December 6, 2023 • 52 mins
Last weekend in Bloomington, Illinois, over 210 bodybuilders showed up to go for the glory at the NPC Mid-American Winter Classic. The competition was intense, but surprisingly friendly and juiced up with sportsmanship.
Let’s Grow Big Together!
The podcast that reminds you the biggest prize of all is the friends we make along the way.
Today we take you to the NPC Mid-American Winter Classic, where I as a first time novice stepped onstage to compete in Men’s Classic Physique, and like all roller coaster rides, it was scary as hell and tons of fun!
Plus--
• What’s it really like backstage at a bodybuilding show?
• The steps you need to take if you want to compete yourself!
FEATURED VIDEO:
Emma Hyndman, the Posing Pro
★ https://youtu.be/v1lxXCEXebA?si=nK9UaIlGwB8jYH9z
Kick your bodybuilding to the next level, fitness consultation now available for $99 (on SALE from $149) for a hour we look at your current workouts, nutrition, supplements and more, answer all your questions and set you on the right path to growth! Message me on social media: "Let's Grow Big Together."
FAUSTO FERNOS:
★ instagram.com/faustofernos
★ facebook.com/faustofernos
★ twitter.com/faustofernos
MARC FELION:
★ instagram.com/marcfelion
★ facebook.com/marcfelion
★ twitter.com/marcfelion
Let’s Grow Big Together!
The podcast that reminds you the biggest prize of all is the friends we make along the way.
Today we take you to the NPC Mid-American Winter Classic, where I as a first time novice stepped onstage to compete in Men’s Classic Physique, and like all roller coaster rides, it was scary as hell and tons of fun!
Plus--
• What’s it really like backstage at a bodybuilding show?
• The steps you need to take if you want to compete yourself!
FEATURED VIDEO:
Emma Hyndman, the Posing Pro
★ https://youtu.be/v1lxXCEXebA?si=nK9UaIlGwB8jYH9z
Kick your bodybuilding to the next level, fitness consultation now available for $99 (on SALE from $149) for a hour we look at your current workouts, nutrition, supplements and more, answer all your questions and set you on the right path to growth! Message me on social media: "Let's Grow Big Together."
FAUSTO FERNOS:
★ instagram.com/faustofernos
★ facebook.com/faustofernos
★ twitter.com/faustofernos
MARC FELION:
★ instagram.com/marcfelion
★ facebook.com/marcfelion
★ twitter.com/marcfelion
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:03):
Last weekend in Bloomington, Illinois,over two hundred and ten bodybuilders showed up
to go for the glory at theNPC Mid American Winter Classic. The competition
was intense, but surprisingly friendly andjuiced up with sportsmanship. Let's Grow Big
Together, the podcast that reminds youthe biggest prize of all is the friends
(00:28):
we make along the way. I'mFausto Fernos and I'm Mark Fillian. In
this series, we're taking a lookat the passion for muscle, adventures in
bodybuilding, muscle gods, muscle worship, and practical advice to put on the
gains. Today we take you tothe NPC Mid American Winter Classic, where
I, as a first time novice, stepped on stage to compete in Men's
(00:52):
Classic Physique. How did you do? Exceeding my wildest expectations, I won
who second place in Men's Classic PhysiqueMaster's Division, also known as the Silver
Medal for Silver Daddies. The rankingqualifies Fausto for a pro card in bodybuilding,
and like all roller coaster rides,it was scary as hell and tons
(01:15):
of fun. Plus what's it reallylike backstage at a bodybuilding show? And
on the steps you need to takeif you want to compete yourself. FASO
are you feeling alive yet? Ifeel like Lauren Bacall in applause. No,
listeners are not going to know whatthat is. I feel itchy and
(01:37):
bitchy and manic, calman, collectedand choking with panic but alive but alive
but alive Greenwich Village. What SoAlive was is a musical version of All
About Eve, which started Marilyn Monroeand Betty Davis was it was not Marylyn
(02:00):
was in it, but she hada small role, but she was.
She was. You gave me tolook like I was like, wait a
minute, did I forget that MarilynMonroe was in that movie? Well,
first of all, the star ofthat is Betty David Betty Davis, yes,
yeah, and the person who's comingfor her, who wants her prize
and wants her life as Anne Baxterand Baxter. But a lot of the
listeners here don't know anything about that, and so anyways that it's you know,
(02:22):
it's rivalry, right, and anda lot of films where people are
in competitions we think about, youknow, the movie Showgirls, or you
know, films like a chorus line, or any time with the documentary with
Arnold Schwarz zumping iron right. Yeah, there's there's this idea that backstage had
a bodybuilding show. Everyone's like,you know, I gotta win, and
(02:44):
you know, win it all costs, and those all the people going on
into her head, they just don'tshow it. Well, I gotta tell
you, I was so shocked athow nice and warm and friendly and inviting
everybody was. And even though wewere all open, when you're mostly naked
naked, well get me. Whenyou have clothes on and armor, you
can then be a little more gutsy, But when your balls are like front
(03:07):
and forward, you're a little morepeaceful. I think part of it is
like, look, our body fatwas really low, you know, in
the teens or below the teens,and so our egos were also depleted too,
And you know, backstage and inthe tanning room and anywhere I met,
people were like, congratulations, itis so great to have you here.
(03:28):
And for me, you know,as a person who's into cooperation,
into self improvement, growth, assetminded mindset, she was really inspiring and
wonderful to be in an environment wherethere were so many other people who thought
like me and had the same approachto fitness and exercises and muscle. Well,
they know what it takes to getthere, and so they have to
(03:50):
respect that kind of journey and theyrespect that and other people, especially when
you know it's something like that whereit's visual, where they can see the
work they did and the work youput into it. And especially you know
for your division, the master's division, the fifty plus, it's amazing,
Yeah, it really. I meanI didn't think I was gonna make it.
I mean I didn't think I wasgoing to studley your twenties and your
(04:11):
thirties. But every decade against thisis a little bit harder, that's right.
And for a lot of people maynot be familiar with the bodybuilding categories,
should we talk a little bit aboutthat, You know, everybody thinks
about bodybuilding. In reference to thefilm Pumping Iron, where Arnold Schwartzenegra famously
is competing against Lufa Regno, wholater on went on to play The Hulk,
right, and Arnold Schwarzenegger, ofcourse, is one of the most
(04:33):
famous actors in history, in filmhistory, who played Conan the Barbarian and
you know, you you son ofa bitch in proud to Governor of California.
Governor California, you're looking everybody tosign up for his newsletter. Now
come on, you know, hey, how is it going? I love
his newsletter. Actually, yeah,it's got to the Chappa. I was
(04:56):
hoping, you know, when wewere like backstage, I was like people
were sort of like getting ready togo on stage. I'm like, get
to the Chappa and there's other peoplegot it. But surprisingly for bodybuilders,
I was shocked at like all thebodybuilding jokes that I was making backstage that
didn't land with the crowd. Ohyou went there to just work on your
material, Yeah, I'm just doingit for the jokes, fellas at you
(05:19):
know, the categories, so yougot the big guys, the ginormous guys
that super heavyweight, so that's calledmen's bodybuilding. Are open, so like
you anybody can being open, butyou know that is for the traditional big
guys like Ornold and Luffarigno, whichironically, by today's standards, is really
men's classic physique, which is thecategory that I was in. So classic
(05:43):
physique was like people are saying,hey, you know, these guys are
getting really big and they're kind ofgetting distorted and scary looking lumpy, and
I've always said, you know,I want to get big and scare the
children, huge and freaky, bigand freaky, and so classic physique is
this call to the classic era ofbodybuilding of Arnold. And so the men's
bodybuilding you can recognize it easily bythe color of their posing trunks, so
(06:08):
the blues, reds, you know, fun colors. Men's classic physique is
more all black, which is verypractical when you're painting yourself with all this
tanning stuff. The black posing trunkshide everything, so it's very flattering,
it's very easy to work with.And then there's men's physique, which is
another category that was sort of likefor people who had, you know,
(06:30):
wanted to do more like surfer bodyor beach body, but those lines are
always getting blurred and so forth.And some people who competed in men's physique
also competed in classic physique, likemy friend Zach not So Little, who
I shared a little space backstage witha little picnic area, and the backstage
(06:51):
area kind of looked like, youknow, you know, it's just a
big open space with lots of mirrors, and people were throwing blankets down like
speech, yeah, or a homelessshelter a howless shelters have cots usually the
people lay on. Yeah, butbut it did feel like emergency shelter.
Yeah, it felt like Hurricane Katrina. And were like in the in the
astrodome and all half naked grammers bikinis, and but we were like well bundled
(07:15):
up, you know, and soeverybody was trying to stay as warm as
possible. And then when they tellyou, hey, it's time to get
ready, you get off, Youtake your your your bundling off, your
clothes off, and you get intoyour posing trunks and your flip flops.
And then you go to the tanningarea where they do one last pass and
then the oil you up. Andas you're waiting to get on stage,
(07:36):
you're pumping your body spoiling like theylike rub it in. So the tanning
processes they spray you with the brownstuff, you know, and then to
get that sheen that shine. Atthe very last minute, they spray you
with a proprietary oil which is probablycoconut oil, and spices and scents to
(07:56):
make it not stink so much good. Of course I always smell I smelled
beautiful, godeous, and and soyou're pumping up and you're getting ready to
go on the stage, and someof these younger, you know, competitors
were very anxious, and so Iwas turning to one of them and this
one guy he was just so irritating, annoying and just kept bugging us,
and I'm like, the people whoorganize this literally have people very clearly standing
(08:22):
in blue T shirts to answer.He was like, you know, in
the right place in line, andwhere's the division and blah blah blah,
asking us all these questions. I'mlike, buddy, he's just trying to
get in your head. Well,I don't know. He wasn't trying to
sabotage anybody. He was just veryanxious and he was and he and I
said, look, the people whoare organizing there are just a foot away
(08:43):
from you. Ask them, they'lltell you. And I said, just
be good to the man fancy andhe'll be good to you. A few
people did. They were laughing aboutthat, and the other the kid is
like, what's that. I waslike, it's a reboot MacIntyre song.
Don't worry about it, Bobby.Bobby's originally Bobby Gentry, but it's later
Reba covered it and that's where mostpeople know about it, you know.
(09:05):
But it was a really intense process. It is definitely not for everybody.
As you can hear from Mark andI's voice, especially my voice, I'm
exhausted, you know. I'm like, I've been training for this for two
years now to get ready for theshow, as you guys have been listening
to the podcast for that time.And you know, I had really a
coach that was very difficult and noteasy to work with, and I switched
(09:28):
to coach Matt Clausan, who youheard on the podcast you heard a previous
episode, and he was just reallyextraordinary and remarkable and just a wonderful person
to guide me through these really complicatedphysical mental training, dietary, you know,
cardiovascular steps to take and so likeyou know, you always hear like
(09:50):
cardio's bid for building muscles and stufflike that. That's a huge myth,
like do your cardio, drink yourwater, do your cardio. Even if
you're not in a bodybuilding well,you got to do cardio, especially if
you're like on gear and you're doingall sorts of things gaining a lot of
weight, because it's your high bloodpressure and it's a way to fight high
blood pressure. It's like I stoppeddoing cardio again. I was doing it,
(10:11):
I was real good, and Istopped and then man, my blood
pressure shot up right up again.So it's just like I really have to
like take that standard advice from themedical professionals at least three times a week,
four times a week if you canat least for thirty minutes, get
your your heart rate up to onehundred and twenty for at least a half
an hour. But I think it'sintimidating for people to do thirty minutes of
(10:33):
cardio. Yeah, and do youtell them thirty minutes They're like, oh
my god, this is so boringor whatever. I just tell people,
listen, you got a phone.You're spending seven hours a day buried with
your nose buried on you know,Instagram, Snapchat, whatever it is.
Just sit on the exercise bike forfive minutes and do that three times a
week. And if you can dofive minutes, why not ten. That's
(10:56):
a good way to get started.But you're not going to get anywhere really
unless you're getting the full amount.It got me. Uh, And the
reason that I'm giving this advice topeople, and I urge people not to
think the way you're thinking about it. Well, you have to give them
the end goal. The end goalis thirty minutes, because that's what the
reality is. Five minutes is notgoing to do shit for you. And
that's not a growth mindset, andthat's not a solution necessarily, because you're
(11:16):
already giving them something really difficult fromtheir vantage point. And if you tell
people, hey, if you don'tstart simple and you feel comfortable with that,
you can increase it. Sure,so a little is better than nothing
at all. That is very true, and then going and you can double
that. Then it becomes really likeI was like, you know, doing
(11:37):
seventy minutes cardio every single day prettymuch for two weeks, and I was
just like, I will say,that's a lot, and it was a
lot, but you know, Iwould just get buried and watching a lot
of Bob Fossy videos of getting inspirationbecause Bob Fosse is very burlesque, and
you know, bodybuilding posing is veryburlesque as well, and so you know,
(12:00):
there's this idea, there's there's asexual energy to it, you know,
and so you think of like MichaelJackson's posing that that stiffness, that
blockiness, you know, that's inspiredby Bob Fosse. I was like,
I was channeling Bob Fosse throughout myposing routines and then and then the thing
and it worked out really well.I got second place. Congratulations, and
yeah the silver and I and Iqualify now for a pro card. What
(12:24):
does that mean? So a procard, you know, and with bodybuilding,
because it's not part of the Olympics, this is a way to sort
of like create a I guess,a journey or pathway for people to develop
a career as athletes. And sowhen you have a pro card, you
can it's something that someone takes moreserious, you know, like the pageant
girls, they're like, I haveto double my rates now that I want
(12:48):
Miss Continental. You you you know, you can argue that you know more
about what you're talking about because youhave a program, actual card that they
give you that says so as aprofessional bodybuilding I guess, I mean it's
the word card. But I havean NPC national card now, but it's
not a physical card. It's justa you know, an image that was
(13:11):
emailed to me this day and ageis everything's digital. Everything's digital. But
you know this, for me,this has been a lifelong journey that's been
fulfilled. That started when I wasin eighth grade with my older sister dragging
my ass to the gym baturist.She bought this book by Gail Okanova,
who was a Hawaiian female bodybuilder,on making Beautiful legs for women. And
(13:35):
the book was very similar to whatBob Parris came out with Beyond Built and
Flawless. And there were sort ofbooks that were a template, a guideline,
Arnold Schwartzenegger's Encyclopedia to Bodybuilding. Youknow, we didn't have the Internet
in the eighties. You know,I had to basically rely on books.
(13:56):
And these books got me going tothe gym and gave me workouts, It
gave me ideas on nutrition, andfor me, it's like it's been very
touch and go and a lot ofmistakes and a lot of injuries through the
course of my life. And inthe last twenty years, I've turned to
bodybuilding as a way to overcome alot of chronic back and knee and psiatic
(14:18):
problems that I've had to find outwith a lot of people that are at
the gym. There are all alot of them are there because they had
some kind of injury, some kindof condition that forces them to say,
hey, listen, I need totake control of my life. I need
to get my body to work theway I wanted to work. I want
to get strong so I can fightthis thing. I still feel like this
is a dream. Like it feltvery unusual because and we're going to post
(14:41):
some clips of videos of me onstage, you know, because I didn't
expect to win anything. This isthe first time in the contest. Everybody
says, you don't win anything yourfirst time. And I also am a
performance artist. I'm an old dragqueen. I'm very comfortable and used to
being naked in front of an audiencewith my dick hanging out, so you
(15:05):
know, people are like, oh, what are you going to do?
Are you get nervous? And I'mlike, you know, this is actually
very simple. It was. Theperformance is only a minute long, a
little costume, no costume to worryabout. Your costume is your body.
You know, your drag is yourbody, fat, your cardio, the
the food you're eating, you know, the weights you're lifting, that's your
rest you're stretching. And backstage,what really helped me calm me down was
(15:30):
my dance and yoga training. Sowhile everybody else had all this like shivering
nervous energy, I was doing likechild's pose and downward Dog and cobra and
were you No. I was reallygood at not you know, touching the
ground as I'm stretching my body,you know, but I was also doing
the child's post before I got oiledup. So so, you know,
(15:52):
being backstage and and you know,centering myself helped me a lot to then
get pumped and get on stage andhold my own to people who've been doing
this for you know, decades.The people in my category, they're like
me, they're lifelong weightlifters. Butlike the guy who won Chuck Ellington,
(16:14):
he had been doing competitions over andover and again for quite some time,
and this is he had never wonanything really and so you know, and
he his conditioning was just remarkable.You know, he looked great and so
and and he and I met inthe tanning room and then we were like
just chatting completely naked with our dickshanging out, you know and stuff,
(16:37):
and you know, I'm talking tohim and then we're in the in the
backstage area and we just clicked.You know. He was just a he's
a doctor, a military doctor.He's married. I'm married to you,
you know, and and you know, I was kind of like told him
like, look, I'm married toa guy, you know. And and
he's like I expected him to belike give me sour face or something,
(17:00):
you know, like and he wasjust like that, you know, love
is love and all. Sh That'svery sweet. Yeah, he was a
great guy. And I also couldtell like I looked at their Instagram and
could see that they're like, youknow, he's like Martin Luther King's very
important, you know. And hewas telling me like how the challenges of
how difficult it is to be amedical professional in a field where there's a
(17:22):
lot of like misinformation. Sure,when it comes to vaccines, I think
like half it in the military don'twanted to refuse, yeah, COVID vaccination,
And he said that was really difficult. And he talked about like bodybuilding
was a way of like centering himselfthroughout the COVID pandemic and and just being
(17:44):
able to you know, mentally surviveas a doctor seeing people suffering because of
the poor choices that they made,and so you know, we instantly bonded.
And then Zach Little with the threeof us were just hanging out together
and having a great time, andall these other people started gathering around us,
and so all the like classic physiquepeople were just kind of like became
(18:07):
kind of like a team, youknow, so we're all rooting for each
other and it was just really wholesomeand wonderful, and you know, I
just want to do a shout upto Philip Burke. And he won like
three medals, right, he wonlike four, yeah, four statues.
He was just like full of medalsand stuff like that. Yeah, I
mean, he was an incredible physique. I'm at I'm glad you we got
(18:29):
some pictures with you with him.Austin Clement, who you know. I
met him in the tanning room andI was like four. He looked like
what Chris Hemslerks is trying to looklike with CGI. This man actually looks
like him in real life, andyou're like feet away from him. You're
just like, hello, sir,glad he was Actually we were competing against
(18:52):
each other, believe it or not, in Classic physique category B for our
height and weight, and I wasjust like, it's amazing, like because
I was just like, I don'tfeel like I hold on my own next
to them, and they're like,you look as good as me, you
know, everybody who were asking youabout your tits. Oh so there were
like quite a few people are like, you have really nice peck development.
(19:15):
What's your secret about that? Andwhat is your secret? Well, part
of it is just like you're tryinga lot of people understand the concept of
training your arms from different angles,but a lot of people don't understand that
training your chest also needs to bedone from different angles. And I think,
you know, they think about,you know, the bench press or
(19:37):
a hammer strength press, or inclineor incline. But I learned this actually
from Adam Charleton early on that youknow, most people don't have a lot
of upper peck development, so inclinehammer strength presses or inclined dumbbell presses can
help make your pecks look bigger justbecause you're training this muscle that there's a
(20:00):
really get used very much. Andfor me, like you know, it's
also genetics is not an answer ora solution, But for me, it's
like you know, you look atthe women in my family and they have
very beautiful, large round breasts.So you know, for me as a
guy, it's like it's kind ofthere is supposedly like a breast tissue or
fatty tissue, but yours is likeyours is muscle and it's as deep.
(20:22):
But the genetics is there for awell developed chest, you know. And
and for me also, you know, in my dance training is about sort
of bringing your shoulder blades back tomake your chest expand a little bit more,
but also your breast bone. Andone thing that's helped me a lot
too is foam rolling, which alot of bodybuilders don't do. From rolling
(20:45):
your chest helps to soften and stretchout the fascia tissue in your chest to
make your chest look bigger than itreally is because it releases the muscle so
it's not pulled tight against the body. Yeah. Shape Check said this on
the podcast I Think last year.She said, bodybuilding is the art of
(21:07):
creating an illusion of looking bigger andmore shred and in jack than you really
are. So the posing is reallyreally important. If there's any takeaway I
can give to the listeners about gettingready for a show is start practicing posing
now, even if you're not doinga bodybuilding show. It helps with muscle
growth, It helps with everything becauseit's like, you know, it starts
(21:30):
sending the signals to your brain.This is the muscle where it is,
and this is how to flex andactivate it. And so we're going to
post a link to some YouTube videosin the show notes so you guys can
follow along at home. And theseare free videos that are posted to people
but on YouTube that you can practicetoday so you can start developing your physique
(21:52):
and get ready for the stage ifyou want to. I also feel like
doing posing and muscle flexing and whatnot, especially like before workouts some times is
you know, it's almost like astretch, but for me, it identifies
like is there a kink somewhere inmy muscle? Is there something that might
need a little massaging to get methrough this workout? That kind of thing.
It gets you to feel your bodya little bit more and to know,
(22:14):
like you said, where you're at. Yeah, I gotta tell you,
you know, so for this,you know, for the contest,
it definitely came down to posing.But there was definitely you know, when
you looked at somebody who came infirst, and not necessarily for you,
but for a lot of the people, like who came in first or who
came in second. A lot ofpeople were very comparable on their upper body
strength, but then when it cameto legs, it could be completely different.
(22:37):
There was a lot of people thatyou know, they didn't really have
You didn't really see a lot ofmuscle definition. You saw a muscle definition
on their legs, but just notas much as that winner. It was
almost the winner always had better legs. It wasn't like you looked at somebody
and said, their legs are exactlythe same, but this guy's upper body
is better, you know what Imean. So you're saying that the legs
were more important of a factor intheir score than anything else. That's what
(23:00):
I'm thinking, because like when youlooked at the person who won and the
person who came in second, theirupper bodies were very, very similar.
That's how I feel too, AndI think part of it is like the
judges are human beings, and tosome degree, like you know, as
gay men, we're we're always lookingat each other's bodies the way that I
think women look at each other's bodiesa lot more than men, do,
(23:23):
you know, there is a there'sa very strange component because it's not sexual,
right. It's like the men thatare into bodybuilding are not necessarily sexually
aroused by another man's musculature, butthey do spend a lot of time examining
and analyzing another man's body. AndI've always felt that the legs are kind
(23:44):
of like the pedestal where the wholebody is placed upon. And so even
though like a you know, likea work of art with a great frame
looks better than just tacked up onthe wall, you know, a frame,
you know, makes the art complete. The pedestal makes the sculpture complete.
Sure, And so when you haveyour legs especially, I think even
(24:06):
calf development, my coach says,and I, you know, I don't
necessarily I kind of disagree with Mattabout this. I feel like even if
the coaches are not judging your calves, they're unconsciously judging your calves. And
so even if they can't see yourcalves, the calves start this chain of
events that impact the rest of yourbody. And for me, it's like,
(24:30):
I, I mean, I wasspraining and I had like a leg
injury up four weeks before the contest, one right after another. It was
one right after another, where asI was spraining my inner thigh, and
I was just like and so forme, like I had better thigh development
two months than I had on theday of the contest, and luckily for
me, like I was able tocarry some of that leg development onto the
(24:52):
stage. But it definitely, youknow, I think it actually cost me
the top prize now in high insight, even though I wasn't expecting to win
anything, right, you know.Now, I'm like, Chuck was shredded.
Chuck was really shredded, you know, And and he posted really well,
and he looked great, and hehad heart, you know. I
mean that that man is a saint. And I'm so glad I got to
(25:17):
know him, you know, independentlyof the results of the test of the
judging, you know, because hewas just such an extraordinary gentleman and such
a great person to share the stagewith and to share the top two spot.
You know, we both can nowgo get a pro card. And
people are like saying, are yougoing to go get a pro card?
I'm like, I don't know,because you have to compete in a pro
(25:40):
contest and actually win to get thecard, right to get the card,
Yeah, next year. And Iwould imagine, because it's a higher level
that the people that are going tobe there in your category are going to
be pretty jacked well, people likeme and Chuck, you know. So
it's not it's not like I'm competingagainst Arnold Schwarzenegger or something or Chris Bumstead,
right, But I am in theChris in the field, in the
(26:00):
in the space that Chris bump Staysis in, which blows my mind.
What space is that? Classic physique? Yeah, Chris Bumpstead and I are
in the same field. I'm basicallyChris Bumpstead. So I'm just like,
you know, part of me islike a static. I'm delirious about it.
You know, you can hear theenergy and the exhaustion in me.
(26:23):
People are like, what are yougonna eat? What are you gonna eat?
And I found this like pizza andsushi restaurant, and boy that that
was kind of a mistake. Iprobably should We had some friends come from
out of town. I should tellthem, why don't you you guys know
restaurants? Do you guys look atfor something? But it was okay,
we had some good food. Wellbecause you know, like naturally, Mark
and I just eat pretty healthy.You know, we don't fry any foods.
(26:45):
We're not big burgers and fries people, you know. And and so
when my coach was like, you'regoing to really hate this diet. No,
it's gonna be so difficult, andI was just like, this is
how I normally eat. The hardestpart was really like cutting out the car,
especially for breakfast. That was justlike almost impossible to do. But
(27:06):
you know, like having a bisonor a chicken breast and a salad or
you know, chicken breast and steambroccoli. I was like, I that
I this all the time. Anyways, you know, I had that today,
you know. So I'm just likeso for me, I'm just like,
this is not like a torture oranything like that. Well, so
now you know. So the secondif you ever do is another contest or
if you go do that pro cardthing, you'll know, yeah, but
(27:27):
then you know the pro card.This is also like, as you guys
have known listening to the podcast,we haven't been putting all out a lot
of shows. Some people you knowwalked away as listeners, you know,
We've taken time off work to gettingready for the show, and it's been
really expensive to do this. Youknow. It's like the food, the
(27:48):
training and time consuming. And sofor me, I'm like, do I
really want to like put my lifeupside down again to get to this point?
You know? For glory and gold? Some things you think about,
you know, or you know goldplated gold, because it's it's something to
think about. You know, whatdo you guys think I should do.
(28:11):
I'm curious to hear about your feedback. If you want to post in the
comments, send us an email ora message and Instagram, or you can
go to our Facebook group. Let'sgrow big together and way in Should I
go for the pro card? Shouldyou go? Should I go for it?
It'll be a lot, It'll bea big commitment, you know,
but if it's going to happen,If God don't do it, it won't
(28:36):
get done. So what else?Hopping backstage at the end of the event,
they had lots of pizza and theyhad all sorts of cookies and desserts
for everybody. Thankfully they didn't havethe pizza and the cookies. Like,
while we're getting pumped and getting ready, but you know some of those people
like in the Women's Bikini or theClassic Physique or sorry, the Physique guys,
the Beach Trunk's crowd. They werehaving to get pumped ready with the
(29:00):
smell of like pizza backstage, andI was like, Oh, there's nothing
worse than having to like exercise andsmell food and smelling food and that makes
you nauseous. We used to workout of the gym and the owner would
have a popcorn machine because you liketo give popcorn out to people. It
was like the worst feelings, justlike working out and you're just smelling popcorn
coming You're just like, god,damn it. No. He had a
(29:22):
rotisserie chicken machine and that too,and he wanted to cook fresh bread at
some point in time when people like, come on, this is a gym,
not a bakery. Didn't he buylike a hot dog roll or something
like that. It was like itwas crazy, like he was manic.
And you know, the worst thingis is even like at a normal like
I was working out in America's gymand thankfully, like the area where people
(29:45):
eat is pretty isolated from the restof the workout room. Sure, and
you know it, like you don'tsmell people, you know, eating their
rice and chicken or whatever when you'relifting, especially if you're lifting hard.
You know. But there was alot of times this past two years like
I ran to the bathroom and vomited, you know, because it was like
(30:07):
it was really really intense. Andyou know, like when you're changing your
diet, you're changing who you are. You are what you eat, right,
so it's like becomes this kind oflike spiritual journey where you're just like,
I don't know who I am anymore. I feel like Headwig from the
Angry Inch. We've broken down theBerlin Wall of nutrition and exercise, and
(30:30):
we don't know who we are anymore. Well, ladies and gentlemen, fausto,
here is that wall, and nowyou're going to try to tear me
down. But you must roll backabout one thing. What's that? I
don't know that Being the second placeis still pretty amazing, you know,
it is amazing. Yeah, itwas fun to watch because I was just
(30:51):
like, oh, it's not fit, it's not fourth, it's not third.
Oh shit, is he gonna win? And then it's like a second
like that it's legit. I thoughtthey had made a mistake. I literally
thought because the guy was like havinga hard time with my name, you
know, because I have a weirdname. And I was like, literally
he pronounced your name like at leasttwo different ways. Yeah, he couldn't
figure out, like you know,and I'm just like foul Stow And it's
like that, like the opera Faustwith a no or Bosco styrup, you
(31:18):
know, foul Stow. It justwent right, like it's like that new
name of a bodybuilding name. Itjust changed your name for the foster.
I said, you know, I'mlike Uzzo Aduba is like I gave you
that name, child, so youremember who you are, and so you
know, for me, I wasjust like all the bodybuilders backstage knew who
(31:40):
I was. Yeah, they didn'thave any problems pronouncing my name. But
like the guy who hosts the show, he he kind of reminds me a
lot of the Joe Wader, youknow, this kind of like like meat
and potatoes, midwestern kind of thing, a very bodybuilding kind of attitude.
Right. Yeah, So I lovehis personality, I love hearing his voice,
and I'd love to have him onthe show like he was. He
(32:01):
was a real character, you know, so when we're getting pumped. You
know, a lot of guys theydo pushups, they do body weight squats.
They bring their rubber bands and theydo curls and deltoid side lifts and
those muscles looking big and plumpy.But one muscle that gets judge on,
(32:22):
that gets overlooked, is your triceps. So I was showing them like,
hey, I picked this up fromlike nineteen eighties bodybuilding magazine. Isometric bicep
tricep curls, and so you're claspingyour hands together like you're you know,
and then you're doing a bicep curlwith one hand, but then you're using
(32:43):
your opposing hand as resistance and youcan control how heavy or light it is.
And then you flip around and youcan do you know, thirty forty
because if you can get to fortyrepetitions, then there's more muscle in the
blood and looks better. You cansee like I'm holding my own next to
Zach little not so little, andhe looked phenomenal and he won, you
(33:05):
know, and it's like and Philipwho won? And I'm like, yeah,
I'm not nowhere near their physique quality, but you know, to hold
your own pumping really works. Butone thing I started noticing was like it
was called budding pumping. So whensomebody else is like holding your hands and
they're doing the same thing, soI almost like patty cakes kind of yeah,
(33:27):
And I was just like, man, this is so hot. And
I was just like trying not tolook, and I was like, does
anybody want me to help them?But when they started, when I show
them the isometric bicep tricep curls,everybody was like started doing them and they're
like, this is a great idea. So I brought back an old bodybuilding
vintage technique. Yeah, it'sac goodfor building muscles, but it's good for
(33:51):
a pump. It's good for apump. So if you're going to go
on a date, if you wantto take pictures, you know, that's
what you got to do. Soyou want to put blood into the bisops,
you know. And I just wantto do a big shout out to
coach Matt Clausan. You know,I've had so many bad teachers and good
teachers in my life, and Iunderstand the value of being a good teacher,
(34:14):
you know, because that's something wetry to do for you guys,
and you know, when you finda good teacher, do everything you can
to bring them into your work,into your life, like treasure those people.
And that's you know for a publicschool system, like invest in good
teachers, and all other problems willbe fixed. You know, people sabotage
(34:37):
themselves, sabotage to their communities whenthey don't value that. He's been a
great coach to and he showed upfor the contest, which is amazing.
He didn't have to, you know, here's he had another client there though,
too. I think did they did? Okay? They we we both
won the silver, all right.Yes, I realized, you know that
Matt was a good fit for mewhen we started. I started talking about
(35:00):
my posing routine in terms of JosephCampbell's The Hero's Journey, and he was
like, oh, I've read allhis books. And I was just like,
you read, you read books,bold books, come on, and
he was like, yeah, Imean because Joseph Campbell is the person who
inspired and influenced George Lucas to writethe screenplay for Star Wars. And the
(35:22):
template is, you know, we'rehardwired as human beings to learn through storytelling.
So storytelling has a very formulaic templatethat you know, the superhero films,
any film, any good story,from Odysseus to the Bible to Star
Wars to you name. It isabout the hero, the protagonists going through
(35:45):
a series of trials and setbacks theysuffer in order to change, to transform,
to then come back to the worldthat they come from with new information
and new knowledge. It's the storyof Prometheus, right. It's bringing fire
to humanity, the fire of wisdomand knowledge. But Prometheus gets burned through
(36:06):
that journey. And so to me, it's like it's a perfect parable of
bodybuilding. You're breaking your body,you're breaking your bank account. God,
this is so expensive. You're puttingyour whole life upside down. So you
can develop this conditioning to hopefully inspireothers to pursue their dreams. And your
(36:30):
dream may not be a bodybuilder.It may be to be a ballet dancer
or a painter, or ride abicycle or do a marathon. And for
me, it's like going through thisjust difficult, almost horrific, you know,
process where there's so many challenges andproblems arose, made me realize,
(36:53):
made like really just want to sayto people out there, is like it's
really important not to comment on otherpeople's bodies. You know. Body positivity
is like even more important now thanever because I come from a culture in
Puerto Rico where people see you they'relike, you're fat. Yeah. No,
(37:13):
no qualms about telling somebody they've gainedweight, yeah none. It's like
there's this like it's almost trying tocontrol somebody else by telling them that their
body is not to your standard.But you never asked them like is a
body to their standard? What marketyou know about the iron the Golden rule
(37:34):
and the platinum rule. What arethe difference between those things. The golden
rule is do onto others as youwould have them do on to you,
and then the iron rule is doit to them before they get a chance
to do it to you. Platinumis doing to them as they want to
be done to. So it requireslistening, yes, and empathy. It
requires to ask what do you want? How do you want to be trucked?
(37:57):
Understanding that and then giving them yeah, and that's the emphasis. It's
really hard because there requires listening anda good coach, and a good teacher
is going to do that, youknow. You know, I have a
bill bills to pay, I doa consulting for an hour, which you
(38:17):
know now it's one forty nine dollars, but for a Christmas I got to
raise you on now. But forChristmas, I'm still keeping it ninety nine
dollars. At the end of theyear, then it's going into one forty
nine. And so I have acouple of slots because you know where the
holiday season is busy. But ifyou buy it now, we can schedule
at another time and basically we sitdown and look at your exercise, your
(38:43):
nutrition, your goals, and wework out on a plan to get you
to the next level. A coachmay be appropriate for you or may not
be. It may you may wantto start gear, you may want to
change your nutrition, you may wantto do a marathon or or something.
The idea of the of the consultationis to really hone in on what obstacles
(39:05):
you've been facing and making a planto get you to the next level.
And well, I'll sit down andanswer anything. You know. I'm I'm
you know me. It's like I'mhere for you. So if you want
to do it, just message meon Instagram Fausto Fernos or you can message
market. If I'm not I canhelp set it up. I'm not reachable.
(39:27):
It's and we put the links thereand just message to say, let's
grow big together. You know Iwant to. I want to grow big
together. And it's ninety nine bucksand you have till the end of the
year to do it. And wecan overcome any obstacles we can. You
can do it. I've had Faustohas had some good results with some people.
They've really enjoyed his services because heknows what he's talking about. Five
(39:51):
out of five or ten out often. You know, everybody who does
it, they love it. Anda few of you guys have done it
several times. I want to congratulateyou again on this process and and bringing
home the silver. I'm glad youplaced in the top two because I was
worried that I wasn't gonna let youlive here again bringing something home. And
I'm glad you did bring home aprize or don't come home. No,
(40:14):
I know you've sacrificed a lot.I've sacrificed Jesse the dog is sacrificed,
your family has and everybody you know. People think it just takes you know,
it's not just one person. It'sa coach. It's a it takes
a village, yeah, you know, it takes an Olympic sized village.
So if you're thinking about bodybuilding,think about who you can rely on.
I mean, of course you're doingmost of the work yourself, you know,
but there are going to be peoplethere. You'll have your gym buds,
(40:35):
people to support you, your friends, your family, and I you
know, sometimes it can be kindof like it could be hard to get
them to understand what you're doing,because honestly, a lot of them they
think, oh, you're going tobe bodybuilder. Like they look at you
like you're a freak, like there'ssomething wrong with you. It's like,
yeah, you know, and soit's you just you have to you have
to, you know, bring thehorse to the water and let them kind
(40:58):
of understand. Well, I'm reallylucky because I had a mom who helped
women breastfeed. At a time insociety in the nineteen seventies when doctors would
tell their mothers not to breastfeed theirkids, the doctors were being basically bribed
by Carnation, who produce baby formula, to tell them breast milk is full
(41:21):
of toxins and you know, andwe want to sell you carnation milk,
you know, is natural you know, from cows, which looks like nonsense
and ridiculous and so like. Therewas a group called La Lecha League that
women organized and had meetings to helpsupport each other in the absence of health
care, to basically guide each otherthrough all the problems through giving birth to
(41:46):
children, you know. And onething I noticed and discovered about the weight
loss is like which also learned thisthat women go through this when they are
done giving birth to the baby,they have all this stretched out in their
midsection. But a lot of thosebody boulder women didn't have that as much.
You know. It's tough though you'restretching, you're you're definitely posing to
(42:08):
hide the wrinkles in your stomach,you know, but it's there, and
especially if you had a tummy likeme. Throughout my course of my life.
Now that I was like, youknow, I got down to twelve
percent body fat, which is like, blows my mind. I went along,
I starting with you a little bit, and I got below sixteen percent
body fat. That's that's never beenthere I have, you know, not
(42:30):
since my teenage years. Probably Iwas I was, I was a chubby
boy. I was afraid to takemy shirt off when I was like twelve
years old because I was worried whatkids laughing at me at the in the
pool, Like this is the kindof like trauma that I've overcome. And
you think, you know, outthere, if you think someone's gonna love
(42:52):
you if you look different, theywill not because has nothing to do with
you. It has everything to dowith them. You have to do this
for yourself, you cannot do itfor somebody else. Now you can get
inspiration from other people and people likePhilip Burke and Austin Clement, you know,
(43:12):
Quinton and it's Ay and Sam,I mean Sam what Sam goth goth
Elf. He won like a tonat and he was so sweet and so
supportive. I mean it's like Iwon the crowd over. Oh, crowd
love to because he had. Hebrought them into his posing. Oh he
(43:34):
was wonderful. I mean he's justextraordinary and just you know, just a
good hearted person and wonderful and youknow, shout out to all the people
that helped make this possible. AClinton genesis and Janet Sanders, Tom kurtah
thick, Rick, wolf Mark Welchand his cousin Terry, who showed up
and cheered, as as well asJohn Paul O'Neil who introduced me to my
(43:55):
coach, Matt Clausen and Natasha Douglas, Joey Kierning and Nick and Charlie and
everybody who's name I'm forgetting who isthis there to helped answers and all the
coaches that have had throughout my peoplegave you like financial support, they gave
you emotional support, They gave you, you know, ideas and great advice.
(44:17):
And I'm still incredibly expensive. Soif you guys, for Christmas,
if you can pray to jacked upSanta to send a couple of dollars,
you can go to feastsafun dot comslash donate and make a one time contribution.
Or you can access our whole catalogof shows, thousands of shows without
any commercial interruption, just by goingto Feast of Fun dot com slash plus
(44:39):
Yes, and you can join usat Patreon at Patreon dot com slash feast
of fun for ad free experience andyeah, join us there and write us
a review. On Apple podcasts,on Spotify, wherever you find your podcasts,
get us a review, because thosehelp. Now here's the secret to
winning your contest. Right, Soyour skin is really really critical. And
(45:05):
the people who do the tanning andall that stuff they send you like this
formulaic information that is complete bullshit.And I almost like had to step out
of the competition because I was followingtheir advice and I got this horrible rash
and I was in the hotel puttingon nair on my back and it was
burnt, like it was like Cocoperu is like it burns. So here's
(45:30):
what you need to do. Donot use any air period ever you because
it doesn't matter because you can.They're the the nuralco clipper. Message me
on Instagram and I'll send you theproduct link. It's it cuts your hair
right perfectly, no ingrown hairs.You don't want to shave period, you
(45:53):
want to x folio eight months aheadof time. And that foliation your body
needs to get used to. Sothere's a product that the tanning companies make
that is the most wonderful exfoliating.I don't know what it is. I
guess they have sand in it andit just leaves your skin silky smooth.
(46:14):
It gets rid of blackhead. Well, the great thing about so exfoliating,
what it's going to do. It'sgoing to make your skin look smooth and
buffed out. That's why they call, you know, bodybuilders. They're buff
because of that kind of smoothness.And so that's something that happens over time.
But what it also does is anytimeyou kind of exfoliate, you also
build up the collagen levels beneath yourskin, and so that's going to make
(46:36):
your skin look healthier. It's goingto lift it better and be like less
wrinkling. That's why you know,men typically have less wrinkles in their face
than women because we have more Wehave a thicker collagen level underneath our face.
And then of course shaving your facewill build up the collagen level there
as well. And so all theseguys, when you know, beards are
(46:57):
real popular right now, come twentyyears when they them all off, it's
gonna be saggy skin. Now,if you're getting your beard trimmed, get
it done. Treat this as arehearsal. So do it. Get your
beard trim a month ahead of time, get your hair cut cut a month
ahead of time, to see howit's going to look. Because I made
(47:19):
the mistake of going to a beardtrimmer in the neighborhood the day before the
show, and this guy had noidea what he was doing, and he
started cutting my skin around the mustacheand thankfully you couldn't see it, but
it was like, God damn,he had no idea what. That's why
you have to You have to goto somebody that you trust in. Somebody
like is your normal hair guy doesn'tdo beard, So you went to somebody
(47:40):
you didn't know. Yeah, andthat's the problem and rehearse it because you
may be like, you know what, I can do this myself. You
know, you you can assess whatyour beard looked like, Like Mark's really
good at trimming his beard, andgoing to a beard trimmer is not going
to be anything useful, you know. Now, the manicure and the pedicure,
you don't want to do it toofar ahead, but it's very useful.
(48:01):
Let me do it a week aheadof time. So here's the thing.
Is like, if you're a nailbier like I am, don't bite
your nails. Yeah, don't dosomething that you're having problems with. Do
it days before as close to thecontest as you can. Because a manicure
and pedicure also is very relaxing andthe woman or the person that's doing it
(48:22):
exfoliates your feet. And I noticedwhen I got a rehearsal tan a month
before and I looked at my feet, they look like shit. It looked
like a like a turkey's legs orsomething, you know, and I was
like gasp, And I went tothe pedicurist and she did a beautiful job
(48:43):
on my feet and that you know, all these things are subconscious and they
really do affect you. And soyou know, all these things and one
advice that I got from Nicole Wells, who's a bodybuilder who's done our show,
she said, you know, it'sreally like Sam is somebody who's a
great example of this. You haveto really just enjoy being there and enjoy
(49:06):
being seen. So anything you cando to like now is practice being in
front of an audience, whether thatstand up comedy or reading poetry or you
know, dance or taking a danceclass. Anything where you can be using
your body in front of of anperformer be a performer helps a lot,
(49:27):
you know, because some of thesepoor guys is like you know, like
some people get into bridezilla mode.You know, they get nervous and anxious
and stuff, and that impacts yourperformance on stage. You're flexing, You're
not grounded there. You know,it tightens you up sometimes, you know,
and you want to be loose andopen, and so you can contract
and expand because I had, like, you know, there's so many things
(49:50):
that are fighting for your attention andyou're just like, have to get grounded.
And ultimately, you know, theultimate prize in all this, as
we said earlier, is the friendsyou make along the way. It's the
people that you can grow closer to. Your friends, your family, your
spouse, your coach, your teachers, your co your community is so important.
(50:15):
That's ultimately the real prize is understandingwho you are as a person,
because bodybuilding is going to make youface your demons, and you might not
like what you're seeing. What demondid you face? You know? The
weirdest demon that I faced was cravingsbecause as your you know, you are
what you eat, and when youtake away some of the things that you're
(50:37):
used to eating, your body respondsin very unusual ways. And so I
was like at the grocery store wantingto buy a box of chocolates, and
I'm like what am I fourteen yearold girl or boy, you know,
trying to buy a Valentine's Day giftfor their loved one or something. It
was just the weirdest thing, Andit was like I don't have like I
don't see myself as an addict,but I was like craving like drugs and
(51:00):
alcohol and all sorts of weird shitthat is like never crosses my mind.
And it was like doing the cardioand weightlifting and making sure I had the
water are things that like grounded me. But I can see like people who
are struggling with recovery having a reallyhard time with this process because it's just
(51:21):
opening up a Pandora's box of thingsinside you you didn't realize you had to
deal with. And so, youknow, being on time for things,
or being organized or just anything thatpersonal growth issues that you've put in the
back burner or you've learned to manageall of a sudden make themselves acutely known.
(51:44):
And so having the support of yourfriends and family and your coach is
even more vital in getting you tothat finish line, because otherwise you're lost
in the desert. We want tothank you guys, so much for join
learning us on Let's Grow Big Together. As is A is a production A
(52:04):
Feast of Fun, one of theoldest podcasts in the world since two thousand
and five. Two thousand and fivecoming up on our nineteenth season next year,
nineteen seasons Wild and so we're goingto go back to our regular schedule
programming with all kinds of amazing artistsand provocateurs of this world, and of
course athletes and bodybuilders coming up soon. And we want to thank you so
(52:30):
much for listening to the show,and of course write a review. If
you don't like the show, writea review too, tell us what you
think exactly. And I'm Fausto Ferns, I'm Mark Phillion. Thanks for listening,
everybody, Bye bye,
Last weekend in Bloomington, Illinois,over two hundred and ten bodybuilders showed up
to go for the glory at theNPC Mid American Winter Classic. The competition
was intense, but surprisingly friendly andjuiced up with sportsmanship. Let's Grow Big
Together, the podcast that reminds youthe biggest prize of all is the friends
(00:28):
we make along the way. I'mFausto Fernos and I'm Mark Fillian. In
this series, we're taking a lookat the passion for muscle, adventures in
bodybuilding, muscle gods, muscle worship, and practical advice to put on the
gains. Today we take you tothe NPC Mid American Winter Classic, where
I, as a first time novice, stepped on stage to compete in Men's
(00:52):
Classic Physique. How did you do? Exceeding my wildest expectations, I won
who second place in Men's Classic PhysiqueMaster's Division, also known as the Silver
Medal for Silver Daddies. The rankingqualifies Fausto for a pro card in bodybuilding,
and like all roller coaster rides,it was scary as hell and tons
(01:15):
of fun. Plus what's it reallylike backstage at a bodybuilding show? And
on the steps you need to takeif you want to compete yourself. FASO
are you feeling alive yet? Ifeel like Lauren Bacall in applause. No,
listeners are not going to know whatthat is. I feel itchy and
(01:37):
bitchy and manic, calman, collectedand choking with panic but alive but alive
but alive Greenwich Village. What SoAlive was is a musical version of All
About Eve, which started Marilyn Monroeand Betty Davis was it was not Marylyn
(02:00):
was in it, but she hada small role, but she was.
She was. You gave me tolook like I was like, wait a
minute, did I forget that MarilynMonroe was in that movie? Well,
first of all, the star ofthat is Betty David Betty Davis, yes,
yeah, and the person who's comingfor her, who wants her prize
and wants her life as Anne Baxterand Baxter. But a lot of the
listeners here don't know anything about that, and so anyways that it's you know,
(02:22):
it's rivalry, right, and anda lot of films where people are
in competitions we think about, youknow, the movie Showgirls, or you
know, films like a chorus line, or any time with the documentary with
Arnold Schwarz zumping iron right. Yeah, there's there's this idea that backstage had
a bodybuilding show. Everyone's like,you know, I gotta win, and
(02:44):
you know, win it all costs, and those all the people going on
into her head, they just don'tshow it. Well, I gotta tell
you, I was so shocked athow nice and warm and friendly and inviting
everybody was. And even though wewere all open, when you're mostly naked
naked, well get me. Whenyou have clothes on and armor, you
can then be a little more gutsy, But when your balls are like front
(03:07):
and forward, you're a little morepeaceful. I think part of it is
like, look, our body fatwas really low, you know, in
the teens or below the teens,and so our egos were also depleted too,
And you know, backstage and inthe tanning room and anywhere I met,
people were like, congratulations, itis so great to have you here.
(03:28):
And for me, you know,as a person who's into cooperation,
into self improvement, growth, assetminded mindset, she was really inspiring and
wonderful to be in an environment wherethere were so many other people who thought
like me and had the same approachto fitness and exercises and muscle. Well,
they know what it takes to getthere, and so they have to
(03:50):
respect that kind of journey and theyrespect that and other people, especially when
you know it's something like that whereit's visual, where they can see the
work they did and the work youput into it. And especially you know
for your division, the master's division, the fifty plus, it's amazing,
Yeah, it really. I meanI didn't think I was gonna make it.
I mean I didn't think I wasgoing to studley your twenties and your
(04:11):
thirties. But every decade against thisis a little bit harder, that's right.
And for a lot of people maynot be familiar with the bodybuilding categories,
should we talk a little bit aboutthat, You know, everybody thinks
about bodybuilding. In reference to thefilm Pumping Iron, where Arnold Schwartzenegra famously
is competing against Lufa Regno, wholater on went on to play The Hulk,
right, and Arnold Schwarzenegger, ofcourse, is one of the most
(04:33):
famous actors in history, in filmhistory, who played Conan the Barbarian and
you know, you you son ofa bitch in proud to Governor of California.
Governor California, you're looking everybody tosign up for his newsletter. Now
come on, you know, hey, how is it going? I love
his newsletter. Actually, yeah,it's got to the Chappa. I was
(04:56):
hoping, you know, when wewere like backstage, I was like people
were sort of like getting ready togo on stage. I'm like, get
to the Chappa and there's other peoplegot it. But surprisingly for bodybuilders,
I was shocked at like all thebodybuilding jokes that I was making backstage that
didn't land with the crowd. Ohyou went there to just work on your
material, Yeah, I'm just doingit for the jokes, fellas at you
(05:19):
know, the categories, so yougot the big guys, the ginormous guys
that super heavyweight, so that's calledmen's bodybuilding. Are open, so like
you anybody can being open, butyou know that is for the traditional big
guys like Ornold and Luffarigno, whichironically, by today's standards, is really
men's classic physique, which is thecategory that I was in. So classic
(05:43):
physique was like people are saying,hey, you know, these guys are
getting really big and they're kind ofgetting distorted and scary looking lumpy, and
I've always said, you know,I want to get big and scare the
children, huge and freaky, bigand freaky, and so classic physique is
this call to the classic era ofbodybuilding of Arnold. And so the men's
bodybuilding you can recognize it easily bythe color of their posing trunks, so
(06:08):
the blues, reds, you know, fun colors. Men's classic physique is
more all black, which is verypractical when you're painting yourself with all this
tanning stuff. The black posing trunkshide everything, so it's very flattering,
it's very easy to work with.And then there's men's physique, which is
another category that was sort of likefor people who had, you know,
(06:30):
wanted to do more like surfer bodyor beach body, but those lines are
always getting blurred and so forth.And some people who competed in men's physique
also competed in classic physique, likemy friend Zach not So Little, who
I shared a little space backstage witha little picnic area, and the backstage
(06:51):
area kind of looked like, youknow, you know, it's just a
big open space with lots of mirrors, and people were throwing blankets down like
speech, yeah, or a homelessshelter a howless shelters have cots usually the
people lay on. Yeah, butbut it did feel like emergency shelter.
Yeah, it felt like Hurricane Katrina. And were like in the in the
astrodome and all half naked grammers bikinis, and but we were like well bundled
(07:15):
up, you know, and soeverybody was trying to stay as warm as
possible. And then when they tellyou, hey, it's time to get
ready, you get off, Youtake your your your bundling off, your
clothes off, and you get intoyour posing trunks and your flip flops.
And then you go to the tanningarea where they do one last pass and
then the oil you up. Andas you're waiting to get on stage,
(07:36):
you're pumping your body spoiling like theylike rub it in. So the tanning
processes they spray you with the brownstuff, you know, and then to
get that sheen that shine. Atthe very last minute, they spray you
with a proprietary oil which is probablycoconut oil, and spices and scents to
(07:56):
make it not stink so much good. Of course I always smell I smelled
beautiful, godeous, and and soyou're pumping up and you're getting ready to
go on the stage, and someof these younger, you know, competitors
were very anxious, and so Iwas turning to one of them and this
one guy he was just so irritating, annoying and just kept bugging us,
and I'm like, the people whoorganize this literally have people very clearly standing
(08:22):
in blue T shirts to answer.He was like, you know, in
the right place in line, andwhere's the division and blah blah blah,
asking us all these questions. I'mlike, buddy, he's just trying to
get in your head. Well,I don't know. He wasn't trying to
sabotage anybody. He was just veryanxious and he was and he and I
said, look, the people whoare organizing there are just a foot away
(08:43):
from you. Ask them, they'lltell you. And I said, just
be good to the man fancy andhe'll be good to you. A few
people did. They were laughing aboutthat, and the other the kid is
like, what's that. I waslike, it's a reboot MacIntyre song.
Don't worry about it, Bobby.Bobby's originally Bobby Gentry, but it's later
Reba covered it and that's where mostpeople know about it, you know.
(09:05):
But it was a really intense process. It is definitely not for everybody.
As you can hear from Mark andI's voice, especially my voice, I'm
exhausted, you know. I'm like, I've been training for this for two
years now to get ready for theshow, as you guys have been listening
to the podcast for that time.And you know, I had really a
coach that was very difficult and noteasy to work with, and I switched
(09:28):
to coach Matt Clausan, who youheard on the podcast you heard a previous
episode, and he was just reallyextraordinary and remarkable and just a wonderful person
to guide me through these really complicatedphysical mental training, dietary, you know,
cardiovascular steps to take and so likeyou know, you always hear like
(09:50):
cardio's bid for building muscles and stufflike that. That's a huge myth,
like do your cardio, drink yourwater, do your cardio. Even if
you're not in a bodybuilding well,you got to do cardio, especially if
you're like on gear and you're doingall sorts of things gaining a lot of
weight, because it's your high bloodpressure and it's a way to fight high
blood pressure. It's like I stoppeddoing cardio again. I was doing it,
(10:11):
I was real good, and Istopped and then man, my blood
pressure shot up right up again.So it's just like I really have to
like take that standard advice from themedical professionals at least three times a week,
four times a week if you canat least for thirty minutes, get
your your heart rate up to onehundred and twenty for at least a half
an hour. But I think it'sintimidating for people to do thirty minutes of
(10:33):
cardio. Yeah, and do youtell them thirty minutes They're like, oh
my god, this is so boringor whatever. I just tell people,
listen, you got a phone.You're spending seven hours a day buried with
your nose buried on you know,Instagram, Snapchat, whatever it is.
Just sit on the exercise bike forfive minutes and do that three times a
week. And if you can dofive minutes, why not ten. That's
(10:56):
a good way to get started.But you're not going to get anywhere really
unless you're getting the full amount.It got me. Uh, And the
reason that I'm giving this advice topeople, and I urge people not to
think the way you're thinking about it. Well, you have to give them
the end goal. The end goalis thirty minutes, because that's what the
reality is. Five minutes is notgoing to do shit for you. And
that's not a growth mindset, andthat's not a solution necessarily, because you're
(11:16):
already giving them something really difficult fromtheir vantage point. And if you tell
people, hey, if you don'tstart simple and you feel comfortable with that,
you can increase it. Sure,so a little is better than nothing
at all. That is very true, and then going and you can double
that. Then it becomes really likeI was like, you know, doing
(11:37):
seventy minutes cardio every single day prettymuch for two weeks, and I was
just like, I will say,that's a lot, and it was a
lot, but you know, Iwould just get buried and watching a lot
of Bob Fossy videos of getting inspirationbecause Bob Fosse is very burlesque, and
you know, bodybuilding posing is veryburlesque as well, and so you know,
(12:00):
there's this idea, there's there's asexual energy to it, you know,
and so you think of like MichaelJackson's posing that that stiffness, that
blockiness, you know, that's inspiredby Bob Fosse. I was like,
I was channeling Bob Fosse throughout myposing routines and then and then the thing
and it worked out really well.I got second place. Congratulations, and
yeah the silver and I and Iqualify now for a pro card. What
(12:24):
does that mean? So a procard, you know, and with bodybuilding,
because it's not part of the Olympics, this is a way to sort
of like create a I guess,a journey or pathway for people to develop
a career as athletes. And sowhen you have a pro card, you
can it's something that someone takes moreserious, you know, like the pageant
girls, they're like, I haveto double my rates now that I want
(12:48):
Miss Continental. You you you know, you can argue that you know more
about what you're talking about because youhave a program, actual card that they
give you that says so as aprofessional bodybuilding I guess, I mean it's
the word card. But I havean NPC national card now, but it's
not a physical card. It's justa you know, an image that was
(13:11):
emailed to me this day and ageis everything's digital. Everything's digital. But
you know this, for me,this has been a lifelong journey that's been
fulfilled. That started when I wasin eighth grade with my older sister dragging
my ass to the gym baturist.She bought this book by Gail Okanova,
who was a Hawaiian female bodybuilder,on making Beautiful legs for women. And
(13:35):
the book was very similar to whatBob Parris came out with Beyond Built and
Flawless. And there were sort ofbooks that were a template, a guideline,
Arnold Schwartzenegger's Encyclopedia to Bodybuilding. Youknow, we didn't have the Internet
in the eighties. You know,I had to basically rely on books.
(13:56):
And these books got me going tothe gym and gave me workouts, It
gave me ideas on nutrition, andfor me, it's like it's been very
touch and go and a lot ofmistakes and a lot of injuries through the
course of my life. And inthe last twenty years, I've turned to
bodybuilding as a way to overcome alot of chronic back and knee and psiatic
(14:18):
problems that I've had to find outwith a lot of people that are at
the gym. There are all alot of them are there because they had
some kind of injury, some kindof condition that forces them to say,
hey, listen, I need totake control of my life. I need
to get my body to work theway I wanted to work. I want
to get strong so I can fightthis thing. I still feel like this
is a dream. Like it feltvery unusual because and we're going to post
(14:41):
some clips of videos of me onstage, you know, because I didn't
expect to win anything. This isthe first time in the contest. Everybody
says, you don't win anything yourfirst time. And I also am a
performance artist. I'm an old dragqueen. I'm very comfortable and used to
being naked in front of an audiencewith my dick hanging out, so you
(15:05):
know, people are like, oh, what are you going to do?
Are you get nervous? And I'mlike, you know, this is actually
very simple. It was. Theperformance is only a minute long, a
little costume, no costume to worryabout. Your costume is your body.
You know, your drag is yourbody, fat, your cardio, the
the food you're eating, you know, the weights you're lifting, that's your
rest you're stretching. And backstage,what really helped me calm me down was
(15:30):
my dance and yoga training. Sowhile everybody else had all this like shivering
nervous energy, I was doing likechild's pose and downward Dog and cobra and
were you No. I was reallygood at not you know, touching the
ground as I'm stretching my body,you know, but I was also doing
the child's post before I got oiledup. So so, you know,
(15:52):
being backstage and and you know,centering myself helped me a lot to then
get pumped and get on stage andhold my own to people who've been doing
this for you know, decades.The people in my category, they're like
me, they're lifelong weightlifters. Butlike the guy who won Chuck Ellington,
(16:14):
he had been doing competitions over andover and again for quite some time,
and this is he had never wonanything really and so you know, and
he his conditioning was just remarkable.You know, he looked great and so
and and he and I met inthe tanning room and then we were like
just chatting completely naked with our dickshanging out, you know and stuff,
(16:37):
and you know, I'm talking tohim and then we're in the in the
backstage area and we just clicked.You know. He was just a he's
a doctor, a military doctor.He's married. I'm married to you,
you know, and and you know, I was kind of like told him
like, look, I'm married toa guy, you know. And and
he's like I expected him to belike give me sour face or something,
(17:00):
you know, like and he wasjust like that, you know, love
is love and all. Sh That'svery sweet. Yeah, he was a
great guy. And I also couldtell like I looked at their Instagram and
could see that they're like, youknow, he's like Martin Luther King's very
important, you know. And hewas telling me like how the challenges of
how difficult it is to be amedical professional in a field where there's a
(17:22):
lot of like misinformation. Sure,when it comes to vaccines, I think
like half it in the military don'twanted to refuse, yeah, COVID vaccination,
And he said that was really difficult. And he talked about like bodybuilding
was a way of like centering himselfthroughout the COVID pandemic and and just being
(17:44):
able to you know, mentally surviveas a doctor seeing people suffering because of
the poor choices that they made,and so you know, we instantly bonded.
And then Zach Little with the threeof us were just hanging out together
and having a great time, andall these other people started gathering around us,
and so all the like classic physiquepeople were just kind of like became
(18:07):
kind of like a team, youknow, so we're all rooting for each
other and it was just really wholesomeand wonderful, and you know, I
just want to do a shout upto Philip Burke. And he won like
three medals, right, he wonlike four, yeah, four statues.
He was just like full of medalsand stuff like that. Yeah, I
mean, he was an incredible physique. I'm at I'm glad you we got
(18:29):
some pictures with you with him.Austin Clement, who you know. I
met him in the tanning room andI was like four. He looked like
what Chris Hemslerks is trying to looklike with CGI. This man actually looks
like him in real life, andyou're like feet away from him. You're
just like, hello, sir,glad he was Actually we were competing against
(18:52):
each other, believe it or not, in Classic physique category B for our
height and weight, and I wasjust like, it's amazing, like because
I was just like, I don'tfeel like I hold on my own next
to them, and they're like,you look as good as me, you
know, everybody who were asking youabout your tits. Oh so there were
like quite a few people are like, you have really nice peck development.
(19:15):
What's your secret about that? Andwhat is your secret? Well, part
of it is just like you're tryinga lot of people understand the concept of
training your arms from different angles,but a lot of people don't understand that
training your chest also needs to bedone from different angles. And I think,
you know, they think about,you know, the bench press or
(19:37):
a hammer strength press, or inclineor incline. But I learned this actually
from Adam Charleton early on that youknow, most people don't have a lot
of upper peck development, so inclinehammer strength presses or inclined dumbbell presses can
help make your pecks look bigger justbecause you're training this muscle that there's a
(20:00):
really get used very much. Andfor me, like you know, it's
also genetics is not an answer ora solution, But for me, it's
like you know, you look atthe women in my family and they have
very beautiful, large round breasts.So you know, for me as a
guy, it's like it's kind ofthere is supposedly like a breast tissue or
fatty tissue, but yours is likeyours is muscle and it's as deep.
(20:22):
But the genetics is there for awell developed chest, you know. And
and for me also, you know, in my dance training is about sort
of bringing your shoulder blades back tomake your chest expand a little bit more,
but also your breast bone. Andone thing that's helped me a lot
too is foam rolling, which alot of bodybuilders don't do. From rolling
(20:45):
your chest helps to soften and stretchout the fascia tissue in your chest to
make your chest look bigger than itreally is because it releases the muscle so
it's not pulled tight against the body. Yeah. Shape Check said this on
the podcast I Think last year.She said, bodybuilding is the art of
(21:07):
creating an illusion of looking bigger andmore shred and in jack than you really
are. So the posing is reallyreally important. If there's any takeaway I
can give to the listeners about gettingready for a show is start practicing posing
now, even if you're not doinga bodybuilding show. It helps with muscle
growth, It helps with everything becauseit's like, you know, it starts
(21:30):
sending the signals to your brain.This is the muscle where it is,
and this is how to flex andactivate it. And so we're going to
post a link to some YouTube videosin the show notes so you guys can
follow along at home. And theseare free videos that are posted to people
but on YouTube that you can practicetoday so you can start developing your physique
(21:52):
and get ready for the stage ifyou want to. I also feel like
doing posing and muscle flexing and whatnot, especially like before workouts some times is
you know, it's almost like astretch, but for me, it identifies
like is there a kink somewhere inmy muscle? Is there something that might
need a little massaging to get methrough this workout? That kind of thing.
It gets you to feel your bodya little bit more and to know,
(22:14):
like you said, where you're at. Yeah, I gotta tell you,
you know, so for this,you know, for the contest,
it definitely came down to posing.But there was definitely you know, when
you looked at somebody who came infirst, and not necessarily for you,
but for a lot of the people, like who came in first or who
came in second. A lot ofpeople were very comparable on their upper body
strength, but then when it cameto legs, it could be completely different.
(22:37):
There was a lot of people thatyou know, they didn't really have
You didn't really see a lot ofmuscle definition. You saw a muscle definition
on their legs, but just notas much as that winner. It was
almost the winner always had better legs. It wasn't like you looked at somebody
and said, their legs are exactlythe same, but this guy's upper body
is better, you know what Imean. So you're saying that the legs
were more important of a factor intheir score than anything else. That's what
(23:00):
I'm thinking, because like when youlooked at the person who won and the
person who came in second, theirupper bodies were very, very similar.
That's how I feel too, AndI think part of it is like the
judges are human beings, and tosome degree, like you know, as
gay men, we're we're always lookingat each other's bodies the way that I
think women look at each other's bodiesa lot more than men, do,
(23:23):
you know, there is a there'sa very strange component because it's not sexual,
right. It's like the men thatare into bodybuilding are not necessarily sexually
aroused by another man's musculature, butthey do spend a lot of time examining
and analyzing another man's body. AndI've always felt that the legs are kind
(23:44):
of like the pedestal where the wholebody is placed upon. And so even
though like a you know, likea work of art with a great frame
looks better than just tacked up onthe wall, you know, a frame,
you know, makes the art complete. The pedestal makes the sculpture complete.
Sure, And so when you haveyour legs especially, I think even
(24:06):
calf development, my coach says,and I, you know, I don't
necessarily I kind of disagree with Mattabout this. I feel like even if
the coaches are not judging your calves, they're unconsciously judging your calves. And
so even if they can't see yourcalves, the calves start this chain of
events that impact the rest of yourbody. And for me, it's like,
(24:30):
I, I mean, I wasspraining and I had like a leg
injury up four weeks before the contest, one right after another. It was
one right after another, where asI was spraining my inner thigh, and
I was just like and so forme, like I had better thigh development
two months than I had on theday of the contest, and luckily for
me, like I was able tocarry some of that leg development onto the
(24:52):
stage. But it definitely, youknow, I think it actually cost me
the top prize now in high insight, even though I wasn't expecting to win
anything, right, you know.Now, I'm like, Chuck was shredded.
Chuck was really shredded, you know, And and he posted really well,
and he looked great, and hehad heart, you know. I
mean that that man is a saint. And I'm so glad I got to
(25:17):
know him, you know, independentlyof the results of the test of the
judging, you know, because hewas just such an extraordinary gentleman and such
a great person to share the stagewith and to share the top two spot.
You know, we both can nowgo get a pro card. And
people are like saying, are yougoing to go get a pro card?
I'm like, I don't know,because you have to compete in a pro
(25:40):
contest and actually win to get thecard, right to get the card,
Yeah, next year. And Iwould imagine, because it's a higher level
that the people that are going tobe there in your category are going to
be pretty jacked well, people likeme and Chuck, you know. So
it's not it's not like I'm competingagainst Arnold Schwarzenegger or something or Chris Bumstead,
right, But I am in theChris in the field, in the
(26:00):
in the space that Chris bump Staysis in, which blows my mind.
What space is that? Classic physique? Yeah, Chris Bumpstead and I are
in the same field. I'm basicallyChris Bumpstead. So I'm just like,
you know, part of me islike a static. I'm delirious about it.
You know, you can hear theenergy and the exhaustion in me.
(26:23):
People are like, what are yougonna eat? What are you gonna eat?
And I found this like pizza andsushi restaurant, and boy that that
was kind of a mistake. Iprobably should We had some friends come from
out of town. I should tellthem, why don't you you guys know
restaurants? Do you guys look atfor something? But it was okay,
we had some good food. Wellbecause you know, like naturally, Mark
and I just eat pretty healthy.You know, we don't fry any foods.
(26:45):
We're not big burgers and fries people, you know. And and so
when my coach was like, you'regoing to really hate this diet. No,
it's gonna be so difficult, andI was just like, this is
how I normally eat. The hardestpart was really like cutting out the car,
especially for breakfast. That was justlike almost impossible to do. But
(27:06):
you know, like having a bisonor a chicken breast and a salad or
you know, chicken breast and steambroccoli. I was like, I that
I this all the time. Anyways, you know, I had that today,
you know. So I'm just likeso for me, I'm just like,
this is not like a torture oranything like that. Well, so
now you know. So the secondif you ever do is another contest or
if you go do that pro cardthing, you'll know, yeah, but
(27:27):
then you know the pro card.This is also like, as you guys
have known listening to the podcast,we haven't been putting all out a lot
of shows. Some people you knowwalked away as listeners, you know,
We've taken time off work to gettingready for the show, and it's been
really expensive to do this. Youknow. It's like the food, the
(27:48):
training and time consuming. And sofor me, I'm like, do I
really want to like put my lifeupside down again to get to this point?
You know? For glory and gold? Some things you think about,
you know, or you know goldplated gold, because it's it's something to
think about. You know, whatdo you guys think I should do.
(28:11):
I'm curious to hear about your feedback. If you want to post in the
comments, send us an email ora message and Instagram, or you can
go to our Facebook group. Let'sgrow big together and way in Should I
go for the pro card? Shouldyou go? Should I go for it?
It'll be a lot, It'll bea big commitment, you know,
but if it's going to happen,If God don't do it, it won't
(28:36):
get done. So what else?Hopping backstage at the end of the event,
they had lots of pizza and theyhad all sorts of cookies and desserts
for everybody. Thankfully they didn't havethe pizza and the cookies. Like,
while we're getting pumped and getting ready, but you know some of those people
like in the Women's Bikini or theClassic Physique or sorry, the Physique guys,
the Beach Trunk's crowd. They werehaving to get pumped ready with the
(29:00):
smell of like pizza backstage, andI was like, Oh, there's nothing
worse than having to like exercise andsmell food and smelling food and that makes
you nauseous. We used to workout of the gym and the owner would
have a popcorn machine because you liketo give popcorn out to people. It
was like the worst feelings, justlike working out and you're just smelling popcorn
coming You're just like, god,damn it. No. He had a
(29:22):
rotisserie chicken machine and that too,and he wanted to cook fresh bread at
some point in time when people like, come on, this is a gym,
not a bakery. Didn't he buylike a hot dog roll or something
like that. It was like itwas crazy, like he was manic.
And you know, the worst thingis is even like at a normal like
I was working out in America's gymand thankfully, like the area where people
(29:45):
eat is pretty isolated from the restof the workout room. Sure, and
you know it, like you don'tsmell people, you know, eating their
rice and chicken or whatever when you'relifting, especially if you're lifting hard.
You know. But there was alot of times this past two years like
I ran to the bathroom and vomited, you know, because it was like
(30:07):
it was really really intense. Andyou know, like when you're changing your
diet, you're changing who you are. You are what you eat, right,
so it's like becomes this kind oflike spiritual journey where you're just like,
I don't know who I am anymore. I feel like Headwig from the
Angry Inch. We've broken down theBerlin Wall of nutrition and exercise, and
(30:30):
we don't know who we are anymore. Well, ladies and gentlemen, fausto,
here is that wall, and nowyou're going to try to tear me
down. But you must roll backabout one thing. What's that? I
don't know that Being the second placeis still pretty amazing, you know,
it is amazing. Yeah, itwas fun to watch because I was just
(30:51):
like, oh, it's not fit, it's not fourth, it's not third.
Oh shit, is he gonna win? And then it's like a second
like that it's legit. I thoughtthey had made a mistake. I literally
thought because the guy was like havinga hard time with my name, you
know, because I have a weirdname. And I was like, literally
he pronounced your name like at leasttwo different ways. Yeah, he couldn't
figure out, like you know,and I'm just like foul Stow And it's
like that, like the opera Faustwith a no or Bosco styrup, you
(31:18):
know, foul Stow. It justwent right, like it's like that new
name of a bodybuilding name. Itjust changed your name for the foster.
I said, you know, I'mlike Uzzo Aduba is like I gave you
that name, child, so youremember who you are, and so you
know, for me, I wasjust like all the bodybuilders backstage knew who
(31:40):
I was. Yeah, they didn'thave any problems pronouncing my name. But
like the guy who hosts the show, he he kind of reminds me a
lot of the Joe Wader, youknow, this kind of like like meat
and potatoes, midwestern kind of thing, a very bodybuilding kind of attitude.
Right. Yeah, So I lovehis personality, I love hearing his voice,
and I'd love to have him onthe show like he was. He
(32:01):
was a real character, you know, so when we're getting pumped. You
know, a lot of guys theydo pushups, they do body weight squats.
They bring their rubber bands and theydo curls and deltoid side lifts and
those muscles looking big and plumpy.But one muscle that gets judge on,
(32:22):
that gets overlooked, is your triceps. So I was showing them like,
hey, I picked this up fromlike nineteen eighties bodybuilding magazine. Isometric bicep
tricep curls, and so you're claspingyour hands together like you're you know,
and then you're doing a bicep curlwith one hand, but then you're using
(32:43):
your opposing hand as resistance and youcan control how heavy or light it is.
And then you flip around and youcan do you know, thirty forty
because if you can get to fortyrepetitions, then there's more muscle in the
blood and looks better. You cansee like I'm holding my own next to
Zach little not so little, andhe looked phenomenal and he won, you
(33:05):
know, and it's like and Philipwho won? And I'm like, yeah,
I'm not nowhere near their physique quality, but you know, to hold
your own pumping really works. Butone thing I started noticing was like it
was called budding pumping. So whensomebody else is like holding your hands and
they're doing the same thing, soI almost like patty cakes kind of yeah,
(33:27):
And I was just like, man, this is so hot. And
I was just like trying not tolook, and I was like, does
anybody want me to help them?But when they started, when I show
them the isometric bicep tricep curls,everybody was like started doing them and they're
like, this is a great idea. So I brought back an old bodybuilding
vintage technique. Yeah, it'sac goodfor building muscles, but it's good for
(33:51):
a pump. It's good for apump. So if you're going to go
on a date, if you wantto take pictures, you know, that's
what you got to do. Soyou want to put blood into the bisops,
you know. And I just wantto do a big shout out to
coach Matt Clausan. You know,I've had so many bad teachers and good
teachers in my life, and Iunderstand the value of being a good teacher,
(34:14):
you know, because that's something wetry to do for you guys,
and you know, when you finda good teacher, do everything you can
to bring them into your work,into your life, like treasure those people.
And that's you know for a publicschool system, like invest in good
teachers, and all other problems willbe fixed. You know, people sabotage
(34:37):
themselves, sabotage to their communities whenthey don't value that. He's been a
great coach to and he showed upfor the contest, which is amazing.
He didn't have to, you know, here's he had another client there though,
too. I think did they did? Okay? They we we both
won the silver, all right.Yes, I realized, you know that
Matt was a good fit for mewhen we started. I started talking about
(35:00):
my posing routine in terms of JosephCampbell's The Hero's Journey, and he was
like, oh, I've read allhis books. And I was just like,
you read, you read books,bold books, come on, and
he was like, yeah, Imean because Joseph Campbell is the person who
inspired and influenced George Lucas to writethe screenplay for Star Wars. And the
(35:22):
template is, you know, we'rehardwired as human beings to learn through storytelling.
So storytelling has a very formulaic templatethat you know, the superhero films,
any film, any good story,from Odysseus to the Bible to Star
Wars to you name. It isabout the hero, the protagonists going through
(35:45):
a series of trials and setbacks theysuffer in order to change, to transform,
to then come back to the worldthat they come from with new information
and new knowledge. It's the storyof Prometheus, right. It's bringing fire
to humanity, the fire of wisdomand knowledge. But Prometheus gets burned through
(36:06):
that journey. And so to me, it's like it's a perfect parable of
bodybuilding. You're breaking your body,you're breaking your bank account. God,
this is so expensive. You're puttingyour whole life upside down. So you
can develop this conditioning to hopefully inspireothers to pursue their dreams. And your
(36:30):
dream may not be a bodybuilder.It may be to be a ballet dancer
or a painter, or ride abicycle or do a marathon. And for
me, it's like going through thisjust difficult, almost horrific, you know,
process where there's so many challenges andproblems arose, made me realize,
(36:53):
made like really just want to sayto people out there, is like it's
really important not to comment on otherpeople's bodies. You know. Body positivity
is like even more important now thanever because I come from a culture in
Puerto Rico where people see you they'relike, you're fat. Yeah. No,
(37:13):
no qualms about telling somebody they've gainedweight, yeah none. It's like
there's this like it's almost trying tocontrol somebody else by telling them that their
body is not to your standard.But you never asked them like is a
body to their standard? What marketyou know about the iron the Golden rule
(37:34):
and the platinum rule. What arethe difference between those things. The golden
rule is do onto others as youwould have them do on to you,
and then the iron rule is doit to them before they get a chance
to do it to you. Platinumis doing to them as they want to
be done to. So it requireslistening, yes, and empathy. It
requires to ask what do you want? How do you want to be trucked?
(37:57):
Understanding that and then giving them yeah, and that's the emphasis. It's
really hard because there requires listening anda good coach, and a good teacher
is going to do that, youknow. You know, I have a
bill bills to pay, I doa consulting for an hour, which you
(38:17):
know now it's one forty nine dollars, but for a Christmas I got to
raise you on now. But forChristmas, I'm still keeping it ninety nine
dollars. At the end of theyear, then it's going into one forty
nine. And so I have acouple of slots because you know where the
holiday season is busy. But ifyou buy it now, we can schedule
at another time and basically we sitdown and look at your exercise, your
(38:43):
nutrition, your goals, and wework out on a plan to get you
to the next level. A coachmay be appropriate for you or may not
be. It may you may wantto start gear, you may want to
change your nutrition, you may wantto do a marathon or or something.
The idea of the of the consultationis to really hone in on what obstacles
(39:05):
you've been facing and making a planto get you to the next level.
And well, I'll sit down andanswer anything. You know. I'm I'm
you know me. It's like I'mhere for you. So if you want
to do it, just message meon Instagram Fausto Fernos or you can message
market. If I'm not I canhelp set it up. I'm not reachable.
(39:27):
It's and we put the links thereand just message to say, let's
grow big together. You know Iwant to. I want to grow big
together. And it's ninety nine bucksand you have till the end of the
year to do it. And wecan overcome any obstacles we can. You
can do it. I've had Faustohas had some good results with some people.
They've really enjoyed his services because heknows what he's talking about. Five
(39:51):
out of five or ten out often. You know, everybody who does
it, they love it. Anda few of you guys have done it
several times. I want to congratulateyou again on this process and and bringing
home the silver. I'm glad youplaced in the top two because I was
worried that I wasn't gonna let youlive here again bringing something home. And
I'm glad you did bring home aprize or don't come home. No,
(40:14):
I know you've sacrificed a lot.I've sacrificed Jesse the dog is sacrificed,
your family has and everybody you know. People think it just takes you know,
it's not just one person. It'sa coach. It's a it takes
a village, yeah, you know, it takes an Olympic sized village.
So if you're thinking about bodybuilding,think about who you can rely on.
I mean, of course you're doingmost of the work yourself, you know,
but there are going to be peoplethere. You'll have your gym buds,
(40:35):
people to support you, your friends, your family, and I you
know, sometimes it can be kindof like it could be hard to get
them to understand what you're doing,because honestly, a lot of them they
think, oh, you're going tobe bodybuilder. Like they look at you
like you're a freak, like there'ssomething wrong with you. It's like,
yeah, you know, and soit's you just you have to you have
to, you know, bring thehorse to the water and let them kind
(40:58):
of understand. Well, I'm reallylucky because I had a mom who helped
women breastfeed. At a time insociety in the nineteen seventies when doctors would
tell their mothers not to breastfeed theirkids, the doctors were being basically bribed
by Carnation, who produce baby formula, to tell them breast milk is full
(41:21):
of toxins and you know, andwe want to sell you carnation milk,
you know, is natural you know, from cows, which looks like nonsense
and ridiculous and so like. Therewas a group called La Lecha League that
women organized and had meetings to helpsupport each other in the absence of health
care, to basically guide each otherthrough all the problems through giving birth to
(41:46):
children, you know. And onething I noticed and discovered about the weight
loss is like which also learned thisthat women go through this when they are
done giving birth to the baby,they have all this stretched out in their
midsection. But a lot of thosebody boulder women didn't have that as much.
You know. It's tough though you'restretching, you're you're definitely posing to
(42:08):
hide the wrinkles in your stomach,you know, but it's there, and
especially if you had a tummy likeme. Throughout my course of my life.
Now that I was like, youknow, I got down to twelve
percent body fat, which is like, blows my mind. I went along,
I starting with you a little bit, and I got below sixteen percent
body fat. That's that's never beenthere I have, you know, not
(42:30):
since my teenage years. Probably Iwas I was, I was a chubby
boy. I was afraid to takemy shirt off when I was like twelve
years old because I was worried whatkids laughing at me at the in the
pool, Like this is the kindof like trauma that I've overcome. And
you think, you know, outthere, if you think someone's gonna love
(42:52):
you if you look different, theywill not because has nothing to do with
you. It has everything to dowith them. You have to do this
for yourself, you cannot do itfor somebody else. Now you can get
inspiration from other people and people likePhilip Burke and Austin Clement, you know,
(43:12):
Quinton and it's Ay and Sam,I mean Sam what Sam goth goth
Elf. He won like a tonat and he was so sweet and so
supportive. I mean it's like Iwon the crowd over. Oh, crowd
love to because he had. Hebrought them into his posing. Oh he
(43:34):
was wonderful. I mean he's justextraordinary and just you know, just a
good hearted person and wonderful and youknow, shout out to all the people
that helped make this possible. AClinton genesis and Janet Sanders, Tom kurtah
thick, Rick, wolf Mark Welchand his cousin Terry, who showed up
and cheered, as as well asJohn Paul O'Neil who introduced me to my
(43:55):
coach, Matt Clausen and Natasha Douglas, Joey Kierning and Nick and Charlie and
everybody who's name I'm forgetting who isthis there to helped answers and all the
coaches that have had throughout my peoplegave you like financial support, they gave
you emotional support, They gave you, you know, ideas and great advice.
(44:17):
And I'm still incredibly expensive. Soif you guys, for Christmas,
if you can pray to jacked upSanta to send a couple of dollars,
you can go to feastsafun dot comslash donate and make a one time contribution.
Or you can access our whole catalogof shows, thousands of shows without
any commercial interruption, just by goingto Feast of Fun dot com slash plus
(44:39):
Yes, and you can join usat Patreon at Patreon dot com slash feast
of fun for ad free experience andyeah, join us there and write us
a review. On Apple podcasts,on Spotify, wherever you find your podcasts,
get us a review, because thosehelp. Now here's the secret to
winning your contest. Right, Soyour skin is really really critical. And
(45:05):
the people who do the tanning andall that stuff they send you like this
formulaic information that is complete bullshit.And I almost like had to step out
of the competition because I was followingtheir advice and I got this horrible rash
and I was in the hotel puttingon nair on my back and it was
burnt, like it was like Cocoperu is like it burns. So here's
(45:30):
what you need to do. Donot use any air period ever you because
it doesn't matter because you can.They're the the nuralco clipper. Message me
on Instagram and I'll send you theproduct link. It's it cuts your hair
right perfectly, no ingrown hairs.You don't want to shave period, you
(45:53):
want to x folio eight months aheadof time. And that foliation your body
needs to get used to. Sothere's a product that the tanning companies make
that is the most wonderful exfoliating.I don't know what it is. I
guess they have sand in it andit just leaves your skin silky smooth.
(46:14):
It gets rid of blackhead. Well, the great thing about so exfoliating,
what it's going to do. It'sgoing to make your skin look smooth and
buffed out. That's why they call, you know, bodybuilders. They're buff
because of that kind of smoothness.And so that's something that happens over time.
But what it also does is anytimeyou kind of exfoliate, you also
build up the collagen levels beneath yourskin, and so that's going to make
(46:36):
your skin look healthier. It's goingto lift it better and be like less
wrinkling. That's why you know,men typically have less wrinkles in their face
than women because we have more Wehave a thicker collagen level underneath our face.
And then of course shaving your facewill build up the collagen level there
as well. And so all theseguys, when you know, beards are
(46:57):
real popular right now, come twentyyears when they them all off, it's
gonna be saggy skin. Now,if you're getting your beard trimmed, get
it done. Treat this as arehearsal. So do it. Get your
beard trim a month ahead of time, get your hair cut cut a month
ahead of time, to see howit's going to look. Because I made
(47:19):
the mistake of going to a beardtrimmer in the neighborhood the day before the
show, and this guy had noidea what he was doing, and he
started cutting my skin around the mustacheand thankfully you couldn't see it, but
it was like, God damn,he had no idea what. That's why
you have to You have to goto somebody that you trust in. Somebody
like is your normal hair guy doesn'tdo beard, So you went to somebody
(47:40):
you didn't know. Yeah, andthat's the problem and rehearse it because you
may be like, you know what, I can do this myself. You
know, you you can assess whatyour beard looked like, Like Mark's really
good at trimming his beard, andgoing to a beard trimmer is not going
to be anything useful, you know. Now, the manicure and the pedicure,
you don't want to do it toofar ahead, but it's very useful.
(48:01):
Let me do it a week aheadof time. So here's the thing.
Is like, if you're a nailbier like I am, don't bite
your nails. Yeah, don't dosomething that you're having problems with. Do
it days before as close to thecontest as you can. Because a manicure
and pedicure also is very relaxing andthe woman or the person that's doing it
(48:22):
exfoliates your feet. And I noticedwhen I got a rehearsal tan a month
before and I looked at my feet, they look like shit. It looked
like a like a turkey's legs orsomething, you know, and I was
like gasp, And I went tothe pedicurist and she did a beautiful job
(48:43):
on my feet and that you know, all these things are subconscious and they
really do affect you. And soyou know, all these things and one
advice that I got from Nicole Wells, who's a bodybuilder who's done our show,
she said, you know, it'sreally like Sam is somebody who's a
great example of this. You haveto really just enjoy being there and enjoy
(49:06):
being seen. So anything you cando to like now is practice being in
front of an audience, whether thatstand up comedy or reading poetry or you
know, dance or taking a danceclass. Anything where you can be using
your body in front of of anperformer be a performer helps a lot,
(49:27):
you know, because some of thesepoor guys is like you know, like
some people get into bridezilla mode.You know, they get nervous and anxious
and stuff, and that impacts yourperformance on stage. You're flexing, You're
not grounded there. You know,it tightens you up sometimes, you know,
and you want to be loose andopen, and so you can contract
and expand because I had, like, you know, there's so many things
(49:50):
that are fighting for your attention andyou're just like, have to get grounded.
And ultimately, you know, theultimate prize in all this, as
we said earlier, is the friendsyou make along the way. It's the
people that you can grow closer to. Your friends, your family, your
spouse, your coach, your teachers, your co your community is so important.
(50:15):
That's ultimately the real prize is understandingwho you are as a person,
because bodybuilding is going to make youface your demons, and you might not
like what you're seeing. What demondid you face? You know? The
weirdest demon that I faced was cravingsbecause as your you know, you are
what you eat, and when youtake away some of the things that you're
(50:37):
used to eating, your body respondsin very unusual ways. And so I
was like at the grocery store wantingto buy a box of chocolates, and
I'm like what am I fourteen yearold girl or boy, you know,
trying to buy a Valentine's Day giftfor their loved one or something. It
was just the weirdest thing, Andit was like I don't have like I
don't see myself as an addict,but I was like craving like drugs and
(51:00):
alcohol and all sorts of weird shitthat is like never crosses my mind.
And it was like doing the cardioand weightlifting and making sure I had the
water are things that like grounded me. But I can see like people who
are struggling with recovery having a reallyhard time with this process because it's just
(51:21):
opening up a Pandora's box of thingsinside you you didn't realize you had to
deal with. And so, youknow, being on time for things,
or being organized or just anything thatpersonal growth issues that you've put in the
back burner or you've learned to manageall of a sudden make themselves acutely known.
(51:44):
And so having the support of yourfriends and family and your coach is
even more vital in getting you tothat finish line, because otherwise you're lost
in the desert. We want tothank you guys, so much for join
learning us on Let's Grow Big Together. As is A is a production A
(52:04):
Feast of Fun, one of theoldest podcasts in the world since two thousand
and five. Two thousand and fivecoming up on our nineteenth season next year,
nineteen seasons Wild and so we're goingto go back to our regular schedule
programming with all kinds of amazing artistsand provocateurs of this world, and of
course athletes and bodybuilders coming up soon. And we want to thank you so
(52:30):
much for listening to the show,and of course write a review. If
you don't like the show, writea review too, tell us what you
think exactly. And I'm Fausto Ferns, I'm Mark Phillion. Thanks for listening,
everybody, Bye bye,
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