Coaching Struggles and Athlete Mindset

I’m freaking loving Texas. I love it.
I’m actually liking it a hell of a
lot more than I thought I would.
The Fort Worth area is just awesome.
The only problem is we don’t have a
lot of time to do things yet.
So we’ve been trying to schedule in as much as we can to
see as much as we can, but there’s so much to do.
What’s the big draw for you?
What’s the big stand out you’re talking about for me,
coming to Texas or Fort Worth, I guess in general,
I guess you like the Fort Worth area.
Is there something that you have here now
in Texas you weren’t having back home?
Well, Besides the insane savings in taxes and the
better weather, people are friendlier, but there’s a lot
more to do in a very close proximity.
I mean, within a 30 minutes
drive, you have the Stockyards.
I have all the shooting ranges
I could possibly ever dream of.
There’s gyms, there’s every sort of
restaurant and the skydiving simulator place.
There’s just so much to do with them.
30 minutes and, like, where I live, I would have to
be driving an hour to do a lot of these things.
Not to mention how much more expensive they are.
I mean, like, do the shooting range
near my house was $15 unlimited.
In Connecticut, it’s like $30 for 30 minutes.
It’s just all around.
Just I like it better, man.
Everything’s cleaner.
There’s not garbage everywhere.
Not the Connecticut blood garbage.
But you get bad areas.
I’m sure you do it everywhere else, but
I just like it all around better.
I don’t mind the heat at all.
I know this year in Texas, people keep saying that
it’s not as hot as it has been, but I
haven’t once been like, I have to go inside.
I have to go inside.
Where in Connecticut when it’s cold, you’re
like, I got to get inside. I got to get inside.
I got to get inside.
The cold.
I can deal with the heat.
Even now, I’m prepped.
I’ll still do my steps outside.
I’ll go in the middle of the day and I’ll walk outside.
I can deal with the heat.
It’s the cold that I don’t want to do.
We had that ice storm with this past winter.
It was like in Texas.
Like, man, I hope it snows this year.
This is going to be great.
And then it’s like, shut down the city.
We’re like, fuck the snow.
Like, never want to live with the snow.
It was just miserable.
So I’d rather have 100 degree weather anytime.
It’s like that for like four months ago.
But I agree we want to move to Dallas.
I think it’s such a clean city, like you said.
I’m sure there’s, like, areas you don’t want to
go to, but overall, it is really nice.
There’s so much to do out there.
So it’s a big draw for sure. Yeah.
The thing is we went around Fort
Worth, like the center of the city.
There like, where all the restaurants are.
It’s just beautiful, it’s clean, and the food is so
much better and way cheaper to eat, which is nice.
It’s easier to navigate.
There wasn’t like an ass load of traffic like
you get in New York City or Boston.
So it’s just all around better.
And I know there’s an air show coming up
soon and the state fair, so, I mean, these
are all things that are just super close.
We better stop giving out all the Texas secrets.
So it’s just for us.
Don’t come back.
I like my little I know
that’s what everybody keeps saying.
People are like, where are you from?
And I’m like Connecticut.
And they’re like, oh, okay.
Glad you escaped. All right. Yeah.
Well, cool.
Let’s get in and chat about what we’re
actually going to talk about today, which having
you on with all three of us.
We coach, and there’s always these issues that come up.
And I’ve always been entertained by
your tunnel rants you put on.
Ig because it’s like the same
issues that we all come across.
But I think there’s some good takeaways,
at least from client perspectives within that,
because people miss the Mark within it.
And we all get into coaching with just
this ideal, optimal approach to give to clients.
And then you probably kind of quickly realize that it
doesn’t cater to everyone and that there’s many obstacles to
work around or things that you just didn’t even know
to ask a client that they would start to do.
But I think a big thing of coming in
with Willis when I was first coaching, too, and
I made the mistake of managing expectations.
I think that’s a huge one, especially because I
think the focus for us, we mainly have competitors.
That is our real niche.
So with the general pop, it’s a little different.
But even with competitors, the expectations, they can
be way high most of the time and
unrealistic outside of just even your normal sports.
I’ll give you a quick thing.
I worked at GMC for like six years, and
I remember it stood out in my mind.
We used to have a BSN whole section, right.
And Ronnie Coleman was on these little pictures with
the products, and I had someone come in.
They’re looking through the products and they’re like, man,
I want to put a little size on.
But they point at Ronnie, and the pig is
like, but I don’t want to get that big.
Like, Dead is fucking serious.
I’m like, Dude, no worries.
You’ll never get that big.
So there’s some unrealistic expectation within bodybuilding of
the genetic limits within this sport or sport,
if you call it that, versus, like, basketball.
Like, hey, I don’t want to get to the NBA level.
It’s like, oh, don’t worry, man.
You’re five foot seven and you’re
not going to get there.
But what are the main expectations that you
had to kind of manage around within competitors?
I could talk a lot about
this and just mentality in general.
I’ve always been someone who
competed in individual sports.
So my own expectations of what I’m
capable of, what’s a realistic progression, what
defeat feels like from wrestling to motocross
to bodybuilding was formed earlier on.
So the transition to bodybuilding, I
never had unrealistic expectations, ever.
Believe it or not, I was always like, Man,
I’m working hard, but I know wherever I go,
there’s going to be somebody better than me.
And I always had that mentality.
Like, I need to do XY and Z every day.
And I hope X-Y-Z every day is going to be enough.
But we’ll see that’s always on the mindset.
Because I know what it’s like to think
you’re Johnny Badass on a dirt bike.
You go to your regional race and
you get Dead last, like, four times.
You know what I mean?
Oh, my God, there’s people out
there who can really ride.
So even though that you might be better than your
own group of friends, that’s one thing that I didn’t
address either when I first started coaching, because I guess
I ignorantly thought that people thought, like me, we’re like,
I don’t need to do that.
This is what you do, and you follow us and
you get results where they had a lot more mental
expectations or the opposite, a very negative mindset of themselves
where they’re like, there’s one thing to say, I’m not
good enough, but to beat yourself up over not being
good enough and feeling bad about yourself.
So those are kind of things that I learned to try
to combat over time and ask because what many people don’t
realize is even if you follow a diet, that sound, a
training, that sound supplement protocol, that sound, if your mind is
not in place, it needs to be.
Those responses to those individual things
are not going to be optimal.
It’s just not.
Your body does follow the set of your mind.
If you’re in a horrible place mentally, your body
is not just going to respond the same way.
It just won’t.
And that’s one thing that I know that I’ve seen too.
I’m sure you guys have as well, is the athletes you
get to hire you that come in with that great mindset.
Their prep is like a breeze.
It just everything clicks.
They respond well.
And you’re like, wow, I’m a genius. This is amazing.
And then you get somebody who’s got better
genetics, who their mind and stress is all
over the place and their expectations are this.
And they’re steering at Flex Lewis wondering why they’re
not that shredded at four weeks out and then
their body is not responding and they’re holding water
and you’re like, scratching what is going on here.
So I really try to prep
them mentally before prep starts.
And obviously as prep goes on, it’s more or less.
I don’t want to say hand holding, but it’s
constantly checking in because in my experience, I think
70% of people don’t tell you, they just don’t.
Everything is going fine. Yeah. Okay.
How’s everything really going?
I noticed some things are a little off here.
Well, come to find out, last two days have been
really tough and they start telling you, like, I was
at the gym and some guy made a negative comment
on my back and then I couldn’t sleep that night
and I was stressing out to fight my wife.
And then there all of a
sudden all these things come out.
Yeah.
I think at least when I start in my assessment,
I have goals within the hit and within those goals,
I can see kind of what their expectation might be.
A lot of times it’s like pro card, right.
And it’s like their first year competing or something.
It’s like, okay.
And then you can kind of build off that framework too.
And also, like rating their current stress level, what their
occupation is, how many hours they work a week to
try to pull out some of that data set.
But I think I definitely hear a
lot of people don’t address it too.
And I especially get that with male
competitors, especially like, you’re like more macho.
Just give me the plan.
I’ll suffer, bro.
And it doesn’t matter.
It’s like, no, that’s actually not the
best kind of client that I have.
And there’s a perception that that client is ideal.
Right.
The one that just, I do the plan and I don’t complain.
It’s like, well, some of those complaints from that type
of person are actually the stuff that you do need
to hear because there’s also going too far.
It’s important feedback.
It’s important feedback. Yeah.
You won’t hear that from that person.
But I think even modern day, there’s so much struggle
with what’s put on us from a job aspect, competitive
aspect, relationship aspect, and the stressful, the amount of people
that struggle with anxiety and depression, it’s almost a norm
for some people that you don’t hear about where you
get that opposite client, like you said, that they have
such a negative self image of themselves and maybe they
undershoot it, but they can go rabbit hole with a
little thing.
Like, hey, they woke up and
their scale weight was £0.2 up.
And they’re like, it sends them down to like,
all of a sudden they’re not good enough into
even darker places and stuff that they might be
embarrassed to address within a coach.
So I think having a lease within your check in.
And I know Luke, you have this right at the
bottom where he actually worked at mental like mental, not
mental sanity, like mental expectations for the week.
So it matched out how they managed it the last
week and then how they think that they’re going to
use within the following week to manage it better.
So common ones I’ll use will be like self awareness
tools, kind of like a tally system in order to
start to gain that perspective of doing the dailies and
how that contributes to the longer one.
And so that’s kind of where that
whole bottom in section sheets at.
You know, I tell a lot of my clients sometimes,
too, is people will idolize Champions, right, with any sport.
But the first thing that people usually look at is
what is his training program, what supplements does he use?
Nobody is being like, man, what
kind of mindset does that take?
I wonder what type of mental meditation
or self maintenance he does mentally for
himself to keep him on his game.
How can Serena Williams be one point away from
a million dollars or $5 million and half the
crowd hates her and the other half the crowd
loves her, and all this pressure is built.
How does somebody like that maintain focus and not
make mistakes and still be able to perform?
Nobody asks those questions.
People want to know, I got Serena Williams
sneakers and I got her tennis racket.
But let’s focus on the most important thing
that what’s really separates people from who continuously
succeed, who don’t, is not necessarily the bag
of tricks they have in their pocket.
It’s their outlook and their approach
to how they handle those tools.
I have to say personally, Evan Simpane, I was friends
with him early on back in Seven, and I just
knew he was abnormally, a very headstrong person.
And at the time I was a little
more thin skinned and I idolized that.
I’m like, man, I want to be like that.
It just seems like he can’t
be influenced the wrong way.
He sticks to his guns.
He’s not one that made emotional decisions and his
decision with competing and prep, he was just on
an even keel, like all the time.
And obviously to some degree that can be genetic.
But I look at a lot of the time,
what you’re able to accomplish mentally Sky’s the limit.
It’s what you believe you can achieve versus people
saying, oh, that’s just the way I am.
I get stressed like that. I’m like, really?
Because we’re all human.
We all have distinct physical attributes that
we can’t change, but you can mentally
learn not to react to things.
You could mentally learn over time to manage stress.
You can learn mentally over time to become tougher.
You can learn mentally over time to change your outlook, which
I think a lot more people need to put emphasis on
versus what’s the greatest new ways to do RDLs?
You know what I mean?
I think sometimes too, building
a progression across that.
Like I just pulled up my sheet
to be a little bit more specific.
Mental and emotional stress is the category that’s
probably most applicable to that in my sheet.
And it’s a color coded portion of the sheet.
So it’s like a one through five and they
can see where they’re at with like green, yellow,
red, depending on where that mental emotional stress is.
And then across the week they can see it improving as
some of their self awareness things in the sheet start to
improve as well because now we’re creating wins for them to
pull them out of that constant negative loop in order to
move them into that better awareness that will allow them to
gain that perspective, that allows them to hit the long term
goals within the day to day.
Yeah, I like that.
And one thing too I like to mention to people
is like when you’re checking in, when you’re talking about
where you are mentally or filling out your progression sheet,
it’s based on the change of your baseline.
How many people do you get when
you say, hey, are you stressful job?
Oh yeah, super stressful, stress all the time.
Okay, but that’s your baseline. Alright?
So when we’re talking about change over
time, we’re talking change from your baseline.
Obviously, if I say to him four
weeks later, hey, how’s it going?
I’m still stressed.
Okay, yeah, I get it. I get you stressed.
But is there a change from stress from your baseline?
Because we’re making changes based on
consistency, not you always being stressed. We get that.
But like, if you’re always at
eight stress, are you still eight?
Are you 8.5? Are you two?
Are you a ten?
What’s funny is this is a
classic example of not communicating.
I had a client once.
He was exmarine.
He’s a police guy.
He was always great to work with.
And this dude was shedding body
fat like you wouldn’t believe.
And I kept saying and I’m like,
dude, are you sure you’re good?
I feel fine. Awesome.
I’m like, yeah, you’re making leaps and bounds
every week, like way faster than you should.
I’m going to add food back and he’s
like, all right, just for one day. I’m totally fine.
I promise. Okay.
Give him a little refeed.
Weight still drops. Progressing. You strength good?
Yeah, strength is great.
Pumps are awesome.
Four days later, his wife messages me.
He’s like, he passed out at work.
I’m like, what?
What do you mean he passed out at work?
He’s like, yeah, he was standing guard and
he passed out and he hit his head.
I’m like, what?
And he goes, he didn’t mention to you.
Mention to me what?
He goes, he’s beginning dizzy. All the time.
I’m like, he’s never mentioned
anything dizzy all the time.
He said, yeah, I’m in the car with him now.
We’re on the way to the hospital.
Dude, hold on a second.
Don’t go to the hospital. Go pull in the Dunkin.
Donuts real quick.
And she’s like, what? What do you want to do?
I’m like, how do you eat a muffin?
And then in ten minutes, let me know how he feels.
He eats a muffin. Ten minutes.
Like, this is going to feel great.
I feel fine.
I’m like, dude, you’re like, bottomed
out hypoglycema all the time.
You got to tell me these things. He’s like, yeah, man.
I just want to feel like a bitch.
I can handle the shit.
I’m like, I know you can handle it,
but it’s like, prep is not beast mode.
It’s more like a chess game.
You’re being a little more strategy.
Yeah, you got to be tough
mentally, but there’s strategy involved.
They need to know these things.
As an example, I’m like that I’m willing to
go and push myself before I pull back.
My first three shows, I coach myself,
which was a nightmare mentally and emotionally
because I was very emotionally driven then.
I didn’t know how to separate
myself mentally from that and react.
Those emotions can kind of still be there, but now I’ve
kind of been able to harness that reaction to it.
But anyway, I would keep
pushing, pushing, pushing to where?
At school or University.
You park far from campus.
It was like a 20 minutes walk to
class, and my legs were just fried.
Just so fried because I was doing at the time.
This is when hit cardio was like,
this was the way to do cardio.
Now, steady state hit Burns more fat.
It holds muscle while I bought
a recumbent bike at home.
So I would do sprints.
Then I would go walk for, like, 2 miles.
Well, that trashed my legs, but that was the way.
So whatever.
But I was walking to class,
and, man, I was barely moving.
I had to be slugging along.
And I just stopped in the middle, and I
was like, I think I’m going to sit down.
It would sit down or walk back to the car.
I was like, I don’t know if I can keep going.
It was that bad.
And just thinking back, it’s like, God,
you idiot, what are you doing?
You should have just backed off.
And so now, like you said, it’s this chess game
of, like, it’s not always push, push, push, chase suffering.
No, it’s like chasing this ideal physique that we want.
And you really do have to know when
to pull back and when to push.
And that’s when that feedback is so important.
But that was my own self coaching experience, which was valuable,
and I value being, like, self coaching now because I have
no way to be a scapegoat for myself, and I have
clients that I feel like sometimes we serve as a scapegoat
for them and more of a police.
And they’re like, well I hate coach.
I check the nutrition block, I check my cardio
block, and then they can find any ways to
make it easier or get off plan.
It’s like, oh, you can have one
diet soda per day or something.
It’s like, well I had a fucking three liter.
It’s like they’re just trying to
find ways to work around.
Then if they get to their show,
it’s like, oh man, I was off.
Well, this is because coach had me.
It’s like you served that role.
But coaching yourself, that’s off the table.
It’s just you.
And so you have to constantly evaluate
how can I be better every day?
And there’s more self evaluation that occurs.
So having a coach is no reason why
you should still have that self evaluation.
And being able to that same internal monologue.
You need to be conveying a lot of that to your
coach because there’s always a better way to do it.
And that’s what I found.
How I’ve perfected more of my process along the way
is always the self reflecting on where I’m at mentally
or physically and how can I continue to improve and
putting it on myself having that self responsibility in that.
Because even as client, you’re still
self responsible for those activities.
You just said something.
I talk to Lex about this all the time and
this is outside of bodybuilding too slightly off topic, but
the same topic as I always say to her, I
don’t know how people go through life becoming a worse
version of themselves as in to become more eccentric and
the poor personality traits they have.
Because in my opinion, bodybuilding or whatever you
do in life, the whole goal is to
become a better person, better version of yourself.
That requires insight.
So I think that is something that a lot of people
either just don’t have or they don’t care to have or
they refuse to have because humility, insight, self reflection, being able
to look back and to see very closely what went wrong,
what could have changed and how to implement them and move
forward and change is a skill that people just don’t have
or they’re not willing to have or they’re not willing to
try to work towards.
I would say all the clients I have,
very few have that right off the bat.
And I do believe that self coaching does kind of
forces you to have that because there’s no scapegoat or
person to blame except you have to look back at
XYZ and figure out what went wrong and what you
can change because it’s on you.
And that goes to the question people always ask,
should I coach myself at least one time?
I think everybody should.
However, as you may know and I agree and this is
not a dig in many people, but I would say 50%
of people who compete today wouldn’t be competing if there was
no coaches, because the confidence is not there to do so,
to figure it out themselves or put in that work, or
they’d say, Screw it, this is not worth it.
Or they’re just afraid.
Some people like to have I’m going to get into
this, so I’m going to hire a coach to figure
out what you need to do versus I’m going to
pick up all these books and figure it out.
Process, elimination.
But that’s very important.
And like you said, man, same situation.
Looking back at some of the things I’ve
done, I’ve self coached myself a few shows
and the fatigue put yourself through. I remember.
I remember going like, you know, some days
you have good days and bad days and
prep, and some days I felt too good.
I’m like, dude, this is too many carbs.
I’m driving to school, flicking out
stupid tears out the window.
I’m like, I’m going to cut the carbs out half today.
I don’t feel shitty enough, like having that mentality.
It’s just like I don’t think I’m suffering like I’m
supposed to, even though the results are there, but self
insight and self reflection and taking responsibility, even if you’re
with a coach, kind of looking to see what could
have been different is overly important.
I mean, I’ve worked with a top coach,
and the first prep worked really well.
The second prep was a disaster and
it was in the same year.
I’m not sitting there blaming him at all.
It’s just sometimes the body does things
you don’t want it to do.
Because at the end of the day, I always tell
you the body is like a wild animal, right?
You can try to cohorse it into your little den and trick
it or the wild animals going to be like, Fuck you.
I’m not doing that.
And prep didn’t go as well.
I didn’t look at all good and things went
wrong, but I could come up with a list
of things that I could have done differently.
Maybe he could have done differently, but overall,
the communications got to be there, even though
you’re following the plan designed by that person.
Yeah, that’s another part of it, too.
Like, you can have the best coach and the best
plan and everything, but sometimes it’s the body response.
I’ve been in prep for a very extended period of time
and to pull back down into the Olympia, it’s taking more
than one past because I’ve been in this prep.
It’s not like, man, John, I’m
missing the Mark in my coaching.
No, it’s just this is the body’s response and how
I now change the plan accordingly to do so.
Sometimes it is just the body and you
have to know, hey, maybe it’s time we
do something a different plan or approach.
But I think what you said is interesting as far
as at some point you should maybe coach yourself.
I would say my mistake was coaching myself off the bat
and trying to of course I was learning all the way,
but I think having a coach from the beginning that just
helped me learn my body faster or not my body, but
just in general, kind of like the route to go.
But then I think instilling in our clients
that autonomy and pulling out that self reflection
to where they could get to a point
where they could almost coach themselves.
And do you have any process that would even look
like for someone to build in more of that kind
of like to where they’re a highlighted client and they
just can do stuff on their own?
Example for me would be someone moving from a
strict meal plan to where, hey, we’re maybe just
give them macros and they need to program out
their own food choices or something like that.
Do you kind of try to progress your clients
up to where they have more of that autonomy
and just own responsibility in their own plan?
My general weight loss clients, I do all the
time because at the end of the day, it’s
all about sustainability on their own over time, over
a lifetime, where they can achieve their healthier, look,
healthier, body better, improved blood lipids, the same similar
concept in regards to some of my clients I
have in the off season where they’re like, hey,
Chris, can I swap out this for that?
I’m like, yeah, man, at this point, 75
grams of carbs, 70 grams of carbs. It’s totally fine.
Not a big deal.
And they can go in that direction.
But in regards to people getting them to
prep themselves, that’s the decision they make.
I don’t push that.
I’ve had friends like, my clients become my
friends and then they end up prepping themselves
and then they’re like, hey, Chris, do you
mind if I send my pictures to you?
Like, six weeks out, four weeks out.
Just kind of give me your thoughts. I got no problem.
Just they have like, something in their corner
being like, yeah, dude, you’re on track.
This looks okay.
I might want to step it up.
I have quite a few clients have done that
who become friends, and I’ve done it that way.
And they kind of no, I’ve sent you my pics before.
Yeah, I’ve done preps like that because at the end of
the day, sometimes it’s important to be like, man, I feel
like I look good, but maybe I’m seeing myself not as
I am, because we rarely see ourselves exactly how we are
and then be like, hey, what do you think of this?
It’s always good to find that honest friend.
I had an honest friend growing up
when I used to prep myself.
And I’d be like, Dude, what do you think?
He’s like, Dude, you need to step it up.
He would never be like, you’re fucking awesome.
He’d be like, I think you’re okay.
I think you’re on track or you need to step it up.
You look really flat.
Like, he’s just flat out where everyone else is up your
ass being like, bro, fuck peeled, you’re going to win.
And he’s just like, yeah, you’re
probably not going to win.
But my first show, I hired somebody to help me,
and then I got the experience and the experience created.
Okay?
I think I got an idea of what to do.
And then my 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th show, I prepped
myself, and then that was obviously all learning and improved.
And then the last show I prepped
myself in that order was a disaster.
And then I’m like, man, I have
no idea what I did wrong.
I need to hire somebody now to help me
make better decisions so I don’t make 20 years
of mistakes, you know what I mean? Yeah.
And then I hired somebody else who is
better, more experienced, and I learned even more.
And then I prepped myself again
after him, and I did well.
So it was kind of like sometimes you don’t
want to go two or three years making mistakes
when somebody could be like, you’re making a mistake.
This is an easy fix. Do you know what I mean?
Versus going through it thinking like, yeah, got it.
But then again, I’m 38.
When I first started competing,
there was no coaches, really.
There was no Instagram, there was no internet.
There was no coach bashing.
There was no this coach does
this, this coach does that.
It was just the guys in the gym.
And at that point, I look at the owner who
used to compete, like, 40 years ago, and I’m like,
hey, man, this is side chest, like, okay.
And that’s how I had to learn and progress because my
corner of people competing was this big, and only people I
knew, I didn’t know any of those competing against.
There was no like, so and so is doing that show.
Did you see them?
I had no idea.
You just show up, and that’s just there.
Do you think that has improved or
dropped off the quality of competitor now?
There’s so many coaches around, and there’s less
reliance on that self awareness, or do you
think just having coaches now, it could go
either way, depending on the person, probably.
You know what’s really weird to say?
Okay, so I remember most people being in really good
shape and light heavyweights being 15 to 17 people deep.
Okay.
Because for one, there was no men’s physique.
There was no classic physique.
It was bodybuilding figure, women’s bodybuilding.
That’s it.
Okay now.
And also, you’re coming from an era where
there wasn’t coaches, it wasn’t that common.
So people who were competing who
are already doing themselves for years.
And then the other aspect, the number of shows was like
an 8th of what it is now, like, near me I
remember I had to wait every year there’s only three shows
within a three hour driving distance per year where I was
other than that, I had to fly across the country.
So you get more people doing one show.
You get more competitive people, more
people who are more serious.
Now I feel like there’s so many shows, so
people are broken apart, so classes are smaller.
I feel that everybody thinks they can do a show.
I think society I hate people.
I mean, not if you’re saying this, but whatever
societal norms in general is more lazy, lacks Daisy,
don’t have that same grit in them.
So you get people who are in far better shape than
they were when I first started, a small percent, and then
you get medium, and then you get a large quantity of
people who shouldn’t be on stage at all.
So it’s kind of like a mix.
But I couldn’t say overall it’s just better.
Do you know what I mean?
Yeah, because the average is not better,
but you have better top guys.
We’ve expanded the divisions out now to where it
to allow more people to see it’s achievable and
not to take away from men’s physique or classic
or anything like that, because there’s guys that are
exceptional, work very hard, but there’s also just a
lower level of development that’s needed or sometimes a
lower level of conditioning towards it seems more achievable,
which you pull guys from bodybuilding.
Oh, I’m not going to bodybuild because that could
be a six year endeavor to get really good
versus this two year endeavor where I could maybe
become pro then or whatever it may be.
But then the pool has diluted down and
then there’s also more pro cards giving out.
So then you have more guys moving up.
And so now your lower level shows the
pool is just a little bit less competitive.
So yeah, a lot of factors within that.
But at least within coaching, I think
it kind of goes either way.
Like everyone’s a coach, that’s a problem.
But then you have access to a lot of
information on what’s kind of bullshit and what’s not.
It’s kind of mixed multifaceted thing. Yeah.
And one thing you said about I think the
one thing that the coaches have brought this is
just too many coaches who shouldn’t be coaching.
I believe you have a lot more people ending in
the hospital, getting hurt, dying if that wasn’t there.
Because those types of people may not necessarily
taking 200 milligrams of orals a day.
They would have looked online, looked up
bill allowance book and be like, oh,
Max dose of windstrall is 50 milligrams. Okay.
Allstate 50 milligrams versus going more and more and
more because I remember when I first started competing,
on average, off season cycle was 300 Migs, a
Deca 750 test and 30 migrant.
That was considered a fairly heavy cycle.
Do you know what I mean?
And now you have people cruising on 500
mg of test and 300 mg of EQ.
That’s been a linear progression.
Yeah.
It’s scary to think what we see guys using nowadays now
where that’s going to be in 20 years for them?
Like, health wise, which I think that gets into
another issue that I come up with clients is
just medical access and also budgeting for that access.
Yeah.
So I have a lot of problems, like, with clients
that, hey, I want a yearly Echo cardiogram done.
I want labs done every ten weeks.
There’s costs associated with those.
Like, you might need to pay $1,000
for an Echo for your labs.
That could be $200 a pop.
Add that up for the year.
Hey, maybe you’re at two grand.
Of course, it’s like, oh, no, I can’t afford that.
But I can afford $1,000 a month for growth hormone.
Or I can pay for this show.
Or it’s just enough.
Just enough budget for your coach and your drugs.
No health supplements, no lab work,
and just enough for the show.
I’m like, hey, man, can we add in the supplement?
Like, oh, man, let me put that in the budget.
Maybe I’d give it a few weeks.
What do you mean?
This is expensive sport to prioritize, but it’s a
challenge depending on what state you’re in to get
people just get lab work done in general, do
you come across that with your competitors?
We’re a little better here in Texas.
I don’t know how Connecticut
was for Connecticut was fine.
It’s New Jersey and New York that are good.
I don’t know what their deal.
I don’t know what the problem is.
Yeah, it was a challenge, but even within that, I
can have people do what’s nice now with the advancements
is like a Dutch test or like, saliva test.
There’s some fingerprint tests that they can mail in.
So at least there’s something that could be done.
A lot of times, people just don’t want to do it. Yeah.
And like you said before, and this kind of
brings up another whole other topic in regards to
being being a better coach, changing industry, et cetera.
You always will have groups and subgroups of
people that want to do different things.
They might look at you or me and be like, man,
those guys are a little too health oriented for me.
I got to go with somebody else.
You always know who wants to take the
most drugs based on who they’re working with.
Or I was like, I just want to take a bunch of drugs.
I got it.
Or like, they work with this person
because they identify with that particular person.
He does everything to failure and trains like Branch Warren
and bangs his head against the wall and takes tons
of Andrew, I want to be like that guy.
And then you get the people, no matter what you
tell them, they’re going to go in that direction.
And then what many people may not know who listen
to this is like, I’m sure you have two.
I’ve had a lot of people contact
me under the age of 35.
Kidneys toasted, congestive heart failure from gear
use, and they want to steal bodybuild.
Yeah, they’re like, Chris, I know you’re dietician.
Can you fix me?
No, I can’t.
Like, you’re done.
Oh, what do you mean I’m done?
I’m like, dude, you need to worry about bringing
your body weight down, living a healthy life.
You have two kids focusing on other things
of life and prolong your kidney health because
you’re going to need to transplant eventually.
I think I’m going to work with somebody else, and
they’ll just go find somebody who will tell them what
they want to hear, and then they’ll eventually die.
And then every is on the thing
on Rxmus being like, I’m shocked.
I’m shocked that people are dying.
It’s like, I’m not, because
there’s those people out there.
The only thing I will continue to do, just
like you will, is my integrity is first.
And when you’re coaching people and recommending health and
telling them, Listen, this is not good for you,
but these are the things you need to do.
I will continue to do that because
this is weird way of saying this.
I feel that a lot of people coming into the
sport are clouded by the recognition from others and their
desire and emotional need to succeed, that they bypass their
health for a plastic trophy for a little pro card
we have to pay money for.
And then at the end of the day, ten years from
now, they’re going to be like, what did I do?
What did I do to myself?
I know they’re going to think that.
I know they’re going to think that.
And I’m not willing to just be competitive with
somebody else just to do all the shit they
want to do because another coach does that.
And that’s why I think where
people need to be pulled back.
It’s like, hey, going from, for example, if someone
suddenly says to me, hey, this annivers work. Great.
I feel awesome on it.
What do you think about doubling it?
I’m like, well, if it’s working so
good now, why would we double it?
You think you’re going to get double the effect?
Probably not.
But you’re going to get double the side effect
and potentially make your lipids ten times worse, which
potentially take more years off your life.
Yeah.
With everything that I’m trying to put
out, for one, I’ve done the opposite.
I’ve been the young guy that wanted the pro
card, and that was all that fucking mattered.
I mean, if I could die doing this
and it didn’t fucking matter, it was stupid.
And I ran Graham’s into shows and didn’t do
blood work because I didn’t want to see the
lab work thinking that the approach I was using
was still like, that’s what must be done.
And that’s not what I’m putting out either.
It’s that, hey, we want to be awareness.
And so when we do get ten years down the
road, it’s not like, oh, man, I have heart failure.
I don’t know how this happened.
It’s like, no, we pick up the warning
signs and we can do something about it.
But also I realized too, that you
don’t need to go to that extreme.
And that’s what I’ve pulled out, that you get a
lot of cookie cutter approaches and you end up trying
to make sure that you leave nothing on the table. Right.
Well, hey, I don’t want to
use too little as a bodybuilder. We’ll screw it.
We’re going to put everyone on 3 grams of gear a week.
And that way we make sure
that they’re growing and making progress.
It’s like, well, no, this should be based
off a needs analysis of what that individual
needs based on their level and their health.
And so let’s start.
All I’m saying is when I was that age, I
only thought about the next 20 weeks of prep.
I didn’t think that when I was 35 I would
still be competing and be going to my third Olympia.
I was just worried about the next
show I was doing going back then.
I’m like, oh, shit, I should have been planning
this out for the next ten years to compete.
And that’s what I want to get the most
out of the least and keep that progressing over
years because we know in bodybuilding you have to
do this for years to get good.
So it’s like, use the least to get the
most before you need to keep escalating up.
We mocked your health along the way.
So we know, like, hey, X drug you
shouldn’t take because that really screws your lipids.
Let’s do this instead.
So we find an individualized approach that can
give you that longevity in the sport and
not end up down the road.
And I’m not saying that this is
going to be 100% without risk.
It absolutely is and you’re absolutely doing damage.
But we can at least try to mitigate it some. Right?
Right.
But I think the most important thing about you as
an individual is not, you know, anybody can speak what
we’re speaking, but when you have somebody like yourself that
is accomplished what they have in body building, using as
little and taking that approach, that is more of like,
hey, dude, see, I did it. I can do it.
I can show you, right.
It’s like I missed my Mark.
I was never a good pro.
So my word only carries so far.
But thank God when someone like yourself has
done it and does that approach, you can
prove to people, oh, no, look at me.
I’m coming in gnarly harder than anybody.
Probably taking an 8th of what they’re doing
and not run myself into the ground.
And so it can be done with this.
And I think that carries the most weight on
changing the industry in my mind because a lot
of my clients follow you and they go, oh,
my God, Jude’s thing is really good.
I listened to, I learned a lot.
I understand what you’re saying.
It’s so important to see that. Do you know what I mean?
Where people can see the physique, see the
method, be like, Whoa, he is really achieving
that physique versus somebody being like, that’s 5
grams of gear right there.
Oh, maybe that is what I have to do.
Do you know what I’m saying?
Because you need more people like yourself
doing that and achieving that, telling others
this is what can be done. Because at the end of the day,
I know people rather do that.
You know what I mean?
Yeah, it’s a tough one.
I am glad to be at this level and be able to.
I feel like it helps me bridge the gap from
the science nerds that have the information, but they just
don’t have the client base or the pro or they’re
not the pro to cross over to be like, hey,
I’m in that tribe too, guys.
I’m your top pros.
This is what I’m doing. Check it out.
And they’re so much more open and receptive to
hear it from me versus some natural pro that
just read a bunch of studies, right?
So it does help cross that barrier
a little bit more, for sure.
A lot more, dude. A lot more.
A lot more.
I hear people all the time and
my clients like, dude, it’s fucking peeled.
And they’ll ask me, they’re like, you think what
he’s saying he’s doing as far as Logie?
I’m like, bro, I know, John, I can
tell you it’s that or it’s even less.
And they’re like, no.
And they’re like, okay, all right.
I’m a believer because they see it
and now they’re going to believe it.
And they trust me because they’re asking
me, do you know what I mean?
And I know you that’s such a thing
that you just brought up too is like
getting someone to believe in the process.
We talked about this way earlier on.
It’s like when you have that negative
mindset, you don’t believe in your plan.
The plan is not going to work.
That’s why you educate someone on that approach.
Like, hey, I don’t think this low
gear thing is going to work.
Let me teach you and let me
give you that understanding and that empowerment.
Then once you believe in it, oh, man,
they’ll take off with it and improve it’s.
Just like that learning aspect needs to take place.
I got two examples of the power of the mind.
How many times have you seen somebody go from
you could argue and say a better, more experienced
coach who didn’t do very well to a lower
tier coach and that client did better, right?
I’ve had clients come from some of
the best coaches in the industry.
And they’re like, Man, I didn’t like it.
I mean, I did look decent, but I don’t know if it was.
I want to try you.
I’m looking myself like, man, give him a shot.
And the dude kills it and he looks way better.
And it’s like, Is that a matter of belief?
Is he believing more?
Is there less doubt?
And then one particular incident, I had my
client in Germany, which I’m friends with now.
He used to get so much anxiety about the
show day coming in closer and closer, so much
anxiety that he gets like, five weeks out.
You stop aggressive.
I’m like, my man, I go, you got
to pull back, you got to relax, dude.
You’re going to be ready.
I’m like, this is what we’re going to do.
We’re pulling your show date, but
we’re going to keep prepping.
And then you’re going to send me the
schedule in Germany of all the bodybuilding shows.
And then once we’re two weeks out, then I’m going to
tell you right now, there is no date on the table.
I shit you not.
That following week he loses £3 and then
he starts progressing, getting harder and harder.
I’m like, all right, man, we’re two weeks out.
He’s like, really? I love the way I’m looking.
I’m like, Dude, I told you, it’s just the mindset.
And then every year I prepped him, he’s the same thing.
I go, Give me your schedule.
I go, we’re going to
compete between October and November.
Is this five week gap something that you can commit to?
Absolutely. All right, let’s do it.
And you just progress like crazy.
That’s cool. That’s funny. If you have someone that can
have that opened into prep. Yeah, it’s kind of a deal.
That’s a good idea.
How many times people get a little closer to prep
and like, all of a sudden results just stop.
Some thought process can be, well, you’re getting low enough
body fat where the body is starting to fight you.
Yeah, that’s very true concept.
A lot of the times, also, anxiety starts to go way up.
They start to get a little nervous.
They start focusing on who’s competing, who they’re
competing against, which I think is stupid.
They start looking at other people’s training and they maybe
start adding extra drop sets and they start doing all
these little extra things on the side because they think
that’s going to speed them along or help them when
it starts to make them go the other way.
I’m going back because you brought up something.
We’re talking about your usage and expectations
and what you see other people doing.
It’s a nice conversation to have about safer
use and laying this expectation of what we
want to do long term with someone.
But there are some clients that I’ve worked with that when
we get to the show day and that placing isn’t what
they want to, for one, their needs and what they want
for replacing or a status, that’s where they’re at.
Still, they’re not looking at this,
like, further selfdevelopment of themselves.
But anyway, a lot of times for these clients, at
the end of the day, the placing is what matters,
and they don’t care that they took a safer route.
That’s more of a longer term look at competing.
And I see this a lot with
females too, especially more so WPD.
And so they came from a coach that
had a very aggressive PED regimen, and the
progress on prep was very different, right?
They like, grow into the show.
They made the most gains possible, but
then they’re all fucked up afterwards.
Like, hey, I don’t want to get masculine.
I want to use less.
And it’s like, okay, well, this is going
to be a different kind of prep.
And then they don’t see the placement that’s there.
And they’re like, fuck this.
I’m going back to some other coach.
And so really, at the end of the day, some
of these females, they really don’t care about losing femininity.
It’s just about getting there to
where they want to end result.
But I will say, like, I have to probably
I attract what I put out information wise, right?
So if I put out this model of how
I do things, this thought process, usually I get
those kind of clients, but now and then when
I get one, that’s like, yeah, that sounds great.
Let’s do it.
But deep down, it’s really, hey, I want to push gear
hard, and I don’t care about the effects, truly, I don’t.
They will eventually. Eventually.
I don’t know.
It’s crazy.
I work for the wellness competitor that came from
a wellness group, and the drug Regiment was more
than I have any WPD client on.
And her prep was like, hey, I grew into the show.
She was on this stuff for, like,
20 weeks, rotating out different compounds.
It made no sense.
It was fucking ridiculous.
One week was winstrawl, the next week
was equipoise, and it was fucking crazy.
There was health issues.
So we were addressing those, addressing
what needs to take place.
And then when I’m like, hey, you can’t prep this year
because of the things that we’re trying to do, peace.
I’m going to a different coach.
So deep down.
And it’s also like, why can I
grow into my show this year?
Because we don’t want you to be
a man after a year, okay?
That doesn’t really matter to me because
that’s still what I want to compete.
It’s all across divisions.
But again, for females, look at your master’s level clients,
your females that have been doing this for ten years,
even if they’re just taking a little bit like, you
do this for long enough, it will catch up.
Look at some even bikini pros that
have been doing this for a while.
Masculization is there.
When you look back where they first started, that look
at Jenny Lynn figure out way back in the day,
Monica Brand, like, talk about progression of everything.
It’s mind boggling.
But what you just said, it’s like you attract people based
on what you put out there and seems similar with me,
I really don’t get a lot of people that come to
me who want to do tons of stuff.
When that Porter passed, I had like 50 clients that
have tried to come to me and all the things
they wanted to take or what they were taking.
I’m like, I don’t want any part in this.
That’s just not how I work.
That’s not how to work.
I feel uncomfortable, I’m not doing
it, but it’s an unfortunate route.
But like you just said, it’s like, you
are not going to change your methods.
I’m not going to change mine just based on
what people want to do in that regard.
I just think that people sometimes do need to think a
little bit outside the box in the future and longevity.
Anybody who’s been in the sport, Dexter Jackson,
anybody who’s been competing for an astronomical a
long time being successful, didn’t do dumb shit.
Because at some point your body is like, if you’re
born a Honda Civic and you want to make it
a Porsche Eleven, you’re going to have to do a
hell of a lot of mods into that car.
And that car is not going to go 100,000 miles.
It’s just not.
So it’s like, kind of play your cards right with
what you have and that’s the name of the game.
Back we said about placing, though, it’s
difficult sometimes when you get a client
doing a show, it’s not competitive.
They get second or they win, then they do
a show, a regional show, you could say it’s
a lateral transfer and it’s a lot more competitive.
The lineup is stacked and they get
fourth and they’re like, I didn’t progress.
I’m like, oh, look at the line up.
Like, you’re £8 heavier with better condition and your
line up would have destroyed last year’s competition.
And the whole thing, you got to understand
that your placing is not a word for
your hard work or your lack of progression.
It’s just who showed up that day.
And I think that’s a difficult
thing for people to grasp.
And the concept of reminded of that.
Absolutely.
Even some of these divisions
have progressed so quickly.
If you look at any of them figure WPD, even
like, five years ago, it’s a different level of physique.
You wait out a year to grow and you get
this new run of females coming up or new genetic
individuals that it’s just your lineup is comparable in 2019.
I did the Olympia, I got fourth.
It’s like, Holy shit, this is high up there.
Look at that line up.
There was a lot of guys that
were kind of on their way out.
Like these older competitors, it was quality.
But this year, if you look at the level
like, I haven’t been able to win a show
because these new guys coming up are fucking awesome.
This Olympia is going to be way more
competitive than the one that I did.
So it’s like, oh, John, you got fourth.
If I don’t get third, well, fuck it’s
like, oh, man, it’s a whole another Olympia,
whole other lineup, so to say.
Like, oh, well, you got worse.
Well, that’s not necessarily the case.
I just do the best version of myself,
and that’s what I really need to compare
that to and keep trying to do that.
You know that.
I know that, Luke.
You know that it’s difficult when the
general public goes, oh, what happened?
It’s like, oh, my God,
yeah, you still understand, dude.
You can kind of almost stimulate it to fighting.
It’s like you could go against a fighter who’s
not as good as you, but he just catches
you wrong and you eat it and you get
knocked out by somebody you shouldn’t have.
It’s just like sometimes things just occur.
You might be overall better bodybuilding a lot of
people, and things might not work, or it’s just
the progression of competitiveness is just linear.
And it seems to be more that way.
More genetics are coming out of the group.
More crazy shape of muscle, bellies and muscularity.
And it’s funny, I get this question a lot.
I noticed the guys are just getting a little gnarlier.
Are they using more and more and more drugs?
Listen, the concept of using more drugs is very simple.
It just means I’m going to double my dose.
If that was the case, every gym juicehead
weekend warrior would be out of control.
Huge, right?
It’s not that easy.
It’s not related to just that.
It’s just not.
And it’s a difficult thing to try to teach
people when it keeps getting recurring back and misunderstood.
It’s kind of a separate thing.
But I think with Kobe restrictions coming off some,
you’re going to have a lot of guys and
girls coming back into the competitive realms.
I also think there’s a lot of people
that there’s freaks out there that don’t even
know they’re freaks that haven’t trained.
And I think you see a lot of these
guys coming out of Egypt and that those areas
where now there’s like, Rami having this huge influence
and there’s some genetic freaks over there that are
now coming into competitive world.
So I think it’s becoming more aware in other
parts of the world then also, I think with
travel being kind of brought back, you’re going to
see this other surge of competitiveness come through.
I think it comes and goes, but at least 2020
was probably like our most challenging year for competitive wise.
Where you have people that go to pro shows
that term pro that you probably wouldn’t have been
in years before potentially something you decided.
Maybe.
Remind me, this is and this is corny
to say this, but we do say this.
Your placing is not a recognition of your
progress or effort, which people keep attaching to.
I have to win, Chris. Why do you have to win?
I just want to win.
Everybody else does too.
But your overall goal and focus at the end
of the day in bodybuilding is to be better
every single time you step on stage.
If you’re getting better every single time you
step on stage, then you are winning, whether
your place keeps improving or not.
Obviously, if it’s the same group of guys,
same judges, which is impossible, that never happens.
And you keep placing the same, that sucks.
But that means everybody else keeps getting better too.
But that should be the primary focus.
If you get off stage and you place
worse, the better set of guys, but your
£10 heavier, that should still make you happy.
It’s not just about I won.
I have some young guys who tell me I want to do
this show or Why do you want to do that show?
Well, I know I can win it.
I’m like, well, why do you think you can win it?
Well, I know it’s not going to be as competitive.
What are we doing here?
What are we doing here?
You should be moving past that, keeping your
expectations on something that’s way out of your
grasp so eventually you can be there.
When I used to race Motocross, I hated riding by
myself or riding with the local novices at the track.
I wanted to ride with people who are
professionals at the titles in amateur because they’re
way faster, and then I could try to
match their speed or match their corner speed.
I wanted to be around people who are way
better and that ultimately made me better, faster.
So don’t choose shows just because you
know you’re going to crush them.
I think we’re seeing a lot of
that, too, with just false understanding of
priorities of people in the industry.
I think you made the point earlier, about 50%
of the people that compete probably wouldn’t compete if
we weren’t in the age that we were.
And it’s like we’re coming across people with
a lot more people that don’t have the
priority of just loving the process, right?
Yes, 100%.
And that’s where a lot of I think a lot
of these things that we discussed today kind of comes
from is like we keep getting better, not only as
competitors ourselves, but as coaches, because we love the process.
We want to learn, we want to learn a better
way to do it, and then we start to put
content out that reflects that progression over time.
But in the day and age, in where it’s like
Instagram social media, I need to win in order to
make notoriety for myself and things along those lines.
It’s a mix of priorities.
And that’s like kind of where as coaches, we need
to start to educate the clientele in order to be
able to have them shift that priority into the process.
And then they now see that self actualization, which
is the top of Maslow’s hierarchy needs when we
look at developing a client over time. Yeah.
And that’s the thing, too.
It means way more when you’re doing it
truly for yourself than you are for people
in your gym thinking you’re the man.
Like that whole process of chasing.
I want to be the man who was I that person
still empty inside because they’re not doing it for them.
And like you said about loving the process.
I don’t know about you guys, but I have never
done a prep once where I thought about quitting, never.
Even with North American prep,
which was probably stupid.
This is John us being stupid.
I had ulcerative colitis.
That’s why I started to develop.
I was shooting blood and mucus twelve to 13 times a
day, but I was still doing like 2 hours of cardiote.
I didn’t give a shit.
I’d get off the machine like five times
to go to the bathroom and come back.
But I was so fatigued by I didn’t care.
But never once I was like, this is too much for me.
The only thing I thought about
was like, it’s just prep.
It’s just difficult.
But the process of pushing and achieving the
goal was all I was focused with.
And luckily back then I wasn’t even on social media.
The process people are sending me to, your people will say,
I don’t know how you guys continue to do that.
It’s because we’re not chasing the trophy.
We’re still in love with the process.
It’s not like when we stop competing, we’re
just going to not eat healthy anymore.
We’re not going to train anymore.
It’s like I’m done bodybuilding completely.
I still eat extremely good and I still train.
I might do a little extra boxing and do
running and do other things, but I’m still living
that type of same sort of grinding lifestyle.
Yeah, I was thinking about the man’s laws hierarchy
of needs to the whole time we’re talking. Right.
And a lot of people are kind of on
that lower level of just needing esteem, self esteem,
respect from others, and it’s just a lower level.
And like you said, Chris, what we really
connect with is we’re on this ability to
see this better version of ourselves.
And that doesn’t mean it’s not a placing or
what someone else deems you as being good enough.
Last place or first place.
It’s seeing that out for within your
own self that you’ve become better.
And I think that’s why I love bodybuilding so much.
It’s not just physically getting better, but it
causes I’ve had to do so much self
reflection of the mental process that it’s carried
out in all other areas of my life. Business. Yes.
And it’s not by building anymore, just to me.
It’s been kind of a tool to
create myself into this better potential.
And that’s how I got through bodybuilding and
what it kind of opened up to me
and gave me this greater purpose.
And it wasn’t getting on stage and winning the trophy.
And you brought up quitting a prep.
And I have to say, in 2020, when I was prepping for
that Olympia, that was the prep that I would have quit.
And it’s not because I couldn’t push
or handle it mentally or physically.
It’s because I knew I wasn’t going
to be ready at some point.
And the thought of not improving myself to
that better version was fucking killing me.
And it seems like you’re tracking back, but to get through
that and we have shows that are like that to where
we might not be a better version because stuff doesn’t always
work out right, and the body might not respond how you
want it to, but at least you find areas for when
you love the process, but you also find areas that you
can breathe that better version of yourself.
Like, hey, I’m not going to bring the condition that I
want, but damn straight I’m going to bring the best posing
ability that I can or whatever it may be.
There are reasons you might have to stop a prep, but
at the same time, if you get too focused on how
a negative aspect of it, it can take you down the
wrong path and make the whole prep go to shit.
But I think still there’s always some area
that we can find that better version of
ourselves, even when everything’s not working out perfect.
And that’s a thing too.
It’s like, no prep is ever going to be perfect.
No job is ever going to be perfect or relationship.
That doesn’t mean you quit it.
You find the ways you can still improve and
then you have more self reflection on what can
I do now to make it even better.
So going through that prep, going through other adversities
that I’ve gone through, that’s how I got better,
because I had to think out and problem solve.
And that problem solving was also
creating a better version of myself.
It’s like the desire, the emotional and overwhelming
desire to be a better bodybuilder creates the
need to self reflect and change, which transfers
into other aspects of your life, relationship, business,
and everything gets better.
The same thing happened with me.
I laugh at how pathetic I used to be.
18, 1920 years old and my work ethic compared to now.
I would run circles around myself mentally, emotionally,
and every aspect it’s like, but bodybuilding and
my desire to be better is what created
that mind is where I am now.
It’s like when I’m presented a problem in my
relationship, I look back, I don’t point fingers, but
it’s her fault she did that to me.
I look back and look at it all the same sort
of process you do in bodybuilding, and that’s where it’s at.
I tell my clients, too.
I’m like, dude, the day you become a really good
bodybuilder is everything else in your life gets better too.
You can use bodybuilding to destroy your entire life
because many people do and they don’t get better.
Or when you really start to be a
better bodybuilder, everything else gets better as well.
I was just going to say that if you’re seeing
other parts in your life fall apart and get worse,
you’re probably bodybuilding for the wrong reasons, potentially.
Because for me, when I’ve done the best in
bodybuilding, usually everything else is doing really well.
Or I’ve done well in bodybuilding too.
That’s not to say that I haven’t, but I destroyed
a lot of other shit that was around me too.
And that was the realization.
I was just doing it for the wrong reasons.
And once I’m doing it for the right reasons,
that’s when everything seems to really grow around me.
I call people redline it.
They just spin their wheels.
They’re putting in way too much mental effort and
focus and not gaining any traction, which is taking
away from every aspect of their life because all
their energy is on one thing.
Your energy needs to be on bodybuilding a lot.
It really does.
There’s no question about it much more than
a lot of other sports and endeavors, but
it doesn’t need to be taken.
The obsession 24/7 and neglecting
other parts of your life.
Quitting your job and prep.
That’s a bad idea.
I had one client like, well, I have to stop coaching.
It’s like, okay, what’s going on?
I understand well, I have all these credit
card bills from supplements, just like putting all
their supplements and all their prep, like, on
a credit card to just get through.
Like, oh, my gosh, this is a terrible prioritization.
You shouldn’t even prep.
Get stable in your job.
There’s a lot of prioritization
that use does need occur.
Sure.
Redline your prep and go all in, right?
Yeah, for sure.
One thing, I think that makes your message, my message,
Luke’s message, a little more difficult for people to grasp
is we all know that social media only portrays to
others what that person wants to portray, right?
So they’re seeing the tip of the iceberg
of what they want you to see.
And that gives them a false interpretation
of the process of what it’s about.
Changes expectations kind of steers them generally in the
wrong direction mentally, which is difficult to see happen
because I know people personally who just ship bags
to the core and their life is falling apart.
But you look at their social media and they’re like,
this is the most successful guys alive right now.
This guy’s amazing.
That becomes a very difficult obstacle.
People just lose that.
I like your situation where you
will present the problem too.
It’s not all peaches and cream all the time.
You know what I mean?
Like, this is what’s happening.
This is what happened here’s my physique, where a
lot of people will only show their physique and
the best lighting and the best shots and only
their best poses at two weeks out.
You know what I mean?
Yeah, I’ll show my face and shitty pics like,
man, John, how are you going to compare?
Like, well, here’s my post
workout pick looking fucking rowdy.
Anyway, we’re a little past an hour here.
Chris, I won’t hold you up any longer.
I know this kind of went a different route,
which is a great route because it shows you
how impactful the mental aspect of this is.
And I think a lot of people listen to it or
we’ll pull that out and be able to hopefully think about
the self reflection aspect and what they need to apply within
their cells and how they should be communicating to the coach
to really get more out of the whole process.
And I think doing so will
make you love the process more.
You’ll find it more enjoyable too. Yeah.
Just an ending note.
I agree with 100%.
Communication on the client side is mandatory.
It’s needed.
I have clients that getting information.
I was like pulling teeth sometimes or they
just don’t know how to describe it.
And I sat to my dad.
I’m like, dad, being a doctor and
asking like a patient, what’s going on?
Is it ever difficult to get information out of?
I mean, it’s like, oh, my gosh, it is.
Why are you here today?
I got pain. Where? Everywhere. Okay.
It would be more specific, but it’s kind of
coaching them to understand how to communicate properly.
And the other thing too, about mental and I’ll
end it here is for those of you who
know about Motocross, Ricky Carmichael is like the most
winningest racer in all motorsports history.
And he was interviewed one time on what
makes him so much better than everybody else.
And he said that 99% of the guys out here
have the speed to win, but only 1% actually have
the mental fortitude to carry a winning streak.
And I’m like, wow, for him to say that versus he’s
winning every single race he does by like a landslide.
And him to say that these guys are just as
good as me, I just had it better up here.
That’s huge. Yeah.
Chris, before we go, I don’t think you take
any more clients on, but for people to just
get more of your information because you do some
education stuff, is it mainly just through IG?
Yeah, I have a website tutorialnutrition.com, and obviously
my IG is IBM Prochristal and I have
a total Nutrition page on Instagram, which my
wife and I do a lot of general
population clients, clients with digestive disorders, diabetes management.
That’s really honestly the bulk of my clientele and obviously
I prep people because I love prepping people on the
side but I have about a four month wait list.
Not taking any more clients on really
this time or adding to that list.
I want to work through what I have and most importantly I
got to be able to make sure I spend attention to the
competitors that I need because I draw my line on.
I don’t want to help any more
than five competitors compete in one weekend.
That’s my captain. I know that.
Yeah, after that.
Especially if they’re all different shows.
Different time zones.
That’s just too stressful.
I’m not interested in that.
Well, again, Chris, thanks for coming on, man.
We really appreciate it’s.
Always good to hear you chat.
You have such a practical approach but
also it’s science minded so that’s just
exactly what we preach around here.
So again thanks for your time, man.
Yeah, no problem, John.
See you later, Luke.
Yeah, thanks everybody for tuning in JCU podcast like share
subscribe and we will talk to you next time. Bye.