Ronnie Coleman - The King Of Bodybuilding: How I Overcame Adversity To Become Eight Time Mr. Olympia

Full transcript: Ronnie Coleman on London Real

2:35 Brian Rose: This is London Real. I am Brian Rose. My guest today is Ronnie Coleman, widely considered to be the greatest bodybuilder of all time. You won the sport’s most prestigious competition, Mr. Olympia, a record eight times and claimed your first two titles while still serving as a full-time police officer. At your peak, you had a 58-inch chest and 24-inch arms and cut down to a staggering 0.33 body fat percentage for competition while still weighing up to 300 pounds.

3:04 You consumed up to five and a half thousand calories per day to achieve yearly gains of 10 pounds of pure muscle. Unfortunately, your intense training regime has had a significant impact on your body, leading to a total of 13 surgeries with 14 screws, two steel rods and two cages now in your neck and back. Despite the major operations, you continue lifting weights to this day. You were recently featured in the Netflix documentary “Ronnie Coleman: The King” and your book “Yeah Buddy” chronicles your many struggles and successes in the sport of bodybuilding.

3:36 Brian Rose: Ronnie, welcome to London Real.

3:38 Ronnie Coleman: Oh, thank you.

3:39 Brian Rose: Hey, great to have you here. You know, it was great watching the movie and, uh, I really appreciate you putting yourself out there and showing us all the behind the scenes about you. You know, there was one moment in there where I think you’re talking to one of the other fellow Mr. Olympia competitors on stage and one of them says, “Why do you do this, Ronnie?”

3:58 And you say, “Because I love it. I love bodybuilding.” And the competitor, I think he said, “You know what? I’m here for the trophies, I’m here for the money, I’m here for the girls.” But you know, it looked like he never thought whether he really loved it, but that seems to be you, and I was wondering if you could tell me what, why did you always love bodybuilding?

4:18 What was it about it and where’d that passion come from?

4:22 Ronnie Coleman: Well, I started when I was 12 and, uh, it always gave me a real, uh, relaxed feeling, real comfortable feeling, a real enjoyment, uh, kind of like brightening my day just about every single day. And, uh, once you find something that, uh, lifts your spirits, brightens your day, uh, something that you really and truly look forward to doing each and every single day, it’s kind of like, uh, you’re really not, uh, working or taxing yourself.

4:56 You’re doing something that you really and truly love doing and you just look forward to doing each and every single day just because of the feeling that you get from doing it.

5:06 Brian Rose: There’s that old phrase that, uh, if you love what you do, you never work a day in your life, right?

5:12 Ronnie Coleman: Yeah, exactly, and that’s the same way I felt when I can’t, like, work for the pizza party too, right?

5:17 Brian Rose: You love serving people and you love working out and lifting weights. Those are the two things that was, that was enough for you, right?

5:25 Ronnie Coleman: It was plenty for me.

5:27 Brian Rose: And if you look at the guys that you usually stared this shared the stage with on a Mr. Olympia competition, I mean, how many of those guys actually loved what they did? I mean, was it, could you count them on one hand? Was it two or three guys, do you think, that really loved it the way you did?

5:47 Ronnie Coleman: I mean, I think you gotta have some kind of love for it in order to do what, what, what it kind of does to you, uh.

5:55 It’s not that easy, is, uh, it’s not a lot of fun if you, uh, don’t enjoy doing it. So I think you get, you got to have, you got to enjoy it in order to be able to, to just to do it, you know, because it’s like, say, so it’s a lot of hard work, put it mildly.

6:12 Brian Rose: You know, I’m curious. You know, when I watch that documentary, I look at you back in the day in these competitions and then I look at, you know, competitors today who are on Instagram and, you know, they’re posting pictures every day, they’ve got brand deals, they can do, they got this whole other business over here, whereas back in your day, especially for Mr. Olympia, you would work 365 days a year on the diet, on the training, on the sleep and then cut weight, all for that one moment on stage where you would get, you know, the crowd, the judges, a picture, maybe some video, and that was it.

6:52 Brian Rose: I mean, everything was on the line. Did that, in that, in some ways, did that separate out the real competitors? Or how does that make it different back then as opposed to today?

7:03 Ronnie Coleman: It’s a different era, uh, we always talk about that when we doing this bodybuilding thing, uh, you gotta look at the era that, uh, Arnold was in. You gotta look at the air that be hanging within.

7:15 You gotta look at the era that, uh, when it first started out, area is pretty, it’s different. Yeah, look at the area that I was in. Everybody was doing different things, so you, you gotta work with what you have to work with and that’s what we basically did. We, you know, we’re just glad to be here now, working out, having fun, enjoying ourselves and doing what, what we had to do to get ready for a show or whatever we were doing. So it was all about what was going on at the time, basically, what I’m trying to say.

7:49 Brian Rose: Okay, so you just kind of have to deal with those times. These days you have all the other distractions and social media. Back then, I guess you didn’t, you didn’t have that. What was it like when it all came down to that one day, you know, every year for that Mr. Olympia? I mean, what’s it like when your whole year revolves around that one day?

8:09 Do you remember those times? Was it, was it stressful? Was it exciting? You know, do you, do you think back and can you remember what that was like?

8:17 Ronnie Coleman: Oh, I can remember like it was like it was yesterday.

8:20 It wasn’t stressful, it was more exciting than anything because you get, like you said, you know, you spend your, spend the whole year getting ready for that just that one day and so you, when that day finally arrives, you’re the most excited person up there, most exciting person that’s, you know, competing in the show because, like I said, you know, you spend so much time getting ready for it. But for me, uh, I always had so much fun doing it. I enjoyed it, uh, I was never, I was never even nervous, anything that I can recall, you know, because I was always looking forward to that day.

9:00 You know, that day could never get here soon enough because I knew how much fun I was gonna have because I have prepared myself, you know, you know, like, like I said, the whole year you have prepared yourself, you’ve worked real hard, you’ve done everything you possibly can do, you haven’t left any stones, uh, unturned, and so you just, you know, you just can’t wait for that day to get here and once it finally arrives, it’s the day that you work for your, your entire year, so it’s a very exciting day.

9:33 Brian Rose: And what’s the most important part of that day? Is it when the fans cheer?

9:38 Is it standing next to your, you know, your, your competitors? Is it getting the trophy? Like, what’s, what’s the most important part of that day for you?

9:49 Ronnie Coleman: The most important, the most important part of the day is actually getting to compete because, like I said, you’ve, uh, worked so hard. You prepared in this endlessly, you know, from doing all the, all the stuff you have to do because there’s so much you have to do, you know, from getting your routine together, from, uh, working out each and every single day, seven days a week, you know, it’s a, it’s a 24 hour, seven day, 24 hour, seven days a week job, uh, everything you do is, uh, it revolves around getting ready for the show, you know, from the time you wake up, time to go to bed, so every, everything, you know, revolves around that, so that’s why you so excited, you know, when that day finally arrived because you know you spent so much time just getting ready for it.

10:46 Brian Rose: And when you’re competing, are you looking at the other guys? Are you looking at the reaction of the crowd? Do you know you’re going to win anyways? Like, what’s that like?

10:56 Ronnie Coleman: Well, for me, I don’t really look at this, I’m, I’m, uh, I’m focused on what I gotta do, you know, I’m thinking in my head, you know, like, you know, when you’re standing there and you know you gotta, you gotta stay tight, you gotta, you gotta, you know, be ready at all times, so you, you just focus on whatever you, whatever it is you’re doing and once they call you out, you know, you got to focus on, you know, hitting your poses right, turning the right way, uh, it’s just, it’s just so much that you got to do that you’re not really paying attention to anybody but yourself, basically.

11:32 Brian Rose: Right, and you’ve, you’ve cut weight, you’re low body fat, the lights are on you, you’re, you’re, you’re tense and your muscles, I mean, I’ve heard, I’ve heard the whole experience is mentally and emotionally exhausting.

11:46 Ronnie Coleman: Yeah, very, very mentally and emotionally exhausting. You got to be focused on, on everything that you’re doing, you know, every single just minute, you just bite up down that stage.

11:57 Brian Rose: Now, I heard some rumor, and tell me if this is true, Ronnie, that you never used to look at yourself in the mirror before competition or would never take pictures of yourself.

12:08 Is that true?

12:09 Ronnie Coleman: Yeah, that’s, that’s true, uh, I had somebody do that for me. I always had a nutritionist, you know, they, they came and, you know, made sure, uh, everything was together and everything was ready for me to step on stage, so I really didn’t have to do all that myself, but that’s,

12:24 Brian Rose: I mean, but you know, even you have to admit, Ronnie, that makes you unique because most bodybuilders when they’re pumping iron, they’re checking themselves in the mirror, they’re checking to see the work they’ve done, but you’re not doing that because you have a different philosophy about this.

12:41 Ronnie Coleman: Yeah, yeah, exactly, because I’ve already, you know, paid somebody to do that for me. I’m so, I’m just like, okay, I trust this guy. If I did, you know, I wouldn’t be working with him, so I trust his word now. I, I, I know he’s, uh, all for me and he’s not going to misbelieve me in any way, so I’m ready to go.

13:02 Brian Rose: So, so it’s not an ego thing.

13:04 You’re not like, “Look how beautiful Ronnie is.” For you, this is, this is, this is a mental challenge and you’re testing yourself and that’s what this is about.

13:15 Ronnie Coleman: Yeah, that’s, that’s what it’s all about, you know, that’s what I’m all about. Yeah, am I ready to win another show?

13:22 Brian Rose: All right, so it’s a mental battle you play with yourself for 365 days, and if you’ve won that battle every hour of every day, you walk into that show knowing you’re going to win.

13:34 Ronnie Coleman: Exactly, whether you’re going to win or not.

13:37 Brian Rose: Wow, that does make you unique, right? Because most guys on the stage had been looking at themselves, maybe had different philosophies of the way they approach their bodybuilding.

13:48 Ronnie Coleman: Yeah, you got to have the right attitude, you know, you got to be confident, or else, uh, you’re not going to do too good in this sport.

13:57 Brian Rose: Okay, so you know, we’ve been doing, I’ve been doing the show for about nine years.

14:02 Seven years ago I had Dorian Yates on the show and he hadn’t really ever done a show before. These shows were still new at the time for people that don’t know, six times Mr. Olympia from ’92 to ’97, and he came on the show and really surprised people that he was more than this hunk of muscle that he had all these other ideas and thoughts, and I think as we talk today, people are going to realize that about you. I mean, you know, you got your degree in accounting, highly skilled, a great cop, you know, you were actually really good at everything you ever did, Ronnie.

14:34 Ronnie Coleman: Everything I’ve ever did.

14:35 Brian Rose: And that’s fascinating and I want to talk about that, you know, but you know, Dorian always talked about, you know, a lot of the milestones he had as a bodybuilder and I really liked getting to know Dorian, but one thing is, four or five years ago I went down to Spain and I trained with Dorian and I did leg day with Dorian Yates. Okay, now look, he’s taken some guys that go on stage and taking them on leg day and they’re throwing up in the parking lot, you know, up in Birmingham.

15:03 There’s footage of that, right, um, and so he put me and my 80 kilograms through a leg day and I, I’ve lifted weights before, but he said, he said, “Brian, I’m gonna take you to a, a breaking point and I’m gonna ask you to do a rep.” And he said, “It’s gonna be like I got a little gun to your baby boy’s head and if you don’t finish this rep, I’m gonna pull the trigger.” He said, “That’s the intensity I need from you.” And I had just had a son and I was like, you know, I got a baby boy.

15:33 He said, “Yeah, I know that. That’s why I told you that.” And he, he put me through this leg press. I’m telling you, Ronnie, I had never been to that pain cave before and he got three or four reps out of me after I thought I was done. Yeah, and he said he’s, and I got done with that and I was, the blood was coming back to my head and he said, he said, “That’s what it takes, Brian, but he said it’s that every single day and most guys aren’t willing to go to that pain level every single day, and that’s what it takes to be a competitor.”

16:04 Brian Rose: What do you make of that story?

16:07 Ronnie Coleman: That’s, that’s exactly the way it is. Okay, that’s exactly where, uh, I, I couldn’t have put it better myself. And so that’s the difference between the, the guys that win on the stage and the guys that don’t. It’s whether you’ve gone to that intensity every day.

16:27 Brian Rose: Well, let’s be honest, when no one’s watching, right? You have to, you have to do that to yourself.

16:34 Ronnie Coleman: Yeah, exactly. You can because there’s going to come a day when everybody’s watching, so you, you gotta, you gotta prepare yourself like everybody is watching you if you wanna, you know, take it to the next level, you know, and, and be a world champion.

16:51 Brian Rose: Now, Ronnie, you were always known for your work ethic.

16:55 Everybody says in the gym you go harder and stronger than everybody else. Where does that come from? You know, everyone, I’m sure you’ve been asked, is there some darkness in you? Do you have a dark side? Are you trying to channel those demons?

17:08 Brian Rose: But I don’t know if that’s true with you. Where does it come from?

17:13 Ronnie Coleman: Oh, no, it’s not true with me. I, I just, you know, it’s just a, uh, a desire to be the very best that I can and like I was saying, that just about everything I do, you know, I’m like that with just about everything I’ve ever, ever done, you know. Uh, I, I just, I just put every ounce of hard work and dedication into everything, uh, that I try to achieve and, uh, I, I feel like if, if you’re not doing it to be the best at it, you’re pretty much just wasting your time.

17:49 So I’ve always, you know, you know, worked extremely hard on everything and then fully dedicated myself to every task that I’ve ever taken up, take it up upon myself to do.

18:00 Brian Rose: Is that something that came from your parents or your grandparents? Was that kind of something in your family as far as that work ethic?

18:09 Ronnie Coleman: No, that’s something that I was born with.

18:12 Brian Rose: So just genetic, just genetically?

18:14 Ronnie Coleman: Yeah, that’s just the gene side in me.

18:16 Brian Rose: But one thing about you, Ronnie, it seems is you’re not complete, you’re not competing against someone else, you’re competing with yourself.

18:25 Ronnie Coleman: Exactly, that’s what I tell everybody, uh, when I, when I, I’m always asked that question, do you know, do you look at your conversation, what do you think about competition, uh, what do you think about so and so and, uh, did you, uh, think about him when you were getting ready for the show?

18:44 Well, I’m like, no, not really, because I was too focused on myself, trying to get myself together because I know what I’m capable of and I know what I can do and I can always control what I can do. I can’t, I can never control what somebody else is doing, so I’ve always focused on myself. I always, uh, challenge myself, you know, to be the best that I possibly can be.

19:08 Brian Rose: It’s quite, it’s quite a mentality, Ronnie, but it’s kind of old school mentality, you know, I, I, I, I don’t want to sound like an old man, but I see a lot of kids these days that seem to always want to blame someone else for their lack of success.

19:24 Brian Rose: You know, exactly. Do you see, do you see some of that? Do you think they need to get back to basics?

19:31 Ronnie Coleman: Yeah, I know exactly what you’re talking about. Yeah, it goes along with the error that they’re in though, you know, that’s, that’s just way they are, you know, so you know, back in my day, you know, everything was totally different than the way it is now and you know, you got all this, you know, all this social media stuff and all this new stuff, new technology to go along with everything too.

19:57 Brian Rose: Do you think that technology makes it worse, that mindset?

20:01 Ronnie Coleman: I don’t think technology has anything to do with somebody trying to, you know, be the best that they can. I think that’s just an excuse, basically. Okay, you know, you know, trying to be the best at anything and comes from within yourself. You know, it’s all about, uh, you know, what you’re willing to do, how far you’re willing to take it, how much work you’re willing to put in, how many, how much sacrifice you’re willing to, you know, you know, how much sacrifice you’re willing to, to endure because, you know, that was a lot of things that I wanted to do when I was getting ready for shows that I couldn’t do, but I had to make those sacrifices in order to be the best at whatever I want to do and, uh, I don’t think people have that same mentality today as I, as I did back in my day.

20:56 Brian Rose: What kind of thing, different era? Yeah. What kind of things did you have to sacrifice?

21:03 Ronnie Coleman: Oh, that’s a lot of things I had to sacrifice, being with my family, going out to nightclubs, not eating what I wanted to eat, not being able to, uh, go certain places, you know, like if I had to go to a, like a wedding or to a party or, uh, to any kind of, any kind of social event, you know, I had to cut everything out, everything, you know, and just focus on what I was doing.

21:33 It’s almost like you’re in some kind of prison where, you know, there are certain things you can and can’t do and, and that’s where you got to treat it for the most part, but you got to enjoy it too, you know, you got to enjoy yourself and otherwise you won’t be able to do it, so I was able to, uh, enjoy what I was doing. I was able to, uh, do what I was doing because I knew what the outcome was going to be, basically, from, from me making these sacrifices.

22:10 Brian Rose: Was it always worth it once you got that medal every single time?

22:15 Brian Rose: Right, never not worth it. That’s the funny thing, you know, when you do sacrifice those things that seem important, like I want to go to the club, I want that pizza, when you actually get what you were working for, it’s a thousand times better than those little play.

22:30 Brian Rose: Never any regrets on that?

22:31 Ronnie Coleman: Never.

22:32 Brian Rose: I mean, Ronnie, if you had some advice to kids these days about, you know, how they should think about their priorities, what would you tell them?

22:40 Because it seems to me that everyone’s kind of looking for a reason why they’re not successful. They’re like, “Oh, I’m not successful because of this happened or this guy’s not doing this or I didn’t get this from this person.” You know, what, what should they be focusing on if they want to go achieve greatness like you have?

23:01 Ronnie Coleman: It’s all about, you know, I think anybody that’s got anything has had to work extremely hard for, because anything that’s given to you, I mean, it is not really worth it because it was given to you, you know, it’s probably just being given just to just about every body.

23:19 But if you, uh, you work hard and you make the sacrifices that you make, it makes enjoying your success that much more better, you know, for the most part. Yeah, you’re going to have to work extremely hard, you know, to accomplish anything that’s worth having or worth going after, you know, you, you’re going to, yeah, I know, and, and all the way around it, you know, you want to make those sacrifices. You’re going to have to work hard, you’ve got to be dedicated and you’re going to have to be focused on the task of whatever it is you’re trying to achieve.

24:04 Brian Rose: Is there anything you regret from your bodybuilding career? You know, do you ever think, I mean, I wish it, I would have got the ninth, or I wish I started earlier, or is there anything when you look back at that body of work that you think about these days?

24:21 Ronnie Coleman: Nothing at all, because, uh, I used to tell people, you know, I never in a million years would have thought I won one Olympia, let alone eight. Even when I was up there on, standing on stage waiting for my name to be called first, I didn’t even think I was gonna win because I had gotten nice before that, the year before that, and, you know, the year before that, you know, I didn’t do too much, too much, too much better.

24:49 I don’t really got into the sport of bodybuilding because guy told me to give me a free membership to a gym, otherwise I would have never got into the sport, you know, it just was a, never, it never was a lifelong dream of mine to be, be a bodybuilder. You know, of course I’ve always worked out, you know, I was on the piloting team in high school and, uh, I worked out each and every single day just about my whole entire life because that’s, that’s what I wanted to do and that, that’s what I enjoyed doing, but when it came to being, being a bodybuilder, I never, uh, wanted to be one because, uh, I didn’t think I was cut out to be one in the first place. But when the guy told me to give me a free membership, then, uh, things change when people give you stuff for free that you normally have to pay for.

25:44 Brian Rose: And like you said, you didn’t place very good in the early years. I mean, at one point,

25:49 Ronnie Coleman: no, no, not at all.

25:50 Brian Rose: And you wanted to quit in those early years? Were you thinking, “Man, I’m never going to get this”?

25:55 Ronnie Coleman: No, no, no, you got to remember, I worked out for the free membership.

25:59 Right, not, not the place good, you know, that, that was just, you know, just icing on the cake, you did, if I played good in the show or something, but of course I was always trying to be the best that I could be, but you know, I never thought with a mountain nothing, because like I said, I, I never, you know, wanted to be a bodybuilder ever my whole life until, you know, he told me, give me a free membership to the gym. Oh yeah, I could be a bodybuilder for that. But otherwise, you know, I, I never, I, I never done it on my own, I wasn’t trying to say.

26:40 Brian Rose: Okay, why did it take so many years to finally place first? I mean, what, what is it important to understand about what it takes to create a Mr. Olympia?

26:51 Ronnie Coleman: It’s a lot of hard work, a lot of dedication, a lot of, for me, you know, a lot of muscle maturity, you know, my muscles had to, because I never bodybuild before, I was, I was always doing power lifting, so your body has to be used to being a bodybuilder, you know, and, and building up to that because I never just was trying to build muscle, uh, for most of, I’m just in there just, you know, having fun and enjoying myself and, you know, trying to be strong as possible, trying to, try to be as strong as I possibly could because I was always competing in, you know, like power lifting shows here and now.

27:34 So when I got into bodybuilding, I had to make a completely different change to the way I worked out, you know, I had to completely change it. I went from doing, you know, like three, four sets, uh, maybe two or three reps, to doing, uh, like three, four, five, six sets to maybe like 20 to 30 reps, 15 reps, something like that. So it was just a completely different way of training, so my body had to catch up to being a bodybuilder because it was always, you just used to being a powerless and just doing things in a power way and not, you know, not building it up like, you know, I have to do to get get on stage, compete against other guys.

28:26 I never tried to just build my body up to be, you know, on the stage competing against other guys like in that way, so it took a long time for me to, to get to that, to that point to where I was, you know, real good at it, but once I got there, you know, of course, uh, yeah, I was pretty good at it.

28:50 Brian Rose: Because it takes years to build that muscle mass up, it’s like, like 10 pounds a year and you got, it just takes many, many, many years to, to get the mass. Even five pounds a year is good, it’s a lot, right?

29:07 Ronnie Coleman: I don’t understand that. Yeah, the five pounds of muscle a year is good too and that’s what I was mostly actually doing, you know, the most I put on a year is probably like maybe five or six pounds, but you know, after a while it catches up, you know, it’s, it’s a level of consistency of doing it. That’s how you pack it on, you know, you don’t just go in and just lift all these weights and, you know, put on all these pounds of muscle in like a year or two, and it takes years, many years, and you have to be patient and a lot of people, people are not real patient when it comes to packing on the pounds, a lot of people.

29:52 Brian Rose: Well, a lot of people aren’t patient, you don’t understand it. Yeah, how long did it take you from when you first started bodybuilding to win your first Mr. Olympia? How many years was it?

30:04 Ronnie Coleman: So I saw that in ’90 and ’98. So I’m gonna say about eight years.

30:08 Okay, okay, ’90 was my first, uh, bodybuilding contest, it was, I did, date April 7, 1990, my first bodybuilding contest.

30:18 Brian Rose: You remember? And so it took that many years for you to put the muscle on, probably learn, learn the discipline, learn the poses, learn the competition, because that’s a whole new thing to learn, right?

30:34 Ronnie Coleman: Yeah, learn, not learn, yeah, learn the sport and learn how to be a bodybuilder, learn how to diet, learn how to train as a bodybuilder, you know, I’m doing all these things, you know, over all these years and, you know, I’m making a lot of mistakes, so it’s through trial and error that now I got to where I was because there really wasn’t much on the internet back then, people forget.

31:05 So I was knowing on that back then and just a few books lying around and some magazines and who knows if that was accurate.

31:15 Brian Rose: That was it, that was all you had, books, magazines, and, and hopefully you were running somebody that knew exactly what they were doing. Okay, but most of it you had to figure out, you’re on your own.

31:31 Ronnie Coleman: Most of it, uh, I figured out on my own through trial and error. Yeah, through a lot of trial, a lot of error.

31:40 Brian Rose: Yeah, what were some of the error, what were some of the big errors?

31:45 Ronnie Coleman: Just, just learning how to, you know, carb deplete, carb up, uh, learning how to, you know, manipulate water, you know, restriction, water intake, water out take, all that kind of stuff. I mean, those are some of the hardest things in the world to learn, at least it was for me.

32:07 Brian Rose: Yeah, just that information, or lack of, is, is pretty incredible.

32:12 Ronnie Coleman: I mean, yeah, exactly, you know, you were there, a lot of times there wasn’t a lot of books out there on that kind of stuff.

32:22 You, you just have to kind of, like, depend on people that’s been there and done it for the most part, you know, and everybody’s body is different, so everybody is going, everybody’s going to respond differently into different things, so that’s what I mean by the error part coming in, you know, my, what work for somebody else ain’t gonna work for me because my body is totally different, you know, everybody’s body is totally different from everybody else’s, so you have to find your own formula in a way, and that’s what I mean by the, the trial and error. You know, you try all these different ways of, of other people telling you how to do it and you find out, well, that’s, that sounds good and all, but it ain’t working for me, so you have to come up with your own, you know, uh, method of doing things, your own way of doing things, your own formulation of doing things, and that’s, that’s what, that’s what I mean most about the trial and error.

33:28 Brian Rose: Yeah, I talked at length with Dorian Yates about doing that because, you know, he was in Birmingham, England, you know, literally thousands and thousands of miles away from Muscle Beach where everything was kind of happening at Gold’s, so he didn’t have any options, he had to kind of go do it himself and figure it out himself and I think by doing that, Ronnie, he managed to create something brand new, kind of like because he wasn’t surrounded. I mean, imagine if Dorian had been at Gold’s Gym, he wouldn’t have been the Dorian Yates we know. Probably, right?

34:00 Nope, reason why they never went to Gold’s Gym. I remember being at Lee Haney’s last Mr. Olympia and he said, “Man, after all this time, I’m just not learning how to carb deplete.” And that was his last Olympia that he won. Wow. So that, that goes to show you how difficult this world is.

34:26 Brian Rose: And when you think about Olympia, yeah, he did eight as well. Yeah. When you think about Dorian Yates, what did he contribute to Mr. Olympia, to the era, and when you think about him as a bodybuilder, what’s the first thing you think about and what did he contribute to this board?

34:46 Ronnie Coleman: Well, Dorian was one of the first guys to step on stage, you know, as like a, like a mass monster type guy with a lot of, a lot of big muscles, a lot of, uh, a lot of, you know, good, you know, separation, conditioning, you know, all he had the, he had the big muscles in the condition that, that nobody had ever brought to the stage before.

35:10 He was the first guy to ever do that.

35:13 Brian Rose: Yeah, and you think he did that probably because he was on his own with no people surrounding him and in his mind that was the way he decided to attack that puzzle. He said, “I’m going to do it this way.”

35:26 Ronnie Coleman: Yeah, yeah, yeah, he figured it out for himself, basically, and I think the conditioning he brought, um, you know, meant that everybody else on stage was like, “Man, if Dorian’s gonna come that conditioned, that means I gotta work my butt off next year a lot more than I would have normally done.”

35:46 Brian Rose: I mean, you see Dorian in like ’92, man, I mean, he looks like a skeleton in his face, I mean, he’s, he’s so conditioned, but it meant to everybody else on the stage, you better step your game up if you want to play.

36:04 Ronnie Coleman: Right, exactly, and that’s, and that’s, that, that’s basically the guy who sets the trend, you know, on, on the sport. It’s always, uh, Mr. Olympia, the winner for that year or whatever, and if you are fortunate enough to win, you know, uh, three, four, five, you know, that’s, that’s when you control an error and then you establish an error also by doing that, and then you establish the standards and then you can kind of own those standards if you deliver every year.

36:42 Brian Rose: Right, and then the judges start to think of you as the standard.

36:47 Ronnie Coleman: Right, and as long as you can maintain it, you can hold your error, but there’ll always be some breaking point, right? You’re going to always, uh, you know, get to a point where you can’t do, continue to do it, you know, it’s only so long that you can hold that, you know, type of conditioning, so only so many years of whatever I’m trying to say. You know, you’re gonna, I always get caught up before the times.

37:19 Always, always.

37:20 Brian Rose: Yeah, well, Dorian had his tricep torn, I mean, he competed that last Olympia with his, it was almost torn. I mean, he thought, he said he was worrying about it tearing when he was posing. Um, and that, oh, wow. And so if Dorian brought that to the table, what was your error about, what will people look back and say, “Well, the Ronnie Coleman era was all about this”?

37:51 What did you bring?

37:53 Ronnie Coleman: Well, I was trying to do the same thing with doing, doing it, but just on a high weight scale, you know, I got all the way up to like 295 you know, on stage with the conditioning and stuff, and, you know, I, I don’t know how, how Dorian went, but uh, I think mine was just a little bit higher than he is, just a little bit, not too much more, but a little bit higher and, you know, a little longer rain too. The longer you’re up there, the harder you got to work for the most part.

38:30 That’s the way it was for me, that’s the way I looked at it, you know, uh, because every year you’re trying to outdo the last year or get better from last year and that’s what I was trying to do every single year, get better from last year, and you really have to put in some work to do that because, you know, how hard you had to work the year before and you trying to work harder, died harder, you know, harder, sacrifice more, if that’s possible, so you’re always trying to outdo the year before, and you know, eight years, a long time to do that.

39:12 Brian Rose: Well, were you, were you mentally exhausted by that eighth year?

39:17 Ronnie Coleman: No, no, no, I was nowhere close to being mentally exhausted, uh, my body probably was, but not me, not, not in my mind, you know, no, not even close.

39:28 Brian Rose: Was that what, when, what the ninth, that ninth, what could have been your ninth, well, did you think you won that competition or was that fair to pass the torch that year?

39:40 Ronnie Coleman: Oh, of course, I’m always thinking I won because that’s what, that’s the mindset that you, I had going into every show and, uh, but you know, like I said, yeah, the torch gotta be passed every, sooner or later, you know, it’s gonna catch up with you, but you, uh, you never want to pass it, that’s for sure, and you always, uh, as long as you are able to make it to the stage, you’re always trying to win.

40:07 Brian Rose: Did you ever, you ever think you’d come back and get it again?

40:11 Ronnie Coleman: Of course I tried, uh, too, but you know, it wasn’t meant to be, right? That’s hard to do in bodybuilding, to come back, it’s very hard to do, you know, in bodybuilding, building.

40:22 Brian Rose: Let me ask you about a couple other of the, the big bodybuilders in the sport. I mean, Arnold Schwarzenegger, when you hear that name, especially in association with bodybuilding, what do you think about, because he obviously was doing this back in the ’70s, and also how would Dorian do if he was, you know, in his prime today with all the information and the nutrition and the science, would it have been a different ball game for him?

40:49 Ronnie Coleman: Oh, it’s been totally different because, you know, every year, you know, I think the the technology gets better, you know, there’s always some new stuff out there that the guys are doing and they find it now, you know, so, uh, uh, Arnold with what he had couldn’t compete with, during what he had, of course, and you can say that about every area, just about, though.

41:17 Brian Rose: But with Arnold you saw the genetics that he had that could have just, he could have been a different bodybuilder with different training, diet, all that stuff, he could have competed with you. Could he have competed with you?

41:35 Ronnie Coleman: He could have competed with just about anybody if he either had, you know, the technology that we had, anybody, any error, you know, because like I said, area is different, you know, you know, they, they got stuff now that, you know, I didn’t have back when I was competing.

41:56 Brian Rose: And, and what about Arnold, his legacy, when you think about him and what he brought to the sport, what comes to your mind? How would you explain that to your grandkids?

42:08 Ronnie Coleman: Well, he was the first guy to, you know, win, I mean, many in a row and hold the title for such long, so that just add to, you know, his level of greatness, you know, they just, you know, just tells you right there they use one of the greatest they ever do it, the longer you are able to maintain, uh, a high level, a competition and compete on a high level for, for a long time, they just establish you as one of the greatest and that, you know, that’s pretty much where, well, well, I see it, him as being one of the greatest bodybuilders, never, uh, step on the stage.

42:51 Brian Rose: And what about Lee Haney? Lee Haney had again a, a tiger record with eight titles, right?

42:57 Ronnie Coleman: Yeah, yeah, same with him.

42:59 Brian Rose: Yeah, and what did Lee bring to the sport? Did Lee, I mean, he was a different, different type, right?

43:06 Was he ever gonna be, you know, as, as big as the guys in your era, or was it going to just be a different game with Lee?

43:14 Ronnie Coleman: And it’s going to be just a different game, everybody, like you said, everybody’s not going to be able to put on that muscle like that, you know, no matter what kind of technology you have, if you don’t have the genetics for then it’s not going to happen, so, you know, technology plays a role, but also genetics plays a major, major role, you know. Now they got, you know, those three body types, endomorph, ectomorph, mesomorphs, you know, and if you don’t have the right body type you know, to be able to put on that muscle mass, it’s just never gonna happen.

43:51 Okay, they’re ever gonna happen.

43:53 Brian Rose: Well, let’s talk, let’s talk about that in genetics because you talk about technology and a lot of people are thinking, well, what technology is he talking about, you know, to the untrained athlete, to someone who’s never actually tried to put on muscle? A lot of people think all you got to do is get the right steroids and you’re Mr. Olympia, so can you explain that, is that thinking correct, is it incorrect, and how do the enhancements work, the supplements work when it comes to steroids?

44:22 Ronnie Coleman: And then it has only just gonna work as good as, you know, your genetics are. I mean, you look at some of them baseball players and some of the guys play football or whatever and hockey and anybody else that, you know, tried using steroids and they’re not, you know, like bodybuilders, they’re not step on the stage type guys, you know, but because they don’t have the right genetics, you got to have the right genetics to be, they compete in this sport too, you know, it’s not all about steroids, you got to be able to, uh, your body big guy take in a certain amount of calories and all that kind of stuff. Yeah, you have the right training techniques, uh, I mean, everything comes into play for the most part.

45:12 When I say technology, that’s what I’m talking about, you know, different training techniques, uh, different diet techniques, different nutrition, uh, programs and stuff like that, you know, so it’s not all about, about the steroids, it’s all about most of the work ethic, uh, genetics is just the top of the, top of the list though. So if you don’t have that, uh, you, you forget it. If you don’t have the right genetics, you know, it’s never gonna happen.

45:44 It’s just like me going out and trying to be a professional basketball player, a baseball player or something, you know, I, I don’t have right genetics for that. I, I’ll never make, make it in either one of those sports no matter how hard I try, uh, if they, you know, you’re not genetically gifted in that kind of way, it’s never gonna happen. So bodybuilding is the same, you know, if you’re not genetically, genetically gifted in, in being, you know, a bodybuilder, then, uh, it’s just never going to happen, no matter how many steroids you take, a train, what type of training you do.

46:32 Brian Rose: And if you look at, like, a Mr. Olympia on the stage, I mean, if you roughly had to say what percentage of that is the steroids versus the genetics and the training and the work ethic and all that, is it 10 percent, is it 20 percent, is it 30 percent, what would you say?

46:54 Ronnie Coleman: I’ll say it’s probably like 10, 20 percent, maybe, somewhere in there, but, uh, not that, not that, not, not, not that, not a, uh, not a high percentage. Okay, none whatsoever, because like I said, if you, uh, take the same, uh, steroids and gave it to another guy, you know, that it wouldn’t happen unless he was, you know, gifted for it, you know, so it’s all about being genetically gifted more than anything.

47:27 Uh, and it’s not all about the steroids because, like I said, if that was the case, you know, you have more bodybuilders out there, uh, but, uh, from the looks of things, there’s not a whole lot of bodybuilding, and this was not that big any either anyway, you know. Yeah, because if you look at our crowds and look at some of the other sports crowds, uh, I was way down, down the list, way, way down, so it’s all about, it’s all about genetics. All about genetics.

48:04 Brian Rose: And just to finish off with the steroids, when it came to doing it, you always had, I think, prescriptions and doctors and blood tests. Uh, maybe you can speak on that and also, do you worry these days that there’s too many people getting stuff illegally, not knowing what they’re doing, uh, you know, doing 10 times the amount because it thinks they’re going to get the 10 times the results, and even you got kids in high school doing this. What are your thoughts on steroids in general, you know, for the public and other people?

48:33 Ronnie Coleman: Yeah, you know, I’ve always had, you know, had doctors doing it, uh, giving me uh, the right advice and right work, right way of doing things, and I’ve always been completely monitored, you know, uh, as far as, you know, having checkups and all that kind of stuff. You know, everything has always worked out really good for me and I tell people, if you, you, you do it the right way, you’re gonna always be safe, you know, it’s just when you’re not doing the right way, like I said, you got all these people getting stuff, you know, that they don’t know what it is or it’s bought on the black market, it’s like, it’s not coming straight from a pharmacy, so there’s going to always be a potential for, you know, some kind of accident or whatever, something going, going wrong or going bad.

49:27 So you know, I’ve always tried to tell people, you know, if you do it the right way and do it the safe way, you can always, you know, do it, it can always be a good thing for you.

49:39 Brian Rose: Now, the early days were kind of the testosterone days and then you got into the growth hormone days and then now in the future we might even have this genetic engineering days. I mean, and did that also map that, map to sport and the body types as well?

49:56 Ronnie Coleman: I think they’ve already tried that genetic engineering thing, you know, with the implants and stuff.

50:03 Ronnie Coleman: Uh, I don’t think that’s gonna work.

50:06 Brian Rose: Okay, you’re not worried about that?

50:09 Ronnie Coleman: Yeah, yeah, yeah, because, you know, there’s always going to be a set standard, you know, and it’s never gonna go, go the other way. Okay, so because they, you know, they pretty much, if you were caught with implants back in the day, they would all always automatically just downgrade you. Oh, that’s not going to qualify you, you know.

50:34 Brian Rose: Oh, these are like implants in your muscles or something?

50:38 Ronnie Coleman: Yeah, muscle implants.

50:40 Brian Rose: Okay, I meant like, I’m not like genetic engineering, people trying to change their DNA, you know, or creating a baby that’s like the perfect bodybuilding baby, you know.

50:52 Ronnie Coleman: Oh, that, that’s, that’s, that’s taking it to a whole ‘nother level. Yeah, I don’t know if that’s gonna ever be possible.

51:00 Brian Rose: Okay, and what about growth hormone, is that a dangerous thing? Do people have to be careful with stuff like that?

51:07 Ronnie Coleman: Uh, what a lot of people understand now, I don’t, I don’t think so, uh, like, say if you’re doing it to do a doctor’s advice and, you know, he telling you the right way to do it, you can, you can always do it the safe way and that, that’s all, that’s the way I’ve always did it, you know, the safe way and through doctor’s advice, make sure, you know, I wasn’t using too much or taking too much of nothing, so as long as I feel that you’re doing it, you know, safe, you, you, you’re, you’re always gonna be doing it the right way because I’ve, I’ve never had any problems and most of the guys I compete again never really had any problems either.

51:45 Brian Rose: Okay, but when you’re on, when you’re out, when you’re on stage with competitors that are using steroids, you kind of have to use them. It’s a bit like the Tour de France, right? If you’re there and the whole field’s using it, you kind of need to use it to stay competitive but it’s not what, it’s not what gets you there, buddy, at the same level as everybody else.

52:05 Ronnie Coleman: Yeah. Okay, I don’t have to.

52:07 Brian Rose: Let me ask you a question, Ronnie. When Dorian was here, he said steroids are used in all sports whenever you have people where there’s a competitive edge and there’s money and there’s prestige and fame on the line, someone’s gonna push it a little bit and use it. Do you agree or disagree?

52:26 Ronnie Coleman: Yeah, I’m gonna disagree. I mean, uh, I mean, you got people out there that will, you know, try to push it, but I don’t, I don’t think, I mean, if he’s saying that it’s in our sport, sports, you know, if for that goal, then yeah, I’ll agree with that, but you know, I don’t, I don’t think it’s, you know, something that, you know, everybody’s doing, it’s just, you know, a couple guys trying to get that competitive age, not, not a whole lot of guys.

52:55 Brian Rose: Okay, all right. Tell me about the injuries because we watch you in the documentary and, uh, you know, we watch you walking around with crutches and, you know, and I’m sure, you know, look, you’re, you’re living your life, you’re like, “Hey, this is how I move and I get to do all these things,” but for a lot of people it’s hard to watch because, you know, they know Ronnie on stage and now you’re on the crutches. You know, what are the injuries been like?

53:19 Brian Rose: I know you’ve been seeing a chiropractor since your football days, so you’ve been having issues, this is something your whole career. How do you explain the back injuries and the surgeries to people who don’t understand?

53:34 Ronnie Coleman: Uh, I think it’s something that built up over time because, uh, I played football and I was, you know, lifting weights in high school, I heard myself real, I hurt my back real bad, you know, just trying to learn how to do powerlifting, you know, and, uh, then I played football and hurt my back again there, you know, just being hit, you know, all the time, but for this position I played, you had to hit somebody on every play and there was a lot of times that I got injured, you know, just, just, just playing, you know, playing football and then, uh, then there’s bodybuilding, you know, uh, you lifting every single day just about, and at least for me it was at least six days a week, and, uh, there’s always gonna be a chance for, you know, to get hurt there too.

54:24 So I got injured, uh, powerlifting king back in the day, then I got injured, uh, playing football, then I got injured playing bodybuilding and I think all the injuries just piled up after a while and, uh, that’s when you need surgery, when the, when the pain becomes so intense you can’t take it no more.

54:45 Brian Rose: And you refuse to stop lifting.

54:47 Ronnie Coleman: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, listen to something that I’ve done, you know, my whole entire life and, uh, I’ve always done it, I’ve always looked forward to doing it and it’s always just been a hobby of mine, you know.

55:01 Ronnie Coleman: Yeah, yeah, it’s just too bad, you know, have avenged myself doing it, but it didn’t really, you know, stop me from doing it.

55:10 Brian Rose: Does the lifting cause injuries to your back or can you lift without it causing problems?

55:17 Ronnie Coleman: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, of course, you just lift, uh, the right way, the correct way, and you won’t get injured. I hadn’t had any injuries, uh, last time I was injured in the weight room was probably back in ’95, ’96 somewhere, you know, well, I had, like, a herniated disc, but in it I hadn’t had anything since then.

55:40 Okay, but my injuries mostly come just from just being compounded from all the years of being on pilots and team, playing football, doing bodybuilding, it’s just all, all together, uh, it, it just went from this one thing. A lot of people think it’s just for me, you know, lifting heavy, but they always saw me going heavy when I was on tape or whatever, but I lifted heavy like that when I was in, in high school too, you know, because I’m polishing, I’m trying to outlift the other guys and, you know, of course you know injury’s going to happen, so yeah, just, uh, unfortunately that mine, uh, got to the point where I said the pain got so bad that I couldn’t take it so I had to have a surgery.

56:30 Brian Rose: How are you feeling these days?

56:32 Brian Rose: Do you have any other surgeries planned? How’s your mobility?

56:37 Ronnie Coleman: Uh, I’m feeling pretty good, but, uh, I, I still got herniated discs and I still need surgeries and stuff and I still got problem while I need surgery and, uh, when it comes to a point where I can’t bear it, that’s when I do the surgery, like I just had surgery back in January, you know, on my hip because the sockets broke and the pain got too intense, well, I couldn’t take it so I had to, you know, have him fix it.

57:09 Brian Rose: Okay, and you got more surgeries coming maybe?

57:12 Ronnie Coleman: Yeah, yeah, for sure, that, that’s just like down the road there’ll be some more surgeries for sure, probably this year.

57:21 Brian Rose: I mean, Ronnie, how do you, how do you keep this attitude of yours where you don’t get too serious about this stuff and, you know, you don’t, you’re not depressed? I mean, how do you keep this optimistic attitude in your life?

57:37 Ronnie Coleman: Oh, by telling my, about just keeping it by telling myself that, you know, this, this is what I enjoy doing, so this is what I’m going to do and whatever the outcome may be, that, that’s what that’s going is going to be, but regardless of, you know, the condition, uh, regardless of what happens, you know, I’m always gonna enjoy myself and always going to enjoy life as long as I can be alive.

58:05 Brian Rose: Okay, okay, and what’s the current state of bodybuilding right now? Like, when you look at it, what do you make of it and where do you think it needs to go in the future?

58:17 Ronnie Coleman: I think it’s, it’s pretty good right now, I mean, getting better, uh, it’s all about being fit and being in good shape. Life is all about being in fit and being in good shape and that’s what most people are trying to achieve anyway, so I see, I see bodybuilding getting bigger by the year, you know, because it has gotten bigger every year and I, I, you know, I, I, I guess you can say the same thing about just about every sport out there, the more people become aware of it, you know, the better the sport is going to be.

58:54 Ronnie Coleman: Yeah, I think, you know, over time, you know, people have become more aware by the building and that’s allowed it to be that much more, you know.

59:03 Brian Rose: A lot of people these days, they look back to the, the older bodybuilders and they say that was the golden era, you know, with Ronnie Coleman’s, the Dorian Yates, and they say these guys look better than the guys today, and, you know, even Schwarzenegger’s come out and said these guys got these bellies and distended stomachs and their conditioning is not what it is. Do you agree with those comments?

59:26 Ronnie Coleman: Yeah, yeah, because I, I think it all goes back to the era, you know, uh, basically the top guys are the ones who set those standards and everybody else just follows it, you know, and that’s just what they’re doing now, you know. Yeah, nobody’s really being as conditioned as they were back in my day because they’re not doing that now, that’s a lot of hard work and dedication for one thing, you know, and, uh, it’s, it’s, it’s been a lot, it’s been allowed, so that’s what they’re doing, so it’s a different era with these guys than it was with, you know, with my generation of guys.

1:00:12 Brian Rose: So you need someone like a Dorian or Ronnie to walk in and say, “Guess what, it’s two percent body fat time this year and you better get on board or I’m going to blow you away.”

1:00:26 Ronnie Coleman: That’s, that’s exactly what you need, but right now, uh, that is not happening.

1:00:32 Brian Rose: Yeah, Dorian said he used to walk around near competition, he said his, the bottoms of his feet would hurt when he walked on the floor with no shoes because he said all the fat pads underneath his, his foot bones were gone because he was so lean, it hurt, it hurt to walk, you know. He said he used to have dreams in the middle of night of strange foods and, you know, he said it was crazy cutting that weight.

1:01:04 Ronnie Coleman: It wasn’t that intense for me. Yeah, yeah, I think it was a little bit easier for me, I don’t know.

1:01:11 Brian Rose: Like that, really 0.33 percent body fat, I mean, that’s crazy, Ronnie, that’s dangerous, but you know, that’s part of being genetically gifted too, though, you know. I think you’re just humble, it’s like, yeah, my genetics could take that kind of, take that body fat level.

1:01:31 Ronnie Coleman: Yeah, it was just normal for me, you know.

1:01:34 Brian Rose: Do you think these days that, uh, guys have more options and that is why maybe bodybuilding isn’t as competitive? Guys can go fight mixed martial arts, so they can go, you know, into a lot of different sports and so maybe there’s not as many people.

1:01:54 Ronnie Coleman: I don’t think that has anything to do with it, I think it’s basically guys are kind of just, you know, kind of lazy in a way, you know, kind of not, you know, uh, motivated to be a certain way, you know, it takes a lot of hard work and dedication to be in condition, a lot of sacrifice too, you know, people I, I don’t know if you know, family are supporting guys in that way, you know, back in my day I didn’t, I didn’t have a family at home with me, you know, I had family, you know, like brothers and sisters, mom and dad, I had, I had that kind of family and they, you know, supported me like 100 percent.

1:02:44 I don’t know if I had a wife, uh, and kids here that they would have supported me the way I needed to be supported, so to be honest with you, bodybuilding is kind of a selfish sport in a way, you know, to certain people, you know, certain people probably have to have, have to have that family around them and then again, uh, I don’t think it’s a good thing because you have to be so focused, uh, when you’re doing this kind of thing and, and, and it’s good not to have people around you. And then, uh, I’m about to say, you know, the, the current Mr. Olympia, you know, he has a family, got wife and kids and all that kind of stuff, but every time he get ready to go for a show, he leaves his house and goes to another country, we get ready for a show so he can isolate himself from them and get in that that mold, he, that environment he needs to be in.

1:03:51 So that’s where the selfishness comes into play, you know. I didn’t have to do that because I didn’t have nobody here but me, I lived in, I lived alone all by myself, so I didn’t have to leave my house. It was a good thing that, you know, I was here alone all by myself because, uh, I couldn’t have done it, you know, with the, with the family and all that kind of stuff, there’s no way I could have, could have done what I did.

1:04:21 Brian Rose: Why?

1:04:21 Ronnie Coleman: Because just too much of distraction.

1:04:24 Ronnie Coleman: You don’t need distraction when you’re trying to focus and get ready, you know, normal people do normal things. You don’t need to be around normal people doing normal things you get ready for yo- It really doesn’t benefit you in no kind of way. Yeah, I hate to say it, but that’s just the way it is, at least that’s the way it was for me, especially for me, you know, certain people might need, you know, be around people, but not me, I, there’s no way I could have done it that way.

1:05:01 Ronnie Coleman: No way.

1:05:02 Brian Rose: Yeah, I think Dorian used to just have a mattress on the floor and that was it, man, he just would lock himself in a room and that was his focus, didn’t want to talk to anybody or do anything in the gym.

1:05:15 Ronnie Coleman: Yeah, yeah, you sure don’t. My mom, you tell everybody, “Don’t go by there and talk to him and mess with him because he’s getting ready for a show. You don’t want to be messed with, he don’t want to talk to nobody.”

1:05:30 So don’t go by there talking to him, and nobody did.

1:05:34 Brian Rose: She would come here, drop off food and see you, that was it. So yeah, it was total isolation.

1:05:41 Brian Rose: Okay, tell me about business because you’ve turned into a businessman. I see you cruising around in that Rolls-Royce and I’m just wondering, you got any advice for business and did anything from bodybuilding carry over into business, the discipline or anything like that?

1:06:02 Ronnie Coleman: All of it did because I had to do the same thing for my business that I did for bodybuilding, you know, I would, man, when I was bodybuilding it was 20, it was a 24/7 thing, but when I started my business it was the same way. I would be gone home from home like three and four weeks at a time. There were some days where I didn’t even sleep because I was doing so many appearances, uh, you know, trying to get the, get the product out there, you know, and it was, it was, it was rough for a long time.

1:06:37 It was like I was, you know, back into my isolation days again, working hard, working 24/7 again, you know, when I started my, my company, but, uh, it’s, of course it’s slowed down now, but, uh, the same thing with bodybuilding, if it slowed down too, but, uh, it started, you know, it was, it was rough, it was real rough for some years, a lot of years, so it was all, all about hard work and dedication and all that sacrifice and the same thing that, uh, uh, applied, learned from my bodybuilding days, I learned, I took it right here to start this company and, uh, it’s going really good, real good, every single year we get more revenue, so you know, I, I took what I learned from bodybuilding and put the, put in my business aspect too and, uh, it turned out pretty good.

1:07:41 Brian Rose: And why have you been successful?

1:07:44 Ronnie Coleman: Because I’ve worked so hard, so tiredly, tirelessly, I’ve, I mean, dedicated myself, like, like I said, same way I did in bodybuilding, you know, uh, doing whatever it took to, to, to make it, basically, you know, and it was a lot of hard work, dedication and, uh, I did it and, and then like I said, it’s, it’s gotten better each and every single year since day one.

1:08:13 Brian Rose: Wow. And if you had somebody watching now who maybe is a bodybuilder who’s thinking, “Man, I want to start a business like Ronnie one day,” what, what advice would you give them about business, but maybe also business related to the world of bodybuilding and training?

1:08:35 Ronnie Coleman: Yeah, first of all, yeah, if you’re going to start a business, you got to start a business, you can’t be doing anything else on the side. It’s like when I was bodybuilding, you know, I was just basically bodybuilding except for when I had to work or whatever, but I was still bodybuilding when, even when I was at work because I would, you know, have enough food with me and ate in the car and stuff like that, but, uh, you can only do one thing at a time, you can only dedicate yourself to one thing at a time if you want to be successful at it, you know. You’re going to have to work just as hard at what, whatever, what you were doing in the past, that you’re going, what you’re going to do for the future.

1:09:21 So for guys trying to do it while they’re bodybuilding, I say it is a big mistake. You get away to your bodybuilding careers over with before you try to become a business owner, you know, you own your own business and do your own thing. Okay, that’s the best advice I can give somebody. I don’t know if they’re gonna take it or not, but, uh, that, I think that’s the best advice I can give them. Okay, because I know for a fact that there’s no way I could have done, uh, bodybuilding and ran, ran a company at the same time because it just, it’s not enough hours in the day and it’s not enough for me to go around like that.

1:10:03 Brian Rose: Okay, now you were a police officer for many years and you loved that job, and in your Netflix documentary it kind of opens up and it finishes and, and, and you’re like, “People always ask me why I’m still a police officer even though I’m Mr. Olympia,” and you say, “Because I love it,” I think is what you said. Why did you love being a police officer and what’s that job really all about, maybe that we wouldn’t understand?

1:10:31 Ronnie Coleman: That job is about, you know, helping people, making sure the world is a better place to stay and, uh, better place to live in and then, and that’s the attitude that I went to work with every day, you know, I’m here to help and I’m here to make the world a better place to stay, to live in, and, uh, and it was something that I truly loved doing and enjoyed doing, so that’s why I was able to do bodybuilding and work for the please, do bodybuilding, work for people, because I love doing both of them.

1:11:04 I mean, when I, when I got to work, I always looked forward to getting to work, when I went to the gym, I always look forward to going to the gym and, uh, I look forward to doing both each and every single day.

1:11:19 Brian Rose: It’s, uh, it’s hard being a police officer these days and, you know, they, yeah, it’s a lot different than when I was doing it, not getting much love, they’re talking about defunding them. It’s hard for me to watch because I know most police officers work a job that’s extremely hard, dealing with a lot of negativity all day.

1:11:41 Brian Rose: You know, what, what are your thoughts on the current state and what advice do you have to people that aren’t police officers, maybe on how they could understand what it’s like to be a cop?

1:11:55 Ronnie Coleman: Well, that’s so much involved in it that, uh, you know, it’s a lot, it’s, it’s a big trust thing that you got to deal with, is, uh, it’s all about trust for the most part, you know, trusting one another and, uh, looking out for one another for the most part, you know, and, uh, people not trusting each other like they did back then because you got, uh, the good guy, good cop, you got the bad car and, uh, it seemed like it only take maybe a couple bad ones to make the good ones look bad too, but it’s not that way, you know, there are a lot of guys out there that, you know, care about people and really want to help them like, like I, I did when I worked there, you know.

1:12:47 I always look forward to helping people and making the world a better place to live in. I never, never ever thought about, you know, violating somebody’s rights or whatever, never, never crossed my mind for one second, you know, I was always out there trying to help people and I’m quite sure that most of the guys out there doing the same thing, but like I said, just a couple of bad guys that, you know, make the whole thing, whole, whole group look bad, uh, make people have just formed that opinion about all guys, you know, they see a couple bad guys, they, they think all, all the houses are like that, but it’s not the case.

1:13:34 Brian Rose: Yeah, well, I hope we, uh, we get through this because I agree with you, you know, most cops, it is not good now.

1:13:42 Ronnie Coleman: Wow, I, I never immediately thought I would be like this.

1:13:46 Brian Rose: Yeah, look, couple final questions about you, Ronnie. If I were to ask five of your best friends what is Ronnie’s superpower, how does this man get all these incredible things done in his life, what would they tell me? What’s that one thing about you that allows you to be who you are?

1:14:07 Ronnie Coleman: Well, it had been my work, work ethic, you know, and because that’s, you know, people know what I put into everything that I do, you know, it’s out there for people to see it too, so, uh, I, I think you can, like, just about anybody that knows me and they’ll be able to tell you that.

1:14:27 Brian Rose: Okay, uh, tell me, Ronnie, what was the best day of your life and the worst day of your life?

1:14:35 Ronnie Coleman: You know what I’m, I always tell people when my first Olympia was the best day of my life and maybe my mom died, dying was the worst day of my life, but, uh, you know, for the most part every day is a good day for me because I’m still here, the most part.

1:14:56 Brian Rose: And on that note, what scares you, Ronnie?

1:15:00 Ronnie Coleman: Uh, some of these, the new diseases they got coming out, like this COVID-19.

1:15:06 I’m wondering what’s going to be next after that because, uh, I mean, I don’t think ever anybody ever saw this coming, you know. If the next thing out there is going to be worse than this, then we’re in for a long, long, hard life because this, this, uh, this disease here, there’s no joker at all, it’s just corrupting everything, making everything bad, so that’s the only thing that I, you know, kind of fear right now, you know, that’s it, but, uh, for the most part I won’t just have the hope though and have a faith that it’s gonna get better and it’s gonna go back to, you know, being normal because, you know, for the most part that’s the way it’s always happened. After every storm there was always a nice bright sunshiny day on the other side of that.

1:16:12 Ronnie Coleman: A long time to get here.

1:16:14 Brian Rose: And what would we be surprised to learn about Ronnie Coleman, something that you do that’s kind of not bodybuilder-like, not businessman-like, I don’t know, something you like to do with your spare time that, that we might be surprised?

1:16:33 Ronnie Coleman: Well, that’s really no surprise about me because my life is pretty much an open book, so everything that I do, you know, it’s, uh, it’s, it’s open book, I put it out there for everybody to know, you know, I’ve been followed so many times throughout my life once I, uh, you know, got kind of famous, uh, I’ve had, uh, all kind of news stations follow me, uh, doing these documentaries, also doing these personal videos, so you know, what you see is, it’s pretty much who I am, you know, so there’s not gonna be much to surprise people with when, when, you know, you, you’re kind of like out there in the public for people, people to see who you really are and then, you know, for the most part, you know, what you see out there is who I really am, you know, I’m not faking anything, I’m not holding anything back, I’m just being myself for the most part because I’ve been on a lot of film, a lot of field, so really nothing to shock you with.

1:17:48 Brian Rose: And, uh, and Ronnie, what keeps you awake at night?

1:17:52 Ronnie Coleman: Uh, don’t nothing really keep me awake, you know, I sleep very good each and every single night, so nothing keeps me awake, nothing whatsoever.

1:18:04 Brian Rose: All right, anything you worry about or anything you’re concerned about with the world?

1:18:12 Ronnie Coleman: You know what, I’ve always been real positive and now that’s why, you know, people kind of like, you know, they, they kind of like understand me and I’m a likable person because, uh, I don’t believe in negativity, you know, there’s, there’s always good in just about each and every single thing you do and if you believe that in, uh, that’s the way it’ll be, you know, and I’ve always been positive and I’ve always, you know, believed in, you know, things are going to be a good because they always have been and, uh, so I have no reason to doubt, you know, things are gonna be bad because they’re always gonna be good as long as you make them good.

1:19:06 And I go out of my way to do that.

1:19:09 Brian Rose: Where’s that come from, Ronnie?

1:19:12 Ronnie Coleman: You know, it comes from within, comes from within. I’ve always been the very, I mean, since day one, you know, I, I can remember my first job getting and that was kind of like mowing yards and then I got a job with, at a convenience store, you know, and then these jobs happen when I was like eight, nine years old and, uh, I always look forward to, you know, going, doing them and making my own money and being my own person and making things happen and, uh, that’s, that’s what I’ve always believed in, you know.

1:19:57 I’ve always believed in making things happen and you do that by, you know, working real hard towards anything that’s, you know, work, worth working out hard for. And you can always find something.

1:20:15 Brian Rose: Yeah, always so true. What, uh, what’s Ronnie Coleman doing five years from now in 2025? What does your day look like?

1:20:26 Ronnie Coleman: Oh man, you know what, I, I never really make any long-term goals, I always do these short-term goals because I never know what, what’s going to happen, uh, but I, I hope to be doing better than I am now and I’m not doing bad at all right now. I just always, I’m always looking to do better and to be better.

1:20:55 Brian Rose: Okay, all right, I always, even though things are good. Yeah, even though. Thank you for me.

1:21:04 Brian Rose: Uh, Ronnie, I always finish with a couple questions. I’m gonna ask you him now. If you could pick up a phone, a magic phone, and call up 20-year-old Ronnie Coleman and give that young man some advice based on everything you know now about everything, business and life and Mr. Olympia, it. Your, your energy and your attitude, it comes out in everything you do and it’s, it’s super refreshing, you know. It comes out in your, in your spirit, we see it on stage.

1:22:01 It’s almost like you transcend all the arguing and bickering that’s going on and you’re like, “I’ll be up here pushing myself and attaining what I want to achieve,” and it’s like, “You guys can argue about this stuff over here but I’m going to go be the best me.” That’s what I see when I see you, Ronnie, and I appreciate you and it’s a great message in today, you know, when everyone’s pointing the finger and you’re like, “Well, I’ll be over here working on me.”

1:22:27 Ronnie Coleman: Exactly, because, uh, I’m not going to fail, I’m going to always come out on top one way or another.

1:22:33 Brian Rose: I love it.

1:22:34 Ronnie Coleman: Maybe 5, 10 or 15 years, but I’ll get there.

1:22:36 Brian Rose: That’s a great attitude. I hope people watching and listening to us adopt that attitude for themselves and look at the incredible things you’ve accomplished in your career, and you’re still accomplishing that, and now I understand why your business is successful because I can see that relentless energy you put into bodybuilding into your business, and I run a business.

1:22:58 Ronnie Coleman: Ain’t nothing easy about running a business, man.

1:23:01 It’ll, it’ll make you face your darkest moments, man.

1:23:05 Brian Rose: Are you kidding me?

1:23:06 Ronnie Coleman: Time, but, uh, every single time it’ll, it’ll do that to you.

1:23:10 Brian Rose: It’s true, but it’s also when you, when you’ve, when you figure it out, you also figure yourself out, and so it’s kind of a beautiful thing, so look, Ronnie, I appreciate that. Next time let’s have this conversation in person and, uh, and, uh, I really appreciate the time, thank you for everything you’ve done, thanks for the inspiration today.

1:23:33 Ronnie Coleman: Oh no, my pleasure.

1:23:34 Brian Rose: All right, man, be safe out there. All right, we’ll talk to you soon.

1:23:39 Ronnie Coleman: Oh yeah, for sure, ain’t got no other choice.

1:23:42 Brian Rose: All right, you got to give us a “Yeah, buddy” to finish this off.

1:23:46 Ronnie Coleman: I wait. All right, there you go.

1:23:48 Brian Rose: Thanks so much, Ronnie, I appreciate your time.

1:23:50 Ronnie Coleman: All right, all right, no problem. You have a good one.

1:23:53 Brian Rose: All right, thanks a lot, take care, and thank you all for watching London Real. I appreciate you. We will see you next time on the show.