October 3, 2025 • 33 mins
This week we’re recapping an absolutely incredible weekend at the inaugural 2025 Natural State Savages bodybuilding competition. Greg walked away with first place in Masters Classic Physique and earned his WNBF pro card—at 45 years old, no less! He also placed fourth in a stacked open class, proving just how competitive the show was.
We share what it felt like both behind the scenes and on stage—how smooth everything ran, the camaraderie backstage, and why this show already feels like it’s set a new standard. From professional photography and packed audiences to legit swag bags and even a smoked barbecue feast for competitors, judges, and fans, we pulled out all the stops to make this first show unforgettable.
We dive into the prep, the nutrition strategy that kept Greg full and sharp without the typical carb crashes, and why keto continues to shine as a bodybuilding approach. We also reflect on the emotional side—hearing competitors and tribe members share their experiences, watching first-timers step on stage with pride, and seeing the confidence and life transformation that comes from putting yourself through this challenge.
This wasn’t just a competition—it was a community event, a celebration, and the start of something that’s only going to get bigger. 2026 is already on the horizon, and we can’t wait to make it even better.
Greg Mahler is also a lifetime natural bodybuilder, and can be followed on Instagram
https://www.instagram.com/ketogreg80/
Register For My FREE Masterclass: https://www.ketobodybuilding.com/registration-2
Get Keto Brick: https://www.ketobrick.com/
Subscribe to the podcast: https://open.spotify.com/show/42cjJssghqD01bdWBxRYEg?si=1XYKmPXmR4eKw2O9gGCEuQ
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
How you doing man? Are we rolling?
Yeah. Oh, I'm good.
You're a new pro. I got a couple of these this
weekend. Four of these actually.
Four of those. I got a few of these.
Guess what this one says on it? What's that one say on it?
(00:21):
First place. First place.
Masters Classic physique 2025 WNBF Natural State Savages.
Actually one more prop. I have one more prop.
Look at that. That's pretty slick.
I got a pro card. Got a pro?
(00:42):
45 years old, I'm a WNBF naturalpro.
Let me ask you this, so you werealready a pro with the IPEIPE.
Does it feel different being a Debbie NBF Pro versus an IPE
Pro? I feel like it holds a little
more prestige. I'd, I'd say you're, I mean, the
(01:04):
NANBF is still natural. And in fact, now they've kind of
collabed with WNBF. So it's grown even stronger.
It's got a larger footprint now.But yeah, I had done several
NANBF shows and at one point earned a Pro card.
So that's the IPE spit? That's the IPE.
(01:26):
Is the Pro version or the pro side of an ABF?
Yep. Well, it's pretty freaking
awesome, man. I mean.
It was a good weekend. It was a freaking stellar
weekend. Yeah, I feel like, I feel like
we have talked about the show non-stop since the show and it
is now Monday, but we've had multiple conversations with
(01:48):
multiple people. So like we've already gotten all
that out of our systems, but we got to do right by our listeners
because a lot of them, this is the first time they've heard the
recap. So we got to speak as if we were
talking about it for the first time.
But you can be hard to do because we talked about it so
many times. But I am pretty sure we knocked
(02:08):
it out of the park. And I don't say that from a bias
standpoint. Like we had 31 competitors
registered, 29 competed and everything went super smoothly,
super smoothly. And my job on show day was just
literally running around. I mean you probably saw me in 15
(02:29):
different. Places I did.
I got my steps in that day and Ijust was trying to talk to the
competitors. I was trying to talk to people
backstage, I was trying to talk to the vendors, trying to talk
to the judges, trying to talk tothe MC, the expeditors,
everybody to just make sure theywere taken care of and they had
fun. And I feel like the feedback
they all gave me was overwhelmingly positive.
(02:50):
And for that reason, I can feel confident saying we kicked ass.
We kicked ass, yeah. And I, I also picked the brains
of a lot of people backstage too, 'cause I just wanted to
know, like, how are things going?
How do you feel this show was running?
Anything that's not working? Good.
And it was all good. We sent out feedback forms,
(03:10):
those are getting filled out right now and those have all
overwhelmingly been positive. There's like a couple minor
tweaks and stuff that we'll makefor next year, but I'm totally
down with that. Like I, I can, I can finesse and
we can make things better and wewant to make things better.
But I feel like, man, for our first time, first rodeo as a
promoter, like I don't think it could have gone any better, no.
(03:32):
And there was a lot of people impressed that it was the first
time. Yeah.
You know, this is awesome. Some somebody at the gym just
this morning, you know, that wasamazing.
I can't wait to watch this show grow.
It felt like this was like not your first year and.
The judges all had positive feedback and they judge a ton of
shows. They bounce all over the
country, or do they probably bounce all over the world?
(03:54):
Yeah, the polygraph examiner hasbeen doing exams for 15 years.
He had nothing but good things to say.
I mean, just like everything. Everything.
So I want to talk about the competition and get your
perspective as helping, as having helped me make it what it
is. But before we dive into that,
let's talk about you as a competitor.
Or do you want to flip flop? That either way, I'm down for
(04:14):
whatever. As a competitor, it was super
smooth. I don't think there was anything
that I would want to see changedregarding the competitors side
of stuff. It was very good as a
competitor. So I was, I was pleasantly
impressed with. Well, that's just kind of the
(04:36):
way it is. But the camaraderie backstage
was awesome. All the other there was a lot of
first time competitors. Our photography team was next
level. They've already gotten the
photos back to us. Yeah, and that's insane.
And I. Did a photo shoot on Sunday
morning at Ozark Iron. Ozark legit?
That was in awesome. He's top notch elite
(04:57):
photographer style. Totally apart from the
competition itself. Talk about you as a competitor.
Like the prep, the outcome of the prep, like even if this was
not our show, like just speak from a competitive standpoint,
like how did this act for your final show of the season 'cause
you've been prepping since January?
(05:18):
Been dialing in since January. It was a slow start.
You know, kind of part way into January we started really
dialing stuff in and getting tight with stuff and then macro
manipulation all the way from January.
And this was the best prep I've ever seen myself come out of,
the best conditioning I had striated glutes I have.
(05:41):
Glutes today. We're looking at the glutes
today. Booty today and you got glutes
of pumping. Yep.
And that was really my main goalis, of course you want to come
to the stage as competitive as you can, but you have no control
over who else is going to be on the stage.
You don't know what condition they're going to be in.
You don't know what age they're going to be in.
You don't know if they've done 50 shows or one show.
(06:03):
So when you're stacked up there on stage being eyed by 7 or 8
judges, that's up to the judges.You know how you're going to
place. But if you compare yourself to
the previous version of yourselfor if you've done other preps
and you compare this prep to your previous prep or your first
prep or whatever, the main goal for me and a lot of people is to
(06:24):
just beat your last prep. And that was definitely
achieved. So I'm I'm happy with all the
placings. We had a stacked class of 11 in
the Classic Physique Open. And it was pretty competitive.
That was crazy competitive and there's like some dudes in there
that were like in their 20s. And there wasn't really that
many slouches in that class. No, no, no, that was, that was
(06:44):
an awesome class. Super competitive.
Like we had a hard time getting 11 across the stage.
In fact, they had to pull. What'd they pull like 4?
I think, yeah. 4 or so, put themon the back line.
Which is weird. I'm surprised that they had them
posing that whole time. Did you notice?
That they did, yeah. The guys on the on the back line
were still hitting the poses that the guys on the primary
line were still hit. Which I thought was interesting,
like I figured they would have had them just front relax and.
(07:06):
Then swap them out. And then swap them out.
But they hadn't posed in them. They were.
They kept posing and I don't know if they were supposed to be
posing, but they just took it onthemselves.
Yeah, they just did. They just did because they
wanted, you know, wanted that chance or that, that stage time.
But there's 11 dudes in the Classic Physique Open.
I ended up, I was, I would have been happy top five.
I ended up getting a fourth in that one.
And looking at the the stage photos that are coming back from
(07:29):
the photographer, it's like, holy cow, there was that was
hard. The judges had a hard time on
that one, I think. So that was awesome.
I took first in masters. That was awesome.
Took first in my master's and that one.
Told me pro qualifier last minute.
So you got your pro card from the master's category?
Yep, Master's class. And that was pretty slick, man.
(07:51):
Yep, Yep, Yep. That was awesome.
Had to. Go pee in a cup.
Yep, had to go pee in a cup. If anytime you have to pee in a
cup, it's good. You're either was the top one or
two, or you get a pro card or whatever.
But then you run backstage and pee in a cup.
And so I did masters bodybuilding, masters classic,
open bodybuilding and Open classic.
And that was your first time doing open bodybuilding?
(08:13):
Yes. How do you feel about open
bodybuilding as a category versus Classic and Men's
Physique, which you did not do this year but you've obviously
done in the past? Yeah, I did.
I did bodybuilding at your strong advice because I I really
am a fan of classic. Just the poses, the trunks, just
kind of like the the whole vibe of classic.
(08:35):
It's like that old, old school bodybuilding style stuff.
But I did bodybuilding and I washappy with it.
It was good, A lot of the judgesfeedback said.
Bodybuilding is your jam. Like there's.
A Are you glad you didn't bodybuilding?
Yeah, I I totally am. Yep, and it was your lucky
banana hammock that. Yeah, you were wearing my trunks
on stage, so that's that's the plus.
(08:56):
I wouldn't call them trunks. That was like a.
You were wearing mine. I was wearing your dental floss,
Yeah. My dental.
Floss So it was good. It was a great show.
The environment was good, the music was good.
We had a a ton of people in the audience, more than I would have
anticipated for a first time. And we were competing with a
huge, huge football game in town.
And yeah, it was like just on a high, you know?
(09:22):
Yeah. I feel like for me to watch you
compete on my stage for the first year was pretty freaking
awesome man. And you having played such a
major role in getting it all organized, I mean, if I try and
put myself in your shoes, I'm like, man, this could not have
been a better ending in camp finale to the crazy long prep
(09:47):
that you've got. Nine months.
Yeah. Yep.
Worth every minute. Oh yeah, It was good.
It was good. And I screwed up along the way.
I had some, you know. Not that bad though.
Hiccups and still made it so youcan still make it you know so
now we reverse now we reverse we're going to go into a build
I'm. Ready to get your macros in
there? Get that down.
Does it feel like you're eating more food?
I am eating more food. Yep.
(10:08):
But none of them not just increasing food.
Well, the first day or so I did,yeah.
But we went out for, we went outfor wings with a few of the
other competitors and people from out of town.
That was Sunday morning, wasn't it?
Oh, that was good. That was good.
Yeah. Not a not a food scale insight.
Not a food scale insight. And then I'm taking all y'all
(10:30):
out to a Brazilian steakhouse next Thursday.
Yep, because Ralph had done a show 3 weeks ago now, I guess,
and then you and Ellen had done this show and everybody's been
involved in some form or fashion.
Bryson's been printing shirts, Clancy's been rocking the booth,
Ralph rock the booth at this show.
(10:52):
Chips been captured media footage and I'm just like all
right, I'm going to treat all y'all to Brazilian Steakhouse.
So that'll be kind of like a celebratory in camp to this as.
Well, I am so excited for that. I'm not bringing.
Have you ever been to that one? I'm not bringing a food scale
have. You ever been to that Brazilian?
Steakhouse. No, I have not.
I've been to Fogo a few times, but not that one.
It's good man. It's really, I think it's better
(11:13):
than Fogo. I like this one more.
So actually, is that the one that you went to?
Yeah. OK, yeah.
Then we'd I have been there one time I took you what?
When which? What was the steakhouse that we
went to after your last season? That was not that was not Texas
de Brazil. What was the name?
That was some weird non chain. But yeah, that was in a
different state. Yeah, that was in Washington.
OK, that's right. That's right.
(11:34):
And that was good, but I honestly think this one's been
the best one. Awesome.
So that's something to look forward to.
I'm. Gonna have meat sweats that
night. Yeah, for sure.
But but yeah, I'm just over the moon, man.
Like we had our tribe call last night and our weekly membership
call and some of those people obviously competed in the show
or they they were there volunteering like Amanda, Mary
(11:55):
Jo Davis, they were all there helping.
And you know, the whole tribe call is normally like me giving
advice on macro manipulation, training tweaks and stuff like
that. But this time I just wanted to
let them talk about their experience as a competitor, as a
volunteer, as somebody. And I wasn't looking for
compliments. Like that was not the goal at
all. I just wanted to hear their
perspective. But it was so cool to just hear
(12:19):
how positive they received it all.
And then, like, I teared up lastnight on that tribe call because
Peter Jeffs, who has been a client of mine for, I don't
know, man, 3-4 years, something crazy.
He and I have never met in person before.
This weekend. He came away from Canada to
compete in the show. And then on the tribe call, he
just had a list of like top 10 most memorable moments that he
(12:42):
rode out on the drive back to Canada.
And as he was reading them off last night on the call, man,
like I legit teared up because for me, like I wasn't going to
make any money on the show. I knew that going in because I'd
spared no experience. And we, I just wanted to make an
awesome experience. Like my goal with definitely
did. I want to make an awesome
experience. I want to take everything that
I've ever had as a competitor and just make it better.
(13:04):
And I wanted to be like a wow factor for everybody involved.
And that's what I set out to do.And after hearing everybody's
feedback and like just simply him listing those 10 things off,
it's like, man, I think I think it was a mission success.
For sure, Big time, big time. It was cool.
I'm excited for next year already.
Yeah. So 2026, if you're thinking
(13:25):
about competing or you know, somebody who's thinking about
competing, this is going to be, this is going to evolve into
like the show in the area that people are going to want to
either come to or be part of 100% because the first year was
that good. It can only get better.
Yeah. And like we were talking about
when we had lunch on Sunday, it's like I, I want to host
(13:47):
these like quarterly retreats tohave an intimate small vibe, a
good close vibe. But I don't want to make a
massive conference because there's already a whole bunch of
massive conference. I don't want to try and compete
and play in that sandbox. But what I do want to do is make
like this bad ass, awesome, massive competition that brings
people together and gives them astage, gives them a platform,
(14:11):
gives them a tangible goal to strive for.
And that's going to be where I make my big thing as far as like
a community event goes. And kind of like I was saying
the other day at lunch as well, you know, it's cool for me
because this whole thing's become full circle.
Like I was competing without keto, just doing traditional bro
dining. Way back in 2012, developed a
bunch of eating disorders, started keto to hedge against.
(14:35):
Then keto became a lifestyle andan opportunity for me to give
back. And then I wanted to keep my
passion for bodybuilding, you know, front and center.
So I made the keto bodybuilding and all for like contest prep.
And then now I've got a competition that I'm hosting
where a lot of people that are not keto, just continually
following the conventional bro diet are coming into a space to
(14:58):
compete in their sport of choice, but are then by default
being exposed to keto. I mean, keto brick was there,
all of our branding was there, our team was there.
A lot of the keto people in the community were there.
So it's like I'm able to reach out and grab people that are in
the bodybuilding space that would never have learned of keto
the right way otherwise and justlike give them an opportunity to
(15:20):
grasp hold of it. So it's just cool.
It's like a full circle thing for me.
And the fact that you had numerous ketogenic coaching
clients on stage shows that you can indeed succeed and compete
with the ketogenic approach. Yeah.
A. 100%, there's no question about it.
And like one of my clients, Gigi, she was going to do this
(15:42):
show, but then she competed closer to home so her family
could attend. So she was competing the same
weekend at a different show. And she and I had a client
called yesterday and she was telling me about what all the
other competitors that she was backstage with were eating and
it was all like 700 calories. Like rice just starved miserable
(16:03):
zombie mode while Gigi's literally eating double that
happy bubbly. Like still tired, still in a
prep, still hungry, but like notzombie, not dead to the.
World not going to like pass out.
Yeah, and it's like, why has keto from a bodybuilding
standpoint, not gained more traction than it has?
Because it's 100% night and day difference and it's superior.
(16:24):
Like it's a healthier option. It's just better.
Like there's no doubt about it. It's just simply better, less
damaging to your metabolical hormonal levels.
So it's going to happen. And this show is just another
another touch point for us to make it more mainstream.
Agreed. So I'm excited to keep growing
it. I think so many competitors just
(16:45):
feel like they're going to look flat, you know, and they, they
feel like you need to fill out with carbs, rice cakes, sugar
candy, honey. And then I mean, it can be all
the studies in the world that show otherwise, but nobody's
going to give two hoops to thosestudies if they don't see it in
reality. So that's what we have to do.
We just have to bring more competitors to the stage.
(17:06):
We're that are world class caliber, have them winning.
And then what are they going to say?
Like if like results speak for themselves.
So we'll just keep doing this, keep growing it.
We'll keep having more and more keto competitors attending it.
Obviously the show is not specific to keto, but it's like
a lot of keto competitors. We're just exposing more of it.
So and it's just more exposure. And that was one of the things
(17:29):
that I really valued hearing when I sat down for judge's
feedback is from more than one judge.
I just, you know, just picking their brains and they would say
they they said you, you know, your muscle bellies look full,
you're filled out. You have good muscle
development. You have solid this, solid that.
So that was your show day Nutrition.
(17:50):
That was cool to to to hear. What was your show day nutrition
to get such rounded out? Full muscle.
Well, I had to refeed the night before.
Which consisted of. Pork rind nachos.
Pork rind nachos. Absolutely phenomenal.
Looked pretty good. And so the morning of I was up
bright and early, got a good night of sleep, had a fatty
coffee with a ton of heavy whipping cream in there.
(18:14):
Had a second fatty coffee, had some bacon, eggs, some salt and
then I was just chowing on keto brick backstage.
Chunks of keto brick. No rice cakes, no beans, no.
Rice cakes. No sweet potatoes.
No. No rice, no potatoes.
Man, it's almost. Like it?
No, it actually it was and I hada whole bunch of different
(18:34):
flavors with me. So I just was able to eat
something that I enjoyed eating and it didn't, didn't fill out
my belly, you know, it didn't hit the GI or anything.
In a weird way, very low. Low volume of food, but high
caloric intake and a little bit of salt in there.
And what else is cool? Sunday when we were having lunch
(18:55):
together just was there with us.She competed.
She said her weight was the exact same the day after the
show as it was on show day. And pretty much same for you.
I would put any amounts of moneyon the fact that I would.
I would guess that the vast majority of the other
competitors that were not keto that went out and had a typical
(19:15):
celebratory meal afterwards witha bunch of whatever they pizza
whatever, they're probably up atleast 10 plus pounds if not more
that's. What I did in my very first
comp, I was up like 20 lbs. I was up 20 lbs too after my
first show and it's like then itjust become that was literally
the catalyst for my eating disorder.
And if you can bypass all of that, I just simply eaten real
(19:38):
food throughout the prep and then after.
Even if you eat a lot like you didn't remember that show you
had like 7 lbs of meat at the steakhouse or something like
that. When I did my last show in 23
worlds was my last show I hit. That's when I hit 3.9% body fat.
It was like 151 I think, the night of that show.
(20:00):
I went out to Brazilian Steakhouse and I ate 7800
calories. Worth.
Oh that's what it. I know there was a 7 in there
so. So 7800 calories worth of meat,
and I woke up 1 LB lighter the next day.
Like that would not happen. And you felt good?
Yeah, it felt great. Like if I'd had that same
caloric, if I had 5000 calories and it was all coming from a
bunch of carbs and just nonsense.
You'd be below tailed. I would be up way higher in
(20:22):
weight and just feel like death,death, you know?
So it's like way healthier in that regard.
It's just way better. Like it just is way better.
And that's what needs to be the staple, you know?
And another thing kind of comparing and contrasting, you
know, Gigi using her as a reference point again, she was
(20:42):
looking backstage all those competitors and they were doing
all this manipulation, you know,like water manipulation, sodium
manipulations, rice cake manipulation and just all this
tweaking. And she was like a little
nervous because this was her first show.
It's like, should I be doing a lot of manipulations too?
So I kind of jumped on a call with her afterwards and put her
(21:03):
mind at ease. It's like when you are dialed
in, if you, if you come into theshow dialed in, if you're
replicating what you've done in the several prior weeks with the
trial refeeds from a ketogenic standpoint, then you just coast
into the show day you. Don't.
There's nothing really to stress.
About there's nothing to stress about all the hard work stuff.
It's it's more predictable. You can be more confident in
going into the day of the show. Like you.
(21:26):
I mean, I was running around nonstop on Saturday and you
know, I'm coaching you, so I want to be there for you as a
coach, but I didn't really have time to just give you my full
attention. So we had a little window where
like, hey, just look at me real quick and you know, you told me
what you had for food, which is what we kind of discussed
before. And lift up your shirt showed
your quads, striations everywhere, veins popping, super
(21:47):
skin, super thin skin. It's like, no, you're dialed
man. You're just coasting right now.
No need for any crazy manipulations, no need to
dehydrate, no need to pass out or cramp.
When you do it right and you do it healthy, you just coast into
the show and you enjoy it because you're not freaking out
about all these last minute tweaks.
So. And that was the thing I didn't.
I didn't have any cramping. Of course, I had shakiness just
(22:09):
from holding, but I didn't have any muscle cramps.
I think they had us up there forso long for those eleven guys.
Which is good. And the judges like the judges
that we had. I've been judged by those judges
on numerous occasions. Most of them are from Washington
and Oregon, and the Debian BF specifically is known for
keeping them out there and making them work, making them
(22:31):
like they'll move you around, they'll make you hit the same
pose multiple times. And that that lets them know OK,
who's putting the work, practicing their pose and who's
actually conditioned, whose tan is running, who's looking saw
it, who's shaking like a leaf. And they'll use that to OK who
deserves the higher placing. I could tell.
So I'm glad they made you a work.
For I think we had quarter turned four or five rounds and
(22:53):
they shuffled people around. Then they ran us through again
and we hit all the mandatories. Man, that's a workout.
I was sure the next day, yeah. Because then you did, you went
to Ralph's show a couple weeks prior and you were like, man,
they ran them through their likecattle.
They were in and off the stage and a matter of.
They barely had time to hit their their poses.
(23:13):
Yeah, they they'd get in the position.
OK, quarter turn. OK, quarter turn.
OK, thanks. Next one it was.
And so that's why I like the WNBF too, because yes, you're
only up on stage for a matter ofminutes when you think about all
the months that go into preppingfor a show.
So the least they can do for thecompetitor standpoint is give
(23:33):
them as much time as possible tolet them showcase what they
worked so hard on. Like I would be, I would be
pissed if I had spent six monthsdieting and I was literally on
stage for two minutes and couldn't even really get into my
poses before they cycled me off.I'd be frustrated with that.
Like it it takes your second to set up, get in the pose and
(23:54):
then, you know, hold everything in a flex position.
So it's not a quick. You know, not a quick thing.
We went all out though and we even have freaking branded water
bottles. Like we left nothing to chance.
The swag bags were legits. We had hundreds of dollars in
the swag. I know hundreds of.
Dollars in swag bags. Athletes loved the swag bags,
(24:14):
the. Sponsors were all cool.
I mean, I tried to bring all thesponsors up on stage and give
them an opportunity to chat about their business, the BBQ.
Let's talk about the food for a second.
OK the post show BBQ man. So typically, as you've said
before, you know, you're lucky if you even get food post show.
And if you do, it's like a bunchof Domino's pizzas or something,
(24:35):
or like a bunch of sweets. And I'm like, well, I don't want
to contribute to the unhealth ofthe nation.
So I'm going to have my dad smoking BBQ for not just the
competitors, but for everybody there.
So he brought his smoker up. He slept in the rig outside the
parking lot at the venue the night prior, smoking I think 16
pork butts for however many hours it was.
(24:59):
And then after the show was over, which was I think 3:30, we
had the judges go get food. They went up to this conference
room, which was cool. We had like a dedicated
conference room for judges feedback.
That worked good. That was really good.
So they had their food and then the competitors were prioritized
next. They got as much as they wanted,
not charged for it. Like just as much meat as you
want high quality meat. Stan was there cooking
(25:21):
regeneratively raised chickens. He cooked like 30 chickens.
So we had that the whole all thebarbecue and then we got a bunch
of sauces and dad made some homemade BBQ sauce.
And then all the competitors, all the judges, all the
attendees, all the volunteers, all the sponsors, they got as
much food as they wanted. And then we had like an open
lobby where everybody could justchill out, connect, chat,
(25:45):
communicate, eat and just relax.It was fun and they had a whole
bunch of outdoor seating. You know, the day was absolutely
beautiful. I mean, everything just went off
without a hedge. It was.
Yeah, so it was, it was good. I'm definitely excited about
next year already. You know, like I I'm pretty
guilty about not really celebrating the wins.
Just on to the next thing. I'm pretty much doing the same
(26:07):
thing with that. Like after this podcast, it'll
probably I'll move to the next thing you know, but I'm excited
about next year and there's so much that we're going to do next
year that we won't have to do because we already set it up and
organized this year. Yep, Yep.
So we're not gonna be as taxed going into the show.
You're not gonna be competing I.Was just gonna say I'm gonna be
(26:27):
even more excited, more excited for not being in a prep, the
event itself, because I was trying to juggle prepping and in
a deficit and training and cardio and all the details of
going into the prep, you know, organization.
Next year I'll be able to run around backstage a little bit
(26:49):
more. I'll be able to, you know, help
orchestrate things on show day. I was hoping I could get more
content, but I was backstage doing the pump up thing, the
spray tan thing, you know, all the things the competitor does.
Extra's gonna be smooth sailing.It will be good and we're gonna
have a bunch of content from this one.
I mean, we got so many photos. Chip was filming the whole time,
so that media footage is about to roll.
(27:10):
Out took a bunch of awesome behind the scenes.
Took a bunch of great photos, wegot a bunch of content, but I'm
excited for you. I have to get you like another
shoot or something too, so. Yeah, I'm, I'm gonna deck out.
Yeah, we should. We should definitely both deck
out. Yeah, I feel like if we we have
that rock in, I mean, every little detail matters and it
doesn't go under us. Like all the judges, I had them
(27:31):
wearing like specific colors. They all comply with that and
they looked amazing. I mean, freaking everything,
man. Like every little thing that
people typically just swipe under the the rug, it's like,
no, no, we're going to do it right.
How we do anything is how we do everything.
We're not going to be the ones that cut corners.
We're just gonna go all out. And every little detail was
leveled up. Yep, Yep.
(27:53):
That's what the judges said too.They were like, you just set a
high standard for any show, and there's a bunch of competitors
where this was their first show,and I feel like if they do
another show that's not this one, they're gonna be, yeah,
unimpressed. Yeah, like a like a high school
gymnasium stage show or something.
But I got to give prompts to thecompetitors too, man.
(28:13):
Like they were all just super friendly, super appreciative,
very respectful. I mean, there was some first
timers there that were just excited and I tried to make it a
point to interact with all of them, make them feel
comfortable. And I'm just excited.
I'm excited for them in the sport.
And some of them got a pretty bright future in the sport.
(28:33):
Oh yeah. Some of those guys, yeah, there
were some pretty solid competitors.
The guy. That beat you in the overall for
bodybuilding? He was, what, like 20?
27 or 24 or something. Like that Pretty, young, pretty.
Young, but that was Was that hisfirst?
There was one guy was his very first show, and he walked away a
pro. Yeah, that might have been him.
Nate Peroni, I think. Yeah, I forget what who it was.
(28:55):
There's a couple of them that I want to get on the podcast.
Joshua Bradshaw reset to him. I'm going to get him on the
podcast. He's got a core perspective
because he and I competed together.
Oh yeah. In 2023, I was lightweight, he
was middle weight. I won a lightweight.
He got second, I think, in the middle weight.
So he and I didn't compete against each other because we
were in different classes. And then I beat the guy that
(29:16):
beat him in middle weight for the overall.
That's where I got my pro card. But it was cool to see him and
he won. Where'd he win?
He won the Classic. I think he won Open Classic,
pretty sure. So it was cool for him to get
his pro card at my show, having competed with him before.
So I'm going to get him on the podcast and chat with him about
(29:38):
him. It's just cool, man.
Like for me, it's just cool to see people believe in themselves
enough to step outside the comfort zone, do something scary
and difficult, and then when it's all said and done, been
able to walk away from it without regret, feeling a good
about all the sacrifices they made to get there in the. 1st
place, that's the thing, first time you do a competition,
(29:59):
you're nervous, you're scared, you're anxious, there was some
meltdowns backstage and then youwalk off stage, you're done.
You get some hardware, you got some awesome photos and you just
like a sense of euphoria and a lot of them are probably going
to compete again. I mean, you know, Ellen is like
she was on the fence for a whilegoing into it.
You know, the week or weeks leading up to it.
(30:19):
I don't know if I'm going to be ready.
I don't, I don't think I can do this.
I have to, you know. We had to tuck her into it
multiple. Times, multiple times, but now
she is so proud and happy she did it and now she's even
talking about what she can do tocome back and do another one so.
That's. The way it happens.
Another example was is with Jess.
I mean, Jess is in the membership group and she was
(30:40):
like, I don't know if I'm going to compete.
And then we kept pushing her because she looks great.
And then she's like, well, I bought some shoes and a suit,
but I don't know if I'm going tocompete.
And I'm like, oh, she got shoes in a suit, she's going to
compete. And then finally I'm like, you
ought to do figure as well because she was just going to do
bikinis. So she did that, and I'm so glad
she. And she liked it more, didn't
she? Yeah, and she looked amazing.
(31:01):
It's like people, they don't think they'd ever see themselves
on stage. And this is the thing, like
everything that I teach in my course, everything with the
coaching, like those principles apply to everybody.
Whether you plan on ever stepping on stage or not, Like
if you want to just lose body fat, build muscle, like those
principles apply. Think of yourself as a
bodybuilder for sure. But then in doing them, if you
(31:24):
want to take it to the next level, having a platform where
you can and it's like a safe environment, you feel, you know,
trusted and like, you feel like you can do it.
Like it's just so cool to see people's eyes light up with hope
and enthusiasm and like recognition.
So it's it's the coolest thing. Man and and setting aside some
(31:44):
time to celebrate you and like your achievements, you against
you and if you put a competitionon the calendar, you have a hard
date and then you got some awesome memories.
Not only that, but it'll level up other aspects of your life.
It's kind. Of like what I said in the very
beginning, when we open, it's like, look, this is this sport
is a self-imposed hardship that allows you to push yourself
(32:07):
beyond your previously conceivedlimits.
And see it through and see it through until stage day.
Yep. And then you just have this
overwhelming sense of accomplishment.
And then when you do that, man like that boost in confidence
and ability that you have withinyourself transcends the sport.
And it's like it bleeds into everything you do in life.
(32:28):
And that's where it becomes powerful because then every
hardship that you encounter, it's OK.
If I did that, I can do this. If I did that, I can do this.
You know, So like, you become limitless.
I love it. Agreed.
Yep, what a great weekend. All right, man.
Well, that's a wrap on the inaugural 2025 Natural State
Savages competition. 2026 is a right around the corner.
(32:51):
Yeah, we're going to get the website updated.
We're going to get registrationsopen for next year and we're
going to Rock'n'roll. And I think I like that we have
the membership group because then we can cater the content
that we're talking about to kindof like apply for people that
are doing that. So we got all kinds of good
stuff in there. It's gonna be good, man.
It's. Gonna be good it's.
Gonna be awesome. Shout out to you for the pro
(33:12):
card and also for being such a pivotal person and making this a
reality. Appreciate it.
Thank you. Till next time, it's a good
show. Adios.
Adios.
How you doing man? Are we rolling?
Yeah. Oh, I'm good.
You're a new pro. I got a couple of these this
weekend. Four of these actually.
Four of those. I got a few of these.
Guess what this one says on it? What's that one say on it?
(00:21):
First place. First place.
Masters Classic physique 2025 WNBF Natural State Savages.
Actually one more prop. I have one more prop.
Look at that. That's pretty slick.
I got a pro card. Got a pro?
(00:42):
45 years old, I'm a WNBF naturalpro.
Let me ask you this, so you werealready a pro with the IPEIPE.
Does it feel different being a Debbie NBF Pro versus an IPE
Pro? I feel like it holds a little
more prestige. I'd, I'd say you're, I mean, the
(01:04):
NANBF is still natural. And in fact, now they've kind of
collabed with WNBF. So it's grown even stronger.
It's got a larger footprint now.But yeah, I had done several
NANBF shows and at one point earned a Pro card.
So that's the IPE spit? That's the IPE.
(01:26):
Is the Pro version or the pro side of an ABF?
Yep. Well, it's pretty freaking
awesome, man. I mean.
It was a good weekend. It was a freaking stellar
weekend. Yeah, I feel like, I feel like
we have talked about the show non-stop since the show and it
is now Monday, but we've had multiple conversations with
(01:48):
multiple people. So like we've already gotten all
that out of our systems, but we got to do right by our listeners
because a lot of them, this is the first time they've heard the
recap. So we got to speak as if we were
talking about it for the first time.
But you can be hard to do because we talked about it so
many times. But I am pretty sure we knocked
(02:08):
it out of the park. And I don't say that from a bias
standpoint. Like we had 31 competitors
registered, 29 competed and everything went super smoothly,
super smoothly. And my job on show day was just
literally running around. I mean you probably saw me in 15
(02:29):
different. Places I did.
I got my steps in that day and Ijust was trying to talk to the
competitors. I was trying to talk to people
backstage, I was trying to talk to the vendors, trying to talk
to the judges, trying to talk tothe MC, the expeditors,
everybody to just make sure theywere taken care of and they had
fun. And I feel like the feedback
they all gave me was overwhelmingly positive.
(02:50):
And for that reason, I can feel confident saying we kicked ass.
We kicked ass, yeah. And I, I also picked the brains
of a lot of people backstage too, 'cause I just wanted to
know, like, how are things going?
How do you feel this show was running?
Anything that's not working? Good.
And it was all good. We sent out feedback forms,
(03:10):
those are getting filled out right now and those have all
overwhelmingly been positive. There's like a couple minor
tweaks and stuff that we'll makefor next year, but I'm totally
down with that. Like I, I can, I can finesse and
we can make things better and wewant to make things better.
But I feel like, man, for our first time, first rodeo as a
promoter, like I don't think it could have gone any better, no.
(03:32):
And there was a lot of people impressed that it was the first
time. Yeah.
You know, this is awesome. Some somebody at the gym just
this morning, you know, that wasamazing.
I can't wait to watch this show grow.
It felt like this was like not your first year and.
The judges all had positive feedback and they judge a ton of
shows. They bounce all over the
country, or do they probably bounce all over the world?
(03:54):
Yeah, the polygraph examiner hasbeen doing exams for 15 years.
He had nothing but good things to say.
I mean, just like everything. Everything.
So I want to talk about the competition and get your
perspective as helping, as having helped me make it what it
is. But before we dive into that,
let's talk about you as a competitor.
Or do you want to flip flop? That either way, I'm down for
(04:14):
whatever. As a competitor, it was super
smooth. I don't think there was anything
that I would want to see changedregarding the competitors side
of stuff. It was very good as a
competitor. So I was, I was pleasantly
impressed with. Well, that's just kind of the
(04:36):
way it is. But the camaraderie backstage
was awesome. All the other there was a lot of
first time competitors. Our photography team was next
level. They've already gotten the
photos back to us. Yeah, and that's insane.
And I. Did a photo shoot on Sunday
morning at Ozark Iron. Ozark legit?
That was in awesome. He's top notch elite
(04:57):
photographer style. Totally apart from the
competition itself. Talk about you as a competitor.
Like the prep, the outcome of the prep, like even if this was
not our show, like just speak from a competitive standpoint,
like how did this act for your final show of the season 'cause
you've been prepping since January?
(05:18):
Been dialing in since January. It was a slow start.
You know, kind of part way into January we started really
dialing stuff in and getting tight with stuff and then macro
manipulation all the way from January.
And this was the best prep I've ever seen myself come out of,
the best conditioning I had striated glutes I have.
(05:41):
Glutes today. We're looking at the glutes
today. Booty today and you got glutes
of pumping. Yep.
And that was really my main goalis, of course you want to come
to the stage as competitive as you can, but you have no control
over who else is going to be on the stage.
You don't know what condition they're going to be in.
You don't know what age they're going to be in.
You don't know if they've done 50 shows or one show.
(06:03):
So when you're stacked up there on stage being eyed by 7 or 8
judges, that's up to the judges.You know how you're going to
place. But if you compare yourself to
the previous version of yourselfor if you've done other preps
and you compare this prep to your previous prep or your first
prep or whatever, the main goal for me and a lot of people is to
(06:24):
just beat your last prep. And that was definitely
achieved. So I'm I'm happy with all the
placings. We had a stacked class of 11 in
the Classic Physique Open. And it was pretty competitive.
That was crazy competitive and there's like some dudes in there
that were like in their 20s. And there wasn't really that
many slouches in that class. No, no, no, that was, that was
(06:44):
an awesome class. Super competitive.
Like we had a hard time getting 11 across the stage.
In fact, they had to pull. What'd they pull like 4?
I think, yeah. 4 or so, put themon the back line.
Which is weird. I'm surprised that they had them
posing that whole time. Did you notice?
That they did, yeah. The guys on the on the back line
were still hitting the poses that the guys on the primary
line were still hit. Which I thought was interesting,
like I figured they would have had them just front relax and.
(07:06):
Then swap them out. And then swap them out.
But they hadn't posed in them. They were.
They kept posing and I don't know if they were supposed to be
posing, but they just took it onthemselves.
Yeah, they just did. They just did because they
wanted, you know, wanted that chance or that, that stage time.
But there's 11 dudes in the Classic Physique Open.
I ended up, I was, I would have been happy top five.
I ended up getting a fourth in that one.
And looking at the the stage photos that are coming back from
(07:29):
the photographer, it's like, holy cow, there was that was
hard. The judges had a hard time on
that one, I think. So that was awesome.
I took first in masters. That was awesome.
Took first in my master's and that one.
Told me pro qualifier last minute.
So you got your pro card from the master's category?
Yep, Master's class. And that was pretty slick, man.
(07:51):
Yep, Yep, Yep. That was awesome.
Had to. Go pee in a cup.
Yep, had to go pee in a cup. If anytime you have to pee in a
cup, it's good. You're either was the top one or
two, or you get a pro card or whatever.
But then you run backstage and pee in a cup.
And so I did masters bodybuilding, masters classic,
open bodybuilding and Open classic.
And that was your first time doing open bodybuilding?
(08:13):
Yes. How do you feel about open
bodybuilding as a category versus Classic and Men's
Physique, which you did not do this year but you've obviously
done in the past? Yeah, I did.
I did bodybuilding at your strong advice because I I really
am a fan of classic. Just the poses, the trunks, just
kind of like the the whole vibe of classic.
(08:35):
It's like that old, old school bodybuilding style stuff.
But I did bodybuilding and I washappy with it.
It was good, A lot of the judgesfeedback said.
Bodybuilding is your jam. Like there's.
A Are you glad you didn't bodybuilding?
Yeah, I I totally am. Yep, and it was your lucky
banana hammock that. Yeah, you were wearing my trunks
on stage, so that's that's the plus.
(08:56):
I wouldn't call them trunks. That was like a.
You were wearing mine. I was wearing your dental floss,
Yeah. My dental.
Floss So it was good. It was a great show.
The environment was good, the music was good.
We had a a ton of people in the audience, more than I would have
anticipated for a first time. And we were competing with a
huge, huge football game in town.
And yeah, it was like just on a high, you know?
(09:22):
Yeah. I feel like for me to watch you
compete on my stage for the first year was pretty freaking
awesome man. And you having played such a
major role in getting it all organized, I mean, if I try and
put myself in your shoes, I'm like, man, this could not have
been a better ending in camp finale to the crazy long prep
(09:47):
that you've got. Nine months.
Yeah. Yep.
Worth every minute. Oh yeah, It was good.
It was good. And I screwed up along the way.
I had some, you know. Not that bad though.
Hiccups and still made it so youcan still make it you know so
now we reverse now we reverse we're going to go into a build
I'm. Ready to get your macros in
there? Get that down.
Does it feel like you're eating more food?
I am eating more food. Yep.
(10:08):
But none of them not just increasing food.
Well, the first day or so I did,yeah.
But we went out for, we went outfor wings with a few of the
other competitors and people from out of town.
That was Sunday morning, wasn't it?
Oh, that was good. That was good.
Yeah. Not a not a food scale insight.
Not a food scale insight. And then I'm taking all y'all
(10:30):
out to a Brazilian steakhouse next Thursday.
Yep, because Ralph had done a show 3 weeks ago now, I guess,
and then you and Ellen had done this show and everybody's been
involved in some form or fashion.
Bryson's been printing shirts, Clancy's been rocking the booth,
Ralph rock the booth at this show.
(10:52):
Chips been captured media footage and I'm just like all
right, I'm going to treat all y'all to Brazilian Steakhouse.
So that'll be kind of like a celebratory in camp to this as.
Well, I am so excited for that. I'm not bringing.
Have you ever been to that one? I'm not bringing a food scale
have. You ever been to that Brazilian?
Steakhouse. No, I have not.
I've been to Fogo a few times, but not that one.
It's good man. It's really, I think it's better
(11:13):
than Fogo. I like this one more.
So actually, is that the one that you went to?
Yeah. OK, yeah.
Then we'd I have been there one time I took you what?
When which? What was the steakhouse that we
went to after your last season? That was not that was not Texas
de Brazil. What was the name?
That was some weird non chain. But yeah, that was in a
different state. Yeah, that was in Washington.
OK, that's right. That's right.
(11:34):
And that was good, but I honestly think this one's been
the best one. Awesome.
So that's something to look forward to.
I'm. Gonna have meat sweats that
night. Yeah, for sure.
But but yeah, I'm just over the moon, man.
Like we had our tribe call last night and our weekly membership
call and some of those people obviously competed in the show
or they they were there volunteering like Amanda, Mary
(11:55):
Jo Davis, they were all there helping.
And you know, the whole tribe call is normally like me giving
advice on macro manipulation, training tweaks and stuff like
that. But this time I just wanted to
let them talk about their experience as a competitor, as a
volunteer, as somebody. And I wasn't looking for
compliments. Like that was not the goal at
all. I just wanted to hear their
perspective. But it was so cool to just hear
(12:19):
how positive they received it all.
And then, like, I teared up lastnight on that tribe call because
Peter Jeffs, who has been a client of mine for, I don't
know, man, 3-4 years, something crazy.
He and I have never met in person before.
This weekend. He came away from Canada to
compete in the show. And then on the tribe call, he
just had a list of like top 10 most memorable moments that he
(12:42):
rode out on the drive back to Canada.
And as he was reading them off last night on the call, man,
like I legit teared up because for me, like I wasn't going to
make any money on the show. I knew that going in because I'd
spared no experience. And we, I just wanted to make an
awesome experience. Like my goal with definitely
did. I want to make an awesome
experience. I want to take everything that
I've ever had as a competitor and just make it better.
(13:04):
And I wanted to be like a wow factor for everybody involved.
And that's what I set out to do.And after hearing everybody's
feedback and like just simply him listing those 10 things off,
it's like, man, I think I think it was a mission success.
For sure, Big time, big time. It was cool.
I'm excited for next year already.
Yeah. So 2026, if you're thinking
(13:25):
about competing or you know, somebody who's thinking about
competing, this is going to be, this is going to evolve into
like the show in the area that people are going to want to
either come to or be part of 100% because the first year was
that good. It can only get better.
Yeah. And like we were talking about
when we had lunch on Sunday, it's like I, I want to host
(13:47):
these like quarterly retreats tohave an intimate small vibe, a
good close vibe. But I don't want to make a
massive conference because there's already a whole bunch of
massive conference. I don't want to try and compete
and play in that sandbox. But what I do want to do is make
like this bad ass, awesome, massive competition that brings
people together and gives them astage, gives them a platform,
(14:11):
gives them a tangible goal to strive for.
And that's going to be where I make my big thing as far as like
a community event goes. And kind of like I was saying
the other day at lunch as well, you know, it's cool for me
because this whole thing's become full circle.
Like I was competing without keto, just doing traditional bro
dining. Way back in 2012, developed a
bunch of eating disorders, started keto to hedge against.
(14:35):
Then keto became a lifestyle andan opportunity for me to give
back. And then I wanted to keep my
passion for bodybuilding, you know, front and center.
So I made the keto bodybuilding and all for like contest prep.
And then now I've got a competition that I'm hosting
where a lot of people that are not keto, just continually
following the conventional bro diet are coming into a space to
(14:58):
compete in their sport of choice, but are then by default
being exposed to keto. I mean, keto brick was there,
all of our branding was there, our team was there.
A lot of the keto people in the community were there.
So it's like I'm able to reach out and grab people that are in
the bodybuilding space that would never have learned of keto
the right way otherwise and justlike give them an opportunity to
(15:20):
grasp hold of it. So it's just cool.
It's like a full circle thing for me.
And the fact that you had numerous ketogenic coaching
clients on stage shows that you can indeed succeed and compete
with the ketogenic approach. Yeah.
A. 100%, there's no question about it.
And like one of my clients, Gigi, she was going to do this
(15:42):
show, but then she competed closer to home so her family
could attend. So she was competing the same
weekend at a different show. And she and I had a client
called yesterday and she was telling me about what all the
other competitors that she was backstage with were eating and
it was all like 700 calories. Like rice just starved miserable
(16:03):
zombie mode while Gigi's literally eating double that
happy bubbly. Like still tired, still in a
prep, still hungry, but like notzombie, not dead to the.
World not going to like pass out.
Yeah, and it's like, why has keto from a bodybuilding
standpoint, not gained more traction than it has?
Because it's 100% night and day difference and it's superior.
(16:24):
Like it's a healthier option. It's just better.
Like there's no doubt about it. It's just simply better, less
damaging to your metabolical hormonal levels.
So it's going to happen. And this show is just another
another touch point for us to make it more mainstream.
Agreed. So I'm excited to keep growing
it. I think so many competitors just
(16:45):
feel like they're going to look flat, you know, and they, they
feel like you need to fill out with carbs, rice cakes, sugar
candy, honey. And then I mean, it can be all
the studies in the world that show otherwise, but nobody's
going to give two hoops to thosestudies if they don't see it in
reality. So that's what we have to do.
We just have to bring more competitors to the stage.
(17:06):
We're that are world class caliber, have them winning.
And then what are they going to say?
Like if like results speak for themselves.
So we'll just keep doing this, keep growing it.
We'll keep having more and more keto competitors attending it.
Obviously the show is not specific to keto, but it's like
a lot of keto competitors. We're just exposing more of it.
So and it's just more exposure. And that was one of the things
(17:29):
that I really valued hearing when I sat down for judge's
feedback is from more than one judge.
I just, you know, just picking their brains and they would say
they they said you, you know, your muscle bellies look full,
you're filled out. You have good muscle
development. You have solid this, solid that.
So that was your show day Nutrition.
(17:50):
That was cool to to to hear. What was your show day nutrition
to get such rounded out? Full muscle.
Well, I had to refeed the night before.
Which consisted of. Pork rind nachos.
Pork rind nachos. Absolutely phenomenal.
Looked pretty good. And so the morning of I was up
bright and early, got a good night of sleep, had a fatty
coffee with a ton of heavy whipping cream in there.
(18:14):
Had a second fatty coffee, had some bacon, eggs, some salt and
then I was just chowing on keto brick backstage.
Chunks of keto brick. No rice cakes, no beans, no.
Rice cakes. No sweet potatoes.
No. No rice, no potatoes.
Man, it's almost. Like it?
No, it actually it was and I hada whole bunch of different
(18:34):
flavors with me. So I just was able to eat
something that I enjoyed eating and it didn't, didn't fill out
my belly, you know, it didn't hit the GI or anything.
In a weird way, very low. Low volume of food, but high
caloric intake and a little bit of salt in there.
And what else is cool? Sunday when we were having lunch
(18:55):
together just was there with us.She competed.
She said her weight was the exact same the day after the
show as it was on show day. And pretty much same for you.
I would put any amounts of moneyon the fact that I would.
I would guess that the vast majority of the other
competitors that were not keto that went out and had a typical
(19:15):
celebratory meal afterwards witha bunch of whatever they pizza
whatever, they're probably up atleast 10 plus pounds if not more
that's. What I did in my very first
comp, I was up like 20 lbs. I was up 20 lbs too after my
first show and it's like then itjust become that was literally
the catalyst for my eating disorder.
And if you can bypass all of that, I just simply eaten real
(19:38):
food throughout the prep and then after.
Even if you eat a lot like you didn't remember that show you
had like 7 lbs of meat at the steakhouse or something like
that. When I did my last show in 23
worlds was my last show I hit. That's when I hit 3.9% body fat.
It was like 151 I think, the night of that show.
(20:00):
I went out to Brazilian Steakhouse and I ate 7800
calories. Worth.
Oh that's what it. I know there was a 7 in there
so. So 7800 calories worth of meat,
and I woke up 1 LB lighter the next day.
Like that would not happen. And you felt good?
Yeah, it felt great. Like if I'd had that same
caloric, if I had 5000 calories and it was all coming from a
bunch of carbs and just nonsense.
You'd be below tailed. I would be up way higher in
(20:22):
weight and just feel like death,death, you know?
So it's like way healthier in that regard.
It's just way better. Like it just is way better.
And that's what needs to be the staple, you know?
And another thing kind of comparing and contrasting, you
know, Gigi using her as a reference point again, she was
(20:42):
looking backstage all those competitors and they were doing
all this manipulation, you know,like water manipulation, sodium
manipulations, rice cake manipulation and just all this
tweaking. And she was like a little
nervous because this was her first show.
It's like, should I be doing a lot of manipulations too?
So I kind of jumped on a call with her afterwards and put her
(21:03):
mind at ease. It's like when you are dialed
in, if you, if you come into theshow dialed in, if you're
replicating what you've done in the several prior weeks with the
trial refeeds from a ketogenic standpoint, then you just coast
into the show day you. Don't.
There's nothing really to stress.
About there's nothing to stress about all the hard work stuff.
It's it's more predictable. You can be more confident in
going into the day of the show. Like you.
(21:26):
I mean, I was running around nonstop on Saturday and you
know, I'm coaching you, so I want to be there for you as a
coach, but I didn't really have time to just give you my full
attention. So we had a little window where
like, hey, just look at me real quick and you know, you told me
what you had for food, which is what we kind of discussed
before. And lift up your shirt showed
your quads, striations everywhere, veins popping, super
(21:47):
skin, super thin skin. It's like, no, you're dialed
man. You're just coasting right now.
No need for any crazy manipulations, no need to
dehydrate, no need to pass out or cramp.
When you do it right and you do it healthy, you just coast into
the show and you enjoy it because you're not freaking out
about all these last minute tweaks.
So. And that was the thing I didn't.
I didn't have any cramping. Of course, I had shakiness just
(22:09):
from holding, but I didn't have any muscle cramps.
I think they had us up there forso long for those eleven guys.
Which is good. And the judges like the judges
that we had. I've been judged by those judges
on numerous occasions. Most of them are from Washington
and Oregon, and the Debian BF specifically is known for
keeping them out there and making them work, making them
(22:31):
like they'll move you around, they'll make you hit the same
pose multiple times. And that that lets them know OK,
who's putting the work, practicing their pose and who's
actually conditioned, whose tan is running, who's looking saw
it, who's shaking like a leaf. And they'll use that to OK who
deserves the higher placing. I could tell.
So I'm glad they made you a work.
For I think we had quarter turned four or five rounds and
(22:53):
they shuffled people around. Then they ran us through again
and we hit all the mandatories. Man, that's a workout.
I was sure the next day, yeah. Because then you did, you went
to Ralph's show a couple weeks prior and you were like, man,
they ran them through their likecattle.
They were in and off the stage and a matter of.
They barely had time to hit their their poses.
(23:13):
Yeah, they they'd get in the position.
OK, quarter turn. OK, quarter turn.
OK, thanks. Next one it was.
And so that's why I like the WNBF too, because yes, you're
only up on stage for a matter ofminutes when you think about all
the months that go into preppingfor a show.
So the least they can do for thecompetitor standpoint is give
(23:33):
them as much time as possible tolet them showcase what they
worked so hard on. Like I would be, I would be
pissed if I had spent six monthsdieting and I was literally on
stage for two minutes and couldn't even really get into my
poses before they cycled me off.I'd be frustrated with that.
Like it it takes your second to set up, get in the pose and
(23:54):
then, you know, hold everything in a flex position.
So it's not a quick. You know, not a quick thing.
We went all out though and we even have freaking branded water
bottles. Like we left nothing to chance.
The swag bags were legits. We had hundreds of dollars in
the swag. I know hundreds of.
Dollars in swag bags. Athletes loved the swag bags,
(24:14):
the. Sponsors were all cool.
I mean, I tried to bring all thesponsors up on stage and give
them an opportunity to chat about their business, the BBQ.
Let's talk about the food for a second.
OK the post show BBQ man. So typically, as you've said
before, you know, you're lucky if you even get food post show.
And if you do, it's like a bunchof Domino's pizzas or something,
(24:35):
or like a bunch of sweets. And I'm like, well, I don't want
to contribute to the unhealth ofthe nation.
So I'm going to have my dad smoking BBQ for not just the
competitors, but for everybody there.
So he brought his smoker up. He slept in the rig outside the
parking lot at the venue the night prior, smoking I think 16
pork butts for however many hours it was.
(24:59):
And then after the show was over, which was I think 3:30, we
had the judges go get food. They went up to this conference
room, which was cool. We had like a dedicated
conference room for judges feedback.
That worked good. That was really good.
So they had their food and then the competitors were prioritized
next. They got as much as they wanted,
not charged for it. Like just as much meat as you
want high quality meat. Stan was there cooking
(25:21):
regeneratively raised chickens. He cooked like 30 chickens.
So we had that the whole all thebarbecue and then we got a bunch
of sauces and dad made some homemade BBQ sauce.
And then all the competitors, all the judges, all the
attendees, all the volunteers, all the sponsors, they got as
much food as they wanted. And then we had like an open
lobby where everybody could justchill out, connect, chat,
(25:45):
communicate, eat and just relax.It was fun and they had a whole
bunch of outdoor seating. You know, the day was absolutely
beautiful. I mean, everything just went off
without a hedge. It was.
Yeah, so it was, it was good. I'm definitely excited about
next year already. You know, like I I'm pretty
guilty about not really celebrating the wins.
Just on to the next thing. I'm pretty much doing the same
(26:07):
thing with that. Like after this podcast, it'll
probably I'll move to the next thing you know, but I'm excited
about next year and there's so much that we're going to do next
year that we won't have to do because we already set it up and
organized this year. Yep, Yep.
So we're not gonna be as taxed going into the show.
You're not gonna be competing I.Was just gonna say I'm gonna be
(26:27):
even more excited, more excited for not being in a prep, the
event itself, because I was trying to juggle prepping and in
a deficit and training and cardio and all the details of
going into the prep, you know, organization.
Next year I'll be able to run around backstage a little bit
(26:49):
more. I'll be able to, you know, help
orchestrate things on show day. I was hoping I could get more
content, but I was backstage doing the pump up thing, the
spray tan thing, you know, all the things the competitor does.
Extra's gonna be smooth sailing.It will be good and we're gonna
have a bunch of content from this one.
I mean, we got so many photos. Chip was filming the whole time,
so that media footage is about to roll.
(27:10):
Out took a bunch of awesome behind the scenes.
Took a bunch of great photos, wegot a bunch of content, but I'm
excited for you. I have to get you like another
shoot or something too, so. Yeah, I'm, I'm gonna deck out.
Yeah, we should. We should definitely both deck
out. Yeah, I feel like if we we have
that rock in, I mean, every little detail matters and it
doesn't go under us. Like all the judges, I had them
(27:31):
wearing like specific colors. They all comply with that and
they looked amazing. I mean, freaking everything,
man. Like every little thing that
people typically just swipe under the the rug, it's like,
no, no, we're going to do it right.
How we do anything is how we do everything.
We're not going to be the ones that cut corners.
We're just gonna go all out. And every little detail was
leveled up. Yep, Yep.
(27:53):
That's what the judges said too.They were like, you just set a
high standard for any show, and there's a bunch of competitors
where this was their first show,and I feel like if they do
another show that's not this one, they're gonna be, yeah,
unimpressed. Yeah, like a like a high school
gymnasium stage show or something.
But I got to give prompts to thecompetitors too, man.
(28:13):
Like they were all just super friendly, super appreciative,
very respectful. I mean, there was some first
timers there that were just excited and I tried to make it a
point to interact with all of them, make them feel
comfortable. And I'm just excited.
I'm excited for them in the sport.
And some of them got a pretty bright future in the sport.
(28:33):
Oh yeah. Some of those guys, yeah, there
were some pretty solid competitors.
The guy. That beat you in the overall for
bodybuilding? He was, what, like 20?
27 or 24 or something. Like that Pretty, young, pretty.
Young, but that was Was that hisfirst?
There was one guy was his very first show, and he walked away a
pro. Yeah, that might have been him.
Nate Peroni, I think. Yeah, I forget what who it was.
(28:55):
There's a couple of them that I want to get on the podcast.
Joshua Bradshaw reset to him. I'm going to get him on the
podcast. He's got a core perspective
because he and I competed together.
Oh yeah. In 2023, I was lightweight, he
was middle weight. I won a lightweight.
He got second, I think, in the middle weight.
So he and I didn't compete against each other because we
were in different classes. And then I beat the guy that
(29:16):
beat him in middle weight for the overall.
That's where I got my pro card. But it was cool to see him and
he won. Where'd he win?
He won the Classic. I think he won Open Classic,
pretty sure. So it was cool for him to get
his pro card at my show, having competed with him before.
So I'm going to get him on the podcast and chat with him about
(29:38):
him. It's just cool, man.
Like for me, it's just cool to see people believe in themselves
enough to step outside the comfort zone, do something scary
and difficult, and then when it's all said and done, been
able to walk away from it without regret, feeling a good
about all the sacrifices they made to get there in the. 1st
place, that's the thing, first time you do a competition,
(29:59):
you're nervous, you're scared, you're anxious, there was some
meltdowns backstage and then youwalk off stage, you're done.
You get some hardware, you got some awesome photos and you just
like a sense of euphoria and a lot of them are probably going
to compete again. I mean, you know, Ellen is like
she was on the fence for a whilegoing into it.
You know, the week or weeks leading up to it.
(30:19):
I don't know if I'm going to be ready.
I don't, I don't think I can do this.
I have to, you know. We had to tuck her into it
multiple. Times, multiple times, but now
she is so proud and happy she did it and now she's even
talking about what she can do tocome back and do another one so.
That's. The way it happens.
Another example was is with Jess.
I mean, Jess is in the membership group and she was
(30:40):
like, I don't know if I'm going to compete.
And then we kept pushing her because she looks great.
And then she's like, well, I bought some shoes and a suit,
but I don't know if I'm going tocompete.
And I'm like, oh, she got shoes in a suit, she's going to
compete. And then finally I'm like, you
ought to do figure as well because she was just going to do
bikinis. So she did that, and I'm so glad
she. And she liked it more, didn't
she? Yeah, and she looked amazing.
(31:01):
It's like people, they don't think they'd ever see themselves
on stage. And this is the thing, like
everything that I teach in my course, everything with the
coaching, like those principles apply to everybody.
Whether you plan on ever stepping on stage or not, Like
if you want to just lose body fat, build muscle, like those
principles apply. Think of yourself as a
bodybuilder for sure. But then in doing them, if you
(31:24):
want to take it to the next level, having a platform where
you can and it's like a safe environment, you feel, you know,
trusted and like, you feel like you can do it.
Like it's just so cool to see people's eyes light up with hope
and enthusiasm and like recognition.
So it's it's the coolest thing. Man and and setting aside some
(31:44):
time to celebrate you and like your achievements, you against
you and if you put a competitionon the calendar, you have a hard
date and then you got some awesome memories.
Not only that, but it'll level up other aspects of your life.
It's kind. Of like what I said in the very
beginning, when we open, it's like, look, this is this sport
is a self-imposed hardship that allows you to push yourself
(32:07):
beyond your previously conceivedlimits.
And see it through and see it through until stage day.
Yep. And then you just have this
overwhelming sense of accomplishment.
And then when you do that, man like that boost in confidence
and ability that you have withinyourself transcends the sport.
And it's like it bleeds into everything you do in life.
(32:28):
And that's where it becomes powerful because then every
hardship that you encounter, it's OK.
If I did that, I can do this. If I did that, I can do this.
You know, So like, you become limitless.
I love it. Agreed.
Yep, what a great weekend. All right, man.
Well, that's a wrap on the inaugural 2025 Natural State
Savages competition. 2026 is a right around the corner.
(32:51):
Yeah, we're going to get the website updated.
We're going to get registrationsopen for next year and we're
going to Rock'n'roll. And I think I like that we have
the membership group because then we can cater the content
that we're talking about to kindof like apply for people that
are doing that. So we got all kinds of good
stuff in there. It's gonna be good, man.
It's. Gonna be good it's.
Gonna be awesome. Shout out to you for the pro
(33:12):
card and also for being such a pivotal person and making this a
reality. Appreciate it.
Thank you. Till next time, it's a good
show. Adios.
Adios.
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