Phil Heath Part 2| EP140

Episode Transcript

Phil Heath (00:05):
I had to do it every freaking meal, every freaking
step on the cardio, everyfreaking rep, every set. It had
to be highly intentional becauseI knew that everybody else
wanted the same damn

Sam D'Arc (00:15):
thing. Welcome everyone to the Driving Vision
podcast brought to you by theZigler Auto Group. I'm your
host, Sam Dark. Be sure tosubscribe to the podcast. Like
it if you do, and leave acomment.
Driving vision fans. This week,we bring you part 2 of our
session with 7 time misterOlympia, Phil Heath. Phil spent

(00:35):
time with team Ziegler sharinghis experiences as a
professional bodybuilder and howhe overcame significant
adversity in his path to being a7 time mister Olympia. We took a
lot of notes and hope you gainas much insight into winning as
we did.

Phil Heath (00:53):
My first bodybuilding show, April 4,
2003. A year prior, that was mylast basketball game in March of
02. You laugh. I did my firstbodybuilding show, didn't really
know what the hell I was doing,still jumped in there anyway.
And look, in life, you make acommitment.
You declare that I'm gonna dothis. And then once you have to
get up there on stage wearingnothing, oh boy, it's your worst

(01:17):
nightmare come to life. And whatdid I do? I walk out there and
I'm very stiff and rigid and Iturn around and I'm like, yeah,
this is what they're supposed todo. Like, yeah, I'm tough and
I'm badass.
Like, hell yeah. The whole crowdis doing what you're doing right
now. They're laughing. Now I'mthinking they're laughing at me,

(01:38):
how I look. I look like garbage,all this other stuff.
I'm taking what I don't reallyknow what they're thinking as to
my own reality. But in fact, Ihad already smoked the whole
damn show. Did not know it, soI'm just like even more like
almost to the point where I'mgetting emotional, like tears,
like I don't am I reallysupposed to be up here? This my

(01:59):
friends told me to do this andI'm just I don't I don't really
feel like doing this. Andluckily, thank god, there was a
lady in the audience that said,smile.
You're beautiful. And I stillknow the lady's name. Her name
is Margaret, and she was anolder bodybuilder. And it was
funny because the minute shesaid that, I perked right up and
was like, okay. I'll do myquarter turns and, yeah, I know

(02:21):
what I'm doing now.
You know, I got it going on. Iended up winning that show. I
ended up staying undefeatedpretty much as an amateur. Ended
up signing with Joe Weeter, whowas the godfather of
bodybuilding, any flex magazinemuscle and fitness. It was
created pretty much by him.
And I was on this fast track tosuccess, but it didn't mean that
I didn't have, you know,personal stuff. Personal stuff
meaning like imagine being abodybuilder, you make $0. Like,

(02:45):
you don't make is you're not anNFL NBA player. You're just not.
You may look like it, so just aword to the wise, when you go
online and you see a lot ofthese influencers, they ain't
making no money, but they'redoing it for a reason.
They're doing it because theyreally truly love it. I was
doing it just because it wassomething that was keeping me,
occupied while dealing with thetraumatic experience that that I
did have in, college sports. Igot to watch numerous friends of

(03:07):
mine play in the NBA and I wasstuck behind and I was and I
felt left behind. I felt like Iwas nothing. And in fact, I had
to learn through having thatcompetitive spirit that you have
to have this thing calledgratitude and faith, and I
learned that I have to just openmy eyes to see what's the world
has offered me and it offered meanother path.
So with bodybuilding, I waslike, wow. I already won my
first show. I won my second, wonmy third, won my 4th, won my

(03:29):
5th. Now I'm getting handed somemoney, and I'm like, mom, I'm
actually holy crap. I'm actuallygetting paid to lift weights,
eat, and train.
She's like, oh, that's nice. Yougot some parking tickets from
college that are outstanding. Ineed you to pay those. But what
I was gonna say is even while Iwas winning and stuff, I would,

(03:50):
you know, have like differentlevels of hardship and that's in
like physical injuries, stufflike that, mental mental
problems. And when I say bymental problems, I mean, I dealt
with a lot of, personalhardships such as, you know, I
won, my first Olympia in 2011.
And when you win the Olympia,like what Mike was saying, it's

(04:11):
the Super Bowl of bodybuilding.This year, we'll be hosting the
60th Mr. Olympia contest.There's only been 18 champions
in 60 years. So it's prettyspecial.
Right? I've won 7. This guynamed Arnold won 7. And there's
2 guys that won 8, Lee Haney andRonnie Coleman. When I won that

(04:34):
first one well, even going intothat first one, you know, you
realize you have an opportunityto be great, but you have to
conquer this thing called yourown ego, and you have to conquer
this thing called your own fear.
You have to conquer this thingthat a lot of us deal with,
which is performance anxiety.How many times can you succeed?
How many times can you do it ata high level? And are you
willing to declare it in frontof everyone? Are you willing to

(04:57):
hold yourself up to thatstandard?
And and those habits have toequate to that victory each and
every day. And a perfect examplewas the year prior that I won my
1st Olympia. It was in 2010, andI ended up getting 2nd. And you
would think, since the previousyear I got 5th that I would be
excited. I was excited for abrief moment, but then I
realized I when they announcedJay Cutler as a 4 time mister
Olympia champion, I I did one ofthese.

(05:21):
And I remember going home andthen watching the webcast again.
And I rewound the tape because Iwanted to understand what my
body language was looking likewhen I was announced basically
second because I feel like thattells a story. That story
basically told me that I was notready to win. I was willing to

(05:42):
say it. I was willing to declareit.
I was willing to do theinterviews. I was willing to do
the everything that was going todeliver that win except own it
all. And when I say own it all,that means just like in this
business, you say you wanna bethe best, you gotta own
everything that comes within.That's a lot of unknowns. That's
being your best when yourresources are taken away, when

(06:05):
you actually have someone maybepass away in your family.
Some even physical hardship maycome your way. How does your
mental fortitude adapt to thosethings? And I really wasn't able
to answer those questions atthat time and that's probably
why I exhaled because I figured,well, second is always a little
safe. 2nd is like right thereand you know that everybody will

(06:27):
root for you because we all knoweven this guy named Tom Brady,
when he would get ready for theSuper Bowl, they would show the
map of, like, who is supportinghim and who hates him, and it
would be like all red, likehate. But he was the one that
would stand up and say I cantake it because I already deal
with the war within.
And I know what the hell I wantand I know that the actions that

(06:48):
I have and the habits that Ihave, the gratitude of being
able to play the game are gonnadeliver me into a triumphant
moment. And if it doesn't thistime as still one step closer
and that's what I had to do, butI didn't just have to do it the
week of the show. I had to do itevery freaking meal, every
freaking step on the cardio,every freaking rep, every set.
It had to be highly intentionalbecause I knew that everybody

(07:09):
else wanted the same damn thing.And, how fast forward, you know,
in 2014, I was getting ready,for the Olympia and, you know, I
get a phone call that my father,had this rare blood disease
called amyloidosis and that hedidn't have much time to live.
And I remember just like, what?I'm just now getting to know my

(07:32):
biological father and now hislife is being told he got 1
month. So I fly up to Seattle togo visit him, and I remember
just telling him, I was like,actually, it was 2013, August of
2013. And I said, why aren't youeating? They said you gave up.
I thought you had drive. He wasfrom Dallas, Texas, so I'm,

(07:52):
like, throwing some stuff backat him. I thought you were
tough. I'm not here to shameyou, but I have the same I have
DNA that is shared. I wear yourlast name everywhere I go.
I'm your first son. How can youbrag about me but not fight for
your own life? If you can't doit for the if you can't do it
for the years you weren't there,do it now. Prove to me that you

(08:15):
give a shit. He did not cry.
He's one of those, but there wasa tear in his eye. And I said,
I'm gonna see you later. Got onthe plane, left. I get a phone
call, they're like your dad'seating. I said, oh.
So I fly back after I won and Isaid I'm going to keep coming

(08:35):
back every week until we beatthis. And unfortunately, that
following spring, he passed. Infact, he passed as I was on
stage at a local amateur show inCleveland, Ohio. I had just done
a guest appearance, get in thecar, get the call, and now I
gotta do what? I gotta drive toa meet and greet where I gotta,

(08:56):
hey.
How you doing? Nice to meet you.I can shake your hand. It's all
good. You know?
And I'm, like, over here, like,acting like nothing happened.
But something did happen.Something horrendous happened in
my opinion. I felt like I gotcheated. I felt like I got
robbed.
And then I had to look in themirror and say, are there any
tears? I had to do that selfaudit we talked about. None yet.

(09:19):
K? Maybe it hasn't hit me yet.
And I did what a lot of people,I think, do prematurely. You
guys may wanna think about thisone. When you've lost somebody,
we go immediately to socialmedia and start writing out
stuff before we actually sitwith what just occurred. So I
sat. I sat in that room and Iwas just like I literally opened
the freaking laptop before Iactually looked at myself in the

(09:41):
mirror and asked myself, how amI doing?
And that's when I startedfeeling emotional and I was
like, okay, no one needs to knowthis right now. You need to
figure out how you're doing andbe able to figure out some words
for yourself to deliver yourselfthrough this because you really

(10:01):
do have the answers. But inorder to do that, you can't just
stay stimulated with your phoneand with your computer and and
run everybody else to kinda lookat you and kinda console you.
You need to figure out. So I wasable to do that, but I bring
that up because these arerelatable things.
I lost my father. I lost mystepmom, his wife. I have a

(10:23):
brother who's high functioningautistic that, he's very smart
and as tall as this and widerthan this. He's like 6, 7, £300.
Where did I get screwed?
Damn. But now I gotta figure outhow am I gonna help him out. A
lot of stress. Right? But we alldeal with stress.

(10:45):
We all deal with hardship. It'syou know, things happen, but
it's how we maneuver through it.So I chose to maneuver through
it by not being in taking thepain, trying to leverage the
pain, and try to remind myselfthat I have an opportunity to do
something great, which is winmore of these shows. Right? Pour
more into me so I can help otherpeople through their pain

(11:06):
because I know that everybody'slost a parent.
I know everybody's lost, youknow, someone that is near dear
to their heart. I know every noteverybody, but I was divorced
once, so I know what that feelslike and still have to perform.
I didn't give myself a chance tohave excuses. And when you talk
about teamwork, I had a team,chiropractor, massage therapist,

(11:26):
girlfriend who turned fianceturned wife who helped cook all
my meals, thank God, and alsomanaged the hell out of me
because I would travel justunder before COVID, I was
averaging about 180 to 200,000miles a year. So I was sitting
in about 20 countries.
Yeah. Bodybuilding's in over a190 countries. They may not know
us here, but they know us atother places. You know? But,
yeah, having those teammates andbeing able to communicate with

(11:48):
them, being able to say there'sno I in this team, but to remind
everybody that when I decide togo out there, I represent each
and every one of you.
So I do congratulate you as muchas I get congratulated by
others. And I think that'ssomething that we all should
remember is that when we're outthere and we're actually doing
our job, we have to remindourselves that there's other
people that have poured into us.There are some people that have
stolen from us too. There aresome people that have tried to

(12:10):
rob us, whether it be, you know,the emotional vampires that
just, you know, drive you insaneand try to talk to you on the
phone a little too long, thatdon't really pour into you, that
just wanna suck you dry. Butwhen you realize this, there's
so many people that you could bewriting on the wall saying that
those are the people thatactually gave a damn and
actually helped me, those arethe ones that you if you run
into a snag, those are the onesthat you should probably do it

(12:33):
for.
One of the things that I wannaremind us all here is that we're
one of 1. We have an opportunityfor, know, excellence, but we
most importantly have tocontinue to stay in gratitude.
We essentially went through thisnasty thing called the pandemic.
We all went through it, andpeople are still dealing with
some of the ramifications fromit. So we have to be able to

(12:53):
show compassion.
Have to be able to showaccountability also. So when
it's your time to shine andactually get to work, you should
be in gratitude that you have ajob. You should be in gratitude
that you have abilities. Youshould be able to realize that
even with here, you got peoplethat want to learn, that want to
share. But if you're not capableof being open minded and if
you're not willing to beaccountable and actually show
compassion and actually multiplythat with a little bit of

(13:16):
freaking gratitude and faith,oh, man, if you do all that, you
actually will drive home moresuccess than ever before without
gratitude, without that, withoutthe compassion for yourself
first because it's easy to becompassionate or at least
portray yourself as that toother people.
But what about for yourself? Oneof the things that my wife who's

(13:39):
oh my god. I'm very blessed. 2ndtime around. It's okay to laugh,
man.
Like, I'm I'm like, shit. Like,she's an x for a reason, bro.
Like, hey. I'm like, I don'tcare. Is the fact that we would
go through these shows and shewould say, you know, oh, man.

(14:02):
Like, toward the end of mycareer, you know, I had lost in,
2018. I had, 2 hernia surgeries,1 in 2017, 1 in 2018. It just
sucked, man. And, you know, inbodybuilding, you can't
necessarily, like, have, like,an aesthetic problem, like a
scar or anything like that. So Iwas like, oh, man.
This is not gonna work becauseyou gotta look like perfect and

(14:25):
it we are being judged that way,unfortunately. It's not one of
those sports where you get likea moral victory because, you
know, you decided to sign upeven though you're injured. And
I remember losing in 2018. Iremember coming back in 2020 and
she said, one of the things thatyou have to remember, you talk
about gratitude film, but whendid you thank your body? When

(14:52):
did we get to the point where wecan't even thank ourselves for
showing up?
We we require so much fromourselves each and every day. We
require a lot from others aswell, but we should wake up in
the morning and actually be ableto thank our bodies for getting
up one time because there's somepeople that don't have that
opportunity anymore here. And,you know, I I think about that

(15:15):
even here because yesterday wewere chatting and we were
talking about teamwork and wewere talking about how we can
drive performance and, man,that's a interesting phone. That
was you? We're boys, so, like,it's all good.
But, seriously, you know, wetalk about driving home

(15:37):
performance, and one of thethings of the many things that I
just wanna remind us all of isthat, you know, you're gonna go
through the craziest twists andturns sometimes, but you gotta
remember to bet on yourself andyou gotta remember that you have
people that love and do careabout you. But in order to honor
them, even the ones that may notphysically be here anymore, you

(15:58):
have to love yourself. You haveto love every bit about
yourself. And even for me,having to be one of the best
bodybuilders in the world, I hadthat body dysmorphia and I used
it to drive performance oftalking trash about myself. That
produced and I and this is wherewe get into the hollow victory

(16:21):
portion.
By me doing things throughfrustration, anger, and like,
you know, bad communication tomyself that you're not good
enough, that that would driveperformance, I was the guy that
after the career got over and Iwould stare at the trophies, I
would never stare at thembecause all I saw was
negativity. Imagine that. Iwould go into the house and I'd

(16:42):
see 7 different trophiestrophies that required a lot of
hard work and dedication. Ibarely ever wanna look at it.
And in fact, for the Mr.
Olympia, you get like this youget a medal, you get a couple
medals, you get a big asstrophy. So I get this trophy
that's like this size and itweighs like £30. So I got 3
different types. I got theoriginal one that guys like

(17:04):
Arnold had. I won the 50thmister Olympia.
I won the Olympia at the 50th,which was a a gold plated one
that was the same size, and thenafter that, they made a
supersized one that weighs £50.So I have, like, 3 different
types, and I wouldn't even stareat it. And I would wonder why,
and I'm like, because you didn'treally enjoy it enough. You did

(17:26):
it through pain only. You justremember the anger that you had
that when you lost your dad, theshame that you had when your
divorce happened, when yourfriends doubted you and some
even robbed your blind startinga new business and you turned
that into going to the gym andit was going to help alleviate

(17:46):
all my pain and frustration.
I'm sure you don't have to raiseyour hand. Maybe you blink. Have
you ever gone to the gym withsome anger, with some
frustration, thinking thatthat's gonna solve all your
freaking problems? Well, let metell you, it doesn't because you
didn't really deal with thepain. You masked it.
You put a band aid on it. And ifanything, you pushed it down.

(18:08):
And if anything, you numbed thepain. Don't numb your pain.
People numb their pain throughalcohol, drugs, you know, sex,
whatever, and working out.
Gambling as a distraction. Ifyou numb the bad, you're also

(18:31):
gonna numb the good. If you numbthe bad, you're gonna numb the
good. Because when I would seethose titles, I didn't see good.
I saw when people told me Iwasn't shit.
I saw when fans would talktrash. I saw when, hell, I even
had an ex girlfriend fromcollege that said, what are you
gonna do with your life? And Isaid, be a fitness model. And

(18:52):
she goes, oh, you don't have tolook for that. And I told the
story yesterday.
I ended up getting the cover ofFlex Magazine. I sent the box to
her mom's house. How about themapples? Right? But imagine that.
That's a perfect example. I'mthinking I'm gonna be petty
about it. He's over your life. Iwas being petty. Right?

(19:14):
But I should be happy that I gota cover of Flex Magazine. I went
from not playing at all as adivision one athlete, pretty
much suicidal, I'll just behonest, like, in college. Like,
if you watch my documentary,Breaking the Olympia, I go
deeper into that because I wasjust like, there was a sense of
entitlement because I showed upevery day. I just thought that I
should be playing and stuff andI was just being told a lot of
lies and I'm sure a lot ofcollegiate athletes have been

(19:36):
told these things. They wererecruited for a certain purpose.
It didn't work out and they haveno answers. They have no they
have no way of expressingthemselves. So they get
depressed and that leads toother things. But instead of
like being excited and I'm overhere like, see, I showed you.
Yeah.
I'm gonna show you when I shouldjust be like, man, that was
dope. Look at that. That's whathard work gets you. I should be

(19:58):
happy about this. So I'll closewith this.
Give a damn about your successmore than anybody else in the
room.

Sam D'Arc (20:04):
A special thanks to Phil Heath for joining this next
podcast. Until next week, howare you driving vision

Phil Heath (20:09):
yourself today. But also help other people. If
you're so great and you wannajust pound your chest all the
time, think about the peoplethat you don't lift up that need
that energy too. If you couldactually do that and be a
leader, whether it be in yourhousehold or in your business, I
really think we'd all be muchbetter off. And last but not

(20:33):
least, check your attitudebecause life is worth living,
and you got a lot of work to do.
Thank you, guys. Appreciate

Sam D'Arc (20:52):
it. A special thanks to Phil Heath for joining this
week's podcast. Until next week,how are you driving vision
today?