Flex Lewis: What is the Secret to Winning 7x Mr Olympia Titles? | TUH #099

From a very young age, I was always intrigued by muscle at that point in time, Gary, nobody at that age was putting in that level of conditioning. I suffered and I suffered hard. Blood in the water.

When you're a bodybuilder, it's just you against yourself. How did you do it for so long, so many times?

Self belief and nobody believing in me. And it was just me, myself and I, I am going to do this and I'm going to find every way in which I am going to become the number one body below. Show day came. I ended up winning that show and I was going to be done. But more reasons to go to much more on how you can improve because I truly believe you can't call yourself a champion unless you defend it.

I don't think a lot of people saw the struggle.

The work is done in the unseen. Suffer. Suffer hard. And that has been the blueprint. It was not going to be a plan B. I just left it. I just came to the United States and I slept on the sofa for a year and a half and I said, you know what, this is it, I'm all in.

What are you doing now to bring these young bodybuilders up that have a dream?

When you're not in the gym, your focus is feeding the machine and recovering the body. With these younger guys should be having the bot up so high they don't even have goals. Cuz if you want to achieve X, you've got to.

I had so much fun today with our next guest, Flex Lewis on the podcast. Not. Is he only a 7 time Mr. Olympian now? Just think about that 7 Mr. Olympian titles in the 212 weight division as well as a number of IFBB championships and all kinds of other accolades as a bodybuilder. But it's actually the man that he is. That entrepreneur behind the scenes, that grit, that tenacity, that conquer at all cost attitude that he had when he was alone and we didn't have anybody else in his corner, no mentors. How did he set that mindset to get to the next level? There's again so much to unpack on this podcast, guys. You're going to fall in love with Flex Lew like I did. He's not just an accomplished bodybuilder, he's an accomplished family man. He's an accomplished entrepreneur, he's accomplished mentor and a coach. And what he's doing right now for the younger community to bring exercise back into this community as a way to solve some of the problems that you're facing in life. You're going to really enjoy this podcast. Hey guys, welcome back to the Ultimate Human. I'm your host, human biologist Gary Brea, where we go down the road of everything, anti aging, biohacking, longevity, and everything in between. And today's guest has a special niche in, in my heart. We were actually talking before the podcast and I was like, you are exactly the kind of human being that I want to give a voice to. Not that he needs a voice. He's very well known. Welcome to the podcast. Seven time Mr. Olympian. Flex Lewis Brother. I am so pumped to run this with you, man. You know, I, I, I've actually followed your journey and not, not in real time, but, you know, I, I heard about you. So many people that we know in common, highly of you. And so I started to, you know, going down the rabbit hole of, of, of flex, the flex rabbit hole. And like, who is this guy? What, you know, what makes him tick? Because, you know, in my world of longevity, anti aging, biohacking, I found a common theme between the people that are making the greatest impact in the world and a characteristic that they all seem to share, and that is that they, they solved some kind of problem in their life. And when they saw that it could have been drug and alcohol addiction, could have been a bad relationship, it could have been they were always the underdog. It could have been, you know, trauma or, or it just could have been their, their, their desire to be the best. But they solved this problem and that's what drove them and kept them at the top of their game. Because I'm impressed by anyone that can win a Mr. Olympian. I'm all struck by somebody who can do it seven times. So, so tell me a little bit about that. Like what, what was there a problem in your life that you saw? What was, what was your motivation? How do you, you know, go from being this Scottish kid.

Yeah, close enough.

To whatever. This is my podcast. I, I'll decide what nationality you are.

You wouldn't be able to understand my outset interpreting.

Thank you.

Good start.

Yeah, good start. But you know, to, to the seven time. I mean the, in the world.

Yeah, it's, it was, it's definitely been a journey, no question. I would say from a very young age, I was always intrigued by muscle and there was nobody around me that trained. My dad wasn't trained in, obviously my mom wasn't, no uncles, no cousins, anything like that. But I was always drawn in to, to somebody who had a little bit more muscle on that frame. We mentioned, you know, just before going on air, we were talking about the WWF days.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. The Hulk Hogan.

The Hulk Hogan Ultimate Warrior. So man, all them guys definitely had a impact in my life subconsciously probably at that point in time. But rugby was my sport of choice and truly being in, in the town that I came from, oh, that was the world. Huge. Yes, that, that is the main sport.

Yeah.

So as a kid, you. I was playing rugby from six years old, got my nickname Flex from that. And it, it transitioned into the thought of this is going to be my career at the tail end of it. So I found myself getting into the gym very early. 12 years old is when I first touched away.

Wow.

Yeah. And I can go into more context if you want.

Yeah.

I found a book on Tom Platts when I was 12 years old and it blew my mind. Tom Platts was known for his legs obviously during the golden era with Arnold Schwarzenegger. And my auntie was a nurse in London, she was doing tropical diseases. She came back, she attended. Sorry, she attended a Tom Platt seminar. Tom was doing these tours of the UK all over the world. But the American appeal or what he had and obviously wrapped in the Arnold era as well. He had a big crowd. My auntie attended, watched the seminar, listened to him. Very intriguing, very interesting. Got his book brought back to Wales, put it in my grandparents.

12 years old.

Well put in my grandparents house. Me being the nosy little 12 year old kid that I was, I found this book in this room that I was staying in and I pulled it out and it blew my world. I was like, how are legs possible? How is that, how is that possible? And I seen a young photo of Tom. I think he had just won the. The Teen usa and he's standing next to somebody else. And I was like, wow, this guy is what at that point in time, like eight years older than me. Blew my mind. So I went into my, my father's shed that was locked up. I waited for him to leave. There was an old Weeder weight sat there.

I was gonna bring up the Weeder like Weeder nutrition and all that. I remember growing up with that stuff.

Yeah, it was the old. Can you remember the, the plastic coated with the weight sets?

Yes.

Sand inside them.

Yeah, you could do sand. And he even came out with some of that water at one point.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

I think that was an epic fail. But yeah, I remember the sand, it was plastic and if you set it down too hard it would crack in the sandwood like.

Absolutely, yeah. Thankfully that didn't happen in My little bedroom of mine. But I managed to get it through the house before my parents came back. And I looked at this book, I was like, okay, this is what I guess this bar is doing. Obviously I didn't know the terminologies was a barbell, fixed bar, crowded weights, couldn't put weights on, put weights off. And I put on my back off my bed, literally put it off. And I done one rep, one rep, two into two reps, three reps. And still at 12 years old, you know, I think the huffing and puffing that was occurring in my little bedroom at that point in time. Definitely know what your mom dressed. My dad came through the door thinking something else and I think he came in with his eyes closed and like, oh, it's okay, but you can't do that. So that was put away from a very young age. But, but again the mindset was planted, the seed was planted. And rugby as I mentioned was my main sport. But the physicality of rugby, you have to have a foundation. And the position I played, I was a speed sir. I played on the wing. Okay, so is probably the guy that either never gets the ball or you've got to look for it. I was the guy that went to look for the ball and it had to be physical in, in that too. So I started reading, co created more weights with the, the rugby side of things. And then I started being around more different athletes, powerlifters, bodybuilders, started competitively powerlifting. And then I was like, I love this, but I like the bodybuilding side of things.

Yeah.

And, and that was the chase then for, for just putting size on that lit the spark and it's, it lit the spark. And the gym owner said to me one day, he's like, if you want to, want to compete, I'll give you a free gym membership if you really show. I mean I was broke. I mean I was.

Yeah, but nobody, nobody at that age knows, knows what to do. I mean there's no path for you. I mean there's got to be a mentor that comes into play. No, this is just a grind.

This the, at that point in time. Gary, 19 years old. I looking at the show poster thinking this is going to save me a lot of money if I do this show. I've done so many different sports, rugby, track and field, high level stuff, boxing, gymnastics. So I was like, okay, this is another feather to the hat, I'll do it. And I said, why not? I threw myself in the mix, went to the local library, picked up some books, nutritional Books went and bought the latest Flex magazine. And at that point in time, and if you've been a reader of Flex for a number of years, I mean.

That'S been around for as long as we do.

Yes, this is the OG of bodybuilding. So there was a diet posted in there from a 300 pound bodybuilder. Gunther Camp, his name was. And they never posted but diets back then in these magazines, it was such a rarity. And I said, okay, this guy's eating eight meals a day. I'll dissect this. I'll take all the carbohydrates out.

Well, you were famous for your 8,000 calorie day diet. I've read about that too. I'm like, I don't think I've eaten 8,000 calories since I got to Vegas four days ago.

I haven't eaten it since. But going back onto that, onto the show, I said to myself, I'm doing this. You know, come, you know, hail hell, water, whatever it is, I'm doing this show. It's a free gym membership. Little did I know it was going to cost me more money in food to prep for that first show. Then I would have just paid the gym membership. But the journey to that first show was absolute hell. I was my own captain on my ship, but I was so stubborn that I was going to get this free gem of a ship. And everybody around me see me going from the jack, the lad, the cock, you know, the cocky, the confident little winger red headed kid was the smallest but the biggest mouth to them being super quiet. And everyone's like, when is this ending? Wow. I was just so tired all the time. Lethargic but steadfast. Show day came, I ended up winning that show and I was going to be done. I was going to go back into.

You won this on your own? No mentor, no. Guide, no nutritionist? No. No coach. Wow.

And obviously ever be in the gym is an expert.

Right.

And this is the conversations that went down in my little gym flex. When's the last time you had a baked potato? Two days ago. I have two tomorrow. Okay. Just random people.

Really.

Yeah. It was, it was just me, myself and I and ad lib from whoever really cared about my. My sanity.

Wow.

I managed to do it. I won the the. Which was the equivalent of the teens or under 21 class.

Yeah.

And the first timers, the novice and that was done.

Right? I mean that feeling that you had the sense of accomplishment now, now you're a competitor.

I was done, but I was done One and done. Just a feather on the hat. And had it not been for me to.

Okay, yeah, this is the journey. I want to talk.

Absolutely. So. And this is a big critical part of it, actually. The judges at that table awarded me first place in both under 21 and the novice. And they're big shows. Bodybuilding is very popular in. Especially in South Wales. And this was the Mr. Wales. And I won the show. Walking out with my trophies, my parents. And I'm like, oh, thank God this is done. You will live in hell. And I'm sorry. You know, I'm eating chocolate now. Everybody's happy.

Life is not such an asshole.

No, I know.

I got a few cards. Yeah, yeah.

And I jump into the car and I get a little knock on the window. I open, open the window. My parents are sitting in the front seat. And it's the head judge. And he says, me flex. You're doing the British Nationals, right? I said, respectfully, sir, I know who you are, and thank you very much for the compliments. And he was the head judge. I said, no, as he's done for me, I'm going to go back to rugby. That's what's coming up. And my parents were like, yeah, he's going back to rugby.

You know, you don't have to live with him.

No, that's exactly. The head judge at the time said, you should represent. You should go to British and represent Wales. No, when you hear these, especially when you come from a small country, in part the British, you know, uk. Wales is the redheaded stepchild of the uk. So once you start mentioning representing your country and you give a little brave heart speech right next to my car, minus the horse in the face. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So I was like, yeah, let's go. Yeah. And I'll. I'll leave the conversation of f this person, f that country after a country. But again, it's. It's a mindset thing. And I look at my parents, they're looking about me. And he said to me, how about if I help you with the diet? Finding out that I never done anything. And I was like, look at my parents. How long? Four weeks into the British, right? And they said, okay, as long as. As long as you help him with the diet. That was 21 years ago. That's still my coach to this day.

Are you kidding me? Wow.

I believe in loyalty now.

I've heard you talk about this coach. If it's this, it's got the same one. And how he would make this transition, like. Like a light Switch from a friend to a coach. And, and, and, and the transition wasn't really fun, right, because he, I mean, once he, once he told you, hey, Monday, I'm, you know, we go into contest prep and I'm your. I'm your coach, all of a sudden, the level of accountability just skyrocketed. Right? I mean, and you're not just your responsibility to your, to yourself and to your goal, but like the amount. The way that he held you accountable, I really found that f. Because I really do think that, you know, so there's the problem that you solved, but I really do think that people are shaped by these coaches, you know, these mentors that come into their life. I mean, I've had many of them, my father's being one of them, but I've had several mentors, and they've really shaped the direction of my life. So now he's, he. He takes you to this next competition four weeks later. How did that go?

I won. There you go. Not only do I do now you.

Have two hooks in, dude, you're not going anywhere, brother.

I'm done.

You're done.

So I win this show. And this was a British Nationals. Of course, there's, there's actually athletes that are a year older than me there. So when you're competing as a under 21, I was 19 at the time. But that year difference, especially as a teen, is every grows like a sponge. So there was guys that I was standing against a year older than me because I had another year left, right. That I'd already done a couple of circuits prior to that. So they were like seasoned team competitors, if you know what I mean.

Right.

But then standing against these, it was from the seats and looking at the stage, the eyes of looking at these guys saying, man, I don't know if I'm at that level, but I was. But the only way that I was gonna find out was throw myself into the mix. And that's what we done. We threw myself in. Neil took over the complete diet. Within that four weeks, I was six pounds heavier. Body fat was significantly downstreams and crazy. And nobody at that age was putting in that level of conditioning. I suffered right, and I suffered hard. And that has been the blueprint from my very first diet under Neil to my very last diet at the Mr. Olympia. If you look at the blueprint and the structured diet, you can see things have changed and evolved over years. You know, with, with. Especially with quality own sizes, stuff like that. Protein science. Yes, yes, yes, yes. And, and with, with looking at that blueprint, you could see that this is evolved from the very first show.

Yeah.

But you can identify it as my diet. That makes sense. If it ain't broken, why try and fix it, right? The work is done in the unseen. Suffer, suffer hard.

Suffer. Suffer hard. Ever wonder how elite athletes recover faster and stay energized? It's the science of cold water therapy. Hi, I'm Gary Breca and I want to introduce you to Plunge. Plunge helps to soothe your sore muscles, boost your energy levels and improve mental clarity. It's a powerful way to support your immune function and enhance your mood. Ready to transform your health. Take the plunge, change your life. Visit plunge.com and shop now. Now let's get back to the ultimate human podcast. You know, I, I had Michael Chandler on the podcast yesterday and, and you know, I think there's a lot of similarities between bodybuilding and fighting in that they' individual sports. You know, you don't have this sort of team camaraderie around you. Your responsibility to like 11 other guys or 20 other guys in the locker room every day to kind of give you the motivation when you don't have it. So you, so I assume you just got to rely on discipline because it's, it's got to be consistency over time. Yeah, and, and, and nothing else. Consistently suffering and consistently being disciplined. But there's a lot of times when nobody's looking at you, you know, nobody's watching. You're, you're, you're, I mean you could sneak and cheat. You could if, if you wanted to and nobody would know. I mean, your coach would probably know because he would look at your body like.

No, you would know.

Yeah, he would know. But what I'm saying is like, you know, I, I find these journeys to be really particularly inspiring because they're, they're very self reliant journeys. Like, and I think so many of us, when nobody's looking, you know, we compromise on our own goals. Right. And we're, you know, when you're in, you're in a team, in a group sport, you've got a lot of other reasons to be motivated. But you know, when you're, when you're, a fighter or when you're a bodybuilder, it's just you against yourself. I mean, and I'm sure that those, those demons in your head had to, had to be tough too. I mean, to wake up and be like, do I really want to punish myself again today because it's gonna suck. And it's, and so, I mean, talk A little bit about how you, you develop that, that mentality and that mindset. Because what I want to get to is how did you do it for so long so many times?

Right.

I, I really feel like there's a country music song and it's like I'm not as good as I once was, but I'm as good once as I ever was. Something like that. But there's a country music song and it was like. And I just, I feel like anybody, it's like the one hit wonder, right? Anybody can get to that peak of that mountain. Mountain and, and, and grab that prize like you were going to do in your very first competition and say, hey, I'm putting the metal on the wall and I'm. And I'm going back to rugby because I actually love rugby. And this sucked, Right? Winning was cool, but.

But it did suck.

This. This freaking sucked. But you didn't. Yeah, and you did it repeatedly. So like something inside you had to be, you know, that motivating factor, maybe more than just impressing your coach maybe was, I just want to be the best version of myself. I want to prov, you know, talk a bit, a little bit about that. How did you keep that motivation over such a long time?

Great question. Very loaded because this has so many different elements to answer that question. So I'll dive in first. With my humble beginnings. That, that blue collar work ethic that I see my dad and my mom install into us kids truly is in my heart and my soul to this day.

How many siblings do you have?

I have two other brothers and I have a sister, that cousin, but she's my sister.

Okay.

So we brought into the family. She's. She's also an exceptional rugby player. My, my brother was rugby player, so. Really? Yeah.

Okay.

Welsh cap. We're playing for my, My sister plays for Wales women's. So we'll go into that. So many different directions.

So like, you got a little bit of overachievers in the family as it is.

We, we definitely got that in the blood. And I think that with, with, just to answer that, with me being the oldest and kind of leading from the front, that mentality and the conversations I used to have with my brother and sister, whether it's subconsciously or consciously planted them seeds, it's kind of like leading from the front. You have to be that first to practice, last to leave. You have to be part of that culture, you have to be part of that community and you have to be an add value, even though you're part of that team, you can blend in to that rugby team. We talk about team sports, but even when I was on the team sports, I made sure that I was, was leading from the front in terms of mentality, riling up the guys, you know, giving the speeches. Even though I wasn't the captain, I took it upon myself to put that in. But my brother has played super high level rugby, much higher than me and my sister obviously playing for Wales too. But, but to have that in my family too is very prideful for me. Of course, being in the U.S. i can only support from afar. But my brother just moved here now he's the coach for the Chicago Hounds rugby team.

So is he really?

Yes, yes.

Shout out to your brother.

That's aw. Flex is full of stories, guys. So I'll stick, I'll stick to the point. Yeah, but, yeah, no, we both have.

Adhd, so we gotta like stay, stay under control here.

You keep me, you keep me. You keep me and I keep you.

We'll be down the road talking about go kart racing here in a few minutes. Like, this is completely off topic now.

It's to do with mindset Flex.

For the record, he was making up words before the podcast like we are. He's like, ah, get away with it because of my accent, like, but it wasn't a word in your, in your.

Vocabulary, not in mine. So the mindset has, has definitely been just homed in on over the years. Yeah, you find your why. And my why back then was after I had the opportunity to come to the United States, there, there was, there was an interest that for me, being the rugby player, being the track and field guy, when I, I realized that I, my gosh, I have potential to do this. You know, being recognized by other people outside of my coach. This is obviously in the bodybuilding journey fulfilled something in me where I was like, wow, maybe I should pursue this, maybe I should. So I got on the plane and I came to the United States at 19 years old. I did a photo shoot with Flax magazine. And when I landed and I came to this incredible country, the glass was half full and I seen everything that I wanted. I was scared, I was motivated. And when you have them feelings and it's a pendulum of feelings, it's like, why am I scared? You're scared because you know that you're going to take the chance to come here and you can just going to leave everything to chase this. So that's what I've done. You know that a very young age actually at a very Young age I started my first business which is a moving company and we can talk about that later. But I built this up from nobody believing in me. Scaled it one young businessman, the US Award. Nobody believed, as I said, in me starting it. But then at the end they were like, you guys, you're foolish to give this up to come to the United States and chase this bodybuilding.

This was successful over there. Yeah, yeah.

And yeah, it was from the same. All this, everything that I'll talk about through the throughout this podcast is all going to be a transcending story of self belief.

Yeah.

And nobody believing in me. And it was just me, myself and I. Yeah. And when I came to the United States, that's what it was, you know, nobody believed. Like I said in the business, I was able to scale it and, and I didn't even sell it, I just left it. It was not going to be a plan B. I just came to United States and said, I'm going to do this and I'm going to find every way in which I am going to become the number one bodybuilder. Bear in mind the delusion Gary Ronnie Coleman was the champion.

Oh boy, that was a. Yeah. Self belief, formidable adversary.

It was, yeah. There was no other classes at the time. There wasn't, you know, there was no 212 class, there was just the Open. And I said, you know what, this is it, I'm all in, really. I put it all in. And I came here with very little money. I slept on the sofa for a year and a half. I kept on turning up, turning up, turning up to a point. It's consistency even in turning up. And there was photo shoots going on every single day at this gym that I was training at. And I purposely moved from Venice Gold, believe it or not, badly goes to myself included to change my life. And nothing was happening. But I found out there was a photo shoot gym for Flex magazine in Fullerton, California, industrial area. I jumped in a car and I said, well, this is where I'm going. And me turning up every single day, staying in shape, I managed to have through the mishap of professional athletes under the Wheeler contract for not being in shape. He said, welsh boy.

Yeah.

Couldn't remember my name. Welsh boy.

Welsh boy.

Camera's already set up. Jump in.

Yeah.

And that little article was enough for me to keep on going. It was probably like four postcard sizes in the corner of a Flex magazine. And every time I would speak to my mother, she would say to me, okay, when you're coming Home when you're coming home proper worry, worrying Mom. And I would give her what she needed to hear, not what I really could tell her, which was, nothing's happening, Mom. I'm on my last dimes. That's what I could have said. But what I said was, mom, this is incredible. You won't believe I met this person. I had a photo shoot. It's coming out. I also lay myself into the fact that this is going to be a long term endeavor. It's a marathon sprint.

Yeah.

Just get me in the room. All I need to do is be in front of somebody, just strike that conversation and make sure that person remembers me.

Right.

And that's been also the same thing throughout my life is making that impact. It's like when you and I met, right?

Yeah.

You, you made an impact to me and I hope I've done the same with you. It's over here today, that quick, little fast conversation. It's like whatever you can do in that moment, as long as Gary goes away saying, man, that was a good guy. I'd like to see him again.

Whenever I do. I told my son, I'm like, he's a great guy.

And I the same thing for you. And here we are. But that's, that's been my, my goal since I came here at 19 years old and. But again, got. I had every opportunity to go home. More, more, more, more reasons to go home and pick up my moving company.

Yeah.

Done to stay.

Yeah.

But through perseverance and turning up and having that, why I was able to then get my first contract at 20 years old when I was honestly that paycheck, I was at Ralph's supermarket. I had one of these pay as you go phones and there's 301, 310 number calls. And not many people have my number. I look at it and I go, I better answer this. And I open it up and it's a guy called Peter McGough. And Peter McGough was under Joe Weider. And Peter McGough said flax us at Weider Publications would be on it. If you'd love to be honored for you to sign with Weider Publications. So I was the first and last. I was the second amateur, maybe third amateur actually. But the last athlete to be signed with Joe Eater before the magazines disbanded.

Really.

And I was there for six years with them under contract and it changed my life. It was not much money. It was 2, $500.

But that could be all the money in the world depending on where you are.

And I had probably in my pocket a hundred and something dollars left. So that was in nice pocket.

Yeah.

And I'm buying groceries.

Yeah.

And that was it. And then I get the call in this hand and it was just like, my goodness. And, and in bodybuilding, the highest honor in sponsorships was to be signed by Joe Eater.

Yeah.

And I was able to live that chapter in my life before social media took over. So I was one footing magazine and I lived that life.

And then I remember that magazine. I remember all. And the whey proteins and I mean, it was massive, Massive at that time.

I mean, Mass Joe was such a.

It was the only brand, really. Yeah, I mean they own that space. So. So now you, you know, when you get to the stage and have your first real win here in the U.S. now that hooks, you know, reset, you're, you're, you're on this journey. What, what is astounding to me again is, is that, you know, you, you get that first win and instead of leveraging it and going out and immediately becoming an entrepreneur or leveraging it and going straight into the gym space, which eventually you did. And I want to talk about that. You know, you went back to the grind to take another title and then you did that six more times. Yeah. So. And this coach that followed you from Europe to here, he physically come to the States.

Right now he lives five minutes away from my house.

You are loyal, man.

When I eat, I make sure that everybody else eats. So when I had these contracts at a very young age, I made sure that these were not that he was asking for anything. I just want to preface that, yeah, he done everything for free. But when I would go over the. To have these conversations with certain supplement companies or potential sponsors, I would negotiate my contract and I said, oh, I know we've agreed on this, but the add on is my coach BL seats. So when I had these contracts at a very young age, I made sure that these were not that he was asking for anything. I just want to preface that, yeah, he done everything for free. But when I would go with the, to have these conversations with certain supplement companies or potential sponsors, I would negotiate my contract and I said, oh, I know we've agreed on this, but the add on is my coach. So I would, I would structure the contract and then I'd be like, well, this caveat. So they would sign me and they would sign my coach. So every supplement company I got sponsored by my coaches, also sponsored by that same company.

You for that loyalty, man.

Absolutely. But my, it's an easy pitch, you'll say, okay, you want to have the most knowledgeable coach talking about why these supplements work or what training, you know, why we're doing this type of training today, then unfortunately he won't be able to be on the videos if he's not part of the, part of the circle.

Yeah, yeah.

So I was like, it makes sense, guys.

Awesome, man. I love that mentality that the tide raises all the boats, you know, the same way that I run my platform. I mean, I deeply appreciate that and then, but what I also love about you is that when the, when, when the competitions ended, you know, and this, this incredible storied career in bodybuilding ended, it seems like the entrepreneur in you took over. Right. And, and that fearless sort of hard driven mentality that you had, you then decided you had this dream of having this gym which has become a reality now. But unfortunately for you, that dream starting to come true during the pandemic. Right. And which I think is, is the most uncertain time in our nation's history because you know, when you, it's, it's fine to look back now, but when you're in it and we all live through it, we didn't know how long it was going to last. We didn't know when it was going to end. We didn't know how much more oppressive the regulations were going to become. I mean, GY were hit, I mean hair salons and they were hit the hardest.

Crazy.

They were like absolutely not essential.

Yeah.

Which for somebody like me, I'm like, people need to be moving and exercising, like building their immune system too.

Right. Let's be honest.

Yeah.

Well, if you got a good gym anyway.

Yeah, it's absolutely essential. And I, I, I've listened to your story and I, you know what I, what I appreciated was you initially tried to do it on the DL. I heard you tell a story about how you flew out here and there were four fans on the plane to recognize you trying to sneak in under the wire. They started to post know, so everybody knows that Flex is in town. So talk a little bit about the journey to, you know, to building and getting this gym open. And you know, I, I, I, I loved your story about how you guys did it under the cloak of night. You know, you covered all the windows like people car pulled to the gym.

You've done some research.

Yeah. Yes, I've done some research because I, like I said, man, I've taken a deep dive on you and I appreciate it and, and I love it. It's very, it's very inspiring, you know, because even for somebody watching this podcast, it's like, well, I, I, I've got all the windows, like people carpool to the gym.

You've done some research.

I've done some research because I, like I said, man, I've taken a deep dive on you and I, and, and I love it. It's very, it's very inspiring, you know, because even for somebody watching this podcast, it's like, well, I, I, I don't really have what it takes nor the desire to become, I'm, you know, a Mr. Olympian. But I do want to chase my dream.

Yeah.

Of having X, Y and Z business. And I, and I think there's, they're exactly parallel.

Yeah.

Right.

So to kind of correlate the mindset, that mindset that I developed in bodybuilding, where, as I mentioned earlier, come hell or high water, I am doing that show, that date is set, and that, that mentality within the bodybuilding community, I.

Don'T really have what it takes or, nor the desire to become, you know, a Mr. Olympian, but I do want.

To chase transitions and should be able to transition so well into business or into other things and really think about it. Yeah. So think about, like, okay, I'm going to open up a business. Yeah. It's gonna, it's gonna be tough. You're gonna have sleepless nights, you're gonna be stressed. Same thing.

My dream.

Yeah.

Of having X, Y and Z business. And I, and I think there's, they're exactly parallel.

Yeah. I think it's a show, you know, all the control of the variables that you have going into prep. You can structure diet, cardio at this time, go to bed at this time, but then the un, you know.

Right.

So to kind of correlate the mindset, that mindset that I developed in bodybuilding, where, as I mentioned earlier, come hella high water, I am doing that. The other elements of life that get thrown into the mix was part of it. But you will end up doing that show. So that mentality and transitioned into that.

Date never moved for you. You as a date, you're either ready on that day.

Exactly. And that mentality I transitioned into everything I've done in life, business especially. So you have a plan or make a plan or plan a film. So in terms of the gym, the, that date is set and that that mentality within the bodybuilding community transitions and, and should be able to transition so well into business, going to other things. So think about the gym started off as a private facility in Boca Raton. I know obviously you're a Florida resident. I was trying to get you over there before I moved to Las Vegas. But this gym truly became something of a hotspot, yet it was not open to the public. So during my like, okay, I'm gonna open up a business. Yeah, it's gonna be tough. You're gonna have sleepless nights, you're gonna be stressed. Same thing as a show. You know, all the control of variables that you have going into prep. You can limp your run. Just to give you more context.

Yeah.

I was trained at public gyms. Really, there's. There's nothing wrong with training trainer public gyms. There's a lot of successful athletes that have been able to do so. But with my mentality and the thought process, because it is a process of me going into a top set, I would get into what I call Pandora's box, get everything moving and grooving, get my. My mentality right. And I would attack that piece of equipment, whatever, it'll be leg day, whatever else. Now, when you've got fans that come up to you, it's hard then to get out of that mentality. Be flex, shake hands, take pictures, and then try to dig deep to get that mentality again. Structure, diet, cardio at this time, go to bed at this time. But then the un, you know, the other elements of life that get thrown into the mix was part of it. But you will end up doing that show. So that mentality and transitioned into that.

Date never moved for you as a date. So you're either ready on that day.

Exactly. And that mentality, I transitioned into everything I'd done in life, business especially. So I found that me training these public gyms, not only that was happening, but they were doing these meet and greets for me, unbeknownst to me, oh, six weeks out, driving their own membership.

Sales because you just happened to be at their gym.

Well, that's exactly what happened. So I turn up on one occasion and this all transitions into the dragon's lair. And there was both about 50. The first time was about 50 fans killing me. Flex Lewis tomorrow.

There was one without talking to.

You had no clue. No clue. And I look at all these people, they start slow clapping and I'm, hey, you know, I've got my pre worker inside me that I just drunk, which was me taking the touching the sides. Gotti going into this. And everybody's deaf. They're all their few flex. And I was like, what happened? They set up a meet and greet. So of course, so you have a plan or make a plan or plan a film. So in terms of the gym, the mentality changes. Hey guys, you don't take it out in your fans. These people have given up their day. They're there to see you. No matter what is going on behind the scenes, the fans are unaware of it. You treat them as. The gym started off as a private facility in Boca Raton. I know obviously you're a Florida resident. I was trying to get you would want to be treated to yourself. So that pre worker went into my fans photos talking and you were over there before I moved to Las Vegas. But this gym truly became something of a hotspot, yet it was not open to the public. So during my this happened again. No, I said, this is enough. So myself and my wife ended up turning to each other and said, babe, we know so many people in the used gym equipment space and we have just at that time in the infancy stage started Arsenal strength up. So we had a couple of key products works. So I found a gym in Boca Raton warehouse. 9,000 square feet. Wasn't cheap, but the best investment is in yourself.

Wow.

So I set this gym up and it was a hodgepodge of all different equipment. And of course all my friends find out about this and said, sorry guys, this is closed. Yeah, this is for me. This is for me to win and defend and chase my goal. And then the only excuses on me. There was no guy sitting at the piece of equipment that you wanted. Nobody was coming to talk to you, ask you how are the diets going? Just as the question was asked yesterday to run. Just to give you more context. Yeah, I was trained at public gyms. Really there's, there's nothing wrong with training trainer public gyms. There's a lot of successful athletes that have been able to do so. But with my mentality and the thought process, because it is a process of me going into a top set, I would get into what I call Pandora's box, get everything moving and grooving, get my, my mentality right. And I would attack that piece of equipment, whatever, it'll be leg day, whatever else. No, when you've got fans that come up to you, it's hard then to get out of that mentality. Be flex, shake hands, take pictures and then try to dig deep to get that mentality again. So I found that me training in these public gyms, not only that was happening, but they were doing these meet and greets for me, unbeknownst to me.

Oh, six weeks old, driving their Own membership sales.

They're saying, right, none of them that. And then what I done G was because I.

Because you just happened to be at their gym.

Well, that's exactly what happened. So I turn up on one occasion and this all transitions into the Dragons lair. And there was about 50. The first time was about 50 fans, can I meet Flex Lewis tomorrow? There was without talking to you had no clue. No clue. And I look at all these people, they start slow clapping. And I'm, hey, you know, I've got my pre worker inside me that I just drunk with 14 tickets. The touching the sides gotti going into this and everybody's deaf. Did all their few flex. And I was like, what happened? They set up a meet and greet. So of course, mentality changes. Hey, guys, you don't take it out in your fans. These people have given up their day. They're there to see you. No matter what is going on behind the scenes, the fans are unaware of it. You treat them as you would want to be treated yourself. So that pre worker went into my fans for those talking and this happened again. No, I said, this is enough. So myself and my wife ended up saying that, turned to each other and said, babe, we know so many people in the used gym equipment space and we have just at that time in the infancy stage, started Arsenal strength up. So we had a couple of key products. So I found a gym in Boca Raton warehouse. 9,000 square feet. Wasn't cheap, but the best investment is in yourself.

Wow.

So I set this gym up and it was a hodgepodge of all different equipment. And of course, all my friends find out about this. It's like, sorry, guys, this is closed. This is for me. This is for me to win and defend and chase my goal. And then the only excuse is on me. There was no guy sitting at the piece of equipment that you wanted. Nobody was coming to talk to you, ask you how are the diets going? Just as the question was asked yesterday, too right. It's the same, mate. I'm dying. None of that. And then what I done, Gary, was because I'm very involved with the MMA community. As you know, a lot of my friends and the majority of my friends are fighters, but I love that mentality. They would bring guys in for camp to strengthen their abilities that they locked in. Bring somebody in for jiu jitsu, bring somebody in for wrestling, bring somebody in for striking, whatever it is that you need to bring in. I would bring guys, say, I'd see a guy that had an incredible pair of Legs, young up and comers, like, I'm gonna bring you over to the gym. We go and camp. And of course, for them, it was an incredible opportunity to be around me. And I was getting just as much from these young, hungry lion cubs on the chase than I probably was given to them in knowledge. So it was a great transactional. But some of these guys also didn't speak English.

Very good synergy, really. Yeah.

I brought guys in from the uae, from Brazil, from different parts of the United States. But there was camp with me, and this will happen. Then their fan base would see them in the gym, and we'd have people knocking on the doors. We had people sleeping in cars outside the gym, waiting for the prison. Serious on my kid's life, waiting for.

Like, some of these UFC guys to.

Show up or you to show up, whatever. And then what happened was the celebrity element came from it. No names mentioned. But say somebody was shooting a movie in Miami, they would come down to the gym to train because there's no windows, no doors, Paparazzi would sit outside not knowing who's in there. And this is what happened. We realized after being in Boca Raton, after six years, we had created a brand and rebranded it. We had, like, over 100,000 followers on Instagram just on a shell of a warehouse.

Wow.

With no ability to really go in.

So you started monetizing it.

Absolutely, yeah. And I never went into this, believe it or not, to be a gym owner. There was never an interest for me to be a gym owner in the early years.

Right.

Trust me. I just thought of all. Everything that was going to be going on, and it would take away from my competitive chess. But the private facility just ended up planting that seed in my head, and then it growing into what it is. And then when the pandemic happened, everybody wanted myself to open up a gym in Florida.

Right.

My wife's born and raised there. She was like, I don't know. And I agreed with her.

Yeah.

So we jumped on a plane. We knew that a lot of gyms had gone out of business here in Las Vegas. We came out, and he was like, I am legend. Yeah. We drove from the top of the strip to the bottom, not a soul. Half the lights were on, half the lights are off.

I remember that.

And me and my wife turned to each other and said, we need to be here.

Really?

When there's blood in the water.

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I know, but it's, it's.

The 900 pound gorilla in the room is like, what are we going to do? Like, the phone's not ringing, people are not walking through the door. I remember that moment with my wife when we were building our, our clinic and thankfully she, she asked me, she was like, what are we going to do? And I said, we're going to pivot. She goes, what do you mean? I said, we're going to start doing COVID testing. She goes, we're going to do COVID testing. I'm like, we have a medical clinic. Yes. We're not designated as essential right now. I'm going to file with the state to get us to be a official testing center. She was like, where are we going.

To get the tests?

And I was like, I don't know. Because what we're doing right now is not working. And, like, and the employees are, you know, you're the head of the ship, just like you're the captain of your ship. You know, they're looking at you like, yeah, what are we going to do? And, and that's. Those are the hardest moments when, when there's nobody above you, you're the tippy point of the spear, and you got to make a decision and everybody's looking at you, and you gotta, you also gotta show that strength. Like, like, oh, yeah, this is going to work out. And there's a little piss running down your leg, you know?

Yeah, I was there.

Yeah. And so I, you know, I think.

I'm very involved with the MMA community as, as, you know, a lot of my friends and the majority maybe, you.

Know, you know, in your camp, just to finish my story, we, you know, we, we pivoted. We started selling COVID Testing. The day we got designated as COVID Testing Center, I'll never forget it. Our clinic had been empty for weeks. We pulled into work in the morning and there was a line, two people wide, as far down the sidewalk as we could see. All the way past the. It was an LA Fitness, there was a real estate office, and then LA Fitness all the way down, and we were like, holy. Yeah. I call all my staff, I'm like, you guys all need to get in. I called my kids and told them to go to Walmart and buy scrubs and come in and scrubs and. And then, and then it ended up being one of the biggest years in our operating history. But you're, you're here during the pandemic. You know, look, you've been a successful bodybuilder, but you never started a gym.

Yeah.

So, I mean, this is, look, this is a ground up thing for you. This is, this is the second time you're starting ground zero. You got this confidence in yourself. And I love this story. I mean, talk a little bit about the story about getting the gym open out here because it's iconic now. And I think, you know, when somebody walks in and they see such an iconic gym and it's full of people and they're like, oh, that must have been easy. It's, you know, it's flexi. Of course, it's Flex Lewis. He's, he's, you know, seven times through Olympian. It's easy for him to do that. But, I mean, I don't think a lot of people saw the, you know, saw the struggle and there was stress. Yeah.

You know, but what we try to do is just focus on, our goal was to get out to Las Vegas and create this incredible gym that the fitness industry are really craving now.

Yes. Nobody signed leases at this time either. No, like, I mean, no, they're like what you really want to lease.

Yeah, yeah. And that's, that's the concept. Yeah. It was, it was double edged sword to that too because we got looked at, looked at so many different properties. But the property that we're in right now at that point in time was privately owned. So the family were very accommodating. They were like, oh yes. And I wanted more buildings at the time than that that was available, but they were very, very accommodating, I would say to just get us in there. And to the point of when we started moving and grooving, it looked like one of these movie drug deals where the, the warehouse doors would come out, we'd lord the vans in and the warehouse door would come like, look, see around and go, go, go, go, go.

Yeah.

And that's what we've done.

The drywall coming in, nothing to see here, Nothing to see.

But we plastered the walls and we went to town every single day. And we worked through this, this period of time, you know. And again, you have to have, you have to have blind faith in some stuff. And I've done that many times where my confidence is, I don't know where it comes from. I'm sure, you know, I can patch things together.

Yeah.

But that confidence has definitely led me into so many opportunities. And that blind faith too. It's like jumping on that plane, come to the United States. Blind faith, faith. But the difference is with any of these other endeavors that I've done, there's something in my heart that I know this is not going to fail. And I've had it several times throughout my life. Bodybuilding was one of them. Do the work turn up, you know, that that was all I needed and the same thing, your mentality turn up, make it work. And we turned up, came to Las Vegas. Everybody thought we were crazy because we left South Florida, which was wide open. The scientists done an incredible job of keeping that state keep moving and grooving. And we came to Las Vegas and we realized like, wow, this is what it, this is what it looks like in other parts of the country.

Yeah.

And we realized that we had to pivot on some things. It wasn't as hard as what we thought to get contractors because everybody was itching to work at that point in time. We just had to do the whole loopholes of how we built this, right? But we done it. We built it at the tail end. And as the world started opening up, up. Our grand opening was unbelievable. Talk about yourself and the COVID 19.