The School of Greatness - 5x Mr. Olympia: What People DON’T Realize About SHAME & INSECURITY!

Episode Date: April 15, 2024

Welcome to The School of Greatness, I'm your host, Lewis Howes. Today, we're diving deep with four-time Mr. Olympia Classic Physique Champion, Chris Bumstead. Chris is not just a bodybuilding icon; he's a beacon of vulnerability, authenticity, and relentless growth. In this episode, we explore the power of therapy, the journey of self-discovery, and the discipline behind his legendary physique. Get ready for an inspiring conversation that will challenge you to look beyond the surface and strive for greatness in all areas of your life. Let's dive in!In this episode you will learnThe importance of therapy and addressing childhood wounds for personal growth.Strategies for embracing vulnerability and authenticity in life.The mental and spiritual shifts required to enjoy life beyond just achieving results.The key components of a successful bodybuilding regimen and maintaining holistic health.How to leverage success in one area to build a personal brand and entrepreneurial ventures.For more information go to www.lewishowes.com/1602For more Greatness text PODCAST to [phone]More SOG episodes we think you’ll love:Eckhart Tolle – https://link.chtbl.com/1463-podRhonda Byrne – https://link.chtbl.com/1525-podJohn Maxwell – https://link.chtbl.com/1501-pod

I want to be a better Mr. Olympia. I want to enjoy it more. I want to enjoy the journey and be more present. And it always almost brings you back to your childhood. I pulled up a picture of me as a kid. But I remember looking at it backstage before getting on and just starting to cry a little bit. I mean, if that kid could imagine being me right now,

you know? He is your reigning, defending, five-time Olympia champion, Chris Bumster. When I won my first Olympia, all I felt was relief that it was over. I didn't really feel joy and happiness and all these things because there was a lot of stress around the Olympia that I was just suppressing. Wow. All these fears are in my brain right now, and I never even let them come up and think about them. I would just put them down.

You never spoke about it. Never spoke about it. And just letting that out i just like immediately felt better but what people don't realize is that like when you feel that pain that shame and insecurity that is that little boy it's the same person there's no separation there you know wow man yeah this is powerful i'm so happy that you're having this conversation right now welcome back everyone to the School of Greatness. Very excited about our guest, the inspiring Chris Bumstead in the house. My man.

What's going on? Good to see you, man. Happy to be here. Very excited about this. Yeah. And the thing that I'm excited the most to talk about is the first thing you said when we embraced and hugged each other. Within a few moments, you said that you just got off a therapy call.

Yeah. With your wife. And I was just like, I love this man. 7 a.m. therapy call. I was like, what? 7 a.m. therapy call. We're here in Vegas. And I was just like, I was so happy to hear this.

One, because I've been doing therapy for years. And when I talk about therapy with people, I really look at it as emotional coaching. It's really a coach that supports me in understanding and navigating my emotions, my feelings, my thoughts, and helps me improve who I am. And so when you said this, I just thought to myself, this is awesome. Because you, to most people, are kind of the epitome of what a masculine man should look like, or that a lot of men are striving to.

Yeah. of what a masculine man should look like or that a lot of men are striving to. Mr. Olympia, five-time champion, jacked, chiseled, strong, beard. You're like, you're a man, right? Bald now. But the first thing you said is you're going to therapy, which I'm just such a big fan of. So can you tell me when did you first start going to therapy?

Did you go alone ever, or did you do it with your wife originally when you were dating? How did this start for you? I mean, I have a bit of a cheat code around the younger, because my mom was a social worker. Not exactly a therapist, but she was very encouraging of getting help like that, and therapy and all that stuff if you needed it. And I never really entertained it when I was younger, but it was more so when I started getting into the competitive bodybuilding world and going through a lot of like pressure and stress and managing things. And then in 2018, I got kind of sick. And then in 2019, I was just

kind of scared about being sick. And I was trying to like balance competing. Should I, should I not? And I like, my brain was just pulling me in all these different directions where I didn't know where to go. And I would just like like my mom always told me that like a therapy session can just be like a sounding board sometimes to organize your own thoughts whether or not the therapist is there to actually give you insight it helps you find your own insight as well it's almost like a cheat code of journaling you know especially the crazier life you live i imagine yourself traveling around doing podcasts me bodybuilding everything it's sometimes it's hard to actually sit down and reflect inward about how you're feeling what's going on and what's

not making you happy with making you sad vice versa and how to manage your life in the best way and therapy is a great way to just put all that on the table organize your thoughts and create a game plan for life to put yourself in the direction you actually want to be going rather than just running around aimlessly so that's really kind of how it started my wife now Courtney was seeing a therapist when we were first dating and she reached out to me and she was like you know I can help you with some almost like performance coaching stuff like you said she got into the right angle exactly so like I can help you enjoy your Olympia more and be better at handling that pressure and job like all'm like, all right, that's got me, you know, that's got me hooked. I'll try it. And it was funny because, and I mean, I can give a lot of example of this and other people I've

spoken to too, but you often go into therapy because of a problem in front of you or a stress about this, or, you know, I want to be better, Mr. Olympia. I want to enjoy it more. I want to enjoy the journey and be more present and not be so stressed out about it. And it always almost brings you back to your childhood. And I'm sure you've done therapy. I know you've experienced that. Everybody who's done real therapy with a good therapist, you know it all goes back to your childhood.

And I did a really cool podcast with some Navy SEALs. You talk about masculine, like the biggest gangsters on the planet. These were like tier one Navy SEALs. And they were talking about how they've done some work as well and almost all the navy seals they spoke to when they're going through their stuff they expect it to be all their trauma from the war and losing their brothers and all these things like that which obviously hurt them greatly but a lot of their wounds come from their childhood too and that be able to heal those allows them to move forward through all the other stuff they live through in their life too so i started to notice that as well and it plays into every aspect of your life your relationship your relationship with yourself everything so we

started performance-based trying to be better olympia and it slowly went back to my childhood and i was like i had the perfect childhood my parents were still together i was happy i was good i was good i was great and they were like all right sure let's try and unravel some things the more i unraveled i was like you know i still didn't have anything like horrible happened to me which i think a lot of people think you didn't have a big t trauma exactly just because you didn't get hit in the face with a bat doesn't mean your head doesn't hurt you know like it's it's hard to kind of tell people that because they think nothing ever happened to me which is exactly how i felt yeah you had loving parents and you know a good home and a safe environment and encouragement and all those things right yeah but what was the big wound or a little wound that

became big over time that you never addressed a big one for me was feeling i guess not seen and not truly like not fully like important and valued. And I kind of felt like a little bit on the back burner because my parents tried their best and they did amazing. But there was a lot going on in life sometimes. And, you know, my sister was going through a lot who was older than me. And then I was the kid who was like good at sports doing this and that. So I was all good. Like, don't worry about Chris. He's got it all together he's got it figured out he's good you know don't worry about attention on on your sister yeah or the sister on this on that on everything else because he's got it together and i saw that so i was like okay well i'm good at all this stuff and i don't want to add stress

to my family so i'm just going to hold it and handle it on myself and kind of bottle it all down compartmentalize and do my own thing and you know i wasn't thinking that clearly like that clearly like that when I was younger, but it's just naturally how you cope. You know, you build defense mechanisms depending on your environment when you're young. So that was one of the ones I kind of did when I was younger. And to me, it was just normal. You know, I handle myself on my own. I don't really need a lot of connection. I don't really need a lot of intimacy. I'm just very independent and I can do things by myself. And then older and older i got i started to realize partly in the olympia i bring a lot of stuff back because the olympia has taught me so many things but i when i won my first olympia all i felt was relief that it was over i didn't really feel joy

and happiness and all these things because there was a lot of stress around the olympia that i was just suppressing and then my big story or lesson that i tried to share with people this year was that if you numb the bad you numb the good so as you numb your emotions everything kind of gets dulled down so i've tried to process all that move through it and i'd realize that as i compartmentalize everything in my life i compartmentalize all the good too now it's kind of just suppressing all these feelings and then you get older and stuff just starts to feel dim and like sad and alone and all these things and you don't understand why and it's because you've i've created this environment where i don't let people help me or i don't ask for anything i need i'm just like i'll help everyone

before myself and then i'm good on the side and it leaves you kind of alone because everybody needs connection so what was life like for you in your teens, early 20s, and mid-20s until you started to dive into therapy? Was it always lonely and sad and depressing? Or were there good moments too? There were definitely good moments. And it's almost hard for me to communicate this sometimes, but I really try to because I know I'm not the only one who didn't have this depressing childhood.

But I also expect a lot of myself. I don't want to just be like, well know I'm not the only one who didn't have like this depressing childhood. But I also expect a lot of like myself. I don't want to just be like, well, I'm good. You know, I want to be great. I want to feel love and connection and closeness and everything. I don't want to like drift apart from my wife in difficult times and all these things. I want to like understand and grasp and be the best relational person that I can be. So while I didn't really feel depressed or anything when I was young, I also didn't really feel like I had anyone that I could go out to and reach out to in hard times. And if I was scared or sad about something, there was someone who I

could lean on or talk to. I just felt like it was normal for me to hold that in myself. And the reason it was tricky for me is because I knew that my parents did love me so much and I did have people who love me. And if I were to share with them, they would be there for me, but I just felt like it'd be better to just hold it on myself. Cause that's just the way, that's just the way I operate. Isn't that interesting. So you knew your parents loved you. You knew they would show up for you if you needed something, but you didn't want to be a burden. You didn't want to stress them out. So you didn't want to show them that you needed support or help right yeah exactly isn't that interesting you know it's funny because we have about a 12 year age gap i think

and so i grew up in the 80s and 90s and i was never allowed to show emotion cry say that i was having a hard day without being made fun of or picked on or bullied or you know what other guys kind of just like picking on you and making fun of you? I was never really allowed to do that. So it took me until I was 30 years old until I started to do more emotional healing and reflecting on kind of these traumas. Little traumas, big traumas, everything. And started to really release my emotions and heal them. And it's been a journey. But I love that you openly cry,

you openly talk about your feelings, your emotions, and conversations like therapy. Because we just didn't have that. 10, 12 years before you, that wasn't available. Now it's becoming more available. And I'm just so happy that guys like you are using your platform to express this. Yes, you're showing that you're like the most jacked human in the world.

But you're also saying, hey, listen, I'm willing to continue to improve on all areas of my life. And I really think of the ultimate man being someone who is emotionally evolved, not just holding their feelings in constantly and saying, I've got it figured out. Mentally, constantly growing, spiritually growing, and relationally growing. And it sounds to me like you're making an importance to value all of those things. And financially as well. You're building your business. But you're telling me like, I want to make my wife and my relationship a high priority. So I'm going to go to coaching once a month or whatever and work on this i'm going to take care of my health my nutrition my mindset my business all these different things to become the most well-rounded man that i can be not just strong yeah physically but emotionally and spiritually

as well and i just think that's beautiful man yeah for sure and i mean as you grew up you know obviously it's it's so easy to have empathy for our past generations of why they had to be like that you know like going through a lot harder times than we have right now you know we're lucky we're even on an opportunity to like be able to like search for our emotions and relationships because there was a lot of going on when our parents were coming up where they didn't they didn't have that opportunity they had to kind of like get through some hard times so obviously they were like that and now for each generation to kind of like move through those like pains and kind of beat the previous generation's trauma it's difficult yeah

you know but my parents i think they still did a great job their parents were i'm sure a lot more shut off than they ever were and my parents did a really good job at trying to do the best that they could with me and while i still left with a little bit of irks and pains, I also came with the strength and the knowledge to work on them myself and enough belief in myself to do the work and understanding that I was worth doing that kind of work. So it was that you were worth doing the work. Did you not think you were valuable or worthy of doing that work beforehand? I don't think I ever really processed it that much. You know, I think there were times where I didn't think I was worth the stress of worth putting stress on others by sharing how I was feeling like burdening,

burdening with them. Exactly. Yeah. But obviously, as you start to unravel relationships, especially you learn it's not only is it not a burden, but it's actually a privilege for the other person to receive that. And it's very like hypocritical sometimes, especially as a man, you know, you're like, you want your wife to come to you and hard time and lean on you because you can support them, but you don't want to do the same to them. It makes you feel special when they come, when they need something and they're sad and they come to you for protection, but you don't go to them. So they're not going to feel important either so it's a very much a give and take thing and like

you said it's i think it's very difficult in the masculine masculine in the way things are now and i've always not always i've recently been trying to incorporate a lot better the masculine and the feminine energy within myself and just be better at that because it's it's really easy for a man to just like focus like i have a lot of bodybuilding going on i have a lot of travel i have business i have all these things going on a lot of things that's required of me sometimes either just shove everything down and go into work mode and be like i'm going to provide for my family let's dominate yeah let's pick everything up everyone up on stage let's win and dominate my family's never gonna need to work

again let's take care of them but like if they not, if they're missing me at home emotionally and through connection, then what's the point of doing all this work on the other side? You have to be able to balance both worlds together. Yeah. And this idea of balance, you know, I think I even heard you talk about balance at one point where I look at balance more as alignment. I think people try to balance and navigate everything where it's more aligning your values, your vision, and your lifestyle in harmony with the people in your life, your health, your businesses. And sometimes you'll be out of balance of what the rest of the world looks like is balance, but you'll be in harmony because you're communicating and you're working on those things in seasonal times. And so, man, that's so cool now did you did Courtney your wife

did she inspire you to open up more about your feelings and kind of tap into the feminine side when you met her or was that before you met her I think I've always been a little bit of a softer male yeah you know I've always been a little bit more emotional I've never been like the intense like gritty like everyone up kind of thing you know I like, I'm at the Olympia. I'm making friends with people. I'm chill. I'm, like, here to win. But, like, I'm not going to, like, step on your throat. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

And I think what's also cool with her, and she definitely inspired me way more. And a lot of men don't think women even want that. They think they want, like, that tough man on a horse who doesn't cry kind of thing. But what actually attracted Courtney to me, which was really cool, talk about law of attraction and people trying to find the right woman trying to find some someone who loves them for who they are all this you have to actually show yourself to be loved for who you are and I put out a video in 2018 just being like I was expected to win the Olympia that year you know I was a young guy coming up all this stuff going on and that's when I got sick didn't win came second still did really good but i went through i was

in the hospital at four weeks out i was really scared i didn't think i'd be able to compete again and i just had a lot of emotions going through me and i put out a video talking about all that and i cried in the video and i was super vulnerable and i just shared how i was feeling what i went through in that journey and that was the video that she saw she kind of heard of me didn't know what but then she saw this video and she's like okay this is that guy who's like like you said the big strong bodybuilding guy and now he's on youtube crying like there's a misbatch there something's different about him and she watched and she's like this guy's this guy's got to be different and she actually flooded my dm no way message me hit me up and i already had a crush on

her from before because she was miss olympia in 2016 i was going after in 2018 and i already had a crush on her i'm like damn this girl's in my my dm this is crazy and then we just kind of hit it off but i if i hadn't put that video up and decided to be vulnerable you wouldn't have attracted her i wouldn't have attracted her you know we wouldn't be together we wouldn't have our baby girl on the way now it was it's everything would be. One piece of content changed your life. Yeah. Isn't that interesting? Crazy.

But it was you being willing and having the courage to say, this is who I am and being willing to share and reveal this with others. Exactly. Why do you think most people hold back their emotions and their true, authentic self in life? That's a good question. I definitely don't have all the answers to that but i think part of it is it hurts a lot more to be rejected for who you really are because then it's

a real rejection it means if you put your real self out there and it gets rejected it means you're really not good enough oh but if you put a fake self out there and people are like i don't like that you're like it's not really me. So like it's a layer of protection. You're kind of protecting yourself from like a real stab in the heart, you know? How have you learned to trust yourself by revealing who you are and being fully authentic, both privately and publicly, and also be okay if people don't like you, leave nasty comments, think you're a failure, and reject you? How have you been able to handle those emotions and still be you? I mean, it's been a long journey,

and I think I owe the beginning part to my parents. They always just told me just to be myself, and since then it's kind of hard for me to be myself. That's why I couldn't put a camera on after the Olympia and just give some hardcore thing. It was like'm sad and i'm gonna cry because i can't really put on a fake show right now and i just i'm not a good i'm not a good liar so i think i just did it and why were you sad from that one time yeah why were you sad afterwards i was scared you know i was in the i was in the hospital truly and they didn't know what was wrong with me.

I didn't know if I was going to be able to compete, if I was going to be sick for the rest of my life, if I was going to have to be on meds for the rest of my life. I didn't know what was wrong with me. I'd put on like 20 pounds of water weight overnight, and I was just shins were inflamed. I was super inflamed. I'm in the hospital alone, just scared, not knowing what's happening. Again, I didn't know how to process all that,

so I just bottled it all down, compartmentalized. They let me out of the hospital three weeks out of the Olympia. I'm like, i didn't know how to process all that so i just bottled all down compartmentalized they let me out the hospital like three weeks out the olympia i'm like i don't know what to do right now so i'm gonna go back into prep and i'm gonna do the olympia i probably should have dropped out but as my way of numbing my emotion i'm like if i put all my folks over here i don't have to think about that wow and then afterwards all that emotion just started pouring out of me and all that fear and on the unknown of what the future held and what was going on with me and just all that kind of anything around your health can be really scary so what hit me what has been your biggest fear most of your life my biggest fear that's a good one like what was it personally for you that was either the insecurity or the fear that you think

was underneath everything you were doing because it sounds like you have a better handle now on those fears and you're processing a lot more but before you started processing you know before you won and started to figure it out what was that big weight and fear you were carrying i think there was a a fear that if i if i like tried to lean on someone and rely on someone to like hold me while i was falling or whatever or when i needed someone to lean on that they might not be there for me so instead of ever leaning on anyone i just didn't and it was easier to protect myself like that and just like create this facade that I can handle all on my own because it's a lot scarier like I said the same concept of putting your true self out there to be rejected if I try and lean on someone who I need and they're not there for me

that's really going to hurt so I was just like no I'm not going to do that wow what is the greatest rejection you ever had greatest rejection I ever. The one that like really hurt you. Maybe it was like a, you know, maybe it was a small thing, but it really hurt you in a big way for whatever reason. I don't know if I can pinpoint one. Honestly.

Is it like a girlfriend that rejected you? Or was it like you went after something you cared about and you didn't get the part or the, you didn't win the competition. Was there something you were like, I feel like a loser and rejected. i'm sure there was some more there's a lot of my childhood i don't really remember i don't have the you blocked it out i i don't i didn't block it because it's bad i just i think maybe as i was kind of pushing aside some emotions i pushed aside some memories

too but i do have like some memories of after there's already been some of this pain in me when i was really young giving like talks and speeches and stuff or like something in class where i had to get up in front of people and like make getting made fun of for my lisp something like that and just feeling like really small and like really embarrassed and just like i don't want to ever talk in front of people again oh man like that created some stage fright in me and like public speaking anxiety and all that stuff, which I think most people have, but it was pretty extreme for me. But I can't remember an exact giant rejection at any point really. I mean, I have a similar, you know,

my childhood is very similar in the fact that I would get made fun of when I would, they would ask, the teacher would ask us to read aloud, you know, open up chapter one and read aloud. And each kid would go around and I couldn't read the words. I had dyslexia and I had a second grade reading level in eighth grade. I just couldn't comprehend and understand what I was reading. So it was very intimidating for me to stand in front of my peers and read or speak at all. And I think I channeled a lot of that anger into sports to say, let me prove people wrong who are making fun of me. Let me find somewhere where I do have abilities and skills so I don't feel like a loser and rejected. Is that what you started to do with bodybuilding and lifting?

Kind of like make yourself be seen and bigger and stronger so that no one can hurt you that way? I think in a way. It was never, it was never anger for me or anything like that. But I did, I did start to see when I started working out at a young age, put on muscle very easily, obviously I have good genetics, started to get some attention for that. It felt good. And there was a way to be like seen and important in some way.

So I was like, let's keep doing this. And then in forms of, when it's hard to like feel a lot like you see people like the crazy free climbers who like climb whatever yosemite with no ropes or anything yeah those guys are probably numb to hell just trying to feel some kind of feel something just to get that rush out of it you know and when i would compete it was something that really scared me to be on stage in front of all the people and it was a lot of like it was a lot of suppression and pushing things aside and just working really hard and focusing on one thing and then at the end it's this big feeling at the end so like all right if i work really hard for this one day there's a big

feeling at the end if i work for a year exactly every day and bust my butt i'll have like two minutes of release exactly isn't that crazy it's insane yeah it's kind of like olympians they train for 10 12 15 years for one minute yeah for a minute race or a minute swim or a one game or whatever it might be for the chance of gold every four years isn't that crazy at least i get it every year that That's true. Have you seen the documentary Weight of Gold? No. It's an incredible documentary where it's interviewing a lot of Olympic gold medalists or Olympic medalists talking about the depression, the anxiety, the stress, the overwhelm, the loss of identity after winning the Olympic gold medal.

Because they go for their whole lives for something and they think it's supposed to feel like euphoric. Life changing. And like they're going to have joy and happiness now. Yeah. But they still have to face the stuff within them. So the documentary covers a lot of athletes that committed suicide and their friends and family members that within a year who committed suicide or just who never returned back to themselves because of the weight and the pressure so you were training for years

for these for this one moment on stage and when you got it it wasn't what you wanted right the feeling it was what was the feeling you thought you were to get and what was the feeling you received i mean i guess the first year i won, like I kind of mentioned before, I thought I was going to just have like this overwhelming sense of pride and accomplishment and joy. Just like I did it. You know, I'm accomplished. I've got it all. Like I did it. I'm the man.

I'm the man. Yeah. And what I felt, I just remember feeling relief. I just relieved it was over. Relieved I didn't have to do it anymore. Relieved it was done. Relieved I made it there. Like I was just like just like thank god like on stage you're thinking that yeah literally it was like you kind of relax your shoulders like you know which is which is crazy

and i remember going at and you have this 10 layers of spray tan just like brown paint all over you you're sweating you're just like and i remember you always love going to take a shower to get that stuff you remember going in the shower and like crying because i was expecting to feel all that joy and i didn't get it and it was almost like this disappointment afterwards where i was like what am i missing right now like what why am i feeling all this and that was a huge pivotal moment in my life where i was like this isn't right there's no way i'm going to dedicate this much of my life sacrifice this much i was like this isn't right there's no way i'm going to dedicate this much of my life sacrifice this much to feel like this there should be there

a payoff at the end yeah there should be something better than this yeah and i and i believed i didn't think that the journey i was on was wrong i just think of the way i was approaching it was wrong so i was like there's got to be a way where i can change other aspects of my life and manage my mind and other things better so that when I get to there next year and I do this again, I'm able to enjoy it and have a lot more fun. So the journey you were on wasn't wrong, but it was the process that you were implementing, which was off. So the process before it sounds like I'm going to work as hard and do whatever it takes to win, to prove myself that I can do it or whatever it might be. Get this monkey off my back, whatever it is. And at the end, you didn't get the feeling you wanted, which was, I guess,

a better sense of peace or freedom or love or self-acceptance or whatever you wanted. Yeah. So how did the process change mentally, spiritually, and emotionally to enjoy life every single day as opposed to wait for the result to feel better? Yeah. Good question. So a lot of what translated, and again, I relate almost everything to the Olympic because it's been such a bulk of my life. But a lot of what translated into that feeling was the fact that I got so sick in 2018 that I spent 2019 afraid I was going to get sick again. And instead of really processing the amount of fear I had in the past and like truly at one point I thought I was going to die in the hospital. It wasn't that bad. I would just I was creating that kind of fear and anxiety in my mind.

And I never really accepted that. I felt that and allowed myself to process through that and move on from I just kind of like don't feel like that. Push it down. So it was still in there. So all of 2019, I'm like, I don't want to be back in the hospital I don't want to be back in I was just living like that instead of being like in the moment and I wasn't allowing myself to really like allow those emotions to come up so in 2020 the next year I remember my life always goes in like this depending on prep so after Olympia it's like this kind of low I didn't really feel great and

I'm kind of working myself back up so doing a little kind of low. I didn't really feel great. And I'm kind of working myself back up. Started doing a little bit of therapy then. I didn't have the therapist I had now, which I wish I had because she's a beast. But 2020 is when you kind of started therapy a little bit. 2019-ish. 2019, okay. And so started doing that. And then I felt a little bit better because I wasn't in prep, wasn't in Olympia mode.

You get a little bit busy with business, starts picking up, travel for sponsors, all this stuff. And I'm like, ah, push that stuff aside. I feel okay right now. And then all of a sudden prep starts again and i'm like there's that fear again feeling that pressure that fear of getting sick again this expectation now you know i won last year but people were like did you really deserve to win it was pretty close you shouldn't have won and i'm like well i have to dominate this year so they don't question me this time and all these things going on and i remember sitting on my stairs with courtney and her and just like kind of sitting there i think we're going to the gym or something and she just noticed something was up with me and she's like what's going on

i'm like nothing i'm fine and then she's like what's going on she just kind of pried me enough and this is like she's helped me so much with this because if you were to ask me how i feel i'm fine yeah i would believe it and then you ask me 10 more times and i'm crying on the stairs and i'm like damn like what's in this right now and she's's like, what's what are you feeling? I'm I I'm scared I'm scared. I'm gonna I'm gonna like lose again and then they're gonna prove that I shouldn't have won last year I'm scared. I'm gonna get sick and then I'm gonna make it on stage I'm scared. I shouldn't be competing and I'm putting my health at risk and this is so stupid like bodybuilding is not healthy I have an autoimmune disease. Why am I doing this is dumb?

I'm gonna hurt myself like all these fears are in my brain right now and i never even let them come up to think about them i would just put them down you never spoke about it never spoke about it and just letting that out and like crying with her and like talking about it i just like immediately felt better it's a release it was just released and she was just like she just listened she just heard me and with like a sounding board and i just felt this pressure off of me and i was like wow like that i feel better now like let's go to the gym like i actually feel better now it's not like it's pushed out and i can go perform it's like no i'm really here right now and i feel better and i think that's a huge thing that a lesson that i i love

to share especially to men is that you know because we there's always that joke with your wife you tell your problem you're like all right how do i fix it what's the solution and it's like no she's just trying to release it and if men were better at understanding that there doesn't need to be a solution sometimes you just need to let that energy out to speak about it to allow it to exist to accept it's there sit with it for a minute and then just see how you feel and usually you feel a little bit better, and then you move forward in it. And by embracing those things and allowing those kind of fears to come up and mean to talk about it, it allowed me to be a lot more present

because I wasn't fighting those down. So I allowed that fear to come up. I had a moment of it. And then I went to the gym, and I was like, I feel really good here. I'm excited. I can do this. You got more energy. I had more energy i had more

energy i just had it pouring out of me just a larger sense of belief some more pride just more emotion period more feeling that i hadn't because i hadn't been suppressing all of it and then that whole olympia prep was kind of a back and forth of that i wasn't perfect but i was learning how to bring things up and it was also covid so i mean horrible things happened during covid but it was a blessing in disguise for me because I had no distractions. I couldn't travel. I couldn't do anything else. I was at home all day, just bodybuilding, sleeping, connecting with my wife.

Just chilling, therapy, just cycling that in. And that was it. And then that year on stage was completely different. The whole peak week, I was like present. I was enjoying it. I was having fun. You know, I won that Olympia, and the people were shocked at how much better i looked my whole body looked younger bigger leaner

healthier like everything was just more vibrant my confidence on stage was different like everything about me was like a different bodybuilder on there and i got a perfect score i won and there was no question if i deserved to win that one or not they were like forget about the last guy chris is the champ wow it was it wasn't even like close. It was an undeniable year success. That transformation is one of my most proudest physical transformations. Year one to two.

19 to 20, because it was such a big change. Now, what I'm hearing you say, correct me if I'm wrong, that you did a lot of the same things physically. You ate a lot of the same food. You trained in a similar way. You slept in the same bed. You know, there wasn't, you were in the same relationship. You didn't change anything really, maybe minor tweaks, except your thoughts and your emotions. That's all that changed. And what I'm hearing you say is by changing your thoughts and emotions within a year period consistently, healing, processing, improving, and growing and transforming them,

you looked and became a completely different human being on stage in one year to the point your success was undeniable. Is that what I'm hearing you say? Yeah. Correct me if I'm wrong. I just want to make sure we got this right. No, you're putting in nice words, but yeah. Wow.

Okay. So thoughts and emotions started to shift and transform and physically you became and looked different yeah isn't that interesting it's crazy yeah i wish i wait there was no like different supplements you took or like you didn't eat like no some steroid chicken or you know something different probably less supplements that year because i was like i'm caring more about my health now i'm gonna like see what i can get away with and it was it was that whether and i think it's a combination of like you said i that the energy i released and brought into my body allowed to circulate allowed me to also probably sleep better therefore recover better therefore train harder and all these things but also i think it just there's something i don't know how to explain i'm sure people are better

than me but i think there's some like misunderstood thing within ourselves of how much our emotion affects our physical body and the biggest translation and i hear a lot of stuff about this now because i've done a lot of kind of research into autoimmune stuff which is based off stress inflammation kind of like disorder within the body and you know in 2019 i won and i got through it but i still had like some physical inflammation i was holding some water in my shins you know i wasn't fully healthy and in 2020 it was like i was like reversing my autoimmune disease like i was getting healthier through prep which was like inexplicable, you know? Like I, I re I really don't think I should be able to still compete given what happened to me in the past, but my body's gotten healthier every year. What did you do besides the, you know, the, the emotional and mental

release and healing? What did you do physically that allowed for that you think was there a different style of eating supplements nutrition that you incorporated not since the year before no because in 2018 i changed a lot i got a lot healthier organic foods and eat fast food i started to treat my body more like the fuel that went in matter rather than just like get protein in even if it's from mcdonald's you know i gave that is that what you're doing before when i was young yeah for sure there's a lot of fast food just as much as you can i need to get calories in i'd go get a burger right but i changed all that years before but in 2020 with all that i didn't really change much i'm maybe was allowed to rest more because of covid like i said and stuff but there wasn't a lot i changed and since then i've added more physical things like

i do a lot of stem cells and peptides and a lot of different type of therapies now but back then i didn't have the the knowledge or the means to afford that stuff anyways so what would you say is kind of the optimal diet for you right now to keep you healthy but also building mass and allowing you to compete what is that ultimate diet for you i mean really, really just whole foods. I keep it super simple. I think if when I'm done competing and it's not about that, I'll eat a lot less, a lot less carbs, higher fat. Cause I just personally feel better. Then I think everyone has to experiment of what feels best for them. But the number one diet that anyone asked me, like, what's the best diet? I just say whole foods. Like, what does that look like for you what do you eat on a typical day when you're training to stay healthy but also to build mass and stay lean it's usually five or six

meals a day it's been five recently because i've been traveling so much but i try and like lighten it up and make it a little bit more fun but i'll have like bison eggs and avocado in the morning with some ghee butter and coffee with mct so really high fat and then i have some basic chicken and rice chicken and turkey after that maybe like a wrap at night some kind of homemade burrito you know courtney's super into like organic healthy foods so she gets all these like organic minimal ingredient like almond flour wraps and all this stuff and she makes stuff for me and just super simple stuff are you trying to do mostly protein and some fiber and vegetables or what's kind of like the and fats what's the ratio would you say is there i've never done the whole macro thing i don't have a concrete ratio

honestly really so are you weighing your foods daily or are you just i haven't been recently but when i'm like seriously into stuff i do and i i'm mainly in my off season i i just i'm very like knowing of my body my body weight right now and i eat so similar all the time i'll just like start with something eat it the same i'm like oh i need to put on way more weight i'll add more to it interesting and i because i'm just very consistent with it but i really just try and hit like about 300 grams of protein 300 a day 300 a day yeah that's Oh my God, that's a lot of food. It is a lot of food, yeah. 300 grams of protein? Yeah. So give me a calculation.

What is 300 grams of protein in the foods that you're eating? What is that? Approximately? Yeah, what is that? It's like five chicken breasts and 20 eggs. Like, what is that? I mean, I don't know based off chicken breast size, but it's probably like in the morning,

the 180 grams of bison with three whole eggs. What is 180 grams? Is it like a half a pound of meat or something or like 425 grams i think is a pound okay so a little under a half a pound okay a quarter pound or something yeah about that and then i'll have like 220 grams of chicken probably two times and then like 220 grams of turkey once and then i'll have like a protein shake with like 50 grams of protein in it oh my gosh yeah Yeah, it's a good amount. Now, what is the key to burning fat and building muscle at the same time?

Is that even possible? I always hear people say you've got to put on like the bulk first, the bulk phase, then you can slim down. Is it possible to burn fat and build muscle and stay lean at the same time? It's very dependent on where your body is you know if you someone who has never worked out and you're like 300 pounds overweight then of course it is you know you can your body can change with some very minimal work but if you're like me in prep already then it's very hard you know i'm just trying to maintain as much muscle as possible

because i'm already at a very elite level of muscle and a low level of body fat. So it's harder to make those changes. So I really can't answer. It's very dependent on the person. The least trained you are, the easier it is to put on muscle and lose fat. And then the more regimented and strict you are, the harder it is. Really? Man.

But you're really intentional about your nutrition right now. Yeah. What you consume, right? Yeah. What you consume, right? Yeah. How important is it to take like, you know, over-the-counter supplements, like protein powders, protein bars, you know, vitamins? Like is that important or do you put more of the importance on getting it within the whole foods? I'm all about whole foods.

Whole foods. And I always say that. I own a supplement company and I still tell people, people are like, what's the best supplement? I'm like whole food. You know, if you can get it from food, it's always it's always better. And obviously there's like this kind of crisis going on right now of a lack of nutrients in our foods based on farming and pesticides and mass produce everything and all that stuff. So it's kind of hard to manage. And I think a lot of people therefore need to supplement a lot. And I take some supplements, but I think the healthier you eat the less you need and if i wasn't trying to get 300 grams of protein in a day i probably would only have a shake when i'm like feel like when i want one like i wouldn't need to add that

extra protein really but you need to get a certain amount so you're going to supplement it with you know water and protein exactly it's a lot easier than eating another chicken breast you know after a while it gets hard to put that down gosh man and you can't really put sauces or anything on it you've got to like really keep it as long as i'm not in prep i can okay but when i'm like deep into prep then i'm allowed like some hot sauces kind of but then they mess up my digestion so my coach tells me i'm not and then i'm just allowed like yellow mustard that's it yeah now when you're getting into prep mode what is that three months out where you're like i'm really dialing it in and taking this serious or it's about 16 weeks 16 weeks yeah

four months out can you walk me through your mindset four months out when you're about to get started where you're like okay this is day one we're four months away from olympia what are you thinking day one of prep after obviously six months of maintaining and training but not okay we're in camp yeah what is that mindset during that moment is there a switch or is it just elevated emotions and energy a little bit and how does that build all the way up to the moment before on stage at olympia where does the mindset evolve before that moment of on stage yeah so it's been different every year and it's been this past year was the hardest to it's never like it switches on for me it's i probably need a 12-week prep but i do 16 because it takes a

rolling start for me you know i gotta kind of warm up i gotta push the car first to get that clutch going you know but in the past when i didn't have anything else going on with the bodybuilding, it was a little bit easier. But now, like, for example, since December, I've been home for like seven days, I think, for the last two and a half months. Because it's just go, go, go, travel. There's lots going on with business and work. And I'm pulled in a lot more different directions right now because I have a lot more going on. So me being able to manage that is a little bit harder. And I learned quickly this year that while I thought I could manage it all together, I can't.

And my therapist had a great line to me. She's like, Chris, you love being the 1% of everything. She's like, you want to have the biggest, best business. You want to be the biggest, best bodybuilder. You want to have the most beautiful, loving, connected relationship. But you can't. You can't have it all. She's like, I hate to tell you, but the more you pour into perfection into one, you're pulling energy away from another. Wow.

And you can't do it all. And I was like, really? I was like, are you sure? I think I can. And I tried for a while and it, it started to beat me down. You know, I was, I was traveling all weekends coming back, trying to connect with Courtney, trying to get to the gym at the right time, trying to get all my meals in, trying to manage it all. And my body started to get, like, just tired. My mind was stressed. I wasn't taking those times to really reflect on myself and check in where I was at. And I wasn't even really enjoying it either because there was just too much that I wasn't allowing myself to slow down and, like, enjoy and be in the process. So in August, I think I was about 10 weeks out all this is going

on boom i find out courtney's pregnant now i'm like oh here we go i was so excited we weren't planning it but i was so excited i was like i didn't you know bodybuilders don't even think that's possible during prep so i was like all right this is a miracle like wow you made it not possible to get pregnant with like when you're taking pds and stuff yeah it's harder it's harder to get pregnant wow because you're less fertile but super excited but still a huge shift in my mind you know there's a lot more responsibilities a lot more changing my life right now you know like this is a lot more coming so even more on my mind now and stopping me from slowing down and then i remember i went on one trip and i was doing some work in canada i went

back to see my family. And then I was just feeling kind of strung out or something. I didn't know what was going on. I didn't really realize I wasn't in tune with myself. And one day I woke up, I weighed myself and I was just feeling like, and I had lost like 12 pounds and it wasn't good weight. I wasn't leaner. I just like lost a bunch of water weight because my body was stressed. Something like that.

Wasn't feeling good. Went to the gym. I'm working out feeling tired but like whatever like normally i'll do like 485 or something on rdls i'll do 405 this time because i'm feeling tired on like rep nine or something should pop and my lat just like kind of pulls and i tore my lat and i was just like no way i was like like what just happened i just tear my lat and i like couldn't move my arm i'm like processing like all this like overwhelming stuff that i've been feeling and i just hit what's the roadblock i'm like you haven't even been focusing on prep you haven't been prioritizing and now you might have

just gotten taken away from you because of all that and i remember i was like devastated i was in the middle of the gym i didn't want to tell anyone i just done it because i didn't want anyone to know so i like walk out arm like this and i start crying behind the gym i'm like really i'm just crying i'm like what are you doing man like i feel like i just lost the olympia you know this is going in for my fifth title and now i'm not gonna be able to compete all this going on i call courtney and i'm like freaking out she's like she wasn't with me at the time either so she's like oh i'm so sorry you need to come out there like what's going on i'm like no like just let me, you know? And then let me take it back on myself. I got this.

I go back in the gym and I'm like looking around. Okay. I can't tell anyone. I just hurt myself. And I didn't want to be an asshole. So I started taking the weights off the bar. I'm trying to take four plates off just with one arm. Oh my gosh.

Move it, put it away. And then I leave and I drive home. And there was this huge, just like mental, like what's going on. And I got back home and I'm talking with Courtney and she's like remember what jordan told you about being able to manage everything at once your therapist she's like this is life literally slapping you in the face and being like i told you so and i'm like ah yeah you're right you're right and she i didn't even read the book yet but i listened to a little cliff notes version but she told me to listen to the book called the one thing and just talking about if you want to be

the the best at something good at something you need to focus on the one thing and i was like all right you know it's the end of the book but i get the concept just from the title i'm like let's start focusing on one thing you know i'm like i'm not going to go into work from nine to five anymore i'm going to leave at 12 and i'm going to go to the gym at one because that's when i feel the best and i couldn't even train my upper body for a while I could just do legs and a little cardio and stuff so I'm like let me just focus on one thing at a time and get through this I'm gonna stay off my phone at night I'm like I'm doing emails nothing so I can actually sleep because I was up all night thinking because my brain was on other things so I allow myself to sleep better allow myself to rest more

allow myself to connect with Courtney more which helped me feel more grounded rather than more all over the place I cut out all travel. I'm like, I'm not doing any more trips. I'm not getting on a plane until the Olympia. Like, don't even ask me. So I started actually prioritizing what I needed and saying no to all these things. And it was all those things essentially

that this year made me turn on that switch. And then I think it was about six weeks out at the Olympia where I had my first, it was about four weeks after that incident, I had my first back workout. And it was okay okay workout but i did it and i got through it i remember being like you recovered enough like i recovered enough i'm like all right if i can just lock it in right now i can get through this you know you've been stressed worried traveling all these things everything you've learned about being present and enjoying this journey you just forgot about it for

the last couple of months this is your your wake up call to get back together and come back into it. And that was like my like, okay, lock it in, be here, be grateful that you even have the opportunity now to heal from something so fast that you can actually at least try and compete again and have the opportunity to push through it and then just enjoy this, you know?

And that's when I was like, this could also be my last Olympia, you know? You never know when it's your last one and I'm not gonna allow all this stress to ruin that me look back and like I didn't even enjoy the last one because I was so worried about all this stuff so I I pushed through kind of all that I allowed my mind to come back to Center focused on the one thing the Olympia training myself rest all that stuff that I could do and I got through it and I enjoyed that olympia and it was cool because i've documented all my olympia preps yeah i have a videographer who

follows me around does all great videos man close friend of mine that's great and he got a photographer who's now a close friend of mine too and she started taking pictures and video at the olympia and you compare a lot of my years and i used to come in super like michael jordan and be like you know sit at the press conference just locked in like hardcore this year i'm just i'm just chilling this year i'm laughing i'm smiling and you can just tell there's this lighter energy about me because i allowed myself to truly be like as present as possible in the last five years i've been working towards allowing myself to really just like have fun with it not knowing if it's going to be my last one and just being there and being present and it was really cool to see the physical evidence and pictures of like that stoic faith to

just like a goofy chris smiling kind of having fun with it also kind of going back to the beginning of the conversation of being authentically who you are exactly because that's kind of who you are yeah you know it's not about like being this stern like stoic you know focused man it's about being focused knowing that you've done all the prep yeah you've done all the prep so you have the focus to be able to be kind of like usain bolt and just like be relaxed and loose and like have fun and then go out and dominate yeah which is what he did i don't know if you ever watched his stuff in the olympics where he was just like playing with the camera he's high five offiving people right before the Olympic gold race. He's relaxed and loose.

And then just dominating his competition. And I think there's something to that. You know, we were talking about there's a different type of mentality. I'm not saying one is better than the other. But the Michael Jordan or Kobe that was just like focused and didn't show really a lot of that joy, let's say, that joyful or relaxed energy. Maybe it was a different type of relaxed,

but it was more of like, we're here to work. And it worked for them. I mean, they dominated. But there's also something when it shifted and you started to be more relaxed, you felt emotionally different as well. It's like you can have fun with it and dominate. So what were you thinking about the moment you walk

from backstage on stage for the most important part of the Olympia? What are you thinking of knowing that you spent a year of training and preparation, knowing you've documented daily your lifting,

your nutrition, your sleep, knowing that you ripped your lat, you healed, you came back from it knowing that your fiance is pregnant at the time like what is going through your mind right before you go on for that main performance on olympia this year was an interesting year for that and it was i think i've heard you speak about this too but some of the work i've done in therapy has been in healing my like younger self and like giving that kid what he needed

when because he didn't get it when he was younger he didn't know what he needed and now i'm smart enough i can give it to him wow because i don't need anyone else to do that let's go and so i was backstage and i actually remember my therapist told me to do this a while ago i didn't really do it enough but i pulled up a picture of me as a kid. Come on. And I looked at him right before. And I might even cry right now thinking about this. But I remember looking at it backstage like before getting on and looking at it and just looking at that picture and starting to cry a little bit.

I mean like if that kid could have imagined being me right now, you know? Wow. Like how hard I've worked since being that kid to now to be where I am. And like how proud he would be where i am and like how proud he would be of who i am and how proud i am of him and back and forth and just kind of allowing myself to feel proud of myself and all the work i've put in and like what would i if that kid was the one getting off stage right now what would i tell him what would i want him to feel what would i want him to experience you know i wouldn't want him to have any pressure, expectation to feel like he has to win

or he needs anything to enjoy it. I would just want him to go out there, understanding he's already done all the work he can to have fun with it, to relax, just to make the best of it. And to not be too hard on himself. And I really like embodied that. And I stepped on stage with a light open heart. I remember like standing on there, looking up at the lights

by my family and the crowd, the picture of me like giving my heart and pointing at them and i just had fun with it and i was up there super present and really enjoyed it wow it was uh it was a pretty like beautiful ending to what was a hell of a journey that year oh my goodness man i'm so happy you're talking about this and i can imagine my 16-year-old self, if I was watching this video at 16, being like, what a bunch of wusses. What are these guys talking about, man? Just toughen up and just like...

But also I could have been like, wow, if this guy who's one at the highest level, if he is able to enjoy his life in this process and this is what he did, maybe I would have been able to shift it and be like okay how can I reflect on my life and not worry about all the material things to like impress people or chasing girls or looking flashy so that people like me but actually figuring out a way to like myself yeah the younger parts of me that felt neglected or not seen.

And I'm just so happy for you that this was the moment before you went on stage. I had no clue you were gonna say that. But I'm so happy for you, because I used to have on my phone, I used to have a photo of my younger self at five. Now I've got me and my fiance, but I used to have a photo of my little Louis, you know, and I would spend for like a year reconnecting with the younger part of me that felt neglected,

not seen, abused, abandoned, all these different things and created that intimacy and relationship with my younger self. And I'm so happy for you that you started this and you did it right before you went on the biggest moment for yourself. Yeah. What a beautiful moment, man. I'm just, I'm so happy for you. And I'm so happy in this moment that this is something you're talking about because

there are billions of men in the world who will never reconnect with the parts of themselves where they feel the most ashamed, most insecure, the least amount of love within themselves. And so I'm so happy that you just said this right now and that we're having this conversation because I know the pain that men are going through. Yes, women are going through pain as well, but I know men in general don't like to talk about these things.

And I'm so happy that you are using your platform. I watch your vlogs, your videos. I see you talking about this in interviews. And I just want women watching or listening to send this to the men in their life. Even just this clip. You don't have to listen to the whole thing. Just send them a few minutes of this and really take this in. Because the man I'm sitting in front of right now is a beautiful man with a big heart.

And to watch you pursue your life, not perfect, but pursuing it in progress, pursuing it with reflection in yourself, healing the parts of yourself in a journey of healing while pursuing your external goals as well is so beautiful, man. And I really acknowledge you for this incredible gift that you're giving people right now with this conversation. I just wanted to put that out there because I'm just so happy that we are speaking about this because there's so many men that will never take the time to heal. And I hope they do. I hope they realize you speaking about this,

sure you were successful before externally, but internally you still didn't feel like you loved yourself fully or you weren't able to enjoy the wins. So what's the point of winning if you still don't feel enough? I heard you talk about a quote with Jim Carrey one time, which I love this quote as well. We're going to paraphrase this, but Jim Carrey said at one point, I wish everyone could become rich and famous and achieve all their dreams and realize that's not the key to happiness. Like being rich and famous and successful is not the key.

I'm paraphrasing the quote, but it's learning how to be at peace with yourself and the parts of you that you do not love. That is an incredible life. Yeah, and you're doing it Man, I wish that 28 29. I was able to be where you are Inspiring man. I want to ask you about is there anything you wanted to add to that right there? Just what we've been talking about here. Is there anything that came up for you during that? No I mean, I like you said it's it's a message that you know

I try and share hoping a lot of people can understand that because What I'm a lot of what I'm working on right now is i think a lot of people feel x about themselves and they're like well like if i have my own family or my own kid i'll treat them differently than myself i'll i'll do it for them but but like what my therapist has always told me she's like it's too late then you know there's a reason that this stuff kind of repeats through generations is because a lot of the love that you give to others does reflect on the love that you give yourself all the time and if you don't learn how to i don't learn how to do this now to give myself i'm gonna struggle to give it to my daughter and if the way you were talking about the way men talk to themselves if they were to

really walk through and see their younger self and be like what would you tell that little boy versus how what would you tell yourself they would it would be two different things you would never say these negative things to a little boy no no definitely even if you were saying it to you as a little boy they wouldn't they would never treat yourself that way as a little boy sitting in front of you yeah but what people don't realize is that like when you feel that pain that shame and insecurity that is that little boy it's the same person there's no separation there you know so wow man this is freaking powerful i'm so happy that you're having this conversation right now um i heard you talk about your dad one time where you you know you have a great relationship with

him and he loves you but you never saw him model kind of the self-love with himself i guess in this way he would just kind of take everything on but but he wouldn't express like, hey, can you give me a hand? Can I get support? Like he would just take it on, which is not a bad thing or wrong thing. It's inspiring. But it's also empowering to allow others to support you, right? It is. And so maybe he wasn't able to even have the tools to model this type of relationship you have with yourself right now right no definitely like i mean like i was talking about previous generations had no idea of this stuff they didn't have these podcasts or therapists or education or

studies or anything that would allow them to kind of work through this nor did they really have probably maybe it would have been honestly a disadvantage for them to feel some of this because they did have to get through a lot of hard so you know he wasn't modeled that and he was like the greatest father i could have ever imagined but he wasn't able to model that like requesting of help and showing a vulnerability and he almost created almost like a false expectation of what i was looking for i mean thinking that's what i wanted i wanted to be the rock that always held the family together, that wasn't stressed out, that could, you know, just take everything on by himself and like have it together. And I was like, I'm not that person. Like, I can't do that, you know? You're like, I need help. Yeah. It was hard for me to kind of

realize that because I was like, I want to become the man who can handle that. And then I was like, I don't think there was a version of me, at least not a happy one that exists like that. Interesting. So did you feel like a failure as you were growing up because you didn't think you could be like your father? There were times where I felt like I was more angry, more sad, more upset, unable to handle as much stress where I was like, like my dad could do this, you know, and I was like a little kind of hard on myself. And it did exist. But I'm sure there's a version of my dad who maybe like wishes at times he didn't he was going through and he didn't feel like he could handle it but that's all he knew he didn't know how to talk about it it's all he knew so it's a lot but he what's what i love about him is he's so like open to this and like i talk to him now we're trying to like work on it now and

he's like he's so open to like learning and being there for me and he's so proud of me for doing this work myself. He's always encouraged me to be this best version of myself. I think that's beautiful because some parents, if they didn't have the tools to do these things themselves, they may say, why are you doing this? Why are you going to coach or therapist? Just suck it up, man. I'm able to do this.

Your grandfather was able to do this. We went through wars. We went through famine. We we we didn't have time to express our emotions we were surviving we're trying to survive we didn't have the time or the privilege to talk about the pressures that we have we just had to step up yeah so i'm glad that your dad is empowering and encouraging you to be able to process the pressures in the past in a beautiful way and not just saying, ah, what are you doing? That shows that he's got a growth mindset as well. Oh, yeah, absolutely.

What is the, when did you know that you were in love with Courtney? Was there a moment that you were like, obviously i like this girl and you know we're hanging out or dating but like was there a moment you're like this is the one that i want to be with the one that i want to choose i don't know if there was like a concrete moment you know we went through a rocky start to our relationship really she we were long distance and she had had some like kind of health stuff that was going on with her in the past also something that we were able to relate on and we kind of like long distance is hard and we were kind of health stuff that was going on with her in the past. Also something that we were able to relate on. And we kind of like long distance is hard.

And we were kind of struggling. And I remember there being some times where we were like, we weren't doing hot. And we were on the edge. We weren't super connected. And I just like, I remember thinking like no matter what all this we're going through right now, I just never want to like lose her. Really? No matter what. I felt like I just I was like, I always want.

I didn't see the perfect version of ourself now but i believed in like a better version of ourself and i just i don't know i just remember all that and then we actually took a break at one point really it was during covid she got stuck in america i was stuck in canada borders were closed we were kind of going through our stuff and we were like the stuff wasn't really working out we took a short break kind of took a step stuff and we were like, the stuff wasn't really working out. We took a short break, kind of took a step back and we're focusing on ourselves. And then after a few months I was like, I felt nothing for a while.

It's done. Whatever, you know, you're like, I'm done with the relationship. And then all of a sudden I just like, I got hit by this overwhelming, like fear that like she would be gone forever.

And I like started to really like process that. And I was like, I don't know if I can live without this girl like i don't really i don't know if i can like if we bring this back together it's going to be hard we're going to have to not only build what we didn't have but repair what we've now lost and work forward and go through a lot of the stuff that we've now created more pain but i was like i feel like that i need to do it because this girl is so special you know really and she really is like a great like yin and yang to me you know like she's very emotional and relational and connected and whereas for me sometimes i can go into like that performance mode and it's hard for me to like come back and connect yeah yeah she's always like ready for an

embrace and a hug and to be there and to be present like just get off me i need to focus right now yeah she's just always there you know and i'm not i wasn't always the best at that so she was a great model at me for being able to express your emotions and kind of like be more relational wow okay so you guys got back together and was that the time you said let's do therapy together too yeah i think i guess we had only done solo therapy up until then. But we did start doing therapy together after that, yeah. What has been the greatest lesson that you've learned through couples therapy? I can't remember the exact quote. It's my therapist's quote.

Jordan, through name, I'm stealing it from her. But it's like compatibility isn't a precursor, it's earned. You know, like people, we're not just going to like meet and be compatible and her eggs work with my like positives and all this. It's not going to be like that. We're going to actually have to like work at understanding each other and giving and taking and being there for each other because it's not always perfect.

And I think understanding how much really like work goes into a relationship working, you know, just I don't think you find your soulmate. build your soulmate you know you have to earn it and i think really like understanding that first of all a victim is someone who has no control over anything so if something's out there and you need to find it you have no control if you find the wrong one you can't fix it so i find that gives you a lot more control to be able to empowerment to be able to make your relationship what you want it to be rather than to try and find a relationship that you want so i think that was a huge thing for me and also obviously like we've spoken about women have a lot more like emotional needs that they're vocal about at least the men aren't i think one of the biggest things i've learned is that

her needs that she requests aren't just for her, but they're actually for me too. So when she's like missing connection and I'm like, I don't need that, but I'll do it for you. It's like, no, I need it just as much as her. So I'm not doing it for her. I'm doing it for us. And understanding that the relationship is an us thing, not a you and me thing, is like a huge thing that's a huge mindset shift. Because in a relationship, you feel like you're doing someone something for someone else.

Sure. You love them. You'll do it, but it's not the same as if you're truly believing it's making both of you better. Wow. What's missing for you right now in your life or in the relationship that you feel like you don't have yet besides a daughter on the way that we don't have

yet. Is there something missing within you that you feel like you still get to develop to have the best relationship possible yeah i mean i think a less of a drastic dial in life what do you make sense so let's say last couple months i've been traveling a lot right so i'm dialed into work and then i come home and i'm trying to dial back into relationship and if i'm all the way 100 to negative 100 back and forth that's a big change to go so it's how i need to learn better at not when i'm gone not disconnecting too much so that when i come home it's not too hard to continue to

connect again but i feel a lot more more at peace and just joyful and happy when I'm really connected with her. So that's more important to me. So I need to put more energy into prioritizing that dial to be over there more often. That's interesting. So not be 100 at one thing only. Be like, okay, I'm going to be on the road for three weeks.

I'm at 80%, but I'm going to give 20% over here as well, so it's not completely eliminated. Exactly, yeah. Interesting. What is the thing you love about your wife the most another tough one not tough to find anything but to pick one this isn't what i love the most but something we were kind of joking about is and i kind of touched on this there is i'm i've been obsessed with efficiency in my life sometimes and efficiency means that you're also missing out on a lot of things that are just joyful to be present. Things that don't really matter.

If I'm trying to get up and go, go, go, go, go, then I'm like, I've got to wake up, get in the shower, eat my food, get out the house. Everything's got to be on a thing. Where she can just kind of get up and be like, hmm, just kind of sit there for a bit, drink her coffee, want to just sit with me and just be there with me and be like hmm just kind of sit there for a bit drink her coffee want to just sit with me and just like be there with me and just like and be super present with that and she's i used to be like we gotta go we gotta move we gotta move and she's just like why you know so i think that is something that i really admire about her that it really helps me kind of slow down too and she's also just the most selfless person i've ever met like she truly almost had a fault puts everyone else's needs before hers and so i'm needing to learn and she said no like i don't

need this that's like no i know you need it so i'm going to give it to you but i still love that she's always trying to like look out for me and no matter what we're going through she really tries to see my side of it she just she's able to emphasize with how i feel and a lot of men i know are afraid to show all the emotion to cry and all these things because they're afraid that they're going to be like their wife's going to be like oh you're weak why are you crying i need a tough man she's never made me feel like that she's truly made me feel like the more of my like insecure parts of myself that i show that she loves me more that she accepts me more for who i am not less not the same but actually like it's we have more love she's more love for me when i show her more things that i'm afraid to show wow man that's beautiful i think every man wants to be able to reveal

themselves in front of the woman they're with and feel seen and safe at the same time and secure of all their insecurities shame and past guilt they want to feel seen safe and secure of all their insecurities, shame, and past guilt. They want to feel seen, safe, and secure to reveal themselves. And I remember many relationships I was in, I remember a girl, I was crying one time because I was bringing up something that was really emotional for me.

And I would say I'm a sensitive human being, but it's not like I'm crying every week or something. It's like when something feels something, I'll feel it. But then I'll move through it and I'm back to myself. It's not like every day, right? You're human. But when I was going through something that was challenging and I started to tear up and cry, and she started to laugh at me. She was like, I know I'm supposed to not think this is funny, but you look weak. And I remember just feeling like, what are you talking about?

Any woman would want their man to be able to show their emotions, but some women aren't able to handle those emotions. Some women just don't have the skills or the tools for whatever reason from their parents. I'm not making her wrong or bad. It's just, it didn't make me feel safe or secure to want to reveal myself like that ever again and i think all women watching or listening if you want to have a a man that is in his masculine

and driven and on his purpose allow him to be all the parts of himself even the insecure scared little boy parts that he has inside of him. Embrace it because that'll make him feel safe to go bigger on his purpose moving forward. So I'm so happy to hear that Courtney is that for you. Oh, yeah. And she embraces all the parts of you. And that is a beautiful thing. It sounds like she's still got to do a little work

with her and her little Courtney as well. She started it before me. Oh, she did? That's good, yeah. We're both working on it. That's beautiful, man. I got a few more questions for you if that's okay. I want to ask you about health and longevity.

I want to ask you about a little bit about your business and your social media empire. And then I want to wrap things up shortly after that. You know, five-time world champion, Olympia, right? You've mentioned every year, you're not sure if you're going to do it again, or if you're done, or you're thinking about it, and you're still in that season. How do you think as you're, you know, we were talking about this beforehand. How do you approach your health? Let alone like pursuing more Olympias and championships. But how do you think about your health with bodybuilding, with training this hard, with the amount of intention you have on building the body? When you've seen, you know, giants of the past go through now, heart attacks and surgeries and back replacement, you know, surgeries and all these different things, knee replacements. When you see kind of like the giants before you start to not only fall, stumble, but have health challenges, how do you think about your approach to health and the world of bodybuilding to live a long, healthy life of harmony,

not of, I was a champion for five, 10 years and then suffered the rest of my life. How do you think about that? And is that a fear of yours? It's definitely a fear of mine. And I've always said, if you're a bodybuilder and you don't have that fear, then you're just ignorant because it's a reality of what i do for sure and i

do the best that i can within the realm that i'm in to manage it but i know what i'm doing isn't healthy for my body really you know right now it's not healthy for you yeah for sure you know there's bodybuilding that making me healthier absolutely not i know that i know there's a lot of steps i can take to mitigate that as best as possible, but it's not healthy. And that's why I've always, I've never been like, I'm one of the younger competitors. A lot of the open bodybuilders at least are like 35 years old when they peak. A lot of them win around then.

So I'm like, I could go all the way for another six, seven years. But I've always been like, if I'm ever bodybuilding past 30, like you guys just cancel my gym membership. It's like, just don't let me, you know, I'm done. And I wouldn't, I would never go past 30.

So I'm coming to the end of my career. And I'm, I always had the goal of if I start and I'm successful young and I end young, then I'm at least better off than pushing past. Cause obviously the younger we are, the better our body that can recover and heal. Yeah. Yeah.

And I also just had the goal of winning Olympias. That was my only goal. So I didn't want to do the Arnold, which is in March. I didn't want to do any other show throughout the year. I was always going to do one show, so it allowed myself after the Olympia to take some time off the gym completely.

That's smart. Give my body, my organs, my digestion, everything a break, and then a lot of other people I compete, they want to go get other titles, and I'm like, well, you're actually all falling behind because I'm already preparing for the next Olympia, and you're preparing for a show in between and then the olympia so it always kind of gives me an opportunity to stay ahead yeah there's no off season for them there's no time to recover they get like a week off and then they're back at it

that's tough and that's that's mentally exhausting it's physically exhausting on your body it's a lot so i think that's a huge benefit that i've tried to give myself is a lot of bodybuilders throughout their career, they'll do like 30 to 50 shows. And I've only done like 12. Wow. You know, and I've won five Olympias already. So it only goes up one a year. That's a good batting percentage. Yeah.

Not too bad. That definitely helps me. This year, like I was talking to you about, I got with a new trainer, Justin King. And he's more of an athletic trainer. But he's doing a lot of prehab i guess you could call it right like injury prevention style stuff doing more like mobility and stretching mobility isometric holds all these kind of things like hold like concentric negatives and all these different things so help my tissues and ligaments and everything get stronger so i don't hurt myself in the future smart you know i used to squat six

seven hundred pounds all the time now i'll like do leg press squat extension all these things first and then squat like 300 pounds really because it's a lot lighter it's a lot easier on my chest you're not compressing your back also and that 600 pound of bar your back man geez that compression i was like why do we get headaches every week i wonder i used to tell i used to go to my phys my uh I'd be like, why do I have such bad headaches and neck pain? He's like, bro, you squat and deadlift 600 pounds twice a week. What do you expect your body's going to do? I'm like, that's a good point.

Yeah, you're lifting a small car on your shoulders, man. I mean, that's crazy. Yeah, so I pulled away from that. I do a lot of blood work throughout the year. That's good. I have a good – my business partner in the supplements actually owns a health clinic called Relive. Nice. So I can walk in there there to do blood work whenever i want i can get ivs glutathione all these things that i need and keep on track of that so i know my blood markers

especially the specific ones that bodybuilders monitor like liver egfr inflammation all these different things that you can monitor that at least are a good show they don't show everything obviously but it's a good test at least to see where you're at so that's helped me a lot my diet has been focused on just health rather than purely like getting calories in it's actually caring what kind of foods i'm putting in my quality of calories too exactly yeah you know i don't i don't drink i don't party as much anymore i really emphasize sleep because i think that's the biggest thing um i've been doing the more progressive stuff i've been doing that's not really in reach of everyone i've been doing a lot of stem cells yeah how has that how has that worked for you peptides and stem cells

i think they've helped me a lot you know i've gotten some stem cells and some injuries which have healed faster than an injury should heal right i tore my bicep two years ago before the olympia got stem cells in that and it healed in like six weeks or something so it was pretty crazy but overall what i've noticed is especially for autoimmune it reduces inflammation and one of the biggest things they've studied around it is mitigating autoimmune diseases so i haven't had any flare-ups or inflammation or anything like that since i started doing that consistently so that that's helped a lot. And just kind of balancing all these things together to make the best lifestyle I can within what I'm doing.

Every time I try and talk about doing something healthier, people are like, you're taking steroids, you're killing yourself. I'm like, I understand they're not healthy, but I'm also, everything I'm doing, you can do without steroids and be even healthier than me. Or if you are going to decide to do it, you can follow along like this too too and at least if you're going to do it you're making the best of what you got sure sure so you know it's not it's like the person who people are like you go to mcdonald's and you get a diet coke what's the point of that i was like well you don't need to add all the sugar on top of mcdonald's if you're going to have you can do a little bit better yeah of course there's

ways to do the best you can within what you're doing. So the few things I'm trying. That's great, man. We're here in Vegas at our friend Omar's studio. He's a video master and he's been building his social media and really talented as well in this world of social media. But you have built a social media empire. I mean, millions of followers on YouTube, millions of views every video, 20 plus million, I think on Instagram. And it just exploded around the world. What is your thought around content media and, and building this social media empire? Are you intentional with it? Or is it just, I'm going to throw up a photo of myself jacked and it's going to go viral because there's tons of jack dudes that that don't get this big on social media what is your business philosophy and creative mind around building the brand of you i mean obviously winning five olympias is a bit of a cheat code you know you got a good amount of media attention for that so that's helped a lot but i also think there's a lot of successful

people out there in different fields who haven't been able to grow a social media for whatever which reason and there's there's nfl champions there's nba champions there's you know tennis champions that don't have a fraction of the audience that you have and they're at a bigger platform well yeah like tom brady i think has less followers than me but you. But you did a poll in America of how many people know him. He would beat me a million times over the amount of people know his name. But his social media isn't really authentic and vulnerable and like genuine. It doesn't look like he's on there thinking, how can I put myself out there on social media and get people to know me? It looks like he has a PR agent being like you know check this out

check that out and all these things kind of like a more of like a highlight reel more professionalism so with that being said my only philosophy i've ever had is just no one logs in on to my instagram no one makes any captions for me no one tells me what to post on my instagram i'm just going to put out what feels authentic to me and what feels like i'm really showing myself. And that's all I'm ever going to do. Really? I've never really chased like the trends, the algorithms or all these things like that. And I've just tried to my captions often sometimes are either like a philosophical thought I was thinking one night and I tried to write it out in the caption like a journal and I post it. Or there's some stupid joke where I'm making like a lighthearted joke about myself trying to be funny and just i never take myself too seriously i try and just be my like authentic

self on there and i think especially in a world with a lot of right now and you know people mistrusting politicians and all the fake news out there people appreciate authenticity and i got in at a good time i got lucky i've won some olympias you know and i just tried to stay true to myself and i think people appreciated seeing that authenticity and they also really appreciated that yes i got the immediate attention from winning olympias and all this stuff but through all that anyone who's followed me since the beginning and everyone who knows me personally all these people number one thing they say that i'm most like proud to hear that i haven't changed really like i'm still the same kid i'm still the same person i've grown a lot i'm a lot smarter but to my core i'm the same that's beautiful man so i think really

people have just appreciated seeing someone make a lot of external growth and internally remain true to themselves when did you start to make the transition of like okay this is actually a business where i can make money and build a business rather than, I'm assuming a lot of guys are just more sponsored athletes and they're getting paid by sponsors or winning competitions. When did you make that shift of like, oh, I'm going to make money as a business, not just as an athlete or a sponsor, influencer, and get endorsement deals? When did that shift? sponsor, influencer, and get endorsement deals. When did that shift? I think 2019 or so was the first year I ever was, like,

trying to make some merch. You know, I'm like, screw it, I'll make a T-shirt and see how it goes. And I was in my sister's living room printing stuff on a piece of paper because I didn't have labels, taping it to a bag, and I shipped out, like, 250 T-shirts. And I was like, that was pretty good money, you know. That was easy. And I made it all. I did some work. It was satisfying. It was, was like that was pretty good money you know that was easy like and i made it all i did some work it was satisfying it was like that was easy i could do that so she's posted on social media hey there's a shirt yeah buy it you sold literally

like dm me your address and paypal or something you know i did each single interact in whatever one at a time wow that's how you all start that's how we all start the address on on uh microsoft word printed out cut it like it was it took me probably like a week to do 250 that's how we all start though you have no clue what you're doing you're like ah who wants this just give me some cash and i'll you know deliver it to you yeah so that's how that all started and i met a a good friend of mine now who's still my business partner who was my athlete manager. And he quit his job because he didn't like it. Came over to help me on that back-end business side of things. And we're still doing stuff now.

And then as I started to gain a lot more popularity, one of my sponsors was like, how about we make your own product? And I was like, yeah, let's do it. Let's see how it goes. Like, we'll try it. So I got to make the label. I got to make the product. But it was still still under their branding but it was still their brand it was in your business it's like you get more commission exactly it's not yours i got a royalty off of it but i didn't own anything so i did that and it exploded it did super well it was probably one of their

best-selling products definitely the best drop the company's ever had i made like 80 000 over a weekend and i was like that was 10X the money I've ever made. I was like, I'm rich. I was like, wait, this much money is out there? And I'm, other companies, the company's making this much money and I'm only getting the salary? You're getting like 2% of what they're making? Yeah, yeah. I'm like, all right, something's not adding up here.

So that was when I started to be like, all right, I need to do this for myself. And then I had a bunch of people reach out to me and try to do it with me. And then some people tell me I should do it all by myself because I can do it, all these things. And then I ended up going down to Florida to meet with Matt Jansen and Dom, my two partners now, just to talk about some things. And they had a supplement company for vitamins called Revive. And they were starting a different one and they wanted me to come on as a partner. We were all going to be equal partners in it. And I was like, you know, some people are telling me I should own my whole thing and do it all myself. But I went down there and I spent some

time with them and I really connected with them. They were good people that had a great operation for their previous company. I could tell they were smart and they were genuine, like good people, like that I could be friends with. And I was like, this just feels right. You know, in my gut, I was like, this feels right. So I ended up moving down to Florida. We started a company called Raw. Made another product with my name on the side of it. By this time, I owned the company.

And it's just been exploding ever since. And what's cool is I'm good at some marketing stuff. I'm good at ideas and pushing the brand in the direction I want. But I don't really want to run operations and sales calls and shipping, buying raw materials, like all, but I don't really want to run operations and sales calls and shipping, buying raw materials, all that. I don't want to do that. You've got to build your body, man. You don't have time for that. I've got to check out Olympia.

I've got to do all these things. So having those partners is the best thing I ever could have done. And they're amazing. And obviously, the company wouldn't be as big as it was without all of us being the system that we are. So we've created something really cool and really big now. And the risk that I took within all that is I was making, being fully transparent,

I was making probably $10,000 a month salary. And then I had gotten that like $80,000 commission. And then I was offered to stay with them, a small piece of that company, and I think $ sixty thousand dollars a month so you're like okay this is and i was like holy it's a lot of money that's like 700 grand i'm like you serious like this is you know my whole thing with money in my life was that if i made 100 grand a year i was rich i made it that was the only thing i ever thought about so i'm like

that's like 60 grand a month yeah yeah yeah and then with raw they're like there's no salary there's no commission coming out of surgery you're not going to be making any money right now you know i'm like and they're like but we'll front the money to start the business we'll all be equal partners and it will be like a long-term play and i was like yeah it just felt right you know i'm like i'm good i'm going to take the risk i'm going to bet on myself you know i might be cutting the salary right now like i could go buy these cool like a nice house and a nice car and all these things right now but how about i wait a little bit, like a nice house and a nice car and all these things right now.

But how about I wait a little bit? And I mean, I only had to wait like two years and I was able to make good money from it. And now I'm still not making that big of a salary, but the equity that I own in the company is worth infinitely times more than that. What did the, what did the total first year, what did you guys do total sales in the new business?

Do you know? In the new business? I think it was just under 10 mil 10 million yeah so you're building a you know 10 million of equity which something like that you could potentially sell for you know 30 50 80 million after one year of sales not that company though because it's the company that the company you just built the first year at that first year the way the multiplier works in supplements is more of like a 10x off EBITDA. So if we were really only making like 1 to 2 mil profit off that, we maybe would have been worth 10 mil.

Yeah, yeah, okay. But if you build it over time, then it's getting up there. Yeah, that was year one. And it was way more fun like that. I was way more passionate about it. It felt way more authentic to promote something that i owned and that i got to decide all the products that were coming out how we marketed it how it looked everything i got to be part of it so it made me a lot more involved in it and people also felt that authenticity of how much i cared

about it it's not like buy this brand and a year later someone offers me more money so i'm like wait no buy this brand now buy this one it's like no this is it forever this is like i'm gonna make this as best as possible man that's exciting um this is this is a question i ask everyone towards the end of the interviews so i've got three final questions for you but before i ask them i'm gonna send people to your instagram i want them to follow you my i don't think my audience probably follows you yet maybe there's some of them but i don't think my audience fully most of your audience is men, I'm assuming, right? Yeah. It's like 90% men.

Yeah, where I'm more like 50-50 men and women. Really? But I think the women are really going to love this so much to see someone like you speak in this way and have a beautiful relationship with your wife and building yourself to be a father. And all the work you're doing, I think they're going to love this. So I think they're going to share this with all the men in their life and say, you need to watch this. But I want people to check out like your vlogs are awesome. I just love how real you are and your content. I just want people to see it, you know, watch it to be

entertained and inspired, but also to study the way you do things on social media. I just think you do a great job. So I want to congratulate you there. Where can people check out the supplement business? Where can they go for that? It's called Raw Nutrition. So get raw nutrition.com is the website. Get raw nutrition. And your favorite is what the pre workout the protein? What do you like the most? I mean, cookies and cream protein is my favorite right now. Should have brought me some man. Let's go. I'll send you some. Let me guide you you i'll send you more energy and then yeah the pre-workout too those are our best-selling skews everyone loves those okay nice pre-workout protein get in there get raw nutrition or that's what the website website get raw nutrition.com to

check that out um your youtube is awesome what's the uh name on the YouTube? You can just search Chris Bumset on social. There's a C Bum though on the Instagram. Instagram C Bum. Yeah, yeah. So check that out. Watch the journey of you with your daughter coming in a couple of months, man. I'm excited for you, man. What is the thing that you would tell your younger self,

your 12, 13-year-old self about what is about to happen in your life to become a father what's that thing that you would say to your younger self if you could go back and tell him something in regards to becoming a father i would probably just say take it a little easy on yourself you know to to understand that it's not as easy nor is it maybe even possible just to to give the kind of love you want to others without giving it to yourself so if you want to show your baby girl and refer her to feel the love that you want her to feel then understand that you deserve that same love oh my goodness man give me the chills the way you're talking.

This is beautiful, man. This is a question I ask everyone at the end. It's called the three truths. So imagine a hypothetical scenario. You get to live as long as you want. You've taken care of your health. So you're living long. Beautiful.

But it's the last day on earth for you, many years away. And you get to create everything you want. The family, the relationship, the business, the adventures, everything at all happens the way you envisioned from this moment until the last day of your life. But for whatever reason, you've got to take all of your content, your work, your products, your businesses with you. So no one has access to your information. This interview is gone.

Anything you've ever shared is gone, hypothetically. But you get to leave behind one final message. And this is all we would have to remember Chris by. And I call it the three truths. So what would be the top truths that you would leave behind or the biggest lessons you would leave behind? To the world world to your younger self to your friends and family what would those truths be oh man um this is tough you're gonna have to go home and think about this one deeper and come back with another answer but i would say understanding utmost importance the value of connection connection with people around you connection with yourself and how important relationships are you know i think people really they think

they understand that but when you look at their life they're pouring more energy into work and then coming home too tired to focus on it or they're harder on themselves rather than like showing themselves a little bit more grace and i think truly being able to prioritize that you know and i also think even my i'm guilty of this too i'm like well i'm busy right now so in the future i'll focus on that i'm this is going on right now you know i i want to be able to retire young so i can do all that i'll do it later you know and i think it's often too late when you keep saying that and something will always come up so i guess lesson number two is whatever you want to do do it now because tomorrow never comes you know just get

after it connection the most important thing don't wait to focus on that focus on it now and something a little bit more performative i always say this little saying called set the standard and it started off very external like be the best set the standard of the classic physique that i was in but it became more so set your own standards to to rely on the standards that you hold true and you hold important to yourself rather than the other people think are important so figure out what you truly feel is important and focus on those and prioritize your life to to set those standards for yourself and maybe your family as well. Because usually that all ties in, but not caring what other people's standards are, but focusing on what matters most to you.

Those are great truths, man. You don't need to reflect on this. You got those right there. Before I ask the final question, Chris, I want to acknowledge you for, man, the journey, man. Not only the journey physically and performance-wise and athletically in terms of your goals and dreams in the external world, but the journey in your relationships with your wife, your friends, your family, and with yourself now and little Chris. I think the fact that you have gone on a journey and an adventure

to heal the parts of you that were hurting is, I think, the greatest accomplishment you've ever created for yourself, more than any Olympia. And so I want to acknowledge you for that journey, man. It's a beautiful thing that you're doing and a beautiful standard that you're setting for the rest of a young men's generation coming up right now. So thank you for setting that standard for yourself, for your wife, for your daughter and your family, and for the millions of people that watch you, man. It's really beautiful. Thank you.

Of course. My final question, what is your definition of greatness? My definition of greatness. Oh man, they're tough questions you're throwing at me i should have you didn't let me prep on these um i would say that greatness to me is truly living in alignment with like your authentic self and being the best version of yourself in all aspects of life so like i was saying not just in like the physical but emotional and relationally and being

the best version of yourself and in my concept what comes with that greatness of the best version of yourself is also a version that elevates the people around you and makes everyone around you a better version and is caring and loving enough to yourself and to others that as you become better you're making other people around you better so that your family your community your friends are all kind of being elevated alongside you because if you're only up there by up there by yourself then you're by yourself and it feels lonely so yeah I guess something along those lines. C-Bomb, my man. Thank you, brother. Great ties, man. I hope you enjoyed today's episode and it inspired you on your journey towards greatness. Make sure to check out the show notes in the description for a full rundown of today's episode

with all the important links. And if you want weekly exclusive bonus episodes with me personally, as well as ad-free listening, then make sure to subscribe to our greatness plus channel exclusively on Apple podcasts. Share this with a friend on social media and leave us a review on Apple podcasts as well. Let me know what you enjoyed about this episode in that review. I really love hearing feedback from you and it helps us figure out how we can support and serve you moving forward. And I want to remind you, if no one has told you lately, that you are loved, you are worthy, and you matter. And now it's time to go out there and do something great.