Dorian Yates - High Intensity Training (HIT) Workout with Dorian Yates

Full transcript: Dorian Yates on London Real

0:03 My first day here, and Dorian told me to meet him at the gym. It was time for me to understand how the shadow was created. To do that, I needed to walk a mile in his shoes. My approach to contest is Dorian Yates against Dorian Yates of last year. That’s what I’m trying to beat. I’m trying to beat Dorian Yates of last year, rather than thinking about beating other people, which basically I have no control over, so that’s my competition.

0:32 Dorian had pushed past every physical instinct in order to reach his goal. He used anger. It can get you a long way.

0:53 I used it myself as a young man on Wall Street, obsessed with making money. What people gotta realize is when I’m on stage, when I’m in the gym, that’s my job. And to me, you know, it is serious. I take that seriously. But Dorian took it to another level.

1:16 He pounded his body into submission day after day after day. Everyone has access to the same equipment, the same knowledge, even the same drugs. What made Dorian different, what made him a champion, was embracing the pain. Because where there’s pain, there’s growth. Brian’s leg training sessions were notorious in the bodybuilding community.

1:50 The bigger the muscle group, the bigger the pain. Everyone dreaded his leg day. But every now and then, some sucker would venture up to Temple Gym and give one a try.

2:20 It never ended well. Hey, Brian. This is it. There’s the spot, right? Welcome to the jungle, man.

2:56 Love it, love it. What a great setup here. We’re going to start outside, a little bit different from Temple Gym. Yeah, right? We’ve got a nice outside area with the sun and everything like that, so we’re going to start out there with a little bit of stretching, mobility exercises, and it’s leg day today, man.

3:15 It’s leg day. Straight in the deep end, man. Why not? You’re known for your leg days, right? Yeah.

3:20 So it’s going to be fun. Let’s go. Let’s go outside. What do you look for when you look for a gym to train in? It’s really about the equipment, good hardcore equipment and preferably conducive atmosphere.

3:38 Okay. I can go to a gym where it’s, you know, these corporate fitness gyms where if you’re making noise or you happen to drop the weight or something like that, they’re going to get upset. So that’s, they’re not gyms. For me, they’re just big commercial kind of fitness center, leisure clubs. They’re not really gyms.

3:59 This is somewhere where you do some hard ass work, you’re going to be sweating, you’re going to be groaning, you’re going to be making noise, and if that intimidates somebody in there then they shouldn’t be in there, it’s not a gym, you know, it’s all about the hard work, it’s all about the work, man, you know, it’s not about having pretty training clothes and nice shiny machines and a sauna and a whirlpool or whatever the hell else it is, I mean, yeah, great, that’s cool, that’s what you want, but that’s not a gym. This is a gym. People come here to work out, work hard.

4:34 Everybody feeds off that. It’s an atmosphere. That’s what we had in Temple Gym. People used to feel it when they’d walk down the stairs. It’s all business.

4:43 You feel like, wow, I want to work out. That’s what you want to feel like when you go to a gym. You feel like, wow, I want to work out. I don’t want to feel like it’s too clinical. I bet I’m not sweat on the floor and stuff like that.

4:56 So a lot of places are like that now. So it’s hard to find a real good gym, and fortunately we’ve got a great one here. We’ve got good hardcore equipment inside, got this AstroTurf outside with all the kind of functional equipment, the ropes, the sleds we’re pushing and stuff, and the cages and kettlebells and kind of stuff like that that I like to use now because it’s just more into general fitness than pure bodybuilding. But today, sir, you will be doing pure bodybuilding, leg workout.

5:24 Quite a contrast to what we were doing last night. It’s an absolute contrast to what you were doing last night, you know? And you’re a man of contrast, aren’t you? Yeah, well, you know, trying to be a… Well, not trying to be, I am, you know, multi-dimensional.

5:36 I can move in different worlds. So the yoga is something different. This is just very intense and muscle work, you know? And a lot of people have misconceptions about my training and how it should be, and because it’s been called blood and guts and high intensity and heavy duty and everything like that. People sometimes just get the misconception it’s about lifting heavy weights or throwing heavy weights around.

6:03 It’s not, I mean we’ll use as much weight as we can but it’s really about the technique. It’s total opposite perhaps to power lifting or weight lifting where your job is to get the weight from A to B. So you use as many muscle groups as you can, you use momentum, you shorten the range of the motion, whatever you can do to get the weight from A to B that’s your job. With a bodybuilder, it’s about using the weight as a tool to put maximum stress on the muscle to trigger muscle growth.

6:33 It’s all about the intensity of the workout. So there’s a lot of things we’re going to do, a lot of techniques basically to make the exercise harder and to exhaust every aspect of the muscle. You’ve got the positive, which is the lifting of the weight. You’ve got the static, which is the holding and the position. And you’ve got the negative, which is the lowering of the weight.

6:52 Which is often overlooked. Which is often overlooked and I emphasize the negative part of the rep because a lot of muscle damage occurs during the negative part of the rep and it’s muscle damage, we’re not growing today while we’re in the gym, we’re breaking that muscle down, we’re damaging it. When you go outside of the gym and you take the correct nutrition and you get the rest, then your body is going to recover from this stress. It’s an adaptation to a stress, that’s what it is.

7:17 You’re putting a stress on your body that it’s not used to so it’s got to adapt to that stress and because we’re training within a specific range, it’s going to equal muscle growth. If you, you know, it’s the same thing with cardio, if you, you know, if your textured cardiovascular system is going to get more efficient, that’s a different kind of training. Today is purely for bodybuilding, for muscle growth and I believe it’s the most efficient system out there.

7:45 And the DYHIT, that’s my certification course. I’m training people now and certifying in the methods and we’ve got a good international team now. We’re getting pretty much every month, I’m getting four or five people coming over here and we’ve got now people that are certified in the US, Canada, China, Germany, Russia, Argentina, Lebanon and sorry if I missed anyone out, but we’ve got a lot of guys now we’re building up all around the world so they can go to their locale, their country and they can certify other personal trainers in my methods so that it’s correctly taught that’s the idea.

8:25 So the guys that come and train with me, they do the training, they do, they have a study guide with, you know, all theory and they have a written exam at the end so they have a practical engineering with me and a written exam at the end and if you know they pass all that and we’re happy then they get certified as a master trainer and they can go to their country and certify other personal trainers so that the methods get out there correctly and I’ve had you know I’ve had guys come to train with me and they’ve been kind of fans of mine and they’ve said to me look you know we’ve watched your DVD we’ve read your books you read all the magazine articles and we thought we knew exactly how you trained and we thought we knew We’re doing it correctly, but until you actually do it in person is not exactly the same okay now You’re shirt says hit high-intensity training. That’s right really would you?

9:15 What you created in the 90s right and it was a different way of training than a lot of the body I wouldn’t take the total credit for it and say I created it because it was already out there Okay, I think I just refined it and of course because I was very successful and being mr. Olympia people listen to you was a guy The first guy to point out the facts about muscle training and muscle growth and what actually, you know What’s behind it was called Arthur Jones and he was a guy that he made the nautilus machines and this is back in the 70s and he trained a lot of the top body balls, but According to him. They just couldn’t I just couldn’t tolerate it on a you know, a long-term basics It takes so much out of physically mentally, although it’s not not gonna be in the gym very long, right?

10:02 We’re going to do today, we’re going to do quadriceps, we’re going to do hamstrings, obviously the glutes are going to be involved, we’re going to do calves. So it’s a big workout, it’s probably the longest one I do, but we’re probably going to be around somewhere like 40, 45 minutes. Okay. And anything longer than that, you think you lose intensity? Well, you know, another guy that kind of helped pioneer this kind of training, I think it went in stages.

10:27 It was Arthur Jones initially, then there was Mike Mensah who was a competitive bodybuilder very successful and one of my earlier idols when I was a kid he got to be in the top you know top placing in Mr. Olympia he took it and changed it refined it a little bit more maybe for a competitive bodybuilder and then I took it I think a stage more so I wouldn’t say that you know I discovered I think I’ll refine it to what it is now, so it’s practical and we’ll work all the muscle groups sufficiently and everything. Mentally, before you go into a session like this, are you thinking about the muscle?

11:07 Are you trying to even get your brain into that muscle? Are you preparing yourself? Absolutely. I mean, you don’t know what we’re going to do, so you can’t really be prepared, but we’re going to do some mobility stretching exercises so your muscles are loose and activated and ready to fire. And I’ll show you the exercise we’re going to do so you can prepare yourself a little bit and I’ll go through everything with you exactly how to do it each stage and everything like that and it’s very important to concentrate on the muscle and that’s why we do the movements very controlled rather slowly without momentum and that’s much harder you know you see a lot of guys and they’re getting away and they’re swinging it and it might look impressive they’ve got some heavy weights but you know if you’re swinging it then there’s going to be periods during the repetition where momentum is carrying it through, so it’s much harder doing it like this.

11:59 So it’s like we’re going to get the most out of every repetition, every set, every exercise, which means we’re not going to be here for very long. So that’s what I tell people. Look, this is going to be tough, you’ve got to get your mind into it, you’ve got to push yourself to your absolute limit, but you haven’t got it in your back of your mind. I’ve got to do more, I’ve got to do more. It’s going to be quite brief.

12:20 So it’s easy to get your head into it, I think. If mentally you think, well, I got five or six sets to do, and I say, Brian, right, we’ve got five or six sets to do, let’s push to 100%. It’s difficult to do because you’re thinking in the back of your mind somewhere, well, I got more to do later. So maybe, you know, even if it’s subconscious, you’re gonna hold back a little bit. But if I say to you, look, one set, we’re just gonna do one set.

12:45 We’re not just gonna do one set per exercise, but we’re gonna do one set that’s really maximal. That’s the idea, put absolutely everything into that set, intensity wise, and then we move on, we do another exercise. So you haven’t got it in the back of mind, I’ve got to do more, and you’re not rushing around from one exercise to another. That’s okay, that’s a different kind of training for different results, but purely for bodybuilding, this is good as it gets.

13:08 And do you try to leave it all on the table when you go in for a workout like this? Do you try to die? I try to push to the absolute limit, and as a trainer, I think I’m very good knowing what somebody can do even though they don’t know themselves so they think perhaps sometimes people think well I can’t do any more but I know I can see if it can do one or two more and it’s those one or two more at the end that gives you the results right if you’re going to work in your comfort zone why is your body going to adapt and change it has no stress muscle growth is an adaptation to a stress yeah so if you’re used to this level of stress your body’s not going to change, right?

13:48 And you see it a lot in the gyms. Guys come to start training, their body’s not used to anything, right? So anything is going to be a stress. Pretty soon the body starts to adapt and you see people, they will grow in their progress for maybe 18 months and after that they don’t really get anywhere because now your body’s got used to that. Now you’ve got to, every time you’ve got to push beyond And what I used to do, and maybe we can have a look later on, at some of my old training diaries, is I used to write down after the workout, because I had a memory, I didn’t like to go in the gym with my notebook, like, you know, to break my concentration a little bit.

14:27 But I’d know exactly what I did. How many reps, how many forced reps, how many weight. I’d write that down, and I would sit down before I went to the gym and review that and say, right, this was last week. This is why they got a beat this week. So I got a definite goal in my mind, and also how to visualize myself doing it.

14:44 You know, I didn’t visualize what clothes I’m wearing, how’s the weight gonna feel, what sort of exercises, how I’m gonna push. Okay, last week we got seven reps. I gotta try and get eight reps. So I got a definite goal in my mind when I went to the gym. You won’t have this, because this is the first one, but if you’re gonna continue to do this, we could make notes of what you did today, and then next week you know you gotta try and beat that.

15:06 Right, so have an intention. Absolutely, you got to have a goal, you know, it’s like you got to have a plan for anything I want to build a business want to you know anything you got to have some kind of plan you want to go from a to b You know, I’m gonna go to on the sea and your boat and you want to sail somewhere You got no you got no map. You’ve got no route chances Are you’re not gonna get there? So it’s the same thing with you know, you want to achieve a physique or whatever You’ve got to have some kind of plan, you know and a desire because if I’m got desire when it gets really uncomfortable comfortable you’re probably just gonna say hey screw this this is enough you know right you have to have a why why you’re doing this in the first place and I don’t know what your motivation is but I can guess it’s just you want to find out you know you want to find out what this is all about and you know a personal thing as well you know you feel good when you you’ve pushed past your your limits all the fun happens that’s that’s the satisfaction of going there and And, you know, every impulse is telling you not to do this because it’s hurting, like hell, you know, and it’s tough, but the more, you know, it’s like a habit.

16:16 If you can overcome that, it’s going to be easier next time, and that’s like life. If you’re going to just fold and fall down, oh, this is a good chance you’re going to do that next time, and next time it becomes a habit, you know. And other parts in your life. Yeah, as well. So, you know, if you’re strong in the gym and you can go through the pain, bit like yesterday when we’re doing yoga, you know, if you’re holding that thing and it’s tough, well, you can say, you know, I’ll just breathe and I’ll relax and I’ll hold it.

16:43 You know, that’s like life. When it hits you, you can remain calm. And this is, you know, another thing, like you can overcome the pain and the challenges. And then you get stronger in other parts of your life. So, there’s more to it than just lifting weights here.

17:00 It’s just an electrical signal in your brain. That’s what I always try to remember. It’s not necessarily pain. It’s just telling you something is happening. But if you know that’s the goal, and if you know there’s a higher purpose, then you can go through it, right?

17:11 Yeah, and once you go through it once, isn’t that so difficult the next time, you know? Yeah. Yeah, so that’s what we’re doing today, man. Good, I like it. I had a guest on my show and he was a Navy SEAL and he said he used to ask the guys before Bud’s training, why are you gonna do this?

17:27 Why are you gonna make it through Hell Week? And one guy would be like, because I wanna be the baddest Marine ever. And one guy would be like, because I don’t wanna let my family down. And he’s like, what are the guys that made it through? Always the ones that had a higher purpose.

17:38 Yeah, that’s your motivation. And my motivation when I was bodybuilding was I wanted to change my life. I didn’t wanna be in- Wanted to get out of- Everything that was surrounding me and the limitations that people believe that they had. And I had this kid, I’m reading these magazines about these guys, and it was like no internet. I mean, this is a different world, right?

18:02 And people couldn’t even relate to it. But I was determined to be successful, at least to some degree, from day one. And that was your ticket out. How hard you could go in the gym was your ticket to almost literally transport you to another world. Exactly. How hard could I go in a gym? How well could I stick to my diet? How well could I, you know, make sure I got enough rest and didn’t get distracted? And a lot there’s a lot of things to it, you know, the gym aspect is just one part of it.

18:31 And compared to other athletes, it’s not a lot of time in the gym. Not a lot of time necessary. I won the Mr. Olympia probably doing less than four hours of weight training a week. Which doesn’t, you know, people expect, wow, you must be training three hours a day? No, because that would be detrimental, you know, but the rest of the job is outside the gym. Eating the correct things at the correct time, make sure you can get rest, all that kind of stuff, that’s a job in itself, you know, and it’s mentally taxing because it’s always with you, you know, I guess if you play a game of golf or, you know, I trained with some guys from MMA and the training and the cardio is is tough and really tough and it’s more hours and everything like that, maybe it’s even tougher than we’re doing here, but at least when they go out of the gym, they can kind of relax a little bit, but with bodybuilding you can’t because you’ve got to be so conscious about what you’re eating and make sure you’re getting enough rest and all that stuff.

19:24 So especially if you’re getting ready for a competition, that’s a different level. It fascinates me that you didn’t have the money, the mentoring, you really just had your own brain and your discipline and your tolerance of pain. That’s fascinating to me. I always had a very good ability to kind of be my own man, make my own mind up and everything like that, and blessed with the, I don’t know, what is an ability or just an interest to really read and absorb information, you know.

19:59 I got all, you know, like yesterday we’re talking and I can quote all these studies because it fascinates me, I read studies and scientific and I read, I did that the same Same thing with training, nutrition, I went to the store and I bought a nutrition book with all the calories and protein and stuff. Now you can just click on the internet and find all this information, so I think it was more rewarding though that it was more difficult then, you know? Yeah, and it was your solo search, which is interesting because now when you want to learn something, you send signals out and you get someone like Gemma to teach you the best.

20:30 But back then, Dorian was, he was a man on a single mission, wasn’t he? Yeah, and I was in Birmingham, it was not exactly a hotbed of bodybuilding. I mean, we had a few guys there that, you know, a couple of guys that had done low-level competitions and stuff like that, but there was nobody really that much for me to learn from and, you know, I like to make my own wind-up. So I talked to a lot of people, I’d read this book, I’d read this book, I’d read all the magazines, get all this information and then kind of filter it down to what I felt was productive and logical because I’m kind of a logical thinker.

21:03 And besides being six-time Mr. Olympia, you’re probably one of the most knowledgeable scholars and students of the sport of bodybuilding, right? I would think so, yeah, because of that reason. Now you’ve got guys who compete in the Mr. Olympia, but they’re not very knowledgeable because they put their trust in a trainer, in a nutritionist, in a so-called guru.

21:28 And the funny thing to me is, most of these guys that are gurus that are getting paid all this money they didn’t win any competitions so you know I said to somebody once I’m like man if I go to Africa and I want to get a safari guide I want a guy that’s been all around Africa a few times you know same thing if you know how do you really know what works unless you’ve done it yourself so and I’m passionate about training you know so I always stood out from the other guys that I had knowledge about training and nutrition because I studied it all myself right and I think I’m quite good at teaching getting the point across which not all athletes are they might be good athletes but not necessarily good coaches right to transfer the knowledge yeah I don’t like to coach people for contests too much I do a little bit but I just prefer to train people in the gym okay and because getting people ready for a The contest is somewhat akin to babysitting a lot of the time, you know, you’ve got to deal with their psychology and emotions and everything and I tend to compare them to myself and it’s this…

22:39 They don’t have the same mental focus then do they? No, let me just get irritated. So it’s not something I really enjoy and, you know, if you can make a living doing things you enjoy, then that’s great. So I enjoy this, I enjoy being in the gym and training people. So I stick mainly to that, rather than trying to prepare professionals for contests or something like that.

23:03 I’m not too interested in that. Okay, good. All right. Shall we? So, yeah.

23:08 So we’re going to start out here. We’re going to do some stretching mobility exercises. So this is different from the kind of static stretching that you’d be familiar with. You know, this kind of stuff, the quads and hamstrings and stuff. It’s more beneficial after the workout to, you know, lengthen the muscle and get a bit more blood in there and help to start and enhance that.

23:33 We’re going to warm up and mobilize around the lower back and the hips, okay? Okay. So there’s the first one. Are we going to go down? You just watch me front now, Brian.

23:43 Okay. You do it afterwards. Okay. All right? So we’re going to be flat on the floor, feet together, heels, close to your glutes as you can.

23:52 Up together arms out here like this now during all these exercises you’re gonna keep your core tight so you imagine your belly button you’re sucking that towards your spine and you’re holding that okay throughout the movement so we’re gonna go from here to here to the side here to the side pretty fluid like this I’m gonna do six either side okay when you’ve done six either side we’re gonna go up upper level, we’re gonna go here. Tighten up the core, cross, cross, like that.

24:32 Okay. Okay. Last one. Gonna go straight as you can. Over to the side.

24:50 Okay. Okay. Six either side. Okay. Are any of these yoga related, or were you doing this before?

24:56 No, some functional movements I learned off a friend of mine in the States. Okay, so, here first. Together, together. Okay. shows up. Yeah. Okay. The next one is. That’s it. One level up. Yeah. Tight. Tight. Over to the side. Okay. Good. Yeah. Good. You find one side is a little tighter than the other or something? Yeah, usually. Yeah. Not unusual. I got one hip flexor that’s so nice and tight.

25:45 It’s going to be warming up though. And the difference between this and the static stretching It’s a static stretching can weaken the muscle a little bit. Okay, just pulling on it. This is gonna activate it, so it’s gonna fire better. Okay, let’s try and go straight now.

26:03 So straight. Yeah, core tight. Okay. Okay. Good and up.

26:10 Good. Nice. Doing good, man. Most people struggle with this first time. Good.

26:20 Feel the core working as well, yeah? Nice. Come on. Perfect good job, man

26:40 Okay, good man. Okay. Thanks all that jiu-jitsu and the breakdancing has helped you out. That’s that core. Yeah, I think so. All right next one Call this a hand walk So this is gonna warm up around the hamstrings and the glutes a little bit and also around the Shoulder blades because we’re gonna walk on the hands. So okay, we’re gonna start like this Like a regular hamstring stretch, kind of as we were doing yesterday, then we’re going to walk out with the hands.

27:11 About here, then we’re going to walk in with straight legs, as close as you can to your hands, then walk out again. Okay? You can do that five times. Five times, okay. I must say, this is the last thing I would expect. This seems like ito portale and body movement.

27:49 Just something I learned. I didn’t do this so much back in the day. I did some static stretching. But more research came out that static stretching is not that great before strength training. Better afterwards. And I learned this off a friend of mine in the States.

28:02 So it’s more from, probably from athletic training. Right. So you’re always adopting anything that works. Yeah, if I can learn, I’ll learn, man. I’ll learn from anybody.

28:10 Wow. Love it. Okay. All right. So down.

28:12 Down. Walk out with the hands. Keep the legs straight. Stretch the body out. Walk in with the ankles.

28:19 That’s it. Keep it straight. Keep it straight. Push it in, push it in, push it in, push it in, push it in. Great. Walk out with the hands.

28:29 You’ve got good flexibility already. That’s right. Good. Push, push, push, push, push, push. One more.

28:40 Gemma was really pushing me even further last night. Yeah, me too. You feel the fascia kind of burning, you know? Yeah. Push, push, push, push, push, push.

28:50 One more. It’s great. It’s great. Come on, right in, right into the hands. There’s very few people that can do this as well as you’re doing it first time, so all the other training is paying dividends.

29:06 Okay, that’ll do, great. Wow, okay, interesting. Yeah. Interesting, very modern twist. Okay, right, last one we’re gonna do is for quads, glutes, a bit of hamstrings as well, okay?

29:24 So first movement, we’re gonna do like a forward lunge. back leg, foot straight like that, we’re going to go down into the lunge, we’re going to get this hand, put it inside this leg and let the weight go down, so you’re going to feel a stretch down here down there, down the glutes and the hamstrings and we’re going to hold this for three, so one, two then we’re going to put one hand near the side of the foot, straighten the leg up back leg straight as well, the last piece we’re going to lift up the toe Head down, one, two, three. Then we’re going to go to the other side.

30:06 One, two, three. Up, one, two, three. About three of those either side. So, here we go. Out to the lunge. Forward lunge.

30:24 Inside, fill in it, that’s it, feel it here, feel it here, let the weight, one, two, three, one hand either side of this foot, another one there, straighten this leg up, one, two, three, push, go the other side, go, one, two, three, and up, one, two, three, lunge, One, two, three, up. Straight leg, push, one, two, three, go. One, two, three, and up. One, two, three, great. Okay.

31:15 You all ready, sir? Yeah. All right? Feel nice and activated now? Yeah, that’s very interesting.

31:19 All right, I’m gonna show you the stations where we’re gonna be working out so you can visualize what we’re gonna do. We’re gonna do quads first, which is gonna consist of three exercises. Okay. We’re gonna do hamstrings. It’s gonna be two exercises.

31:35 Okay. And we’re gonna do calves. Okay. Two exercises. Calves are the beasts, right?

31:40 Well, the most exhaustive is the quads because of the size of the muscle group. Quads, glutes, biggest muscles in the body. That means more oxygen depth. When you go to failure on these muscle groups, you’re using a lot more oxygen than if you did calves or biceps or delts because they’re smaller muscle groups, and it’s that oxygen that makes it really tough, and sometimes you can feel a bit nauseous, but you’re a well-conditioned athlete. I can see that you do a lot of sports and everything, so I’m sure you’re gonna be all right.

32:10 Okay, and how many sets per exercise? We’re gonna do, the first exercise, we’re gonna do three sets. So we’re gonna do a light set to get the movement, get everything, get the blood in there, then do a medium set to further, you know, Get the body and the mind ready. And then the last set is gonna be like, like somebody’s got a gun to your little baby’s head. Yeah?

32:41 And he’s gonna pull the trigger unless you fucking give 100%. It’s life and death. One set. Then we move on to another exercise. And we’re gonna do a leg press.

32:51 We’ll do one or two sets to warm up depending on how you’re feeling and how I’m gauging it. And then the same thing. One set to absolute life or death failure. And then the third exercise, we’ll probably do one warm up set, because it’s going to be real warm at that point. And then one set to failure.

33:06 And that’s quads. And then we’ll talk about the hamstrings and calves later, because I do want to concentrate on those three exercises first. And after we’ve done those, we’ll have a nice break, five minutes, drink some water, cool out a little bit. Then we’ll do hamstrings, and then we’ll do calves. So the toughest stuff is first.

33:25 Trust me, those three exercises. The other ones are tough, but three quad exercises I just had a little baby, so the gun to his head reference is very… I thought so. I thought it worked. All right.

33:40 So we’ve got three phases of the repetition. We’ve got the lifting. That’s the positive. Then we’ve got a static at the top where we’ve got a hole. And then we’ve got the negative, which is the lowering.

33:55 So I’m going to demonstrate in a minute. So the positive we can do quite powerfully. then we’re going to pause at the top now if you can’t pause at the top that’s telling you you didn’t get it there through sheer muscular power because the the positive is the weakest part of the rep then the static is the next strongest and the strongest of all is the negative a lot of people concentrate on I’ve lifted the weight boom let it down and they’re missing the negative which is just as important of a positive maybe more important but the point is we We want to exhaust every phase of the muscle.

34:31 That’s why we don’t need to do a lot of sets. We’re doing it efficiently, yeah? Yeah. So the first set is going to be fairly light for you to get used to the exercise, get nervous system firing, get blood in the muscle. Second set is going to be a bit tougher.

34:43 It’s going to be still within the capacity though. And the third set, we’re going to shoot for absolute failure and beyond failure. So when you can’t lift it anymore under your own power, I’m going to be there to slightly help out. That’s a forced rep. And all the negatives, I want you to emphasize the negative because that’s the strongest part.

35:04 So unless you emphasize it, we’re not going to exhaust the negative part correctly. Some exercises, we can do additional negatives on machines. I can lift it to the top and you can lower it. Even after you can’t lift it anymore, you’ll have some strength left. So we may do that.

35:19 And of course, we haven’t trained before, so somewhat guessing with the weights and stuff, so we’ll see how we go. If it’s necessary to do more or less, we will, you know? Okay. Are we shooting for a certain rep range? On legs, we’re going to be around 10 to 12 reps.

35:36 Sometimes maybe go up to 15, so legs are generally a little bit higher rep range, tend to run better to a little bit higher rep range, around 10 to 12, up to 15, yeah? upper body would be more averaging around eight six or eight okay so I’m gonna do it and show you how to how it works so we’re gonna sit in here put the legs behind there keeping your ass down in the seat hips down on the seat don’t lift up like this hold on to here back against the pad you’re gonna lift up Up, squeeze, control, up, squeeze, control, okay? So you haven’t got to pause for two seconds or anything like that, but there’s a definite pause at the top and then lower in, okay?

36:39 All right, so let’s go for 12 on this set. Okay. On the side. All right. Okay?

36:51 Yeah. Okay. Okay. Up and squeeze, one, control down, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, Four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, eleven, perfect. Twelve, great, you’re out.

37:32 That’s not a lightweight, is it? Well, it’s total isolation, there’s no way to really cheat on this, you know? Yeah, yeah. So, we’ll go a little bit more for the next set. Does that felt medium-tough?

37:46 Yeah, it was more challenging than I thought it would be. Okay. I was trying to hold it at the top and it was not as easy. And breathing wise, when it gets heavy, are you exhaling on the positive? Yeah, I usually breathe on the negative.

38:06 And then let it out when you go up. Yeah. Sometimes we get to tell people because it’s almost like I don’t even think about it. been doing it for so long but it’s correct yeah. Breathe in on the way down on the way up yeah and we’re gonna rest a little bit more. Do you have a time in your brain? I don’t really have a time this is a warm-up set so it’s not super taxing but when we go to failure it’s gonna be very taxing especially on the leg press and the squatting because you’re involving big you know the glutes as well, huge muscle mass, oxygen debt, yeah. So you should rest long enough between sets that you’re confident you can give a hundred percent muscular effort to the next set. If you do a set of leg press or squat or something to total failure, it’s gonna be huge oxygen debt and you’re gonna be breathing real heavy for a couple of minutes. If you rush and do another set, you’re probably gonna fail on that set because cardiovascular failure rather than muscular failure. Which means you miss the point. Yeah exactly we’re going for muscular failure so I don’t go by the clock I go by by judgment how I feel and how I see the from training a client how they’re looking how they’re feeling okay all right all right you feel okay yeah all right yeah we’re going up a little bit yeah we haven’t trained together before so I don’t really know exactly what you can do but from this one I have a good guess okay okay let’s go again 12 12 again okay all right okay

39:33 Up, squeeze, one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, that’s it Brian, start pushing, eight, push, nine, push, ten, easy, two more, come on, easy, one more, easy, yeah, that’s it man. Alright, that’s good. Nice yeah Yeah, I I squat a lot, but I never feel that That burn in my quad total isolation Yeah, a squat is a you know is a multi muscle exercise Yeah quads glutes glutes lower back I mean, you know you’re balancing with the shoulder the whole body work That’s why it’s a good exercise for athletes You know, there’s a whole body thing if you’re a runner or football player or something like that a squat would be better And not for building muscle because you know never in a sport you use your quad in a total isolation But for building muscle it’s it’s better to isolate the muscle and combine combine the both of them But we’re doing this isolation exercise first And we’re gonna go to a leg press or squat if you wanted to or do a leg press today Which is a compound exercise that means there’s more than one joint and one muscle group involved, you know So if you did squat or leg press first, you wouldn’t feel it as much as if you did this first.

41:07 Trust me, when you go this, the quads are already exhausted. Then they’re gonna exercise and the glutes are gonna fire in as well. So you’re gonna feel it a lot more. And this pattern you developed over time by trial and error. Trial and error for the first few years, then you know, pretty much got it down by- And reading and learning about physiology.

41:25 Reading, taking all that information, try it out, or something I feel doesn’t work, Okay, that’s gone, and you know you refine it down right over the years all right, so I’m guessing with the weight If we don’t achieve what we want to achieve on this set We’ll do another one because I would rather like underestimate than overestimate, and you can’t do enough. Yeah, okay So I put it up a little bit if it’s too easy. We can do another set so On it is a concentrate contract squeeze control down So breathe in on the way down On the way up. Yeah, yeah, and just sit in that fucking chair and do what I tell you and just keep pushing. Yeah Okay. All right, let’s go Numbers or do I just not need to know?

42:13 One at a time. Okay One at a time each one’s perfect. Don’t worry about the numbers. Come on. Let’s go up one two Three Four Five 6, 7, 8, 9, all yours, come on, 10, all yours, push, 11, yours, let’s go, push, 12, that’s yours, easy, hold yours, push, push, push, push, push, push, 13, 2 more, 2 more, 1, push, To the top, squeeze, control, one more, push, easy.

43:05 One more, one more, one more, let’s go. Push, push, push, push, control, control, control, control. Okay, great, good set, good set. All right, buddy? Yeah, yeah, yeah, I think we’ve got like 15 or 16 reps there.

43:26 That’s great. Next time, if I was training you, I’d put the weight up a little bit. We would go higher. Yeah, next workout, next week, you know? Okay.

43:34 But for today, that’s great. We went to failure. Good effort, man. We actually did more reps there than the warm-ups set. Yeah, because we’re going to failure, so we’re not going to stop just because we’ve got two numbers, whatever.

43:44 If body doesn’t know about numbers, it knows if it’s, like, gone past what it’s used to. So that’s what we did there. Good job. That’s pretty painful. Yeah.

43:51 All right, leg press. What do we need on here? Take one off. Sorry, yeah it’s okay, okay, alright leg press, so now we’re working the pods along with the glutes and the hamstrings as well, so this is a compound exercise, alright so we’re going to be in here, feet shoulder width more or less, hold on to here, hips and glutes again down in the seat, tight, you don’t want to be coming up and round and round putting stress on the lower back. So we’re going to lock ourselves in here, take off the safeties, hold onto here, breathe in, breathe out. When you’re finished, safeties, okay. So a bit of visualization that can help you. Yeah. Do the top, get everything tight, everything tight, quads, glutes, everything tight. If you visualize a big coiled spring, like a suspension on a car, so the springs like that. And as the weight comes down, the spring’s getting compressed. And then from the bottom, you let all that energy go on the way up. Control down, on the way up. Let’s go for 12. Shoulder width. Yep. Hips down. Safety’s off. Safety’s off. Okay. Nice and tight. Nice and tight on the way down. Control that weight. And then push. One, two, three, Four, five, good, come on, six, powerful, seven, eight, strong, nine, ten, two more, big power, come on, push, that’s it, and push.

46:52 Yeah, that’s right, safety on, safety on. All right, we’re good. Okay? Yeah, good. Those high reps make it daunting because you know, it’s six, you know, you got six more. Yeah, it changes the game Exactly, and it’s more, you know, it’s taxing. I can see you already going a little Little fail, there’s oxygen there, oxygen there, which is strange because I do legs every week But I don’t do them like this. Yeah Well, not many people do but if you want to get results, this is the best way to do it You want to build muscle size bodybuilding? This is the way to go. Alright, so yeah I think that was a good warm-up yeah I’m gonna put one more 20 kilos on okay see how we go with that okay are these like the plates you had it temple these are old school right yeah is it there’s a real weights man do you like real old iron you prefer this yeah don’t want to be too sanitized you know it’s not nice it’s nasty this shit nasty right dark and nasty yeah exactly you gotta get angry you gotta get it you gotta push you gotta visualize whatever helps you get through that set you know I used to do just you know I say to myself this is this is for my family this is for my wife and my kid and you know yeah and even like kind of a fuck you motivation this is for everybody that it says you can’t do it yeah you know laughing at me yeah and this is because I don’t want to be like them like that guy you know right no I don’t want to end I got a fight I

48:36 Got a guy out here you know and so it’s you in the way it’s keeping you from being like that. Exactly, yeah. And you know whatever I used to think I was like a warrior going in the gym and just got to say these weights you know. Instead of being you know on a battlefield with a sword I’m I’m in the gym and you know the weights are my kind of opposition I’m gonna bury them you know. Yeah. You know whatever works for you so you know depends on your psychology. Do you use music? I like to have energetic music yeah. I used to generally train to some hard rock music, stuff like that. Metal. Really metal. It used to be more like Pearl Jam and Ivana. Guns N’ Roses for about six years. Guns N’ Roses’ appetite for destruction was on every leg day. Every leg day. If I hear it now, I get all fired up. It’s a great outlet thing. Perfect. It just keeps going. All right. I’m talking too much. I’m looking too happy. Let’s go. Too much happiness. Okay. Let’s see how we go with this, man.

49:36 Let’s do another 12. Easy, easy, easy. Powerful, come on. Okay. All right.

49:41 We’re ready. Let’s go. Tuck it in. Blow it out. Let’s go.

49:46 Two. Three. Four. Five. Strong grind.

49:51 Come on. Six. Seven. Easy. Power.

49:56 Eight. Nine. Six. Seven. Easy.

50:01 Power. Eight. Nine. Eight, nine, plus ten, two more, two more, one more, two more, safe, okay, rack it up, rack it up, alright, you wanted to do one more there, that’s good, that’s good man, alright, that’s the medium set, we’ve got one more to do on here, one more to do, alright, now Now breathe and walk around a little bit. Breathe and walk around.

50:34 A lot of people, it’s very tempting to sit down. If you do that, just all the waste products tend to just like sit in the muscle. So you move around, breathe a little bit. I’ll put some more weight on it, don’t worry about that. One more biscuit.

50:54 Are you always had a training partner for every workout? Pretty much, yeah. Because you need them to help you. You need it for safety reasons and you know psychologically, you’ve kind of got your failure on here, because you’ll be thinking in the back of your mind, what if I get stuck down the bottom here, you know? So you need somebody there, even like on a real heavy, on a leg press, I used to have one person either side, just in case on that little bit, because if you got like, you know, I used to have maybe 15 of these on either side, you know?

51:35 So one guy, if he gets three, he’s like, maybe not enough. So I’d have one last set, I’d have one guy either side, you know? And then you can like, you know, get into the zone and you don’t need to concern yourself with like, hey, what if I get stuck, you know? So it’s just you, close your eyes, and just down and up, and just keep pushing, you know? And let’s see what you can do.

51:59 Let’s find out, man. Right. Yeah. And the guys are yelling at you, but you tune that out most of the time. I kind of might hear it a little bit, yeah, but almost go into a zone where it kind of whites out like, a little bit, you know?

52:11 When we did the training video back in the 90s, the blood and guts that everyone watches, I didn’t realize how fucking loud my training partner was until I watched the playbacks, you know, because it was like kind of there, but not there, if you know what I mean. You know, I knew he was there and I knew he was like motivating me, not that I really need it, but you know, someone was there and I could just push without any fear of getting a stop or anything like that, it’s very important. I’m lightheaded on the back of that, which never happens to me.

52:44 Yeah, because now you’re pushing your oxygen capacity, you know? Yeah, so that’s it. I drain the oxygen into my legs and it goes out of my head. Your legs and your glutes push into failure, consuming so much oxygen, it can start to feel a little more. Does being horizontal make a difference too, a little bit of an angle?

52:57 Maybe, but if you’re standing up and doing squats, it would be still feeling the same way. Okay. Can you do anything in between? Stretching, firing? No, just move around, move around.

53:06 Don’t sit still. Yeah. You feel good? Yeah. You’re intentionally giving me an extra minute.

53:14 This is the last set, yeah? Okay. This is the one, right? I’m gonna get somebody else on the other side so you can totally relax about. If you get stuck, we’ll help you. Don’t worry about that, all right? Okay, so I’m gonna get somebody else. Okay. Give me a hand.

53:35 Nick, you want to be on camera, mate? That’s what this is. I do need somebody else. So yeah, the third set is where you leave everything on the table Yeah, we are. We are gonna fuck him up. Okay. We in? This is Nick. He’s the owner of the gym. Thanks for having us Nick’s gonna watch the other side. I’ll watch this side. So you’ve got no worries about getting stuck with the weight. Okay

54:03 Yeah, just like here if you get stuck on the last set, you know on the last rep No, I’m just gonna go purely to failure. So Brian Same as we did on the last set but at some point it’s gonna get like you’re failing yeah and we’re gonna then I’m gonna say to you breathe you’re gonna lock at the top yeah I’m gonna take three deep breaths and then go down for one more we might do that a couple of times on the last bit yeah okay all right this is a real shit man let’s go all right safety is off okay is off nice and tight nice and tight okay get ready control it down blast it up one two three powerful come on yeah this is it man come on yeah all you yeah that’s yours come on and this one drive it up yeah that’s yours that’s seven That’s eight. Come on, drive. Let’s go, let’s go. One more, come on. Breathe, breathe, breathe.

55:15 Two more, two more. Let’s go. Come on, you got it. Last one, last one. Everything. Lock it up down a bit we’re safe all right that’s it good set good set that’s the real set well done mate well done good now you can breathe and rest a little bit okay yeah I know that that’s what makes me feel bad thank you good effort Man, good effort, well done.

56:05 You really have to fight. Find out a lot about yourself, man, under that weight. Yeah, you have to fight every impulse to stop. Yeah, but you knew we were there, right? You knew we were there.

56:16 Nothing bad can happen. But my loser brain tells me I’m gonna get crushed. Yeah, yeah. And I have nothing in my legs, so I have to… But you did all that.

56:25 I did. We actually didn’t help you. Really? Maybe a little smidgen on the last one. So that just shows, you probably, if I wasn’t there, probably would have finished three or four reps less less than we did yeah and that’s that’s the key and if I don’t do that I don’t really make everybody wants to know what the secret is you just learn those last three reps all the other stuff the steroids the diet everything everybody can do the same yeah not everybody can do this it’s just the fact that people aren’t willing to go to the most painful place in their brain day after day after day after day nothing special about this is every day call it day in the office you know it’s another day in the office this is you know it’s what I do and that was good very very proud of you man okay have a little breather okay walk around a little bit walk around move. Doreen’s proud of me that’s a good sign yeah that was pretty intense I didn’t realize it would be that uh like mind-boggling I’ve done these exercises before but I’ve never done them with Doreen there and so he He just forces you to go extra hard and he’s piling a lot of weight on there.

57:43 So yeah, but I just trust him and then go for that. That last set I thought was gonna crush me, that last rep. But he’s right, that’s what gives you the breakdown and the muscle that gets you to the next level. And most people, probably myself too, go to the gym and they train within their limits. But how are you gonna improve if you don’t get out of your comfort zone?

58:03 So that’s what we’re learning today. And it’s interesting what Dorian says, He didn’t do anything different than anyone else. He was just willing to endure more pain, have more discipline, work harder and smarter than anyone else in the business. And everyone had access to the same drugs. So it’s all about then, how dark are you willing to go in your own brain?

58:25 And that’s what I think makes him a champion year after year after year. And yeah, that’s what I’m learning today. And look how he adapts. I mean, we’re doing Edo Portao movements outside. I wasn’t expecting that.

58:36 So Dorian’s constantly learning, and if it doesn’t work, he sheds it off. He’s not looking to try to still be Mr. Olympia. He’s constantly evolving, you know? True Renaissance man, if you think about it.

58:54 So, shoulders under here. Again, hips against the board. Lift up. Gotta bring these in, yeah? Yeah.

59:03 And hold these in, so they don’t drift out, yeah? Okay. We’re gonna go from here, and you’re finished. Okay. Okay?

59:21 So we’re gonna go pretty deep. That looks pretty challenging. Yeah, that’s pretty challenging I thought that’s not challenging. Why are we doing it? All right, let’s do it Okay, so Bring it in bring it in okay. Oh bring it towards me. Oh, yeah, okay a little bit more, okay all right, you might have to Shuffle around a little bit to find your your comfortable spot. Okay. The thing is you don’t want to be coming up your heels off On to your toes yeah, you’re going to put too much stress on the knees, so you want to push through the heels, a little bit maybe, a little bit forward, a little bit.

1:00:01 Alright let’s try that, again, tight, everything tight, tight on the way down, sit down, below parallel, and okay, okay, let’s go, one, two, a little bit more dead, come on, yeah! Come on, powerful man. It’s easy, come on. Yes! Come on.

1:00:48 Good, come on. Good, come on, come on. Powerfulness. Come on. One more.

1:01:00 Push, push, push, push. Okay, safe. Down a little bit. Good. All right.

1:01:05 Good man. Okay. Good? Yeah. Okay, yeah, didn’t feel like a warm-up set.

1:01:17 Just a warm-up set. So that’s a, what do you call that? A half squat. A half squat. So it’s a squat, but I mean, it cuts out all the, you know, the lower back and everything like that.

1:01:26 It’s purely more isolating on the quads. Quads, okay. Yeah. And this works a lot, the medialis. Okay.

1:01:35 Around the knee and the outer sleeve, the vastus. So we’re going to go up a little bit more. A little bit more. Okay, okay. Wind legs.

1:01:45 Yeah. The guys are muscle beasts, they look in the mirror and do this, right? You know, in the gym I was always covered up. Always. Always.

1:01:57 Because I didn’t want to be distracted by looking at myself or showing other people. I did my posing at home and that was only pre-contest anyway. We did a couple of photo shoots in the gym, you know, like the black and white pictures you see, but this was like a rare event, maybe like four or five weeks before Mr. Olympia, and then there’d be a few people there watching and stuff like that, but I mean, you know, I’m there to work, not there to look at myself in the mirror, man, you know?

1:02:25 Let’s do that at home if you wanna, in the gym, Mr. Train, and I prefer to keep covered up because I get distracted if I’m looking at myself, you know? You’re probably the Mr. Olympia that looked at himself the least. Yeah, you know, I presented a finished product on the stage.

1:02:41 That’s when everyone needs to look, you know? Otherwise, what’s the point, you know? Not in the gym to be compressing people or I’m there to get some results. All right, you ready for the next set? Let’s do it.

1:02:53 Okay. Maybe slightly forward with the feet and if you get a little bit more depth. Yeah, I feel like I need to be a little more forward. Okay. Yeah, a little bit closer with the feet.

1:03:00 Closer together? Let’s try and get a bit more depth this time. Okay. Hey, come on. Let’s go for it, man.

1:03:05 Okay. All the way down man. All the way down. Yeah! Come on. Power.

1:03:12 Yeah! Lift the weights. Three. That’s better. Four. That’s better. Come on.

1:03:20 Power. Jump up. Come on. Fly. Seven. Come on.

1:03:27 Seven. And again. Four. One more. Breathe, breathe, breathe, two reps.

1:03:47 You got it, you got it man, come on. Trust me. Oh God. Trust. Yeah.

1:03:53 Exendable, one more. Last one, come on, last one. Oh God. Push, push, push, push, push. Okay, put it down.

1:04:01 Up, there you go. One down. That’s a set. That’s a set. That’s it man, Clark’s finished.

1:04:10 Not so bad. Not so bad. Now you get a nice five minutes to breathe, go outside, get some fresh air, walk around a little bit, get some water. Good man. Good man. Well done, mate. Well done.

1:04:24 A little pale now. A little pale. A little white. I see some stars. Yeah. Yeah, stars in the daylight. Good man. I felt those legs were going to fail at the bottom. I’m there.

1:04:35 Yeah, I know. Right, let’s go outside, let’s get a bit of air. Yeah, let’s do it.

1:05:00 So, that’s La Concha there, that mountain. La Concha means the shell, because it looks a bit like a… It’s beautiful. …shell, you know. Do you climb it?

1:05:09 Yeah. Yeah? Of course. You can’t just sit there in front of me, I’m not going to get climbed. Yeah, I know, that’s what I feel.

1:05:17 I’m not going to do it. We’ll bike up there tomorrow. That’s tomorrow, yeah? Yeah. There’s that little white village there, you see on the side there, that’s where we go up to, it doesn’t look too high, but it is pretty nice.

1:05:31 What do you learn about someone when you train them there? What can you see, what do you look for? If they got heart, you know, I mean most athletes can see that, the same if you do fighting or anything where you’re pushing to the limit, people who know know, you know. And you got heart. I can see that you got some heart and some balls. So congratulations did very well there You know, it’s not about you know, how much weight you lift in I train guys that lift a lot more weight than that But sometimes I can see that they’re not really comfortable Going to the limit. I Remember there was this guy in my gym in Birmingham and he was a big guy, you know, it was good physique big guy But he kind of irritated me because he kept asking me about steroids I’m like, I don’t have anything more to tell you, you know, like you’re looking for some secret. He’s like, yeah I’m looking for the secret. All right, tell you what meet me here 11 o’clock on Friday morning I’m gonna I’ll show you the secret Yeah, we’re gonna do legs and then you’re gonna know what the fucking secret is, right? Right. So we did legs together and the end of the workout is pale. I think he went puked his line on the floor and You know, I Said there you go. That’s your secret right and then I left the gym and then the guys in the gym afterwards He said when he couldn’t walk and talk properly He came up and on the counter led on the counter and I said, that’s what it takes to be mr. Olympia

1:06:52 And fuck it. I don’t want to be mr. Olympia That’s all I saw in the next day. I said I heard what you said. I said don’t worry about it because you won’t be Straight talk. Yeah Dorian. Yeah Does it frustrate you when people that are uneducated think that steroids is the missing link as opposed to what you just saw in there, just going past your limits?

1:07:14 Ah, you know, not really because people who don’t know, they don’t know, you know. Maybe if I knew nothing about bodybuilding I might assume that because, I mean, a bodybuilder looks like something really strange, right, like a freak, you know. If you see a MMA guy walking down the street or a Tour de France cyclist, they look like a normal guy, right? So when you see this guy ripped to shreds and huge muscle mass and veins looking everywhere, it’s very easy to associate that with some kind of chemical or drug, surely, to create this, you know?

1:07:50 But we all know that guys cycling around the mountains and other athletes use steroids, maybe not to the extent that bodybuilders do, You know, you see the strong man on World’s Strongest Man on TV, all the mainstream sponsors. Come on, guys. Just because they’re a bit chubby and fat, you know, they’re using the same things as bodybuilders. It’s just that bodybuilders look really extreme and unusual, so it’s very easy to associate that with some drug use, especially if you’ve heard about it, so it’s part of the game.

1:08:21 We never deny that. But what we’re seeing with this… This is what it’s all about. Yeah, this is what it’s all about. Steroids just help you to recover from this stress, you know?

1:08:28 Efficiently and as you get bigger and stronger it’s harder for your body to recover you know and it gets to some point where you just reach your ceiling because you can’t recover from the exercise so that’s where the steroids come in you can you know you can train intensely and recover and train more you know keep doing that so that’s why I tell people that you know they haven’t been training very long or beginners you don’t need steroids because the first couple of years you’re going to grow anyway. Wait until you get the most out of your natural progress. Get the mindset right first. Yeah, get the mindset, get the exercises right, learn to push yourself, and get that natural growth that you can get anyway, at least the first year or so. And then if you’re going to compete, maybe then you’re going to make a choice. But I wouldn’t recommend it to anybody that doesn’t compete. I don’t see the point. Because once you stop taking the steroids, you can’t keep all those gains.

1:09:23 So then you get somewhat of an addiction with people because they feel good to be this powerful guy and they don’t want to lose that. So then they’re in a cycle of continuously taking steroids, which has some possible health risks that we talked about before. So if it’s not your career or something, why take that risk? Just to impress the buddies or the girls. Anyway, the girls don’t give a shit.

1:09:50 Give a shit. Yeah, they don’t, right? It’s almost the guys that guys want to impress. Exactly. The girls, they’re like a nice fit guy, I guess, maybe lean with some abs maybe, but most girls would look at a Mr. Olympia and just think, this is ugly, this is extreme.

1:10:06 Would steroids help you with a little extra aggro in the gym sometimes? Testosterone is a male hormone, it gives you that drive, gives you that aggressiveness. So you’ll get that from steroids and you’ve got to be careful, that doesn’t spill out into other areas of your life, which it does sometimes with some guys, they can’t control that. I was very good at you channeling all my aggression in the gym and I didn’t have anything left for afterwards, so I didn’t have that problem, but yeah, it will increase your aggressiveness and assertiveness and all the things we associate with being masculine male is going to increase.

1:10:46 And you did a lot of the groundbreaking research, even in the 90s, on your own cycles and everything. I mean, you were learning. Well, we all did. Yeah. All the guys then, because we had a couple of books, Underground Steroid Handbook.

1:10:58 It was like some photocopied little book from Dan Duchenne, some guy in California that kind of set himself up to be a steroid expert. But there is no such thing because, you know, how can it be an ex-wife and something that’s never really been studied, you know? just trial and error people have been using steroids since I would say since the 50s you know and there’s not a Mr. Olympia first Mr. Olympia was 1965 Larry Scott and he admitted to using steroids in 1965 so I mean here we are like what 50 years later you know it’s so it’s just been trial and error there’s not been much studies I mean the American Medical Association had a statement I I think they even had it on the fliers.

1:11:45 This does not increase athletic ability. So athletes found and knew that this was bullshit. So then they didn’t trust the medical community anymore who were telling them, this can be harmful. Yeah, but you told me it wouldn’t fucking help with my athletic ability and my training. You were lying then, so I’m gonna listen to you now.

1:12:04 You know? So there was that whole thing. Obviously, a lot more information now with the internet. You got too much information. and a lot of it’s bullshit.

1:12:14 So, I don’t know if it’s better or worse, really. When do you think you actually figured out what was right for your body when it came to steroids? Was it pre-Olympia, where you were like, okay, I think this is about right for me? Or did it happen, evolve through your career? I think it evolved.

1:12:28 By the time I got to the Olympia, I’d just use the same thing all the time. I found preparing for a contest at work for me, so I was like, why change it now, you know? And it was, you know, I guess fairly conservative compared to what people are doing these days or what I hear that they’re doing, you know. So there’s a point where it, you know, it’s, you know, more is, you know, once your wine glasses fall, they’re spilling over and the possible more negative effects.

1:13:02 So it’s just finding that kind of, you know, that point that works for you. And do you think the fact that it’s everywhere now makes people make that choice? This mainstream, I mean, when I started training, I asked a couple of guys about steroids when I started training and they were very cagey, they were very, it was a very like in a circle kind of thing, you know? And they’d say, oh no, no, I don’t use that. And later on, of course, I’d find out they’re all using it, you know?

1:13:30 So it was a bit like that and there was a little bit in the magazines and, you know, I think we all knew that, you know, Arnold and all the guys were using steroids. You know, we kind of knew that, but wasn’t a lot of information out there at all. So it was, again, word of mouth and so on, and trial and error. But I’ve always been pretty cautious and, you know, regimented, write things down and see what happens, and then, you know, took my time with it.

1:13:59 You know, cautious guys that have been sick and hurt themselves, but they were doing like this stupid stuff, you know? Trying to replace the hard work with the steroids, maybe. Yeah, I just thought more is better, and take an X amount, so if I double that, maybe I’ll get double the results, and you know. I think people are more educated now. Generally, there’s all the information out there.

1:14:23 But yeah, you know, too much of anything can be harmful. Did you ever pass your notebooks on of all that research onto any other competitors? No. No. You kept it locked up to yourself, right?

1:14:32 No, but I mean, I published a couple of my courses in Muscular Development Magazine, And, you know, some people appreciated that. Some people said, oh, it’s just bullshit. You know, there’s no way. You know, because he looks so extreme. He must’ve done extreme things chemically.

1:14:48 But this was the extreme stuff, you know? This is it. And I’m all about being real. So if I took, you know, huge amounts, I would say, hey, I took huge amounts and I regret it or I don’t regret it or whatever, but that’s not really the case, you know? Yeah, understood.

1:15:03 Good, what do we have left? All right, we’re gonna do hamstrings now and calves. So the worst of the storm is over. Or the best. The best, yeah, the best.

1:15:12 Well, the toughest part is over, so it gets a little bit easier now, but obviously you’re gonna bit a bit as you all sit from the legs, so. Anyway, it’s a smaller muscle group, so it’s easier. Okay. Okay. Okay, so. Up and squeeze.

1:15:29 There, all right, okay. Shh. Squeeze, control. Okay. More control on the way down.

1:15:36 Okay. Better, perfect. Three, four, five, six, seven, eight.

1:16:00 Two more, nine, 10. Okay, great, good man. So, that was your warm up set. We go up, do another one in a minute. Good, let’s rest on these, but it’s not so taxing as the other ones.

1:16:18 While you’re resting, I’m just gonna set the bar up over here. Okay. squeeze. One, three, control that negative a bit more. That’s better. Up, four, up, five, and again.

1:16:42 Up, six, come on. Tight, seven, all yours, and again. All yours. We’re gonna do two more. Let’s go.

1:16:53 Yes. Go. Up. Up, up. Up, up, up.

1:16:58 Up, up, up. Up, up, up, up. Yes. Control it. One more.

1:17:03 Power. Power. Pull, pull, pull. Yeah! Control.

1:17:08 Right. I’m going to lift the weight to the top and you’re just going to lower it now. Some extra-negatives. Okay? Hold it.

1:17:16 Okay. One more. Up! Hold it. Hold it.

1:17:21 Yeah. Yeah.

1:17:26 I’m lifting it. You’re holding it tight, tight, tight, tight, tight, tight. Yes. A couple of extra negatives there for you. The two words you don’t want Dorian to say.

1:17:40 One more. Yeah, because I make you concentrate on one. One more. One more. Yeah.

1:17:49 All right, good man, finished on that, deadlift, focusing on the hamstrings, so most people do these incorrectly because they go all the way down like this, and they’re collapsing the back round like that, so I want you to keep the back, the shoulders back there, the back arch, so right, go to the side, look at my position now, go here, go here bro, here, Brian. Yeah, I’ll go here, sir. Watch me here. Yeah. Now, this is my position, you know.

1:18:25 Okay. I’m here, back to arch. Yeah. I can go lower, but what happens if I go lower, I’m just collapsing the back, you know, and not really getting any more extension on here, so keep it, the bar is going to come out here. Yeah.

1:18:40 And I’m going to come up and back. So it’s going to look like this. Okay. Okay. Cool.

1:18:55 I’m going to face this way, all right. Okay. 10 reps. How many? and pretty narrow. Bend your legs to start but then you lock them up.

1:19:07 So it’s… Lock the legs. Lock the legs. Lock the glutes. Lock, lock. Okay, arch.

1:19:15 Go down, let the bar go out a little bit to the front. Pull up. Good, come on. Use these. come on, two, three, up, four, five, don’t let it go down, okay, up, six, keep the legs straight, up, seven, and again, up, eight, two more, squeeze the legs, squeeze the Back of the legs, come on, pull.

1:19:52 Okay, and down, and the legs down. Nice, okay? Okay. Go a little bit more, a little bit more. Can I ask you some questions about legs?

1:20:03 Yeah. You were always known for your legs. Is that something you knew from the beginning that you had legs that you could develop? And how much was that an intimidation factor to other guys? Not really, I think when I started, My calves were obviously very well genetically developed.

1:20:24 My calves were from day one, outstanding, you know? Okay. But my quads were not that big when I started. And I started squatting because Tom Platts was the man with the three legs and everyone said that squatting was the main thing to do. So I would get the flat power lifting shoes like Tom Platts, I got the leg wraps.

1:20:44 I was doing big squats like low to the floor, heavy six to eight reps, and my legs develop, but I got an injury on my hip, and I noticed the shorter guys could squat, and most of the stress would be going on the quads. But when you’re a bit taller, you gotta lean forward to keep balance, then you’re using the glutes a lot more, and you’re using the core, and my waist was getting a bit developed around the obliques and the glutes and everything, and I had this injury, so then I was forced to do something different, because the squats had got an injury already from the squats and they felt dangerous and not really natural for me. So then I started doing the leg press and the hack squats and just using machines, pretty much from around about 88 when I was British champion, so okay.

1:21:35 And because of the crazy intensity I put in there all the time, they started really developing. So I think they were well balanced from the start. the quads had a good quads, hamstrings, calves, so there wasn’t really a weak area there but I don’t think the quads came that naturally it was just sheer, sheer hard work. Whereas the calves were like I could have pissed around on calves and still would have had great calves you know. And a lot of guys struggle with calves right? Yeah it’s one of the areas that there’s so much genetic variance you know because you have people with very short muscle bellies, very high calves and people like myself are very low muscle bellies. The longer the muscle belly is, the greater potential for development. So if you’re looking for the ideal bodybuilding, you’d look for somebody with the skeletal frame that’s very proportional, slightly longer ledges compared to upper body proportion because that looks more aesthetic and uniformly long muscle bellies all over the body and then you’ve got a potential genetically a great bodybuilder.

1:22:42 I had long muscle bellies pretty much everywhere except for my biceps, they were like average at best I would say, and pecs weren’t really like you know Arnold’s got these huge pecs low down here some guys got these pecs were a bit higher so they’re probably like average but the rest was definitely all above average and my skeletal structure is very good and very long legs compared to the torso which gives you more width to the upper body and so on. 511. And yet you put on 270 pounds of muscle at competition weight.

1:23:18 Yeah I started training when I started training I was let’s see 185. 185 when I first started lifting weights but very lean and it was naturally very lean. Very good abs and everything already. I saw those early photos where you’re very white. Yeah that’s that’s it I was probably like 190 there 195 we just done like six months of lifting in the gym or something so okay you know the the shape was there but not not the mass and I had to work for that yeah and height wise that you were happy 511 511 I believe yeah and would have been easier at 6’1 or would it start to get difficult as you know I think you got only Arnold of all the mr. Olympus that’s over 6’1 I’m not sure if it’s 6’1 or 6’2, I think probably 6’1.

1:24:09 Lee Haney is like 5’10, 5’11, Barney Coleman, myself, we’re all pretty much the same height. So all the big guys that are proportionate are around that height. And then, you know, you’ve got shorter guys, but bodybuilders are over 6’4. Generally, the proportions don’t look that great. Usually the legs are too long and not developed enough or something’s out of work.

1:24:31 It’s hard to win when you’re short, right? Well, I don’t know, give Sean Ray a call and you can ask him. All right. Are we putting more on here? Yeah. Okay. Let’s put a five on it.

1:24:47 It’s really important to keep the technique so we don’t want to go too heavy. Okay. So again, straight legs, glutes, tights. Exactly. Pull with the hamstrings. Pull with the hamstrings.

1:24:58 So, yeah, tight, everything tight. Nice and tight. Okay. Suck it up, man. Come on. Last set on the hamstrings. Good. One. Keep tight here. Keep straight.

1:25:08 Two, up, three, four, five, and then straight, come on, up, six, four, seven, and again, eight, two more, easy, nine, one more, two more, two more, come on, tight, great, one more, let’s let’s do it. And pull. Okay down. Perfect. Good job. Good job now. Alright, that’s the hamstrings done. Last leg is the calves. Easy stuff. Easy stuff. This is how you do calves.

1:25:57 We’ve got standing calf raises, which mainly work the gastronymus, which is the main calf muscle here. And then we’ve got seated calf raise where the legs bent, 45 degrees, work the soleus, which lies underneath the calf. So you really need two exercises of coughs. One with the leg straight, one with the legs bent. Nothing fancy, nothing crazy.

1:26:20 Once a week, or once every eight days, or once six days, however your recovery ability works out. Same rep range, so many kind of myths about coughs. I always heard high reps for calves. Yeah, well, the dislodgic about that is, while you walk on your calves all day, so they’re real tough muscles, So you need to do lots of reps and lots of sets. So hold on, the logic.

1:26:42 You do lots of reps every day walking around on them, so you’re gonna duplicate that and expect to get results. No, train them heavy, full range to failure, just like everything else and let them recover. I think because there is so much difference between the potential calf development, it seems to be more than any other muscle group. Some people got very high, some people got long muscle bellows, that all these kind of myths kind of came up, But, you know, if you’ve got short muscle bellies, it’s gonna, you know, it’s tough.

1:27:12 Like, you’re gonna limit your potential. There’s guys in the Mr. Olympus days with shitty calves. And a great upper body, but, you know, so. That’ll kill your poses, right, potentially?

1:27:25 Well, you know, people seem to get away with having weaker calves. I mean, if some of the guys had arms that were as weak as their calves, they wouldn’t get away with it. So it seems to be in the judging criteria, one of the least or the lesser important muscle groups, which it really shouldn’t be, you know, should be the old, the old, the old value was that, you know, back in the old days of bodybuilding, that your arms and your calves should be a pretty much the same measurement, the same size, which I pretty much achieved that are both around 22 inches in the off-season.

1:28:08 I don’t know in context what they were, but. And you would measure your biceps and your calves. It was all in your books. Yeah, yeah, I did all that stuff, yeah. So that’s an extra.

1:28:15 Weights, measurements, strength. It’s all feedback, you know? Even body fat measurements I would do with skin-fold calipers, I would have that as well. So I have a lot of things and pictures. It’s all feedback, not one thing is more important than another, but it’s all information that I could use to decipher what’s working or what’s not working.

1:28:37 Is it hard to be objective about your own self? Like when you’re trying to diagnose yourself and look at the numbers, is it hard not to read something into it that you believe is true? I think for me, the only time when it got really difficult is when you’re getting near to the contest and your mind can play tricks on you. You can look in a mirror and like, wow, that’s it, I’m on and then it could look, am I? You know, like, you know, it’s the only time when I would get feedback off other people was the last couple of weeks.

1:29:08 Couple of people whose real opinions that I, you know, not some guy in a gym, because hey, you know, you look great all the time to somebody that’s not really educated, so just a couple of people. Peter McGough, who was a good friend of mine and became editor of Flex Magazine, and he had been to every contest. He was at my first contest. He was a journalist there and he interviewed my first interview. Is he the guy that came up with the shadow?

1:29:33 Yeah, exactly. So Peter knew me well and he knows bodybuilding history better than anyone else on the planet probably. So, you know, I could get honest feedback off him. So a few weeks out, you would let him see you and get some feedback? Yeah, a couple other people and get some feedback.

1:29:51 But mostly, you know, I’m kind of my own man so that was probably the only time that I did ask for some feedback and usually would be on the same page as what I’ve got to do. Is there anything you can do at that point, a few weeks out? Yeah, sure. Really? Yeah.

1:30:07 OK. Yeah, you can change the diet and manipulate things. So I’ll do more cardio or less cardio or whatever. Yeah. My fault, if anything, was always doing too much.

1:30:18 Not too much is in time in the gym. I got that down. But too much is in like, I just want to get so lean, like I’ve got no skin. You know I’d be looking at myself and think I can get leaner and everyone else is like There’s no way and they’re probably right because I started losing muscle a little bit last few weeks always Yeah, there is no mr. Olympia on the stage where I was at my absolute best right cuz you’re very close But probably two or three weeks out. I probably looked a little better a little lower and rounder and you know But anyway still pretty good every instinct is telling you to eat and everyone tells you you don’t need to eat anymore I mean you can stop eating or you continue eating and you You’re in that tunnel, you know, like and you’ve worked all year and this is the time to show everybody I was known for my muscle mass and I was called like the first mass monster and all this stuff But getting ready for a contest in the offseason I was just totally training for size trying to stay fairly lean but not overly obsessed with it But getting ready for a contest. I was like, I don’t care if I’m a bit small. I just want to be shredded I don’t like you know because that for me was like Sign of discipline. Yeah that that I’ve been able to do that where the other guys maybe cheat on their diet or something you know so I kind of overdid that a little is that a way to win mentally and beat them when they see how sure you are yeah

1:31:38 I just wanted to freak people out I don’t know you know I didn’t want a nice visit I had a nice physique when I was British champion night you know it’s good proportions and everything but I just wanted to be like shocking you know in every aspect size condition everything you know I didn’t want a nice physique I wanted a extreme shocking physique but still still balanced you know right okay we’re good yeah all right we’re good right shoulders under here on the platform balls over feet back flat lift the weight right now you’re gonna keep everything in line shoulders hips ankles all in a line there’s no movement out with the hips no movement in straight line nice and tight heels down maximum stretch maximum stretch up extreme try to get on your toes belly dancer yeah down stretch squeeze down stretch freeze you see a lot of people doing this yeah waste of time okay go home and jerk off. Be better for you. So no bouncing. No bouncing. Full range. This is the key. Full range. Half training. Full range. Okay. All right. And then toes like that. Yep. Okay.

1:33:02 Under. Lift. Oh man. Straight line. Straight line. Okay. How’s that? Okay. Okay. So. Up.

1:33:09 Stretch all the way down. Heels down. Up. Good. That’s it. Now we’re going. Power up.

1:33:16 Power up, good, squeeze, nice, good, 5, push, 6, push, 7, 8, on your toes, come on, 9, and again on your toes, push, push, push, push, push, push, ok good, good man, a little bit I find calf pain to be something special. Wait for the next exercise, man. That’s the most painful. Is there a significance that Bob Marley is on your shin or calf region? I don’t think it just seemed like a good place for him to go.

1:34:03 There’s a lot of space there. That came after Olympia, though, right? Yeah. I mean, so many athletes now, including bodybuilders, have tattoos, right? right but it was a very much a no-no when I when I first started you know right actually if you look at some of my earlier contests you can’t see them because I used I had some stage makeup and I kind of covered them up so you couldn’t see them because I thought it would be detrimental and in the end I just in the end I had this one laser removed here okay and I just you know this became like a trademark oh really the Bulldog the British Bulldog yeah yeah true so you let you went and posed with that show yeah yeah and I think it was Lila Barada that had some complaint to make how can you have a Mr. Olympia with tattoos like yeah because he’s got a the best physique that’s why but now they’re kind of you know much more accepted I think there’s different cultures or fashion now yeah before then there was like criminals or gang members or you know something shady about somebody had a tattoo right back then so it was a a little different and controversial.

1:35:10 In Japan, they’ll have you cover them up if you’re in a gym. They’ll come and put big band-aids on you. No, no, just for a competition on the stage. Oh yeah, no, I mean in Japan, culturally, it’s a real insult to people to see them. I don’t know.

1:35:22 Because the Yakuza have them and everything. I don’t know, but obviously not Japanese tattoos, it says My England. Well, what is that, so what is that? It’s a British Bulldog with a British flag and My England, I had it done when I was 18, so it’s pretty faded right now, but that’s like a trademark, you know, because that kind of like that, you know, the bulldog spirit, the British tenacity, that was kind of like my trademark as well, you know? They used to call me the British Bulldog, Shadow, Beast from Britain, a lot of different names, but the Shadow is the one that’s stuck.

1:35:51 All right, let’s go. Okay. Maximum now, come on, maximum now. One set, one set, and it’s all over. How bad can it be?

1:36:03 On your toes. Valley dancer on your toes. Good, two, three, all the way up, come on. Whoa, you’re doing good, come on, you’re doing good, push. All right, that’s yours.

1:36:17 Come on, let’s go. Six, I’m with you, come on, push. Push, push, push, push, push on the toes and again. Up, up, up, up, up, up, up, up, up, up, up, up, up, up, squeeze, squeeze, squeeze, squeeze, squeeze, one more. And push, on your toes, push, push, push, push.

1:36:33 Okay, come on, you’re done, well done. This on your knees, on the balls of your feet again, feet pointing straight forward or whatever is comfortable. Again some people might advise you to point your feet toes in, to get the outer, point the toes out, to get the inner, I just think it’s nonsense. You know the calf contracts, the whole thing contracts, don’t try and put your feet in an uncomfortable position, it might strain your ankle or something. So just straight forward or slightly pointing out to wherever it feels comfortable, right?

1:37:08 So we’re here, we lift off, take this away to safety. Stretch down, maximum stretch, up and squeeze. Down and squeeze. Stretch on your toes. When you’re finished, put it back.

1:37:31 So we see how you go with this, maybe you need more weight or maybe not, we’ll find And muscle wise, the last one did the gastrocnemius. Yeah, and now we’re soleus, which lies, flat muscle lies underneath there. So we’re working both now. Okay, okay. All right, so here, toes forward.

1:37:50 There, lift, okay. Yeah. Oh, wow. He’s heavy. Okay, push.

1:37:55 Okay. That’s it. You can hold on to that if you want to. Just don’t help yourself lift. Okay.

1:38:01 Two, yes. It’s a different one. push, concentrate, three, get inside that calf, come on, four, push, five, push, three, three, six, two more, come on, drive it up, drive it up, I’m gonna push, I’m gonna push, I’m gonna push, and one more, and push, push, push, push, push, push, yeah, good man. Wow, that’s quite a range. That’s it, my range. Finished. That’s it. You survived, you didn’t puke, you didn’t fall over, hold on.

1:38:41 I almost passed that I think earlier. So that’s legs. That’s legs done. We’ve done quads, we’ve done hamstrings, we’ve done calves. So it’s a big workout. If you had really weak calves, maybe you could put them on another day where you might be a little fresher because you’re probably a little tired by the end.

1:38:57 This is the workout I’ve done because the calves were never a priority for me, so if I was a little tired, it didn’t really matter. So yeah, you could do calves on another day, if they were a weak point, you’d want to be doing them when you were fresh and so on. So it all depends, you have to tailor it to the individual physique. And so would that be your leg workout once a week back in the day, or would it be more often? six days probably six or seven days I used to have four workouts I do two days in the gym and then the days rest two days in the gym and then the days rest see how I feel okay but after legs sometimes I took two days off okay as I felt I needed to recover and that’s for me you know fairly genetically gifted and of course using steroids right yeah so somebody that doesn’t have such a good recovery ability and does not use the steroids probably train less frequently I would get the four workouts and maybe do one day on and one day off so the cycle is eight days of mine of six or seven but you know you gotta you gotta listen to your body see how you’re recovering when you come in the gym you’re damaging, you’re breaking down. Outside, you recover first. After you recover, your body can overcompensate, i.e. build more muscle tissue, yeah? So it’s like I use this analogy when I do seminars sometimes. If you’ve got some sandpaper and you rub it on your hand here until it’s all kind of, you know, a bit red and a bit bleeding, all right, you’ve

1:40:32 Damaged it, you’ve broken it down. Now you wait. It’ll heal, it’ll recover, and the skin will be somewhat thicker. Why? Because it wants to protect itself from that stress from that damage in the future. So that’s the process. Very, very simplistic, but kind of like that. And let’s say you’ve got that sandpaper and you rubbed it, and it’s, you know, it’s damaged, it’s bleeding, and it’s kind of healed up a little bit, but it’s still red and a bit raw, and you’re going to do it again. What’s going to happen? You’re not really going to get anywhere, you’re just going can have a bloody hand. So it’s the same thing. Hard for people because we’re so much like more is always better, more is always better.

1:41:13 Including you, but you knew not to do that. Yeah. Right. So more is not better, you know. Mike Menser, who was one of my mentors when I was growing up, he said more is better only with money and women, but I’m also not sure about those two.

1:41:30 Yeah, right. Yeah. I kind of learn a lot and I think, because I didn’t have a father, is like reading about these guys in the magazines as male role models, almost like surrogate fathers without, I didn’t know them, they’re just, you know, I created an image from what I was receiving from the magazines. Better than fathers, they’re almost nits. Yeah, like, you know, like godlike people and that’s how that was presented in the magazine.

1:42:00 When I got to meet people and know people, I could see, you know, they’re human beings that are flawed, like all of us are, you know. And I met Mike in, I think, 91, 92. I met him and that was nice to meet him and he had some personal problems and so on. And he kind of recovered from that and he was doing training in Rolls-Gym. And he invited me to do some workouts together and we did some workouts together.

1:42:29 And I found it very interesting, and Mike was a very interesting man, he was totally outside the box thinker, very individual kind of person, didn’t fit in the mold, and very logical, thank you, you know, so we had that in common. So we bonded, and Mike actually came to Mr. Olympia in 1993 to watch me win, and he hadn’t been to a Mr. Olympus since 1980 because he was so still so pissed off that he felt that Arnold came along and kind of got a win when he shouldn’t have done right that was that late entry that Arnold did yeah very controversial late entry would my kid won that if it wasn’t for all he didn’t get second so logically no but you know he still felt that he should have done and that you know the powers that be favored Arnold which I mean to a degree was true because if you have a rules for a contest and you have to enter by this date and it has to be everyone has to see that and you have to sign the contract and those are the rules those are the rules yeah but Arnold was such a powerful and big figure that maybe people could bend things and he was filming a movie about him making this comeback and everything like that so there’s a lot involved there It sold tickets, you know and the promoter of the contest in Australia was like a real good buddy of Arnold okay, so a lot of things going on and You know, I’m at Mike 10 11 years later and I can tell you we’re still still mad about this stuff

1:44:05 I think Arnold even admitted he was out of line by you know, pushing him way his way into that contest Yeah, and a lot of people were mad at him. Almost everybody there was yeah, I think it was probably not a a good thing for him because his ego talking you know a little black mark on his on his on his record because before I don’t think you know most people wouldn’t dispute that he won all those mr. Olympus but that 1981 generally the majority of people would say he didn’t deserve that then it shouldn’t have won on that, so we all make mistakes, I guess.

1:44:45 You told me yesterday that as you get older, you try to see that when people kind of have an evolve to your level, you don’t get mad of them, you just understand that they’re at a different place in their journey. That’s what I try to do, yeah. Do you feel that way about Arnold now too, to a certain extent, that he’s just at his part in his journey and then maybe he’s still evolving? Yeah, I’m sure, we’re just in totally different places. so we wouldn’t be on the same page.

1:45:12 It’s fascinating to see what happened to Arnold because he became governor and became all these things and the movie star and everything. And then he also ruined his life, you know, with his wife and all that. And he just, it took him up. And then to a certain extent, it must have taken him down. And he’s- I don’t know.

1:45:27 I mean, it’s not like I give a lot of thought to what other people are doing that much, you know? I get asked about Arnold because, you know, we’re both Mr. Olympus and Arnold’s an icon from the movies and all this kind of stuff. But, you know, being involved in politics and this whole world and the movie world, it’d be, you know, the last thing that I’d want to be involved in. Because I believe you have to compromise yourself and I don’t want to do that.

1:45:52 So that wouldn’t be attractive to me, was to him, so I don’t make any judgment about it. It’s funny when you told me yesterday that the 18 to 24 year olds are some of your biggest fans. Yeah, that’s great. That’s crazy, because you’re 54 and you’re not making movies, you’re no longer Mr. Olympia, and yet you have this younger fan base that senses something in you that they wanna listen to.

1:46:16 Well, you know, you’ve got the social media and the pictures and the videos that are flying around that those guys wouldn’t have seen originally, but they’re still there. And they’re like, hey, look at this guy from the 90s. He looks better than the guys now, how is that, you know? And what’s, what is it? And then they start looking and finding out more being more interested I guess in myself and that era and I’m one of the few if they’re only bodybuilder that talks about other subjects you know which is tweaking people’s interest so there’s that whole there’s you know like it’s two sides there’s a bodybuilding side Dorian it used to be in the Dorian now and people find both of them interesting and fascinating so that’s great for me because if I had somebody managing me I’m sure they tell me to do everything differently than I did do it you got to do this I mean when I was in England I got offers to go on TV and quite a lot but I felt they put me in compromising positions they just want me to come on a TV and pose in opposing trunks and then you’re not a you’re just an object you know you don’t kind getting a kind of point across and most people like dying to go on TV and and when I asked the TV producers like okay but what do you want me to do we don’t suppose no I’m not interested I want to come with a clothes on and talk and explain and educate and you can show footage of me posing if you want to do that you know and then now we don’t want to do that

1:47:56 You’ve got to do it our way I say well okay thanks very much then I don’t want Do it and they were like really shocked, you know, because they’re like this is the BBC that actually BBC ITV a lot of people Yeah, but it was all the same scenario, right or they wanted to stand behind a table with how many chicken breasts you eat No week, like, you know, just some freak show freak show Yeah, just super nice like you’re performing monkey, you know, and Lee Haney’s been on TV in the States Ronnie Coleman’s been a TV in the States and exactly the same scenario. They’re sitting in a chair with her underwear on Yeah, like, you know, well, they’re taking their shirt off off contest Yeah, you’re not you’re not there to make any kind of point and that would be the only reason for me going TV I’m not being for myself would be for me to talk and Try to get some education across about the sport and the training and the misconceptions and you can’t do that If you’re over there Pitting double biceps for the audience and you know, then they’re gonna ask the audience what you think and half the audience gonna go It’s ugly. It’s this is that you know, so So I turned them all down, which if I had a manager he would have said you got to do this You got to get publicity. You’re gonna build your career and you know, so I did everything my own way and Opposite to how everyone else is doing it, but it worked out for me. So

1:49:10 You got a trust, right? Total contrast to what we did yesterday the yoga which is more you got to be more calm and loose and you know just kept telling us like smile don’t sense your jaw and I relax and this is total contrast so just wondering how you feel like yesterday how you feel now after the workout as far as like you know exhaustedness or relax so how do you feel right now well they’re so they’re so different and I think I’m a pretty intense person probably too much sometimes so every time I do something I’m just trying to focus yeah so when When it comes to heavy lifting, when you tell me to do something, my natural state is to attack. Yeah.

1:49:57 That’s what you need in here. Right. That’s what you need in here. But then yesterday is like a balance to that. It’s like the opposite.

1:50:03 And when I was doing yoga at first, instinctively I was doing that, like, and she’s like, whoa, calm down and stop trying so hard. Just like trying to go with the flow and relax a little bit. So it took me a long time to learn that. It was interesting to be next to you yesterday and felt your energy and you were just flowing and you were just letting yourself go in those body movements, which is such a contrast to what I’ve seen you on Blood and Guts. But that took me time.

1:50:31 You know, you see me after 18 months of doing yoga. You know, at first I was like shaking and sweating and grunting and, you know, I got stages of learning, the stages, you got to learn how to breathe properly, you got to learn to be more relaxed and internalize things more and you know it’s great that I got Gemma there as a personal teacher because she’d be like move the foot do this do that push down a bit more relax your face smile be happy you know like constant reminder just like I was with you today I was there all the time to like mind you about things focus you keep you in the in the zone so I enjoy with the yoga being being a student you know just you know like what are we gonna do today I don’t know just whatever you say boss you know like like that so that’s that’s kind of relaxing for me to do that and yet you stuck with it even though it was probably frustrating at times you know very frustrating at times because stuff I couldn’t do and I was really trying and she said it was like stop trying so hard like just do the process and do what you can do and you You can’t do it today, it’ll be a little bit better today, a little bit better tomorrow and just be happy for any little increase in your posture or motion or stuff like that.

1:51:52 Because in here you’re the master of your body, you know how to get your body to do things in here. Yeah, and I know more important than that, I know how to get other people to do things that they wouldn’t normally be able to do. Very good at seeing like how much gas is left in the tank on people and you know They think they’re finished and I know they can do two more and I don’t ask for anything Unreasoned like you know ten more like come on. That’s impossible. Then you just collapse mentally But that’s why I’m I’m well known for the one more Because I’m making you focus on that one. Yeah, just one more focus on that if I say three more They’re like, what did they say?

1:52:32 That’s like, oh, it’s too much. So when it gets tougher, one more, one more, one more. Quite often, you know? Yeah. Great, great effort today.

1:52:40 I feel a lot of endorphins. I felt a little lack of blood in my head when we were doing the leg stuff. But I felt great after doing those exercises. Yeah, good. Hopefully it’ll feel great for the rest of the day.

1:52:54 Yeah. Tomorrow, you’ll feel a little sore, probably, maybe. It’s really like 48 hours afterwards when, you know, the muscle soreness is going to kick in and you might have trouble walking around and sitting on the toilet, stuff like that. But hey, I spent four or five days out of every week of my life for 10 years with like pain in my legs. Legs was, you know, something that I had pain in, like every workout.

1:53:23 Some muscle groups don’t really have that, carry that soreness so much, like deltoids and so on, but legs, I was in pain like half the week, all the time, you know? Do you miss that soreness sometime? I’ve kind of, you know, I’ve kind of adapted to getting my satisfaction from doing other things now. It’s the same satisfaction, but in a different way. Like yoga is challenging.

1:53:47 Riding a bike up the hills is challenging, especially when you go up the hills, it’s like a leg workout, you go, ah, you’ve got to push, you know? Yeah. But, you know, the weights are still here, if I want to do, and I was doing, like, heavy leg workouts, but then my quads were very big and I couldn’t train the upper body proportionately as hard and I had these big quads that were just like, you know, trying to cycle and trying to do yoga, they’re almost like getting in the way.

1:54:10 So I’m like, I don’t need these big legs anymore. So why am I actually doing it? I’m doing it for the mental satisfaction, but I can get that from something else and more health and more cardio-based. So, you know, six months time a year, someone might think, hey, I wanna do some leg training a little bit, but probably not to the extent that I used to do it. I just don’t feel the need to do it anymore. And I’ve done it to a degree that I can’t match that anymore.

1:54:38 So the challenge is not really there. How do you feel after yoga, as opposed to after a workout in here? What’s different? After yoga, I feel tired, but it’s in a calm way. After weight training, I feel exhausted, but it’s more, I think your nervous system has been under more stress, you know, and you feel a bit shaky and a bit more stressed.

1:55:02 You know, yoga is like a calm, tiredness, very calm, where the weights is more exhausted, but it takes, you know, you realize you gotta recover from this, you know? It’s gonna be a few days’ recovery and so on, and sometimes you have trouble relaxing and sleeping because your nervous system is like… You know, when you’re training your legs, you’re training your legs, but you’re putting a lot of stress on your nervous system as well. So you have to factor that into your recovery. That’s why you can’t train every day.

1:55:31 You know, even if you did different muscle groups every day, I don’t recommend doing that. Because your system is still under stress every day. You need time when you’re just out of the gym and relaxing. Let the nervous system calm down. Exactly, yeah.

1:55:45 Okay. Great stuff. All right, man. Get something to eat. Peace, love, enjoy, relax. That’s what it’s all about and that’s why we’re here.