September 18, 2024 • 57 mins
Eight-time Mr. Olympia champion, Ronnie Coleman, sits down with Shannon Sharpe at Club Shay Shay for a deep dive into Ronnie's life, career, and incredible journey in bodybuilding. In Part 1, they go way back, discussing Ronnie's upbringing in Louisiana where he grew up working on a farm, chopping cotton, and dreaming of becoming a professional football player. He reflects on his time playing football at Grambling State University, describing it as the greatest time of his life, even though a neck injury he sustained there would impact him for the rest of his bodybuilding career.
Ronnie talks about his early passion for weightlifting, which started when his mom bought him a 110 lb weight set from Walmart at the age of 12. He also shares stories about his various odd jobs, including working as a sports writer and editor in the journalism department, and graduating cum laude with a degree in accounting. Despite these accomplishments, he took on a job delivering pizzas at Domino’s to make car payments, where he ate pizza every day for two years, eventually trading slices for burgers, fried chicken, and tacos from neighboring fast-food joints.
Shannon and Ronnie delve into his entry into the world of bodybuilding. Ronnie recalls walking into a gym for the first time, where the owner predicted he could win Mr. Olympia. After initially placing third in nationals during his first year, people began speculating about whether he was using steroids. Ronnie also talks about his grueling training regimen, eating a pound of protein with every meal, and how his strict discipline set him apart from other bodybuilders who would frequent strip clubs while he stayed focused.
He also shares his decision to start using steroids in 1995, and how the path to qualifying for Mr. Olympia was tough, with many struggles that nearly caused him to quit. Ronnie recounts the surreal moment of winning his first Mr. Olympia title, which was so overwhelming that he fainted on stage and doesn't remember what anyone said to him. Throughout the conversation, Ronnie reflects on how his job as a police officer helped ground him and bring a sense of normalcy to his otherwise intense life in bodybuilding, as well as how his weightlifting routine differed from the standard bodybuilding approach.
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
All my Life, Grinding All my Life, Sacrifights Hrussele pet
Bryson won a slice Doctor bron Geist, Schwat All my Life,
iop Be Grinding all my Life, All my Life, Grinding
all my life, Sacrifights, Hustle Petti Bryson won slice Doctor
bron Geist, Swat All my Life, Poppy Grinding All my Life.
Speaker 2 (00:25):
Hello, Welcome to another episode of Club Shay Shape. I
am your host, Shennon Sharp. I'm also the propriud of
Club Sha Shade. The guy that's stopping by for conversation
and a drink today.
Speaker 1 (00:34):
Man.
Speaker 2 (00:35):
He's a legend, the most successful and strongest bodybuilder of
all time. He won twenty six IBIFBB professional titles. He
won the Mister Olympia eight times in a row. Richard's
a retired Lee Haines record for the most Olympia victories.
He's the first man to win the Arnold Classic and
the Olympia title in the same season.
Speaker 3 (00:53):
I happen to be at that two thousand and one
Arnold Classic.
Speaker 2 (00:56):
He's considered by many to be the greatest bodybuilder of
all time, A considered his his He's a member of
the International Sports Hall of Fame, he received the honor
Classic Lifetime Achievement Award and inspiration to many walk in
the world lightweight Baby yeah, buddy, the King, the icon.
Speaker 3 (01:13):
Here he is Ronnie Coleman, Roddy, how you doing man.
Speaker 2 (01:18):
As man in a little while, Bro, we go back
a long way because I remember when you came back
in the late nineties. Used to come back to rope
who used to train me? Rope Man guest pose at
it as it shows. So we come you. You've come
a long way. I've come a long way, Bro, I
got my own Kanye. This is my Kanye shaved by Laportier.
Speaker 3 (01:39):
Oh cool.
Speaker 2 (01:40):
And I want to toast your career the most unbelievable
professional bodybuilding career ever.
Speaker 3 (01:45):
Thank you. That's a little bro. Growing up you're from Louisiana.
Speaker 2 (01:48):
Yep, Barney raised the Louisiana So growing up, obviously you work.
You probably worked on a farm or farml like labor.
Speaker 3 (01:56):
Yes, sure, I sure did. Shopping that okay. So what
did Runne Coban want to be when he was a kid.
Speaker 4 (02:03):
I wanted to be a professional football player, okay, yeah,
and I played high school, junior high college, didn't make
it to the pros.
Speaker 2 (02:14):
So you grow up, so you played also, you play football,
you played basketball, You just mainly played football.
Speaker 4 (02:18):
I mainly played football. I didn't play basketball. I did
a little track also, but football was my thing.
Speaker 3 (02:24):
Right, Okay, so you go to so you went to Grambling. Yeah,
GSU played.
Speaker 2 (02:28):
For the legendary coach rob Eddie Robinson. What was that experience?
Speaker 3 (02:32):
Like? Man, it was a lot of fun.
Speaker 4 (02:34):
I mean, we had the greatest time of all had
the greatest coach of all time, Edi robb and we
lived the jayas fun life. And it was real hectic
on the road because everybody was trying to get coach
rob especially when he broke that record.
Speaker 3 (02:54):
Correct.
Speaker 4 (02:55):
But it was probably the greatest time of my life,
greatest experience of my life, for sure. I often want
to go back to those days, but you know how
that is. But that was the greatest time of my
life by far.
Speaker 3 (03:14):
So you you.
Speaker 2 (03:15):
Mentioned like growing up you wanted to play professional football.
You got a college scholarship to go GSU. But I
heard you injured your neck. Was that probably the main
reason why you didn't make it?
Speaker 3 (03:24):
Or was it ability? Well?
Speaker 4 (03:27):
I had a lot of injuries, but first of all,
I didn't I didn't go on scholarship. I walked on,
walked on, yeah, and tried out and then made the team.
But I initially I hurt my back real bad, real bad.
It started probably when I was like a sophomore. I
went to the chiropractor, went to the bunch of doctors.
Nobody could find out anything wrong. But the chiropractor said, uh,
(03:51):
you know, I can help you get it back to
normal where you be, you know, function real good.
Speaker 3 (04:00):
And he did.
Speaker 4 (04:02):
And I went to him probably about every single day
for about four or five months, and then I backed
off and and started going.
Speaker 3 (04:13):
Like twice a week.
Speaker 4 (04:15):
But uh, finally I got it back to where I
could function real good. And it wasn't no big problem.
I injured my neck well one day in practice, but
it wasn't It wasn't nothing serious, nothing like yeah, yeah
making the tackle.
Speaker 3 (04:30):
Uh.
Speaker 4 (04:31):
It did keep me out for about two days of practice,
but you know that that was about it.
Speaker 3 (04:36):
Uh.
Speaker 4 (04:38):
For for the most part, A lot of people think,
you know, lifting the weights is what Uh I injured
my back, but it was actually playing football, uh, my
sophomore year. And those injuries they follow you throughout your life.
I mean it it never went away, and uh, when
I got here in Dallas, I picked up a compact
(05:00):
once again, and uh, it would be time.
Speaker 3 (05:03):
That I had to go like every day for a while.
Speaker 4 (05:06):
And then in ninety six I did Injure honeyid the
dish getting ready for the Honor classes kept me out
for about two weeks, but I went to the chiropracticy.
That's when I got into massagic therapy also, and that
helped me out a lot. But I still was able
to do the Honor Classic, and that was in March.
(05:27):
It was always in March, and I got it back
to where I could squat real heavy and dead lift
real heavy. In two thousand and one, I there lifted
about eight hundred for a couple of reps, and three
I squatted at eight hundred for a couple of reps,
So I was pretty I got it.
Speaker 3 (05:47):
Pretty much back to normal use around that time.
Speaker 2 (05:52):
Do you think about what could have been had you
not had those injuries?
Speaker 3 (05:55):
Like, could you believe you could have.
Speaker 2 (05:57):
Squatted excess of nine hundred one thousand pounds, had left
maybe nine hundred one thousand pounds.
Speaker 3 (06:02):
Have those thoughts ever gone through your mind?
Speaker 2 (06:04):
Like, Man, if I'd never had these injuries, I only
imagine just how strong I could have been.
Speaker 3 (06:09):
Yeah, every single day.
Speaker 4 (06:12):
I still regret not deadlifted that eight hundred more than
two reps, because at the time I knew I had
already deadlifted it anyway, But squatting it, I was like,
if I can only just get two reps I got
did on dead mail, I'll be set right. But I
got to it, and uh, those two reps were a
(06:33):
lot lighter than I thought, And I was like, man,
I could have did it at least four more reps
with that eight hundred.
Speaker 3 (06:43):
It was just that light.
Speaker 4 (06:44):
So all so I'm like, I'm not gonna tempt fade again.
I'm getting ready for the Olympia. I don't want to
blow out another dish, correct, So I like, I know.
Speaker 3 (06:53):
What I do.
Speaker 4 (06:53):
I'll just load up the leg press and try to
make up for it. So we went to the leg press.
I litted up with twenty three hundred pounds.
Speaker 3 (07:03):
Well, you couldn't put it the more weight on it, right,
It couldn't put them are weight on it. That's what
I mean when I say we loaded it up, y'all
abould have had every.
Speaker 4 (07:11):
Forty five that was in the jail, had it on
the left pretty much, but Brian keeps quite a few
of those laying around. But I did do that for
nine reps and saw the made up for it. But
you know, it ain't eight it ain't eightred, it ain't
eight hundred on the squad.
Speaker 2 (07:28):
But you were power You also were a power You
started out as a powerlift.
Speaker 3 (07:32):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (07:32):
I started powerlifting in high school and we would go
from state to state doing powerlifting meets and I did okay,
nothing spectacular. I did that for like two years, and
then our powerlifting team kind of folded. So I did
it like my sophomore year, my junior year, and like
I said, I did pretty good. When I came out
(07:54):
to Dallas, I ended some more like it wasn't a
full uh, I would lifted me. It was something like
a deadlift meet. And I did a lot of old
in which I dead lifted probably like seven fifty but
the highest I got.
Speaker 2 (08:10):
But uh, class, you're in two twenties. What weight class
were you in the two twenties?
Speaker 3 (08:18):
What? Yeah? In high school?
Speaker 4 (08:20):
Yeah, and then I went to one ninety eight and
I think my senior year I weighed one eighty five.
In high school, I didn't get to the two hundred
til I.
Speaker 3 (08:30):
Got to college. And got to college.
Speaker 4 (08:31):
Oh yeah, I think I went all the way up
to like two twenty five somewhere in there, playing middle linebacker.
Speaker 2 (08:36):
Right, So were you Did you lift a lot in college?
I mean, what was your weight program?
Speaker 3 (08:41):
Like? In college?
Speaker 4 (08:43):
We didn't have one. We didn't have one. No, none existed.
If you want to lift weight. They had a small
weight room by the side of this room here that
you you go if if you got up at like
six in the morning, they keep it over from six
to seven for one hour. But it was volunteering, right,
(09:03):
But as far as mandated or required weight training, none
at all.
Speaker 3 (09:12):
Was weightlifted always one of your passions?
Speaker 4 (09:14):
Oh yeah, yeah it My passion started with that when
I was about twelve years old. When I was around
ten eleven, everywhere I went people always asked me if
I worked down, if I worked down, and I'm like no, no, no.
Speaker 3 (09:29):
Well I finally got tired of saying no.
Speaker 4 (09:32):
I like I'm gonna say yeah, you know, right, So
I picked up I had my mom buy me one
hundred and ten pound wastset from Walmart, and I started
working out in the backyard, you know, and the plastic
was plastic went, yeah, you know what it was, and
right around twelve, you know, I kind of fell in
love with it and it just took off from there.
Speaker 3 (09:55):
You know.
Speaker 4 (09:56):
Like I said, I joined the power Distant team like
in I think I think I was fourteen when we
started that powerlifting team, So that was like a couple
of years later, and that's when I really got into it, right.
But I got that passion from early age. You know,
lifting in my backyard with my friends. Uh, we all
(10:17):
had mostly curl stuff. You know, we're just curled and
do some overhead pressings, but nothing serious, you know, just
having fun. And uh, that's where my passion came from
lifting in the backyard.
Speaker 2 (10:33):
And now all of a sudden, you can start to
see your body start to transform, and you start to
see you get muscle definition, you start to get peaks
on the bicep yep, and now all of a sudden
you're like, okay, yeah, this looks good.
Speaker 3 (10:45):
You were from that point on, You was hooked from
that point on.
Speaker 2 (10:48):
Yeah, you were talking, we were talking early off set
that you had some odd jobs. I think you said
in college when you once you got to college, you
started you was delivering pizzas or something with that college
and when we got here.
Speaker 4 (11:00):
Not yet, that was in Dallas. But in college I
had some odd jobs too.
Speaker 3 (11:04):
What do you do in college? I worked for the
police department in college. Uh huh yeah.
Speaker 4 (11:09):
In college it was called a work study. Okay, okay, yeah,
yeah yeah. Instead of the pail grade, you got to
work study had to go. Yeah yeah, I got pailgram,
but they didn't pay the full full tuition, so I
had to do work study. So I did the police
department and uh, all we did was just wrote tickets,
parking tickets. We did uh like transfer to the bank,
(11:32):
you know, helped uh citizens drop the money off.
Speaker 3 (11:37):
And that was about it.
Speaker 4 (11:39):
Then when that work study ran out the next year,
I got on at the journalism department doing uh writing,
sports writing, and uh I had a lot of fun
with that.
Speaker 3 (11:52):
I was a pretty good writer at the time.
Speaker 4 (11:54):
And then uh, when the sports editor left, they promoted
me to sports editor. And that was a real real
hard job because we had to put the newspaper together correct,
So you had to measure out everything, measure out your
and and all that. But I never really cut on.
But you know, my instructor, she mostly helped me out
(12:16):
with that a lot. But I did all the editing,
you know, all the stories that came in, and uh,
it was it was another great experience for me.
Speaker 2 (12:26):
So you go to college, you're going to you graduate.
I think you graduated cum.
Speaker 4 (12:29):
Laude yep instead of thank you loudy.
Speaker 3 (12:40):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (12:40):
Yeah, I was pretty pretty studious when I was going
to school. I studied every single night. I was in accounting,
so I had to study alo and and I wanted
to be the first one in my family to get
a college degree. So that motivated me really hard to
do everything thing in my power to get that degree.
(13:03):
And when I got it, it was the greatest feeling ever,
you know. But uh, I kind of regret not staying
in college a little while longer because, like I said,
it was the greatest time. It was the greatest time
of my life.
Speaker 2 (13:20):
Then that's okay, So now you realize, like, you know what,
this NFL thing might not work out.
Speaker 3 (13:26):
When did you transfer? What did you want? When you
got to college? You got a degree, it's in a county.
Speaker 2 (13:30):
Yeah, I don't know if you ever put that degree
to work, because you came to Dallas and you started
to became a police officer and the rest is kind
of go out there.
Speaker 4 (13:40):
Actually, I came to Dallas and uh. I tried to
get a job in accounting. I went on a lot
of interviews and most of the time they were like, well,
we need somebody with experience.
Speaker 3 (13:52):
I'm like, well, you give me a job and I
get some How did I go get it when you
will give an opportunity back there? So I did that
for almost two years. Wow.
Speaker 4 (14:04):
But at the same time, I had a car note
that I had to pay. So I had got a car.
On this college program, you could buy a car and
your first car note wasn't due to three months later.
Speaker 3 (14:18):
Wow.
Speaker 4 (14:18):
So I went out and bought this car, brand new
nineteen eighty seven some bird GT and my first payment
was coming up, and I'm like, oh, man, I ain't
got I got no money.
Speaker 3 (14:33):
I need to get a job. I need to get a.
Speaker 4 (14:35):
Job real bad. So I took the first thing that
came along. And the first thing that came along was
Domino's Pizza.
Speaker 3 (14:42):
So you a pizza, You're a delivery driver.
Speaker 4 (14:44):
I'm a delivery driver slash assistant manager. So I made
pizzas and delivered them and at the end of the night,
I you know, collected all the money and counted and
took it to the bank and all that kind of stuff.
But I did that for two long years, and when
I didn't make enough money doing that, I got made
(15:05):
a side job delivering newspapers.
Speaker 3 (15:09):
Okay, So here I am with a.
Speaker 4 (15:11):
College degree, great accounty in a county, graduated koolaudy, and
I'm delivering pieces and throwing newspapers. And I couldn't wait
to get out of Domino's Pizza.
Speaker 2 (15:25):
Right.
Speaker 4 (15:26):
So I'm like, you know what, this thing with the
accountant is not working out. So every time every week
I got the newspaper, there was always a classified ad
and now for a hiring police officer, no experience needed.
So I'm like, oh, man, get on a police department.
(15:47):
You know I can use my mental ability as well
as my physical ability.
Speaker 3 (15:52):
Right.
Speaker 4 (15:52):
I always got some bad crooks out there, uh, trying
to start some trouble.
Speaker 3 (15:56):
So uh, that's what I did.
Speaker 4 (15:57):
I applied for the police department after two years working
at Domino, and Arlington hired me in March nineteen eighty nine.
March twenty, nineteen eighty nine was my first day, and
at the time I was living in Irving, and when
I graduated the academy, I moved to Arlington and I've
(16:18):
been here ever since.
Speaker 2 (16:20):
Delivering pizzas. Did you deliver more than you ate? Or
you ate more than you delivered? I eat way more
than I delivered. You've been an uber driver. You got
a terrible grade. It's been awful.
Speaker 4 (16:34):
But I ate pizza every single day, sometimes twice a day.
And and now do you like peapa?
Speaker 3 (16:42):
Finally? No or not anymore?
Speaker 4 (16:45):
I finally got tired of eating pizza back about a
year and a half into it. So that was a
burger King next door, and I'm like, I bet they
tied eating burglars. I called Burger King, Hey, y'all tired
of eating burgers?
Speaker 1 (17:00):
Yeah?
Speaker 4 (17:00):
I like, yeah, I want to trade pizza for burger Yeah.
Speaker 3 (17:04):
I finally got tired to eat burgers.
Speaker 4 (17:07):
So there was a Kentucky Fried Chicken chicken door than them,
so I called them with the same you know, yep, yep,
And they was like yep, so I'm eating fried chicken.
But you know, it was like two or three others
in there, you know, And I was trading out taco
taco tacos for chicken. I trade out everything for pizza,
(17:28):
and uh it worked out, you know. But after my
last year of working with Dominoes, I think the only
time I ate pizza after that was when I won
the Olympia and the reason why becaulled. I love cheese,
and the first thing came to my mind that had
(17:48):
cheese on it was pizza, So I would eat Dominoes.
Speaker 3 (17:51):
Well, I need Dominoes.
Speaker 4 (17:53):
I probably had to eat Dominoes and I worked at
so I called Pizza Rate pizza right after the show,
and I wanted more cheese after that, so I went
to McDonald's and got a cheeseburger.
Speaker 3 (18:05):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (18:06):
So okay, So now you move to Arlington. You're a
police officer. Yeah, are you power are are you? Are
you powerlifting?
Speaker 3 (18:13):
Still? Nope?
Speaker 2 (18:14):
You're giving up powerlifting. I transitioned to bodybuilding. Yeah no, no,
no no. I would work out maybe maybe once or
twice a week. You know, while I was on the
h An Academy.
Speaker 4 (18:25):
In the academen, well, when I graduated and my first
day on the job, on the guys came to me.
Speaker 3 (18:35):
We were on a call together. He's like, man, where
you work out at? You pretty big?
Speaker 4 (18:37):
I'm like, I work out the station He's like, oh,
I ain't no wait there for you, And I'm like,
you right the side of this room.
Speaker 3 (18:45):
No waiting. Now He's like, well, once you come to
metro Flec Gym.
Speaker 4 (18:49):
So the next day I go to met Flec Gym
and the owner, Brian Doctor, said, man, you pretty big.
Speaker 3 (18:53):
You know. I had twenty two in charms, so I
was pretty big, and so you always you always cut up,
brocked up like that exactly all my whole life, pretty much.
Speaker 4 (19:01):
So everywhere I went, you know, I was the biggest
in the strong guy in the room and actually even
in college, high school, everywhere, you know. So when I
went to Metroflect, Brian saw that and he's like, man,
you got a pretty good physic there. You all to
take up bodybuilding. I'm like, no, dude, I can't do bodybuilding.
I just got the job police department, and I heard
(19:22):
those guys had to take steroids, and I definitely can't
die because I'm a Kentucky fried chicken burger king eating guy,
you know, and died in eight ain't exactly it's not
for me. Well that went on for about what three
four days. That fourth day, Brian finally said, I tell you,
(19:46):
I give you a free membership to the gym if
you competing this show coming out about three four months.
He's like, I teach you how to train as a bodybuilder.
I teach you how to die, I teach you how
to pose. I'm like, dude, you should have lived with
that free thing, because at the time, you know, I
was struggling playing my bills, and anything free good sounded
(20:09):
real good to me. So I'm like, yeah, I'll do
it for a free membership. So Brian taught me how
to poll dant, you know, just trained as a bodybuilder.
And my first show was Mister Taxa. That show was
April seventh, nineteen ninety. I went in, won first and overall.
Speaker 3 (20:26):
Wow. My second show, same thing.
Speaker 4 (20:28):
The next week, April fourteen, nineteen ninety I went in,
won first and overall. And that continued for about a
couple of months, you know, and then I qualified for
the Nationals. My first year in Nationals, I got third,
and it wasn't you know, you got you got to
get first place. You all to turn pro, correct, So
(20:50):
I didn't turn pro that year. The next year I
would go back to the Nationals and I get fourth.
Speaker 3 (20:57):
Damn.
Speaker 4 (20:58):
Yeah, I know I'm going backwards, same thing I said. Damn,
But if you could pass the drug test, you could
qualify for the Universe team. In the Universe, they take
five guys from each weight class and you go compete
in the Mster Universe in Catalyists, Poland. Well, the first
(21:22):
three guys couldn't pass the drug test. Matter of fact,
there were forty four guys in my class. I was
the only one who showed up to take drug test.
Of course I passed because I was drug free back then.
And I go to the Universe in Catawist, Poland, and
two o'clock in the morning they waken me up take
(21:43):
a drug test.
Speaker 3 (21:44):
I'm like, man, well, let's coming from I already took
a drug test.
Speaker 4 (21:47):
Well, when we got there, they brought everybody in a room,
a big room. It was a gymnasium actually, and they
made everybody strip down and get on the scale. From
everybody stripped down getting on this gay they picked the
only guys they thought won steroids. Of course, me being
the big, yeah, big guy out there and ripped up.
(22:10):
They showed me two o'cogan one take a drug test.
Of course you know I passed it and won my
weight class and that qualified me to turn program. Wow yep,
and I also qualifized for Miss Olympia from winning you know,
uh winning my class.
Speaker 2 (22:28):
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Speaker 2 (23:57):
The one thing that I noticed about powerlifters is that
they have very dense muscles. They're normally very from the
back when you look at their traps, their run boys,
their spinal directors, their.
Speaker 3 (24:07):
Glue, their hams, their legs.
Speaker 2 (24:09):
Because you got a squat yep, and you pull a
lot of weight that dead lift, there's nothing better for
the chain muscles than deadlan.
Speaker 3 (24:15):
Yep, yep, that's true.
Speaker 2 (24:16):
So did you know going in that the work that
you had done in high school and a little bit
after college, that that was gonna be such a big
help to you and your bodybuilding careers.
Speaker 4 (24:29):
Not at the time, I never even thought about bodybuilding
because one from nobody bodybuilding correct.
Speaker 3 (24:35):
I didn't even know what bodybuilding was about.
Speaker 4 (24:37):
When Brian told me I could win Misster Olympiu, I'm like,
what's that?
Speaker 2 (24:42):
That's the big He saw that, Ronnie, you go into
the gym, he sees that much potentially you, that you
can be through days from day one, from day one,
he told me that.
Speaker 3 (24:54):
And you all natural, all natural.
Speaker 4 (24:58):
So remember I had twenty two inches, so I still
look pretty good.
Speaker 2 (25:04):
So I remember because I remember the photo or you
had the box fade and you had to police utter pormo. Yeah,
so what year did you take that photo? That was
ninety seven? Ninety seven, Yeah, yeah, ninety seven. So you
qualified for the Olympia. But you want a couple of
pro shows. Didn't you win the Canadian Pro Show? My
(25:25):
first pro show.
Speaker 4 (25:26):
Was Canada in Toronto. I won my first show in
nineteen ninety five, right, and when we won my second
proot show Canada again nineteen ninety six, and the whole time,
you know, I'm trying my best to get to the Olympia,
(25:46):
and I got to Olympia by qualifying and winning.
Speaker 3 (25:49):
Those pro shows. Yes, my first Olympia.
Speaker 4 (25:53):
Nineteen ninety two, I didn't get a call out. I
stood up there on stage and had, you know, the
best seat in the house.
Speaker 3 (26:00):
They totally overlooked me.
Speaker 4 (26:03):
They overlooked me so bad they ain't called me for
no comparison. Nineteen ninety three, I didn't even qualify for
the Olympic because I didn't place it in the top
three in any pro show I did.
Speaker 3 (26:13):
I got like six seven somewhere down there. Nineteen ninety four.
Speaker 4 (26:18):
I finally qualified for the Miss Olympia in nineteen ninety four,
still drug free, and I go in and I do
Miss Olympia and I get fifteenth place.
Speaker 3 (26:33):
So I'm moving up. Things are getting good for me.
Speaker 4 (26:39):
Nineteen ninety six, I qualified for winning the Canada Cup.
I go in and I get eleventh places, so I'm
steady moving over soldol nineteen ninety seven, I qualified, but
I went into Canada cover again. They loved me in Canada.
They loved me and I love them. So that year,
(27:00):
you know, I kind of fall back and Shannon nineteen
ninety seven was a hard year for me, my first
shorter year. I go in Iron Man, I never did
these springs, these fall shows before, and I get third
place and the guy who beat me was a guy
(27:22):
about this tall, weighed about one hundred and ninety pounds,
soaking wet, and here I am two hundred and almost
forty pounds and he beat me. And I'm like, wait
a minute, the thing's supposed to happen, right, I said,
I can a guy that shortened and that you know,
that's small, that small beat me. You know, I'm five eleven,
(27:46):
all of I'm gonna like, I say, almost two hundred
and forty pounds. And the next week was an Ano Classic. Okay,
I go into Orno Classic and Lee Priest's beat me again.
I'm going by to call out yeah, and I look.
I get back to my room. I look at my girlfriend,
Vicki Gates. She was a pro bodybuild at the time.
Speaker 3 (28:06):
I just bump into her. She worked with Franklin on
the tour.
Speaker 4 (28:09):
Yeah yeah, yeah, yeah, saw Kelly Yeah, And I like, Vicki,
you know what, I don't need this bodybuilding thing. I
got a job with the police department with benefits and everything.
I was like, this is my last show. And she
looked at me and she's that boy shut up. And
(28:30):
I thought to myself, you know what, I can't quit
bodybuilding because if I quit bodybuilding, I lose my free
membership to the gym. All you were thinking about a
free membership, free membership to the gym, because I said,
I worked off for that free membership.
Speaker 3 (28:46):
I wasn't about to give it up.
Speaker 4 (28:49):
Well, actually I ended up beating the previous okay, so
I felt pretty good. Then I went to the all
of I mean, went went to the Olympia and uh,
the year before ninety or six, I placed seventh, but
they moved me up to six, I think because nasal
(29:13):
failed the drug test. The drug test and back then
right for diuretics. So in nineteen ninety seven, I'm like, man,
if I can just make the tough five, I'll be
all good.
Speaker 3 (29:24):
Well I got eleventh, I mean, I got nice.
Speaker 4 (29:28):
And I'm like, oh man, I already did this pity
party thing, so that.
Speaker 3 (29:32):
Ain't gonna work. I ain't gonna quit, So I continue on.
Speaker 4 (29:37):
And nineteen ninety eight comes around and I qualified Miss
Olympia again and went into Canada.
Speaker 3 (29:47):
So you tell me go back to Canada.
Speaker 4 (29:48):
I gep going back to Canada every year, so I
know I got a real good chance to win it.
I don't want to like four years in the row.
I'm like, okay, i gotta go back to Canada again.
Speaker 2 (29:58):
So not to cut you off, right, So you said
I got fifteenth place, I've got eleventh place. I've got
ninth place. I've got seventh place in the Olympia, and
I'm totally drug free.
Speaker 4 (30:08):
Well, in nineteen ninety five, Flex Wheeler was winning all
the shows he went to.
Speaker 3 (30:17):
Actually was nineteen ninety four.
Speaker 4 (30:18):
He was winning. He won on the Classics. Yep, he
was on the tour. He was winning all the shows
on the tour. And I remember when I was in college,
I was always the mortest guy in my class in
the county, and but if I wasn't this morning I
would go study with this morning guy to you know,
increase my grade.
Speaker 3 (30:37):
Okay.
Speaker 4 (30:38):
So I'm like, I'm gonna take that same valosity with
with Flex. So I went to Flex's room. It was
real kind of late that night, and I'm like, Flex,
uh man, I'm tired of getting my butt whooped all
these shows.
Speaker 3 (30:53):
And I hear you guys, are you know, taking the juice?
Speaker 4 (30:58):
You know, I had say something and he's like, yeah, man,
if you want to get up there with the big dogs,
you got to do what the big dog do.
Speaker 3 (31:06):
Okay. So I'm like, well, what do you do? Well?
Speaker 4 (31:10):
Flex named out a whole bunch of you know, steroids
drugs that they take, and he said, I got a
budget that can get everything for you.
Speaker 3 (31:20):
So I'm like okay.
Speaker 4 (31:23):
So my first time ever having anything to do with
drugs was nineteen ninety five and that's when I won
my first pro show, Canada Cup. Canada Yeah, Canada Cup,
and I'm like, okay, I guess Flex was done. Yeah.
(31:44):
So after that, I'm like, you know what, I'm tired
of getting my budet. I'm I'm just gonna do what
these guys do. But we ran into a little problem
along the way and DA came in and you know,
they like.
Speaker 3 (32:00):
Uh, well you gots doing. What are you taking? So
I'm like, well, this is pretty much what I'm doing.
Speaker 4 (32:07):
He's like, well, we're gonna have to confiscate, confiscate gad
and you know, and take everything from you.
Speaker 3 (32:13):
I'm like okay. So I went out and it.
Speaker 4 (32:18):
Had the clinics that you can go to and get
you know, there was legally right. The only thing you
had to take these blood blood work like you had
to get the blood done.
Speaker 3 (32:29):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (32:30):
So I went to one of those clinics and start
doing everything legally. But I had to, you know, take
these blood tests and everything came out pretty much normal.
Speaker 3 (32:40):
So I was okay. So I was all right.
Speaker 4 (32:43):
Now you know I could do everything legally. I ain't
got to worry about, you know, getting in trouble from
doing what I was doing. And from from from that
point on, my career just took off. In nineteen ninety eight,
when I went to the Olympia, Flex was the successor.
Everybody said Flex was gonna win because right because there
(33:04):
was a stretch there. Lee had taken over. Lee had
won eight straight. Lee retired, No, no, no, Dorian Yate, Yeah
come in sixth straight. Oh that's fourteen years. They've only
had two guys to win the O. Lee Haney, he
retires after eight. Dorian Yate ext win six. He retires.
Now Flex is the natural. Everybody's like, hey, it's all
flecks Flex showly lose, okay, And uh I wasn't nowhere
(33:30):
in there because I hadn't got ain't nowhere in the
top five, right, So it was Flex, NASA, Sean Kevin
so in the nine ed Olympia, that's what they was
calling out. And I'm like, oh man, here we go again.
And I got ninth the year before, and I'm like,
(33:52):
if I could only make the top five, man, I'll
be happy and satisfied because I'm really just doing this
for free membership to the gym.
Speaker 3 (34:01):
I ain't really thinking about winning the Olympia.
Speaker 4 (34:05):
And that never even occurred to me because I said, well,
I'm from nobody did body building. We didn't know anything
about it. Brian taught me everything I knew about body building. Well,
the only thing was Flex was winning all the shows.
And you know they were had those guys, you know,
(34:28):
picked to when you'll be the successor. Well, Flex call
me on the phone one day and like, man, who
you working with. I'm like, dude, I'm doing my own thing.
He's like, oh man, I got this guy chatted Nick
because he he could, you know, make it make it here,
even down here, and make a difference in your physique.
So I called Chad. Chad didn't call me back, so
(34:52):
I called flex again.
Speaker 3 (34:53):
I ain't flex. This guy's not calling me back. Man.
Speaker 4 (34:56):
You told me to come the guy and he was
gonna help me out. And he called me back. He's like, no,
just keep calling he'll call you back. So I called
him again. Well, this time he called me back, you know,
and I hook up with him. He changed everything I
was doing. He changed my diet. You know, I went
from eating five meals a day to eating six meals
(35:16):
a day.
Speaker 3 (35:17):
Okay.
Speaker 4 (35:18):
I went from ten ounces to twelve ounces of protein
with each meal to sixteen ounces.
Speaker 3 (35:27):
You eat a powder protein a meal.
Speaker 4 (35:28):
The pound of protein of meal. And I'm trying everything.
My powders stuffed this food and it ain't working. So
I'm like, man, he said, I gotta I gotta eat
this food to get big. So I just kept eating
and eating. My body finally adjusted to it. I was
(35:49):
finally able. It took me about three four months, wow,
for my body to adjust one hundred grams of protein
with each meal. We talked about one hundred grams of chicken, steak, turkey.
You know you eat fish back then, No, I didn't
eat fish. Uh, Chad didn't have me on fishing, and
I didn't really too much care for fishing either, because
(36:11):
I eat fish and I be.
Speaker 3 (36:13):
You had a lot of fiber in your system, boy,
you will be back.
Speaker 4 (36:16):
He had me on all kinds of fibers uplements, and
I was going to the bathroom after each minute five
times yep and uh.
Speaker 3 (36:30):
And another thing was I couldn't need five meals.
Speaker 4 (36:35):
Uh. You know, I've worked full time police department. I'm working, uh,
working out every day. I'm doing cardio. That's another thing
Chad did. He increased my cardio from one hour a
day to two hours a day. And I'm like, oh, man,
you really doing a number on me here. And you know,
(36:55):
I made it work. And you know, like I said,
I was finally able to eat that eat. There was
one hundred grams of protein. The only thing was I
couldn't get the six meals in. So Chad was like, well,
you need to eat this food if you want to
get big, she said, try and waking up in the
(37:17):
middle of the night, eating me and going back to bed.
So that's what I did. I went to bed every
night about four o'clock and I will wake up.
Speaker 2 (37:24):
Four o'clock afternoon, No, no, four o'clock in the morning
because you work in the police.
Speaker 3 (37:28):
Yeah, I'm working proment.
Speaker 4 (37:31):
So I would get up at seven, eat a meal,
go back to bed at eight, a whole hour. Well,
it worked out pretty good, and they caught on and
I was able to do an hour in the morning
on on treadmill I had right by my bed. You know,
(37:52):
I get out of bed, jump right on the treadmill.
Was it fast the cardio? Yeah, fast cardio. So I
did that and when I finished that, I would eat
my first meal, go to the gym. I got there
about twelve thirty, almost one. I only worked out an
hour each day, one hour maybe hour fifteen minutes at
(38:14):
the motor. I would get home about two fifteen somewhere there.
I would get take a shower, get dressed, go to work.
I had to be there at three. I got there
at three, and I would eat my next meal at
three and we get a forty five minute lunch break.
So I'd eat my next meal at that lunch break,
(38:37):
and I got off at eleven o'clock every night. So
I would come home, eat another meal, take a shower
and everything, and sit around do some me meal and
I would eat my last meal, which was a protein
shape I just just drank one hundred grand protein and
(38:57):
I'd go to bed, like I said, around about four o'clock.
Speaker 3 (38:59):
And that was the whole day. And that was that
was my camp. You know.
Speaker 4 (39:04):
I didn't go no strip clubs. I didn't go out
to no clubs.
Speaker 3 (39:08):
I didn't go. You ain't had no time. I had
no time there you go.
Speaker 4 (39:13):
But come to find out, Flex told me, man I
went to the strip club every day when I got
my workout.
Speaker 3 (39:20):
They had already told me I was gonna win in Olympia.
What you did? What?
Speaker 4 (39:25):
It's like, yeah, yeah, guess what I did. I'm like, dude,
I didn't go to no strip club. I didn't go nowhere.
You know, it was job worked a gym back home.
So basically you're eating around, you're eating. You're eating like
every three hours, every two and a half hours.
Speaker 3 (39:44):
Exactly every three hours. I'm eating a meal every three hours.
You're eating a meal. Yep.
Speaker 4 (39:47):
And it's working out pretty good if the thing's going
according to plan. And so nineteen ninety eight Olympica rolls around,
everybody's saying Flex go in, you know, and we get
to show. They calling out the Flex NASA Kevin Sean
I'm like, oh man.
Speaker 3 (40:06):
Here we go again.
Speaker 4 (40:08):
All I want to do is make the top five
and I'll be okay. Well, somewhere along the line they
started calling me out. Okay, I'm like, okay, thanks, looking up,
I might have a chance to make the top five.
Speaker 3 (40:23):
Well.
Speaker 4 (40:23):
I can remember, like it was yesterday. I'm like, you know,
they could be standing there, all six of us on stage,
and I'm like, you know, I don't want to be
called six. I mean, I don't like God, please don't
let me because six. They called out sixth places and
it wasn't mean. And I'm like, thank you, geesu. And
(40:45):
I'm like, okay, I got fifth. You know, I've accomplished
my dream, did what I always wanted to do, make
the top five. Fifth place call it wasn't me. I'm like,
wait a minute now, oh something one on here, fourth
place called wasn't me. I'm like, oh man, every time
it came time for a name to be called, I'm
(41:07):
expecting to hear my name all the way up to.
Speaker 3 (41:12):
Me and Flex standing on stage.
Speaker 4 (41:14):
I remember like yesterday, and uh, I knew in my
heart that I was gonna get second place because they
already said Flex was gonna win. So I'm thinking the
whole time, they're gonna call flex name for first. And
I can remember, like yesterday they called our flex name
(41:35):
for a second, and I'm like, they called.
Speaker 3 (41:37):
Me out for first. I'm like, oh man, they made
a mistake.
Speaker 4 (41:41):
And I'm like, wait a minute, no, they wouldn't make
mistake that big and that I hit the floor yep,
and I was out pretty much out cold. I fainted
just like that. And uh. The only thing I remember
was Vicky coming on stage and helping me get off
off that floor.
Speaker 3 (42:02):
And I didn't know. I didn't know what had happened.
Speaker 4 (42:05):
I didn't know I was down on the floor that
long until I watched this tape. Flex came over and
said something to me. Chris came over and said something
to me. I don't I ain't heard it. I don't
remember none of that. I don't remember none of that.
And when I got up, I'm like, oh man, I
don't know. I don't want the Olympia other this is
the best thing that ever happened in my life. I
(42:27):
never in a million years thought I went in Olympia.
I never even dreamed the wind in the Olympia because
I didn't think it was possible.
Speaker 2 (42:34):
But Ronnie, as you're prepping for the show, like you said, okay,
we know Dorian retired. Yeah boom, okay, flex great cemetery,
those round belly muscles, everything. Please when you look at
the sand down statue, that's flex, seem like it fle
see like flex wheeler.
Speaker 3 (42:50):
And so how'd your prep are?
Speaker 2 (42:51):
You looking at yourself every couple of weeks like you
look like a damn I'm getting a little bigger, I'm
getting a little leaner, as big as I am, as
lean as I am, because you all, he's gonna be
the bigger man on stage. Basical only guy during that
time that could challenge you for size.
Speaker 3 (43:05):
Was natal and natural exactly.
Speaker 2 (43:06):
He was the only one. Everybody else was gonna have
to beat you with lines. He conditioned it because when
it came to size, nobody could touch you.
Speaker 3 (43:14):
Nobody had that.
Speaker 2 (43:15):
But you had to be looking at yourself like, well, okay,
you start to see the Christmas tree start to come in,
You start to see the last when you do the
real last.
Speaker 3 (43:24):
Yes, everything was coming in.
Speaker 4 (43:26):
The only thing was I was working with Chad Nicholas
and the night before the show he had me eat
so many cars. I mean I was eating a thousand
metograms for cars a day and that you're carving up.
Speaker 3 (43:40):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (43:40):
And he started that like on Wednesday or Thursday, I
forget whatever the day it was. And I was stuffing
myself with food and I felt pretty good, you know,
because when I was prepping for the contest, I could
only eat one hundred in twenty five one hundred and
(44:02):
fifty rams of carbs a day a day, and that's
like two meals three at the most. And when he
put me on those thousands, man, I felt like I
was in heaven, right. I mean, it was the greatest
feeling ever. Thousand milligrams were carved every single day. And
by the time I got the Friday, I was so stuffed.
(44:25):
I was so full. I lost my conditioning. I'm like,
oh man, I'm messed up again. I rule my chance
to make the top five and everything. So I'm like
call Chad, like, Chad, Man, I done messed up.
Speaker 3 (44:42):
Man.
Speaker 4 (44:42):
The bigger mistake stake ever. He's I like, all my
conditioning has gone gone. He's like, man, don't worry about that.
Speaker 3 (44:51):
I got you.
Speaker 4 (44:53):
So he come out of the room, give me some
kind of powder and put some water in and drink that. Okay, well, okay, man,
I'm gonna stay up all night going to the bathroom.
I woke up the next morning. I'm so nervous. I
ain't looking at a mirror. I don't even see myself.
(45:17):
And every time I got close to a mirror, I
would look away. I'm in backstage. I'm like, I don't
want to see how I look, because I know I
look pretty bad after seeing myself last night. So I
avoided all mirrors that whole entire morning, the whole entire day. Actually,
I didn't know how I looked intil the pictures came
(45:37):
out in the magazine.
Speaker 3 (45:39):
Wow. Yeah, back then we didn't have camera phone. Oh,
you didn't have cameraphone.
Speaker 2 (45:43):
But Ronnie, you know being backstage, and I've been backstage
and seeing you guys at the Olympia and the arnol
uh and and but guys know like, damn.
Speaker 3 (45:54):
Good, you see I'm big and bull running. Look man,
you see Dacer So well, they're not whispered going on
because I didn't hear anything.
Speaker 4 (46:03):
I was so you know, focused on me and trying
to make the top five. That I mean when Joe
Wheeler even came back there. He never said anything to me.
He's like, man, I need you on my team. And
he's like, I can get you guest hoods all around
the world. All got to do is drain my team.
I'm like, you want me on your team?
Speaker 3 (46:24):
Like, ain't Joe. I'm look pretty good? Like heah, you
look real good.
Speaker 4 (46:29):
I'm like, yeah, whatever, just just just gassing me up.
Speaker 3 (46:33):
He ain't really serious about that.
Speaker 1 (46:36):
Uh.
Speaker 3 (46:36):
Come to find out, he was serious about it, and Uh,
I still didn't get it.
Speaker 4 (46:43):
I still didn't know how good I looked because I
avoided every mirror that I came by sold. Like I said,
when they called me for first I lost it. I
mean I was in complete shock.
Speaker 2 (46:56):
Other than working with Chad, he changing your diet, everything,
I was doing your weight, your weight.
Speaker 3 (47:01):
Scheme, the sets that you did.
Speaker 2 (47:04):
Uh. Back then, there was no such thing as time
but attention. It seemed to be the way to go.
Now that you bring the rate down, it's a three
three tempo down, whole three tempo up running.
Speaker 3 (47:15):
You lifted weights.
Speaker 2 (47:16):
But I noticed when I look at your physique back then,
and I look at the guys now, they don't seem
as grainy you.
Speaker 3 (47:23):
Used a lot of bar bell. You wasn't a whole
You wasn't a machine guy. You did that bitch.
Speaker 2 (47:27):
You did heavy dumb bells. You did show the press exactly,
did t bar you did bar bell roll, you did
iron iron. Everything was pretty much free weight, Yes, yes,
I didn't.
Speaker 4 (47:38):
I probably did maybe one or two machines, right, And
uh everything was heavy, yes, yes.
Speaker 2 (47:44):
Yes, But even even like the last couple of weeks,
when guys are normally tapering off as far as weight,
you were still lifting because I think you were probably
like a month out when you squad eight.
Speaker 3 (47:55):
Hundred a dead lift.
Speaker 4 (47:56):
Now I was a month's out when I dead lifted
at eight hundred, right, But when I squatted it, I
was probably three months.
Speaker 3 (48:04):
But I was I was.
Speaker 4 (48:05):
I was a whole lot heavier too, right, So that
that's why I did eight hundred was so light to me,
I was full of cars. I wasn't diying, right, and
uh it was super light. I mean I couldn't believe
how light it was.
Speaker 2 (48:21):
So you win that Olympia in ninety eight, you gotta
be on top of the world. You're like, man, is
it everything that you thought it would be? If you
were it could be because you didn't even vision yourself
winning it.
Speaker 3 (48:32):
Exactly.
Speaker 2 (48:32):
You win that when you get back to your room
and you order that piece of honey and you and
Vicky talk what's going through your mind?
Speaker 4 (48:40):
Righting, I'm I'm still in short, I still can't believe
I won. It still hadn't hit me yet. But you know,
I'm I'm so overjoyed. I'm like in another world pretty much,
because I can't believe I just won the Miss Olympia,
the biggest body building test in the world, something that I, like,
(49:03):
I said, I didn't even dream of it.
Speaker 3 (49:05):
I never even thought I had a chance.
Speaker 4 (49:08):
But I put in the work. You know how disciplined
football players are got to be. And I stuck to
my routine. I never ever cheated on my diet. I
didn't go out and party. I didn't do anything but
work on my body and and uh went to work
every day.
Speaker 3 (49:27):
That was all I did.
Speaker 4 (49:30):
And uh that happened every single contest. You know, I'm
always gonna you know how we are, We always gonna
challenge ourselves.
Speaker 3 (49:38):
Yeah, yeah, to be the best.
Speaker 4 (49:41):
You know, even though we are not the best, We're
gonna challenge ourselves to be the bed and Like I said,
I had so much passion for it. It was the
easiest thing in the world for me to go to
the gym each and every single day. And then I
fell in love with working for the police department also,
so I had two things that I look forward to
(50:04):
doing each and every single day. Going to the gym
and going to work. I mean, I love working for
the police department. It was so much fun and it
gave me a chance to escape being a bodybuilding right.
You know, when I'm at work, I'm just Ronnie Coleman,
police officer, not Ronnie Coleman the bodybuilding. And that's all
(50:26):
I'm thinking about because people like that trying to kill you. Yeah,
so I'm thinking about, you know, making all my life. Yeah,
I'm thinking about making it home each and every single night.
But at the same time, I'm enjoying what I'm doing.
I'm loving what I'm doing because every single day it
was something different. It was never the same day every
(50:47):
single day, and that's what I look forward to, doing
something different every single day. And I had so much
passion for work for the police Department. I would do
it for freedom and then actuality. That's what happened in
two thousand and one when they told me I could
(51:07):
no longer work for the police department. Why you can
work for because I was taking off too much. I
would take off for like three months for the Olympia.
Every show I would do, I would take about almost
maybe two months to a month sometimes, but the regular
SHO show, there wasn't that much time.
Speaker 3 (51:27):
The runner.
Speaker 2 (51:28):
You wouldn't really do it for one show. I can
only recall you do it maybe a handful of times.
You did two shows of the Cason, you did the
arland O one, which and you did the r did
you did the it O one. But for the most part,
you didn't do it for one show. One show every year.
Speaker 4 (51:41):
But you know that one show was the most important thing,
for sure in the world to me.
Speaker 3 (51:48):
And I also did the European two after Yeah, you
did it too.
Speaker 4 (51:50):
Yeah, every every single year, so miss Olympia and then
the tour. And on the tour we had like sometimes
seven shows, right, and I would do seven shows in
eleven days, And you know that's a grind.
Speaker 2 (52:06):
It is, I mean, because traveling you go to hole
water exactly as hard as.
Speaker 4 (52:13):
I remember this one show. There's one tour I was
doing everything in my power to get rid of water.
No matter what I did, it wouldn't come off. I'm
getting fifth place, sixth place. Everybody's beating me, and Kevin
is winning every show. So I'm like, man, I usually
(52:36):
winning all these shows. I used to keep it this conditioning.
So I put a flexwet on him. I went by
his room like it was almost midnight. When I got there,
he had his room. He was still up.
Speaker 3 (52:50):
I'm like, man, what are you doing to win all
these shows? Now? You keeping your conditioning.
Speaker 4 (52:54):
He goes over to his coffee maker, pulled out his
coffin maker, pulled me up a cup of coffee, and
then he pulled out a bottle of vodka and poured
that in the coffee.
Speaker 3 (53:06):
I'm like, what dad, they gonna do with that? He's
like here go. I'm like, dude, I don't drink no vodka.
Speaker 4 (53:12):
Man, I can do the coff bus nothing, not the vodka.
He's like, you wanted to know what I was doing.
This is what I'm doing to win the show. I'm
like okay and say, okay, I drank that coffor. I
was like, man, stain't too bad. Give me another cup,
(53:38):
but you all night though, I'm up peing all night again,
and I go to the show the next day, and man,
I win. I beat Kevin in nineth This was in
nineteen ninety seven, so that's a pretty big deal for me.
I never in my life be killing my whole time.
Kevin won the ninety one men National. That's when he
turned pro as right, and he got second in the
(54:00):
Olympia the next year.
Speaker 3 (54:03):
So I'm thinking, hey, you know.
Speaker 4 (54:05):
Things looking up for me. I got a chance to
do something in this word now. So I put that
all behind me and I never did that coffee and
vodka think again.
Speaker 3 (54:17):
Plus I hooked up with Chad. He had some better
than that. He had some kind of powder.
Speaker 4 (54:22):
He would pull it and he put it in the
glass and put some water in it.
Speaker 3 (54:26):
Drink did I'm like okay, And it.
Speaker 4 (54:29):
Would help me going to the bathroom for like two
hours straight every twenty minutes, just dropping all his water.
Speaker 3 (54:38):
And it worked pretty good.
Speaker 2 (54:40):
But don't you worry about Ronnie when you when you
do that or flattening out, because a lot of times
the water was in the muscle. It gives you that
full look and sometimes you could flatten. Now, you see, guys,
so good the day before the show and then get
on the show like, bro, what did you do?
Speaker 4 (54:57):
That's why I was eating a thousand milligrams RBS every
single day so I wouldn't flat now and I never
did them.
Speaker 3 (55:06):
Car orbs really did a number on me. Did the trick.
Speaker 2 (55:10):
Because it's onto something because you cut your water yep,
and now you put the car there to pull the
water that to put the muscle the water back into
the monks exactly, and uh we it's like a science project,
really is.
Speaker 3 (55:24):
And another kick I ain't never told nobody it is.
Speaker 4 (55:28):
We We would use insulin to uh make it go faster,
and some would push it in the muscle real quick,
real fast. Well you know if you try it without it,
it wouldn't work.
Speaker 3 (55:44):
Its good and all of that. It worked to a tea.
I know.
Speaker 4 (55:48):
I was I was big on stage. I was ripped,
I was full, you know, and that's how I beat
those guys.
Speaker 3 (55:56):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (55:58):
So I'm trying to figure out, Okay, so what was
your rep in set scheme?
Speaker 3 (56:02):
Yep?
Speaker 4 (56:03):
He had me doing like twenty reps you know to
start out weight.
Speaker 3 (56:08):
No no, no, no, this is a one.
Speaker 2 (56:10):
Up okay, And I'm peering Medden up every every since.
So I was started out at like one, one thirty
five on the bench, twenty reps. Put another plate on there,
fifteen reps, put another plate on.
Speaker 4 (56:23):
There, like twelve, twelve reps. And my last ridge, would
you know with another plate would be ten reps. None
under ten, yeah, none under ten. And if you watch
me work out, I'm never locking out. No, And the
reason for that is I'm trying to keep the tension
on the muscles the whole time. And when you lock out,
(56:46):
you hurt your joints. You get a lot of joint pain.
And I stayed as far away from that as possible.
And people thought I was doing half reps. I'm like, no,
I ain't doing no rep. I'm doing a.
Speaker 2 (57:01):
Full rep on the muscle right, I ain't using my
joints at all, And I never had any joint problem
even to this day, I'm still doing twenty reps with everything.
This concludes the first half of my conversation. Part two
is also posted and you can access it to whichever
podcast platform you just listen to part one on. Just
(57:23):
simply go back to Club Shashay profile and I'll see
you there.
All my Life, Grinding All my Life, Sacrifights Hrussele pet
Bryson won a slice Doctor bron Geist, Schwat All my Life,
iop Be Grinding all my Life, All my Life, Grinding
all my life, Sacrifights, Hustle Petti Bryson won slice Doctor
bron Geist, Swat All my Life, Poppy Grinding All my Life.
Speaker 2 (00:25):
Hello, Welcome to another episode of Club Shay Shape. I
am your host, Shennon Sharp. I'm also the propriud of
Club Sha Shade. The guy that's stopping by for conversation
and a drink today.
Speaker 1 (00:34):
Man.
Speaker 2 (00:35):
He's a legend, the most successful and strongest bodybuilder of
all time. He won twenty six IBIFBB professional titles. He
won the Mister Olympia eight times in a row. Richard's
a retired Lee Haines record for the most Olympia victories.
He's the first man to win the Arnold Classic and
the Olympia title in the same season.
Speaker 3 (00:53):
I happen to be at that two thousand and one
Arnold Classic.
Speaker 2 (00:56):
He's considered by many to be the greatest bodybuilder of
all time, A considered his his He's a member of
the International Sports Hall of Fame, he received the honor
Classic Lifetime Achievement Award and inspiration to many walk in
the world lightweight Baby yeah, buddy, the King, the icon.
Speaker 3 (01:13):
Here he is Ronnie Coleman, Roddy, how you doing man.
Speaker 2 (01:18):
As man in a little while, Bro, we go back
a long way because I remember when you came back
in the late nineties. Used to come back to rope
who used to train me? Rope Man guest pose at
it as it shows. So we come you. You've come
a long way. I've come a long way, Bro, I
got my own Kanye. This is my Kanye shaved by Laportier.
Speaker 3 (01:39):
Oh cool.
Speaker 2 (01:40):
And I want to toast your career the most unbelievable
professional bodybuilding career ever.
Speaker 3 (01:45):
Thank you. That's a little bro. Growing up you're from Louisiana.
Speaker 2 (01:48):
Yep, Barney raised the Louisiana So growing up, obviously you work.
You probably worked on a farm or farml like labor.
Speaker 3 (01:56):
Yes, sure, I sure did. Shopping that okay. So what
did Runne Coban want to be when he was a kid.
Speaker 4 (02:03):
I wanted to be a professional football player, okay, yeah,
and I played high school, junior high college, didn't make
it to the pros.
Speaker 2 (02:14):
So you grow up, so you played also, you play football,
you played basketball, You just mainly played football.
Speaker 4 (02:18):
I mainly played football. I didn't play basketball. I did
a little track also, but football was my thing.
Speaker 3 (02:24):
Right, Okay, so you go to so you went to Grambling. Yeah,
GSU played.
Speaker 2 (02:28):
For the legendary coach rob Eddie Robinson. What was that experience?
Speaker 3 (02:32):
Like? Man, it was a lot of fun.
Speaker 4 (02:34):
I mean, we had the greatest time of all had
the greatest coach of all time, Edi robb and we
lived the jayas fun life. And it was real hectic
on the road because everybody was trying to get coach
rob especially when he broke that record.
Speaker 3 (02:54):
Correct.
Speaker 4 (02:55):
But it was probably the greatest time of my life,
greatest experience of my life, for sure. I often want
to go back to those days, but you know how
that is. But that was the greatest time of my
life by far.
Speaker 3 (03:14):
So you you.
Speaker 2 (03:15):
Mentioned like growing up you wanted to play professional football.
You got a college scholarship to go GSU. But I
heard you injured your neck. Was that probably the main
reason why you didn't make it?
Speaker 3 (03:24):
Or was it ability? Well?
Speaker 4 (03:27):
I had a lot of injuries, but first of all,
I didn't I didn't go on scholarship. I walked on,
walked on, yeah, and tried out and then made the team.
But I initially I hurt my back real bad, real bad.
It started probably when I was like a sophomore. I
went to the chiropractor, went to the bunch of doctors.
Nobody could find out anything wrong. But the chiropractor said, uh,
(03:51):
you know, I can help you get it back to
normal where you be, you know, function real good.
Speaker 3 (04:00):
And he did.
Speaker 4 (04:02):
And I went to him probably about every single day
for about four or five months, and then I backed
off and and started going.
Speaker 3 (04:13):
Like twice a week.
Speaker 4 (04:15):
But uh, finally I got it back to where I
could function real good. And it wasn't no big problem.
I injured my neck well one day in practice, but
it wasn't It wasn't nothing serious, nothing like yeah, yeah
making the tackle.
Speaker 3 (04:30):
Uh.
Speaker 4 (04:31):
It did keep me out for about two days of practice,
but you know that that was about it.
Speaker 3 (04:36):
Uh.
Speaker 4 (04:38):
For for the most part, A lot of people think,
you know, lifting the weights is what Uh I injured
my back, but it was actually playing football, uh, my
sophomore year. And those injuries they follow you throughout your life.
I mean it it never went away, and uh, when
I got here in Dallas, I picked up a compact
(05:00):
once again, and uh, it would be time.
Speaker 3 (05:03):
That I had to go like every day for a while.
Speaker 4 (05:06):
And then in ninety six I did Injure honeyid the
dish getting ready for the Honor classes kept me out
for about two weeks, but I went to the chiropracticy.
That's when I got into massagic therapy also, and that
helped me out a lot. But I still was able
to do the Honor Classic, and that was in March.
(05:27):
It was always in March, and I got it back
to where I could squat real heavy and dead lift
real heavy. In two thousand and one, I there lifted
about eight hundred for a couple of reps, and three
I squatted at eight hundred for a couple of reps,
So I was pretty I got it.
Speaker 3 (05:47):
Pretty much back to normal use around that time.
Speaker 2 (05:52):
Do you think about what could have been had you
not had those injuries?
Speaker 3 (05:55):
Like, could you believe you could have.
Speaker 2 (05:57):
Squatted excess of nine hundred one thousand pounds, had left
maybe nine hundred one thousand pounds.
Speaker 3 (06:02):
Have those thoughts ever gone through your mind?
Speaker 2 (06:04):
Like, Man, if I'd never had these injuries, I only
imagine just how strong I could have been.
Speaker 3 (06:09):
Yeah, every single day.
Speaker 4 (06:12):
I still regret not deadlifted that eight hundred more than
two reps, because at the time I knew I had
already deadlifted it anyway, But squatting it, I was like,
if I can only just get two reps I got
did on dead mail, I'll be set right. But I
got to it, and uh, those two reps were a
(06:33):
lot lighter than I thought, And I was like, man,
I could have did it at least four more reps
with that eight hundred.
Speaker 3 (06:43):
It was just that light.
Speaker 4 (06:44):
So all so I'm like, I'm not gonna tempt fade again.
I'm getting ready for the Olympia. I don't want to
blow out another dish, correct, So I like, I know.
Speaker 3 (06:53):
What I do.
Speaker 4 (06:53):
I'll just load up the leg press and try to
make up for it. So we went to the leg press.
I litted up with twenty three hundred pounds.
Speaker 3 (07:03):
Well, you couldn't put it the more weight on it, right,
It couldn't put them are weight on it. That's what
I mean when I say we loaded it up, y'all
abould have had every.
Speaker 4 (07:11):
Forty five that was in the jail, had it on
the left pretty much, but Brian keeps quite a few
of those laying around. But I did do that for
nine reps and saw the made up for it. But
you know, it ain't eight it ain't eightred, it ain't
eight hundred on the squad.
Speaker 2 (07:28):
But you were power You also were a power You
started out as a powerlift.
Speaker 3 (07:32):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (07:32):
I started powerlifting in high school and we would go
from state to state doing powerlifting meets and I did okay,
nothing spectacular. I did that for like two years, and
then our powerlifting team kind of folded. So I did
it like my sophomore year, my junior year, and like
I said, I did pretty good. When I came out
(07:54):
to Dallas, I ended some more like it wasn't a
full uh, I would lifted me. It was something like
a deadlift meet. And I did a lot of old
in which I dead lifted probably like seven fifty but
the highest I got.
Speaker 2 (08:10):
But uh, class, you're in two twenties. What weight class
were you in the two twenties?
Speaker 3 (08:18):
What? Yeah? In high school?
Speaker 4 (08:20):
Yeah, and then I went to one ninety eight and
I think my senior year I weighed one eighty five.
In high school, I didn't get to the two hundred
til I.
Speaker 3 (08:30):
Got to college. And got to college.
Speaker 4 (08:31):
Oh yeah, I think I went all the way up
to like two twenty five somewhere in there, playing middle linebacker.
Speaker 2 (08:36):
Right, So were you Did you lift a lot in college?
I mean, what was your weight program?
Speaker 3 (08:41):
Like? In college?
Speaker 4 (08:43):
We didn't have one. We didn't have one. No, none existed.
If you want to lift weight. They had a small
weight room by the side of this room here that
you you go if if you got up at like
six in the morning, they keep it over from six
to seven for one hour. But it was volunteering, right,
(09:03):
But as far as mandated or required weight training, none
at all.
Speaker 3 (09:12):
Was weightlifted always one of your passions?
Speaker 4 (09:14):
Oh yeah, yeah it My passion started with that when
I was about twelve years old. When I was around
ten eleven, everywhere I went people always asked me if
I worked down, if I worked down, and I'm like no, no, no.
Speaker 3 (09:29):
Well I finally got tired of saying no.
Speaker 4 (09:32):
I like I'm gonna say yeah, you know, right, So
I picked up I had my mom buy me one
hundred and ten pound wastset from Walmart, and I started
working out in the backyard, you know, and the plastic
was plastic went, yeah, you know what it was, and
right around twelve, you know, I kind of fell in
love with it and it just took off from there.
Speaker 3 (09:55):
You know.
Speaker 4 (09:56):
Like I said, I joined the power Distant team like
in I think I think I was fourteen when we
started that powerlifting team, So that was like a couple
of years later, and that's when I really got into it, right.
But I got that passion from early age. You know,
lifting in my backyard with my friends. Uh, we all
(10:17):
had mostly curl stuff. You know, we're just curled and
do some overhead pressings, but nothing serious, you know, just
having fun. And uh, that's where my passion came from
lifting in the backyard.
Speaker 2 (10:33):
And now all of a sudden, you can start to
see your body start to transform, and you start to
see you get muscle definition, you start to get peaks
on the bicep yep, and now all of a sudden
you're like, okay, yeah, this looks good.
Speaker 3 (10:45):
You were from that point on, You was hooked from
that point on.
Speaker 2 (10:48):
Yeah, you were talking, we were talking early off set
that you had some odd jobs. I think you said
in college when you once you got to college, you
started you was delivering pizzas or something with that college
and when we got here.
Speaker 4 (11:00):
Not yet, that was in Dallas. But in college I
had some odd jobs too.
Speaker 3 (11:04):
What do you do in college? I worked for the
police department in college. Uh huh yeah.
Speaker 4 (11:09):
In college it was called a work study. Okay, okay, yeah,
yeah yeah. Instead of the pail grade, you got to
work study had to go. Yeah yeah, I got pailgram,
but they didn't pay the full full tuition, so I
had to do work study. So I did the police
department and uh, all we did was just wrote tickets,
parking tickets. We did uh like transfer to the bank,
(11:32):
you know, helped uh citizens drop the money off.
Speaker 3 (11:37):
And that was about it.
Speaker 4 (11:39):
Then when that work study ran out the next year,
I got on at the journalism department doing uh writing,
sports writing, and uh I had a lot of fun
with that.
Speaker 3 (11:52):
I was a pretty good writer at the time.
Speaker 4 (11:54):
And then uh, when the sports editor left, they promoted
me to sports editor. And that was a real real
hard job because we had to put the newspaper together correct,
So you had to measure out everything, measure out your
and and all that. But I never really cut on.
But you know, my instructor, she mostly helped me out
(12:16):
with that a lot. But I did all the editing,
you know, all the stories that came in, and uh,
it was it was another great experience for me.
Speaker 2 (12:26):
So you go to college, you're going to you graduate.
I think you graduated cum.
Speaker 4 (12:29):
Laude yep instead of thank you loudy.
Speaker 3 (12:40):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (12:40):
Yeah, I was pretty pretty studious when I was going
to school. I studied every single night. I was in accounting,
so I had to study alo and and I wanted
to be the first one in my family to get
a college degree. So that motivated me really hard to
do everything thing in my power to get that degree.
(13:03):
And when I got it, it was the greatest feeling ever,
you know. But uh, I kind of regret not staying
in college a little while longer because, like I said,
it was the greatest time. It was the greatest time
of my life.
Speaker 2 (13:20):
Then that's okay, So now you realize, like, you know what,
this NFL thing might not work out.
Speaker 3 (13:26):
When did you transfer? What did you want? When you
got to college? You got a degree, it's in a county.
Speaker 2 (13:30):
Yeah, I don't know if you ever put that degree
to work, because you came to Dallas and you started
to became a police officer and the rest is kind
of go out there.
Speaker 4 (13:40):
Actually, I came to Dallas and uh. I tried to
get a job in accounting. I went on a lot
of interviews and most of the time they were like, well,
we need somebody with experience.
Speaker 3 (13:52):
I'm like, well, you give me a job and I
get some How did I go get it when you
will give an opportunity back there? So I did that
for almost two years. Wow.
Speaker 4 (14:04):
But at the same time, I had a car note
that I had to pay. So I had got a car.
On this college program, you could buy a car and
your first car note wasn't due to three months later.
Speaker 3 (14:18):
Wow.
Speaker 4 (14:18):
So I went out and bought this car, brand new
nineteen eighty seven some bird GT and my first payment
was coming up, and I'm like, oh, man, I ain't
got I got no money.
Speaker 3 (14:33):
I need to get a job. I need to get a.
Speaker 4 (14:35):
Job real bad. So I took the first thing that
came along. And the first thing that came along was
Domino's Pizza.
Speaker 3 (14:42):
So you a pizza, You're a delivery driver.
Speaker 4 (14:44):
I'm a delivery driver slash assistant manager. So I made
pizzas and delivered them and at the end of the night,
I you know, collected all the money and counted and
took it to the bank and all that kind of stuff.
But I did that for two long years, and when
I didn't make enough money doing that, I got made
(15:05):
a side job delivering newspapers.
Speaker 3 (15:09):
Okay, So here I am with a.
Speaker 4 (15:11):
College degree, great accounty in a county, graduated koolaudy, and
I'm delivering pieces and throwing newspapers. And I couldn't wait
to get out of Domino's Pizza.
Speaker 2 (15:25):
Right.
Speaker 4 (15:26):
So I'm like, you know what, this thing with the
accountant is not working out. So every time every week
I got the newspaper, there was always a classified ad
and now for a hiring police officer, no experience needed.
So I'm like, oh, man, get on a police department.
(15:47):
You know I can use my mental ability as well
as my physical ability.
Speaker 3 (15:52):
Right.
Speaker 4 (15:52):
I always got some bad crooks out there, uh, trying
to start some trouble.
Speaker 3 (15:56):
So uh, that's what I did.
Speaker 4 (15:57):
I applied for the police department after two years working
at Domino, and Arlington hired me in March nineteen eighty nine.
March twenty, nineteen eighty nine was my first day, and
at the time I was living in Irving, and when
I graduated the academy, I moved to Arlington and I've
(16:18):
been here ever since.
Speaker 2 (16:20):
Delivering pizzas. Did you deliver more than you ate? Or
you ate more than you delivered? I eat way more
than I delivered. You've been an uber driver. You got
a terrible grade. It's been awful.
Speaker 4 (16:34):
But I ate pizza every single day, sometimes twice a day.
And and now do you like peapa?
Speaker 3 (16:42):
Finally? No or not anymore?
Speaker 4 (16:45):
I finally got tired of eating pizza back about a
year and a half into it. So that was a
burger King next door, and I'm like, I bet they
tied eating burglars. I called Burger King, Hey, y'all tired
of eating burgers?
Speaker 1 (17:00):
Yeah?
Speaker 4 (17:00):
I like, yeah, I want to trade pizza for burger Yeah.
Speaker 3 (17:04):
I finally got tired to eat burgers.
Speaker 4 (17:07):
So there was a Kentucky Fried Chicken chicken door than them,
so I called them with the same you know, yep, yep,
And they was like yep, so I'm eating fried chicken.
But you know, it was like two or three others
in there, you know, And I was trading out taco
taco tacos for chicken. I trade out everything for pizza,
(17:28):
and uh it worked out, you know. But after my
last year of working with Dominoes, I think the only
time I ate pizza after that was when I won
the Olympia and the reason why becaulled. I love cheese,
and the first thing came to my mind that had
(17:48):
cheese on it was pizza, So I would eat Dominoes.
Speaker 3 (17:51):
Well, I need Dominoes.
Speaker 4 (17:53):
I probably had to eat Dominoes and I worked at
so I called Pizza Rate pizza right after the show,
and I wanted more cheese after that, so I went
to McDonald's and got a cheeseburger.
Speaker 3 (18:05):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (18:06):
So okay, So now you move to Arlington. You're a
police officer. Yeah, are you power are are you? Are
you powerlifting?
Speaker 3 (18:13):
Still? Nope?
Speaker 2 (18:14):
You're giving up powerlifting. I transitioned to bodybuilding. Yeah no, no,
no no. I would work out maybe maybe once or
twice a week. You know, while I was on the
h An Academy.
Speaker 4 (18:25):
In the academen, well, when I graduated and my first
day on the job, on the guys came to me.
Speaker 3 (18:35):
We were on a call together. He's like, man, where
you work out at? You pretty big?
Speaker 4 (18:37):
I'm like, I work out the station He's like, oh,
I ain't no wait there for you, And I'm like,
you right the side of this room.
Speaker 3 (18:45):
No waiting. Now He's like, well, once you come to
metro Flec Gym.
Speaker 4 (18:49):
So the next day I go to met Flec Gym
and the owner, Brian Doctor, said, man, you pretty big.
Speaker 3 (18:53):
You know. I had twenty two in charms, so I
was pretty big, and so you always you always cut up,
brocked up like that exactly all my whole life, pretty much.
Speaker 4 (19:01):
So everywhere I went, you know, I was the biggest
in the strong guy in the room and actually even
in college, high school, everywhere, you know. So when I
went to Metroflect, Brian saw that and he's like, man,
you got a pretty good physic there. You all to
take up bodybuilding. I'm like, no, dude, I can't do bodybuilding.
I just got the job police department, and I heard
(19:22):
those guys had to take steroids, and I definitely can't
die because I'm a Kentucky fried chicken burger king eating guy,
you know, and died in eight ain't exactly it's not
for me. Well that went on for about what three
four days. That fourth day, Brian finally said, I tell you,
(19:46):
I give you a free membership to the gym if
you competing this show coming out about three four months.
He's like, I teach you how to train as a bodybuilder.
I teach you how to die, I teach you how
to pose. I'm like, dude, you should have lived with
that free thing, because at the time, you know, I
was struggling playing my bills, and anything free good sounded
(20:09):
real good to me. So I'm like, yeah, I'll do
it for a free membership. So Brian taught me how
to poll dant, you know, just trained as a bodybuilder.
And my first show was Mister Taxa. That show was
April seventh, nineteen ninety. I went in, won first and overall.
Speaker 3 (20:26):
Wow. My second show, same thing.
Speaker 4 (20:28):
The next week, April fourteen, nineteen ninety I went in,
won first and overall. And that continued for about a
couple of months, you know, and then I qualified for
the Nationals. My first year in Nationals, I got third,
and it wasn't you know, you got you got to
get first place. You all to turn pro, correct, So
(20:50):
I didn't turn pro that year. The next year I
would go back to the Nationals and I get fourth.
Speaker 3 (20:57):
Damn.
Speaker 4 (20:58):
Yeah, I know I'm going backwards, same thing I said. Damn,
But if you could pass the drug test, you could
qualify for the Universe team. In the Universe, they take
five guys from each weight class and you go compete
in the Mster Universe in Catalyists, Poland. Well, the first
(21:22):
three guys couldn't pass the drug test. Matter of fact,
there were forty four guys in my class. I was
the only one who showed up to take drug test.
Of course I passed because I was drug free back then.
And I go to the Universe in Catawist, Poland, and
two o'clock in the morning they waken me up take
(21:43):
a drug test.
Speaker 3 (21:44):
I'm like, man, well, let's coming from I already took
a drug test.
Speaker 4 (21:47):
Well, when we got there, they brought everybody in a room,
a big room. It was a gymnasium actually, and they
made everybody strip down and get on the scale. From
everybody stripped down getting on this gay they picked the
only guys they thought won steroids. Of course, me being
the big, yeah, big guy out there and ripped up.
(22:10):
They showed me two o'cogan one take a drug test.
Of course you know I passed it and won my
weight class and that qualified me to turn program. Wow yep,
and I also qualifized for Miss Olympia from winning you know,
uh winning my class.
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Speaker 2 (23:57):
The one thing that I noticed about powerlifters is that
they have very dense muscles. They're normally very from the
back when you look at their traps, their run boys,
their spinal directors, their.
Speaker 3 (24:07):
Glue, their hams, their legs.
Speaker 2 (24:09):
Because you got a squat yep, and you pull a
lot of weight that dead lift, there's nothing better for
the chain muscles than deadlan.
Speaker 3 (24:15):
Yep, yep, that's true.
Speaker 2 (24:16):
So did you know going in that the work that
you had done in high school and a little bit
after college, that that was gonna be such a big
help to you and your bodybuilding careers.
Speaker 4 (24:29):
Not at the time, I never even thought about bodybuilding
because one from nobody bodybuilding correct.
Speaker 3 (24:35):
I didn't even know what bodybuilding was about.
Speaker 4 (24:37):
When Brian told me I could win Misster Olympiu, I'm like,
what's that?
Speaker 2 (24:42):
That's the big He saw that, Ronnie, you go into
the gym, he sees that much potentially you, that you
can be through days from day one, from day one,
he told me that.
Speaker 3 (24:54):
And you all natural, all natural.
Speaker 4 (24:58):
So remember I had twenty two inches, so I still
look pretty good.
Speaker 2 (25:04):
So I remember because I remember the photo or you
had the box fade and you had to police utter pormo. Yeah,
so what year did you take that photo? That was
ninety seven? Ninety seven, Yeah, yeah, ninety seven. So you
qualified for the Olympia. But you want a couple of
pro shows. Didn't you win the Canadian Pro Show? My
(25:25):
first pro show.
Speaker 4 (25:26):
Was Canada in Toronto. I won my first show in
nineteen ninety five, right, and when we won my second
proot show Canada again nineteen ninety six, and the whole time,
you know, I'm trying my best to get to the Olympia,
(25:46):
and I got to Olympia by qualifying and winning.
Speaker 3 (25:49):
Those pro shows. Yes, my first Olympia.
Speaker 4 (25:53):
Nineteen ninety two, I didn't get a call out. I
stood up there on stage and had, you know, the
best seat in the house.
Speaker 3 (26:00):
They totally overlooked me.
Speaker 4 (26:03):
They overlooked me so bad they ain't called me for
no comparison. Nineteen ninety three, I didn't even qualify for
the Olympic because I didn't place it in the top
three in any pro show I did.
Speaker 3 (26:13):
I got like six seven somewhere down there. Nineteen ninety four.
Speaker 4 (26:18):
I finally qualified for the Miss Olympia in nineteen ninety four,
still drug free, and I go in and I do
Miss Olympia and I get fifteenth place.
Speaker 3 (26:33):
So I'm moving up. Things are getting good for me.
Speaker 4 (26:39):
Nineteen ninety six, I qualified for winning the Canada Cup.
I go in and I get eleventh places, so I'm
steady moving over soldol nineteen ninety seven, I qualified, but
I went into Canada cover again. They loved me in Canada.
They loved me and I love them. So that year,
(27:00):
you know, I kind of fall back and Shannon nineteen
ninety seven was a hard year for me, my first
shorter year. I go in Iron Man, I never did
these springs, these fall shows before, and I get third
place and the guy who beat me was a guy
(27:22):
about this tall, weighed about one hundred and ninety pounds,
soaking wet, and here I am two hundred and almost
forty pounds and he beat me. And I'm like, wait
a minute, the thing's supposed to happen, right, I said,
I can a guy that shortened and that you know,
that's small, that small beat me. You know, I'm five eleven,
(27:46):
all of I'm gonna like, I say, almost two hundred
and forty pounds. And the next week was an Ano Classic. Okay,
I go into Orno Classic and Lee Priest's beat me again.
I'm going by to call out yeah, and I look.
I get back to my room. I look at my girlfriend,
Vicki Gates. She was a pro bodybuild at the time.
Speaker 3 (28:06):
I just bump into her. She worked with Franklin on
the tour.
Speaker 4 (28:09):
Yeah yeah, yeah, yeah, saw Kelly Yeah, And I like, Vicki,
you know what, I don't need this bodybuilding thing. I
got a job with the police department with benefits and everything.
I was like, this is my last show. And she
looked at me and she's that boy shut up. And
(28:30):
I thought to myself, you know what, I can't quit
bodybuilding because if I quit bodybuilding, I lose my free
membership to the gym. All you were thinking about a
free membership, free membership to the gym, because I said,
I worked off for that free membership.
Speaker 3 (28:46):
I wasn't about to give it up.
Speaker 4 (28:49):
Well, actually I ended up beating the previous okay, so
I felt pretty good. Then I went to the all
of I mean, went went to the Olympia and uh,
the year before ninety or six, I placed seventh, but
they moved me up to six, I think because nasal
(29:13):
failed the drug test. The drug test and back then
right for diuretics. So in nineteen ninety seven, I'm like, man,
if I can just make the tough five, I'll be
all good.
Speaker 3 (29:24):
Well I got eleventh, I mean, I got nice.
Speaker 4 (29:28):
And I'm like, oh man, I already did this pity
party thing, so that.
Speaker 3 (29:32):
Ain't gonna work. I ain't gonna quit, So I continue on.
Speaker 4 (29:37):
And nineteen ninety eight comes around and I qualified Miss
Olympia again and went into Canada.
Speaker 3 (29:47):
So you tell me go back to Canada.
Speaker 4 (29:48):
I gep going back to Canada every year, so I
know I got a real good chance to win it.
I don't want to like four years in the row.
I'm like, okay, i gotta go back to Canada again.
Speaker 2 (29:58):
So not to cut you off, right, So you said
I got fifteenth place, I've got eleventh place. I've got
ninth place. I've got seventh place in the Olympia, and
I'm totally drug free.
Speaker 4 (30:08):
Well, in nineteen ninety five, Flex Wheeler was winning all
the shows he went to.
Speaker 3 (30:17):
Actually was nineteen ninety four.
Speaker 4 (30:18):
He was winning. He won on the Classics. Yep, he
was on the tour. He was winning all the shows
on the tour. And I remember when I was in college,
I was always the mortest guy in my class in
the county, and but if I wasn't this morning I
would go study with this morning guy to you know,
increase my grade.
Speaker 3 (30:37):
Okay.
Speaker 4 (30:38):
So I'm like, I'm gonna take that same valosity with
with Flex. So I went to Flex's room. It was
real kind of late that night, and I'm like, Flex,
uh man, I'm tired of getting my butt whooped all
these shows.
Speaker 3 (30:53):
And I hear you guys, are you know, taking the juice?
Speaker 4 (30:58):
You know, I had say something and he's like, yeah, man,
if you want to get up there with the big dogs,
you got to do what the big dog do.
Speaker 3 (31:06):
Okay. So I'm like, well, what do you do? Well?
Speaker 4 (31:10):
Flex named out a whole bunch of you know, steroids
drugs that they take, and he said, I got a
budget that can get everything for you.
Speaker 3 (31:20):
So I'm like okay.
Speaker 4 (31:23):
So my first time ever having anything to do with
drugs was nineteen ninety five and that's when I won
my first pro show, Canada Cup. Canada Yeah, Canada Cup,
and I'm like, okay, I guess Flex was done. Yeah.
(31:44):
So after that, I'm like, you know what, I'm tired
of getting my budet. I'm I'm just gonna do what
these guys do. But we ran into a little problem
along the way and DA came in and you know,
they like.
Speaker 3 (32:00):
Uh, well you gots doing. What are you taking? So
I'm like, well, this is pretty much what I'm doing.
Speaker 4 (32:07):
He's like, well, we're gonna have to confiscate, confiscate gad
and you know, and take everything from you.
Speaker 3 (32:13):
I'm like okay. So I went out and it.
Speaker 4 (32:18):
Had the clinics that you can go to and get
you know, there was legally right. The only thing you
had to take these blood blood work like you had
to get the blood done.
Speaker 3 (32:29):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (32:30):
So I went to one of those clinics and start
doing everything legally. But I had to, you know, take
these blood tests and everything came out pretty much normal.
Speaker 3 (32:40):
So I was okay. So I was all right.
Speaker 4 (32:43):
Now you know I could do everything legally. I ain't
got to worry about, you know, getting in trouble from
doing what I was doing. And from from from that
point on, my career just took off. In nineteen ninety eight,
when I went to the Olympia, Flex was the successor.
Everybody said Flex was gonna win because right because there
(33:04):
was a stretch there. Lee had taken over. Lee had
won eight straight. Lee retired, No, no, no, Dorian Yate, Yeah
come in sixth straight. Oh that's fourteen years. They've only
had two guys to win the O. Lee Haney, he
retires after eight. Dorian Yate ext win six. He retires.
Now Flex is the natural. Everybody's like, hey, it's all
flecks Flex showly lose, okay, And uh I wasn't nowhere
(33:30):
in there because I hadn't got ain't nowhere in the
top five, right, So it was Flex, NASA, Sean Kevin
so in the nine ed Olympia, that's what they was
calling out. And I'm like, oh man, here we go again.
And I got ninth the year before, and I'm like,
(33:52):
if I could only make the top five, man, I'll
be happy and satisfied because I'm really just doing this
for free membership to the gym.
Speaker 3 (34:01):
I ain't really thinking about winning the Olympia.
Speaker 4 (34:05):
And that never even occurred to me because I said, well,
I'm from nobody did body building. We didn't know anything
about it. Brian taught me everything I knew about body building. Well,
the only thing was Flex was winning all the shows.
And you know they were had those guys, you know,
(34:28):
picked to when you'll be the successor. Well, Flex call
me on the phone one day and like, man, who
you working with. I'm like, dude, I'm doing my own thing.
He's like, oh man, I got this guy chatted Nick
because he he could, you know, make it make it here,
even down here, and make a difference in your physique.
So I called Chad. Chad didn't call me back, so
(34:52):
I called flex again.
Speaker 3 (34:53):
I ain't flex. This guy's not calling me back. Man.
Speaker 4 (34:56):
You told me to come the guy and he was
gonna help me out. And he called me back. He's like, no,
just keep calling he'll call you back. So I called
him again. Well, this time he called me back, you know,
and I hook up with him. He changed everything I
was doing. He changed my diet. You know, I went
from eating five meals a day to eating six meals
(35:16):
a day.
Speaker 3 (35:17):
Okay.
Speaker 4 (35:18):
I went from ten ounces to twelve ounces of protein
with each meal to sixteen ounces.
Speaker 3 (35:27):
You eat a powder protein a meal.
Speaker 4 (35:28):
The pound of protein of meal. And I'm trying everything.
My powders stuffed this food and it ain't working. So
I'm like, man, he said, I gotta I gotta eat
this food to get big. So I just kept eating
and eating. My body finally adjusted to it. I was
(35:49):
finally able. It took me about three four months, wow,
for my body to adjust one hundred grams of protein
with each meal. We talked about one hundred grams of chicken, steak, turkey.
You know you eat fish back then, No, I didn't
eat fish. Uh, Chad didn't have me on fishing, and
I didn't really too much care for fishing either, because
(36:11):
I eat fish and I be.
Speaker 3 (36:13):
You had a lot of fiber in your system, boy,
you will be back.
Speaker 4 (36:16):
He had me on all kinds of fibers uplements, and
I was going to the bathroom after each minute five
times yep and uh.
Speaker 3 (36:30):
And another thing was I couldn't need five meals.
Speaker 4 (36:35):
Uh. You know, I've worked full time police department. I'm working, uh,
working out every day. I'm doing cardio. That's another thing
Chad did. He increased my cardio from one hour a
day to two hours a day. And I'm like, oh, man,
you really doing a number on me here. And you know,
(36:55):
I made it work. And you know, like I said,
I was finally able to eat that eat. There was
one hundred grams of protein. The only thing was I
couldn't get the six meals in. So Chad was like, well,
you need to eat this food if you want to
get big, she said, try and waking up in the
(37:17):
middle of the night, eating me and going back to bed.
So that's what I did. I went to bed every
night about four o'clock and I will wake up.
Speaker 2 (37:24):
Four o'clock afternoon, No, no, four o'clock in the morning
because you work in the police.
Speaker 3 (37:28):
Yeah, I'm working proment.
Speaker 4 (37:31):
So I would get up at seven, eat a meal,
go back to bed at eight, a whole hour. Well,
it worked out pretty good, and they caught on and
I was able to do an hour in the morning
on on treadmill I had right by my bed. You know,
(37:52):
I get out of bed, jump right on the treadmill.
Was it fast the cardio? Yeah, fast cardio. So I
did that and when I finished that, I would eat
my first meal, go to the gym. I got there
about twelve thirty, almost one. I only worked out an
hour each day, one hour maybe hour fifteen minutes at
(38:14):
the motor. I would get home about two fifteen somewhere there.
I would get take a shower, get dressed, go to work.
I had to be there at three. I got there
at three, and I would eat my next meal at
three and we get a forty five minute lunch break.
So I'd eat my next meal at that lunch break,
(38:37):
and I got off at eleven o'clock every night. So
I would come home, eat another meal, take a shower
and everything, and sit around do some me meal and
I would eat my last meal, which was a protein
shape I just just drank one hundred grand protein and
(38:57):
I'd go to bed, like I said, around about four o'clock.
Speaker 3 (38:59):
And that was the whole day. And that was that
was my camp. You know.
Speaker 4 (39:04):
I didn't go no strip clubs. I didn't go out
to no clubs.
Speaker 3 (39:08):
I didn't go. You ain't had no time. I had
no time there you go.
Speaker 4 (39:13):
But come to find out, Flex told me, man I
went to the strip club every day when I got
my workout.
Speaker 3 (39:20):
They had already told me I was gonna win in Olympia.
What you did? What?
Speaker 4 (39:25):
It's like, yeah, yeah, guess what I did. I'm like, dude,
I didn't go to no strip club. I didn't go nowhere.
You know, it was job worked a gym back home.
So basically you're eating around, you're eating. You're eating like
every three hours, every two and a half hours.
Speaker 3 (39:44):
Exactly every three hours. I'm eating a meal every three hours.
You're eating a meal. Yep.
Speaker 4 (39:47):
And it's working out pretty good if the thing's going
according to plan. And so nineteen ninety eight Olympica rolls around,
everybody's saying Flex go in, you know, and we get
to show. They calling out the Flex NASA Kevin Sean
I'm like, oh man.
Speaker 3 (40:06):
Here we go again.
Speaker 4 (40:08):
All I want to do is make the top five
and I'll be okay. Well, somewhere along the line they
started calling me out. Okay, I'm like, okay, thanks, looking up,
I might have a chance to make the top five.
Speaker 3 (40:23):
Well.
Speaker 4 (40:23):
I can remember, like it was yesterday. I'm like, you know,
they could be standing there, all six of us on stage,
and I'm like, you know, I don't want to be
called six. I mean, I don't like God, please don't
let me because six. They called out sixth places and
it wasn't mean. And I'm like, thank you, geesu. And
(40:45):
I'm like, okay, I got fifth. You know, I've accomplished
my dream, did what I always wanted to do, make
the top five. Fifth place call it wasn't me. I'm like,
wait a minute now, oh something one on here, fourth
place called wasn't me. I'm like, oh man, every time
it came time for a name to be called, I'm
(41:07):
expecting to hear my name all the way up to.
Speaker 3 (41:12):
Me and Flex standing on stage.
Speaker 4 (41:14):
I remember like yesterday, and uh, I knew in my
heart that I was gonna get second place because they
already said Flex was gonna win. So I'm thinking the
whole time, they're gonna call flex name for first. And
I can remember, like yesterday they called our flex name
(41:35):
for a second, and I'm like, they called.
Speaker 3 (41:37):
Me out for first. I'm like, oh man, they made
a mistake.
Speaker 4 (41:41):
And I'm like, wait a minute, no, they wouldn't make
mistake that big and that I hit the floor yep,
and I was out pretty much out cold. I fainted
just like that. And uh. The only thing I remember
was Vicky coming on stage and helping me get off
off that floor.
Speaker 3 (42:02):
And I didn't know. I didn't know what had happened.
Speaker 4 (42:05):
I didn't know I was down on the floor that
long until I watched this tape. Flex came over and
said something to me. Chris came over and said something
to me. I don't I ain't heard it. I don't
remember none of that. I don't remember none of that.
And when I got up, I'm like, oh man, I
don't know. I don't want the Olympia other this is
the best thing that ever happened in my life. I
(42:27):
never in a million years thought I went in Olympia.
I never even dreamed the wind in the Olympia because
I didn't think it was possible.
Speaker 2 (42:34):
But Ronnie, as you're prepping for the show, like you said, okay,
we know Dorian retired. Yeah boom, okay, flex great cemetery,
those round belly muscles, everything. Please when you look at
the sand down statue, that's flex, seem like it fle
see like flex wheeler.
Speaker 3 (42:50):
And so how'd your prep are?
Speaker 2 (42:51):
You looking at yourself every couple of weeks like you
look like a damn I'm getting a little bigger, I'm
getting a little leaner, as big as I am, as
lean as I am, because you all, he's gonna be
the bigger man on stage. Basical only guy during that
time that could challenge you for size.
Speaker 3 (43:05):
Was natal and natural exactly.
Speaker 2 (43:06):
He was the only one. Everybody else was gonna have
to beat you with lines. He conditioned it because when
it came to size, nobody could touch you.
Speaker 3 (43:14):
Nobody had that.
Speaker 2 (43:15):
But you had to be looking at yourself like, well, okay,
you start to see the Christmas tree start to come in,
You start to see the last when you do the
real last.
Speaker 3 (43:24):
Yes, everything was coming in.
Speaker 4 (43:26):
The only thing was I was working with Chad Nicholas
and the night before the show he had me eat
so many cars. I mean I was eating a thousand
metograms for cars a day and that you're carving up.
Speaker 3 (43:40):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (43:40):
And he started that like on Wednesday or Thursday, I
forget whatever the day it was. And I was stuffing
myself with food and I felt pretty good, you know,
because when I was prepping for the contest, I could
only eat one hundred in twenty five one hundred and
(44:02):
fifty rams of carbs a day a day, and that's
like two meals three at the most. And when he
put me on those thousands, man, I felt like I
was in heaven, right. I mean, it was the greatest
feeling ever. Thousand milligrams were carved every single day. And
by the time I got the Friday, I was so stuffed.
(44:25):
I was so full. I lost my conditioning. I'm like,
oh man, I'm messed up again. I rule my chance
to make the top five and everything. So I'm like
call Chad, like, Chad, Man, I done messed up.
Speaker 3 (44:42):
Man.
Speaker 4 (44:42):
The bigger mistake stake ever. He's I like, all my
conditioning has gone gone. He's like, man, don't worry about that.
Speaker 3 (44:51):
I got you.
Speaker 4 (44:53):
So he come out of the room, give me some
kind of powder and put some water in and drink that. Okay, well, okay, man,
I'm gonna stay up all night going to the bathroom.
I woke up the next morning. I'm so nervous. I
ain't looking at a mirror. I don't even see myself.
(45:17):
And every time I got close to a mirror, I
would look away. I'm in backstage. I'm like, I don't
want to see how I look, because I know I
look pretty bad after seeing myself last night. So I
avoided all mirrors that whole entire morning, the whole entire day. Actually,
I didn't know how I looked intil the pictures came
(45:37):
out in the magazine.
Speaker 3 (45:39):
Wow. Yeah, back then we didn't have camera phone. Oh,
you didn't have cameraphone.
Speaker 2 (45:43):
But Ronnie, you know being backstage, and I've been backstage
and seeing you guys at the Olympia and the arnol
uh and and but guys know like, damn.
Speaker 3 (45:54):
Good, you see I'm big and bull running. Look man,
you see Dacer So well, they're not whispered going on
because I didn't hear anything.
Speaker 4 (46:03):
I was so you know, focused on me and trying
to make the top five. That I mean when Joe
Wheeler even came back there. He never said anything to me.
He's like, man, I need you on my team. And
he's like, I can get you guest hoods all around
the world. All got to do is drain my team.
I'm like, you want me on your team?
Speaker 3 (46:24):
Like, ain't Joe. I'm look pretty good? Like heah, you
look real good.
Speaker 4 (46:29):
I'm like, yeah, whatever, just just just gassing me up.
Speaker 3 (46:33):
He ain't really serious about that.
Speaker 1 (46:36):
Uh.
Speaker 3 (46:36):
Come to find out, he was serious about it, and Uh,
I still didn't get it.
Speaker 4 (46:43):
I still didn't know how good I looked because I
avoided every mirror that I came by sold. Like I said,
when they called me for first I lost it. I
mean I was in complete shock.
Speaker 2 (46:56):
Other than working with Chad, he changing your diet, everything,
I was doing your weight, your weight.
Speaker 3 (47:01):
Scheme, the sets that you did.
Speaker 2 (47:04):
Uh. Back then, there was no such thing as time
but attention. It seemed to be the way to go.
Now that you bring the rate down, it's a three
three tempo down, whole three tempo up running.
Speaker 3 (47:15):
You lifted weights.
Speaker 2 (47:16):
But I noticed when I look at your physique back then,
and I look at the guys now, they don't seem
as grainy you.
Speaker 3 (47:23):
Used a lot of bar bell. You wasn't a whole
You wasn't a machine guy. You did that bitch.
Speaker 2 (47:27):
You did heavy dumb bells. You did show the press exactly,
did t bar you did bar bell roll, you did
iron iron. Everything was pretty much free weight, Yes, yes,
I didn't.
Speaker 4 (47:38):
I probably did maybe one or two machines, right, And
uh everything was heavy, yes, yes.
Speaker 2 (47:44):
Yes, But even even like the last couple of weeks,
when guys are normally tapering off as far as weight,
you were still lifting because I think you were probably
like a month out when you squad eight.
Speaker 3 (47:55):
Hundred a dead lift.
Speaker 4 (47:56):
Now I was a month's out when I dead lifted
at eight hundred, right, But when I squatted it, I
was probably three months.
Speaker 3 (48:04):
But I was I was.
Speaker 4 (48:05):
I was a whole lot heavier too, right, So that
that's why I did eight hundred was so light to me,
I was full of cars. I wasn't diying, right, and
uh it was super light. I mean I couldn't believe
how light it was.
Speaker 2 (48:21):
So you win that Olympia in ninety eight, you gotta
be on top of the world. You're like, man, is
it everything that you thought it would be? If you
were it could be because you didn't even vision yourself
winning it.
Speaker 3 (48:32):
Exactly.
Speaker 2 (48:32):
You win that when you get back to your room
and you order that piece of honey and you and
Vicky talk what's going through your mind?
Speaker 4 (48:40):
Righting, I'm I'm still in short, I still can't believe
I won. It still hadn't hit me yet. But you know,
I'm I'm so overjoyed. I'm like in another world pretty much,
because I can't believe I just won the Miss Olympia,
the biggest body building test in the world, something that I, like,
(49:03):
I said, I didn't even dream of it.
Speaker 3 (49:05):
I never even thought I had a chance.
Speaker 4 (49:08):
But I put in the work. You know how disciplined
football players are got to be. And I stuck to
my routine. I never ever cheated on my diet. I
didn't go out and party. I didn't do anything but
work on my body and and uh went to work
every day.
Speaker 3 (49:27):
That was all I did.
Speaker 4 (49:30):
And uh that happened every single contest. You know, I'm
always gonna you know how we are, We always gonna
challenge ourselves.
Speaker 3 (49:38):
Yeah, yeah, to be the best.
Speaker 4 (49:41):
You know, even though we are not the best, We're
gonna challenge ourselves to be the bed and Like I said,
I had so much passion for it. It was the
easiest thing in the world for me to go to
the gym each and every single day. And then I
fell in love with working for the police department also,
so I had two things that I look forward to
(50:04):
doing each and every single day. Going to the gym
and going to work. I mean, I love working for
the police department. It was so much fun and it
gave me a chance to escape being a bodybuilding right.
You know, when I'm at work, I'm just Ronnie Coleman,
police officer, not Ronnie Coleman the bodybuilding. And that's all
(50:26):
I'm thinking about because people like that trying to kill you. Yeah,
so I'm thinking about, you know, making all my life. Yeah,
I'm thinking about making it home each and every single night.
But at the same time, I'm enjoying what I'm doing.
I'm loving what I'm doing because every single day it
was something different. It was never the same day every
(50:47):
single day, and that's what I look forward to, doing
something different every single day. And I had so much
passion for work for the police Department. I would do
it for freedom and then actuality. That's what happened in
two thousand and one when they told me I could
(51:07):
no longer work for the police department. Why you can
work for because I was taking off too much. I
would take off for like three months for the Olympia.
Every show I would do, I would take about almost
maybe two months to a month sometimes, but the regular
SHO show, there wasn't that much time.
Speaker 3 (51:27):
The runner.
Speaker 2 (51:28):
You wouldn't really do it for one show. I can
only recall you do it maybe a handful of times.
You did two shows of the Cason, you did the
arland O one, which and you did the r did
you did the it O one. But for the most part,
you didn't do it for one show. One show every year.
Speaker 4 (51:41):
But you know that one show was the most important thing,
for sure in the world to me.
Speaker 3 (51:48):
And I also did the European two after Yeah, you
did it too.
Speaker 4 (51:50):
Yeah, every every single year, so miss Olympia and then
the tour. And on the tour we had like sometimes
seven shows, right, and I would do seven shows in
eleven days, And you know that's a grind.
Speaker 2 (52:06):
It is, I mean, because traveling you go to hole
water exactly as hard as.
Speaker 4 (52:13):
I remember this one show. There's one tour I was
doing everything in my power to get rid of water.
No matter what I did, it wouldn't come off. I'm
getting fifth place, sixth place. Everybody's beating me, and Kevin
is winning every show. So I'm like, man, I usually
(52:36):
winning all these shows. I used to keep it this conditioning.
So I put a flexwet on him. I went by
his room like it was almost midnight. When I got there,
he had his room. He was still up.
Speaker 3 (52:50):
I'm like, man, what are you doing to win all
these shows? Now? You keeping your conditioning.
Speaker 4 (52:54):
He goes over to his coffee maker, pulled out his
coffin maker, pulled me up a cup of coffee, and
then he pulled out a bottle of vodka and poured
that in the coffee.
Speaker 3 (53:06):
I'm like, what dad, they gonna do with that? He's
like here go. I'm like, dude, I don't drink no vodka.
Speaker 4 (53:12):
Man, I can do the coff bus nothing, not the vodka.
He's like, you wanted to know what I was doing.
This is what I'm doing to win the show. I'm
like okay and say, okay, I drank that coffor. I
was like, man, stain't too bad. Give me another cup,
(53:38):
but you all night though, I'm up peing all night again,
and I go to the show the next day, and man,
I win. I beat Kevin in nineth This was in
nineteen ninety seven, so that's a pretty big deal for me.
I never in my life be killing my whole time.
Kevin won the ninety one men National. That's when he
turned pro as right, and he got second in the
(54:00):
Olympia the next year.
Speaker 3 (54:03):
So I'm thinking, hey, you know.
Speaker 4 (54:05):
Things looking up for me. I got a chance to
do something in this word now. So I put that
all behind me and I never did that coffee and
vodka think again.
Speaker 3 (54:17):
Plus I hooked up with Chad. He had some better
than that. He had some kind of powder.
Speaker 4 (54:22):
He would pull it and he put it in the
glass and put some water in it.
Speaker 3 (54:26):
Drink did I'm like okay, And it.
Speaker 4 (54:29):
Would help me going to the bathroom for like two
hours straight every twenty minutes, just dropping all his water.
Speaker 3 (54:38):
And it worked pretty good.
Speaker 2 (54:40):
But don't you worry about Ronnie when you when you
do that or flattening out, because a lot of times
the water was in the muscle. It gives you that
full look and sometimes you could flatten. Now, you see, guys,
so good the day before the show and then get
on the show like, bro, what did you do?
Speaker 4 (54:57):
That's why I was eating a thousand milligrams RBS every
single day so I wouldn't flat now and I never
did them.
Speaker 3 (55:06):
Car orbs really did a number on me. Did the trick.
Speaker 2 (55:10):
Because it's onto something because you cut your water yep,
and now you put the car there to pull the
water that to put the muscle the water back into
the monks exactly, and uh we it's like a science project,
really is.
Speaker 3 (55:24):
And another kick I ain't never told nobody it is.
Speaker 4 (55:28):
We We would use insulin to uh make it go faster,
and some would push it in the muscle real quick,
real fast. Well you know if you try it without it,
it wouldn't work.
Speaker 3 (55:44):
Its good and all of that. It worked to a tea.
I know.
Speaker 4 (55:48):
I was I was big on stage. I was ripped,
I was full, you know, and that's how I beat
those guys.
Speaker 3 (55:56):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (55:58):
So I'm trying to figure out, Okay, so what was
your rep in set scheme?
Speaker 3 (56:02):
Yep?
Speaker 4 (56:03):
He had me doing like twenty reps you know to
start out weight.
Speaker 3 (56:08):
No no, no, no, this is a one.
Speaker 2 (56:10):
Up okay, And I'm peering Medden up every every since.
So I was started out at like one, one thirty
five on the bench, twenty reps. Put another plate on there,
fifteen reps, put another plate on.
Speaker 4 (56:23):
There, like twelve, twelve reps. And my last ridge, would
you know with another plate would be ten reps. None
under ten, yeah, none under ten. And if you watch
me work out, I'm never locking out. No, And the
reason for that is I'm trying to keep the tension
on the muscles the whole time. And when you lock out,
(56:46):
you hurt your joints. You get a lot of joint pain.
And I stayed as far away from that as possible.
And people thought I was doing half reps. I'm like, no,
I ain't doing no rep. I'm doing a.
Speaker 2 (57:01):
Full rep on the muscle right, I ain't using my
joints at all, And I never had any joint problem
even to this day, I'm still doing twenty reps with everything.
This concludes the first half of my conversation. Part two
is also posted and you can access it to whichever
podcast platform you just listen to part one on. Just
(57:23):
simply go back to Club Shashay profile and I'll see
you there.
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