George Farah Returns Full Interview | Formerly Training Big Ramy, Phil Heath Comeback Opinion & More

It was a real regime, almost. Oh, hell no. They're talking about me. All I needed was one ball. The science of training.

And I know you don't think it's a sport. Hey, George.

What's up, buddy?

How you doing, man? Good to see you.

I just got to my Bay house and trying to set things up.

Oh, that looks beautiful. That's a beautiful view right there, man.

You like that?

Oh yeah.

See, I live on peninsula of water and I have a pool right there, an infinity pool. I love my summer house, man. You gotta come and visit me one of these days.

You gotta invite me, man. I'll be right there.

But I forget you like Milos a lot more.

What?

You like Milos because he gives people insulin.

I like him?

Hey, you want it this way or sideways?

This is good. Yeah, it's perfect. So George, man, I was looking forward to our interview, man. Last time we did one triggered a lot of people.

Good news.

First of all, how you been? It's good to see you. And how you been, man? I haven't seen you since—

I'm doing good, bro. I'm doing great. You know, I took that time during, you know, the corona, and I really studied like 130, 140 hours, and I finished my doctorate, you know, in integrative medicine. So it was really challenging, but I got it done. So I'm just about to finish my dissertation right now. So very soon you guys will be calling me Dr. Farah.

That's great. Wow, that's— you really stuck through with it, man. That's good.

I know.

So the pandemic, man, you know, how is it? How has it been for you? You know, you see so many different things, uh, from different directions, different points of views. You know, people say, we hate the mask, it's worse for you. The gyms were closed, you know. Um, how did you feel about the whole— and it's still going, obviously, it didn't go away yet, right? Well, how do you feel about it Looking back at it and where it's at right now?

I mean, you know, it's very sad. It's very sad because the more I, you know, like the more you read, the more research you do, the more you find out that it's really man-made. So we really could have prevented it, but you know, it's here and we have to deal with it. And really what upset me, man, it's like, especially in the bodybuilding, you know, you know, you know, industry, family, whatever you want to call it. These guys keep texting me, hey, can I— you think it's okay for me to take the, you know, the vaccine? I'm like, are you kidding me? You guys put in your body almost everything and you worry about the stupid vaccine? Of course, get it so we can get back to normal somehow, you know what I'm saying? So it's crazy.

So you're not anti-vaccine, you're pro-vaccine?

Yeah, well, you know, I can't be anti-vaccine, you know what I'm saying? I volunteer in the hospitals. And I work in— we own, me and my wife, who own Webster Psychiatry and Medicine here in upstate New York. You know, she's, uh, my wife, she's a medical— she's dually boarded. She's a medical doctor and she's also a psychiatrist, and I'm doing integrative medicine. So, you know, we have all the things. So I see people. I had to get it. So I was one of the first people to get it, you know what I'm saying? I had to get the vaccine. You know, I get the the Pfizer, and I really like— it didn't affect me. You have a little achiness and whatever, just like any vaccine, but overall it was okay, you know what I mean?

You got a lot of things going on, George. You always inspire me, man. You got— I don't know how you have time for everything, man.

You know what, it's, it's about, man, just, uh, it's about just trying to pay it forward more than anything, honestly. Because, you know, when you get to, to a time Vlad, when you're young, you just want to have money and fame and cars and stuff. You know, I've already surpassed all this, man. Right now, I just, you know, God have given me a couple lives. I mean, as we all know, like the first time I got shot, my God, and then fast forward 19 years, 20 years later, I get, you know, cancer. I almost died. So just for me to be here, man, and be alive, it's a blessing. And I kind of like feel like, you know, man, God's keeping me here for a reason. And I think that reason is for me to help others. And that's exactly what I want to do. You know what I mean?

Speaking of getting cars, didn't you just get a new Lamborghini?

You know what? It's such a weird story because people, they didn't understand what I was really talking about. So I have a friend of mine, you know, like who is— we've been friends for a long time. And he was a very prominent, amazing guy, smart guy. He's actually— he was, he was going to be the mayor. He was like the second in command in our area before, and he wanted to be the mayor. But then, you know, he left the town as a mayor, and we opened that company, like all of us together, because he wants to become a millionaire, you know what I'm saying? And he did. As a matter of fact, it's so weird, he bought my older house, you know, my house I used to own. He loved it. I said, man, it's yours. You know what I mean? So he bought that house and I was talking to him literally like a couple of weeks before he passed away. And we talked about, I'm getting the Lamborghini and all this. And you know what's so funny? Before the Lamborghini arrived, the guy passed away. You know what I'm saying? So I'm like, man, he's same age as me. You know what I'm trying to say?

Yeah.

When you're in your 50s and you're not supposed to die. So anyway, like those things, you know, like, you know, aneurysm, you get, you got so many things that you don't, you're not expecting to get. He wasn't a bodybuilder. He wasn't anything to do with our industry, but he was my good friend. You know what I'm saying? And to watch him dying, I'm like, I really didn't care about nothing. Like, as a matter of fact, you know, I'm putting, you know, I just put my house, my big house, 12,000 square foot, I'm putting it on the market. And I just looked at my wife and looked at my kids and I'm like, you know, you guys, I don't want that. I don't want nothing anymore. I sold my G-Wagon. I sold my freaking— I mean, everything. My McLaren. Now the Lamborghini was coming, and I really end up giving it to one of my good friends who worked for me for 20 years, and he was so loyal, and he kept talking about that's his dream. And I'm like, you know, man, if he really— like, I put the down or whatever, and he really wants it that bad, why not making his, you know, his dream become reality. So not just, you know, dreams in bodybuilding, take them and make them pro. It's good to help other people, man. And I tell you what, if I— I swear, you know, if you see how many texts so far he had sent to me, he goes, bro, I'm still— I can't believe it. I'm in tears every day. You know, we went to dinner. His wife, she looked at me, she goes, you know, you're an amazing guy. She goes, I don't understand, like, there's people left like you. So it's really not about how much you have, man. It's about how much you can do and you can help others. Because I did have millions. I did have the best houses, the best cars. I was never happy. But man, when you see somebody like this, like help them get a business, one of your friends, my other friend, I got him a house. And you get the car and you get their dreams. That's what happiness is all about.

That's incredible.

You know, I always like to spit some knowledge in there, and there is a very famous doctor, he was talking about, actually, like, he's one of the guys I really believe, like, he's amazing, and he was talking about the difference between pleasure and happiness. You know, pleasure is something you do by yourself. Happiness is something you do with your family and your friends and your community. Pleasure is addicting. Happiness is not. It's you— the more you happy, the better it is for you. But it's so cool that the more you study and research and what he's saying, it makes a lot of sense. Pleasure use dopamine. Happiness use serotonin. And the more dopamine you use, as weird as that may sound, the less neurons they firing. So that means you kill some of your neurons, the pleasure And I'm not talking about just doing drugs pleasure, I'm talking even habit-forming pleasure. Like, I want to be that big bodybuilder, I want to get this, you know, like all this pleasure actually makes you lose some of your neurons when you get that high, you know what I'm saying, with drugs or whatever. And that's why it's so weird. Like, I was like, the reason why I really was studying, researching this, because I wanted to see what happened to me. Remember when we had in our other interview about, like, you know, taking all that stuff they give me in the hospital. I was suicidal. You remember we talked about it?

Yeah.

So I want to know why. So this doctor made a lot of sense, you know, with his study and research. And I went through it and I'm like, oh my God, it's amazing. So the more they give you drugs, or the more you do drugs, or gambling, or cheating, or whatever, you know, or alcohol, the less happy you are. And that's why we have so many— we have the best country in the world right here, We have anything we need, but then you look around and people are so unhappy. And the reason why I, I brought— I'm bringing this to this interview, because bodybuilders, they take all that stuff so they can get big and get this. And then you see them, if they do the show or they didn't like win or they didn't place or whatever, they're miserable. They're actually suicidal because they're playing with their hormonal, you know what I mean? Your hormone is so imbalanced. And nobody bringing this to the table, man, and telling people, listen, man, not everything pleasure, you know. There's life, you know. And the only way you get like good serotonin is surround yourself with your loved one, your family, you know. Do stuff, you know, instead of just, I'm going to gym, I'm going to eat rice and chicken, you know. Do something different, you know what I mean? Have fun, enjoy your friend, go grab a bite. But the most important thing the good food, you know what I'm saying? Because the more we get, you know, antioxidants, the more we get all that beautiful nature, fruits, vegetables, the better serotonin you have and the more happy you are. Makes sense?

Yeah, this is very interesting. So it seems like the pleasure is like a— it's an instant gratification but doesn't last.

Yes. Well, you know, I mean, you know, it's so sad because you think, you know, people think it's all about money. this is their life, they're driven, and it's really not. Look at Robin Williams, he died already, he had like almost $50 million in his bank. David Carradine, uh, Chris Farley, you know, they OD'd. Uh, Belushi, all these guys, they get so much money. Elvis Presley, so much money, but they're never happy. You know why? Because they did that certain thing and they think this is happiness. It's not, man. Pleasure really can mess you up. And that's why I'm bringing it to bodybuilders. They think this is— there's life, there's life after bodybuilding, and people need to remember this, you know. Stop pushing the limit, enjoy it. I'm not saying, hey, don't take steroids. I'll be hypocrite because I took it and I made it where I made it. I went to the Olympia 3 times. Of course, that's a dream, you know. You have a dream, you want to make it reality. But at the same time, be careful, you guys, because there's life after bodybuilding. There is really a life after bodybuilding. Enjoy your family. Don't fight with your wife and mom and kids because they're eating something. Hey, nobody's forcing you to do that. You're doing it for yourself, you know what I'm saying? So I wish, like I said, I always say it, man, I wish I know— I knew what I know today, you know what I'm saying? Because my life would have been so much easier. Like, I— like right now, my mission really to tell bodybuilders, you guys, Please, man, life is not about just chicken and rice, you know what I mean? Or fish and rice, you know, include some fruit and some vegetables and stuff. Dude, you're not even gonna believe this, you know, I was mentioning like you should use fruit and stuff. Some people actually DM me, hey, the fruit have so much sugar, how can you really like say to people? Are you serious? I'm looking, I'm like, what the hell's wrong with people? Now we don't want to eat fruit? When the last time you heard somebody saying, oh man, I'm very sick from eating a lot of fruit? You know what I'm saying? It makes no— people making no sense because they're so programmed, you know what I'm saying? Like food industry and all that stuff, half of it is not even allowed in next-door neighbor Canada, you know what I'm saying? Because it causes addiction and it causes sugar problem and so many things.

Well, you know, you're a very humble guy when it comes to— people know you as a bodybuilding coach, guru, right? But you've been, you've been a really big businessman your whole life. Like, you've been involved in some big projects.

Yes.

People might not know that, but you're like really about building big businesses. Yes.

You know, yeah, I was, I was blessed, man. I was blessed. And the blessing, how it is, is because since I was a kid, you know, like, uh, I always, you know, I always believed that, you know, like we talked about, thoughts become matters and matters become things, you know what I'm saying? And it kind of like, it really like everything I put in my mind. It's so weird. I'm going to tell you a story that you mentioned that, right? Like for an example, I was 17, 18 years old in that same bay. I'm fishing, you know, that water behind me. I was fishing with a friend of mine. And then, you know, his father, he goes, look at this house. You know, you believe, look at this, look at house on the water. And they have a pool with a slide and stuff. I said, you know, I don't think it's impossible. Someday, you know, we can buy something like this. And he looked at me, he goes, yeah, keep on dreaming, kid. You know, and I'm like, yeah, I am dreaming. But, you know, fast forward 20-some years later, you know, I'm having like a birthday party for my daughter and I invite my friend, totally forgot. He said, hey man, can I bring my dad? I said, of course. So his father walks in here, he looked at me, he goes, I gotta give it to you, kid. I said, what are you talking about? He goes, He goes, 20-some years ago, we were in that bay fishing, and I talked about that house, and now you own it. He goes, so, you know, you know, like, literally, literally, like, well, you know, like, that's why he kept drilling it in Kai's mind, you know. Thoughts become things. Thoughts become things, you know. And this is how I live by it, man. There's nothing, you know, I'm not different than anybody else, you know what I mean? We all breathe the same air. We're all gifted the same brain. You know, it's up to us what we want to do. Some people go the wrong way and do bad stuff about it. But if you really want to get, you know, achieve something, you have to be different. You have to do those little extra, you know, go the extra mile to achieve it. But it's— I don't think there's anything impossible, honestly.

No, for sure. That's very inspiring. Um, all right, so, you know, last time we spoke, uh, we had an interview, right? You heavily, you know, you spoke out against insulin, against sugar in general, but you really were critical of insulin. Um, you said that it should stop. You, you basically said that it should not have a place in bodybuilding anymore going forward. Now, did you, did you receive any backlash for it?

And honestly, I stand correctly with this, you know. The reason why, because first of all, it's sending the wrong message. Because everybody look at, okay, who's the biggest guy now out there? Big Ramy. Well, guess what? Big Ramy, he worked with me for almost 2 years. He never used insulin. That guy will look at food and he'll grow. It's all about hard working, doing the right things, you know, sleeping right, everything, you know what I'm saying? So I don't know why the insulin, especially like— I'm so upset with so many like coaches they call, you know, quote-unquote coaches or whatever. Dude, they take kids, they just started in the gym, 18, 19 years old, and they're, they're putting them on insulin. Like, really? Why? Listen, we all know if you're diabetic, you get scared. Why? Because basically your life is going to be short. So why you making yourself diabetic? I don't understand this, you know what I'm saying? I don't care. Like, listen, maybe some guys have a great deal, you know, of respect in this industry and they want to push, you know, insulin and stuff. I'm not. I'm sorry, man. God gave me a chance on life a couple times. I'm not gonna go on people. I don't think insulin is gonna make you champion. If you have the genetic to be champion and you work hard, you will be champion. The insulin is not gonna make a huge difference. As a matter of fact, it's gonna take you somewhere negative. And I don't— like I said, I don't care what anybody said, you know, this is, this is the bottom line. As a matter of fact, I can go on and, you know, tell people, listen, all you have to do is go, you know, some people, there are a lot of coaches, they love Google. They're Google coaches, they call them, right? Hey, go Google, see if you eating a lot of sugar, you know what I'm saying, which that's what insulin requires, does that destroy your DNA? It actually trashes your DNA. And when you trash DNA, that means you're looking for problems. That means you manifesting diseases that weren't there, you know what I'm saying?

Mm-hmm.

I tried insulin. I did try insulin, and I think, you know, it made me ill because I'm missing half my intestines from the gunshot and stuff. I couldn't do it, you know what I'm saying? But I tried it, and I really didn't see like a huge difference or anything, except I'm like, oh my God, you know, that stuff, it's actually making me hungry. But then, you know, guess what? I can use something else to make me hungry, you know what I mean? So this, this is the wrong approach. I really want the coaches to think, you know, like I think, honestly. You know, I want the sport we all love to be safe. That's the bottom line, man. And like I said, I'm not saying don't go take hormones and don't take steroids or whatever. Go ahead, but do your blood work, you know. This is the most important investment in your body. You know, like, I hate when people, they spend you know, a couple thousand dollars on gear, and, oh, they said, oh, I don't want to do the blood work, it costs $250. Are you serious? Yeah, you— this is your life, man. This is your health. It's the most important thing. Nothing more important than your health, because it doesn't matter what you have, if you don't have your health, you're screwed. You know what I'm saying?

But are you saying— because every time I talk to somebody, right, like off the record, you know, I keep hearing that insulin became, you know, a part, a key component of modern bodybuilding, and everybody is using it. Are you saying no, that's not true?

Listen to me, it's not true. I don't care what anybody said. Those 20, whatever, 10, 20%, they're using insulin. Hey, listen, I can go on record and tell you, for an example, Danny Younan, you know what I mean? I had actually 3 guys coming to the New York Pro and the Open, 2 in the Open and and Danny Younan in the Classic, but those 2 guys couldn't make it because of visa. Lionel Baeke couldn't get his stuff together, and Issaouf Bey decided to do another show. But Danny, I can go on the record, Danny Younan uses less than anybody, and I can guarantee you this, and look how good he looked at New York. And as a matter of fact, if you guys looked at pictures a couple weeks before the show, he looked even better, but I had to make weight, so we actually dropped his calorie very drastically So he wasn't really as full and hard, but we had to make weight, so we couldn't really catch up. And I don't want to play the insulin game, so what I did, I give him food. So, you know, the, the good thing is he won the show, and I could honestly say, you know, he just gave me his blood work before the show, and now I ask him to do it like after, you know, after we do like PCT and stuff, and his blood work is amazingly perfect. This is what makes me happy. Make a champion and being healthy, not make a champion and who cares later on. Guess what? I want people, Vlad, that they work with me. I told you that before. I want them to say, man, thank God I make that, you know, I met that guy because I don't want them to say, man, this guy destroyed my life. I don't want to be part of this. Like I told you before and I still saying it honestly, I was talking to Dennis James yesterday. He said, man, I remember when you have 13, 14 people at the Olympia. How could you do this? I said, you know what, Dennis, I'm not doing this anymore because I want people— the people that want to work with me, I want them to be healthy. If they don't want— if they want to start asking me about insulin, I'm like, listen, I'm the wrong coach. Maybe you should go somewhere else. You know what I'm saying? I want people to be 52 years old like Dexter Jackson and retired and they still healthy. They're grandparents and they're still healthy. I don't want to be part somebody dying. That's all.

One more thing I want to ask you about insulin. So when I ask, you know, because I keep hearing it can be very dangerous, right? If you don't— if you take insulin and you miscalculate something, or if you don't drink something, some sugar afterwards.

Why? Why? Listen to me, man.

No, no, George, I'm not promoting insulin at all.

I'm just trying to understand. And I understand what you're saying, but, but I want to tell you something, okay? Like, I asked somebody who wants to do insulin and do this, I'm like, Hey bro, did you ever do cocaine? He goes, oh, why? Would you do crack, heroin? No. Why you want to do insulin? I don't understand. This is your body, and this is— the body is a temple from God. Give us that temple to protect it. So if you think doing drugs or, or doing, you know, alcohol, that's a sin, well, that's why. Guess what? That's why in any religion and all You know, the main three religion: Judaism, Christianity, and Muslim, right? If you commit suicide, supposedly you don't go to heaven, right? Because you did something haram. Something is not good. Something it's against our religion. So you knowingly knowing that taking the insulin could kill you, but you're still taking it. I don't get it. I don't get it. Why? Why take a chance? For what? For what, bro? You're 20 and 30 years old, or even 40. Well, later on when you're 50 and 60 and on dialysis and have a problem, what are you gonna say? You know, oh, I had a trophy. Big deal. I hear you. Big deal. You know what I'm saying?

When Milos, the coach Milos, when— because he heavily promotes insulin, right? You know that, obviously. So when he says on a record that, you know, if taken responsibly according to the rule of how he You know, tells you to take it, it's 100% safe. Is he simply wrong about that?

You know, Milos is a friend of mine, okay? I don't want to say he's wrong, all right? He's wrong promoting insulin. This is my opinion. He have— he's entitled to his opinion, but my opinion, I don't think we should have insulin. Listen, man, as is, I'm looking at, you know, like posters, you know what I mean? The other day, I don't want to say names, but there's so many people on that stage, including me, including me, okay? Every one of us either missing a kidney, on dialysis, I had cancer, crippled people. I mean, come on, bro, it's not a healthy sport. So why add, you know, something, you know, more, you know, gas to the fuel? Why? Why? So if you, if you telling me, okay, well, it's great, you know, if you do it right. But guess what? If you take Deca, okay, and you didn't eat, or you got arrested, or you took Deca and get in an accident on your way to the gym, you know what I'm saying, or on your way from the gym, nothing's gonna happen. Guess what? You take insulin and you're on your way from the gym or to the gym And you have insulin, you get in an accident and they don't know what's wrong with you, why you're going. They don't know that you need sugar. They don't know that you took insulin. So why you play with your lifespan? Why? Why are you doing this? Dude, I'm telling you right now, maybe listen, maybe few people on the Olympia stage use insulin. Okay. And I can tell you this for sure because I remember you know, like from, like for example, 2009 or '13 or whatever, I have 6, you know, 6 people in the top 10 and none of those 6 use insulin. So what that tell you? You know, I have Branch Warren, he won 8 pro shows, you know, 4 Arnold Classics. I have Dexter, they never use insulin. So why do I need to promote something? It's really not making you, you know, over the edge or doing something better. I don't think insulin is going to make you any better bodybuilder, honestly. You know, they can disagree with me as much as they want and they say, oh, George doesn't know what he's talking about. But, but come on, bro, we all know it's just— it's not a safest alternative for anything.

Now it seems like your mission in life now, it's all about longevity, right, and health. That's what really kind of like from a few years back that became your mission. Um, do you think it's possible if you want to compete at the highest level, right, if you're going for the Olympia title in the current sport of bodybuilding, right, If you don't want to just be competing but be actually at a top level, right, you top contender, can you really be healthy? Like, is, is bodybuilding on that level with health, or is it extreme sport and we should just, you know, accept it?

Listen, if you could be very healthy, you know, if you really know what you're doing. And like I said, you know what's wrong with people of lead? People, if they're not in pain or laying down, they think they're okay. If they're not in the hospital laying down, they think, oh, it's okay. Dude, you know how many— first of all, food is the most addictive thing. So now you throw steroids on top of it, and guys that they want to, you know, make their arm bigger or look bigger so they can look cute to the girls, because a lot of them, they really like, you know, they have a problem and that's why they get in the gym, you know what I'm saying? You know, let's face it, seriously, everybody want to get big and stuff. It's something, some mental, it makes you feel good and stuff. But you throw all this stuff and on top bad food, dude, you're looking for trouble. You know what I'm saying? Like, you know, I'm, I'm so thankful, man. Like all my guys, you know, I'll make sure, hey, listen, man, before you do your diet, after you do even an offseason, you can ask all these guys, you know, boom, boom, boom, blood work, because You don't want something sneaking up on you and you don't know what's going on. And it's so funny, man. Look, you know, I don't like to mention names, but we know a lot of people, they like— they were advocates about steroid and insulin and stuff, and they say, oh, it's the greatest thing. Well, guess what? Now they're having a lot of problems. A lot of them have a lot of problems. I have a lot of people, they're coming to me, George, how can you help me? And you know what? It'll be my pleasure helping everybody. It will be my pleasure. helping anybody with kidney problem or any other disease because I know how it is, man, when you're out and when you're down. This is very sad, very sad. Listen, my wife loved me, my kids adore me, but when I was laying in that hospital, life goes on. They had to go to school, my wife had to go see her patient, you know what I mean? Life goes on. When you're down and out, you're down and out. You know, my friend just died. He's a millionaire. He's 51 years old. Guess what? He left 3 kids. His wife, is she gonna die? No, life goes on. You're the one who's gonna suffer. So that's why I'm really like pushing health approach, you know what I mean? Like I said, I'm not saying don't take steroids. I'm not saying don't do, you know, certain things and don't go crazy, but at the same time, be smart. Check your blood work, please. please, I'm begging you, check your blood work because this stuff can sneak up on you. Like, I have so many guys, they come to me and I ask them, I'm like, dude, do you— did you realize that your GFR, you know, your filtration, it's only 40? What's that mean? That mean if you keep continue what you're doing, you're gonna be on dialysis before you're 40, you know what I'm saying? This just happened to one of my guys. It just So sad. He comes to me new. I don't want to tell you whose coach he was in, but he didn't know any better. But you know what? It's not good, man. It's not good. I'm sorry. You know, I'm sorry. That's why we have to be careful. We have to be— listen, I love Milos. I love Chris. I love Dave. I love all these guys. Honestly, I have no hard feeling, but I want a man. I want him to push take our little brothers and the newcomers and teach them, you know, listen, man, look what happened to us. You know, if you didn't die but you didn't see who died before you, you know what I'm saying? So please be careful. You know, let's, let's preach the right stuff, the right approach. You know, we love bodybuilding, we want the freak show, but the freak show— listen, you're gonna tell me Kai's not freak? I can put my hand on anything you want and swear to you Okay, that Kai never touched insulin as long as I knew him. We've been 11 years together. Never, ever, ever. You understand what I'm saying? And he's walking 300 pounds shredded. So you're not gonna duplicate this because you don't have the genetic or you don't have the hard work ethic, you know, like Branch and all these guys. I mean, Branch used to have no genetic, but he proved to everybody hard work can make it. Guess what? Branch never took insulin. Never. I will never. You understand?

I mean, I feel like so many people are gonna like not gonna believe you for some reason. They're gonna be questioning. Dude, listen, I know you don't care. I don't care.

I swear on my kids. I believe you, of course. On my kids, man, you know? And I'm not— I don't— there's no reason for me to lie, you know what I'm saying? Listen, trust me, give it time. The problem, everybody wanna— they wanna build an empire overnight. It doesn't happen like this, man. Take your time, you guys. I swear to you, it will be so much beneficial. You will see so much healthy, you know, then you, you, then you'll understand what I'm talking about, man. Life is very important, you guys.

You know, in the last, in the last year, like, it's, it's, it seems like almost every week a bodybuilder dies, right? Um, I don't want to say any names, but like, you see guys die in their 50s primarily, or like late 40s sometimes, sometimes 60s, you know. But, um, without Saying any names, do you think that has to do with what you're talking about with unhealthy lifestyle?

100%, bro. Come on, man. You know, we go back, listen to me, okay? And I'm not talking just steroid. You know, when you— when I used to take like a certain injection and, oh man, it swelled up and hurt, I used to freaking take Advil like candy. And all of a sudden I'm looking like, holy crap, my kidney like terrible, you know what I'm saying? And on top of it, I was shot in my kidney So everybody told me about 22 years, 23 years ago, you know, when I get shot in 2017, 22 years ago, they said, well, you're gonna be going on dialysis. I said, what do you mean? He said, well, because you use, you know, Advil or whatever. And I used to like work out and deadlift at a time. And, uh, so, you know, then I'm like, I didn't, I didn't think much about it because, you know, you're young and you just want to compete and But then when I made my comeback, you know, and I saw that my kidneys start deteriorating, you know, my creatinine was like from 1.4 went up to 2, you know, all this because I dry myself and stuff, you know, I'm already shot, I have one kidney, I'm like, dude, I'm done. And it's so weird, bro, like, you know, I was just actually talking to people And I showed them, you know, from 2000, you know, from year 2000 when I won the national till now, my creatinine at the same place. It's at the same place. The only time it went up, it's when I had the cancer. May God, you know, protect you all from that vicious disease. But honestly, thank God, like, I have the knowledge and I know what to eat. And it's not everything high protein and not everything a lot of sugar, you know. So you know, you gotta, you do, you have to be in touch. You have to be in touch with the reality. You have to do your blood work and check what's going on. Where are you heading? Because if I'm heading to disasters, you know, like a lot of people ask me why I retired early, because I don't wanna do this anymore. Because I'm looking at my 2 daughters, you know what I mean? I wanna be there for them. You know what I'm saying? So that's why I stopped competing. I can't, I can't afford to drive myself and make my, you know, my, my kidneys suffer more. So I stopped.

So last time we spoke, you know, you kind of anti-sugar now. Are you saying that sugar can actually potentially cause cancer? I've seen some of your videos lately and I feel like you're also saying that, uh, potentially a lot of animal protein can also cause cancer. Um, that's important for bodybuilders, right? To, to understand.

Vlad, you know, listen, we're all— if, if you sit down with a lot of like people like they have the right head on their shoulder in nutrition or even on life in general, you know what I mean? We call it— we can all agree on something, you know what I mean? Anything in excessive, it's not good, you know what I'm saying? So when I, when I talk about sugar, listen, sugar is in everything, man. I mean, they're putting it in everything. Do you really need it? No. Well, guess what? Since, you know, since I got out of the hospital, right? 2018, I have not had one piece of sugar. Now, do I have something sweet? Yeah, I have some maple, you know, maple syrup, organic maple syrup on some rice cake with some, you know, almond butter or something. You know, I have my little dessert my way, you know what I'm saying? Or I have like an organic ice cream, you know, but sugar, table sugar, Pepsi, the stuff I used to Never, never again. And guess what? I'm living. I sleep better. I can guarantee you this. All what they have to do, whoever listened to us here, just stop sugar. Stop table sugar, right? Just stop it for 5, 6 days. I can guarantee you'll get better sleep because you don't run to the bathroom as much. You know what I'm saying? So sugar, I am against sugar. And I'm talking about like the refined sugar, like the bad sugar. You know, I'm not talking about like, you know, Good stuff like maple syrup or you know like or your fruit. I mean as a matter of fact there is a study now people made fun of me about the sugar. There is you can just Google it. All what you have to do just Google say hey fresh juice cause any problem? They say glass of fresh juice listen to this okay glass of fresh juice can actually increase your risk of cancer. Fresh juice so that mean God want us, man, to have the apple. They want us to have the orange. They don't want us to have the juice because you have the fibers in them, everything. So makes it nice and easy, slow. And the same thing, like I said, if you get a bunch of people and, and sit down and talk to them, they will all agree with you, okay, that if you go more than 25% of your daily caloric intake from protein, you're gonna have some type of problem. They, they can laugh at me or do whatever they want, but it's been proven that, you know, for longevity, it's not good to have more than 25% animal protein.

So I mean, that affects bodybuilders because they eat a lot of animal protein, obviously, right?

Clearly. But honestly, there is— there is no reason, man. Like, like when I told people, listen, like some lady was asking me From my audience in one of that seminar I did. I told her, for an example, I was giving her an example that 30 grams of protein for her because she's 100 pounds. And everybody's like, oh my God, you can have more than 30. Dude, I'm saying this to the lady. I understand, you know, for a bodybuilder who's a big guy, you can have 40 and 50 and 60 grams, you know what I'm saying? But what I'm trying to tell you is I found out Because of my kidney problem years ago, 20 years ago, I didn't really— didn't need that much protein, you know. You don't really need that much. That's why I took somebody like Kai, you know, from a pound of meat at each seating to have only, you know what I mean, 6 ounces. Now the 6 ounces, of course, they have, you know, 40-some grams of protein in it. We're talking, you know, measured after cook. But that's Kai. He's 290 to 300 pounds, you know what I'm saying? So you're still looking, he's getting about like 1 gram, 1 gram plus per pound, but not like these guys want to do like 600 grams. For what? It's not gonna do you any good. It's gonna put, you know, like it's gonna wreak havoc. And everybody that, well, study, so sorry. Listen to me. Show me one study. Show me one study. They're talking about high protein with the use of anabolic steroid and it's not causing any problem, and then I can believe you. But guess what? There is a reason, right? There is a reason when they say where there is a smoke, there is a fire, right? There is a reason a lot of the bodybuilders, they have kidney problems. What's the reason? The use of anabolic and high protein intake. Period. Period.

Isn't the general rule for bodybuilders, for anybody who wants to build muscle, basically is per, per pound of how much you weigh? Say you weigh 200 pounds, you're supposed to eat 200 grams of protein per day.

Is that still correct? Yeah, but you see, people, the problem is, listen to me, man. Listen, I have a great company for protein, and you know, if I was like the rest of the people, I want to push protein. But dude, if you— I see literally people, okay, I see people, they're literally taking, you know, 8 ounces chicken with salad, rice, and all that stuff, and then they drink a scoop of protein. Why? Why? Yeah, I want to push protein to sell it, but that's not— not on the expense of the people, man, getting hurt. It's— you really don't need— listen, anybody will tell you that they work with me, okay? Anybody will tell you, hey, here's Danny, Danny Younan, you won't believe it. You guys can ask him, he can put his, his thing. He just won the New York Pro. He weighed, you know, 200 pounds. That's what he's supposed to weigh. He weighed 199, right?

Yeah.

And I give him maximum 4, maybe sometimes with— because there's no carb at night, I'll do 5 ounces of meat. There's no reason for more than that. So I don't know where these people come out like taking 300, 400 grams of protein and they're 150 pounds. I don't get it.

All right, George, let's talk about the Olympia. So Big Ramy finally, finally got the title.

I love Big Ramy, man. It's my brother. I'm so happy for him, you guys don't understand, because you see, I, I broke bread with Ramy not just as a coach. We used to travel, sit together, sing together, laugh together. Rami have the most beautiful heart probably in the industry, you know, between like a toss-up between him and Kai. He have the most beautiful heart, you know what I'm saying? And honestly, he deserved it. And I'm not taking anything from anybody else, but the poor guy, man, he worked hard and he's big, he's freak. And you know, when he comes in condition, I told everybody, when Rami comes in condition, you remember I I even said it on GI, if he comes in condition, he could beat anybody. And honestly, and I still keep saying it, you know, if he's off, yes, you can see a lot of flaws. But if Ron— when Big Ramy's on, it's gonna— it's light out for everybody.

It seems like you've changed so many coaches. Like, I know you worked with him at some point, so like, he worked with basically every main, you know, every mainstream coach in the business.

Listen, Nothing. You know, there's, there's a story behind everything. We, we don't want to go into detail, but in reality, honestly, I, I'm always a big supporter, supporter of him. You know, like, he calls me, we're always, we're always in contact. He just— we just talked 2 days ago. You know, Rami's a beautiful person, and you're an adult. You're an adult. If, if you're with the coach and you feel like you want to go with somebody else, hey. There's no hard feeling. I don't understand why some coaches, they get their panties bunched up. Hey, let him go. He wants to go with somebody else, let him go. You know what I'm saying?

I guess it's competitive amongst the coaches, don't you think?

Yeah, but you see, I don't care. I really don't care about that. You know, I love all coaches, man. I love everybody. I don't want no masary between me or any other person. You know what I'm saying? Dude, life is too short to sweat those little things. I mean, I used to sweat stupid stuff. Now I sit down and thinking about, you know, I'm like, what was I thinking? There's no reason, honestly, man. Like, if you sit down and think logically, why? Why? If somebody's negative in like causing you negativity, just eliminate them from your life. And I'm telling you, your life will be so much better. You prosper more, you do so much more, you know what I'm saying? So I don't understand, hey, if Frammy, that's what he wants, that's what he wants, leave him alone, you know, there's no reason for us to hold grudges and hate on the guy, hey, that's why me and him we still friends, that's why he always call me for anything and I will always be there for him.

What do you think he did differently this year, I mean last year when he won for the prep, what do you think he got to achieve that type of condition?

I honestly think the state of mind was there, And that's something I always told Ramy, you know, Ramy when he's left alone, you know, like I don't know if you recall but you can bring some pictures from Prague which is in reality he could have easily won it between him and Dexter, you know, was like at one point and here he was at the Olympia just 2 weeks before he was 5th. But then he ended up beating almost everybody that was ahead of him, including Shawn Rhoden, Dennis Wolf, and all that guy. And the reason why, honestly, because there was not too many people around him. And this guy, I gotta tell him do this, and this guy— we were me and him alone, you know. And he woke up, he goes, holy crap, you know, George, I look amazing. I said, you know, you're gonna win, man, you're gonna win, you know. And The thing is, I was helping him and helping Dexter, and Dexter was right on the money. It was like amazing. So, so that, you know, so you could toss it either way, but Dexter ended up winning and he took second. And guess what? You know, he beat Rodin, and Rodin was working with Chris Aceto, right? And honest to God, I can tell you, like, not even a couple months later, he said, I want to work with Chris Aceto. You can ask Kai what I told him, I mean, I'm sorry, Rami. I told him, Rami, if that's what you want to do, God bless you, man, I have no hard feelings. And you know, then after that, after he left him, he came back to me, we talked and we worked a little bit, then he also left, tried some other coach, and also I was his friend. You know, the thing is, we're adults, man, we're adults. You know what I'm saying? I'm the kind of guy today, today, and I'm not kidding you, okay? Some people might think I'm crazy today. If my wife want to cheat on me and be with somebody else, believe me, back in the day I probably will flip. I want to choke her. I'm gonna— today I'll be like, hey, you're adult, you make that decision, God bless you. I can move on and do something else, you know what I'm saying?

No, I think you're right, 100%.

I don't know why, honestly, because I truly believe my disease manifests, man, from holding back and being sad and being upset. I mean, dude, there's no reason. I tell people, dude, no reason. And even before this, I didn't have cancer when I was working with Rami. Did it hurt me that he left? Yeah, but it didn't hurt me he left me It hurt me because I saw what I could do with him. I saw that, I said, oh my God, right now I knew how Ramy's body is gonna work, you know, after Prague. I'm like, oh, it's gonna be a piece of cake next year, he's gonna destroy everybody because now I know. But then he ended up going with Chris, you know, and I didn't, I didn't get mad. I didn't get mad. I got a little sad, like I said, the only reason I got sad because I know what I could have done. I I could have gotten the Olympia before, you know, waiting 4 or 5 years. You see what I'm saying? That's all.

In your personal opinion, and that's just an opinion, do you think Ramy is gonna remain a champion for many years to come?

Right now, from what I see, I mean, listen, you know, Ronnie Coleman came from 8th place, you know, in 9th, I think, and he won the Olympia. You can't, you know, the thing is, you don't, I don't want to say, oh, this guy is not gonna come back, or this guy is not gonna— you never know, man. This is bodybuilding, you know. Just like Ramy improved, there's a lot of people improving, so you never know. But if Ramy keep coming in 100% right now with the competition that it's out there, I mean, honestly, the only one people can say like whatever they want, I think Brandon Curry, if he brings his legs Brandon's pretty and he's dangerous and he was right on the money last year. You know, uh, you know, we have the, the, the Wolf, you know, like he's amazing, that guy. You know, you can't take him under the radar because he comes in crazy condition, you know what I'm saying? So you never know, you know, if you put a little more size, Hadi Chopin looks amazing. So there's a lot of guys you don't know, man, like how, you know, How other people gonna look? There's like good new stars on the scene. Like Hakim looks freaking phenomenal if he bring his bag. Oh my God, he's scary. So there's a lot of people. I don't honestly, if I was Rami, you know, if I was Rami and I already like talked to Rami about this, never go to sleep. And I know Rami won't. Rami's gonna work harder than ever to keep at the top. You know what I'm saying? But you can't just say, oh well, I'm Mr. Olympia, I can just go, you know, and wing it. It's not gonna happen. You gotta work hard.

How do you feel about Nick Walker? You know, the up— you know, he just won the New York Pro.

I love Nick, man. I honestly think Nick is like almost the new Jay Cutler, you know what I mean? We got a white kid, clean-cut, nice, you know what I'm saying? He have a beautiful symmetry, you know what I'm saying? And you could see since last show to this show how much improvement he made, you know what I'm saying? And I think maybe he's a little lighter because his condition was good, you know, and he didn't lose to slouches, you know what I'm saying? I mean, these guys were all good, you know, like, you know, I really would have loved to see Mustafa drier because he would have like been right up there too. So, you know, like, you know, I'm happy, man. Overall, it's really a great outcome. I love when I see the judges are doing such an amazing job. They don't care about who's there anymore, who you are, what you do. You show up 100%, you know, with that little Tyler Manion, which is— I call him my nephew. He's doing an amazing job, man. Like, he really, like, he's really representing the sport.

How did you feel about Phil Heath's comeback? Um, to, uh, Olympia last year?

You know, it's a little disappointing. It's honestly, I can say I'm a little disappointed because the way he talked, I'm like, oh my God, that's gonna be his show. He really made us all believe that he's right on the money, and Phil never said anything like that, and he didn't deliver, you know. But then when he, as soon as he came out, I'm like, oh my God, his stomach is worse. He didn't even not fix it, it looked worse. And I love Phil as a person, I'm just saying as a bodybuilder, he really— they put him exactly where he belonged. That's, that's how—

Well, 3rd place is still— he still beat out, you know, uh, yes, most of the guys.

I mean, yes, I mean, you could have honestly, you could have, you could have put him, you know, 2nd or 4th, nobody would, you know what I'm saying? Yeah, you know, but I, but I think they, they give him like, you know, because he deserves some respect Because he still had one of the best back double biceps, you know, glutes was in, striated hamstring, everything in. But that stomach, man, it just took, like, took a lot off his prettiness, you know.

From what I understand, that came from, uh, having, uh, a couple of surgeries that he went through, right? Um, so do you think after having those type of surgeries, he's, he's able to still, you know, make another comeback and basically fix all the problem, problem areas?

Or do you think after the surgeries like that, it's, it's You know, the thing is, it's hard to tell, you know what I mean? Because I never really talked to Phil and, you know, like, he explained to me what they did. Is it a mesh surgery? You know, because, you know, you can tell it's an umbilical hernia, but I don't know if they put a mesh there or they left it without a mesh. They tie it together, maybe that's why it's protruding. So I don't know, but, you know, dude, anytime you mess with it, with with it, with the intestine muscle, it's hard to keep it in, you know what I mean? So, and I think that's the only thing. I mean, as a bit— as a comeback, I mean, the guy looked phenomenal, man. I mean, looked really good, his muscle and everything. But like I said, you can't— you know, Brandon was at his best ever, I think, and Ramy was at his best ever, you know what I'm saying? So you can't take away from the champions, you know? So it really Place, place where I think where he belonged at that show.

So George, I want to ask you about the new company that you just presented called the Guru Secrets. It's a supplement company, right? Uh, is this different from the company you told me about before which was called Fit Guru, or did you change the name?

Yes, this is, this is a totally different company. You know, Fit Guru is still good, you know, but I really, you know, like it kind of like we started and man, the whole world just collapsed, you know what I mean, with that corona. And I'm like, man, I don't want to put too much stock in it and stuff. So what I did is, uh, you know, it took me that, you know, before we were actually started on this, before Fit Guru, Guru's Secret is as clean as possible. I want it without sucralose, you know, because there's a lot of studies from, you know, like University of Sydney, Australia, talking about people using, you know, proteins powder, they're dying earlier, you know. But I don't think it's the protein powder because what's the difference between, you know, hydrolyzed whey or having piece of chicken? Protein is protein. I think the difference is, is the filler they're putting in there and the sweetener they put in there. So that's why in this I'm eating, you know, like some of them I'm using honey. And if like the low-carb one, like the hydro whey, I made It's actually with stevia. So, you know, like, it costs a little more, but you know what I don't understand sometimes, you know, like, I love how people— like, I have a Mercedes, you know what I mean? Or, you know, like an expensive car. So I ask people like, hey man, you gotta eat this and this and that. Ah, who cares? I'm like, what kind of gas you put? Oh, I can't put regular gas. Why don't you put regular? Well, it'll ruin the engine. But it's okay to put it in your body? You know what I'm saying? So I don't understand. They don't want to pay that little extra, you know what I mean, to preserve their body, but they pay extra, you know, 50 cents a gallon to put it in their car. So they're worried about their car more than their health.

I went to the factory recently and I talked to the owner of this, of the supplement company, and he was telling me about this thing called proprietary blends, right? So for many years until now, basically now you can actually break down how much of each ingredient you have and actual product. But for many years, these companies are just putting fillers and buckets of protein, just making huge profits off of it, and just putting proprietary blend in the back of the product.

100%. 100%, honestly. And there's, there's, you know, there's nobody really looking into it. You know, that's why all what they have to do— this, this product is not FDA approved— and that's it, you're covered. But that's not what I want, man. That's not what— like I said, listen, I already had the money. I already had the whatever fame you call, you know what I mean? I have a beautiful life. I'm not— I refuse, you know. I have a couple like really good, like they're like more brothers than partner, you know, because we've been together for years. And I told them, I said, listen, I refuse to put anything, anything, it's not, you know, natural. If I can't say this stuff is natural, I don't want to use it. You know what I'm saying? You know, like, so, so this is this— I want it to be different, man. That's all.

Do you have any products in your product— because you have a bunch of products in the product line— do you have any products that people can't find anywhere but in your product line? Something different?

Well, there is actually— I think, you know, like all my BCAA, my glutamine, my pre-workout, they're, they're the only one with stevia. And you don't understand, man, you know how hard it is to make you know, something like this tastes good with stevia. We had to do so many things and change the flavor, and I'm not talking 10 times and 20 times. Like, I became, you know, best friend with the chemist that they're working on it, you know, because I told them, I said, listen, I want this, I want that, you know, but it's not gonna taste good. Can we use a little sucralose? I'm like, no, let's use something else, whatever natural, you know what I mean? So this is, this is what You know, it was really—it took us honestly took us a couple years to really come up with with good product. And eventually, you know, like I'm talking to couple people in the USA because you know the manufacturer right now it's in Europe, it's Sweden. You know, like in I'm doing a lot of the stuff there. It's available in ten countries, but right here I don't want to ship it and end up costing even more. So I'm talking now to. Do you have pressure?

Like, because people, like, when people buy stuff from you, right, they trust you. They trust your name.

They trust the George Farah. I hope so, man. I hope so.

Do you feel pressure, like, selling supplements? Do you feel any pressure or do you feel confident?

You know, it's honestly what you got to do. Do your homework, you know what I'm saying? And, and put something out there and let people try it. And I'm almost 99%, anybody that care about his health, they're gonna buy it. He's gonna love our product. You know what I'm saying? You know, if you really want to care and not worry about like, oh well, man, I don't want to pay extra two dollars. But this is what, like I said, it makes no sense. Those, like it happens with me. You know, like I get people. I tell them, hey man, listen, five thousand dollars a year. You know what I'm saying? They say, coach man, there's any way you can do it like forty five hundred? I'm like, that's big for five hundred. I'm like. Dude, I have 9 months waiting list, you know, like why? You know what I'm saying? But mind you, I do help a lot of people, you know, that's not what I'm saying. What I'm trying to tell you is that same guy, you know, I tell him, listen, man, you gotta get this product because this is better. But yeah, but this is $2 cheaper. And then meanwhile, he texts me, hey, I, I just spent $3,000 on GH and stuff. I'm like, so you spent $3,000 on GH, but you worry about $2 more on the protein? You know what I'm saying? They make no sense because they don't think. You got to start thinking a little more. That's all.

Yeah, no, I hear you. Well, I look forward to trying the products as well, man. So, yes, George, your nickname used to be Bulletproof, right? I want to ask you about you getting shot because I know you mentioned it a few times, but I never— you never told me the story. Like, how did you get shot? How did it happen?

Just, you know, just the wrong place at the wrong time, man. You know, I was going, me and a couple of friends of mine, to the auction to buy cars. You know, and, uh, it's, it's, it's so weird that I was actually getting big because that same day I freaking deadlifted like 500 pounds, squatted 500. I was going crazy. I want to be big. I want to eat. And that man, that same night, we're going to an auction, and, uh, my friend, the one who is with me, may God bless his soul, he, he passed away now. Uh, they really want to rob him. And they thought I was his bodyguard, and I ended up getting shot. So wrong time, wrong place. But you know what? It really taught me a lot. It really taught me a lot. I really don't want this to happen to me because of that gunshot and because of those bullet fragments they left in me. That's probably one of the main reasons I got cancer. I truly, truly believe, just like lead is not good, you know. That's why if you, if you have a house with lead, they tell you you gotta paint it because it's cancer or whatever, you know. It's not good because it— so imagine, you know, you have lead in your intestines and your rectum and all the places. They couldn't take everything out. I think one of the reasons, you know. But, you know, like I said, man, I've been dead a couple times, you know. I flamed out at that time. I had 7 cardiac arrests. I was pronounced dead a couple times on the table. God kept me here for a reason. And then fast forward 20 years later, I have cancer. And also I flamed out. You know, I woke up, I'm supposed to be surgery, my cancer was gone, they just got to clean me out. And I woke up, I'm all intubated, and I'm like, I'm telling my wife, like, what the hell's going on? Why this in my mouth? You know, honey, relax, relax. I'm like, I'm not gonna relax, you know. So 13-hour surgery, I almost died again. I flamed out. But That's why, honestly, Vlad, people can say whatever they want, man. Listen, man, I'm always going to tell you the way it is. If you like me, you become good friend. And if you don't believe my story and that I'm trying to keep people healthy, hey, it's you. It's not my problem that you don't believe what I'm trying to practice out there. I really want to basically practice what you preach and That's what I'm doing, man. I really want people to be healthy. I love bodybuilding. I love it so much. I don't care if, you know, I never have to help another person. That's why now if you see, I'm like kind of lowering, you know, the amount of people I'm taking. I don't want to take a lot of people anymore, you know, but for the people I have, I'm giving them 100%. I'm trying to keep them healthy. And this is my plan. This is my plan in life. I truly believe that.

That's a crazy story. I mean, you've been through a lot of close-to-death moments.

And I don't want nobody, nobody, I don't wish it on my enemy. Okay? I don't wish what I've been through on my enemy because it's not fun, man. It's not fun.

Did you have like an out-of-body experience where like you went somewhere?

Don't go there because now I gotta start crying.

I'm sorry, man. I was just wondering.

No, it's so weird. It's so weird. I don't say it to too many people, but Not with the cancer, but when I get shot, you know, when I get shot, it's so weird that, you know, I was walking and there was a hill. It's all like lit up like a light, and it's not light, but it's a hill. So I kept getting closer to it. I'm like, oh my God, it's a mountain, but it's all lit up. from all the mountains, that's the only— like, you can see that light, right? So I get there and it was all white coffins and they were all lit up, right? And who I see there? All my friends, the ones that died with me in Lebanon, including my brother standing right there. And he tells me— I said, oh my God, you're still young. It's just like I'm talking to you, bro. Like, I get goosebumps just thinking about it. And I'm looking at my brother. I don't want to cry, but he was just young, man. The same way he left us, you know. And and I just like it was like amazing. And he said, I said, man, how'd you stay young? He goes, bro, all what you need to do basically is get in that coffin and you lay there ten, fifteen years or whatever, and yet you get out, you're the same. I said, are you serious? He goes, try it. You know, it's fun. So I went in. I'm like, all of a sudden I got like claustrophobic. I'm like, oh my God, get me out of here, get me out of here. And I think that's when they were like, you know, they were like talking to me. It's weird, it's weird. It was weird, but you know. Yes.

Well, listen, I'm glad you beat all these obstacles.

Life is too precious to take, you know, crazy stuff and just stick it in you. And just like you don't want to do drugs, drugs and coke and, and all that stuff. Dude, don't just stick everything and anything in you, you know, like just so I can— oh, I can gain 5 pounds. Then what? Then what? There's life. You want to have kids, you want to have family later on, you want to enjoy it. You want to sit down with your friend, you know. Like, I look at my dad, God bless him, he got corona. He's 89 and he beats it like it's nothing. I told him, Dad, he said, what do you want me to do? Him and Mom— Mom's 85, he's 89— they both got corona. And I told them, listen, just drop all your carbs completely. No carbs. Just eat a lot of salad. Maybe the only carbs you have, some strawberries, blueberries, and stuff. And they did that. And man, knock on wood, both of them beat corona, no problem. Yes.

That's amazing. George, I want to ask you just a few functional questions. A lot of people that are watching this have my questions, might have questions about the functional things. So I hear a lot of people complain about travel, right? Let's say bodybuilder, they get ready for the show, then they have to take a flight. Can be overseas, can be local, but they have to fly somewhere, right? And then they get somewhere to the show, and then they, they, they saying they lose a lot of the actual things, a lot of gains, you know what I'm saying? They lose the gains, they go to the show, and they perform poorly, and then they complain about the travel. What, you know, what's the right way to travel? Like, what kind of recommendations can you give people that travel to the show?

You know what's so funny? Like you're saying this, but then, you know, they— people still talking about, you know, the Arnold, uh, in Spain. So it happened a week later, right? So me and Kai went from the Arnold to Spain and Phil went there. And listen, with all due respect to Phil, Phil will even probably tell you You know, that Arnold Spain, Phil should not have won. He shouldn't have won, period. I don't care. That's why everybody was booing, throwing chairs. It's so funny, Kai even looked better than Olympia, and Phil was soft and held water, but he was Mr. Olympia and they don't want to take him out. And that's the only time, honestly, I was so upset. I'm like, oh my God, I mean, anybody can see it, that Kai should have won, you know what I mean? As a matter of fact, like you know, a judge that you guys all know is like my brother. He hugged me. He said, "Listen, it's okay. Don't worry about it." And that's the first time I see Kai lost his cool because everybody saw. It was like, oh my God! Like you know. But the way we do it, man. Here you go. Now you want me to tell my secrets? No, I don't. I really don't care. I have no secrets. I always tell. Here's what I tell people really. Okay. First of all, make sure you're At least 48 hours before your prejudging over there. So in case something you need to adjust and stuff, you do it. But the most important thing, the most important thing, a lot of people don't know this. When they do it, they're gonna thank me, okay? They're gonna do it, they're gonna thank me because what you do, if you're not flying first class, which most bodybuilders aren't, especially the guys that, you know, we're talking about. So the amateur or whatever. If you're not, you know, flying first class, as soon as the flight gets in the air, so as soon as they let you take your, you know, your seatbelt off, get up and walk. Every 45 minutes to an hour, walk and stretch. And the reason why, because you have the artery passing by your thigh. And if you sit in too long of a time, you start holding water because of the altitude and the pressure. You hold water and it's very hard because what will happen when you hold that much water and you're too close to the show, now the only, the only save for you is diuretic. And, and right, in a lot of people, if you don't know what you're doing, kiss your muscles goodbye because we all know, you know, you get 70 to 80% of certain muscles, you know, lungs 80%, muscles 72%, it's water. So if you suck too much water, now you look flat, you look terrible, you know what I'm saying? And then a lot of people tell me, but I'm not even drinking water, I can't believe I looked flat, you know, I looked like water. You didn't look watery. What happened is now you took diuretic, your body's self-mechanism, defense mechanism, is that you have 6, 7 liters of Blood. So that comes out to save you. That's why you look like you're watery. You see what I'm saying? It's not because you're drinking water or whatever. No. So I tell people always, when you're flying, you know, I just told Danny the same thing because he was going from California to Florida. I said, as soon as you get on the flight, as soon as they let you go, every 45 minutes, try not to sleep sitting. You know? Now if you're in first class and you put your feet up, because as soon as you put your feet up, you go into diuretic mode, kind of, you know what I mean? But if you're sitting like this regular, don't. You gotta get up, stretch, and come back and sit down. Try not to sleep in your seat. You will thank me.

That's a good— that's great advice, George. Um, all right, so next, next question I have is, you know, some genetically, some people hold fat in different stubborn places, right? Like some lower back, Some chest, uh, stomach, whatever, right? Now I keep hearing that it's like, it's impossible to do, to address like spot, you know, spot, uh, reduction of fat. So how do you reduce, uh, fat in those tough areas without losing gains, you know what I mean, like muscle?

Honestly, listen, if you, if your diet is right on the money, I mean, listen, we all know, we all know, I don't care what kind of diet you like, I mean, I love people, they freaking putting butter now in their coffee or whatever. They think, oh, that's gonna lose weight, because it's nonsense, man. You know, everybody, every individual is different. I have twins. I'm helping twins just for the show a couple months ago. You know, guess what? His brother can get away with all the carbs and they're identical. And this one, I couldn't give him a lot of carbs. So you can't. So everybody is different. But we all know in order to get in shape, you need to be in caloric Deficit, you know. But if you get too deficit to lose it, you know what I'm saying, you could lose muscle among— I mean, you still— mind you, I don't care what you're taking and whatever you're doing, you're still going to lose muscles when you diet down, especially if you gain a lot of fat. That's why I tell people, listen, don't call yourself a bodybuilder if you don't have your abs in the offseason. know what I'm saying? I don't understand how these guys, they go gain all that weight and they wonder, well, I was 280, I can't believe I'm 198. Dude, I mean, that was all fat. And then when you lose it to get in shape, what will happen actually, you lose muscles along with the fat. So the best thing you do is try to stay in shape in the offseason, you know what I'm saying? So now when you want to do, you know, instead of doing 8 weeks of dieting, start a little longer, 16 weeks, but take it nice and slow, like landing an airplane, nice and slow. You don't crash if you go too fast. You're gonna crash, you know what I'm saying? And that's how you lose all over.

You mentioned caloric deficit. How do you calculate exactly how to be in a caloric deficit?

Well, what you do, there is, there is, you know, like, there is a certain method you do with each person. You, you know, from their, like, from what they eat normally. Like, you know, like, that's the question I ask my clients. Like, okay, what do you eat? Give me a couple days worth what you eat, what time you go to bed, what time you go to sleep, what type of work you do, you know what I'm saying? Like, if you're a construction worker, I'm not gonna give you the same amount of food as somebody who's sitting behind this office. So everybody's different, you know what I'm saying? And then you kind of like, you, you kind of like, uh, You do it. I mean, if you want, I'll give you my calculation and everybody can use it. It's actually up on my website. I still using it for the past so many years and it works for me. This is my method, so everybody can do it differently. I take your weight in pounds and time it by 15, okay, for a male. And for women, I time it by 12, okay? That will give me your maintenance calorie, basically how much you're gonna have For the day. So now if you want to gain weight, I'll add 500, you know, calories a day, which is equal to 3,500 calories a week. And you supposedly, you know, you'll gain a pound a week. So the same thing goes the other way. If you want to lose weight, you go into deficit 500 calories a day. So that's 3,500 calories. You'll end up losing a pound or more a week. You know what I'm saying? I don't like people to say, well, I want to lose, you know, 10 pounds You know, I, you know, like my daughter just told me yesterday, Dad, I'm going to Florida. I'm going to lose 10 pounds. I'm like, honey, in 2 weeks from now, what do you think the water is going to come out of your muscles? You're not going to, you know what I mean? So you got to give yourself time. And honestly, if you do that, I think if you put yourself in a 500-calorie deficit, you're going to, you're going to land perfectly.

How do you feel about waist trainers? Do you think they work or no?

Come on, bro.

No, seriously. I mean, some people use it like they put like, you know, uh, like some kind of cream, you know, like sweat. The sweat, sweet sweat, you know.

And I don't, I don't mind if you put those waist, you know, trainer that you tighten it on your waist and you wear it around. Believe it or not, somehow it shrinks your waist down, especially for women, because they used to do it in the 1800s. But the problem they found out, you shrink it too much, you actually pushing on your, you know, some of your organs. So it's really not the best, you know what I'm saying? But it will work. But if we're talking about those, you know, like electromagnetic and put— oh, and you don't have to work out, you can get abs. I'm like, dude, you're not gonna— you can actually work out abs every day, you're still not gonna get abs if you're not in caloric deficit and if you're not doing, you know, like the right nutrient, you know, you know what I'm saying? So, and, and other things like, you know, they're talking about the new diet now that everybody's driving me insane with it, you know, that, that, uh, the alternative diet or whatever they call it, you know, like basically you, you get the micronutrient, how many calories you should have a day, and you're golden. That's— man, it's not— listen, calories are not created equal, okay? Calories are not created equal. Somebody told me, well, what do you mean it's not? You know, like, you know, they want them to have a burger or whatever. First of all, okay, forget about, you know, having cheeseburger or whatever, or cookies and stuff. You know, even if you're still on the same calorie, I'm gonna teach you something very quick, okay? 1 gram of fat is 9 calories, right? We all know it's 9 calories. 1, you know, 1 gram of protein is 4 calories, right? That's so far we know. The difference is, you see, when you take that protein, that 1 gram protein, you lose 25% of that 4 calories.

Wow.

calorie to your body in order to your body to absorb it and metabolize it, okay? Versus taking the 1 gram of fat, which is 9 calories, okay? You only take 2% to metabolize it. So you understand what I'm saying? So now from the 9 calories, you left with 8. The other one, you lost so much of it. You, you literally lost 25% of the calorie you ate from the protein. You see what I'm saying? So it's not created equal. That's first thing. Second is when you're eating that junk food, man, you're messing up your flora. You may, you know, and now we're finding out, you know, more and more, you know, the more you're studying, the more you did— they're finding out that everything, every health aspect, every disease, man, you know, known to mankind is mostly starting from your messing up your stomach flora. So if you start eating, you know, crab and processed food and stuff, guess what? That's not— and, and don't get me wrong, I'm not saying don't go and have fun and eat something once in a while. Of course, we're human. But you know why? Try to eat something clean, man. Try to eat, you know, don't eat those garbage, man, like the processed food and stuff, and say, oh— And then they posted all those bodybuilders, you know, they're posting all those, oh, Look at my cookies and stuff. Dude, post your good food, try to preach, you know, people can eat better and better and better. Yeah, it's okay once in a while we have a cheat meal or whatever, but don't do like, you know, that whatever they call that diet. It's just really upsetting me because a lot of people tell me, you know.

I want to ask you about, you know, a lot of people go and they get a blood test, right, done, and they find out that they're allergic to certain foods. Have you heard about that? Like, let's say they take a blood test and they see Some, some may be allergic to like rice, some allergic to certain vegetables, or—

Yes.

Have you— it's a good idea to find out. Did you, did you ever did that?

You know what I do? It's weird, but people ask me, like for an example, right? People ask me, hey man, why you ask me what's my background? Because if I don't know what's his background, you know what I'm saying? I want to ask him. So if you're Irish, oatmeal works perfect for you. But if you're Middle Eastern, oatmeal doesn't work for you because you never had oatmeal. So I give you Cream of Wheat. You see what I'm saying? Like, just little stuff. If you're Spanish, I give you cream of rice. So, you know, this is like, you have to be like, come on, man. You know, it doesn't need rocket scientists. You just need to get out of the box a little bit, think outside the box, not just, okay, well, that's what I learned in school and that's what I'm gonna give. No, dude. That's why a lot of the dietitians, my friend, the mine, they struggle with certain people. They said, George, you know, I have this, this. I asked him, okay, what's his background? But they laughed, you know, this before even the blood work, you know what I'm saying, before. But the allergy test is amazing because a lot of people, man, can't have certain food. And you give them— you give it to them, first of all, they're not gonna assimilate it right. So it's gonna be bad for them. They're not gonna absorb it. They're not— you know, like, so many things can happen. And they get bloated. And if you get bloated, you hold water, you know. So there's a lot of stuff. So if you know certain foods gonna, you know, upset you or mess your stomach, you are the one. It doesn't matter even that I know your background and everything, but you could have celiac disease. I can't give you pasta, you know what I'm saying? I can't give you a piece of bread. You have to always go to your coach and tell them, listen, man, when I eat this, I don't feel good. And when I eat this— I ask my guys, hey, man, how is it? How you feel after eating? I want to know because then I know if something like— you know how even you and me, like, you don't even have to work out or do diet, but you know, you eat certain things like, man, that makes me feel good, or you eat something like, oh my God, I gotta go on the toilet. So this is, this is how you find out, you know, how things work.

I agree. Okay, George, last thing I want to ask you is about blood pressure. So do you feel like a lot of bodybuilders struggle with high blood pressure? And what do you think is the right way to bring it down? Because it can be very dangerous from what I understand, you know.

Well, you know, listen, you remember, you know, on the last episode with you, we talked about blood pressure. And I don't like, I don't like that when you go to your doctor, okay, and you tell them I have blood pressure, And they tell you, okay, here's the pill. Okay, well, before you take the pill—

I believe they give you a diuretic, right, for that?

Well, some, you know, like, you know, even like the pro-pump inhibitors or diuretic or something. But what I'm trying to tell you is, it's why— find out why he's having blood pressure, you know what I'm saying? But, but it's not, you know, listen, you know, like sometimes I have an argument, me and my wife, You know, and then after we get done, I'm like, honey, where are you going? She said, I don't want to argue anymore. I'm going to my practice. I said, exactly, keep on practicing. You know, doctors are not perfect. They're practicing. You know, I look in the mirror, you know those little nerves in your eyes? You know those little nerves? You know, do you know how long these nerves in your body, in each one of us? They go twice around the globe, each nerve in each one of us.

Wow.

So how much the doctor's gonna know? Listen, doctors want to help you. Doctors love to help you. But what I'm trying to tell you is don't just, you know, rely on the doctor. You gotta rely on yourself. Hey, okay, well, my blood pressure— get a journey, write the journey why your blood pressure is up, you know. Start thinking about it, like, why? What am I eating that is causing it?

Well, I think, George, I think the weight, the weight plays That's what I'm saying. Even if it's muscle weight, you're still overweight.

That's exactly where I'm heading. So now if you gain a lot of weight and it's water weight, that's— remember what we talked about? Stay in shape. So the same way you go down, the same way you should go up. Don't call yourself a bodybuilder if you don't have abs. If you're 50, 60 pounds overweight and then you're gonna diet and lose that 60 pounds, What's good gonna do you? Stay within 5, 10 pounds, you know what I'm saying? Like, don't do it like old school, man. And that's why, like, you know, a lot of people— listen, I love old school, but old school, they didn't use what these guys are using. So that's why they were lucky, you know? But doing it old school and eat everything, oh, just, you know, get out of shape, that's not healthy, man. Because that's when your blood pressure go, that's when your kidney go. Because as we all know, that's a big correlation between the blood pressure being high and damaging your kidney filtration, you know what I'm saying? So that's what I want from people, man. Listen, take it easy, take your time. There is life after bodybuilding, please. There is life after bodybuilding. Gain a little bit at a time. And we all know, listen, when you— when your pancreas starts releasing sugar, you know, like, so if you eat a lot of amount, like you— let's say you have 3 cups of rice and then you have a piece of fruit and then you want to have a piece of dessert and And not necessarily just the protein is dangerous because eating that much carbs, you need to remember fructose, glucose, sugar, everything have to go at the end by your liver. You know what I'm saying? All gonna be passed by your liver at the end. You see what I'm saying? So now while your pancreas releasing the insulin, it gets tired, it asks the liver, then the liver gets unchecked. So now what do you do? Your uric acid go up because your nitric oxide is low, and that's when you start having problem with your blood pressure and all that. You know diseases all. So you got to be careful. That's why I truly, truly believe if there's one, one supplement bodybuilders should always use is nitric oxide. It's freaking amazing, and it bothers me that a lot of people still not using it. Dude, the guy, the guy his name I think Dr. or whatever he's from. He's Moroccan, I believe, or something. No, actually, he's Serbian, right? He got an Emmy. He got like, what they call them, those awards, like a big award, you know what I'm saying? Like a Nobel. He got a Nobel Prize for nitric oxide, and people are still not using it, dude. It's an amazing drug. I use it because I had kidney problem, you know, from being shot in it, and cancer catch up there. I use nitric oxide and my blood pressure's been always 120 over 80. It's perfect.

One last thing I want to ask you is, you know, if you're, let's say, a bodybuilder, right, and you go to the regular doctor, do you think a lot of them have problems? Because the doctor looks at your blood work, right, and he sees certain things in it and he asks you questions, obviously. What do you take? And a bodybuilder maybe doesn't want to admit that he's taking certain steroids. You see what I'm saying? That they have maybe tough time, you know, opening up to a doctor, honestly.

But that's wrong. That's wrong because I'm gonna tell you what, okay? Even me right now, you know, as a doctor, I'm finishing that, you know, you actually have to pass an ethical class, okay? So all doctors, they are sworn to not take your information and share it with anybody. And that's why a lot of the guys, they're mistaken. And dude, that's just not gonna take your business and put it out there. That's very unethical. They can get in trouble.

Well, not, not that. Not, not, not that. I'm talking about like the doctor's gonna be like, listen, you have to stop. Like, you're not— you should not be doing these things. And he's gonna— and then, you know, they don't want to like be—

oh, well, you know, I mean, you know, the thing is you need to tell them though. You need to tell them. Be honest with your doctor. Tell them, doctor, I understand you're going to tell me to stop. Whatever, but I want to continue. I'm a competitor. That's what I want to do. You know what I'm saying? And you don't have to listen if he tells you stop, or, you know, if he give you a reason. Like, if you go there and he tells you, listen, your kidney is messed up, okay? We're not talking your liver now, because if your liver, it's 2, 3, or 4, or 5 times higher than normal, you stop 4 or 5 months. 6 months, it will, you know, liver rejuvenate and it goes back to normal, you know, by eating right, going, stopping steroids. Kidney, be careful, you guys. You mess your kidney up, you injure your kidney, you're screwed. You're screwed. You have to be always careful. Kidney is not— it's not going to repair itself. So now if you're injured and you continue even after your doctor is telling you to be careful, Now you're looking for trouble. You know, doctor's not gonna stop you, but it's always important to be open with your doctor, have an open relationship. And if it's not, if you don't find a doctor that way, guess what? Go to another doctor. You need to have that chemistry and relationship so you can, you can feel good because he could warn you when he see like bad signs.

Absolutely. I agree with you, George. Wow, that was a great interview, man. You got a lot of knowledge, man.

Listen, man, honestly, the bottom line, I, I really like— I keep saying it and I don't want to stop saying it— there's life after bodybuilding, man. And on those young men coming to the industry, it's unbelievable, you know. And I'm not talking Milos, I'm talking every coach pushing everything, bro. I just have a guy who calls himself a doctor, very known In the Arab countries and stuff. He came to me to fix his kidney, right? Because his kidney is so messed up. I'm like, bro, I thought you were a doctor. He's not, he's a pharmacist, whatever. But, you know, so I fixed his kidney. But then come to find out, one of his clients who's 18 years old, who's having kidney problem because he have 1,000 milligrams of tren or whatever. For what, bro?

18 years old? Wow.

Dude, it's crazy. It's crazy. Like, oh my God, I'm like, what the hell's going on with these people, dude? You don't see in the, you know, especially like in the poor country like India and Pakistan, those guys are giving them everything. I mean, I don't understand, like, dude, how can you go to sleep? It's so sad. It's so sad.

Yeah. Well, George, thank you so much for spreading your knowledge, man. I really appreciate it.

Oh, dude, it's my pleasure. My pleasure. And any— anything you guys need, you know, I'm always here.

And good luck with the new company, man. Of course, Guru Secrets, man.

Yes. And you know, I'm actually— I, I like it when people tell you bodybuilding, oh, it's not that bad, it's not that bad. Well, guess what? I'm going tomorrow to do another surgery on my kidney. Hey, but it's not that bad, you know what I mean? People, man, I'm sick of it, you know. I'm sick of it not teaching the kids, listen, man, Don't you see what's happening to us? Enough! Stop abusing this shit. I don't mind you taking stuff here and there, you know what I'm saying? Dude, if I tell you what Danny Younan takes, I swear to you, a little kid will take less than that. He was telling me, he goes, George, I feel so great. He said, I never felt better. I said, exactly, bro. It's not about how much you take, it's how the work ethic you have and what you do, you know what I mean? He won, you know what I'm saying? So yeah, that's— I want to keep my people healthy, man.

I hope people listen to what you're saying, man, and take it seriously.

I hope so. I hope so.

George, thank you so much. My pleasure.

My pleasure, bro. Anytime.