My Full Workout with Chris Bumstead [6x Mr. Olympia Champion]

If you asked MJ, would you rather peace of mind or a 7th ring, he'd say a 7th fucking ring.

Talking about different objectives. What is yours?

Be rich if possible?

Trying to train some legs and I'm going to Mr. Alex Hormozy's gym. A bunch of old broken men that need a lot of warm-up. What's up?

So we're doing legs.

That's the plan.

All right, you want to just alternate? Like, we'll go— I'll go one direction, you go the other.

This thing is deceptively heavy.

I'll do whatever you do.

I want to go under there.

Yeah, let's go. What's the heaviest you get in the offseason?

270, the heaviest I've ever been. I kind of stopped trying to push food right now, and I'm going to slowly bring it down from here.

Because I mean, for you to keep winning So you don't need more size, right?

I have a little room. Do you ever— you're like 2 pounds.

Okay.

And I can always like be leaner and I keep putting on weight and I keep making weight. So yeah, we just keep working. Do this.

I could have warned you all now. It's a counterbalance for Russian leg curl. Okay.

Come on, deep breath. Use your breath.

Come on, keep going. Yep. Woo! Easy. Came out the top there for some reason. It's counterintuitive that once you succeed at bodybuilding, everything that comes with the success of bodybuilding prevents you from succeeding in bodybuilding.

Yeah, I feel like speaking and guest posing Yeah, like traveling, podcasts, whatever, and not wanting to wait till you retire to start a business and all this shit.

Well, I don't think you should. No, like starting a business when you, when you retire is like no one cares anymore. We definitely force growth. We post, we do 450 posts a week. How often do you film?

That gets me every day.

No, I used to, we used to, it's like it's changed over time. Before, in the very beginning, it was once every 90 days, every one full day.

Really?

And we do like 100 clips just that that was it. Yeah. And then it switched to every other week, and then it became Fridays. And then now I was like, you know, I think I'm better if I'm fresher and I do fewer more.

Yeah.

And so that's what—

or something like in the moment.

It's exactly what it is. It's basically like, daily message means like, we're ready if you feel like stepping away at any time. So I'm doing my shit in the morning. If I like lightning strike, I go down and I talk about something that's top of mind.

I got to ask, Done any seminars when there was no one in the crowd and filmed it?

Yeah, no, I did, because we had the team there, but like, I had this theory. I do better live at live things than I do in front of the camera. It's just more, you know, interesting. And so I was like, can I approximate that? So then we did the whole setup. We did the presentation, the stage, and then they set my team out in the audience and I gave the presentation. But it's not the same.

You're not talking to empty chairs.

It was still mostly empty chairs. They can't fill a room. Yeah, we opted out of doing that. We did it like 4 times and then we stopped doing it. Yeah. And so then I started doing Instagram Lives and that was way more like fun. Yeah. Also, it's like the room's got 2,000 people in it or whatever, you know? So that's nice.

I mean, if you can present in front of a fucking empty chair, that's harder than a crowd. So.

Yeah, right. It's just the on light. Yeah, I had this tweet that went kind of viral. It's like, if you're like 16 to 25, like, just get in shape. Yeah, like, because once you're in shape, you can stay in shape, but like, you have the time and you'll get different priorities later. Yeah, so it's like, just do it then.

You have all the time.

Yeah, I'm grateful that I, I was obsessed from 15. I started lifting when I was 14 until I stopped competing when I was 25. It was right around when I started my gym. I was 23, but I guess I started, I stopped competing when I was 23. When you were 23? Yeah, when I stopped. Got my state record. Not national. There's 50 states.

I think 23 is when I dropped. No, 22 is when I dropped out of university. And that's when I started doing it full time.

Were you like a junior or senior or something?

I was there for 4 years, but on my second year of school. So you lift.

Yeah, but I was jacked. But that's all that matters, right? Which in your actual life, that is all that matters.

Exactly. It paid off.

Yeah. What do you think you're going to do? Lift weights for a living? You're like, Actually, yes. That sounds great.

Yeah, I literally would spend 4 hours in the weight room and then, like, be in the cafeteria all day.

Right.

That was life, right?

Yeah.

Are you the only member of Raw Athletic Club?

No, this is our public gym.

Oh, is it?

We just opened it like 6 weeks ago. Oh, it's attached to our warehouse where your private gym is. No, my private gym's away from there.

This is in Nashville. Florida. It's in Florida.

We're partners in Nashville with Carbon Culture. Maybe that's what you're thinking.

Oh, I know Carbon Culture. Yeah, yeah, I worked at the gym. Yeah. Does he do some of the formulation stuff?

He's actually our partner in the business. He used to own the manufacturer, and then we partnered with them to get pricing and help on our payment plan and all the bullshit.

Yeah, because I knew he did that. I remember I got connected. His location operator, when I went in, knew who I was. And was like, you should talk to our owner. And I was like, you know, whatever. He's like, no, he's, you know, blah, blah.

So I was like, fine.

So I think we had a phone call or something. Yeah. Yeah.

He's a really good guy. He's smart.

Yeah, I know. He sounded that way because I was— when I was getting in the supplement business, he quoted us for manufacturing.

Oh, yeah.

He was one of the— I think his final 3 bids.

We ended up going with another company, but probably should have gone with him.

All right.

Bulgarians. Yeah. So we've got a— I've got this thing.

You got a proper pad?

I do have a proper pad.

Fancy.

I usually set up next to this pole here, just have something to balance on.

Use a dumbbell or—

um, I, yeah, usually I just grab a dumbbell. How do you do it?

Yeah, but I just never held on to something.

Oh well, that's how you cheat. That's how you do it. Exactly. Here, I'm gonna put a little bit of music on because we have a sound system.

Oh, you're in silence?

Well, that's kind of nice hearing you pant. I'm gonna try it out.

See, you're my inspiration.

Sorry, you're my inspiration. You'd be like, what motivates you? And I'll just be like, this guy right here.

Asshole comes in my gym and lifts more than me. Yeah, that's the motivation.

I used to really like barbell lunges. Like, they used to tear my glutes up more than anything back when I had glutes.

They're great. Walking lunges are fucking incredible for leg growth.

You can load them.

They're such a bitch to do.

Like, I left this whole corridor empty for that. Yeah, for walking lunges, because Leila doesn't. Because Leila's hardcore.

2 plate walking lunges.

Yeah, that's the biggest I did. 225. 225. That was when I was strong and young and that's when I was eating 6,000 calories a day. I just was like, I read this thing. It was like insulin's the most anabolic hormone and I was like, done. And so more food. There's a lady that I met, she used to make me a box of pancakes for breakfast. There's a cake. I do half a thing of syrup and I'd pass out again. And then I wake up, I'd work out, I'd have a 1,200-calorie shake, then I'd have a burrito, double meat, double rice, sour cream, chips on the side, guac. And then I'd get back home for dinner and I'd have one box of pasta and one jar of tomato sauce. That's because a box of pasta is 70 grams of protein.

Yeah, I eat pasta a lot.

I love— I digest it great.

Yeah, me too.

And rice. I do really well with basmati rice. I could just eat unlimited amounts.

Can you still eat like that? No.

I can talk about it though.

Yeah. I eat like out, like I go to like a nice restaurant, I have a steak and then like chips and something and I'm like, oh, my stomach.

All right. You want to do side backs? Oh, oh, oh. Starting to feel it? Like gluteus.

Yeah. I haven't done those in a long time.

With the split squats? Yeah. So usually when I do my warm-up, I'll do this guy. This? Yeah. Not for this. I mean, I'm poor, but I'll do that guy and I'll do that. The hip flexor one, like multi-hit. Up and down. Glute. I actually do this one here.

Up.

Like up.

Yeah.

But I think I needed that mobility stuff more than the strength.

You probably could argue that if you took 20 minutes out of your workout and put it into like constructive mobility, you'd be better off.

Well, I mean, I did way more weight than I normally do, so. Yeah. That alone.

Yeah, literally. Today especially.

So I put on I put one rule for the whole gym is that this machine keeps 4 plates out. Always. You want 5?

Yeah, I think so. You ever plan on leaving this building, or is this like home?

This is for the next 3 to 5.

3 to 5.

I like Vegas a lot, more than I think I've liked any city I've lived in as an adult. It's just like, it's a non-judgmental city. Everyone pretends to be something, and they come to Vegas and they like let their real selves out. Yeah. And I just like being here. And so also it's not political because it's for tourism, so it has to be just neutral. So it's not political at all, which I like. It's great for traveling in and out. Everybody I know comes to Vegas once a year anyways, so I can see Honey Pill. If I lived in Cincinnati, I would never see you, right? So I get to like, I benefit from those. We have direct flights everywhere out, 4 hours from the beach and the mountains. Yeah, 30 minutes from the lake. We've got the best food and dining and shows in the world. It's tax-free. It's dry, which I personally like. UFC's here. It's their old building.

I mean, it's a perfect setup for this.

Yeah, nice.

You don't need like warehouse space too.

No, right, to deal with that bullshit, right? Nice, nice.

Those little quarter reps. Oh yeah, just your time under tension is crazy because you can't skip through the weak parts.

It's like, that is the weak part, right? Like, yeah. Well, yeah, it's interesting because now you have this balance of like, I want to push, but like the risk-reward of pushing goes down a lot. Literally, because like you really just want to maintain on as little effort as possible or a little risk as possible.

It's hard, especially because they added weight cap to everybody in my weight, in my category, except me. I got like 2 pounds and everyone else got 6 to 8.

Why?

Just because I was unfair. People were complaining that people at the height of 6'1" had an unfair advantage, like statistically or something. No, people were just complaining. I was the only one in that category. So that happened. And then now everyone got better. So I actually have to improve and like fine-tune it.

But I'm also like the most old broken guy in the category.

So I also have to be the safest.

Yeah. What is interesting from like an investment perspective, that's like risk-adjusted return.

Yeah. Like the same thing.

If you're in 5th place, you should take all the risks you can because If you fail, you lost nothing because no one cares.

Literally.

If you win, it makes all the difference.

Exactly.

I've always found it so interesting with repeat champions.

Uh-huh.

Like, and most of them are like, I mean, Michael Jordan's everyone's favorite content creator, but he's not happy. He's a miserable motherfucker. He just found some way to continuously drive his way in a miserable fashion.

Yeah.

And people look up to that and they want to be that. And I'm like, he didn't do it right. Yeah, well, he did, but he didn't. Right. It's just like my goal is what all my goal would rather be happy and have peace of mind rather than— Yeah.

And I think, and I think if you asked MJ, would you rather peace of mind or a 7th ring, you'd say a 7th fucking ring. Oh yeah. So I think—

Ronnie Coleman, would you rather be able to walk or have 9 titles? You'd say 9 titles.

Yeah. Yeah. And that's where, like, you zoom all the way out and it's like making a judgment on anyone else's goals in general is stupid because their goals aren't the same as yours.

Yeah.

So I would do it different. No shit. You're different. Like I had somebody, a family member tell me they were like, I would never live my life like you. And I was like, no shit. And I would never live my life like you, which is why you have your life and I live my life. And good thing is you don't have to live mine and I don't have to live yours. It's interesting about how you define champion too. Like I had to think about it like a year ago. I was like, do I want to be the richest man in the world? And I was like, no, I don't think that's my goal.

So then I was going to ask you that. Well, you're talking about different objectives. What is yours?

Honestly, I want to—

Is it just be rich as possible?

No, no, no, it's not. I see wealth as a measure of my personal growth. Yeah, because I see entrepreneurship as the most quantitative path of personal development. It's more I want to be the richest man that outsumes me, not the richest man in the world. Now, if that happens to become the richest man in the world, cool. I'm not against that. Yeah, but me measuring my wealth against other people's is not the right game. For me. Yeah, but me measuring my wealth against what I believe I can create is a game that I can compete in and will always try to compete. And so me seeing like a really hard thing for me was when we sold Gymwatch, my monthly cash flow, because I was an owner, went to zero. And I was like, that's a mindfuck. Yeah. So I was like, all of a sudden, even though I had a bunch of cash in the bank account, I felt poorer. So I was like, okay, this is weird.— and so I had to like recalibrate. And that's why I had this year where I started making content about like the meaning of money and like all this stuff. Yeah, that's when I had to redefine like, what— where am I the most? Where do I grow the most? I grow the most when I work hard on things worth doing. And so then it was like, how do I orient my life in a way that I maximize the amount of hard work I do on things worth doing? And then once I saw what those days look like, I had a mentor of mine, my first boss ever. I'd had like a really good week and I was like, that was like probably one of the best weeks I've had in my life. And she was like, not a profound person. She was like, I'm pretty sure the secret of life is living as many of those days in a row as you can. And she— and it was such a tactical— like, I was like, so that's what I'll do. I'll think, what are the days that I do my best and how do I live that day as many times in a row as I can? And that's pretty much just the path I've been on. And there's stuff that has occurred has occurred. But that's at least how I think about it.

And your path of feeling like best days are wealth building for our personal wealth building, not like for yourself, but your own goals.

It's usually me creating stuff. And so like my arc happens to be business related. So like I draw like my books are picture books. I draw pics about business. I write books about business. I make videos about business. I make podcasts about business. Like, that's just all I think about. And so if I happen to do that about like electric cars, no one would care. They'd be like, oh, he's passionate about it. It's just that I happen to be passionate about something that makes money. Yeah, but it's all I think about. I almost am more interested in business than I am doing business. Like my days, I only do do business hardcore 1 to 2 days a week. The rest of my days are making things that help other people do business. So like me, like doing this, is this doing business? I mean, we make media. Yeah. You know, but like also me working out with people that I care about, that I enjoy, is on my list of things that I do on my best days.

That you enjoy.

Yeah. And so I respect that.

I feel like a lot of people now are almost like that. There's just so many opinions out there of like what's right to the world rather than to themselves. Like you said, when— what's like a champion? I had this thing when I was young. I said I always talk about champion mentality and had no idea what it meant. And I began to define it. And now I need to consistently reiterate that it's my definition of what a champion is. What is a champion to me? Is that the true only thing that a champion does is they make their own rules because they don't give a fuck what other people think. They just do whatever they want. I agree. Doesn't mean I'm winning. Doesn't mean nothing. It just means I'm doing whatever the fuck I want and I'm doing it the best I can.

And so, like, for example, if they change the rules of the game for you, that in order to win, you had to, I don't know, fucking kill your liver, something. No, I'm just being, you know, like, whatever. Then you would have to make the decision, do I want to win by their rules or do I want to win by mine?

Exactly.

And I would leave.

Right.

That's it. I think that is the difference between a champion who wins for the approval and a champion who wins for themselves. Yeah. Is that if they change the rules, if your vision of what a champion is no longer aligns with the third-party approval, then you don't do it. You don't play. And I think there's a lot of wisdom in choosing what games to play.

For sure.

Not feeling like you have to. I never want to feel like I have to. Oh dude, my number one rule in life, like, I'll do everything in the world to not have to do anything. So fun story about calves. So you don't know this about me, but I trained calves every single day for more than 10 years, and I developed tendonitis in my foot from doing so many sets of calves. So I did 7 sets of 20, and then your calves shrunk? No, my calves are still fine. But they were, uh, they were— I had a girl that I dated who was like, why don't you train your calves? And I was like, I fucking train them all the time. And so then I went from 3 days a week doing them at the end to doing them 7 sets at the beginning, as in my calves grew. But this— I haven't trained calves right now. Like, me doing this with you is the first time I've trained calves in like probably a year. Really? Like, literally haven't done any reps. And it was because I got tendonitis I like— I was struggling walking because, yeah, there's some muscle in like the base of my foot. It's like under my big toe. But I'll do this because I have the champ in town.

So of course, maybe now you'll stretch and train calves again.

Yeah, yeah. All I have to do is I have to stretch my calves out.

Oh, this is a really good calf machine.

Yeah, so that's the thing is like I hate the load, but I love the way this lever is Perfect. Yeah, so you don't have to put a lot on it either. No, the range of motion moves so much. Yeah, my calves are gonna be crippled just from doing like 3 sets. They're gonna be fucking smoked.

Yeah, if you don't train calves, they get fucked.

Oh, you're destroyed. Yeah, the donkey calf over there is what built my calves, and, um, standing single leg off a box with his body weight.

Yep.

Yeah, I started doing them. I did them years ago. It was one of the things that like broke through my calf, like growing. So it's funny, it's like I, I don't train chest. I think I told you that last time because I just always had a decent enough chest. Yeah, but like if someone is like, doesn't know how to grow calves, I'm like, I can fucking tell you how to grow calves. The biggest thing was super deep. You already know this, but like super deep stretch. Yeah. And so what I would do is I'd do like 20 or 30 reps bodyweight on one, one leg off a box underneath of a pull-up bar. The low bar, and then once I reached failure, I would start counting. And so then I would do assisted negatives, yeah, or like, you know, assisted positives. And like, the level of pain that— like, of like pulling yourself to the full flex, yeah, when you're just lower. Oh yeah. And then you like let it down, then you, you really make sure that you get that last little— yeah, that last little bit. I was like— I did it with clients once, and I— because I had just discovered this technique for myself, and I like could barely walk and I did it with these ladies who I was training. They came in on— so it was like Friday, they came on a Monday and they were like, they like couldn't— they're like, I couldn't go to the dance this weekend because I couldn't put heels on. They're like, literally could not walk. Like, that's how I felt accomplished.

Good job, well done.

Yeah, I felt like I did something.

Yeah, fucking just like controlled negatives are such a secret to making anything grow. I'll do those, like I'll go up with 2 feet. Yeah, and then lift one foot and then lower down, like same concept.

But yeah, somebody gave me a cue that was trying to get your shoelaces perpendicular, just like that. Yeah, your foot, just because you're there, like perpendicular, like, like it— you can't really do it, but like, or maybe ballerinas can, but like, it's like, ah. So how's being a dad, dude? That's good. It's chaos. It's good.

It's chaos.

It's good for the body, right? Good for sleep.

Horrible for body, but No, we've got help at night now, which is like, oh, good. The biggest cheat code, man. Like, my wife is a saint, so she handles like the hard part of all.

She's not competing anymore.

No, she stopped in 2016. She won the Olympia in 2016 and then she kind of had some health issues and then just—

kids are champion breeding stock. Yeah, they are. They choose to be. Layla, gather to pre-patine for reps in the low gym. So I'm just, you know, I'm just putting it out there. Yeah. You good on this? I can do one more. You're doing one more? I'm going to— my calves are going to— I already know they're going to be cooked. All right. Sorry, Daniel. I know you wanted the shot. There's the shot. Still got it. I'll give you a lefty. You train calves? Not anymore. I have tendonitis in my fucking toe now. The old man.

Excuse me.

The old man. I'm going to do the hip thing because that was the first time I've done legs in a while that I was not in with no pain. Yeah, because I do my warm-up to get to like a 2 out of 10 pain. I'm like, whatever. Yeah, but that was like a 1 out of 10. Like, I had some more.

How many warm-up sets you normally do of the actual—

I just recently started doing like 3 proper. Yes, and that helped a lot. Yeah, I was just going straight and I was like, this is horrible.

Yeah, that's brutal.

I feel like it was like my muscles are just tearing off. Like, it just felt horrible.

Yeah, no, there's like a lot of actual science behind even just your nervous system turning on with proper warm-ups and everything, your muscles are literally already even activating until then.

Yeah, they're— yeah, they're just like, what's going on? Yeah, please don't do this.

Nice.

Okay. Oh shit, easy.

This is such a—

it's the best calf machine I've ever used, dude. It's good. This one's sweet because you can have the full stack. This is where I built this and the standing single leg are the two things that like built my calves. But like this guy, like all the way up and it's just like, yeah. Who makes this? This is Nebula. Nebula? Yeah.

Where'd you find this? They're not really hard to find.

I just have all these dealers that I have like on speed dial. I'm like kind of serious. I don't know, I like the way this feels.

Yeah, it feels really good. Gives you a crazy stretch because you're bent over.

Yeah, yeah, it's one of those ones where when you put weight on it, it like feels even better. And I think you do 400 pounds and weights on top. I did when I was at my peak.

And you're a big boy.

Yeah, when I was a big boy. Yeah, yeah, I had this 100-pound plate that I had, but I haven't done calves in here, so we'll see. See what my calf strength is still like.

Probably bad. Kevin's gonna make a Machiavelli motivation video of you after this.

Nice. Yep. Yeah, that's where I like smoke those. Yeah, this also goes up too, so you can adjust the So this? Yeah. So you can go up a little higher for— because I was on Layla's setting. Cool. Good luck there. Yeah. You know, I like— I mean, it's a big piece, but I mean, I train on this every day for real. That and the single leg are the two things that I did for my coach.

Did you have all this equipment somewhere else before you moved here?

Yeah. My house in Austin, I had had— I had like half the— I had everything. I had about half these pieces. Do you want to do something else? My legs are cooked, but I can do whatever.

I'm with the champ, so I mean, we can do a little quick quad extension and call it a day.

Okay, unless you're cooked cooked.

No, no, I can do quads. Like zero rest back and forth?

People are like, you're taller than I expected. It's like this because, um, Trevor, Dr. Cash, you know him? Anyways, no, he's like, you have short guy proportions. He's like, so on camera, he's like, you look like you're 5'5". Yeah, it's too much. My legs are actually super short. Which is good for like leg moves. Like I have super short femurs, really long torso.

Is it good for squatting? Yeah. Did you pull sumo or conventional? Sumo.

Oh God, this guy. I pulled conventional until I hurt my back and then I switched to sumo and I hurt my hips. Yeah, I was 100 pounds weaker on sumo than conventional. I could do so much more volume on sumo.

Yeah.

And so that kind of made up for it. But weirdly, my deadlift made its biggest gains. This is going to sound insane. Doing 1 set of 20 a week. Like your 1 rep max did? Because I did the same. I did like the fucking Pryla Pinchart and, you know, like 5-3-1. Like I did all of the low rep, like 3 sets of 4, all the tradition. And like my deadlift didn't move for like 3 years. And I was like, I was like competing in like carriage. I was like so upset about it. And so then I was like, fuck it. And so, I don't know if you know Jugger Knot, JTS, Chad Wesley Smith.

Okay, well, he was in the powerlifting world a little early.

Yeah. Yeah. So he was, yeah, he was big in the powerlifting world, like football training and stuff. And so he had this thing called the Jug Method. This is like 10 years ago. And it was all this super high rep stuff. He basically took Wendler's 531, which is a powerlifting program, and just like tripled the weight. So instead of like sets of 5, 3, and 1, it was sets of like 20, 15, 10. Yeah, but like AMRAPs. I basically ignored everything in the program, but the deadlifts was like 20s. And I was like, well, I'll do that. I'll see how that goes. And I just, I just did sets of 20 and I added 10 pounds a week and I did it for like 16 weeks and added like 160 pounds to my 20. And I was like, so did your one rep max go up too though? Oh yeah. Well, I mean, I'm guessing because I was close to my one rep max on my 25.

True.

Yeah.

Yeah.

So hopefully. Yeah. So like the end of it, I did like— I think I did. I have a video of doing like 465 for 20. Jesus. And then I was like, this is stupid.

That's enough. Oh, yeah.

And this is when I was eating like the 6,000 calories a day thing. The burritos. Oh, dude, I was like, you know, Milos is the one who said like, there's no such thing as overtraining, only under eating. And like, I will say, as a natural guy who did that, I feel like I can kind of attest to it. Like, I drank a lot of volume.

How old were you?

25.

Yeah.

I mean, I feel like when you're 25 and under around there, you can do it every— I can't do that. I had a gym.

I was a gym owner. I lift the gym. Yeah. And I trained. That was all I did. I ate and I trained. That's literally all I did when I was doing that. It was 8 hours a day of food and training.

Yeah. I've decreased my loading, increased my warmups, everything more like proper, and I'm just in More pain.

You said you do more warm-up, less volume, and you're in more pain. Is that what you said? That sounds right.

Yeah.

So that's what I was doing. I did the 20 rep sets for deadlift and I was doing 3 sets of 20 on squat and I got up to 405 for 20. Well, then barbell back squats. We're squatting. We're squatting. I was, I was 235 natural.

That's big.

I mean, that's a fucking— for natural, that's still a lot of fucking reps. And, and then I benched. So bench has been my biggest natural lift, like built to bench. Every time I touch the bench, it blows up. And so I don't bench, which is why I do it. But for the 6, I only did it for 6 weeks. I put 35 pounds on natural. I have the pictures.

What was your 20-rep max for bench?

So I hadn't benched in like a year or two. Yeah, but I did it for this 95 for one, and I never like— I didn't put anything on there until like, I think the week of, I did like 335 for 7 sets of 5, like 6 weeks. Yeah, but, but I like, I, because I only had that in that one lift, and then I just know that there are guys who had that on all their lifts.

It's just like, that's my worst lift, so it's your best. That isn't that horrible.

Horrible bench.

My one rep max ever was 415.

You were probably bodybuilding benching. I was like powerlifting benching, which is— yeah, 6 inches. So when you train, I mean, do you, do you have programming that you follow?

This year is the first year I had ever followed a program.

Yeah, I love that. Like, that can— like, it's so confirming.

I mean, You know, in your field there's an art to being good. Yeah. And you—

it's—

if you think you need to follow a perfect program.

Yeah.

If someone took everything I did or ever someone who took everything you did and did it again, even if you did it, you were following a plan instead of just doing it naturally, you wouldn't be here.

Yeah. It's really interesting because the hardest thing to develop is intuition. It's like, how can it— like when, when you're like, I got it today, I'm going to, I'm going to gas it. Like, can someone teach teach you that? I don't know. I mean, I definitely know, like, for work I have seasons where, like, I gas it, you know what I mean? Where I'm like, I'm working 16 hours, I'm taking every stimulant I know of, and like, and I'm like not getting as much sleep as I should, but I can just keep pushing. Yeah. And then there's some days where I like wake up and I'm like, no, that's not today. Yeah. And so I, I was, I was putting on my, my profile, I was like, I don't have like I work like weekdays, weekends are all the same for me. So basically I wake up and if I feel good, I work. And if I wake up and I feel like shit, I change the nature of the work I do. Yeah. So it's like if I don't feel good, I'll plan more meetings, I'll take more calls because I'm not like— I'm not going to be doing deep work. Yeah. But if I wake up and I'm like, dude, I could cure cancer today, then I'm like, all right, let me write a book chapter. Like, let me script out like a presentation or something that's like really deep.

And I'll just tell the team, like, cancel some of my calls or move them. Like, I'm going to be in the zone today.

Yeah. But I also imagine over time, whether consciously or subconsciously, you know, that like when you wake up on those shitty days, doing certain things that you can at least do at the right capacity will put you back into a place where you feel good. Oh, yeah. Whereas most people are like, I'm going to take the day off. I don't feel good. And the next thing you know, it's been a year and they've taken the whole year off.

What's up, Julio? I'm glad you came for legs, cuz legs is what, like, I can push on upper body, but like, I hesitated.

I was like, do I want to ask someone to train legs with me? And I was like, yeah, fuck it, we're going to train with you.

Oh, I got the hot spot.

Okay, you guys know Seabum? He was tied it on to some of the drinks.

The Seabum cans are his, his, uh, and then you get this probably even more than I do, but like the generic, hey big guy, like, hey, gym's that way, or whatever the fuck No matter what someone says and, you know, half the time it's some sort of left-handed compliment or whatever, I just say like, just trying to catch up to you, bro.

And so it doesn't matter what they say. Like, I've had so many people who like said something mean and I'm like, just trying to catch up to you, bro. And then they're like, ah, fine. Yeah, I was being a dick, you know? And that's always been my, my big counter. Yeah.

For some reason I always get people like, are you like that Seabum guy? And my response is just no. But I get that all the time. And then like probably 50% of the time people are like, oh, and then I just walk away. So that's it. I'm also equally awkward and antisocial. So if someone comes up and like, do I know you from somewhere? I'm like, I don't know, probably not. And then I just leave.

Not from somewhere. So training-wise, you just train by feel and you just consistently add weight when you can.

I have a program now. Well, every year, but until now I was pretty like consistent in what I would do and your movement. I just knew in my brain. Yeah, you know, like my top movements when I start, if it's incline chest, dumbbell press, it's pendulum squat. If it's bent over rows, I'm like, last year I did this much, so I'm going to do this much this week.

Yeah, yeah.

And you just work to like, I'm going to add 20 pounds to it or 30 pounds.

Yeah, it was for a while. It was like, all right, I'm going to do this for 6 and then I got 8 and I got 10, then I'll put a 25 on. I'm back down to 6 and then 8 and then 10.

All the stuff that I know is like, stick to a handful of lifts. Don't do a lot of variations. Slowly add, progress it, you know, reps or weight, right? But then, like, I just noticed that I had less motivation to train. And so, like, I was more prone to skip days and things like that.

And like, this was—

today was harder than I would normally train my legs. So I'll probably like— it'll probably fuck my— like, I'm supposed to train legs tomorrow. Yeah. So I was just like, I'll probably—

if you train legs tomorrow, I'd be impressed.

Yeah.

Yeah. So I'll just like, I'll skip that and maybe I'll skip the second leg because it's every other day.

So I would have trained legs tomorrow and two days from now.

So I'll probably just skip the next two and then hit it again. Like, if you don't have that flexibility, like if you were in town, I'm like, oh, I'm following. Like, why bother? Like, you know what I mean? Like, I've had people— there's like 3, you know, fitness dudes who have, you know, followings, whatever. They were in town. I saw this kid who's like not a competitor. It was like, I'm following a program.

And so all the dudes are lifting, all the big guys are lifting together, throwing weights around, and he's like sitting Indian style on the side like, I'm following.

It's like, dude, you're missing the point.

Yeah.

Like you're not going to get to be like 40 and be like, man, I'm really glad I followed that program.

I was 22 and, you know, training with those guys and then going home being fired up about training with them will result in your lifts going up more too. Right. The motivation you get from that will be more.

Oh, so much more.

Yeah.

Like, and the memory and like all the positive experience that come from it. Do you listen to music when you train?

Yeah.

What do you listen to?

It varies. Alternative rock, Eminem, Kanye West, '90s hip-hop.

Yeah, I listen to more or less the same stuff. I'm not a music person. The only time I listen to music is when I train. Yeah. And so I like so bad that a friend of mine from high school gave me this CD. It was Rap CD 1 through 6, and I uploaded it on my iPod. And then, like, I went through all of college, and then we were hanging out a couple of years later. He's like, so what do you live— you know, what do you listen to now when you train? I was like, this is the mix that you made me. And he was like, the what?

And I was like, yeah, the one that you made me. He's like, in high school?

And I was like, yeah, Rap CD 1 through 6. I still listen to it. He's like, do you Dear God. He's like, dude, there's been things that have had—

he's like, Eminem's had 2 CDs since then. No, no, he's like, I'll make you a new mix.

Spotify's out by then, you just still have an iPod.

Yeah, like, I've got a Zune.

Yeah, I didn't even have one of those.

It's weird because now I'm turning 35 in like a couple months, in August, and I was like, I am like— like, when I— before I turned 30, I was like young and successful. Yeah. And now I'm just a white dude.

Yeah, I felt that too. I was like, holy shit, you're only 25 and you won the Olympia.

Yeah.

Now you're like, all right, you're the old guy now. Yeah.

So you're just—

Yeah, it's— I'm just a guy.

Yeah.

What's interesting with, like, with the Olympia in terms of, like, competitive landscape and whatnot is that, like, in the game of business, everyone is a competitor. Like, everyone's in the game. It's just some people don't know it. And that's what I find kind of interesting about, like, the business world is like you compete against the world and it's global. And you compete against guys that are 90 and like, like, like you can't age out. How old is Kendall Jenner? She, she became the youngest self-made billionaire and then they revoked it.

They did? Like she wasn't actually—

or. Yeah, the numbers weren't— she overstated some of her numbers, like 9 months later after she got into all of the PR. Yeah. After I had gone into a deep 7-day depression because of how inadequate I felt as a result of—

compared to this little white girl.

Yeah, no, I mean, it was actually like— it was actually weirdly— it was a, it was a, it was a career-defining moment for me.

Really?

It sounds ridiculous to say. When I saw her on the COVID of Forbes at 19 years old as a billionaire, I felt like a failure.

I did.

Yeah, I was, I was 20— I think I was 26 or 27, I can't remember what it was. And I'd taken home $17 million in income that year, and I was