The Iced Coffee Hour - The Greatest Bodybuilder Of All Time | Ronnie Coleman

Episode Date: August 27, 2023

Take advantage of NetSuite’s special financing offer at https://www.netsuite.com/ICED Protect your privacy with DeleteMe at https://www.joinDeleteMe.com/ICH20 and get 20% off your plan with code ICH20 NEW: Join us at http://www.icedcoffeehour.club for premium content - Enjoy! Add us on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jlsselby https://www.instagram.com/gpstephan https://www.instagram.com/alex_nava_photography Official Clips Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCeBQ24VfikOriqSdKtomh0w For sponsorships or business inquiries reach out to: [e-mail] GET YOUR FREE STOCK WORTH UP TO $1000 WITH OUR SPONSOR PUBLIC - USE CODE GRAHAM: http://www.public.com/graham Timestamps: Intro: 00:00:00 Ronnie Almost Made The NFL: 00:08:27 Working As A Police Officer: 00:12:00 How Ronnie Got Into Body Building: 00:21:29 How Much Ronnie Spent To Start Bodybuilding: 00:26:48 Intimidating Every Criminal: 00:39:35 How Much Mr. Olympia Makes You: 00:43:59 Chopping Cotton: 00:51:46 Where Ronnie Got His Work Ethic: 00:59:46 Making $750k From Cameo: 01:05:03 $30 Million Supplement Company: 01:06:57 American Diet Culture: 01:10:28 The Last Time Ronnie Had McDonald's: 01:11:39 How Having A Kid Changed Things: 01:18:38 Stem Cell Treatment With Joe Rogan: 01:23:58 How Ronnie Herniated His First Disk: 01:34:03 How Much Time Ronnie Puts Into Businesses: 01:37:22 Body Dysmorphia In Body Building: 01:42:23 Too Big For Body Building?: 01:49:16 How To Get a Bodybuilder's Physique: 01:51:02 Advice For Young Bodybuilders: 01:55:55 MY NEW COFFEE IS NOW FOR SALE: http://www.bankrollcoffee.com/ The Equipment used: https://tinyurl.com/y78py5g2 Audio Equipment Used In Podcast: Shure SM7B mics, cloud lifters, rodecaster pro audio interface The YouTube Creator Academy: Learn EXACTLY how to get your first 1000 subscribers on YouTube, rank videos on the front page of searches, grow your following, and turn that into another income source: https://bit.ly/2STxofv $100 OFF WITH CODE 100OFF For Podcast Inquiries, please contact [e-mail] *Some of the links and other products that appear on this video are from companies which Graham Stephan will earn an affiliate commission or referral bonus. Graham Stephan is part of an affiliate network and receives compensation for sending traffic to partner sites. The content in this video is accurate as of the posting date. Some of the offers mentioned may no longer be available. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

God has a calling for each and every single one of us. God gave me a certain type of genetics. Bodybuilding is all about... Ronnie Coleman is arguably the best bodybuilder of all time having won the Mr. Olympia title for eight consecutive years. Even though his bodybuilding championships are behind him, he's making more money now than he ever has in the past. From his multi-million dollar income,

bodybuilding businesses, and full rags to riches story that's definitely going to inspire you to hit the gym, make some money, and also subscribe. But first to quick things. Thank you to our sponsor, NetSuite. Ronnie Coleman has an amazing business, although the start of every amazing business comes with a strong foundation.

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Again, that's net suite.com slash iced to get a free checklist on popular KPI's. NetSuite.com slash iced. And again, it's free. You may as well do it because it costs you nothing. So enjoy. Thank you so much. And now let's get back to the episode. Thank you so much.

Oh, no problem. It's an honor. It really is. Watching your videos when I was just getting into the gym was so inspirational for me. I think it was really you and Jay Cutler. For me, it was just like watching you guys lift the death. dedication was insane. It just got me hyped up to go to the gym.

It was inspiration for me to want to work out. Well, me and Jay Cullen had some pretty good battles over the year, so Jay was one of the reason why I was so hyped up in the gym a lot of times. Really? So I could imagine what you probably could have done for some other people if he did that for me. I can't believe it. I'm sure you've said this a million times, but just for people who aren't familiar with you in your story,

at what age did you get into bodybuilding? The bodybuilding itself, I think I was like 26. I started working out when I was 12, though, you know. As a kid, growing up in a small town, everywhere I went, people always ask me if I worked out when I was about 10 years old. And this went on for a very long time. At time I got like 12, I'm like, man, I wonder what I looked like if I really started working out. At 12? Yeah, yeah.

This was after Everywhere I went, people asked me, you work out, you can't be. Did you work out? You can't be big. Like, no, I don't work out. How big were you in 12? I'm just big.

How big were you? At 10, you mean? At 10, yeah. I was bigger than the regular. You have muscles and everything? I had muscles. Yeah, I was pretty muscular at 10. What about like height-wise?

I look like I worked out all the time. I'll just say that. Really? Is that just pure genetics? Yeah, exactly. It's pure genetics. I get it for my mom for the most part because she was pretty muscular too

for a whole entire life So at the age of 12 I mean after hearing all this Do I work out for so long? I'm like man I'm like What I look like if I actually started working out And I got tired of saying no So I just started working out

When I got you know 12 years old and I kind of fell in love with it When I got to like I was 13 And when I was 13 some of the guys in high school said, man, you're a big guy. When you come to high school, we want you to be on our power lifting team. Like, oh, man, I can wait until I get to the high school so I can get on this power lifting

team so I can really, you know, find out how to really work out. Because I didn't really know too much at the time I was doing, you know, when I started, you know, I didn't look at no magazines. And I just did, you know, what I thought you should be doing, you know, to build muscle, which wasn't too much of nothing, but no more than what, probably like curls and overhead presses and stuff like that.

But once I got to the high school and learned how to do powerlifting, that's when I really fell in love of working out big time. At 12th, though, where did you go to work out? Was it like at a gym? Was it like a... We had a little gym at a school.

Really? It wasn't much. But it's just, you know, a few dumbbells, a few bars. It wasn't like, you know, we had these machines. Yeah. It was just a few dumbbells and a few bars. And that was it. It wasn't nothing.

Actually, I had probably more than what they had at school when I went out and bought this 110-pound concrete weights. I had probably more weights when I bought that from Walmart than we had at school. I didn't even realize they had concrete weights. And then in the back yard, me and my friends, you know, we used to, workout just about every day. We'd be back there squatting, doing curls and stuff like that. It was like when I was like 13, you know.

How did you learn to enjoy working out? Because for me, I've been working out now, I would say inconsistently for like three years, consistently for about a year. And still even today, I have kind of a love-hate relationship with it. A lot of the times I really don't want to work out. I don't want to go to the gym.

I feel exhausted. Sometimes I really enjoy it. But how do you learn to enjoy it at 12 years old where I feel like most people just want to go out, hang out with their friends, play kickball, and have fun. I don't think it was too much really about enjoying it. It was more I was, I was, how I would look if I started working out. There was more of that.

But, you know, as I got into it and learned more, I started falling in love with, especially when I got to high school and got on the piloting team, they started doing contests and stuff. I really, you know, everybody got their thing that, you know, we'll put on this earth far and i believe you know god gave me a certain type of genetics to display on a level that wasn't meant to be unseen by the masses for the most part it was like a hobby for me for the most part and that initial spark of love you would say came from powerlifting

yeah yeah learning how to work out properly work out properly yeah work out properly and how to you know, get stronger, you know, because, you know, the older you are, the more stronger you want to be. Yeah. So I learned about a lot how to become stronger, how to, you know, become bigger and stuff like that. Now, how much...

Curiosity thing than anything. Was there ever a competitive element in the beginning for you of just like, I want to be stronger than that guy? Or was it more for yourself of like, if I could lift myself, you know, outlifted a month ago, then that's a win? No, I would say it was more of a competitive thing because since, you know, I was competing once I got to high school. I was competing against other, you know, schools for the most part.

I don't really know who always in those meets because some of those guys looked pretty old to me. You know, they were like like the local meeting that town. I don't think they said only high school people can join. You had to be a certain age. I don't think they did it off that. They just said, whoever showed up and wanted to compete to compete. Some of those guys were pretty big and real strong. Now, back then, what did you think you wanted to do for a living?

Back then, I wanted to play football for a living because I played football in junior high, high school, college. And I remember talking to some of the scouts from the pros. And they would come to the school I was at all the time. And, you know, the guys that were, they looked, you know, that played real well for the guys that they let do trials with the scouts. And, you know, I was one of those guys that, you know,

did the trials and everything. And I was supposed, at least I thought I was going to get drafted at the end of the year, at least what the guy was telling me. One of the scouts was telling me, he's looking at me to get drafted. but when that didn't happen, of course, you know, since I had a degree, and I did pretty good in school, I figured I'd just go down another path. Why don't you think you got picked? Why don't I think, to be honest with you, after I look at it,

I see that God had another path for me to go down. Sure. At this certain path that he wanted me to go down, you know. We're not asked to be here. None of us asked to be here. We all put here. And God has a calling pretty much for, at least I think he does, each and every single one of us.

Most of us have either a career or a calling, you know, that we're going to, you know, a career path that we're going to go down, a path of a calling that we're going to go down. And for me, I think the reason why I didn't because it are pre-chosen, you know, that calling path for me to go down. Because I can still remember to this day me going on a lot of those interviews that I went on because I got my degree in accounting and I graduated at the top of my class. I graduated cum laude.

I just knew I was going to get a job in accounting. I went on probably maybe a hundred or so interviews and got turned down by all of them I kind of knew then after a while I knew at least It's like this is the universe telling me

this is not the path to go down How do you shift from that to then becoming a police officer? Hold on, I'm curious, how did you get turned down when you graduated Cum Laude? Like I was saying earlier which is God's plan? God had a plan for me

to, you know, do something else. Was there ever a reason why they tell you that like we're not going to hire you? Like, too qualified. Your grades were too good. Could it be that they see your stature and just like maybe you don't fit the mold of like what an account? Like I imagine it count like a scrawny kind of like, right?

I don't know. Glasses and like. Yeah, I guess they knew too that, you know. God telling them they got some else playing for him. Don't hire him. I got a random tangential question. For those that maybe haven't figured out God's plan for them yet, or their course or direction that they should be going in life,

the reason why they were put here, how do you recommend they go and they find that? Or how do they know that the right path that they're on right now is the designated path? For me, it was pretty easy. Whatever it is that you are so in love with that you think is a hobby and that you think you probably can't get paid for,

because you have so much fun doing it. They said if you have passion for something, you never really work a day in your life. If it's something like that, that's probably what you chosen, you will put here to do. That's probably your calling or your career path that. You know, God has chosen for you.

I completely agree with that. For me, that's been both being a real estate agent and YouTube. I would have worked for free, and I did for quite some time. I just loved it. It's all I wanted to do. The fact that it makes money is. Mine was working for the police department and doing bodybuilding. I actually did work at police department for free.

When I won an Olympia, my third time went in, you know, I had to give it up because I was so busy going on so many trips and doing so many appearances that I didn't have time to really do police work. And you can say I did bodybuilding for free too, because when I was amateur, you don't get paid nothing. And I was amateur for a little while there. Now, how do you make the switch from wanting to be in accounting to police work? That was pretty easy for me.

Well, I remember all those interviews I went on and never got hired. There's only so long you can have a dream of getting hired by somebody and to you, you know, just decide, hey, this ain't going to work. I got to find something else that was, you know, that I think I might enjoy. I still remember to this day, every time I got the newspaper, it was always hiring for police officers. It was like, no experience needed.

You know, most of the time, you know, most of the time, when I went on those accounting jobs, they always like, you got to have these two years experience, five years experience. But the police job was always no experience needed. I got to thinking, man, that sounds like me back there. They got no experience And they got these big old ass

And classified I'm like I think that ad is calling me So I think I'm going to answer that one Don't you have to go through Police Academy? Exactly And then what was that like for you? How long was that?

It was three months Okay It was three months at the It was a college Called TCJC Terran County Junior College And then I had another three months At the people that hired me

They had their own academy and after that, that's when you hit the streets. It's only six months of training to become a police officer? Did you need a bachelor's degree as well? No, no. You don't have to have a bachelor's degree. All you need is a high school diploma. But the department I had hired on to it, you had to have a four-year degree.

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How were the physical challenges of like getting to be a policeman? Did you have to go through a physical examination or some course or something? Like climb a wall or maybe like bench a plate? I think they made us run a mile and a half. Then we had this obstacle course we had to go through. It was like three walls. One was like four foot high. One was like five foot high.

And the last one was like seven foot high. You had to get over all three of those. And then go do some other stuff, you know, like push-ups or sit-ups or something. And how was that for you? Was it just like a walk in the park? Walk in the park. You're like, that's a normal workout for you every morning anyway. You know a mile and a half back then in like five minutes, you know.

That wasn't nothing for me. Now I hear you also have to be tasered in pepper sprayed. Is that true? That's not true. You didn't get pepper sprayer tasing? No, I didn't shoot myself my own gun either. No. Wow.

Yeah, I figured that those things would work for me just by looking at what they did to people. Wow. But it was volunteer. It was kind of like a voluntary thing. If you wanted to get pepper sprayed or taser you could, and that's all you had to say to me is volunteer and nope, no, thank you. After I saw what it did to other people, I don't want to see that happen to me. Not like that.

Now, after I saw what they went through. Do you remember what the pay was like back then when you started working as a police officer? Yeah, it was pretty good. We made about, it was back in 88. I hired on 89. We made about $45,000 a year. That's fantastic. Yeah.

So it was almost like. About $100,000 a year today. an hour, something like that, 10, 12 an hour. I don't know part-time job, we made 20 an hour. So it was pretty good money. And then you had the part-time job where you can make like 20 an hour, and it was all cash at the end of the night. Really?

I had three of the old jobs. I worked at Denny's. I worked at a booth store. And then I worked at my apartment complex. What were you doing in the apartment? Free rent. I'll just tell you to turn the music down. Really?

So you're one of the managers? Or like one of the property, on-site property managers? Like on-site security. You know, I had to lock up the pools to tell people get out, you know. Then somebody complained about loud music. They would always call you and tell them go over there and tell people to turn the music down and stuff like that. And they listen to you, right? Of course.

Oh, they have. They don't have a choice, man. If they knew it was good for them, they would listen to you. How did you get that situation? How did you get free rent like that? Oh, they always put ads up at the police department saying that, you know, we're high. We need a security office or something like that. Oh, that's smart.

Mm-hmm. You know, they had one person that was over all that stuff, and they would go out and get people to do that kind of work. Yeah. Would you say you've always been good with your money? Because it seems like wanting to go into accounting, like you're very numbers. Yeah, I've always been real good with my money.

Yeah. Like, you know, I already have a retirement in place that I collect, I think this year and next year. And then at 62 Social Security. So that's like three. I heard you even worked at Domino's because you'd be able to eat for you too. Yeah. Yeah, that job came along because I needed a job because I had a condo coming up.

Back when I graduated college, they had this thing called a college degree program at the dealerships. They would let anybody that had a college degree come in and buy a car. The only thing was they would delay your car for three months. So I didn't have a job, of course, when I went in and bought this car. And that third month was coming up. And I'm like, damn, I ain't got a job. My car notice is due next month. So I'm like, I got to take the first thing he came along, come along.

And Dominole pieces was the first thing come along. So I took that job. So I could pay my car note. How much pizza did you eat, though? Every single day. Really? Every day. As much as I could.

Was that, did you find that was good? That was dinner. Was that good for working out? No, that was good for finance. Okay. I can afford regular food, you know, dinner to buy dinner. That's how I was back in the old day. You know, I ate pizza for dinner.

Then I got tired of eating pizza after a while, and Tucky Fried Chicken was next door to me. And I'm like, I wanted they tired of chicken like I'm tired eating pizza. Let me call them and ask them. Yeah. And that's what I did. And they're like, yeah, you want a trade? They're like, yeah.

So I would trade them. No. Fried chicken for pizza. Then I got tired eating fried chicken. Well, Burger King was next door to them. No way. So I just started calling everybody just trading food. So it was still free.

Everything you were eating. That's smart. Free food, free rent? What was the car you bought? It was a Pontiac Sunbury. Okay. 87. And how long did you keep that car for?

I kept that car for four years. Oh, wow. And deliver a piece in it and everything. Were you not concerned about like the macros of the pizza? I didn't know what that was. No, but weren't you working out very powerless. I had abs all the time, you know, no matter what I ate. I was in pretty good condition, no matter what I ate.

And back in those days, I didn't know what diet was. So I ate a lot of fried chicken, a lot of hamburgers, and a lot of pizza. and I was still in a pretty good condition. So genetics are pretty good there. And then at what point did you start taking your diet seriously? When I started bodybuilding. And that was at age 26. Yeah.

That's when I started taking it serious. Yeah. Tell us a story about the guy who told you to get into bodybuilding. I found that really interesting. Oh, Brian? Yeah. Well, I showed up on a call one day with another officer. And he was like, man, where do you work out at?

I'm like, dude, I'm working out of the station where it's free. It's like, oh, man, there ain't no weights in there for you. I'm like, dude, you're right. It really ain't the most I could put on the bench press was 315. And I think back in those days, I was benching like four or something. He's like, man, you all come to the gym, Metro Flex, you know. You got a lot of weights in there. I'm like, okay.

So the next day I go to the gym. And the owner of Brian is like, man, I had 22-inch arm back there all muscle. Ryan's like, man, you're a big guy. you, you, uh, compete. I'm like, no, dude, I've never competed the day of my life. And I, uh, don't want to compete either. And you're like, why? I'm like, well, I heard those dudes, number one, they have to diet.

And, uh, I don't want to do no diet because I'm used to eating, you know, hamburgers and pizza and, uh, sloppy jo's, stuff like that. And then, uh, I also heard that they had to take steroids. You know, me being in a place, so I can't do none of that. kind of stuff. He's like, oh, you,

you would not do none of that with the most you guy. I'm like, no, that's okay. I don't, I don't want to body build. No,

thank you. Second day I come in and he's still after that, dude, man, you should really get his body building the thing.

Sean, he's like, you could be a world champion. You could be Mr. Olympia. I'm like, no, dude, I already told you.

I'm not really interested, interested in it. He's like, okay, what a third day. He's still. on me. And I'm still turning him down.

So the fourth day, he's like, I tell you, I know what I'm going to do. I'm going to give him an ultimatum that he can't refuse. So the fourth day I come in and he's like, dude, it's like, I really think you can do real good at this bodybuilding stuff. He's like, I tell you what, he said, I give you a free membership to the gym. If you competed in this show coming up in like four months, it's like, I'll teach you out to train as a bodybuilding, I'll teach out of diet. I teach you out of power.

I teach you everything you need to know. And you can work out in this gym for free. Now is it? I'm like, dude, you should have laid with that. And he did. He taught me how to train as a bodybuilder, you know, because it's totally different than what I was doing. And he taught me how to pose,

just go to this guy's house like two or three times a week and have these two-hour posing session. And he taught me how to diet, you know, how to, you know, eat five or six meals a day because I'm used to eating like three-fold real. Yeah. So it seems like throughout your life, free has been something that's gotten your attention. Where do you think that started?

When I was real young and I was poor, every time somebody said something about free and I was not, didn't have the money to pay for it, didn't want to use money to pay for it, you had my attention. You mentioned free, you pretty much got me. Oh, gosh. So when you applied for the first bodybuilding competition, how much work goes into that? What's the cost of that? Because I'd imagine it would get very expensive for the amount of food that you would be eating,

for the amount of training, and just like all the attention that you're putting on yourself. That's why I had those other jobs. I'll say I worked at Denny's every Friday and Saturday night. And sometimes I work at Western Warehouse at a booth store on my days off, you know. And then I work for my apartment complex. and those three jobs, almost four. You got a police department, they helped me out a lot. Because like I said, you know, diet food was real expensive, you know, all the stuff you had to buy.

And then supplements, Brian pretty much gave me for free. I had to pay. And it was a lot because at least like every two or three months, you know what, I'd have to have all these, aminos, these proteins, multivitamins, minerals, all this new stuff they was coming out with, vanadil, sulfate, and all these new things that they had on the market that, you know, helped put on muscle back in those days. Brian gave me all that for free.

And it helped out a whole lot. You must have been saving a lot of money, though, because you had multiple different sources of income. I wasn't saving a dime. No rent? And every time I got back into your body on my body. Interesting. The chicken, chicken was expensive.

But you had to eat half chicken breast. Turkey was expensive. You had turkey breast. And you had to eat five, six times a day, you know. You was constantly buying a lot of chicken, a lot of turkey. Me, I was eating fish back then. So it was a lot of fish, you know. It was a lot of food, a lot of rice, a lot of potatoes.

You know, you was constantly buying all. healthy food and it was real expensive. And I had a car note. How much do you think you were spending back then? Oh man. I was spending, see, I was making, I was spending at least probably a good extra $10,000 just on food. Really? Yeah. But once I started eating six times a day and need more, because I used to eat, I didn't know at the time. I used to eat like 10, 12 ounces of food, you know, well, it was like steak, chicken, turkey. And then I had this nutrition.

It's like, dude, you weren't eating enough. I'm like, what? Like, you got to, if you want to get bigger, you got to eat more. I'm like, how much more? He was like, at least four or five ounces more than what you're eating. I'm like, what? He's like, yeah. And he was right.

As soon as I started, went from like 10 ounces to 16 ounces, that's when I started putting on size. Really? But it was so hard to eat that much food. And then I didn't have enough time in the day because I was working full time. So what I had to do is get up in the middle of the night, eat, and go back to bed. So I, you know, I slept, you know, like six hours a day. I would wake up at, I'll go to bed at like four because I was up, you know,

You know, once I got out from work, I was up doing cardio and, you know, still trying to get all my rest of the stuff I had to do for the day. I'll go to bed from like four and I wake up at seven. I would eat from seven to eight and wake up at eight and do my, I mean, work up. I sleep from eight to 11. Yeah. So it's seven and eight, eat, then eight to 11 sleep and wake up at the 11. to do cardio, eat, and work out and then go to work. Why do cardio and then eat?

It seems like the two would kind of cancel each other out. Well, see, you did cardio on an empty stomach because that's when your body is in this real high state of burning calories. Kind of like a catabolic state. So you want to do your cardio as soon as you wake up. Like I had a trip mirror right beside my bed I get out of bed And get right on it

Every morning Unbelievable Mm-hmm Yep I'm curious if the Interrupted Sleep could adversively affect your games No no no whatsoever

I did it for every last Olympia that I won So That that To be honest with that That's when I started winning When I started doing that But I heard that sleep is one of the most crucial parts of getting gains and recovering and letting your muscles, like, get back to where they

were. That's why I got a good six hours of sleeping every single day. See, by the time, you know, I lay down, I was, I was snoring like three minutes later. Every single time I went to sleep. Even when I woke up and went back to bed, I was snowing three minutes later. Really? Yeah. Three hours of REM sleep. Just knock out. Right into the deepest state. Yeah. So you naturally seem to function perfectly off of six hours of sleep. I need eight.

I need a nine. I was born lucky in it. I only needed six. And that's all I was able to get to. Because like I said, I had a lot of stuff to do throughout the day. Did you end up buying your chicken and poultry and stuff like that from just a normal grocery store? Or did you find a different place where you could source the food for a discount? Because you're buying so much of it?

I would try to, you know, give it like a discount, you know, if I bought so much. So I would go to the store and like, hey, man, get like 20 pounds of, you know, steak, and give it at a discount because back then it was like, it's like almost $20 a pound. And he's like, yeah, I can cut you a little. So like I give you to you like 15 a pound if you bought like 20 pounds at once. Okay, cool. Anything with chicken, you know. So that's what I did.

I bought a lot at one. Best thing about it is my mom cooked all my food. So it was kind of like I was only diet, but the food was so good. She was so, such a good chef that it didn't seem like I was eating diet food because she was the best cook I ever known to this day. I was under the understanding that if you're a bodybuilder and you eat the same foods over and over and over again, eating food is more so treated like a chore and a responsibility than it is something that you can get enjoyment from because it's just like it's work.

So you eat you're eating for survival. So you don't really care about taste a whole lot, but taste is pretty good because it makes to make you want to do it. But like I said, my mom was like the best cook ever. I mean, I didn't really know I was on it. I couldn't really tell I was on a diet. And I would play these games with myself, like, you know, for potatoes. Instead of eating just a regular baked potato, I would get a crinker cutter and cut it up to make it look like a french fry.

And I would put it in the oven. And after about an hour being in there, it kind of looked like a french fry. It was golden brown, you know. So I'm like, okay, I'm eating french fries now. And people actually thought I was eating french fries, too. How do you eat french fries on a diet? That's a secret. At what point, though, did you realize that working out and eating healthy wasn't enough

if you wanted to win Mr. Olympia? That was easy. When I didn't place well. And it was a while before I, once I turned pro that, you know, I started placing a little bit better. When I was an amateur, of course, I won just about every show I entered, you know. But once I turned pro, it was a while. See, I turned pro in 91. My first pro at 92.

I won my first show in 95. So it's 92, 93, 94. Like three years almost. It took me. And what were the biggest differences? Because I heard you say that you walked, you were talking to another bodybuilder who said, here's what I'm on.

And if you want to get to my size, this is what I recommend. Why would they just give away their secrets? Because it seems to me like this would be a very closely guarded thing that people wouldn't want to explain what they're on, you know, any enhancements that they're doing because they wouldn't want someone else to compete. Oh, you make a very valid point there. I guess the guys, you know, that I grew up with, you know,

to be honest with you, I guess they figured that, hey, everybody's body is different and everybody's body is going to respond differently to different things. and then just because I'm telling you this don't necessarily mean that you're going to do it, you know. Yeah. Because there's, you know, it all depends on the person. Everybody's going to make a decision about what they are willing to do and not do.

Yeah. So, and then, you know, you got to look at it too that, the guy that you're giving the information to, even though you're going to be up the on stage with them, it's not like you're making the decision. about where everybody's going to place. You know, they have the judges that's going to really make the final decision about how everybody places and everything.

So I guess that's just where most of them looked at it. Because a guy named Flex Wheeler, he taught me a whole lot. And had it not been for some of the things that he taught me, I really probably wouldn't have done as, Well, I know for a fact I wouldn't have done it as good as I did. And then again, too, God has a plan for each and every single one of us, you know. Amazon presents Jeff versus Taco Truck Salsa, whether it's Verde, Roja, or the Orange One. For Jeff, trying any salsa is like playing Russian roulette with a flamethrower.

Luckily, Jeff saved with Amazon and stocked up on antacids, ginger tea, and milk. Habaniero? More like Habinier, yes. Save the everyday with Amazon. Something I've always believed that something is meant that happened and it's God's plan for it to happen, it's going to happen.

No, regardless of where that information comes from, I believe that, you know, something that are destined to happen or going to happen regardless. Yeah. Eventually, you know. I agree with that. One way or another.

Was there a specific moment that you can point to where you realize not only are you obviously like a pro bodybuilder and you're really successful, but at an elite level, like in the top 10 or something where it's like it's a serious accomplishment, like something elite, rather than like, because you grew up your entire life, people were complimenting you, saying you had a great physique, saying you should compete.

But that's a big difference from like, like, you know, Ronnie Coleman. Like I said, that passion, you know, you have about doing certain things. You never really working a day in your life. You know, I was having so much fun doing what I was doing. I didn't really look at it like that. You know, of course, you know, the competitive side of you wants to do the very best you can. let me say competitive side of you wants to win, if you show you're in, you know.

But the realistic side of you is like, well, some things are not possible. So you got to kind of like to take the good with the bad. If you're doing something, you really truly love doing. And bodybuilding was something that I truly love doing and look forward to doing each and every single day. Working for the police department was something that I enjoyed doing and look forward to doing each and every single day.

A lot of people used to ask me all the time, man, how do you work a full-time job and do this bodybuilding thing? There's no way I could work a job and do bodybuilding. I'm like, yeah, that's a pretty good question, but, you know, I look forward to, you know, doing my job. look forward to going to work at the police department, you know, when I have to go. And those are the things that I love doing. So if there's a will, there's always a way.

And I made a way. And then I have people like, would ask me like, so how do you do it? I said, well, goes back to that saying, there's a will, there's a way. So I figured if I could work in the same area that I lived in, I can always go home and eat a meal. Like I said, when I was at work, I had to eat two meals at work. Because I worked in the same area that I lived in, it only took me 15 minutes to eat a meal. because, you know, you're real hungry when it's time to eat, and when you're real hungry, it don't take long to put down some food.

And I'm only eating, like, chicken and rice and that's it, you know. It don't take 10 minutes top for me to eat that. We get two 15-minute breaks, if time allows, and a 45-minute lunch break in my job, if time allowed. But there were times that, you know, I'd be eating my lunch, dispatch is like, I need you to clear that lunch and take this call. Okay. So I had to clear, you know, in the middle of taking that bite, you had to clear lunch and go answer a call.

You don't get that, you know, get a lunch break that day. Now, I know that you were a police officer very far into your bodybuilding career. So you're a huge guy showing up and, you know, it's breaking up fights or showing up on the scene and stuff like that. I'm guessing that in and of itself disarmed any potential threats. You know, some guys acting violent. You show up and he's just like, you know, I quit it. I'm so sorry. Put the handcuffs on.

Exactly. Don't touch me. Yeah. They said mere presence of the uniform itself is, you know, creates peace. But when you, 320 pounds and you show up in that uniform. It's instant peace. Yeah, instant peace. So did you show up?

So did other officers notice this, that when you would show up people behave? Oh, of course they did. But when they're there, they kind of misbehave. I feel like that would make so much more sense for officers to get ripped. Yeah, there were a lot of officers that were smaller than me that had fights, especially the girl. They had fights all the time. My whole 15-year career, I didn't have not one fight.

Not one fight. Not one. And I'm, every day, I'm like, okay, this is going to be the day. You wanted to fight. You're like, someone's going to fight. Every day I get to work. And like, this is going to be the day. I have somebody, an ignorant person, you know, challenge me or something.

Nope. They won the day. Who would do that? Nobody, nobody never did it. I'm like, oh, man. It's not a coincidence. It's obviously not a coincidence. Yeah.

But I feel like that would be great for the police departments to now enforce. in some capacity, like, hey, you have to be really strong and maintain your peak physical profile so you can disarm certain situations and not have to like, just intimidation. Exactly. Yeah, a lot of stuff is against the law, though, you know. Yeah. Yeah. I can't do that, Jack.

I just say, I mean, it would make sense if we're trying to protect and serve. Yeah. I just think, you know, it'd probably be a lot of peace in this world. Well, I think that's why balancers are often. Yeah. All the balancers that you see outside of the, like, the best clubs, they're, all like six foot, four, and ripped. Yeah.

They're not going to hire a guy at me in front of the club. You know, what's funny is I heard that you, you know, you never got into a fight. You're 15 years in the police department. Never. But you did get into a fight working Denny's. Mm-hmm. Yep. I sure did.

What was that guy thinking? He didn't see me. Or he wasn't thinking, right? No, he had his back turn to me. And, say, he was walking out the door, actually getting ready to walk out. And I was, he never saw me. He was drunk, of course. You know, first of all, he never saw me just sitting there.

And he was getting ready to walk out and do it. I'm like, hey, God, I need you to calm down. And, of course, he didn't see me. All he heard was a voice. And he's like, whatever. So I went and grabbed him by the horn. And he pulled away. And that was the, they get.

mistake he ever made in his whole life. I tried to break his arm and his leg. And his leg. And his face. And when I finished with him, he was bleeding from the mouth, nose, and he had trouble with his arm. And matter of fact, he complained. He wrote a letter and complained on me.

to file police brutality against me. But when I was in college, I was sports senator, so I was real good at writing. And I took every technique that they taught me at the police department, and I used it in my narrative. Yeah. So, you know, to tell, you know, why I did what I did. and because, you know, I was a pretty good sports center and a pretty good writer, you know, for the newspaper, college newspaper.

They actually used my narrative, narrative that I wrote, my rebuttal that I wrote, you know, when this guy tried to say, you know, I used excessive force. and they used my narrative to train the recruits. Yeah, you did. I wrote it that good. Because I remember, you know, everything that I was taught, you know, when I was sports editor. And so needless to say that, went nowhere. Now, I'm curious then, after winning the first Olympia,

How much do you make from something like that? Like what changes financially when that happens? Are people throwing deals your ways or like a cash prize? I've always been curious about that. The biggest thing I got from winning the Olympia was the endorsement. Of the prize money for winning Olympia, $100,000, that's but nothing. You know, I did use that to pay off my house. But the big money came from endorsements, you know, other stuff that I did.

I had a supplement contract, you know, clothing contract. I had a shoe contract. So all the real money comes from endorsement. Do you remember back then how much that was combined? It was pretty close to a million dollars, yeah. Back in what year was this? One of my first Olympia in 98. Okay.

Yeah. And of course, you know, I was, I was, I had, I had quite a few endorsements, though. And then, you know, I had personal appearances I was doing, you know, so it was, it was, it was, it was, it was in the millions. Do you remember what you spent the money on? Were you, were you frugal after that point? Because I was, I, I, I saved a lot and put in in, in retirement. Like I said, you know, I'll be, uh, getting a retirement check. I think at the end of this year. And from one of those, then when I turn 60 next year,

I get my police retirement. And then, you know, Social Security, I put money into, I put a lot of money into that also. So I'll, I'll be pretty, pretty much set for life, you know. Now, at what point then after winning, did people start recognizing you

when you would walk in as a police officer? And then it would say, wait a second. are you Ronnie? Is that you? I've seen you. And it's just like they put down what they were stealing. Yeah.

Yeah, because, you know, everybody was doing stories on me. CNN was doing stories, local news channels, all of them. You know, I did so much with so many different news stations paper. Back then, you know, they had a lot of magazine stuff. You know, I did a lot of magazines. I did a lot of radio. I did a lot of radio.

So back then, you know, I became known for that. You know, you do talk shows like Jay Leno and Montel. Even Roseanne had a show I did. So I was pretty popular, you know, and still, and today. I think I'm more popular now than I was because of social media. you know, they didn't have that when I was coming up, you know. But because of the social media thing, I'm more popular today with the younger crowd than I am.

Like I was just in a store right before I came here, when we were that Chipotle getting. I think this kid had to be no more than eight years old. Like, I saw you on TikTok. On TikTok. Yeah. You know, I take a picture. I get that a lot, though.

And then, like, when I was, I was just recently in Italy, and most of the kids that came up to me were, like, junior high and high school. So I think one of the people that were there were asked the kid, how do you know him? And they're like, yeah, we're some on TikTok or we're something on YouTube or something. Yeah. So I say because of, you know, social medium a lot more. like three times more known than I was back then.

So do you say then you're making more money now than you were? Way more. Really? Way, way more now than I did back then. Do you mind sharing how much you were making when you were winning Olympia multiple times in a row? A little over a million, you know, when I was winning the Olympia. and, you know, now I make millions from different sources, you know, like the YouTube.

I got my own supplement company. I have a closing endorsement, you know. But it's mostly from social media. For you doing social media, does that feel like work? Or is this something that you would do for free, like the other things, but you just happen to make money off of it? It's something I would do for free. I mean, what am I doing? Talking about stuff.

Basically, just talking about this. Yeah. I mean, that's not working. I loved it in a video that you said. I think it was a documentary where you said you'd go to work and most people would say, you know, another day and another dollar. But you said another day, another quarter. Another day? Another quarter.

Yeah, exactly. Because of how much money you were making your bodybuilding. Yeah, compared to working with police department. Yeah, exactly. Do you, why? I know you say you enjoy. it so much. That's why I did it. Just because you enjoyed it. That's because I enjoy it.

And, you know, for me, it was like an escape from it also. You know, it allowed me not to think about it and have it on my mind all the time. You know, just worrying about that one thing. You know, when somebody's out to try to kill you, you know, you got a lot more to worry about then when you're next meal or when you next workout yeah and when did you decide to make this shift into social media and why because it seems like you were at a point where it's like you could do anything in the world you don't need to do anything for money anymore i mean it was kind of like one of those things that that was evident obvious you know uh there was the thing that everybody was

doing you know so because everybody's doing is only naturally natural for you to do it too. I never forget when, what was that, Instagram came out. You know, they already had Facebook and some other ones. Probably my space before that. You need to sign up for this Instagram thing. I'm like, no, I got enough on my plate to be worried about Instagram. She's like, well, I'm going to sign you up for it myself.

And just because she did that, you know, I'm wearing it at the day because of that. You know, he decided she was going to sign me up for it anyway if I wasn't going to sign it because I really wasn't going to sign up for it because I'm like, you know, I got enough, you know. I'm going to get an email that I can barely keep up with this Facebook thing. I can barely keep up with. Why is what I want to, you know, add to what I don't have enough time for anyway. But, you know, it came obvious after a while that if you really want to monetize, your work and make the most you can,

this is the way to do. And it is so easy to do. I'm sure everything is easy. It's got to be easy compared to what you were going through. Growing up, I had some pretty hard jobs. This was one job I had in Louisiana. It was called chopping cotton. But it's not what you think.

When they first told me it was going to be chopping cotton, I'm thinking, okay, I got to go out there. and chop the cotton. No, you got to go out there and you got to chop the grass from around the cotton. So the machine, well, when it comes along and picks it, you know, they had machines by the time. When the machine comes along and pick it, you don't pick up the grass too. That was the hardest job ever because you're out there from six in the morning until 12 noon. They will not let you work past that because you will die.

you would literally die no matter how much water you're drinking because you know have you ever seen cotton the way they planted or it's like I think the fields

it's about a mile long yeah the rows of it it's about a mile long so you had to walk from one end now way down to the other end and you bent over and the sun there's no shade

nowhere because the only way for cotton the grove it has to be sun no shade and so all the fields are out there and then louisana you think 108 well i forget we in california i live in texas yeah yeah right it's a hundred and eight every day we're in Vegas so it's about about the same but you guys have humidity yeah it's a different the humidity in texas is not as bad as it is in louisiana sure it's like a hundred percent every single day. It actually feels like you are in a stove. Really?

Working inside of it. Every single day. That's how hot it was out there. Well, of course, after a while, you kind of get used to it, too, because I'll never forget the time I left, you know, Louisiana and moved to Texas. And it was about maybe three years before I came back. And when I came back and I hit Louisiana, I stepped out of, the car and that heat hit me. I'm like, wow. I never knew how hot it was out of how humid it was out here until now. Because it's like I stepped out of my car and stepped into an oven. That's how hot it is in Louisiana where I'm from. The humidity in Texas is nothing compared to it. So then that raised the threshold for what you consider difficult. It's like you compare it to that. Yeah, that, yeah. And that was another job. I worked, we had a jackhammer.

And they had these paper mills. And for some reason or another, they would use asbestos or something because, you know, they are working with all these chemicals. And so they have to have everything insulated in these paper mills. That job we were literally had on a suit the whole time we were working. Full hazard suit, breathing oxygen. with this jackhammer just eight hours a day that's a hard that's that's that's hard work chopping cotton that's the hardest work ever nothing's harder than that and you think so social media

I would consider that work see I think social media could be more of a mentally taxing thing because at least for me I'm always thinking about it like my mind never shuts off every waking moment is thinking YouTube, titles, thumbnails, strategy, trends, nonstop. See, I got things I can compare it to. I got jobs. I can compare social media to growing up in Louisiana. Yeah. You know, that was one job I had working in a restaurant, washing dishes for eight hours.

I've had some pretty good jobs, pretty bad jobs. Yeah. Pretty bad jobs. Why did you stay at the cotton place? Like what was the motivation of staying there if it was the most grueling labor you've ever had? They paid you real good. For that. Yeah.

If minimum wage was a dollar an hour, they paid you like $4 an hour. Oh, wow. So you're like, oh, okay. Yeah. Sign me up for that job. That makes sense. Yeah. And they did.

They paid you real good. But it was hard. It was the hardest work I've ever done. Do you think that helped build character for where you are today? For the most part, I'll say it like this. I've always enjoyed money for some reason or another. But I've always found a way to make it. I think I started my first job when I was like eight years old.

I would sweep the parking lot of the neighborhood grocery store, and then I would mop inside, and then I would stock drink. They paid me a quarter a day. And back then, you know, this 70s. That was a lot of money because you could buy a lot with a quarter. You could buy a snickers. Soda was a nickel. You could buy a soda and cookies.

Oh, man, it went a long ways. I remember my grandpa would tell me all the things that he could buy with a nickel. Exactly. That's the favorite thing to do. Yeah, it backed in like the 19th. 30s, but he would say you go to the candy store with a nickel and you'd be able to buy whatever you want it. Like, you get like bags of candy for a new.

Yeah, that's where, that's where a quarter was for me. Yeah. Yeah. So that was a lot and I've always worked. You know, I had jobs where I would mow yards, knock on people's door, you need your yard mowed. Yeah. I did that for a long time. And Louisiana, they had pecan trees everywhere.

I would always just go to a tree and just throw a stick up there and knock. as many dollars I could, and they would buy them from you at the liquor store. Yeah. So I did that job. And then Coke bottles. Recycling? Well, you can call it that. They would give you like a nickel for, you took the Coke bottle.

Most of the grocery stores did that. You brought them in there. Yeah. So, oh, man, there's so many ways I can make money. And so many ways I did make money. Yeah. At one time when I was in high school, I had three. jobs. I was working the clock

for the intermeal games. I was working at that store you know, stocking the drinks and everything, clean up. And I worked at a restaurant when washing dishes and, you know, cleaning tables and stuff like that. I had three jobs that I was doing at one time. And what were you spending the money on? Are we just saving it? I was spending the money. I'm closing.

Close. Come on, man. No. I wasn't saving nothing. I was spending everything. Every nickel or dime I made on either clothes or food, I've always eaten, ate a lot. I've always eaten a lot. So I was always eating. And, you know, I didn't depend on my mom for, you know, these things, you know. I was kind of like an independent contractor of the kid.

I pretty much made my own money because I didn't want to buy the shoes that, you know, she would buy for. Yeah. I didn't want to wear the clothes that she would buy for. I bought my own, you know. Did any party you want to save that, though, just knowing that, like, hey, you didn't grow up for money, so you should save more of it? Or were you just like, I'll just make more? I didn't really have a reason to save back then, because, like I said, I had needs of my own. Like I said, I didn't want to buy.

I didn't want to wear what she wanted to buy me. So I bought my own stuff. And I made my own money. And like I said, I ate a lot back then, a whole lot. I've always eaten a whole life. So where did this intensity and wantingness to work and push yourself and excel and everything that you did because you said you graduated cum laude, you applied to 100 jobs, you were an intense lifter ever since you were like 12 years old, you've continued not only to excel,

but also to have this crazy high level of dedication and focus towards every single thing that you do in life? Where does this come from? Was it something that was instilled to? you by your parents or was it just like you think it's an innate thing you were born with it it was something that i was born with i was always trying to be the best at everything that i did i was always challenged myself to be the best at everything it was that i did because being the best um the rewards were greater you know and uh i always challenged myself at everything that i did

everything, even if I was, you know, playing a pickup game of cards, checkers, chess, anything, I was always challenging myself to be the best at everything that I did. Same thing in college, like you were saying, you know, if I wasn't the smartest guy in every class I went to, I would always study with the smartest guy. Like, who's in here? Who in here in this class is smarter than me? most the time I was this morning, sometimes I wouldn't. So I'm like, okay, if I learn from him, I can be like him.

Yeah. And I've always challenged myself like that. Everything I've always did. Not like, like you said, it's kind of like that inalability that I was kind of like born with. Why do you feel like you had to push yourself to be the best all the time? Because like I said, it's that, that feeling, you know, the rewards get, basically. What are the rewards?

So much better. Well, let's see. If I'm, if I was, this morning, you know, it's something, you know, there's always a challenge thing to me, you know, saying to myself, I accomplished this. So it's kind of like a personal vendetta I have in myself for the most part. If you're not the best at something, you can always become better. There's always the way that you can either outwork somebody or out-think them.

And that's kind of the way I looked at body building. You know, when I first got into it, I wasn't that good because I really didn't know that much. I figured that, you know, if I could do things that certain people won't do, I can be just as good as they are. Was it difficult for you transitioning out of professional bodybuilding knowing that this is the one thing that you were like the best in the world that many years in the row and then not doing that?

Was that like it's got to be a huge shock? Yeah, in a way it was because you know, you're entering into a different field or something that you don't know a lot about, But it was the same way with bodybuilding, you know. I didn't know a lot about that. And eventually, I learned, you know. And like I said, if you're not the smartest,

you can always learn from somebody who he is. And that's pretty much how I looked upon life my whole entire life. Are you taking the same approach now with social media? Oh, yeah. I take the same approach with just about everything. I do. I figure if there's a wheel

and there's a way. And with me, there's always a wheel. You've done some really interesting collaborations recently. I love the video with Jesse James West. Oh yeah. Yeah, we have a lot of fun. And

I was sent some of your breakdowns in terms of the businesses that you run. And it's surprising to me because everything is so separate and everything is like, it stands in its own leg from your YouTube and Facebook earnings over a million a year.

Appearance is $300,000 a year. A lot of appearances. How often are you doing appearances? Man, there was time that I would leave my house for three months. See, it's 365 days

in the year, right? So out of those 365 days, I was gone 300 days. Just doing appearances? Just doing appearances. How do you manage? Because my thought is that that's one of the least earning parts of your business, but it seemsly takes the most amount of time.

Is that worth it to you? Or is it more so about you getting in front of fans and face-to-face interactions? Let's see it like this. If it wasn't worth it, I wouldn't be doing it. Okay. Fair enough. So it was definitely worth it. Yeah.

For sure. Yeah. But then we also have apparel, $2 million a year. Coleman athletics Sponsorship deals Another one and a half And this is the one that I was telling Jack That I was shocked about

750,000 a year Doing cameo I am blown I didn't even know you could make that much money That's crazy That is I have about It's so cool

Oh my God I have about 10 of those things Hold them right now I was doing them up in my room Are you serious? How many do you get per day? Oh man Man, sometimes I can get 10.

A day? Yeah. And how much are they for per cameo? 300. 300? Yeah. That's amazing. No.

That is 10 of them. Amazing. So I'm on camera. You don't take that long to do it. You know, how long do it take, say, happy birthday or happy anniversary? So I'm on cameo. What advice do you have for me? Mine is 175 for a cameo, and I maybe get one a week.

Oh, man. I mean, but I don't push it. Do you, do you, like, advertise the cameo all the time? Or people just find it because it's like... They just find it. I don't advertise it at all. Imagine what you could do if you advertise it. Yeah, I know.

Well, now that we're talking about, people are going to see it. Because I'm also on memo, too, which is the same thing as cameo. Yeah. So, you know, uh, yeah, if I advertise, I wouldn't be able to keep up with it, for sure. That's incredible 10. I can't believe that. I mean, 700. Do you just, you just, you just, you know, you?

You must grow desensitizing. If I'm getting 10 a day, I'm like, I would be sad. Like I said, there's a wheel. There's a way. Then we got live signings another $300,000 a year. And then hosting bodybuilding shows 350. And this is what I find really interesting is your supplement company that's projected to do $30 million in revenue this year. Yeah, you should have sold we started out of it, though.

So tell us how. This is our, what, our 12th year, I think, 13th year? When did you start doing supplements and what prompted you to get into that? How do you design it? How do you make that? Well, see, I started with supplements back in 1994, I think I had my first contract. I was with two or three different other companies. And I saw the profit they were making.

I'm like, man, if I'm making them this kind of money, what kind of money can I make myself if I got into it. And that's how I got into it. And how are those first few years for your supplement company? Extremely tough. Like I said, those were the years. I was gone 300 days because I had so many appearances to do. You know, my supplement business is probably 80% international and 20% domestic.

Really? Yeah, because we started the company internationally. We didn't even do domestic for some years. Why did you choose to only open it? The body building is way more popular international than it. I had no idea. What countries? Just about anywhere.

Really? Anywhere else anywhere. I've gone to places like India and filled the whole entire mall with people. The whole. Why do you think that is? Brazil is the same thing. The whole entire mall. You looked and you see all.

these levels of people. It's kind of mind-blowing. I have pictures of some of it, but I probably couldn't find out if I try. But it's so, like, I was this, one time I was in Bulgaria, and I was with the president, opening chess tournament, opening gym, you know. I don't think I've even met a president here in the United States. But in another country, I can be with one. I've met in several different countries I've met the president of the country and hung out with him.

That's wild. Why is it so much bigger internationally than here in the United States? Because internationally, they don't have any bodybuilders. Really? They really and truly don't. All the great bodybuilders come from the United States. You know, every now and then, And, you know, like Mr. Olympia now is a guy from Iran, you know.

Before that, the only other Mr. Olympias I can think of right now that was from another country. If I thought back for a number, if I probably think of another. But during Yates, he won six from England. But, you know, after that, I can't think of any other guy that won the Olympia. because, but of course, you know, there are other bodybuilders in these countries, but they're just not, you know, on the same level that we are. It's like God's like, come on. Put all the great bodybuilds in America.

Why, I don't know, but that seems like that's the way it is. So that's why we launched our company in Spain, in 2009. Do you think part of that has to do with the unhealthy diet, culture in America and how we're a very obese country. And people just generally don't care so much about that. And in other areas, like, you know, people, I don't know, they're healthier. I think that has a lot to do with it. I saw something on Twitter earlier today that was comparing the average meal for a middle

school student in the United States versus that of a middle school student in France. And the differences were astine. I mean, the Americans had all the fried food, processed food, The Italians were eating like salads, grapes, carrots, like a chicken bread or like fish. It's like you don't have that. Seriously, there's a thing of salmon on a plate. That's funny. Like the average.

You even just think that like someone middle school is having fish. And then you can see how many obese people there are in these other countries too, you know, like China. I mean, I'd name a whole bunch of countries, you know, compared to the U.S., how many. obese people they are. Yeah. But, you know, I guess it's the culture. That's what I did with. When's the last time you had McDonald's?

Probably when I won the Olympia. You're serious? That's my go-to meal after every Olympia. Are you serious? It's been that long. Yeah. And what do you order? I can't stand it now.

You can't stand it? You don't like the taste of it. But the last time you had it was that long ago. That long ago. What did you order? Double quarter pounder with cheese. Yeah, this is my, after a celebration meal, I have pizza already in the room because I've already had somebody to order it. And I've always already ordered champagne nine times out of ten.

Don't perio. We'll eat pizza in the room for about an hour, hour and a half. And then we go to McDonald's and we'll have a quarter pounder with cheese, a couple of them maybe. Oh my gosh. Some chocolate chip cookies. And then after that, we go to the strip club. The whole family. The whole family?

Yeah. Whoever celebrating with me, that's what we're going. How much would you spend there? Who cares? Who cares? You just lost track. Who cares? I just won.

Would the strippers recognize you as you walk and be like, hey, that's, you just won? No, because they are, they are, they, it's dark in there, first of all, you know, and they have certain clients that they are used to dealing with for most of them. No, not really. They don't really. How would they treat you being like such a big guy walking in there? Did you get like special treatment or like what? He would need three while everyone else.

If it's a small one, yeah, I get real special treatment. If it's a big one like the one in Vegas, they don't even know of me. Plus I had my whole family with me, my mom. Why would you go with your mom? My, my sisters. My aunt. Yeah, my brother. I can see your brother, but like why the whole family?

Why not just say like, Family that, you know, wings together, it hangs together. Would you buy them, like, dances? Like your mom and your sister? What are they coming with you for just to hang out? Just to hang out. They just hang out. Wow.

Is that not awkward to be with your mom? It's like, I'd get awkward. I couldn't do it. Oh, yeah? You ain't got a mom like mine, then. My mom is known for a party in every single night of the way. week. So do you only then go to strip clubs once you win?

Yeah. Okay, so if you were to lose, would you not go to a strip club? Oh, yeah. Because I think the year I lost, we still went. Sure did. It would go either way. It doesn't matter. It really doesn't matter.

It's a routine. So we're doing it. It's the same routine. Win or lose. I'm curious because this may sound like an odd question, but I'm just so fascinated. when you're that ripped, that huge, that muscular, do you think that you have more success with the ladies than somebody who's like ripped,

but not like, I mean, like traps or like, you know, six inches off your shoulders, you know, like. No doubt. You have more success when you're that. No doubt. Interesting. I don't know. I wouldn't, these basketball players,

I think they may have me beat. Maybe some of the football players. too. Taco some of those guys they get a lot of attention too. So I think for the most part I think

sports where they can see your face you know, get most of the tension because, you know, I don't know about the football players because they wear their helmets and stuff so it's kind of hard and, you know, to see, especially like a guy that's, you know, blocking, you know, for somebody. Yeah.

She's making the money and everything, but he doesn't have his face out there. So he always has on that helmet. Now, the guy's catching the ball, you know, soon they catch, they take that helmet. Yeah. They take that hell at all. The guy running the ball in, yeah, soon. And, of course, the quarterback saying those guys, you know,

I think they also real popular with the women. Now, how would you balance everything you're doing with also, like, having a family, relationships? How do you find the time for all that? Do you prioritize like one thing at a time or like one over another? Like right now I got to work out. This is my priority. Yeah, I've always prioritized.

Workout and work came before anything. Yeah. So there were times where like when I'm in camp getting ready for the show, they know not to even come by my house. First of all, I'm in a bad mood. Always. and I don't really know it that I'm in a bad mood because it's normal for me to act like that a certain way, you know, because I'm so focused, you know, you kind of lose track of certain things. And your attitude is one of them.

And then they already know, you know, that when it's training camp comes, I'm in training camp. There's no partying. There's no hanging out. There's no going to movies. There's no birthday parties. There's no nothing. Everything is revolved around, you know, getting ready for the show for the most part. And how long would you be in that mindset for?

I'll say three months. Okay. Sometimes four. I heard Floyd Mayweather is the exact same way. Yeah. Before a fighter, when he's training, he just. He just zones in. You can't talk to him.

No one's around him. He is just in that zone 24-7. Yep. 24-7. Don't go nowhere. Don't really do too much or nothing, you know. And that's just the way it is. And after your performances, let's say you win a Mr. Olympia,

you said that you celebrate for a day. What's it look like after that one night? Are you still going to continue eating for a little bit? Back to business. One day off. One day to have fun. One day off. Well, I wouldn't call it a day all because you just won.

You know, at least working earlier that day. So it's a few hours off. And then it's back to business. Yeah. How did having your first daughter change your outlook on life? I was in college when that happened. And really didn't give it a lot of thought. Because my mind was on, you know, making money and building a career.

Yeah. So it really wasn't a good thing for me. Sure. And it was a bad thing for, if you asked me. Yeah. And if you ask her too, she'll tell you how I treat you that particular person. And now, of course, it's different, you know. Yeah.

You know, once, you know, I've been successful. Yeah, it's a lot different. Yeah. It does kind of, like, change you in a way. But I've had, after I won the Olympia, I think I had four girls, like back to back. Yeah.

The first one was 11, I think. Being 13, 14, 15. Just that quick. Did you ever look into this of why you, would only have daughters. Is that just like a coin flip and it just happened to flip tails like multiple times in a row? Like what are the chances of that? No, God has certain purposes for certain people in life.

And mine was to populate the earth with daughters only. There ain't no other. There's no debate in it. Seven? Seven dollars? Eight. Eight. Yeah.

These are remember. Eight dollars. No son. None. You'd think that you'd have just like an inordinate amount of like testosterone and like Why chromosomes or whatever. I was thinking that same thing. Number six did you not go to the doctor and say like, hey, look, it's six daughters in a row.

What's going on? What's going on? It's got to be. No, because I always thought it was going to be a son. You know, every time. And until the last one, I'm like, okay, it ain't going to happen. But was there a desire to try for number nine and like, hey, maybe the night has to try. My wife wouldn't have it.

She's like, I'm getting this stuff out of me, so I don't have any more. And she is, that was number six for her. Oh, my God. You got to try again. Did you keep trying because you wanted to try to get a son eventually? Eventually, you're like, you were at before and you're like, I, we'll try one more, we'll get a son. You're like, okay, we'll get one more son. Yeah, exactly.

Every time you're like, this is the one, nope. This is the one, nope. This is the one, nope. Like, oh, man, they ain't going to happen after that eight times. If you had a son, was the goal for your son to kind of get into bodybuilding as well and, like, carry your name? Not really. Not really. No.

I had to go to him to grow up and, you know, be whoever he wants to be, you know, just like me. Yeah. I grew up and called my own destiny that, you know, God put me on for the most part. Because the one I wanted that didn't happen. I like to say, I always thought I was going to be a professional football player because I had so much fun. and enjoy it so much, but it wasn't meant to be. Yeah. It was not meant to be.

It's interesting, even with Arnold's, I think he has two sons, Arnold Schwarzenegger. One, I think, is really into bodybuilding. The other's not. Yeah, exactly. And it's just kind of up to them. Yeah, it's just up to them how they want to pursue just whatever they want to life. I think that's the best way you do to go through life. Yeah.

Like kids be who they want to be Because like I said, you know Really not up to you Really not How are you as a father? Do you ever meet the boyfriends As they've brought them to you? And what was that like?

I try not to meet them Really? I try not to meet them Because I don't want to be friends with You know And then it don't work out you know got to meet another one

it don't work out got to meet another one no I'll wait to you get married and men maybe you know you'll meet them after they get married maybe yeah yeah but uh yeah I didn't really I hadn't had that

uh happen yet well my two oldest daughters yeah they both got married and I think one came to me and asked me, but the other one, not so much, and so I didn't really care either way.

I ain't trying to meet, you know, this guy and that guy. Sure. I got better things to do with my time. I would just imagine it being so intimidating. Yeah.

Well, probably would be. Yeah. Because I'm really not too nice with people I don't really know that well. Yeah. Especially when you're dating a mother. My daughter.

I believe it. Especially when you date my daughter. Oh, gosh. When you went on Rogan, he brought up stem cells to you. I'm curious because I never got to hear about a follow-up because he wanted to refer you to his friend, Dr. Riorden or Reordin or something like that. Was there any follow-through with that? Did any stem cell work? No, no.

I can't remember. It's been so long now that I don't know. if I was already doing it or not. But I know for the last, at least the last two years, almost two years that I've been getting stem cells. And it's been the best thing that has ever happened to me in my life. Really? Yeah, but you got to go out of this country to do it

because they don't really allow the real stem cells that comes from the placenta, you know. Yeah. they don't allow that here in the United States because politics for the most part you know pain people would lose too much money because for the most part it wipe it wipes out the pain is that just temporary it's for regenerative too well I'll say it's regenerative because I go like every four months. Where do you go?

Port of Arta, Mexico. Really? I was just there. Yeah. I'll be in so much pain like nights and nights in a row that I can't, you know, it'll wake me up and sometimes I can't sleep. I mean, so much pain that could I have a herniated disc in my upper back still. And mother is pain areas too. So as I get the stem cells, an injection, it completely goes away in like maybe four or five days. Completely, I go from not being able to sleep to sleeping like a baby.

So, okay, what exactly is stem cells? Like, they go and do they just take some of the placenta juice or whatever it is and then just inject it into you? And that's it. That's it. So my understanding is that what they are, they're like blank cells. They can transform to anything they want. anything you surround themselves with, they'll turn into that.

So if you inject them in your leg, they'll turn into, you know, leg cells, your spine. So they inject it into your back. Yeah, they can. The first time I had it done, that's the way they did it. Now they just do it IV,

and I guess it goes through the whole entire body. What would happen if, so I don't have any, like, like, injuries or ailments or anything like that, if a normal, healthy person started taking stem cells, would it be like a steroid of sorts? Would it make me really strong or something like that?

I don't think of do anything because it wouldn't have no purpose. Huh. You know, you got to have a reason to have them, you know, it's like treating something that's not there, for the most part, you know, on a healthy person. So for you, is that just to keep, keep it like a baseline, or is this for, like, recovery in terms of stem cells? For me, it's to keep the pain away. and hopefully, you know, recovery, you know, also. I have a lot of numbness in my feet and in my legs,

but a lot of it is gone away that was in my legs. Now, if I can get to go down to my feet, it's like the more injections I get, the better, everything else gets, the numbness and everything. thing gets to. And how much is it? Yeah. It's expensive as a stem cell.

I happen to be lucky, so I don't pay. It's free? That makes sense. Yeah. How much would it be? I think he told me, what is he telling me? I got to think because I've never had to pay. So I think he said this about $2,800 per injection.

Time you go. and you get injection. Yeah. In the United States, though, I think it was either Rogan or you mentioned this about it being like $20,000 in the United States. If you want it, and it's not as good.

Yeah. I've never tried it in the United States because I said they don't really offer it. They'll tell you it's some kind of stem cell, but it's not the real one from the placenta. Yeah. I don't know where that stem sales is coming from. It's better not to ask.

I just know, yeah, it doesn't work that good. Because I remember having it done once and nothing. You know, I didn't notice anything. No relief whatsoever. So I'm curious, what else are you doing in addition to stem cells right now? Just in terms of recovery, body health. The stem cells is taking care of everything. Really?

Fixing everything. So I don't have to do anything else. Yeah. besides that. Really? No more surgeries or anything else. You know, I was going to have another surgery on my midback with that, where the herniated dis was.

But the stem cells kind of almost healed in. Really? So I don't need that surgery anymore. The pain is pretty much gone. I mean, it was real bad at one time. It was the worst, one of the worst pains ever. I can remember over the years

I've had, you know, surgeries for the honey and this I've had like three or four like my whole neck, whole back for the most part. But this time, the stem cells healed the honey eight discs.

Yeah. And there's no pain. And if there is, you know, I can say, I always go and do the stem cell treatment, and it takes it away. Yeah. Completely away.

All of these injuries that your body has incurred, is that just an objective, byproduct of being that high level of performer and bodybuilding? Like, it's just going to happen? I don't know. Because I never really injured myself in the gym that I can recall. I remember when I was playing football in college, I hurt my back real, real bad.

And I started going to the chiropractor. And it started getting better and better every time I went. So I did chiropractic my whole college career. And then when I got out of college, I continued to go. And I can remember injured my back once in the gym. But I think I herniated a disc a long time ago. And it was around 1996, I think. You know, I kind of like kept going to the chiropractor, you know.

Most part, it at least for me, it pretty much fixed it, it healed it, and didn't have any problems with it. And all of a sudden, you know, once I stopped doing bodybuilding and stopped going to chiropractic, I started having problems with my back. And that's when I had to have this first surgery. Was there a specific turning point or something that happened that kind of bound you to having a bunch of surgeries later in life? Like was it the first herniated disc or was it a specific surgery you went undertook? It was the first surgery.

The first surgery you think is where you maybe went wrong. Well, I went wrong, yeah. So what happened there? Well, for some reason, another, you know, the other discs kind of like were affected from that first surgery. It's like you have a bunch of cans stacked on top of each other and you take one out and the other, and the other ones just fall. So I think because I operated on that one disc, it kind of messed up the other ones. That's the only thing I could see that happen because, like I said, it was never like I was in the gym working out and all of a sudden I felt the pain or something. It was just that one surgery caused the other disson of mine to herniate.

That's the only thing that's the only solution I could come away. Do you think that maybe your pain tolerance is so high that when something is wrong, it doesn't quite register with you. And you're like, now, I'll keep working out. Yep. Yeah. I keep pushing. Because I remember when I herniated a disc,

One time I was working out, just kept working out. Yeah. And all of a sudden, you know, I stopped and don't do anything. And the pain comes, you know. And by that time, it's too late because, you know, I've already injured myself and kept working out because, you know, like you said, the high pain tolerance I have. And just made it worse by.

I continued to do what I was doing. What was that workout that you were doing that herniated that first disc? I think it was squatting. I remember like it was yesterday. I was squatting like 600. And, you know, I do that all the time. Just another day. I do like 12 or 15 reps.

This day I was coming from rep number eight and I heard a loud. Bang. It was loud. It was so loud. It kind of hurt my eight. ear. And I remember like, what was that? I turned around. Actually, first, I dumped the way. I like, you know, we always, like, slap up to get each other to get each other fired up and we get ready to do something real heavy. And I thought the guy had hit me, you know, that was spot me. I was like, did you hit me?

Like, no, man, I didn't touch you. I'm like, what was that loud noise? Like, I don't know, but I heard it too. Well, with me, you know, down to the next. exercise and that's what I did. I went on to the next exercise, finished a workout, got home, and I was on my way to work because I'm like, man, I think I'm still in pain from working out. But, you know, I'm always sometimes, always in pain

after doing certain types of workout, like legs, I'll always be in pain for like an hour, two hours, something like that. It'll go away. Oh, my gosh. But, you know, it's not a major pain. But what kind of pain? Is it a soreness or is like an actual pain, pain?

Kind of like more like a soreness type of pain, you know, and it kind of like wears off after a while. Well, this day, it didn't wear off. And I'm like, something's wrong. Now, instead of going to work, I'm like, I think I better, I think I better go to hospital. And that's what it was. It was a hernia.

It was. Something was wrong. And when you were doing that squat, do you remember if, like, your form slipped for a second or if it was just complete chance that you were going down, your form was perfectly fine, something went awry and the disc herniated? It was the same form I always used. I don't know. The only thing I could think of is I did the Olympia.

and I think I took off a week because I was out of town, you know, doing stuff and didn't get a chance to go to the gym. And because I missed that week, it caused my body to get a little weaker because, you know, like I said, I do 600 all the time for 15 reps. Like it ain't, like it ain't nothing. but this particular day I think because I missed that week it kind of decreased my strength a little bit but throughout the rhythm of something I don't know what it was

all I know is coming up on rep number eight I heard a loud bang and that was it that was there I ain't any of this how much time are you spending today running your businesses like what's an average day look like for you?

I spend probably as much time as I possibly can after I work out. And I would say probably five, six hours maybe, somewhere in there a day. And you're making a gym right now? Is it a destination gym? Well, see, I had a gym in my old. house. Yeah. And somebody offered me some new equipment.

And that's part of this new endorsement I'm doing now. And now I'm going to build a new gym in this new house that I'm about to, you know, where I've already moved into it, but I'm going to build this new gym real soon, you know, when I get around to it. hopefully that's as soon as possible. So when did you buy this house? Why did you, why did you move?

What about this new house was, well, I was in the house I was in, kind of outgrew the family. Sure. The girls are getting on up there in age, you know, you know,

how girls are, they got to have their own space, you know, can't cram them all in the same room. Yeah. Like they were. Now they want their own room. So now we got

bedrooms and showers for all the girls. How big is that house? It's twice the size. The house I was living in was, I lived over 3,000. The new house is almost 6,000, a little over 6,200, something like that. That's great.

It's twice the house out. You got to do a house to it. I think that would be great. And the pool and, you know, and all that stuff too where the new house didn't the old house didn't have all that yeah and and and more land because my you know my old house i don't think i had nowhere near what i have now i almost have an acre where my old house i didn't even have close to uh what third of an acre fourth of an acre It was pretty small, especially after I built the gym, you know.

When I moved in, first moved in the house, there was no gym there or nothing. So I had a lot more land. Yeah. But once I built that gym, that took all the room that was, you know, there. So there was no, hardly no room whatsoever out there in the backyard. And it's a little bit in front, but nothing in the back. How often do you relax or just take time for your, and not do anything that either is productive or making money or like bring value to you

monetarily in some way yeah i try to at least once a year go on a vacation and that vacation films around cruise and i started that in 1999 i took my first cruise where do you cruise to usually Caribbean um Mexico and on these cruises are you you're not working at all you're kind of just taking it easy lounging by the pool getting some drinks yeah not a whole lot of work i still have to you know take email and all that kind of stuff and keep up with everything that's going on business wise and you look forward to that cruise every year a lot i look forward to that cruise every year and how long how long is the cruise uh it's seven eight day cruise okay is it like a royal Caribbean.

Yeah, we've been doing carnival. Carnival cruise. Of course, I've been on Royal Caribbean and a couple of other ones, too. But lately it's been carnival. And, you know, actually the whole family pretty much goes when they can. But when we go, it's never just me and my family. It's me and the whole family. My brothers and sisters and his nephews also go.

I mean, I'm sure you're at the point now where you can step back from the business just a little bit and maybe take two of those cruises per year, even three maybe. Well, you know, we do like go to like, we got SeaWorld. We'll go maybe twice a year. So we'll do SeaWorld. That's only, you know, like three, four days here and there. And then in the cruise. So, yeah, it's a little bit more time. Now, how often, not to just change the conversation entirely,

is body dysmorphia amongst bodybuilders? Is it pretty much every single one of them, to some extent, has a level of body dysmorphia and dissatisfaction with where they're at? I would say so, for sure. I would say so for sure. Do you think it's changing right now with, social media and Instagram that it's worse today than it was

back when you were doing it? Yeah, yeah, it's changing for sure because of social media. It's a lot worse now than you know when I was doing it. Because there's so much more criticism.

Criticism. I didn't think about that. You post a picture online and you have thousands of people nitpicking. That probably fuels it so much. So many people can criticize you. It reminds me of the guy, this is recently, was it Madison Beer,

posted a picture on Instagram, and some guy said, you're looking a little fat today. I think you should lose some weight. And she commented back on him, and she said, I wouldn't touch you with a 10-foot pole. And then he went off.

He sent her a long DM about how he was trying to be helpful and how she would, he's trying to like help her look more attractive. But she posted the screenshot. She posted the screenshot, and this guy got torn to shreds. but I didn't think about

like how you're opening yourself up to criticism of the entire world all it takes is one person just like a bum at home doing nothing with their life to comment oh I don't like this about it exactly and it's a lot of that out there a whole lot

where as I said in my day there was none of that none whatsoever so how is social media changed the bodybuilding industry do you think it's allowed us to make a lot more money in more ways than one so many different ways you're doing a great job i think collaborating with a lot of people right now yeah yeah uh i'm doing pretty good i do you have something coming up with

arnold yeah uh-huh yeah we'll be doing one with him in the morning we got this this workout so i think it'd be the first time uh be a guy from my era and a guy from his era has ever done something like this. Because, you know, Arnold won seven Olympias, I won eight. So it can only be done by, you know, a few guys anyway. So what's the video? You guys just working out together? Yeah, pretty much for the most part.

Because Arnold, I think he works out every single day just like me. I work out six days a week still, you know. And I think he's doing the same thing, too. And where's he's a little bit older than me, though? Where is that going to be posted? Probably have it on YouTube, you know, other places. I would lose it. I would lose it to be in the room.

Probably everywhere. Seriously, just don't be a fly on the wall and just watch. It's like Arnold Schwarzenegger's working out. I would lose it, man. Do you know what the workout is? Quite sure we'll come over with some pretty entertaining. Entertainment. Yeah, between, you know, my eight Olympic.

and here's seven old interviews where we will be able to come over something you're going to rub that in his face that you have one on him every chance I get yeah that hey aren't a little better here every chance I get yeah yeah of course got to get him on something got me everywhere else and how do you feel like social media has helped your overall businesses because it seems like right now this feeling a lot of the growth especially for supplements yeah cameos majorly in a major way yeah has allowed us for sure the business to grow and just about everything else too, you know. Yeah. You know, like I said, there's so many avenues now, you know, so many social media sites they get out there now.

So there's so many ways to get, you know, the word out to people in the masses of people that's on there too. You know, there are so many people on there. And some of these people have, what, 200 million followers, 100 million followers, stuff like that. So it goes to show you how many people are really into it. Alongside your incredible level of focus and pain tolerance and I would just say just intensity, I'm also noticing a consistent level of optimism and positivity, even in the face of extremely tough and challenging circumstances. Yep.

Is this also something that you feel like you were just born with? Do you think that it's provided to you through faith? Do you think that it's something that you could have learned from overcoming this adversity? Yep. Over and over and over again, it's optimistic? I think because I've overcome so much adversity, and they almost 60 years as I've been on here on this planet, that I'm able to overcome that much more as long as,

long as I'm here on this planet because of the fight in me. They say it's not the size of the dog in the fight, but the size of the fight in the dog. And I got quite a bit in me. You have to, you know, be successful in these days and time. What else do you want to accomplish? Oh, to be honest with you, I've always said, As long as we are here, we're here for a reason. And whatever that reason may be, we're going to figure it out,

and we're going to accomplish it. And I'm just waiting, you know, on what it is, the reason why I'm still here. And I think for the most part, the reason that I'm still here is because, you know, right now I have a family, you know, I have to look out for it and take care of. So right now, everything is all of us. It revolves around them, you know, taking care of them and teaching them that, you know,

life is not going to be easy and nothing is going to be given to you. Like I say, anything that you're going to get out of life, you're going to have to work hard. But with that hardworking dedication, there are some great rewards to come from it. You were told you were too big for Mr. Olympia. No, yeah. Yeah, I was told that one year. But who told you that? One of the judges.

The judge said you were too big. The one time I listened to a judge and I'm like, okay, I'll never do that again because the next year I came in. They said I was too small. And I was like, okay, I'm going to just start taking my own advice like I've always done and do what I want to do. And that's when I came in the heaviest ever at almost 300 pounds on stage. How are you too big to win? Because isn't it like size of the muscles?

I think it's proportion. Well, yeah, it's by shape and symmetry and condition. I guess I didn't have enough condition at the size I was. Oh, so like less body fat percentage? Water. Oh, water. Yeah. I hear it's pretty crazy leading up to the 24 hours before the judges.

Pretty crazy. Isn't it like you have to dehydrate a certain amount to show the muscles? Yeah, yeah. How do you learn how to do that? You have to put your faith in God. Oh, gosh. for the most part because this is extremely hard to do it's extremely hard and you can only do it for a certain amount of time

maybe the most you could probably do that is probably like three hours four hours at the time maybe at the most but after that you are seriously putting the heart in danger of collapsing and that's happened a lot lately. What percentage of having an elite bodybuilding physique is lifting versus nutrition versus like stretching versus like water intake? Like if you were to make a pie

what would the slices look like with all of the different equations that fall into having an elite bodybuilding physique? 60% is from the food. 30% is from the workout and the rest is everything else combined in there sleep and all that kind of stuff yeah yeah

because I used to think you know if I'm in the gym working out and lifting as heavy as I possibly can with doing a certain number of reps while I'm doing it that I would get big I thought that would be it but come to find out that size comes from eating.

And I learned that the hard way when I had to kind of like stuff myself. And it was real hard to do it at first. And my body kind of adjusted and I got used to it. Was there ever a period of time where the eating and nutrition was harder than the working out? Yeah. It was harder. Yeah, yeah. That was the time.

it was harder than working out when I had to eat all that food like when I went from 10 ounces or 12 ounces to 16 ounces that's when it was harder than working out and everything else how does your stomach expand so quickly to not like

it didn't expand quickly it took a long time for me to do that it took probably about two or three months for my stomach to I get to expand or whatever to get used to that. There comes a certain point if I'm eating, let's say I go to like, oh, you can eat sushi in Vegas.

I love that. Like I'm going there and I always end up. I end up ordering more than I can eat, obviously. And I'm pushing myself because I don't want to get charged for the extra sushi. I'm pushing myself to eat the sushi. And it's to a point where like, I'm like, if I have another piece, I'm going to throw up. And I don't know what happens if I push through that wall because I never have. I usually try to get someone else to eat it.

What is it like, like, do you ever, like, throw up from eating so much food? No. Your body can do it. I've never thought. It can always do it. Yeah, you can always do it, yeah. Because I ain't going to lie to you. And when I was in college, they used to have these all you can eat places.

It was like a dog. They hate it when you come in. Yeah. They lose money. Like, now we can serve you. It was a dollar. All you can eat pizza. Man, I would eat so much.

That's a good deal. Yeah. And I'd be stuffed. And I'm like, man, I got. I can eat some more because I'm, you know, all I got to do is go in the bathroom and do some push-ups, some sit-ups, and I can eat some more. Some sit-ups on a full stomach? You know, on the floor of a bathroom? Dirty?

I did that. You did that? I did that. To get in more pizza. Just because you had to eat more for the together? Because I want to eat more. You wanted to eat more. That's a want, not a need.

I'm going to get my dollars worth. Literally a dollar's worth. What do you think about... What do you think about liver king's diet of eating just like raw meat? I still find that hard to believe. You don't believe that he eats only that? No. Really?

I didn't think that was possible. So what is he missing in his diet? I don't know what he's missing. I don't know how he can do it. You know, I know that I could never do it. I don't think I could do it if my life was on the line. So he had a chef, prepare us meat, and I asked, I said, how fresh is this? He said, well, this morning, the meat was alive.

And we're, like, doing a podcast in the evening. And that morning, just knowing that that animal was living this morning, and now it's not. Just tripped me out. But he had his eating every bit of the animal from the heart to the kidney, testicles. Oh, no, I couldn't do it. Honestly. It's hard for me to eat vegetables.

It really wasn't that. It kind of tastes like sushi, but a little bit worse. Oh, no. It was salty. The thought of would make me kind of throw up. Interesting. It almost made me throw up. The bone marrow was really gross.

That one, and also the kidneys because they filtered. No way possible. I could do it. None. No way. I don't, I'm still shocked in the maze when I see that. And I've seen him do it. Like, you know, I've seen him do it many times.

I still don't get it. Do you have any advice for any young aspiring bodybuilders or people that want to get in shape? Maybe they don't quite have the motivation that you do to get in the gym consistently. What do you recommend to this? Well, I mean, there's no other way they get in shape besides, you know, going to the gym and eating on a real healthy diet. But the best advice I give somebody is what I've learned, you know, that bodybuilding is all about knowledge. and the more you have, the better off you're going to be. So I try to tell somebody,

each and every bodybuilder that comes up to me and ask me, how do I become better? And how do I get to, you know, to where you are? Well, I learned from experience, you know. I didn't know anything at all about bodybuilder when I got into it. Nothing. and they know how they died pose or nothing. But people taught me this stuff.

So I just tell people, find somebody who's very knowledgeable and who have proved it. You know, they have proved it, you know. They have, you know, these certain champions that, you know, they can show you that they've given these people these diets and they've gone on and become, champion from what they've taught them. Yeah.

Find somebody like that. And that's how you become a champion. What is the most amount of pain that you've ever felt? Was it maybe like a pinched nerve from a herniated disc? Was it maybe a specific lift where you pushed yourself extremely hard? Or was it working like in the cotton thing picking out the plants? That wasn't pain. That was probably mental anguish.

Yeah. That was mental anguish more than anything. But pain, man, that's kind of hard to say because I remember when I broke my toe. Oh, man, that was a lot of that's a back. Do you drop a weight on your toe? Stepped on a leg. You dropped a 200-pound weight on your toe?

Some guy that was lifting it did. And that was painful. That was... How does it not crush your toe? Yeah, exactly. It would just be decimated. You think. But it didn't.

You know, it broke it. and that was about it. But that was a lot of pain to go through. I did that twice. You've done it? How heavy were the weights? One was 25 pounds. Broke it.

I dropped it from the floor. Well, we dropped the 200-pound dump bed. It wasn't about from here. Wow. It wasn't from up here. Yeah. Like the 25-pound was. But those were pretty painful.

That's the most pain. You know, I remember when I herniated my disc, I mean, it wasn't that painful. And, you know, it made a lot of noise. Because I remember that, but I don't remember a lot of pain. Like when he dropped that 200 pounds, dumbbell on my towel, it was painful. It's hell, and it hurt like hell, both times. Two of the most painful things that I've gone through.

Did you complete the workout? Both times. No. You did? Are you kidding? Yeah. Just kept going. Even with a broken toe.

The next day, I went and did squats. Oh, my gosh. Sure did. Did squats, leg pressing everything. Leg press? Yeah. Yeah, sure did. How do you not get sick?

Like, get a cold or like the flu or something? High pain tolerance. Do you feel sick but just go anywhere? Like, just push through it? Or do you just not get sick? I've been sick two or three. times in my life, I can recall. They must have been pretty bad, though.

Yeah, yeah, they were pretty bad. One time was the time I moved into my new house, my first new house. I remember throwing up that time. And another time I was in the eighth grade. I remember throwing up that time. And those were only two times. Oh, one time I was on the airplane. I threw up.

I was only three times in my life that I can remember throwing up. Yeah. Do you just have like the perfect, genetics? Like a god tier genetics? Like how are your children? Do they not get sick? No, they, no, no.

No, they get sick all the time. They get sick? So that's your one-off. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I like phenomenon that it only happens to every now and then. I feel like someone should study you from like the discipline,

yeah. They need to pull the stem cells from you. Yeah. You got to be the one donating the stem cells. Yeah. My gosh. So you've never, like, done stem cells. You've never tried to give away stem cells or done, like, genetic makeup research or something like that?

Not that I can recall right away. I mean... A couple years ago, we actually did do a genetic makeup on Ronnie, and he has been... He came back on the test as being under the one percentile of genetic makeup. So his body will regenerate the cells faster than a normal person. He doesn't get sore after working out in the gym. so it's kind of like he's a one off of the population.

So it's kind of crazy, but... That is true. You are actually an anomaly. Yeah, something like that, because I don't... He's a phenomenon. Yeah. I think you were really born to do bodybuilding. I mean, in every capacity.

Yeah. Yeah, I was touched by God to be one of the greatest bodies builders on the planet. And then I heard you're also opening up another gym? Yeah, yeah. What we're going to do is we got all this equipment from Panada, so we're going to open up our office gym to anybody in the public that wants to come and work out there. And most certainly we're going to allow the Olympia competitors

for us to be a home gym for them to work out while they're in town. And where is that going to be? Is that Texas? Orlando. Orlando. Yeah, well, I guess you can call it Lake Mary Flint. Okay. We're just pretty close to Orlando.

You have an idea when it's going to be open? We're trying to do it right before the Olympia happened. So over around September, somewhere October. And we got an invite to that, right? Oh, yeah, yeah. All right. We got to check that out. It's free, right?

If you're part of the general public, yeah. All right. Okay. Go for free, then I'm in. Sounds good. Hey, thank you so much for coming in the ice coffee hour. This is honestly just incredible. It was my place that I had a fun.

You're so generous with your time to, which is very sweet. Well, time flies when you're having fun. It really does. I really don't know. It seems like we've been doing this for like 30 minutes maybe. I know. But I think we've been a little bit longer. Thank you so much, man.

This means the world to us that you would come on and share your story. It was my pleasure. I'd like to say, I had a lot of fun doing this. Cool. Oh, if you can, just look into that camera. and remind everyone to hit the like button and subscribe. Everybody out there, remember, hit the like button and subscribe. Yeah, buddy.

Yeah, buddy. Lightweight. Lightweight. You ain't nothing but a peanut. Thank you guys so much for watching. Means a lot. And until next time. Perfect.

Oh, yeah. Oh, I love that. Oh, yeah. Sorry, if you could sit right there.