George Ward on Building Impossible Muscle

Bodybuilding legend Ronnie Coleman loves to say “Everybody wants big muscles but nobody wants to lift no heavy ass weights!”

But lifting heavy ass weights isn't the most difficult part of bodybuilding for everyone. For some, the biggest challenge to coming home with that sword in a competition is the ability to shred body fat without losing muscle mass.

Let’s Grow Big Together - It’s the only bodybuilding podcast that slays at the gym, on the stage and the runway baby!

In this series, we’re taking a look at the passion for muscle, adventures in bodybuilding, muscle gods, muscle worship and practical advice to put on the gains.

Today tech developer, daddy and up and coming NPC Classic bodybuilder George Ward joins us to talk about getting ready for the stage, his adventures in bodybuilding and working with Dorian Yates to build an impossible physique.

We met George Ward at the food court at the Arnold Sports Festival and were so charmed by him we had to get him on the show.

FOLLOW US ON INSTAGRAM:
★ instagram.com/georgewardfitness
★ instagram.com/faustofernos
★ instagram.com/marcfelion

Episode Transcript

(00:05):
Bodybuilding legend Ronnie Coleman loves to sayeverybody wants big muscles, but nobody wants
to lift no heavy ass weights.But lifting heavy ass weights isn't the most
difficult part of bodybuilding for everyone.For some, the biggest challenge to coming
home with the sword in the competitionis the ability to shred body fat without
losing muscle masks. Let's Grow BigTogether, the only bodybuilding podcast at Slays

(00:33):
at the Gym, on the Stageand the Runway. Baby, I'm Faustofernos
and I'm Mark Phillion. In thisseries, we're taking a look at the
passion for muscle adventures and bodybuilding,muscle gods, muscle worship, and practical
advice to put on the game Today, tech developer Daddy and up and coming
end PC classic bodybuilder George Ward joinsus to talk about getting ready for Peak

(00:59):
week on the Age, his adventuresin bodybuilding, and working with Dorian Yates
to build an impossible physique. Wemet George Ward at the food court at
the Arnold Sports Festival and we're socharmed by him we had to get him
on the show. Hello, Hi, is this George Ward? Yes,
it is Hello, George Ward.This is Fausto for Nose and Mark Phillion

(01:22):
from Let's Grow Big Together. Ohit's a pleasure Meteor be on the phone
with you guys. Yeah. Wellwe met in person at the Arnold Expo
in Columbus, Ohio. Yes,I remember that and you were chomping down
on your meal. You were inthe food court area and you're chopping down
on your meal and I was like, don't I know you? And You're
like nope, and like that's notwho you think he is. Fausto.

(01:46):
Yeah, yeah, I definitely rememberthat. I don't remember what I was,
probably a brownie or something I was. No, you had a tup
of our container full of like nothealthy stuff ground chicken. Oh really?
Yeah? Oh man, that's prettywell because I put on quite a few
pounds right after that show. Ihad, like, I don't know that

(02:06):
even an entire thing of oreos,like an entire container. Oh wow,
Well I think we probably ran oninto you on a Saturday, right and
oh yeah, yeah, what wasyour because you you actually competed at the
Arnold. Yeah, I competed inthe Arnold Amateur okay, um light heavyweight
and the Classic Class B. That'sa light heavyweight. You're you're huge,

(02:29):
man, No, no way,no way. How much were you weighing
at the time that we met you, I probably got up to like two
o five or so two ten.Had you already done your competition at that
point? I already done my competition. Competition was on Thursday. I got
down to like one ninety two,I think, Um, I was I
waited, I waited in. Ididn't have to take all my clothes.

(02:50):
I was one ninety five with myclothes on and without your clothes one oh
really, So if you were like, I'm sorry, a little too heavy,
like let me take this my jeansoffers something? Yeah, yeah.
Usually yeah, some people they comein they just like strip down to their
posing trunks or whatever, and thenthey do their way ins because they were
like really close. But like,if you don't match the weight that you're
wanting to because because for people don'tunderstand this though, there's there's a threshold

(03:15):
on the weight division in order toqualify, right, yeah, So so
like to get to your division,you have to be under like, say,
what is it? Is it twohundred and ten pounds or something?
For for my weight classes one ninetyseven one ninety seven, and so if
you're one ninety eight, you're like, let me go to the bathroom,
try to take a ship I'll beright back, yeah, or go take

(03:37):
a whizz. Really does that?Does that? Actually? Do people do
that like like try to force anythingand the guts out? Yes, yes
they do as it work, yeahyeah if you yeah, so, um,
really the heaviest thing in your bodyat that point is water. Yeah,
so any kind of water you canexpel. Um. People will go

(03:57):
take some diuretics or whatever and tryto remove the last little bit of water
other body so they can make weightor just that little lipid layer between your
skin and your your muscles. Uh, people take diuretics to um just have
that layer kind of get less andless dense so you can see more of
the muscle fibers. And so that'ssometimes we see bodybuilders like muscles lock up.

(04:19):
I think one I don't remember whoit was, but they literally froze
on stage flexing and had to becarried off. Yeah. Oh yeah,
there's that's why they have they havemedical people there um for you know,
like CPR and stuff. Because peoplego in cardiac arrest. It is like,
well, the moment you get onstage is probably one of the most

(04:43):
unhealthy moments of your entire life.It is pretty crazy because you're dehydrated,
you got low sugar, you're starvinghere. Well well actually at that point,
um, hopefully you know by actuallyprobably not on the stage, it's
probably before you do your way insright because um, if you're about to

(05:04):
come, if you're missing weight,um, you stop eating and then you're
also you stop drinking and then youtake drinking water. Yea drinking water and
then a lot of people take dioreticsand so you're like expelling everything out of
your body. The diuretic is likea cup of coffee or is that like
a there's something specific or yeah,so if you go on it's like water

(05:26):
pills, um or expel. Ifyou'll see like looking online like there are
like yeah, they're just natural diureticsthat you can buy online and people take
take those. Now is it theopposite is there are people that are trying
to gain Are the people sticking likelead pellets up their butt or anything like
that? No? No, no, you want to be as light as
possible. Okay. My second timeat Junior USA is right. It was

(05:50):
like I was like two thirty inJuly, and I think I cut down
to like for my first contest,that NBC Muscle Classic in Greensboro, I
cut down to like one nineties something, one ninety seven, and then I
went to the junior usas I gotback up to like two twenty, and

(06:11):
then I cut down to one seventyfive. And I didn't know I was
gonna make one seventy five. Ithought it was gonna be in like the
one eighty category. But then Itook like some diuretics at night, and
I dropped like ten pounds overnight.Wow, I was at one eighty five
and the next thing you know,I was like one seventy. I think
it was like one seventy seven orsomething. And my coach is like,
well, what was like here onour middleweight and you're not eating today,

(06:39):
George, walk me through like yourweek in getting ready for a competition in
the day of like, because alot of people don't realize that like the
first the last twenty four hours beforeyou step on that stage, right,
you know, when we see youin the stage in the afternoon in a
contest, a lot has already beendecided at the way in in the morning.

(07:00):
Morning, right, and not theway in pre judging. It's always
judging that takes place in the morning. Yeah. So the first the first
round is where they do like allthe initial comparisons. Then they start grouping
people, um like they'll they'll they'llrun everybody out and then they'll be like,
well, you know the guy fromyou know this group, the top

(07:21):
three there, we want to putthem together with the top top two from
this other group, in the topfour from this other group, and we'll
say that's the top you know,five to seven people you know that are
going to be that we're going tojudge for, you know, the top
placings. Then they'll move them around, they'll do their mandatories and their their
their poses and it depends on whichdivision and then usually the person in the

(07:43):
center they're gonna be the winner,uh, and the left and the rights
one, two, three, fouror five six. It just goes out
like that. Um, those placingscan change in the finals, but highly
unlikely most the judging. It seemslike from my view, but this is
an amateur leagues, right, Ihaven't been to the professional competitions, and

(08:09):
so it seems like for me,what I've kind of noticed as pre judgings
final. But you can see ifyou watch some of these professional shows,
people can change their placings and bemoved around a little bit more in the
finals depending on like their conditioning andif they start like retaining more water,

(08:30):
you know, they got flatter orsomething like that. You know. Um,
but it I mean, it alldepends on judges too, because the
judges they all look for different things. Um, they judge different criteria as
a very very subjective sport. Well, Arnolds's just do I want this body

(08:50):
as my own body? Which iswhat is There's a really good question asked,
like when you see somebody on thatstage, you say, like,
is this a body that I admire? Is this something that I would want
on my own self? I thinkthat that is true more so for the
classic division, right, because theyhave the height weight cap, so there's
a certain amount of height that youcan have per well for your weight,

(09:15):
and so that allows you to havelike not these like crazy massive people,
but more like shape. Like thenyou got to really focus on the shape
and the conditioning and you still wantto apply more mass, but you want
to apply in the right areas.Whereas like if you're an open body building.
You know, like once you getpast the weight classes, like really
the people that always win are inthe super heavy weight and it's just,

(09:41):
yeah, shape matters, you know. Like you can see at the Arnold
Nick lost to Samson Dawda, NickWalker and Nick Walker, and there was
more of a shape kind of thingthan it was pure muscle mass because Nick
had more muscle. But Samson Dawdahas shape, and honestly, Andrew Jacks

(10:01):
has like crazy shape too. Yeah. Yeah, we saw Nick at the
meet and greet and he looked likehe was like, I want to get
out of here, so unhappy.You know. Well I was sitting down
and just you know, he hada huge ass line of people wanting to
have a photo with them or autographand stuff. And you know the bodybuilders

(10:22):
they're all completely closed because they're shredded, so like they're just probably freezing,
you know, are they're just starvingand thirsty. Like that's another thing.
Like the last day, you know, that's the day before they get on
stage, and it's just you aremiserable. You can't like walking's hard,

(10:43):
standings, hard sittings, hard everythingjust gets your body just gets so exhausted
it's crazy. It's a crazy feeling. It's once you get on stage and
you're done with it, it's it'slike one of the coolest feelings in the
world. Like, you know,like you get on the stage, like
the aren't like you know, theArnold Amateur, Like I've never been on

(11:05):
in front of something like that.That was massive stage and a massive audience
and it's all this lighting and allthis it's very sophisticated space. Yeah,
it's a really beautiful venue and youknow, like and for them, you
know, like you get on thesestage I don't know if they if you
know, like the um I don'tknow word, but you know, like

(11:26):
when you try something new and thatthat that feeling of awe. You know,
like whenever a kid you like youwatch a kid, right, kids
sees like a ball and the ballis the greatest thing in the world to
them. That's kind of like whatgood hopping on the stage as amateur is.
It's like once you get there,it's like, oh my god,
this is crazy. This I wouldnever expect to do something like this,

(11:46):
And I think it kind of wearsall for them, but at the same
time, like it's for me.It feels awesome when you get on the
stage, but leading up to thestage every moment for like the for the
last three to four weeks, I'mlike, why am I doing this?
This is well, do you feellike an imposter syndrome? You're like,
oh my god, I'm not ready. Oh God, what am I doing
here? My whole life is impostersyndrome? Like everything I do, I

(12:11):
feel like an imposter in But youknow, just kind of just roll with
punches, and so you're just like, well, fake it till you make
it, or I mean, howdo you manage those kind of feelings?
Well, in my mind, Iwas like, and what I think is
like if if anybody else can doit, I can do it. Yeah.

(12:33):
I may not be ready yet,but I will be eventually. So
you know, like I may notbe, you know, the best bodybuilder
in the world. I may notbe the best software developer in the world,
but I can work my butt offand try to become, you know,
the best I can be. Becauseyou quit your college master's program and

(12:54):
computer engineering to pursue bodybuilding full time, and I imagine your wife is like,
you did well, No, it'snot full time. I do it.
I do it part time, soI'm still a software developer, okay,
um yeah, And basically what happenedwas like I dropped out of my
masters, I dropped down my coop ed Intuitive Surgical UH they build like

(13:15):
the Da Vinci robot, and thenI started a I started a start a
small startup company that does, um, we build like LM LMSs and uh
CMSs and a little bit of likeartificial intelligence for the military. So for
people don't know what those abbreviations mean. CMS sounds content management state system,

(13:35):
content management system, learning management system. So yeah, it's like a place
where you store like videos and filesand things like that. Okay, I
think about your file system on yourcircle on your your computer. You know,
you go to your file explorer,you go through all your folders.
That's your that's your content management systemfor your computer. That's your CMS.
And then the learning management system isa place where you can take all the

(13:58):
content and you can just play itto the users. And it's just like
a course based lesson system. Sothink about blackboard, canvas, any of
these places that you go online forat colleges or schools or whatever, and
they pull up these virtual lessons.Those are all LMSs so in terms of
like your family, you know,you have two beautiful children and you know

(14:22):
you're married, and it's like,um, I imagine that it was a
situation where you told your wife,you know, I'm you said, I'm
tired of chasing other people's dreams forme. Yeah? Yeah, what was
she a little bit concerned or like? No, My wife is like the
most supporting person in the world.She believes in me. It's crazy,

(14:43):
Like I love her so much.It's just it's unreal. She I couldn't
do what I do every day ifit wasn't for her. I can't even
explain how happy I am that Imet her. That's so beautiful. Well,
everybody deserves to have somebody in theirlife that really like supports them and
loves unconditionally, and it's you know, everybody's worthy of that. And you

(15:05):
know, I guess I would askyou, like, you know, do
you love yourself unconditionally in the sameway that your wife loves you that way?
I don't know. I like,I think she has a lot more
trust in myself than trusting me thanI trust myself. But I don't know,
Like I've made a lot of mistakesI've made a lot of mistakes in

(15:26):
my life, you know, likeI've done a lot of dumb things personally,
Like I feel like might go tolike belief as I'm wrong, and
I have to do something to provemyself right. So I have to like
work to see if I'm right,you know, Like I initially my initial
thought is I'm always wrong, andI need to figure out like why why

(15:48):
I'm wrong? Because you have afrom formidable physique. And I would say,
like people, for people who admiremuscular bodies, everybody looks at you
and says, oh my god,and I wish I had that body on
mine, you know. And andyet as a kid, you were you
were a thick and curvy kid,and you're sort of at odds with your

(16:10):
body, weren't you. Yeah,So early on in my life, you
know, my family didn't know anythingabout Diane. They let me just drink
mountain dews and oh my god.Yeah. So I got picked on,
like real witlessly up until high school. And I kind of like moved away
for a few years. And Iguess some friends that were like they're my

(16:33):
best friends in the world, butman, they tormented me. But we
went out they forced me to gooutside play basketball, like go do things
and start being active. And fromthat, like you know, I started
picking up in like an active lifestyle. When I moved back to like Missouri
that's where I'm originally from. Youknow, there's like some family issues that
happened, basically, like I lostlike a lot of things, and then

(16:56):
me and my dad we lived inlike a little camper trailer for a few
years and eventually moved into like thiskind of like abandoned school and for things
to do, like I would youknow, just like I don't know,
move sheets of metal and stuff aroundthe house, around the property, and
I would put the roof on andlike like I would go out and do

(17:18):
things, and it was like tolike build our house and stuff like that,
and it I would always like curllike random pieces of metal and stuff.
And then so my dad bought melike this, like uh, you
know those like sand dumbbells and stuff, like those sand weights. He bought
me some of those, and Istarted like lifting weights. And I saw

(17:41):
like a one of those muscular developmentmagazines of Dorian Yates, and I was
like, man, that's kind ofwhat I want to do. But I
never really had the means to pursueit, not until like twenty twenty.
Right, so my entire life,I've always wanted to do it. Wait
a second, you've only really beenbodybuilding for two, like three years now,
Yeah, so you've gotten the physiquethat you have. Now, what

(18:04):
did you look like in twenty nineteen? I got pictures on Instagram. I
don't know if you can look atyou looked pretty big and thick already at
twenty nineteen. I mean you havea background in the military, right,
Yeah. So I originally whenever Ifinished high school, and I did a

(18:25):
couple of years of partying, andthen I went I went to the I
tried out for the Navy Special Forces. This wick. UM got into like
you know, like all the runningand swimming. I didn't make it through
as a washout um and started gettinginto like you know, weightlifting. I
found a friend, he was inthe body he was in the bodybuilding.

(18:47):
We used to train together. Um. I got out when I got out
of the Navy. I got intolike the fitness industry for a little bit
um while I was going to college, and then I got up to like
two oh five or something like that. Like I got pretty muscular, right,
But then I realized, like Icouldn't afford health insurance and all the

(19:08):
things that were going on. SoI went back into the military to do
the Missouri National Guard the Army.I had to go back to boot camping,
and I lost like forty pounds inboot camp and to start all over.
And then whenever I got done withthat, I started I continue my
college. I couldn't really do Icouldn't like really focus on college and do

(19:30):
bodybuilding because really, like it's amentally like exhaustive thing. So I got
into like running. I started runningmarathons and ultra marathons and stuff like that
that could be a gains killer.Yeah, yeah, that's definitely, but
it was like really nice because Icould, like I could stay active,
and really, when you run,it gives you time to kind of think,

(19:52):
right, So I would do likeall my homework problems in my head
while I was running. But eventually, you know, like I go through
college, I get through my knowledge, I go through all my internships,
I get my degree. I likeI was following the path of one of
my brothers that like got out ofour situation and became really successful and he

(20:15):
went to Georgia Tech. He wentthrough all his his programs, and man,
I just like admired like what hedid in his life. So I
was following that. But in theback of my head, I always want
to do bodybuilding, like I've alwayswanted to do it. Um. I
never knew if I would be goodat it, but I I don't know,

(20:37):
Like I got tired of just likesaying a computer all day. It
wasn't my jam because you know,like in some ways, for a lot
of bodybuilders, it's usually like acrisis ignites that movement or that direction.
But you know, for other peopleit's too it's like there, you know,
it's something that inspires them when theysee that muscular body and somebody else

(21:00):
been awakening. You know, forfor LGBT people, it's it's sort of
like you know, there's a there'sa sexual or a romantic appeal um.
But even for like heterosexual guys likeyourself, it's it's it's a situation where
seeing Dorian Yates as a young mansort of awakens something in you, you
know, this passion to build thatmuscle for yourself, to shape your body

(21:22):
and your idealized self. Yeah,I think for me too. It's like
I've always been kind of like artisticin in a sense, and so like
I've always like like drawing and andand like designing things. And I think
that's why like web development as asoftware rather than doing embedded or things like
that, where it's like you don'tget to see like the you don't get

(21:45):
to see everything you're doing, right, It's just like it's just more mathematical.
Um So like your body building heroeswhen you were getting started, Uh,
really it was Dorian Yates, LikeDorian Yates was number one? What
was it about him that spoke toyou? A lot of it was like
whenever you like listen to him talk, and it's just about like his mentality,

(22:08):
the mentality of hard work, dedication. This is what like like it's
all or nothing right like, AndI feel like it was like it was
appealing, like like was appealing initself. Yeah, the mentality that he
had was really appealing to me.And then what he achieved with that mentality

(22:32):
was really appealing to me, andI and I and and then his physique
was something that was like almost unattainable, and I like the idea of being
able to obtain the unattainable, youknow, Like it's just something about like
I've always been really um goal orientedand sometimes I set like really crazy goals

(22:56):
that aren't achievable. Yeah, Imean I don't. That's why I tell
people as like, it doesn't it'snot necessarily the destination. It's the fact
that you're going on some kind ofjourney or from path, you know,
and it's it's not even like gettingthere that you know, because everybody's like,
hey, you know, and whatis it. Arnold said to it,
like I'm worried if I lift weightsthat I'm going to get muscles like

(23:19):
you, and he says, don'tgo to never happen, It'll never happen.
Well. The other thing, likeI tell people too, is like
at any point in time you canstop, you know, you're talking with
some skinny person or like I don'twant to get too bulky. I'm like,
well, just stop right before youget to that point. And they're
kind of like, well, becausethere's a sexual you know, we're all
gay for muscle in some regard,you, right, So it's like there's

(23:41):
there's this like fear that you're goingto like it too much or this idea
that you're not going to be ableto control yourself or be in control of
your body. And so there's thatanxiety that some people have. And listen,
you know, I saw a lotof um, you know, amazing
physiques at the Arnold x BO.That was an extraordinary experience to go be

(24:03):
surrounded by ten thousand people who havelike the bodies that you only dream about,
and you're seeing them face to facein person, like you you know.
And I talked to other people andthey were like they were struggling with
their addiction, with recovery, withtheir self esteem, with their mental wellness,
because they were so triggered by beingin that situation where they're just like,
I'll never live up to this ideal. And I said, you don't

(24:26):
have to. You can just befearlessly be yourself is just okay, It's
going to be okay. It's lovingyourself unconditionally means then then you're going to
accept yourself exactly the way you areright now. And because you do that,
you go on this new journey that'sgoing to be an impossible dream.

(24:47):
And like you know, don Quixote, right, You're gonna you're gonna be
chasing that windmill because it's the it'sthe adventure that creates meaning into your life,
not the destination. And hey,it's icing on the cake. The
adventure is the destination that yeah,yeah, yeah, we we had that
in our We had that as aquote in our laundry room. We have

(25:11):
like a little board wash your closer, yeah yeah where we where when we
used to live in Kerry, NorthCarolina. We had like a little like
board that we put in our laundryroom and we had a little motivational quotes
and we heard that, like theadventure is the destination and the company you
keep, Yeah, you are thecompany, you know. The journey is

(25:33):
also it's the journey, but alsothe company you keep on that Germany journey.
That's for some people saying I justactually right that this morning. Really
Yeah, oh that's nice. Yeah, it is a pretty crazy journey and
the people along them with you becauseit is crazy what you can do.
Oh sorry, sorry, I'm sorry, I'm rambling. Well I was gonna

(25:55):
I wanted to add a little somethingto it, like the like the idea,
Yeah, of the people that youkeep around you, it really does
shape like where you end up,like how you feel about yourself who like
where you you like wind up insociety or wherever it's It has to do
a lot with the company you keep. For me, I personally, like

(26:19):
when I was like eighteen to twentytwenty one, I got really bad into
like all those drugs and like everything, Like I just went on the deep
end. And it's because I keptI kept the company of those kind of
people. But once I got inthe military and I transferred my like my

(26:41):
group my peers that I was around, and I started like seeking out people
I admired to be part of mymy like social network. Life changing because
I know plenty of people who gotinto the military and they got hooked on
stuff they shouldn't be. Oh yeah, there's plenty of horrible people in the
military too. Yeah, but youknow it's kind of it's but if you're

(27:02):
coming from a bad situation, rightand you get the option to the opportunity
to see people that come from bettersituations, you can kind of learn from
them, you know, saying Like, for for me personally, I thought
the situation I was living in wasnormal, and then I met new people
who changed my perception of what,you know, what life could be like.

(27:27):
Um, and like it's just it'spretty amazing. Like it's just like
little things in life you don't evenknow that happened, that just completely changed
the outcome of it. Your yourfather, two beautiful children. Oh,
thank you so much. And yeah, I wouldn't see that, you know.

(27:48):
I always say the best part ofme is my spouse or you know,
they live in I live in them, you know. Yes, And
your father just passed away from cancer, and that's great, um, And
I imagine that, like you know, there's a lot of strong emotions happening
there, you know, and andand sometimes when we go to the gym,

(28:10):
like and we're struggling, like Itry to remember all those of the
people that are not here, um, and like you know, do like
uh, I don't other than rememberthe Simpsons episode where Homer is like miserable
at his job and his employer putup a sign that said you will be

(28:30):
And I can't remember the exact signsign said, but he pasted photos of
his of his baby and said doit for her. And I love that
idea because it's like, you know, sometimes we we have to like pursue
our dreams, not necessarily just forour own satisfaction or vanity or in enrichment.

(28:52):
But it's also like we can showother people how to best live our
lives by showing them how we goabout pursue our own dreams. And that
I one pc agree some of thethings with bodybuilding that gets me um.
And this is like, this isthis is where I have a hard time
because I agree with that statement,and part of me like I've started changing.

(29:17):
I shifted my mentality when I wasyounger to like really kind of like
look at future me. It's like, would future me be happy that I
made this choice? Um? Andso bodybuilding is one of those things where
it's like you do a lot ofthings that really your future you is gonna
gonna hate. And then then andnot only that, like only like a

(29:40):
small percentage of people uh wind upbeing successful in it, like one to
two percent or whatever. You know. It's like, it's not like if
you went to college and you gotyour your degree in some sort of engineering
field where you're you have a highlikelihood like a seventy eight percent likely of
at least being above average salary um. If you pursue bodybuilding, um,

(30:07):
the likelihood of you making money init is very very low, and so
I think personally like it bothers mebecause I don't know if I'm ever going
to make that one percent. SoI always have like and and that's where
um the means. When I firststarted bodybuilding, like came into it,
like I wanted to make sure thatI had prepped myself fiscally um to be

(30:33):
able to to take on this endeavorjust in case I can't make it.
And chicken breasts don't grow on trees, you know, yeah, way protein
chicken breast contest like contests or thousandsof dollars. You know, you go,
how much does that country fee?If you don't mind me asking for
like the Arnold, I'm amateur,two hundred fifty dollars per class per weight

(30:56):
class. You did two weight classes, did two weight classes, one hundred
dollars just to sound on that stage. Just then that's the tanning, you
know, tanning Tanning is another onehundred and fifty bucks hotels day or whatever
whatever, you know, per night. I got an Airbnb. It was

(31:18):
like eighty ninety dollars a night,but still four nights in a row,
you know, three hundred and sixtydollars, you know, that's another add
on, and then the driving toget there. The worst thing for me
is my for the Arnold amateur.And this is where I just I cannot
say enough for my wife. Ourdaughter is she turned two months on on

(31:38):
on March fifth, and the stressof you know, like two infants don't
sleep not at all. She likeshe just got to where she sleeps sometimes
three hours on a row. Andmy wife is like done that in like
entire process, Like she wakes up, takes care of the baby, and

(32:02):
you know, like just does everythinglike the most like and she lets me
go and you know, do allmy training. I was doing three hours
of cardio a day. I waslike, you know cardio a day.
Yep, I do an hour andhalf in the morning, hour and half
of an evening. Like what kindof cardio just sady state cardio walking or
riding a bike or whatever. Butit's still it's like it's time that I'm

(32:24):
not spending with my family time andI like doing things that you know,
could be beneficial for the household.It's a huge commitment and so like if
you have a family, you know, you got to make sure that if
you're putting in that time, youhave something that can support them, you
know, and so that's where Iyou know, I got my degree to

(32:47):
make sure that that was going tohappen. Like I wasn't going to go
through the whole process without having acontent backup, which is goes against what
Dorian Yea said, Like Dorian Yatesis like he's still he's still one of
my idols, but he had nobackup plane. And that's what made him
successful was like the fact that therewere no other options for him. I

(33:09):
was sure he had he could haveworked out of Wendy's Oh yeah, yeah.
The guy went to prison and stuff, and you know he came out
on the other side and just likethis was like the best thing that he
had going for him that he couldsee in his future. You know.
It's just like because again that's anotherone where you just it's the people you

(33:30):
surround yourself with. Well, it'sinteresting right now because you know, in
bodybuilding there's so many people participating andyou know, I was talking about this
with another friend of ours, DerekBolt. Um. You know, it's
distressing because there's a lot of misogyny, homophobia, transphobia, UM really like

(33:51):
um toxic behavior happening there but onthe other side. And so you know,
as a divided country, as dividedAmericans, you know, we're at
odds with each other. But thebeautiful thing about it is, despite your
political opinions and your background, weall come together to celebrate muscular builds and

(34:13):
bodies on stage and all those politicsget put to the side. And it's
kind of a model, you know, as part of the reason why the
Olympics exist, or you know,despite the Olympics being this kind of like
horrible thing that happens to communities.But you know, the value of sports
is being able to put aside yourdifferences to celebrate something and and I love

(34:37):
that idea, but you know,and there's something different about bodybuilding as opposed
to say, like a football game, is that, you know, bodybuilding
like really requires that individual who's winning, who's on that stage, to have
the support of an entire community.It's their their spouse, their family,
their friends, the city they livein, the gyms they go to,

(35:00):
their coaches, there's a there's anocean of people that symbolize that person on
that stage winning the sword, youknow, and I and I and I
wish that more people sort of thoughtabout it that way because it's like it
sort of distresses me on Instagram andsocial media seeing all these these people just

(35:20):
kind of go after each other.And I tell you, you know,
bigots and hatred is catabolic. Itkills muscle. Yeah. Well, I
think the one thing is like everybody'slike keyboard warriors, right, whenever you
interact with people. Generally, Ihave almost zero negative interactions with anybody.
I think when people see me initially, yeah, like you know, like

(35:43):
I'm like usually in the gym,I wear my stringer or whatever I'm gonna
head. I look like a meathead. But if I interact with me
body, I feel like I wouldnever like nobody, I would never be
mean to anybody. Like I thinkjust the internet is just like a weird
place. Media is a weird place. But if you meet people face to
face, the bigot tree, thehatred, all that stuff goes away because

(36:06):
you kind of just your face withthe humanity of the person that you're you're
interacting with. It's a lot moreeasier to sort of hurt somebody when you
don't see their pain in the infront of them. That's one percent true.
Yeah, yeah, And you know, in terms of like a bodybuilder,
in terms of a father, interms of a person who wants to
invite everybody to participate, Like,how do you counteract that kind of just

(36:30):
you know, bigot Tree, Ireally I just don't. I don't.
I don't engage with it. SoI don't engage with bigot Tree. I
don't engage with hatred. Yeah.And I also like and there are times
where people like, you know,like I talk to people and they start
down a road like that, andit's just like why, like in the

(36:51):
end of the day, like,how does that kind of benefit you to
be so upset about something that doesn'taffect you. It doesn't affect you,
there's no reason for it. Justdon't get upset, Like, go live
your life and be like if youwant. And this is what something I
like truly believe. Right, Ifyou can't change anybody else, you can
only change yourself. If you wantto see a change in society, start

(37:15):
with yourself. That is so beautiful, brother, Yeah, it really is,
you know, And you know,I'm kind of curious to hear about
your thoughts about walking because it's likethat's the thing that I've discovered this past
year. And Mark and I myhusband here, we're going to start a
podcast on walking. We're calling itwalk it out. You know you've heard

(37:40):
the expression walk it off, right, Oh yeah, it's like Lis a
DJ hunk, right, yeah,walk out and I'll walk it out and
I'll walk it out. But walkit off means like to to you know,
use the experience of movement to takeaway pain and then walking it out
is sort of like discovering yourself orrevealing yourself to the world through the act

(38:01):
of you know, of movement orrepetition. And the human body was sort
of like built to walk, andthere's something like there's so something so meditative,
you know, it's it's it's uhas Madonnas say. It is almost
like praying is the act of justwalking through nature and in a in a
steady state that can really just youknow, get you in tap it gets

(38:23):
it. Like you say, youcan solve problems in your brain. There's
something that happens in your mind andyour I don't know your soul, your
chemistry, or your spirit that theact of walking can just unlock all kinds
of problems. Yeah. Have youever have you ever just sat um say
you like, say you go througha week right where you don't really do

(38:45):
much and you just watch TV.Have you ever noticed like how your mood
kind of shifts. Yeah, yeah, it totally. It totally does.
Like for me, like I fora while, like I got into like
playing video games, watching TV,watching Netflix, um, and it started
making me depressed because I felt likeI was not progressing in the way in
in something right. So for me, Um, I've started making a routine.

(39:12):
Like even though I'm not like prepor whatever, I do my walks,
I also like what I like todo. Um, you know,
like I feel like walking allows meto like like we we were talking about,
is think I've started bringing books andstuff, and I don't like audiobooks
anymore. I feel like that doesn'tstimulate me the same way that physically reading
does. Wait a minute, you'rereading a book as you're walking, make

(39:35):
sure you look both sides. Ohyeah, So I usually use like treadmills
or track climbers outside if I ifI go outside, then I'll put in
like a podcast or an audiobook orsomething like that, or I'll just like
sit there and I'll do I can'tfor some reason. Um, I think
it's just like way we've interacted andintergrate with technology. Like, it's really

(39:55):
hard to be in silence for toolong. So I always have to have
like something kind of playing in thebackground. Now, if there's not any
like birds chirping or something, Ican't like really just sit there and be
with myself. I gotta like havesome kind of background noise or like something
that's like making me think about something. But in terms of like, you

(40:19):
know, the transformation it has onyour soul, can you talk a little
bit about that, Just the actof walking, how afterwards or through the
process, it just it. Youknow, it's this like puzzle that's in
your in your spirit, and thenit's a suddenly they had to get it's
all unlocked. And at the endof it, you're just like, you
know, all these problems that seemsso insurmountable, I either have solutions or

(40:42):
they don't seem so bad. Yeah, I would say I think there's more
than walking. I've been trying toget into meditation. I think you can
do the same thing with meditation.And this is where I was kind of
come up with the ideas like learninghow to live in silence. Um,
the I don't know, man,there's just like always just so much noise,

(41:05):
and I think that walking kind oflets you get away and get to
yourself and get away from the noisefor a minute. Like that. I
think that's like part of it's,you know, the movement, but part
of it is just getting away from, hopefully getting away from technology for a
little bit. I'm like, I'maround at twenty four seven. It's my

(41:28):
career field, yeah, and it'skind of like for me to get away
from that for a bit is justit feels great. Do your kids all
want to be on iPads and likeCoco Malan? Uh? So, my
son he's you know, they're notold enough for that kind of stuff yet.
But my son, we do letterlet him watch this TV show.

(41:52):
Not TV show, it's like aYouTube channel. It's called Miss Rachel.
No Miss Rachel. Yeah, maybeyou said that too. I was just
like, that's gotta be a doubleentendre there something, mister miss Rachel.
Miss Rachel. Yeah. So we'vekind of integrated into a little bit of

(42:14):
you know, like videos and stuff, but we try to make it where
it's educational. But I feel likenowadays, like any kind of it's just
like I think it's Parney want toone to throw on miss Rachel whenever things
are going crazy, like she's thenew Barney, She's the new Barney.
Man, It's it's crazy man.Or have you now we're about to getting

(42:37):
the parenting stuff. Have you listenedto um baby Shark that that song is
a freaking lifesaver. I don't knowwhat it is with kids, but even
her, like our two month oldright like she's screaming the world's on fire.

(42:58):
You put on Baby Shark silent.Oh really, just calms from the
down, calms them down. It'slike breastfeeding for their brains, you know,
like because when I was a kidand my little sister was crying,
everybody'd be like screaming, and mymom like breastfeed or breastfeeder to shut her
up. You know. Yeah,yeah, that's that's in my head whenever

(43:19):
like my daughter screaming and I'm likeChristie Sky Yellow, Christie, you don't
hear feet or daughter without that tittymama and feed up the baby because I
got a headache. Oh man,I'm sorry. We're getting away from muscling
again. More than is all this, this is all tied to each other.

(43:44):
This is the thing about like Iwant to impress upon the listeners.
It's like you can't separate building musclefrom the rest of your life. Those
those things are tied to each other, you know, because if you can
manage one thing the other, thenthe other thing starts strong long, and
it's it's tiny, little, ittybitty tiny little things all it's what is

(44:05):
it? The compound interest? Youknow? Yeah? And you know you're
you're living with a family of awife, You've got kids. Your kids
probably want, you know, babyfood or chicken nuggets. Your wife's not
a bodybuilding that I know of,So, like, how you getting your
food? She is she meal preppingfor you. You're taking care of your
own. You guys have separate meals. How does that work? Oh?
Yeah, so we we. Whatwe do is on Thursdays and Sundays,

(44:28):
I cook the chicken. She cooksthe rice and vegetables, and so we
split it up. And then basicallyin the mornings whenever I make my breakfast,
so I make the meals or two, three, four or five,
and for breakfast, I make Imake my breakfast and I make my wife
and my son's well, my daughter'snot yet, but yeah, so and

(44:52):
then throughout the day. My wifecooks for her and the kids and stuff
like that, but my meals arepre pre planned four and three days out.
M M. Did the kids getinto daddy's food? And they're like,
no, no, no, Idon't think anybody wants my food.
Her dad we started making meals,extra meals for her dad. Her dad.
We just moved to Michigan so we'dbe closer to her family. Yeah,

(45:13):
and he's like two doors down.So part of the thing was like
we would because he doesn't like cookor anything. Uh, I would start
giving him some of my like Icook extra meals and give them to him.
He didn't want anymore. After awhile, He's like, I'm so
tired of this checker. Right,So this is how did you make it
exciting for you? Um? Youjust getting used to it, Like I

(45:37):
think the first the first year isreally hard, um, because you're you're
so used to all these different flavorsand you got the like you just got
like a more well defined palette.And so you you you're you you crave
things. But at the longer andlonger you stay with it, um,

(45:58):
the craving subside, you know youstill have them, and you still you
know, you want to try differentthings, but you kind of learn't you
Like, for me, I'm veryroutine oriented. Um, and so like
if I can schedule or if Ihave like an end date or a schedule
that I can fit in, likethose like little cheat meals or something like

(46:19):
that, I'm fine. But Ican eat the same thing every day because
part of me is like when Iget out of my food nutrition out of
sink or something, you know.Especially when we were traveling to Columbus,
it's like, you know, wenever eat that. I mean, we
used to eat that Panda Express allthe time, and then we stopped and
then we ate there once and Iwas just like, oh my god,

(46:42):
why did we do that. Itwas like, you know, like chickens
to call that orange chicken. Butit's just like it's not the same that
it even used to be, youknow, twenty years ago. You know,
it's like or ten years ago,you know, and it's like,
um, you know, with aCOVID pandemic, it's like all these you
know, restaurants and food places,they are all cutting corners and you're just
like this is like a joke.You know. So there's a pleasure in

(47:06):
eating, right and and that pleasurecan be more powerful than the pleasure of
the food, of the junk foodor whatever, you know, the convenience
of it. Yeah, I Ilike to have, um, a little
bit of moderation so you know,like whenever you're in a contest prop but
you can't really have the moderation,but you do need to, like I

(47:30):
think you need that satiation from likeyou know, eating something like like sometimes
like having a brownie or a cookieor something something like that like really does
like make you feel better, likeOkay, you know, like this is
a reward for all my hard work. But you just can't overindulge yourself.
And that's where the people like havea have an issue as they eat till

(47:51):
they're full. But you're really fullabout you know, way before you're done
eating, you know what I'm saying. Yeah, Like it takes a while
for your body to realize like,oh, now full, and then you're
like, oh my god, I'mway too full. And then you know,
your body will once you expel thatum, you'll do the same thing

(48:12):
again, you know, but youryour body is keeping some of those extra
calories and turning into fat. Interms of your training, like um,
what's your kind of approach ongoing offseason? Um. So, I've had
a different bunch of different UM training, different and different training methodologies. So
back in twenty fifteen, I wentthrough like the bpack Ben Pokolski's UM in

(48:35):
one forty nation training protocols. I'mnot familiar with that. What does that
mean exactly or uh So, it'sjust something that like Ben Pakolski came up
with as his own training regimen.UM. I I cannot remember too much
of it because it's been years sinceI went through it. But it was

(48:59):
more like high volume, uh likemore like like I wasn't like a lot
of drop sets or anything, butI honestly I can't remember. But then
I went to h Quincy or mycurrent coach. He's been consistently, he's
been my prep coach for the lastwell ever since I started. He actually
hosted the NPC Lade Muscle Classic inGreensborog Carolina. He is an amazing human

(49:24):
being. Um. He's the firstprofessional bodybuilder in the state of North Carolina.
It's been competing for what's his namedecades? Quincy Roberts. Quincy Roberts.
Yeah, you if you look lookhim up like he was one hundred
eight pounds and he looked like hewas two thirty. He was just dice
man. Um. Yeah, soI went through him. UM, I

(49:49):
pretty much use him. We workedtogether primarily for uh like prepping, going
through the poses UM. He's gota really keen eye for how to hit
the poses. UM. He alsoworks with me on my diet and stuff
whenever I'm getting there, and hemakes sure I'm getting as lean as I
should. UM. And I usedto do his training program, but it

(50:12):
was like it was a little toomuch volume for me. Then I went
to the d Y Academy. Iwent through Dorian Yates his program. I've
always wanted to like work with him. It was really cool. Just have
to um time to even chat withhim and his hero of yours it must
be amazing too. It was reallycool. But I feel like his training
principles UM weren't working the best formy body, just because I don't think

(50:37):
I had the muscle mass to beable to do these really short sets with
these like he would only do UMlike two to three exercise per muscle group
and three exercises like with your warmups, like your three exercise or your three
sets where include your warm ups.It was fifty percent of max, seventy

(50:58):
percent of max, and it's onehundred and ten. So the idea of
one hundred ten percent was you wouldhave a training partner right and you would
fail. You'd fail on the positiverange of motion of the exercise and then
you would also fail on the negativerange of the extra or a range of
the exercise through force reps. Soyou would have a like whenever you start,

(51:19):
whenever you fail, like on yourbench press right your the upward motion,
your partner you wouldn't stop. Hewould You wouldn't just sit there and
hold it and try to push andlike waste all that energy. Your partner
would help you up and then youwould try to focus on the way down,
stretching your chest, your packs,focus on force reps and eccentric movement.

(51:40):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, Andso that was gonna work really great
for growing. But if you're liftingby yourself, then you know that that's
an issue because like a lot oftimes, like I do left by myself,
and not only that, I feltlike my recovery time. Um So
he would only do four days aweek and you hit the muscle group once

(52:00):
a week, and so you havethree days arrest, four days on.
It was really great for me andmy wife and my family. But I
wasn't putting on the muscle mass,and I think it was because I wasn't
able to apply as much force asI wanted, because I just didn't have
the muscle maturity to be able todo that. So I've kind of transitioned

(52:24):
his training principles into something of myown recently over the last year, and
it's been more like I still dothe four straps, but I do I
do. I train five days aweek, I take two days off and

(52:45):
I do a push pull leg kindof style workout and I do three to
four sets or like, depending onwhat the exercise is. But I do.
I do three to four exercises permuscle except for arms. I don't
really train arms that much. Imean I may do one or two sets,
and I would not do the threeset range, right, So what

(53:07):
I had, and one another issueI had was whenever i'd squat or i'd
leg press, I'm really late dominantand legs have always been kind of my
strong suit. Three sets, Iwasn't warmed up enough. I would get
I would get strains in my quadsor my or pains in my psyatic nerve
or some for some kind of pinchor something, and it just and I

(53:30):
found out it was just because Iwasn't doing enough form up sets. So
if I'm squatting, I go upby ninety pound increments, I do you
know, eight thirty five to twentyfive three fifteen four or five ninety five,
five eighty five, six seventy fiveby the plates, You're actually measuring
the distance between one weight and setin the other and that makes it more

(53:52):
approachable. Yeah, So I justlike for me, like I work my
way up to my my max,my one set max, and it's just
I make sure that I'm completely warmedup and I'm not having I don't have
injuries anymore. And it's just becauseI I really focus on my warm ups

(54:12):
and now every what I've kind offound out is everybody's body is a little
bit different, everybody trains a littlebit different, and different things work for
different people. So I don't Iwould never apply, like blindly apply my
principles to anybody else, though.The best thing that I could think to
do for somebody is to give themthe tools, right you know, give

(54:35):
them the principles. She teach them. Like that's what I One thing I
liked about Dorian was like, hey, you know, whenever I talked to
him, like how did you figureout this was your methodology? Methodology of
training? Well he learned from MikeMentzer and and who's the guy that started
Nautilus that is uh Jack La LaneYeah, and so like yeah, so

(55:04):
Jack said, I get out ofa hot bed with a hot woman into
a cold gym in the morning becauseit gains results. So he based a
lot of his principles. Mike Mencerwas his mentor. UM. But you
know Mike Mencer whizzle was his principlewas once a week, Yeah right,

(55:24):
you hit every you just do.You could do one full body exercise once
a week. You focus on recoveryum, which makes sense right because like
Dorian, like one of the Dorian'sthings, it's like if you take um
a piece of sandpaper and you rubit against your your the plum in your
hand, right, and you justkeep doing that and you don't ever stop,

(55:45):
What's gonna happen. You're gonna havea hole in your hand. You
know, the same thing we applieswith your muscles, and you don't give
them a full recovery time, they'renever gonna they're never gonna grow. You're
not gonna build that tissue layer.But if you so say, say you
put that sand paper or you scrapeit for a little bit, and then
you give it a day or two, and then you do it again and
you give it a day or two, what's going to happen is you're gonna

(56:07):
build this callous You're gonna build thicker, thicker skin. And that's what the
idea is with the muscles. Youwant to build thicker and thicker muscles.
And so by adding all those tearsand then repairing them, you build bigger
muscles. But you got to beable to tear them. You know,
you got to be able to engagethose and tear them properly and not overdo

(56:28):
it. So you know, itbe there for a younger person to recover
than an older person. And youknow, in terms of body building,
you know, as you get older, rest recovery, nutrition, you know,
hormone replacement therapy, it's a sauceronereplacement therapy, human growth hormone,
all these things play a more importantfactor in building muscle because it's just like

(56:52):
you're not having you know, acollege student's ability to recover from you know,
injury and pain and exercise the wayyou would. Yeah, whenever I
was in like when I was twentyfive, like the Navy or twenty four
or something like that, it waslike I used to squat like four or
five or something like that, andthen I would go do windsprints with my

(57:16):
friends. I was like, I'mnot gonna let you beat me a run?
Are you kidding me? And uh, I pulled my hamstring and I
was out for like two weeks.And the next thing, you know,
like I go back and like,you know, I take the La muscle
relaxers and all that my body heels. It took two weeks and the next

(57:36):
thing I know, it was it'scrazy. I used to I used to
run too, man. I usedto Uh. I used to do my
mile and a half and seven fortyfive. Damn I'm not am I talking
to like Superman? Or I usedto. Yeah, I t I really
wanted into the Seal program after Idropped out of this wick and I just

(57:59):
run and swimming and all that stuff. I just really focused on that for
a while. Does there what's yourwife's thought about your muscular bill does She's
like, oh, I'm so luckymy man so fan or she's like,
I love you either way, honey. You know I think it's I love
you either way. Um, meand my wife we had uh I really
like So I'll tell you the story. It's kind of it's kind of it's

(58:22):
kind of funny. So I gotout of the Davy right and it was
twenty fifteen. Um, I wasout of a job. I didn't have
anything going on. I just startedcommunity college. I finished my first class
since you know, since getting outof the military, I had like I
dropped out of college whenever I waslike eighteen, I had like a one
point two GPA. Coming back inIt's like, oh, that's a cocaine

(58:46):
GPA. That's a cocaine gpa.Um. And then so so I met
my friend. Uh, well,I have a friend whose name was Kenny
john and we had a mutual friend, Michael RedWine. Michael RedWine was actually
gay. Um he Kane Johnson's like, hey, you should go hang out.

(59:07):
Like I was like looking for somethingto do. I was like,
hey, what are y'all doing anything? He's like, Michael RedWine and Christy
are going to the river or something. I was like, I don't know
who these people are, but I'llgo with them. Sure they are trashed,
So I started driving the car likedrunk or high. They yeah,

(59:28):
they were, they were drunk.They're they're they were drinking a little bit.
But it was like Christy Man,I was just we were just sitting
there chatting, and she's so intelligent, like super smart. I had met
anybody that like was like her before, and so like we're sitting there chatting,
We're having a great time. Shetalks about like how there's this like

(59:50):
she just she she just bought thishouse. There was this pool in the
backyard. They took out the pooland there was a like this big dead
grass spot, right. She boughtall these bricks and stuff, and all
these guys kept saying like, hey, we'll come put in the bricks and
built you your patio and all that, and so she bought all the materials
and everybody dipped out. It wasthe middle of July, and I was

(01:00:12):
like, she's like, you know, like she's talked about it. I
was like, I'll come build thatpatio. Like I don't get shit going
on like and it wasn't even likeI thought anything like like I wanted to
date or anything. I just thoughtshe was like a really cool person.
I thought I'd be like, likewe would be friends. Yeah. Um,
and so like I built the patio. Um, we had a really

(01:00:34):
great time. And the next thing, you know, um, we meet
in another river party with our mutualfriends and like everybody, yeah I know
it, and uh all of ourfriends are like you like each other and
were like, yeah, we actuallydo. And so then you know,

(01:00:57):
like we start dating. Right.I find out because I read for my
classes, she's the teacher for mysociology class. So you show you showed
up to class and she was yourteacher. No no, So like we
started talking, like you know,she's like about me going to college and
stuff, and we find out she'smy teacher and like it's a conflict of
inter so I had to drop outa class, but she was getting made

(01:01:17):
by giving her the D No,no, definitely not she so you know
she's like she's really ethical. Umyeah, I think I think that's something
that we try to share is like, um, you know, uh,
what's the word Not not ethics exactly, but um, fairness but yeah,

(01:01:40):
honestly, yeah, we try tobe honest people, you know, like
we just want to we we tryto do what's right. Um. Integrity.
We tried to have integrity, dothe right thing when nobody's looking right,
even when they are looking well,such a home wholesome guy. You
know, it's like, uh,what's not to like about you? You
know, and of course you're nowwanting to pass on the chain of love

(01:02:04):
that so we what discovered? Whatis it that? Uh? Jack Lelane
Begat? Who who was the otherguy the Nautilus guy? Who's jack Lelaine
Begat? Um? Yeah, MikeMenser who Begat? Dorian Yates who Begat?
You? And so now you're availableas a as a fitness coach for

(01:02:27):
anybody who wants to work with you. Yeah, yeah, So yeah,
I'm starting my own online fitness company, UM and lifestyle coaching. It's gonna
be at George Ward Fitness right now. I'm setting up the website U and
all the plans and stuff. It'sgonna be a month month system. Um.
You know, as you start on, you know, I'm just taking

(01:02:49):
on clients. So as I becomeyou know, hopefully I become you know,
popular, if I become more popular, it's going to be more expensive
because, um, my time willbecome less and less available. You sound
like a lot of those pageants queenswe know that are like I want six
pageants and now I have to raisemy rights. No, no, no,

(01:03:09):
but it's true though, Like mylike right now, I work at
a startup company doing software development.On average, it's like nineteen hours a
day, forty five to fifty hoursa week sometimes and that's the low end.
It used to be sixty to seventyhours a week. And so that
on top of bodybuilding, on topof h you know, doing this fitness

(01:03:32):
stuff. It's just like it's hardto fit it in. But anybody that
will come in, I'm going totry to bring the value, and really
I I can. I can helpwith bodybuilders, But what I really think
is the most under not underserved,right. The people I really want to

(01:03:54):
help are those people that don't understandnutrition training, right, because there's a
lot of people out there on theinternet that just feed like like they feed
you these programs. They're not sustainable, they're just not Most people can't adhere
to that for any any extent periodof time. You need to create a

(01:04:16):
program. You need to create programsfor people that they can adhere to and
you need to teach from the fundamentalsso they can just you can teach them
out of your job, right,Like one of the greatest things, Like
I helped my brother. He lostlike it was like fifty pounds right following
a diet. And he's like,I couldn't need corbs, you know,
like corbs are horrible. I waslike, no, calories are the issue.

(01:04:38):
You're probably e't way too many fats. Yeah you need Yeah, you'd
need carbs, like carbs. Haveyou ever heard of the twinkie the twinkie
experiment. Yeah, he was eatingtwinkies, but he kept it under his
u a certain number of calories andhe lost weight. He stayed in upit.
He knew exactly how many colors hehad had, and he would drop
to the weight that he expected bythe time he did. And kids.

(01:04:59):
That's how Dori Yates built his physique. And so for fort like, I
want to like I want to buildmuscle, and I want to help other
people build muscle, But at thesame time, I want to make sure
that people are living a lifestyle that'sobtainable and so like just learning about like
the serving sizes on those um onfoods, right, those cooking spray oils

(01:05:21):
where they say they have zero calories, that is the most bullshit thing I've
ever seen. Really, PAM cookingspray, Like the PAM cooking spray has
actually has calories in it. Yeah, it's oil oils fat that has nine
grams per calorie or per nine caloriesper gram. Right, a tablespoon of
cooking oil is one hundred and twentycalories. The thing they did, how

(01:05:45):
they made it zero is the divisorthey used, which is the number of
serving, say seven hundred and fortyone servings per candid. That's bullshit.
And they're definitely not going to bespraying seven hundred and forty one times.
No, that's like nobody does that. Like, I know, I get

(01:06:05):
about forty servings right, And sowhat happens is, you know, it's
just it's just math. Right,if the if the numerator is smaller the
nominator, it's going to be approximatelyzero. It will just around a zero.
Well, that's wonderful, Um,George, I really appreciate you showing
us your story and your insights.I'm you know, getting ready for peak

(01:06:26):
week and your your amazing journey andbodybuilding. You certainly you know, put
it to practice. You have aphenomenal physique. What's the next contest.
I've got really good positive feedback fromthe judges on this last show, and
they said, I need to donext Profoulifier. So I'm taking four weeks
of recovery and then I'm doing anotherpush for Junior USAS and may again.

(01:06:48):
Hopefully this time the third time's thecharm and I can go pro and then
take a year off and really trypack on ten to fifteen more pounds of
muscle and it become that contest inMichigan. No, it's in Charleston,
South Carolina. Road trip Yep,yep. Good luck with that. Well,
thank you so much. I mean, I mean, the progress that
you've made in just those three yearsis just who I mean, it's just

(01:07:10):
what can you do in the nextcouple of months? You know, It's
like it could be anything goes Yeah, yeah, we'll see. Um.
I need to put a little moremass on my upper chest and my lower
lass. I just need to beable to flare them out a little bit
more, make my waist look smaller. But are you flexing every day?
Are you posing every Yeah? Yeah, I still still do my poses,
my mandatories, I work on those. I've started a slightly new routine that's

(01:07:36):
a little bit more back in upperchest at centric. So hopefully you know,
take the judges feedback to hard andmake the proper changes and go pro
well, all right, well comeback when you got that pro card.
I believe in you. All right, Thank you so much, guys,
I really appreciate this. Having anopportunity to come on this is really awesome,
Like I've really never done. I'venever done anything like this in my

(01:07:59):
life. You're extremely well spoken,and I was like, you know,
just talking to you just had thisreally great energy about you and this big
heart. I know it comes fromyears of abusing anabolic steroids, but yeah,
it's definitely a large I'm just kidding, but Nino, you had this
really welcoming presence, and you know, I just was like ran across the

(01:08:20):
room. I was like, thisguy has a story to tell and and
I really enjoyed talking to you.And you have a beautiful body, a
wonderful family. I'm sure your fathersomewhere in this in this universe is looking
down on you and and very proudof of what his son has done and
the direction in your life is goingin. I hope so. And I

(01:08:41):
really appreciate that statement. Thank youso much. Yeah. Yeah, please
stay in touch, George, havea wonderful week in training, and may
the the swull be with you.And I hope, I hope for continuing
success in your podcast. Thank you. I appreciate what I'm doing. My
first contest in November NPC Nationals.I'm in the Masters. Oh wow.

(01:09:05):
Yeah, it's over forty. Soyou're doing You're doing the Nationals in December,
in November, the first weekend inNovember. Here in Chicago. Oh
wow, So you're really close tohere. Yeah, I live in Michigan.
Are you in the area. Yeah, yeah, we're We're in Chicago,
in the city north side of thecity, north side. Yeah.
Oh sweet. Uh. My wife'ssister still works in Chicago. Maybe maybe

(01:09:28):
we can meet up sometimes. Iwould love that. Let's go lift together.
Yes, let's hell big together,Let's grow big together, yes,
if you insist. All right,George. Well, guys, it was
a pleasure talking to you, andum, yeah, I hope we do
this again. All right, takecare of take care buddy, all right,
take care bye bye. George Wardlives in Union City, Michigan.

(01:09:53):
You can follow him on Instagram GeorgeWard eighteen. I didn't ask him,
but I guess he started his Instagramwhen was eighteen year older. But it's
probably seventeen other George Wards out there. Yeah, George, I feel like
wheezy Jefferson, George. I'm goingto the gym to lift weights. I
get jack. I'm going to goget jacked at the help center, George.

(01:10:17):
And of course you can follow him, and if you want to work
with George as a coach, becauseInstagram sounds us a little bit wonky,
you can send him an email Georgeat George Ward fitness dot com. And
of course if you want to chatwith us and go in deep in consultation,
you can do so by messaging meon Instagram. Faustofernos and Mark Philion

(01:10:39):
I'm Mark Phillian m R C fE L I own and just message us
to say let's grow big together.And you're so I know you're not something
you know, random spammer into aneasy teenage girl always from Indonesia. Yeah,
so it's like I think you areso sexy. I'm like, girl,
you're parking up the brown tree.I'm just tree, but appreciate the

(01:11:00):
compliment. We do not have thatkind of relationship actually blocks me. You
know we could we send us money. Yeah, you're send me money.
Yeah, It's like it's usually likesomebody who's been airbrush and you know,
it's like a nose with an eye. It's not even the real photo.
Yeah, and I'm like, girl, I'll come on. It's like it's
not real here. Yes, thisis really really me. And of course

(01:11:24):
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(01:11:46):
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(01:12:12):
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Bye everyone, Bye,