. He died because of the diuretics. Yeah. And that's what they tested for. Yeah, the LASICs, I'll dach on that kind of shit. All that, yeah.

So we couldn't take any diarrhea back then. Okay. Until 2001, when Jay failed the test. And then they stopped, then they stop testing? Yep, because Jay told him he was going to sue him. Oh. And they were like, okay, well, we won't. We won't keep testing.

Oh. And you get a chance to keep your prize money too. so we'll oh shit yeah we'll just do away with the testing so jay changed that yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah change that yeah damn they didn't test no more uh after that yeah so what do you think a bodybuilder would would need to like be aware of because obviously gear is not it's not the healthiest thing in the world for anyone to be doing right but what do you think a bodybuilder would need to be aware of in order to do that in a healthy way because obviously you I was always tested my, my, I did a full, complete blood test.

I love this, yeah. At least three times a year. I love it. To determine my liver function, my kidney function. Your heart. My heart. Yeah. Everything.

I did a full blood work every single year, three times a year. Yeah. It always came back good. I'm still doing it today. Of course. Once I found out, you know, if you do everything the right way, you know, you won't. Yeah. You'll stay alive.

Yeah, this is one of the things. All your kidneys, heart, all your major arteries are functioning, you okay. Yeah. This is one of the things I think is really important to make note for people to listen and hear is like people really underestimate the value of knowing. what's happening in your body. No, what's happening in your body. And my doctor would tell me, man, your blood panel

look better than mine. Yeah, I'm taking good care of myself. It's amazing. Yeah, no, it's amazing. But that's what I'm saying. There's a lot of people I think nowadays, like people aren't as, I don't know, maybe they're afraid of getting their stuff checked out

or maybe they don't know that they can get their stuff checked out, but there is so much benefit to knowing what's going on because you can make little changes and you could affect it greatly. Yep. And then now they got, you know, stuff that can help keep your, you know, heart functioning properly. Your liver and your kidney. Specific supplements.

Yeah. All that health stuff. Specific supplements, yeah. So when you were taking your supplements, because you told me this in the gym, and I was curious, did you take any, like, specific supplements like that? I know you said you're like the basic, like the vitamin D. And you had a story about that, but like the simple stuff. They got, they got glulothione. back then

because glutathon I know it's great for the lever when it first came out yeah yeah I think that's when I started taking it I don't know how long it's been but it's been a while and they got

a couple other things that also help what were you consistent with in your supplement a lot of these TRT places yeah help with the lot of that stuff I got you know like I said I do a lot of my stuff with

frontline alternative they got people that they'll come to your house and do these tests for you so you only need to go in to to have it done yeah a lot of other things I've done like they got clinics that do a I have mine done at this clinic in stem cells stem cells yeah I go to a clinic in in PortaVar

to call Reganamax yeah they've helped me out a lot I've been doing that a lot I've been I'll go I'll go there probably about every three to four months this is just for just for overall well-being overall well-being right and it's helped me

out tremendously stem cells the stem cells yeah yeah I tried a couple of you know treatments here in the US they were all right yeah but once I started going over to Mexico yeah what they do the real yeah the real the real deal that made a tremendous I used to be in a whole lot of pain all the time once I start going there my my pain level went down I started feeling better overall I had a lot more energy and it helped me to get some of my mobility back also. That's amazing. You know, it's weird.

I'm not trying to make this like conspiracy theory, talk about government or anything, but like stem cells could be so cheap, but we don't allow it to be. Yeah. And it's like, you know why. Yeah, yeah. It's crazy. It's fucking crazy. The fact that you have to go out of country to get something and have it change your life essentially.

Exactly. And we could do that here, but we don't allow it. Exactly. It's a little fucking crazy. Yeah, you got to go out of the country to get better. Yeah. It's a strange thing. It's a strange thing.

And these things work, you know. Yeah. No, they work really well. Big government, you know, everybody doesn't want to make all this money, you know. Yeah, they got to control it. You got to control it. So this makes me think of bodybuilding in general. We'll get back to this a little bit.

It was on this trajectory and you were there when it was going like ESPN. And it was on the trajectory to be like a mainstream sport. Yeah. What do you think changed that? I think back when I was competing, the DA came out and brought us all in. Wanted to know what we were taking, what we were getting our stuff from. Why? Because some kid playing baseball or got a hold of, you know,

some kind of drug, I think it was DECA or one of the main ones. Okay. But somebody found out about it and they made him quit taking it. And they started, you know, getting moody. And one day he just committed suicide. And his mom, oh, she raised holy hell. Yeah. With the DEA and all these people.

So wait, why did they bring in the body mother? They brought in, I think he said he got it from one of the professional bodybuilder. So they just growled all the body professionals up? Yeah, they made us go to, I think it was South Carolina, North Carolina, and testify in front of the grand jury. What the fuck? Wait, so wait, were you guys all together? All together.

Yeah, so. All the top guys. So I'm just picture all these super jacked dudes. Yeah, testifying for the grand jury. Were you guys wearing suits? Yeah, you know what No, no, no They didn't make us wear suits

They didn't They didn't make us wear a suit Okay So we were just test around Before a grand jury So we were not Like in an actual courtroom You know

Right I see We were like You were like 20 people Or something like that And so they were just trying to say And they was asking us question What do you take Where you get your stuff from

Who's supplying you with all these And that's when Everybody had to go legit And start going there all these TRT clinics. Right. And I think that helps the sport out a lot. In what sense?

In that sense, because we're getting legitimate, you know. Yeah. And we all getting these blood tests because you got to have a blood test if you're going to get prescribed. Yeah. Exactly. Prescribed. So it helped out a lot, but they didn't accomplish anything because nothing happened.

You know, nobody. Yeah. nobody really supplied that kid with these with those drugs yeah so he just got them from somebody else but you think that was named it on the iceboard I see do you think that was the thing that really changed the trajectory of bodybuilding this portion of the video is sponsored by Javi this is amazing it's basically like a coffee concentrate you put it in with some water it blends real nicely this is the karma one I love the flavor and again I like my coffee black I don't like to put a lot of extra stuff in it specifically because I'm

dieting right now but it tastes great. Um, if you guys want to get it, where can they get it? Go ahead. www.w.w.w. by, joby coffee.com slash raw talk. Okay, bam, relax. I know you want the caffeine, but dogs actually can't have caffeine. And what happens when they use that link? They get a fucking discount. Yeah, they get 25% off. Oh, they get 25% discount. Yes, 25% off your order using our code. 25% off your order using code raw talk. Um, yeah, fucking incredible I also maybe they'll give you a free mug I don't I actually look don't quote me on that because it they might be like we're not giving free mugs Brad go

fuck yourself but I don't know who knows maybe when you order you get a hopefully don't come from me Javi sorry for a better for the better yeah for the better even though it was removed because they took it off like ESPN and all this stuff you still think for the better you know they had they had took it off ESPN when I won my first Olympia back in 1998 I think we got we got brought in around like 2002 somewhere in there 0203 somewhere in there is when they brought us all in

oh so you know so they took it off earlier why did they took it off because you were too big or what i have no idea i think it had a lot to do with drugs the stigma yeah the stigma body bills have to take all these drugs to get that side was around the same time was like become more

popular that way in that sense got it because before that they had all these shows with a lot of bodybuilders so you think they're profile guys and everything I mean Sean Ray had a show where you know where they would show how to how to work out properly yeah do things the right way I had them working out I just watched all these shows myself I was new to the it's so funny oh I'm trying to learn as what's up after can too it's so funny it's so funny It's so funny because I heard, again, I was talking to Jay about this, and he was telling me how, like, you would learn all these things from these people and then just beat them all. You beat them forever. Yeah, yeah.

And then they had to try to like. That was another thing, you know, because, you know, we didn't see each other and nobody knew what anybody was doing, you know, you didn't see the guy until the day of the show. Yeah. You know, just leading up to the show and working out each and every single good day. nobody saw anybody nobody talked about anybody you know it wasn't this social media thing right you know

you didn't get the word until the magazine came out you know yeah I'm curious did you ever see any other bodybuilders never where you did you ever see any bodybuilders when you came to the show and you were like oh shit that guy looks really good no no I won't tell you why

because uh most of the time when we were backstage I was always focusing on myself okay I'm trying to get myself pumped up trying to get myself hyped up so I didn't want to see the other guy but my when I first started working out and so first started going to show I did that and they kind of you know intimidated me a lot really so I was like let me not look at him you just focus on yourself let me just focus on myself but because I was so you know trying to get this information

and then trying to learn from the sport. I'm trying to see how I'm supposed to look. So that's why I started looking at guys. Yeah. And I'm like, man, they look a little bit different for me. Yeah. What do you, that's what I'm thinking in my head? What do you think the number one thing that the bodybuilding has taught you?

You know, for the most part, it taught me how to work out as the bodybuilder. Of course. taught me that it can be healthy if you do it the right way, you know, if you don't do it the right way, it could be very, very unhealthy. Right. I don't know what a lot of these people are dying from, you know, because, you know, they don't really, a lot of time they don't say, and a lot of stuff is rumors too. Yeah.

You don't know what's right, but I think if these people would have done it, the right way by having, you know, their blood work, you know, done and, and stayed on top of everything. Yeah. And made sure they were always, like, 100% healthy. Yeah. I don't think they would have any problem. Yeah.

I think this is really important to say because nowadays, I don't know, I know you probably don't use so much of social media. Like, you're probably not on TikTok and all this stuff like yourself, right? Mm-mm. So nowadays, it's very. very popular for kids who are very young to like talk about and joke about either taking trend which is crazy because it's a very hard steroid or SARMs which is like a new version of like pro hormones would have been back in the day which are like different derivatives it's like

basically a steroid anyways doing the same thing affecting the hormones and it's very popular nowadays on the internet specifically TikTok which is like a very young generation who really actively uses this to almost glorify steroid use and I think it's really important for someone like you to say hey what you're saying right now and I'm completely agreeing with this is the number one thing that these kids need to think about because I just I think they just don't number one think at all about the consequences they just think oh my favorite fitness influencer is like got a bunch of followers and they're making money and I want to do what he's doing yeah the comparison right and I'm not saying hey don't do this or don't think

like this in your life but what needs to be said is exactly what you're saying is kids if you're ever going to think about this you need to know what's going on inside your body first before you ever get started so you know what's going on you know what you're coming into right and then if you're ever going to consider to keep doing it moving forward you have to like even you did this best bodybuilder of all time what how three times a year you got your blood work done yeah and like that's the thing like people people sometimes maybe they're afraid to do it or they just don't know to do it but it's one of the most important things to do is to know what's going on inside your body specifically in this case if we're putting something inside our body and i just i just

want that to be said because i know some kids might watch this and i know like a lot of kids are actively like almost joking about this shit on the internet yeah and it it needs to be said because it's a there's very serious consequences as we're seeing very serious yeah especially when you start dying and uh this sport is not worth dying for i'm not at all Because I remember back in 2001, I'll never forget it like it was yesterday. I woke up the morning of Olympia, and I felt awful. Yeah. I was totally dehydrated.

You know, you have to be kind of a little bit dehydrated to get up there on stage. But this morning, I felt awful. I felt real bad. I was to the point where I felt like I was kind of dying. Yeah. And it scared of living hell out of me. I call my nutrition and I say hey dude I feel awful forget this show I'm going to hospital I I'm not going to die for this boy I'm going to the hospital the what

what were you feeling like your heart what were you feeling exhausted like to like to a crazy level so tired I couldn't I could barely get out of bed oh I'm like no this ain't way I'm supposed to feel you know I I've won, what, four or five times already? And I've never felt like this. So I just called me and I like, hey, forget this show. I don't want to live. I'm going to hospital right now.

He's like, no, no, you work too hard. I'll tell you what you do. Just grab a gallon of water and drink as much as you can. And that's what I did. I grabbed a gallon of water and I drank the whole thing. And I felt good. So you were severely dehydrated. I was severely dehydrated.

You could have died. If I had to drink that water, yeah. Fuck. That's so crazy. I wasn't going to let that happen. I was going to, I was literally going to the hospital. I told my, you're, hey, let's go. Yeah.

Like, let me call Chad first and tell what I'm doing before I go. And I called him and said, hey, I'm on my way to the hospital. I feel something ain't right. Yeah. You know, I'm not supposed to feel this way. and I was out I was I was I was I was I was I was I was I was I was I was I called him and he said no no don't do that you work too hard

so he said just grab a gallon of water and drink as much as you can did you and that's what I did did you do the show still uh-huh oh my god because after I drank that gallon of water I felt I felt okay was this an Olympia it was a there was a morning of 2001 Olympia oh my God 2001 Olympia there was a morning of the show Oh shit. And I'm like, no, something ain't right. Yeah.

I'm not supposed to feel like this. Did you ever feel like that again? I never felt like that again. Yeah. Never felt like that again. Do you think you just took too much diuretic? No. What I'd done was I was trying to be Superman and I was going to compete twice a year.

I had already done the honor classic earlier that year. Okay. And that was the only time I ever done that. I've never done that before. So that's what it was. That's what it was. My body peaked. At the Arnold Classic, I looked the best I ever looked,

you know, what people told me. And I was trying to peek again for the Olympian. My body's like, no, dude, we already peaked. Yeah, you can't have this twice. You can't do this twice. Yeah. And I never did that again. Yeah.

I never had that problem again. Damn, that's so fucking crazy. Have you ever had any other moments like that were like not like comfort, any other like health scares? No, that was the only one. The only one in your life? That's the only one I had. Damn.

Yep, that was the only one. So what other, like, recovery things would you do? Like, did you do, like, during your career? Obviously not the stem cell stuff now, but, like, during your career. Yeah, I told you earlier, I took three months off every single year after I won the Olympia. So, like, the next day you're like, three months, I'm chilling. I'm chilling. No working out, no cardio, no diet, nothing.

And that seemed to fucking work. That worked like a charm for me. Damn. So I was resting and recovering for three whole months. months after every Olympia what would you do typically like because you weren't training because that was like your life did you like just I would go on vacation yeah I'll go on the cruise where's the where's the best place you've ever been uh vacation wise vacation wise actually uh aruba was real nice I remember I remember going there uh St Thomas was real nice yeah

uh Jamaica was real nice a lot of those places were real nice you know I I would do it every single year, though. Yeah. And I just relax and take it easy. Don't do nothing. No cardio, no nothing. Yeah. Nothing at all.

No workout. Nothing. It's taking it easy. You were okay with it? I feel like your mentality is like you're so much like I need to do this. How did you like? I was so at the time consumed with talking myself in. to hey this is good for me

I can make my career last a little bit longer if I do this. So it was still about bodybuilding. It was about bodybuilding. I see. I was trying to last as long as I possibly can. Yeah. Without burning out or something. Do you think there'll ever be another bodybuilder like you, man? Like genuinely.

No, no, because the time to change. Yeah. Yeah. You don't have to be a bodybuilder now. Yeah. Like 100% you know, committed to being a bodybuilder. Yeah, it's way different. As a bodybuilder, there's so many other ways of making money now. Yeah, like we were saying.

Like, you know, you didn't have all this social media stuff when I was coming along. Yeah. Yeah. So I don't think it would be another one because you don't have to do that no more. Yeah. You know, like I said, guys are starting their own supplement companies now. Yeah. On T-shirt company and all these other stuff you can do, you know.

Yeah, for sure. So you have four daughters, right? Eight. eight daughters you have eight daughters yeah and you have so no you're never gonna have a son

never gonna have a son this is the craziest shit ever this has to be one of the craziest things about you somebody has to put the put the girls here you have eight daughters yeah everybody can't do

I was gonna say like which one wants to be a bodybuilder none of them right none of them damn it's so crazy like you it's like how it's like you're one and done yep exactly

how did so you were trying to have a son oh every single time yeah every single time yeah never happened that is like okay that is the craziest shit it's like god god just like okay this is the one all right no more yeah mm-hmm like that's crazy to me no no son whatsoever eight daughters no sons no fuck they you were just meant to be one-on-one man yep exactly that's amazing so I have a question what what other projects are you working on are you working on anything new Yeah, right now we're doing this NFT. We're releasing it May 2nd. We're doing like a 14-19, you know, release because I'm going to try to do something that other guys are not doing.

Yeah. So with the 14-19 that I'm doing, I can be one-on-one with these guys. I can, you know, bring them in. We have utilities, you know. You're talking about the holders. Yeah, yeah. We have utilities where they can come to my house. They can work out in my gym.

Yeah. They can see my trophy room. They can work out with me at MetroFlex. Yeah. They can, we got a trip to Dubai every year. Oh, shit. They go on this trip to Dubai. They can, I even have one where they can sit front row with me at the, Mr. Olympia.

Oh, shit. So, yeah, we're going to do our little bit of deal. different where where everybody that buys a NFT can can talk to me and hang out with me yeah and do all this one-on-one stuff that's why I'm not doing that you know that big release was a lot of the guys doing 10,000 I'm doing you know 1419 total total okay you know we're breaking it down and in categories where we got gold silver bronze and then we got you know the auction And, well, our cheapest one is 0.1 Ethereum.

Point one, yeah. And the most expensive one is like one Ethereum. I'm like $2,800. Yeah. The other one you just, you know, bid on the auction. I see. I see. We only have nine of those.

And it's from each Olympia. uh one of my my greatest poses you know i got i got a front lad i got a real lad what do you think your what do you think your best poses for me it was always front that front lap yeah that was always my favorite you hit that you were like i'm crushing yeah yeah yeah and then and then also my real lad front lat and real lad were my favorite two poses yeah i i i i've just got those in there i remember i was talking to jay again and he was telling me how he's if guys would see you when you show up to shows and they'd be like what the fuck like when they first they're like who the fuck they never saw me you know until that day you know but every time they're like who the

like how the fuck is this guy doing this people don't know this you know every olympia I did I was always trying to get better after every Olympia so I would gain at least five to seven pounds every show yeah so my first Olympia I was 245 hi me again quick interruption you don't laugh don't laugh you're making me laugh it's okay guys listen up this is a little interruption i know we start off a little rocky but shout out to one of our sponsors fit bod this is a fitness based app whether your goals are short term or long term goals it's for you if you guys want to get 25% off your subscription today go to fitbod.m.m.

slash raw talk again it is fitbod dot m e slash raw talk and like if you're just like yo what do I do? What should I train? How should I train? What exercise should I do? What body parts should I hit today? It's going to give you programs. It's going to give you guidance. It's going to give you insight. Check it out. Show it some love. Shout out FitBod. Again, use FitBod.m. slash raw talk and get 25% of your subscription today, like right now, today, right after this, right after this. Pause the podcast. Do that and get your shit right. That's it. Back to the back to regular I'm full of everything I'm just making slogan this is slogan day raw talk welcome fitbodd.m.m. slash raw talk do it then holy shit the next one I was five

pounds heavier you're talking about on stage right on stage yeah and the next one I was five pounds a heavier than that one all way up to like almost 300 pounds yeah my last one show I was 295 on stage yeah 296 somewhere in there offstage What, like, off, you know, off season, what was your typical weight? Offstage, I was always three, between 320 and 3.30. At 5.11, yeah. You were fucking, like, just people just see you? And it's natural weight, you know.

Yeah. Yeah, this is my normal weight. So, you know, it's no problem. It offered me to carry this weight. It was easy to carry. It's easy to carry. I can still do, like, splits and everything. You were doing splits?

Yeah. What the fuck? Blitz at 330 pounds. Bro, just like. So I'm still real flexible. No problem at all doing that. That's crazy, though. None at all.

It was easy for me to do. What? What the fuck? So once I got a certain weight, it was no problem. Genetically, man. Oh, yeah, I got a gift for you here. Oh, you do? Yeah, I got an NFT.

Oh, let's fucking go. You are, you are trained back a lot. Yeah. You got a real big back. tooth so like me so i i got a got one of my gold series for you wait does this like it changes yeah that's my civil back what the hell yeah do they all they don't all come like this no no no well the the auction auction ones do they do yeah yeah so okay 22 of 25 yeah yeah holy shit oh this is mine that's yours oh let's go it's fucking it like oh that's dope that's

is fog dude oh let's go that's lit i love it man i mean it's an honor i just want you to know like genuinely man it's it's an honor to have you here it's an honor to talk to you like no you are a fucking legend man like i'm i'm in here trying to like i'm trying to build myself trying to build my name but dude you have done tremendous things that like i fully believe that no one else will ever do in the bodybuilding community i'm i just doing what i love doing it's that's but it's honor That was all, that's what it's all about for me, you know. Yeah. Having fun, enjoying myself.

I love it, man. I'm grateful for this for real. Yeah. I like, thank you. No problem at all. So one last thing before we go. Did you, I'm just curious, during your career, did you ever deal with any sort of mental health issues or anything now?

Do you have you ever gone through stuff like that? Like, I'm just, I'm, because I dealt with a lot of this shit. I'm not, I'm not trying to make all my podcasts about this, but I'm really curious if you've ever dealt with anything trying like that or even just in your life no because i've always lived life to the fullest i've always lived life to enjoy myself yeah and to have fun so i've always associated life with a lot of positivity there's never been a lot of negative things I've dealt with you know yeah there's never been a lot of negativity things that I've dealt with because I've always tried to surround myself with

positivity yeah or anything that's negative I kind of shy away from yeah so I've never never had you know this issue with you know everybody's different you know yeah I've never had you know issues with you know those types types of things where did you ever have any any like when did you learn that to like push away the bullshit like was it just our whole life you knew that at a very young age I learned that how'd you learn that because you know it's way my mom kind of raised me you know if you do the right thing always you'll you'll never be associated with bad things you'll never be associated with with doing wrong thing so I've always been mentally very strong clearly I mean there's no way you could have done what you did without having that yeah so I've always tried to be on the straight and arrow for the most part never tried to you know get involved with you know drugs and alcohol and all that kind of stuff I never drink or smoke you know a kid coming

up yeah no marijuana no nothing you know no kind of drugs or nothing never never and I've always just done it that way you know that's how I was able to get on the police department really easy you know I had no problems than nothing getting on with the police department working all those years there I worked 15 years full time for I had to quit because I was never there yeah once I won those Olympias and guys I can't take off what Ronnie's taking off you were in fucking Aruba chilling or in German to Japan or somewhere doing, I guess posing or something. I was gone a lot.

I have a question. Did girls ever, like, throw themselves at you in different countries? All the time. This is so interesting to me. But, you know, when you were focused. You never just, like, you never just smashed a few? No, yeah.

Okay, okay, good, good, okay. Every night and then, I enjoy myself. Of course. Some of these shit, but for the most part, you know, I was very business life. yeah most part very business like and like I said you know I always try to stay away from negativity yeah away from bullshit yeah yeah and that's I think that's why I was so successful you know you know with my what I was doing because I always stay positive I

I shied away from trouble yeah and you seem very you seem very regimented like you just did this regimented I had a plan that I stuck with and I stayed with it yeah and never shied away from from it yeah you know how I was I was telling Jay the other day man you just at all those Olympias I won I really never enjoyed it until now you said that Jay said it too yeah he's like you know I I was thinking the same because you were in it I was you had to do it yeah I was thinking when I won the Olympia next I yeah I had I had I had my phone I ate my meal, my bad meal, but I was always thinking about the next Mr. Olympia.

Yeah, that makes so much sense. I didn't enjoy it a whole lot. I didn't, you know, give a chance to party, party, party, party, party, party. It was like, back to, you know, the board, yeah, the working board. Yeah. Do you think it's important then for the person listening, anyone listening to this now, like to try to slow down sometimes to enjoy it? Or do you just think, you say fuck it, just get it?

You want to win, win eight in a row, you got to remember, everybody's trying to beat you when you're on the top. Yeah. You got to stay focused and you got to stay, you got to stay within a certain. You almost can't even look and be like, okay, I'm enjoying it. You just got to keep going. You got to keep going. Yeah.

You can't, like I said, I never really enjoyed winning those Olympias until I retired. It's so crazy. But it makes sense. Yeah, exactly. Because I, you know, you get used to it. Yeah. You get used to it, especially after you don't want two in a row. So how did you know that when you got the eighth and you were done?

How did you know you were done? When did you know you were done? I knew I was done kind of like when I got second. Yeah. Yeah. You're like, fuck this. No, no, no. I'm like, I'm going to try one more time.

Okay. Yeah. after that one you didn't you knew you were done yeah did you think you deserve second so many that not not the first time yeah no I think I still had it but that they were always like what change is good and they they they want somebody new uh you you you keep winning you keep winning and we can't make a lot of money this way yeah I feel like politics yeah everybody know you're gonna win so they're not showing up like they used to. I feel like you should have

nine. You got to shake it up, you know, a little bit. You should have had nine. I should have had nine, but you know I got eight so and you know, looking back, I'm like man, I don't know how I got eight. It went by so fast and I never really enjoyed it. How did I do that?

Bro, you're just a fucking machine. Because I was so regimented like you said and I was so focused on the next one. Yeah. I think that's what it takes so to be great like truly truly great at anything yeah you have to have that you have to have that yeah whether it's bodybuilding or anything i think that's what it takes that's exactly what it takes yeah you know it's only been what like three four guys win that many in a row yeah yeah and and

only two guys to win that many yeah and only one of those only one of those guys who can lift the weight that he does literally only one you remember the classic line everybody what was it everybody want to be a bodybuilder but don't know i want to lift no yes that's my favorite bro that is my favorite quote of yours of like life man yeah that was one of my ways of getting fired up in the gym too yeah like yeah buddy light weight baby i'm tired of saying that so i got to come up with something else everybody want to be a bodybuilder yeah everybody want to be a bodybuilder everybody want to be up no heavy ass weight yeah legendary man that i'm telling you they're true though especially that one oh yeah that one's fucking true for sure at the time i was doing i really

thinking about that, though. I mean, you're legendary. There's no doubt. Like forever in history. I was having too much fun doing what I was doing. Yeah. Even though I was focused and, you know, not really trying to enjoy it, you know,

to the level that I think I should have been. So you think you should have tried to enjoy it more? Yeah, I think I should have, but, you know. In what sense? Like, I wonder if I would have won all over. if I didn't. I don't know. Yeah,

that's the thing. I don't think so. I don't think so either. I think you being the machine is what it took. Yeah, I think me being the machine and lifting heavy like I did was my thing.

And that's the way it was meant to be. Yeah, because I think it just has to do it like, I mean, we're just talking about body bone like the density, like all that stuff that you were able to maintain and have while still being dry, lean, everything in that sense. It's one of one, man, like I said. But we're going to get into some

audience questions. Do you have any of those ready? So at the end of every podcast, we have audience questions. They just like send them in. If you guys want to send them in, it's AskRawTalk at gmail.com. Send any questions in myself and the guests will answer them to the best of our ability. You know, one thing I forgot to mention,

we're having the sweet stakes also where everybody who buys the NFT, you get a chance to win. Are you talking about this one? Yeah, yeah, yeah, that one. So what? Everybody that buys one has a chance to win. I just want one who buys the most. What do they win?

Tesla. Oh, shit. Yeah. So, so this, this is my entry? Yeah.

So if I win the Tesla? Did you buy one though? Yeah. Yeah. That's right. It's right here. What do you mean? Yeah,

no, I got it. It's right here. It says it's at 22 or 25. So, yo, it'd be crazy if I won because I would, I would win it.

I'd give it away, too, though. I promise. I'd give it away. And it would be like a little collaborative. I won Ronnie's Tesla. We're giving. it away together that'd be sick that'd be crazy no seriously though like in my answer though okay okay cool i'm like sir i don't really want the tesla but like i do that'd be sick if we were

able to do that oh that's high i love it thank you thank you man okay so there's a giveaway and that's just when it comes to buying this yeah yeah okay anybody who just buys one yeah no matter which level into that sweet state yeah no matter what level yeah cool cool all right you're ready for the questions yeah yeah go for it okay so it says when did you feel like you accomplished what you were supposed to do in your life uh I feel like sometimes it's hard to see everyone doing good and I'm here in the same spot then again I'm working and so on so they want to know all right I'll answer this so when did I feel like I accomplished what I needed to do in my life that's I'm 100% still in the machine yeah yeah I can't I can't

say that I've done it. I'm still trying to get better at what I'm doing. Yeah. That's, I spent my whole life doing that, though. Yeah. Trying to get better at whatever I'm doing. Like, when I was in college, I can always remember in my room studying real hard. There was sometimes that I'd get so involved with studying that I didn't even sleep.

I mean, I spent the whole night studying. Yeah. Because I was trying to get better and be better. Yeah. And for the most part, it worked out pretty good. Yeah, hell yeah. I graduated at the top of my class with a high GPA. I graduated cum laude.

Not like a lot of my friends, thank you, Lardy. Yeah. So, I mean, listen, I think that that's what it takes to be great at anything. Yeah, yeah, because I feel like, I've done a lot. I've accomplished a lot of cool things and I'm grateful for my position in life. But there's no way I'm stopping. But the only way I'm stopping is when I'm fucking dead. Exactly.

Straight up. As long as you're alive, as long as you got, you know, the energy and the strength to do it, always try to put your best foot forward at each and everything that you do. Yeah. And every fucking day. And I did that with everything I've ever done. Yeah. Even when I was, like I said, in college, work for the police department,

uh, body building, you know. Yeah, no matter what. You know, I wouldn't, didn't think I was going to. be eight times Miss Olympia, I'm still going to give it my awe and put 100, you know, 10% behind it. Yeah. I just think it's a personality thing for sure. For sure. And I definitely have that as well.

So good. Let's get the next one. All right. It says if you're cutting or bulking, do you weigh your portions out? I'm asking because your videos, you eat at restaurants. So how do you keep track of your intake of food throughout like. Okay. Okay.

So for me, I've been doing this for so long now that I have a, I definitely have a gauge of, I could notice how much protein just by looking at it. You can eyeball it for the most part. For sure. For me, I weighed and measured everything I ate. Fucking crazy. I weighed and measured everything I ate. The whole career.

My whole career. Oh, my God. Fuck that. That's why I'm not Mr. Olympia a time. Yeah, when I was at the restaurant, I wasn't dieting. So, okay. So you would never go to a restaurant. I never, ever went to a restaurant when I was dieting.

Damn, bro. I weighed and measured everything. That's fucking. I'm telling you, you're a machine. I was putting into my body, yeah. But that's why, that's why you had it. Yeah, like you said. Holy shit.

So yeah, listen, I'm not Mr. I'm not eight-time Mr. Olympia. That's a fact we all know that. But I just, I've gauged it where I'm like, okay, this can work for me. And I know that I'm not always 100% strict on it. If I'm like, okay, I'm really going to be crazy about it, then I don't necessarily measure things,

but I know 100% of things that. I can't eat. Like, I'm not going to go eat out. I'm not going to eat certain things. I know that I stay away from them. And it just works for me. And this is the thing to the people listening, you learn your body. That's one of the things he's mentioned earlier as well. Everyone is so different. And responds to everything different. So be aware and be attentive to your body, listen to your body, see what happens after you eat some food. How do you feel? Did it make you feel better? Did it make you feel worse? And you have to take inventory of these things throughout your time doing it. And then you really understand what's working for you, not just what someone else is saying, worked for them.

Yeah, and like I was saying, everybody's body different. A lot of the people don't know this, but I didn't really eat any vegetables when I was dying. Okay, that's the craziest shit I've ever heard in my life. No, no green. The fact that you're not, like, you didn't die. Like, I'm just, what the fuck? None. And your blood work was perfect? Dude, you're a freak, man. You are a fucking, like, you are one of one never, ever is going to exist again. I try to tell people genetics plays a big part in it bro you you you were dealt you're it's like you were you were the perfect storm and some people can be genetically freaky like michael jordan yeah but you got you got you got the not only did you get the genetics for the muscle maturity for but the genetics for the

mental like acuity of like the craziness of i'm gonna like you were the perfect storm the work ethic everything that came along with it you did it and to be what i was you had to be yeah no it makes sense i mean that's it i never thought this way before but it probably will never be somebody no way no way i never thought of that before yeah there's no way man no way i've talked about this a lot with my buddies probably got a point there like the everything the size the strength the the the titles everything like it's never going to happen like that again no way especially now because you have no no boys exactly yeah fuck it's gone that was the last chance give us our next one um this one says who is the most interesting person you've talked to

and what do you remember from the conversation that stuck to you all right me i'm saying ron right now i'm saying ronie coleman right now i've always wanted to talk to you about this though most interesting person you've ever talked to and what's stuck with you you talk to like princes and shit i know you said that earlier the gym no nothing that i remember though um If you want, if I'm, if I'm, if I'm being serious about it. Yeah, yeah, of course. The stuff I learned from Flex and Kevin, the stuff that they taught me coming up. Yeah.

I didn't know anything about the sport, you know. I never wanted to be a bodybuilder. Yeah. And so for me, the order in, in order to learn from the sport, I would have to get my information from the guys that were in the sport. Right. And that knew all about it. Yeah.

Because I didn't know anything. So those guys. Yeah. This just makes me think of something else. I'm not trying to shit on Flex Wheeler right now. But he said he was natural forever. And clearly he wasn't. He was the guy who helped you with your gear.

Yeah. So I'm just like, why do you think people, why do you think people lie about that? I think it's a lot of doing society in the way. they see bodybuilding, you know, you know, but it is what it is, you know. Yeah. Sorry. I just made me think about that. I was like, I was going to say it earlier.

And I didn't. I was like, fuck it. I just want to say it. But yeah, give us one more. Give us one more. Because I don't have any. I wanted to add on to like his meals. He said he doesn't eat vegetables.

So now I'm curious. What was your go-to meal prep? Like that you would make yourself. Chicken rice. Chicken with rice. Yeah. Steak, potato. and turkey every night and then.

But my favorite meal of the day was always steak and potato. Best meal. Best meal ever. Steak and potatoes. Why did you avoid today? Why did you avoid veggies? Just didn't like them?

I just didn't like the way they taste. They were awful. My video guy relates so hard to that. Jacob's like, I fucking hate it. Dude, he is. It's so fucking. fucking dope. God.

And he crushed it. Like, not only like the biggest, but the best ever. It's fucking insane. Do you have any other good ones over there? Yeah. Okay, so you can give us one more good question. So this one says, what do you think about martial arts instead of just weightlifting? Do you think they have similar, similar results?

Oh, results. No, results are completely different. I think the mindset that you have to have and going to both of those to be great at both of those are the similar and the same but if we're talking about martial arts versus weight training like you're going to get two completely different outcomes oh yeah yeah for sure like martial arts is like you're you're learning like a you know a tactical skill that can be different in so many ways versus like bodybuilding if we're talking about specifically you can obviously get a bunch of strength and have a bunch of strength from it but you're not necessarily going to learn how

to fight you know it's a completely different no uh yeah totally different totally different do you have any questions for me before we end this up? No, not if I can think of. Let's see. I think we covered just about everything. Anything you know? Maybe you wanted to ask me about that the fact that I was actually stronger because I didn't use a belt.

Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. In like technically. Yeah, I did want to tell you that, you know, all that stuff I was, I never met you before, but I did see a lot of stuff that you were doing when you were training. And I was just saying to myself, this guy is pretty strong. I appreciate. I was just fucking with you, by the way.

Probably a little bit stronger than me because he lifting a lot of heavy weight there. And he got no belt, no straps, no wraps, no nothing. He's naturally doing this stuff. Yeah. So, yeah, I really meant what I was saying. I got a lot of respect for people, like, you know, to do it that way. I appreciate it.

You know, lifting all that heavy stuff is easier said than done. Oh, yeah, you know that, for sure. Yeah. And guys were playing, oh, I'm strong than him. I can do that. Yeah, right. Do it.

Yeah, show us. Yes, you can show me better than you can tell me. Yeah, oh yeah. Especially nowadays with the fucking internet. Yeah, exactly. But that's it. I just want to say, man, sincerely, thank you so much for making the time.

Thank you so much for coming out and talking with me. This is something that I'll, like, I'll never, ever forget. I really mean it, man. The pleasure is all mine, and I appreciate you bring me on. Absolutely, man. You are a fucking legend, and it has been a fucking honor me to have this conversation with you me too and uh yeah just thank you for your time no problem

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