Michael Daboul: 6th In The World & Self-Coached Dubai Pro Champion

Michael DeBoo, classic IFPB pro known for his insane conditioning, who placed sixth and seventh at the last two Olympias and has nine pro wins.

I don't get that hungry, I don't want to binge on food, I don't crave sugars the same as I did before.

And I think this is the main reason why I improved my digestion, improved my health, and improved my look.

That's the main reason why I left that trick.

Many coaches, I wouldn't trust them.

That's why I was always not listening to them the same like you did.

Sometimes I do my own thing They tell me to say something Okay, take like 200 milligram of test proponate for the week I was like 200 milligram is just the kiny dose.

What's that 200 milligram of kidney dose?

So I was like, okay, I'll take 600 with him telling me I was like

Well and some other coaches will tell me okay take 1500 of tests It's just way too much.

I've never took that much.

It's way too much.

Yeah.

The maximum I took is half of that amount.

It's just how can I take that much?

At FEC2 is the only one one I listen 100% to have.

When I did the Ohio and Anod UK I bought the new chiropractor stretching it as much as possible so I was like actually over 510 stress is the biggest problem in our prep.

If you have stress it will ruin your prep that's why they always tell you it's a mindset.

It's a mindset because you mind need to be clear that making you stress more than the stuff we are taking because what we are taking will give us some stress 100%.

So

you don't need the extra stress.

Steve Winberger giving me the feedback that you need to more V-tables so you need to focus a lot on improving your lats.

I think I was doing two times back more than usual.

I used always to train once.

Since I did Dubai and I listened to Steve's feedback, he said, well done, you really improved your LATS a lot.

Your V-table is much better now.

You're much more dangerous than it used to be.

For the first time in my career, I use it.

How you been?

All good, all good.

How are you been?

I'm good, but I'm fucking shocked by how big your fucking bicep looks right now.

I freaking just heard that

you were off cycle for the last five weeks, right?

Yeah, I've been

off for the last.

Yeah.

That's crazy.

That doesn't look off.

Well, I've been eating a lot, so that's why maybe.

Oh, yeah.

What was your calculator?

Yeah, I've stopped like gear maybe one week before the show.

So

since one week out, I was was off and i've been off now for the last four weeks after show so for five weeks or so i just started yesterday so yesterday i'm on

since yesterday

yeah um

what were your uh what was your food at while you were off what was the food like well like uh the good thing this time my appetite wasn't so high so i would i i wasn't pushing my food at all.

So I was eating only when I'm hungry.

So sometimes I'm eating three meals, four meals two meals so i'm not pushing any food but when i'm craving something i just eat it

yeah huh um

i guess for a general idea like what

i know i know it varies greatly but how do you feel like your normal calorie intake is in the off season

versus prep i think this is doesn't say like it doesn't seem like an off season because it's just a short break from you buy pro to like i i took just a health phase just to clean up my like clean my system off so uh i wouldn't take like say it's an off-season but usually my off-season around like three five three thousand five hundred calories up to four thousand i don't eat a lot okay yeah that seems pretty standard i feel like that's about an average what i eat in the off-season too yeah which is kind of

yeah i i never push food i never force myself to eat like i grow really easy, so

I don't have to push food real high.

So most of the time I eat like just

higher than the prep 1,000, 2,000 calories.

I don't push food really high and I just grow, you know, I just, I don't seem to need to push food.

Similarly, I'm not an open bodybuilder.

So if I want to grow, I need to grow one or two kilos for the weight limit, you know, just not much.

Right.

Brother just grows.

But

I guess it makes sense too, though, because from my knowledge, you've always been at that weight cap, right?

So it's been hard to like play around with the weight cap considering.

I believe I heard you talking about this in either another podcast or a video, but you were kind of like right on the border of potentially being able to gain that seven extra pounds, except like you never do, right?

So then it's like, how the hell am I supposed to,

you know, like, I don't want to like gain seven pounds and then not be able to make my weight cap.

Actually, it walked out last year.

So what I did when I was doing the Arnold

Ohio and Arnold UK

in 2024, so what I did just

I

brought with me a clear practice just to stretch me out.

So, I was

yeah, so I was like, because they will take three heights off you until they like lock it in.

So, what I did, like when I did the Arnold, Ohio and Arnold UK, I brought with me a chliopractor to stretch me as much as much as possible.

So, I was like, actually over

510 in this two times.

So, I was like, okay, now I'm locked in because 510, 510, two times, they will not care about what the third time is because they will take the average of your height.

So, they at the Olympia, they took the last time and I was as well over 510.

So, they locked it in.

So, now from now on, I don't need to measure my height.

I just need to measure my weight.

So, I know now for a fact, I got the seven pounds.

That's why between the Olympia and Dubai Pro, I change a lot because they give me seven extra pound.

That's fucking awesome, bro.

Yeah, because when I, when I did the Olympia, I was allowed, my limit was to 12.

Yeah.

And when I did the Dubai Pro, my limit was to 19.

Okay.

Dude, I was actually wondering about that because I noticed that you, uh, I mean, sometimes

I wonder if it's just in my head or so, but you definitely look bigger.

And I remember their new little stipulation of having the average of two or I guess three different weigh-ins.

And that obviously excites me too, because I feel like I'm kind of like on the verge of

I'm like five, seven and a half, but sometimes if they count me just like half an inch lower, I'm pretty sure it kind of puts me in a really weird spot of losing, losing some weight that I

change a lot because seven pounds is really a lot.

Yeah.

Okay, I want to ask you about that in a second, but first, congrats on Dubai.

That was fucking awesome.

That was an awesome showing, man.

Thank you, man.

Thank you.

I think it was my best showing up to this date.

Like, the first time I feel I brought the fullness I need, and I was really in shape and conditioned enough to, like, the same condition as usual, maybe better than usual.

But it was really good.

I was happy with the way I looked.

The first time, probably, in my career, I feel happy with the fullness and like condition.

That video you took with Nihat was also fucking filthy too.

The video that you guys posted.

that's insane y'all's chest yeah

he's really insane man he looks phenomenal on the wheel like he's big he's round his muscle billies are so round like he's impressive he's really impressive yeah i don't even know how that's possible for a 22 year old it blows my mind every time it's crazy both you guys have a crazy physique um but how do you feel like uh how do you feel about that prep for dubai since you know obviously you consider it one of your best

well like, it was the first time I prep in Dubai.

I used always to compete, to prep in the UK.

So I lived in the UK for 12 years.

So last year, in September 2024, I moved straight after the Olympia.

I moved to Dubai.

And it was the first time I prepped for real in Dubai.

So it was really like.

made me stress-free, made me happy.

Everything was on point.

Like, it was easy.

It was really easy.

I didn't have to do.

Usually when I do prep, any prep, I start cardio at 12 weeks out.

In Dubai Pro, I started cardio like five weeks out because I was really in shape, very close to the show, so I didn't have to push any cardio.

And usually, I do in previous preps, I used to do like two hours of cardio, like sometimes three hours, really.

Jesus Christ, yeah, yeah.

And like this Dubai Pro, I had to do maximum 45 minutes, sometimes one hour.

That's the maximum I did, so it was really easy prep, I would say.

Like, I was stress-free, like, likewise, my life was really good.

So, it's all played to bring my best.

I think that's the main reason why I changed a lot because I was really comfortable going to this prep.

Okay.

What do you think were the biggest factors that made you feel comfortable first going to the prep?

Uh, I think

in Dubai, they treat you really good, and like you get a lot of sponsors doing that and that.

Like, I used always to cook my food.

I don't have to cook my food here.

So, uh, the food was coming to me.

So food was coming to me.

So I saved a lot of time and it was tasty food, not the ravish I cook.

So

I was enjoying the food I'm eating.

And the gems here are really perfect, man.

Like Oxygen Gym or Beana's Gym, like just two of the best gym in the world.

So it helped you to grow.

It helped you to

not risk.

doing dumbbells or anything.

I was training only machines and it made me like feel a lot better in my training like everything got better just by training those equipment equipment I never saw in my life so just was impressive really really good

did you say only machines yeah I do only machines now oh no way um

why is that exactly

Well, it's like protect me from doing getting any injury.

So it's like you just move in the movement of the machine.

So you don't risk a lot.

Dumbbells, you need just to balance it.

And it's really difficult sometimes.

You know, I used to go really heavy on dumbbells.

When I used to train in the UK, I was doing shoulder press for 70, 70 kilo, like 150 pounds.

It's really difficult to get it, to get it up and keep doing it.

I lift heavy.

I lift really heavy.

Whoever trains with me, they tell me like, you lift really heavy.

And I do lift heavy.

I like lifting heavy.

And when I started doing machines, I felt like my shoulders got better.

It's just, I'm comfortable with the way I'm doing it.

I'm not risking a lot with doing dumbbells or barbells.

I'm just doing machines, which is made me feel safe and it made me improve a lot.

Okay, that's cool to hear from you.

That's a good anecdote for me because that's something that I need to learn from you right now.

Thank you.

Yeah, I mean, over the course of the last few several years, like you don't, I feel like you don't really realize it until it slowly starts building up and building up and building up.

And then you start seeing the same kind of issues with like the same joint just reoccurring over and over again.

And you're like, I feel like this is something that I need to stop ignoring, maybe?

100%

100%.

When I was training in the UK, I always had like elbows issues, shoulder issues.

And when I stopped training here and using only machines, it just changed my life, man.

I don't get injuries, I don't get pain.

And here, like, luckily, I have

like a couple of sponsors doing like chariopraxine and physio.

So it just helping me a lot always to stay like injury free.

Was there any moment though during this prep or even like slightly the offseason beforehand where you just felt mentally taxed or you just felt like there was like some kind of situation that put you in a place that mentally felt like, man, am I actually going to get through this?

Well, actually, I had some issues, like personal issues.

And

it puts me down a lot.

So I was really in bad place at the beginning of prep.

So I felt, do I want to do Dubai Pro?

But just, it's my hometown, man.

I don't want to skip this show.

I skipped it in 2023.

I skipped it in 2024.

I don't want to skip it here.

Because I had to skip for the same reason, New York and Pittsburgh, because I was planning to do those both shows.

And I had to skip it for that reasons, for that personal issues.

Like I felt mentally, I'm not ready.

So when I start like prepping for Dubai Pro, I felt like, am I ready?

And like, it was like I was like 13 weeks out and I felt mentally I'm not ready there, but I wanted to push just because it's my hometown when I live.

And like a lot of families live here, like people I know, people I care about.

And I want, I want them to see me.

So I pushed through this for the first three weeks.

I was struggling a lot and then everything went smooth.

Hmm.

Okay.

You'd mentioned for this Dubai Pro too, though, you didn't do cardio till five weeks out and that you felt like that's because you you were a little bit ahead or you were just like

so what do you feel like is the key I guess for you?

I mean, I know it differs per person, but I feel like I might be the same way.

But do you feel like just starting a prep in a condition that's more ahead of like your normal standard is something that will benefit your mindset and like your entire showing in the long run?

Well, what happened, I was prepping for Pittsburgh in New York and just I had to pull out because my body wasn't responding as much as I want.

So I was really close to get to be ready so even when I stopped Pittsburgh Pro and the prep for Pittsburgh and New York I felt like okay let me stay in shape as much as I can so I didn't it up I stayed eating healthy I stayed eating like low as much as I can so I stayed really close like my limit is 219 I was like around the 230 so it's just like

10 pound over the weight limit so i stayed around this range and then when i stopped pushing really hard my weight start dropping really quick And all I needed is just to when I get to the weight limit, most of the time I'm ready.

So I know, I knew like if I hit the 219, I'm ready.

So I was like 225 at

seven weeks out.

So I felt I'm really close to be ready, so I don't want to push it really hard.

And I want my shape was really good.

So I felt, okay, let me take it easy.

I don't need to do cardio now.

Let me delay as much as I can until like I got to five weeks out.

I felt okay, I still have like six pounds and I need like more condition than this when I'm where I'm at.

So I started like pushing cardio a little bit and my body was responding really, really good.

So I was happy with the way how everything was going.

So

just was five weeks enough.

And I think same now for the Olympia because I did the bypro.

I took break like for four weeks.

And now I'm still really in shape.

I'm not really fat this time.

I'm still like 10 pounds over the weight limit.

I'm off.

So when I start getting, when I start taking stuff, probably my weight will go like for the first two or three weeks a little bit up.

But I feel I will not need much cardio same like Dubai Pro because I stayed as much as I can in low body fat.

Nice.

Okay, cool.

Um, who's your who's your coach that you're working with right now, if you don't mind me asking?

Um, like, I prepped myself for Dubai Pro, and I'm like, I'm, I will do the prep for the Olympia by myself as well, I think.

Oh, that's crazy!

Yeah, how long have you been doing that for?

Well, like, I turned pro doing prep on my own.

So I know, like, what I need to do.

But I would say since I worked with Chris Asito and Patrick Tour, I learned a lot from them.

And I would give like a shout out to them because they helped me a lot to know the knowledge I have now.

And especially Patrick Tour, he was like

teaching me a lot.

I learned a lot from him.

I always call him my godfather.

And when we split and stopped working out, stopped working together, I was, I stayed like six, seven months without coach.

And then I hired Ahmed Askar, which is was a really good coach as well.

I worked with him for two shows, Legion and

Titan.

I won both of them with him.

And then I felt like, okay,

I really need to find myself because I wasn't like checking out checking in a lot with my coaches.

And I felt I'm not there mentally because I had some issues like for it took me like nine months personal issues and I wasn't really in the mindset to be locked in with anyone so I was like sometimes I check in sometimes I don't and I felt I would disappoint any coach I'm working with so I don't like to disappoint anyone when I'm when I'm on prep I have to be locked in and I felt I'm not locked in with the coach because I don't want to speak to no one I felt I want to just be in my space and I don't want to be checking with anyone I don't want to speak with anyone.

I don't want to hear anything from anyone.

So I felt, okay, let me work on my own.

If it works out, it works out.

If not,

I would consider something else.

So when I start doing this prep, I prepped myself first for the Arnold by myself as well.

So it didn't work out.

I looked in the worst shape of my life.

But I would say like I had some stomach issues.

I had like cologne issues.

I couldn't speak right.

I was really in shape one week before the before the Arnold.

I was really happy with the way I looked.

I thought it was one of my best looks, but I couldn't speak properly because I had some cologne issues.

I was always bloated, always full, and I couldn't digest anything.

My digestion was terrible.

So I felt, okay, I tried my best.

If I was drinking water, my weight will jump.

Like, if I drink six liters, my weight will go up six kilos.

I was like not pissing out at all.

And everything stuck in my stomach.

So that peak week was really terrible i tried my best to

i i took loads of duretics just to get rid of the water and that show specifically i never took like duretics like most of the shows i do it without any duretics and the online specifically because i was holding way too much water i started like taking

a lot not a lot by like

saying like i'm going crazy just like maybe i was taking like for the last four days quarter tablets of diazide for the last four days just to get rid of the water, and I still like didn't look the way I wanted.

So, uh, since then, I said, Do I need to hire another coach, or should I just give it another run?

Because I knew if I if I had, if I if I didn't have the stomach issues, I would be cried.

So, I said I would give myself another show because I was, I was still speaking with Patrick Tu in that time.

I was like,

just checking on him, how are you, coach?

I miss you, blah, blah blah because i was feeling i need a coach at the same time i'm not ready to be locked in i i didn't want to talk to no one so i said let me try it another time by myself and see how it goes so i did the dubai pro and it was it really works out was the best joint of my life so i was like okay i know how to be cried i know how what to do because you know most of the time coach will just put you in the right direction he will just he will just stop you from doing any stupid

let's call it yeah because like we know how to die we know how to what to do but we always scared of doing the of taking the the action of of taking like

i have to do this or i have to do that just we scared all the time but i was i was really like strict with like the decision i would make so i was always taking the right decision most of the time so i said okay let me try it on my own and it worked i put in the buy pro And I felt was really my best joint because I was stress-free.

Yeah, and I felt if it worked in Dubai Pro, I would repeat it again in the Olympia and I will see how it goes.

Wow.

How do you feel like

what changed with your stomach issues?

And did you ever figure out what exactly was happening or how you solved them?

Well,

I've done a lot of like

scans and a lot of things just to find out what the problem is.

And when I spoke with the doctor, he said there is nothing in your stomach.

We did like blood tests, we did like boob tests, we did everything we can.

We put the camera from my mouth to see my stomach and my colon

just to

check everything.

And they say you have nothing in your stomach and nothing in your colon.

So we would suggest it's really stress.

And I thought,

I think it was really stress for the Arnold.

That's what caused me that issue.

That's why I had to pull out from Prague and Pittsburgh and New York, because I was getting it a lot during that prep.

And I was scared of having it like more awkward or harder come closer to the show because

the closer you come to the show, the more stressed you will be.

And I was like, since four weeks out, I'm really stressed and my stomach always floated and a lot of gas.

So I tried to find out what the reason and most of the doctors told me it's stress and they give me some tablets and it really helped a lot to get get all the stress down and to be in the shape I want.

Wow, okay.

Wait, you said they,

sorry if I missed this, but you said they gave you some tablets to help?

Yeah, yeah.

What kind of tablets help with the stress, I guess?

I think they like they give me uh some Xanax, some Xanax for me.

That should help,

it helped with Steve as well.

It helped with Steve as well, yeah.

That's hilarious, bro.

It's freaking hilarious because I just took some last night.

I had a

buddy that was...

I've been having sleep and insomnia issues.

Yeah, yeah, I'm a doctor.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

But they were like recommending

a milligram of Xanax and then like to Zolos, I think.

I'm trying to remember what exactly it was, but...

Zofrans.

Ah, shit.

Never mind.

Now I just sound like I don't know what I'm talking about.

Anyways,

yeah, I've been like doing a lot of delving into like things that you can use when necessary to help sleep.

And I've been talking to some doctors that even just discuss how obviously you don't want to take Fenibut or GHB, especially on a regular basis.

But if there's ever a need, like on like a, oh, this night, I definitely won't be able to sleep, but I need it for tomorrow.

It's okay to use it in a very,

you know, in a very rare and occasional fashion.

So, I mean, as long as people are aware and being able to use tools to their advantage as a tool rather than as a

regular crutch, then I think that makes all the difference.

But that shit's tough sometimes because that shit fucking works.

That's for sure.

Trust me,

like when I was, I used the Xanax for the last three weeks before the show.

I think it really helped me to sleep.

It helped me to get my stress down.

But even though, like, in the last week, I still felt before the Buy Pro, I felt a little bit of stomach issues.

So I felt I'm getting ploated a little bit.

So what I felt to reduce the stress, because I know trend ballon makes me stress a lot.

So I stopped all the gear.

Usually I keep everything until the last two days before the show.

All my shows before.

Only Dubai Pro.

I still

everything.

Absolutely everything.

Up to two days, up to two days out.

I cut everything.

This time I decided, like, let me cut everything at one week out.

And like

third day after I stopped everything, I felt great, man.

I felt really great.

My stomach got flat, and I can pull back into my stomach.

So, I felt like, yeah, it really helped a lot.

It really helped a lot.

Like, stopping all the gear one week out, it really helped

me a lot.

And I, I learned for the first time because I was always scared of stopping everything.

Oh, I will lose my fullness.

I will not be in shape.

I will look terrible.

So, I was always scared.

I kept everything until the last two days.

This is the first time I took the gruff decision to stop everything at one week out.

And it helped me a lot to look really good.

So I feel I will, I think I will do it all the time.

Wow, that is awesome.

That's cool to hear too.

It's another good anecdote to hear.

I feel like most of the time for people, like, yeah, all keeping these in really does keep your fullness.

But I think most of the time when people take it out early, whether or not it's inflammation or it's water retention from the actual mechanisms of the drugs themselves, you know, be the anabolics.

I always feel like it helps show more detail in the striations and the separations of the muscle.

So I feel like keeping it in, you get like a fuller look, but it's almost like a slightly more inflamed look, if that makes sense.

Yeah, blurry, a little bit blurry muscles.

Like you feel the lines are not deep, deep.

So that's how I felt.

Like, this is the first time I feel like my lines are really deep and I'm really full because I was eating a lot.

I was able to eat a lot.

So I felt like it really helped me.

Like my digestion was on point.

There is no inflammation, just helping me to recover really fast.

Yeah, that's awesome.

Bro, I found the balance.

Yeah.

Do you normally keep in?

Did you drop GH as well this time?

Well, usually in GH, I drop it at like one week out all the time.

This time as well, I drop it like at one week out.

So it just didn't change nothing.

But I used to keep trend, keep test, keep master on, keep all the orals up to two days out i stopped completely everything at one week out i kept maybe only climb petrol

okay like would that mean like your last injection was about two three weeks out or no not weeks days your last injection would be two to three days out normally yes not not two three two days out we'll take the last injection and one day out i don't take nothing that's how i used to do it okay gotcha

yeah

it's strange it's completely strange, but it worked out.

I felt like I didn't lose any fullness.

If it did,

it made me fuller because I was eating more than usual and I was dropping just weight.

So I felt I can eat more, more, and more.

So it really helped me to look at my best.

So I think I will do it all the time.

I will never change nothing from what I did this prep.

I learned something really new.

That's awesome.

That's dope.

I'm working with Patrick as well and I freaking love him as a coach, man.

Patrick is just like...

like he's one of the best.

Yeah, he's just the freaking wise grandfather, dude.

Like, when I freaking

master Yoda, every, every time, every time I send him like check-ins and stuff, he has some kind of wise, like, two, three-minute voice message to send back.

Yeah, that just makes me be like,

it really helps for me, at least.

It helps for me, at least.

But, um, yeah, I've been trying to express to him my concerns of trend as well, because I think, like you i tend to get a little bit more stressed out the higher the dose of trend and the longer that i run it to the point where i'm getting uh like really really mad at every single person that's on the road which i feel like is just very illogical sometimes but

um i know that that's something for us to normally manage as we go through the preps and as we get to the end if we're feeling super stressed out like you did this is like the perfect time for us to kind of dive deep into what a protocol is and realize, oh, maybe these are the things that are causing me an exacerbation of stress, and maybe it's a good idea to pull them out.

I guess, have you always felt like

have you always felt

kind of just

more,

I'm trying to figure out the best way to say this, to be honest, because I think it's an interesting perspective that you have gotten to the place where you coach yourself.

because I think people like me

I

have always wanted to coach myself for my shows and since I was younger and to be honest when I did do my get my pro card a lot of it was

I hate to admit this like I really hate to admit this because this just fucking puts me on the spot and is extremely embarrassing but I kind of just did half of this stuff myself like and then I did my coaches like

gear protocol, but then I did all the other shit myself low-key because I didn't completely trust them at the time, which is a long story.

But

with the coaches I had after that, there were always great relationships.

And what I realized is I kind of overthink.

In fact, I really overthink a lot.

So I think being with these coaches has helped me hone in my focus and understand that there is one road that I can travel on instead of worrying about all the other hundred and thousands of roads that I could be taking, wondering if this would be better or if this would be better.

So, I guess, how do you feel like your mind works in this situation?

Do you normally feel more like you know what's right for you and you know what you want to do, or that it's more of like the stressor of having to report to someone is

more psychologically stressful on you than to be able to make these decisions alone?

I think it's mixed of everything you say.

Like, uh,

I worked with some coaches.

I wouldn't name it, but they give me, like, I felt very, very little dose that I need.

And I worked with other coaches who give me much higher dose than I need.

So I always spoke to them.

Like, I felt, I told them, like, this is really low or this is really high.

And they will always like get back to me, you know, do what I have been told.

We are your coach.

I was like always pissed off from this because I know myself at work for me.

So I liked the person who listened and the one who was listening most of the time, all the time, Patrick.

He was always like listening to your feedback,

what you're telling him.

And he always worked around what you're telling him.

So that's why I felt very comfortable.

And I worked with him for a very long time.

I worked with Patrick for like around three and a half years.

And I won with him like, I think seven shows together we won together so it was really perfect match I love Patrick like we

like split for

me being not

strict to myself like being locked in I feel this is the main reason I felt I'm not coachable at that at that time so I needed a break I needed to find myself find myself again so that's the main reason i left patrick just not because i think he's one of if not the best coach around now

and I love everything he does he does really everything

we need he will follow you like if you didn't follow your diet he will just like be there to punish you to if you if I was next to you he will send you a message if I was next to you I will punish you right now punish you right now so just stick to your diet he was always calling me when I am not like on point

and that's we all we all need so yeah i felt like I was really stressed by not checking in to him because he was always like, Why are you not checking in, Michael?

I wasn't ready, mentally not ready.

So, that's why I felt that main reason why I left Patrick.

Yeah, but as a, yeah,

as I say, like

many coaches, I wouldn't like trust them.

That's why I was like always not listening to them, same like you did.

Sometimes I do my own thing.

They tell me today to say something, okay, let me take like

200 milligrams of tests proponate for the week.

I was like, 200 milligrams is just the kinney dose.

What's that?

200 milligrams of it.

Kini dose.

Tests proponate for a week, just nothing.

So I was like, okay.

I will take 600 without him, with him telling me.

I was like,

sometimes I find the dose really low and some other coaches will tell me, okay, take 1,500 of tests.

It's just way too much.

I've never took that much.

It's way too much.

the maximum I took is half of that amount.

It's just how can I take that much?

It's just way too much for me.

So, sometimes I wouldn't listen from this way or another.

I think Patrick Tour is the only one I listen 100% to him.

That's awesome, bro.

I love that.

Yeah, by far, Patrick and Kyle have been my two top favorite coaches and have been the best people I've ever worked with.

So, I'm truly grateful for them.

For the last year, I guess you have

made a lot of changes.

And I know from listening from

your last conversations that I recall you wanting to focus a lot on your lats and your back width.

So I guess now that you gained these, now that you had this capacity to fill in seven new pounds, what did you do in this last offseason to prepare for the Dubai?

I think I was doing two times back more than usual.

Like I used always to train once, but since Steve Winberger giving me the feedback that you need really

more view tables so you need to focus a lot on improving your lats and I was really pushing a lot my lats this like since the Arnold to Dubai Pro I had like four months to improve it so I was really training it really hard

and

I would say like for the first time in my career I use insulin I was using it early on back day

just to focus and push all the glycogen to my muscle to my back muscle so i was doing it only on back day

and it really helped a lot to improve my back and my lats and the equipment in vino's gym helped me a lot as well like uh it's a life changer training in the gyms honestly i used to train in uk and the gyms they are very basic very poor and not as good.

So when I moved here and I started training in gyms like oxygen and beanos, it changed my my life.

You know, it just

everything you need,

every angle of

you need is there.

Every muscle, you can feel it from every corner.

So it helped me a lot to improve my lats because a lot of equipment you can focus on lats.

When in the UK, I used to have one or two machines for LATs.

Here that is like 20.

What should I use?

So I start training every single one of them.

And the way I feel my lats the most, I start like, okay, I need to focus on this exercise because I really feel my lats a lot on this exercise.

So I start focusing on the exercises that I feel

my lats the most.

And it really helped when I focused on those equipment to improve my lats.

Between the Arnold and Dubai, since I did Dubai and I listened to Steve's feedback, he said, it's well done.

You like, you really improved your lats a lot.

Your V-tab is much better now.

You're much more dangerous than you used to be.

So it lifts me up.

It makes it give me some motivation.

So, yeah, I can be better.

I can improve.

Because I still have like when I competed in Dubai Pro, I was like 218, 217.

And I felt I can be a little bit leaner.

So I can maybe push it to, if I

would say, like, if I wanted to be like peeled to the bones, I would be 216.

So yeah, I think I still have three pounds to improve until the Olympia and I can put it on until then.

Nice.

And I think I can hit finally my weight limit until the Olympia.

Oh, that's sick, bro.

Three pounds all on the laps, baby, building wings.

Yeah,

like I improved even my quads because

my quads used to be my strongest point since 2022.

And I stopped training them a lot.

So I was training them once every two weeks because they always told me your upper body is behind, your lower body is like much better so you need to improve to improve your upper body because we have weight limits so i need like always to balance it i can't train everything as hard sometimes i train something less than usual just because i something is

need to be better like i used to focus a lot on the upper body and lower body i wasn't focusing for the last two years and it's made my upper body better than my lower body in the end so i i was like pushing my upper body way way harder.

And in the last

few shows I did, they always told me your quads need to improve, your quads need to improve.

So I was focusing on my last and my quads.

And that made the change, really made the change.

So I think like this Olympia, I can get the best placing in my career.

I'm confident I can get the best place in my career because I know how

much better I got.

And like with the physique I did the last few few years, I got sixth and seventh.

And everyone says, oh, Michael will be out of the top 10 this year.

Every year I hear the same.

Every year I hear the same.

Okay, Michael will be out of the top 10.

Maybe I'm not the favorite.

Maybe I'm not the favorite for many people.

Yeah.

But I always break your bets, guys.

I'm always coming to be inside the first cloud.

Yeah.

Let's go.

Oh, shit.

Bro, you just dropped the perfect ad read for us all to move to Dubai.

I hear so many people telling me about how beautiful Dubai is, and I don't think anything has persuaded me more to go to Dubai than you telling me about how sick the 20 different machines are for Latz.

Man, you need to visit it.

If you haven't been here, your life is going to change the minute you visit Dubai.

I visited the first time in 2021, and the minute I get into the gym, I felt, okay, this is going to be my home 100%.

100%.

So yeah, just the minute you visit it and you feel, you're like a celebrity, they really love bodybuilding.

You will feel like a celebrity wherever you go.

If someone knows you, you get anything for free.

Absolutely everything.

The minute you land, food-free, chiropractor-free, physios-free, gem membership is free.

You absolutely pay nothing.

That's fucking sick.

Real quick, guys.

So, while I was looking at the YouTube analytics, I actually saw that 85% of you guys that watch this channel are not subscribed.

And I want to ask very little of you guys, but if you enjoy this podcast, if you find value in it, then please do me this one favor and subscribe to the channel because doing so helps me get bigger and greater guests like the guests you are listening to today.

Also, this channel is not sponsored, which means only the companies that I work with, which are Young Lay and Huge Supplements, are the companies that can help fund this channel by you guys using the code Nile.

So Code Nile gives you a discount of 15% off of YoungLay and Code Nile also gives you a discount of 10% off of Huge Supplements.

And if you decide to purchase anything from any of these companies, it will help immensely for me by using my code.

And this way I can travel to other guests and also upgrade an equipment to make this podcast bigger and better for you guys.

That's also crazy to me that they started telling you to work on your quads when that was one of your strongest points in the past.

it's kind of mind-blowing i uh i had the same kind of situation the last two years the legs have always been my weakest point always in the last two years i just hammered legs as hard as possible two to three times per week um and then i put upper body at the back burner right

and um

I got a comment in one of my recent posts telling me, isn't it great when you realize that you're actually lower body dominant now?

And I was just like, what are you talking about, bro?

No, actually, your lower body is insane right now.

You express a lot your legs.

Like, I think it's your strongest body part now.

Oh, no way.

I don't know about that yet, but

I appreciate it.

I really think

I really think it's your strongest body part now.

Your legs is really the strongest body part.

You don't have weak legs in you.

At hope.

Thank you, bro.

Appreciate that.

I'll see how it goes.

I do feel like my legs still have the...

I mean, obviously, we're going to have the, we'll see what happens with Patrick.

This is my first prep with Patrick, and I don't know how we're going to change the cardio as we get the three weeks out or anything like that.

But

I feel like I'm still prone to my legs flattening out

first, you know, as we get really.

You don't need to worry about that with Patrick because he knows how much rest you need, how much recovery you need.

Yeah.

And he will cut you on point.

Which show are you planning to do?

Uh, the

oh shit, I didn't want to tell anybody.

I'm doing the tournament of champions, bro.

Also, I remember if you don't want to say it, cut it up.

But yeah, it's 10 weeks out from now.

And

I remember last year, actually, one of the shows that I wanted to do in San Diego,

you were actually doing it.

So I got really happy that I just didn't go, to be honest.

But

I think you won first place at one of the San Diego shows last year.

But yeah,

we're going to do that show.

So we'll see how it goes.

But right now, Patrick's still.

It's Legion, right?

this year it's the tournament of champ tournament of champions

they change it they change the name

they change the name because it was titan i think they changed it something else or before it was something then they changed it to titan is it now every year something

yeah i don't i don't i don't really know if it's the same show because this one's september 27th it's later but the the classic show the only other classic show they had was earlier this year and it was already finished so and this is what qualify you for this year olympia or next year olympia I have a feeling that it'll probably qualify me for next year's, but I remember last year when they had some shows this close to Olympia, they actually allowed the competitor to choose and decide which Olympia they wanted to qualify for.

So that's what I have been told.

When I won Titan, they told me you can choose to qualify for this year Olympia or next year Olympia.

I told them I'm already qualified for this year Olympia.

So definitely I want it for next year Olympia.

Nice, nice.

Damn.

Yeah.

So

I believe in Patrick right now, but obviously he still thinks that my legs need to be what we got to focus on.

So right now, most of my highest carb days and stuff are still on my leg days.

And I think that's going to be our priority and trying to keep that full and big until the show comes around since this will be the first time I ever show off bigger legs for a show.

But I appreciate everything you said because it makes me feel a lot better and a lot more comfortable as well.

What were the exercises that you did for lats?

Like, you know, when you were going into that gym and you're like, okay,

all of these machines feel amazing.

What would you say were the main exercises that you felt worked the best for you for your lats?

And then I guess your thoughts as well.

I think I feel the lats the most.

I figure out of by myself, like that when I do something in reverse, when I do it that normal grip, I don't feel my lats properly.

When I do anything reverse, I feel my lats really, really good.

So I start doing most of my, all the machine actually, I chose.

It was reverse grip.

I never did anything normal grip.

So when I started doing everything reverse grip, it helped me a lot.

And that was the main, the main change I did in this prep

than any previous one that I start training everything reverse when I do anything about the back.

And I think this is the main reason.

I don't have like specific exercise or specific machine, but i do i if i choose if i chose a machine it has to be a verse grip

okay gotcha how many sets per workout and how many workouts per week would you try to aim for

uh like on my off-season i do three sets and i increase my volume a little bit but when i start prepping i start doing two sets only and with high intensity Okay, how many exercises of those?

Five, so ten sets total.

When I'm doing like, when I'm on season i do like 15 16 sets damn is that 15 to 16 per

workout or per yeah per workout per workout

yeah that's a that's a lot of volume

yeah damn and i'm assuming you probably hit back like two times or three times per week

yeah two times two times per week i trained my back twice and yeah like when i'm on prep i do only 10 sets of back

just every time so just two exercises two top sets, and that's it.

But when I'm on off-season, I feel I have loads of energy.

I just want to fucking fuck the gym.

So, I just want to train a lot.

I just want to train harder.

So, I start doing more volume when I'm in off-season.

Yeah, I'm the same way.

Like, even though, like, my time, just fucking time just passes by when I'm doing it.

For some reason, I feel like my body is more capable of doing longer and high-volume workouts.

Like, I just feel like I still have the capability to keep pushing, you know?

Um, and I think

I've mentioned this before and I don't know how how much it's related but I got my genetics done and my uh one of my genetic predispositions said that I am

uh basically more slow twitch dominant um and uh a little bit more impaired when it comes to the fast twitch fibers and um power movements so from that I kind of if I felt like that really aligned with something that I felt my entire life, which was that I tend to feel I respond to higher reps and higher amounts of sets than other people.

So just something that I keep running with.

But I feel like the fact that you're doing like 15 sets, like you're doing like a total like 30 sets for

your back and for your lats per week is pretty crazy.

I feel like I can push a lot

and I feel my back much more when I do more volume.

I think it's still a bit too much if I didn't eat right.

But in offseason, I eat a lot.

So I feel like it's enough to recover.

That's why when my food drops, I drop my volume.

Even I want more, but it's just not about what you want.

It's just about what you need most of the time.

So I feel in the prep, I need lower sets and lower volume.

But in the off-season, I just want to enjoy the workout, man.

I just want to enjoy the workout the way I want it.

And I feel it works out really well when I do the high volume.

Like 15 sets doesn't feel it's a lot for me.

I don't feel much so sore after the workout.

So it like sometimes I feel on my legs when I do this high volume.

I feel like my legs are sore for five, five, four or five days.

So I feel like this is was a, this was a lot.

I feel like this was a lot.

Yeah.

Yeah,

because you shouldn't be like sore for four or five days.

It should be one or two days.

So if you,

if you get sore for five days, that means your workout was really high volume.

You need to reduce your volume.

So I just listen to my body most of the time.

And but I like, I enjoy training with high volume.

So that's why I love it.

I love doing more sets, more reps.

And this is the way I enjoy my workout.

And the off-season, I feel if I didn't enjoy it, I will feel I'm just doing it for the sake of doing it.

I just really want to enjoy training.

And the way to enjoy training for me is just doing more sets and more volume.

And that's why I enjoy it as much as I can the off-season.

Yeah.

Do you implement any intensifiers?

Sorry?

Do you implement any like intensifiers, training intensifiers, like

rest pause sets or anything?

I used to do it with Patrick a lot, but not anymore.

Like now I do just most of the time, just drop sets.

I like drop sets most of the time.

So I just like, if I'm training something, okay, let's do

this one for drop set.

But when I'm on prep, I do like actually, I I start doing those stuff more, but in the offseason, I just don't want to suffer.

I just want to enjoy the training.

Because I know how much suffering when you do rest post-set and how much energy it will take from you.

So, I don't, my intensity will go a little bit lower on the off-season.

It's more volume, less intensity.

It will switch exactly the opposite when I start doing prep.

Oh, that's cool.

That's interesting.

Yeah.

I love that I said that.

Yeah, I think I should probably heed that from you because I tried to up the volume and intensity the moment my off-season started and it just broke my back.

And then I had this left back issue for

that's why I try to enjoy the workout really in the offseason.

So I don't really like try to go to this to the gym to get fucked.

I just want to go to enjoy it.

I still train really hard, but I don't feel I'm like pushing

120%.

I push like 95% of my maximum.

Like, you know, but on prep,

if I have to push, I will push 200%.

Just I, as measured, I go all in.

When I'm on prep, I go all in.

But when in the off-season, I take it three

slower.

Because as a classic physique, and I'm right on the weight limit, why do I need to push that hard?

And to build that muscle, that I will lose when I start prepping.

Because if I build so much muscle, I'm gonna lose it because I have a weight limit and I need to hit it again.

So it doesn't make sense.

If I was an open body builders, yeah, 100% I might offseason need to be as hard at the prep.

But because I was always for the last three years right on the weight limit, so I didn't feel I need to push that hard to increase much more muscles to get much bigger because I'm right there, I'm right on the weight limit.

Okay, gotcha.

Yeah, how does your uh, how does your diet normally look like during prep?

Uh, like I eat like five meals a day, most of the time, five meals a day, sometimes four, sometimes six, depends how I feel.

How prep goes, like Dubai Pro, I start my prep doing four meals, meals and then when I start getting hungry, I made it five meals, just maybe same calories, just split it to a different

to more meals.

Yeah, but usually my calories intake between 2300 to 2500 in Dubai.

This is, I'm I'm not talking about previous prep because I used to go insane.

I used to go like 1,600 calories.

That was really well.

I used to go very low, man.

Very, very low when I used to be in the UK.

I think my metabolism got much faster in the UK and in Dubai.

I don't know if it's the heat or because I got like let's my

mind isn't comfortable now.

So maybe that made my metabolism faster.

But I feel in Dubai I feel like eating more and getting leaner faster.

Really,

I wasn't like this in the UK.

I used to suffer to get conditioned.

I used to eat like 1600 calories, 1700 calories.

I used to starve.

I used to eat like go to bed crying from the hunger.

Like here, I feel much more comfortable.

I'm eating more.

So now I like last prep in Dubai.

I don't think I went under 2,200 calories.

Not at all.

Do you feel like there was a

do you think there was any potential new compound uses that may have contributed to helping that as well?

Like, do you have you?

I don't think so.

I was using the same brand here or UK from Series, let's say.

dose, same everything, nothing changed except the country.

Okay.

And you haven't experimented with anything like Reddit Trutide or anything like that, have you?

No, no, not at all.

Yeah,

I feel like the Reddit Trutide also, like, if you're already having some digestion issues,

I feel like Reddit Trutide, if not taken at the smallest dose

effective, is probably going to exacerbate those a little bit, anyways, just from the natural fact that it slows digestion.

And

I think

the interesting thing, though, about Redstreet, bro, is like I've every coach that I know of has

mentioned

now

recommending their clients potentially try it out, which is kind of crazy.

Yeah, it's it's pretty surprising, man.

Um,

I think there's a lot of coaches that were maybe at first against it when GLPs first came out, and then slowly were just like, I don't know, you know, at some point afterwards.

Now it's to the point where I think

I just, I know a lot of coaches that have implemented it, even at very small doses or micro doses with their clients and have seen decent results from it, which is surprising.

But I think the key is to making sure that you're dosing it

properly and low.

Because

it slowed down the digestion a lot and it just

makes you not hungry at all, right?

Yeah, if you're taking it at a big dose as well, or like the day,

the problem, the problem, in my opinion, is it's kind of just like when TRT first came out, all these doctors were recommending you inject yourself like once every two weeks or once every week or something with a big ass bolus dose, which obviously is not optimal, right?

Like it's

preferred that you do it maybe twice a week, maybe even three times a week if you want to be super, super optimal.

For this, I think it's the exact same thing.

The standard right now is like a big ass bolus dose once a week, which I'm not really sure why, because then only half of it is in your system by the time that you're about to inject again.

So you feel the difference of like, first, some people will feel incredible nausea

the first day and have issues being able to eat anything.

And then on the last day, people can sometimes get pretty hungry for more than what they have on their plan, for example.

So it just makes a lot more sense to do these in like a micro-dosing fashion, like every other day, for example.

And if you're doing it at a very small dose every other day, for example, or even just twice a week,

it kind of just like blunts the hunger single a little.

And then also, because it's retitutide,

retitutide specifically will also help manage your blood sugar levels better than Trezepatide or semaglutide as well.

So it's another kind of good thing that it kind of helps manage your blood sugar, especially when you're already at such a low calorie intake and a low carb intake.

So, it's interesting stuff, but um, I think it's just a tiny little cherry on top, I'd say.

But if there's anything that helps the most, it's definitely managing the stress that you managed for sure.

I think managing the stress helped my metabolism get the best,

and uh, I think I

tried this one like after the Arnold, the one we're talking about.

I tried it in, I think, in higher dose than I supposed to take.

I tried it on my own experience.

And I felt really sick.

I felt really, really sick.

I couldn't eat at all.

I couldn't eat at all because I just wanted a nice three pound.

I don't want to binge on food.

I don't want to eat.

I don't want to eat a lot.

And I couldn't eat at all.

I was feeling just, I'm going to throw up.

I'm going to throw up.

I took overdose and then I said, No, no, no, this is shit.

This shit is not fun.

Yeah,

right.

Yeah, dude, it's so fucking easy to do that, too.

But this shit, and I'm just like, why are you, why are these guys recommending?

I think I took one, one milligram, one milligram.

Yeah,

it's just that I felt it was too much because I felt like the next day I was sleeping, and I felt like I'm gonna vomit.

Am I pregnant or something?

About

yeah,

I link it.

It's because because of this shit.

So I never tried it again.

Yeah, but

I think if you took it, as they say, maybe in 0.2, 0.1, and you start managing it very properly, it could help maybe to manage your hunger, craving, and not binge on food.

Right.

And like, yeah, and stick to your diet more.

Maybe I would someday try it, but since I came to Dubai and my appetite is really manageable, I'm not getting that hungry.

Same I used to be in UK, in the UK, because I was like depressed for the past couple of years and I was like always home, not seeing many people and I felt alone, so I was really depressed.

And some people, when they get depressed, they just eat.

And this me is one of them.

And when I'm depressed, I just want to eat everything in front of me.

I just want to eat sweets and I just want to binge on food, man.

Yeah.

So yeah.

And since I came here to Dubai, I felt really happy, comfortable.

And this has helped me a lot.

My appetite was really good.

So

I don't get that hungry.

I don't want to pinge on food.

I don't crave sugars the same as I did before.

And I think this is the main reason why I improved my digestion, improved

my health, and improved my look.

Yeah.

I completely believe it as well.

I think that's definitely the best thing that we can all do.

It's just always the hardest to figure out how the fuck can I relieve my stress, you know?

Yeah.

Then you get, then you start getting stressed out about the fact that you're stressed out fucking

sucks yeah and I think like

stress is the biggest problem in our prep if you have stress it will ruin your prep that's why they always need they tell you it's a mindset it's a mindset because your mind needs to be clear you need to be ready for prep you know and you need to be comfortable going into the prep not having so many issues and something stress you out something give you anxiety or anything like that.

You just want to have a smooth prep, and you need your mind to be there and not having stress that making you stress more than this stuff we are taking because what we are taking will give us some stress 100%.

So, you need to, we don't need, you don't need the extra stress.

Yeah,

I uh,

this is something that I'm really enjoying you saying right now, as well as

so

I think one of the biggest keys and one of the best ways I really, truly feel for someone to become the best bodybuilder ever is first like learn their body really over the course of 10 years, however long it takes for you to really pay attention, be as self-aware as possible,

maybe even track how you've responded to everything, you know, your PEDs, your food, your diet, your psychological stresses, relationships, your training.

Just be aware and just pay attention to all of this.

And the thing is,

a lot of the time, you don't even really have to try to do all that.

You don't even have to try to write everything down.

Like as you understand, as you just do it for longer and longer, the more time you have bodybuilding, the more practice you have in any sport, the more experience you have, you learn how your body reacts.

You become more self-aware naturally.

And I think adapting and listening.

to that self-awareness, listening to what you know your body needs is probably one of the biggest keys for us to become the best bodybuilders ever.

Like I listened to

C Bump said the same things that you have said, where it's like,

sometimes I'll eat six meals, sometimes I'll need to eat five, or sometimes like what he said specifically, for example, was like,

sometimes if he felt like it was really necessary or needed it, sometimes he even skipped a cardio session, you know, while he's working with Hanny.

And this will be due to

variables such as like,

I'm ahead or I'm really dry, but i'm actually really exhausted and fatigued right now i can tell that if i add this cardio and it's going to increase my fatigue and it's going to make things even more difficult for me i feel like this is a good time for me to back it off and this is something that your coach doesn't feel this is something that you have to end up communicating with your coach and then hopefully it's one of those good relationships like us and patrick or chris and hanny where they listen and they're like okay you're right like this is what you need and i think that's where it really comes down to is like you don't always have to follow the cookie cutter plan, or you don't always have to follow the strict plan of doing the exact same thing every single day because you're going to have to adapt.

You're going to have to adapt to how your body is because we don't know exactly what we're doing.

Like, we don't know exactly what our body needs.

We're just throwing darts at a dartboard and we're getting closer to the bullseye every single time.

So, 100% I agree.

When I used to work with coaches, like when they tell me one hour cardio, it's one hour cardio, I will do it die or not.

But when I was like doing prep on my own, I was like, okay, my goal is to hit a one hour of cardio.

Sometimes it's not because I'm lazy, because I feel so fucking exhausted, I can't do no more.

I feel I'm, I'm, my legs are sore, and I feel if I did more, it just will ruin me more than it helped me.

So I was sometimes doing 50, most of the time, I was doing the one hour, but sometimes I feel I'm totally dead.

And this one hour, if I will do it, I will feel like

I will feel terrible for the rest of the day.

I will not have a good workout.

I will not have a good day.

And I will have a terrible day.

Just because I'm doing my cardio in the morning on an empty stomach.

If I did this one hour and I finished it off, my workout would be terrible next.

So, why would I like just to do this one hour of cardio to ruin my workout?

No, my workout is more important than the cardio because I would burn more calories a day.

So, sometimes I was doing like a 40-minute 40, most of the time, I was doing the one hour, but sometimes when I felt my body is not there to do this one hour, I would just skip the whole cardio or do 40 minutes, 35 minutes, whatever I can, so I can go to my workout, not feeling dead in there.

Most of the time I was finishing my cardio, but sometimes, yeah, as you said, I would skip it, I would do 30 minutes, 35 minutes, and it would talk

out.

And like when a coach will tell you, eat a six meals,

when I was being coached, okay, I will eat this six meal, die or not.

But now

when I was doing it on my own, I was like, sometimes I would skip a meal, the whole meal.

I'm not hungry.

Why would I eat it?

Just, I'm not hungry because I'm eating like, let's say it's five meals, total of 300 gram of protein.

My goal is just to hit my protein.

But if I didn't hit my meals, let's say, I ate four meals, I still got 250 gram of protein.

I'm not going to lose muscle, anything, 250 gram of protein.

So I would skip the whole meal sometimes.

I would skip the whole meal.

I feel like when I skip the meal, I woke up the next day.

Okay, fucking, I'm not much cleaner because I skipped one meal.

Just because we skip my meal, it's five to six hundred calories.

I just ate 500 calories less than usual, and I woke up the next day much leaner.

So, I was doing this a lot.

Sometimes I'm not hungry, so I don't eat the meal, I just skip it.

I heard so many bodies, no, you shouldn't skip your meal, you will get flat, you will get small.

I was skipping a lot of meals, honestly, because I'm not hungry.

I write down my plan for myself.

It's that five meals of let's say 2,600 calories.

And sometimes I don't feel I'm I'm hungry or I can, I don't need to eat it.

I just ate four meals, now I'm full enough.

So I just skip the whole last meal and I wake up the next day much leaner.

So just, it's not like a book that you need to follow to the dot.

I feel just you need to listen to your body.

You're not hungry.

You don't need to push food.

Maybe some people need to, but for myself, it worked out that way.

If I skip meals sometimes, if I eat one more meal sometimes, it just doesn't make any difference.

You just need to listen to your body.

That's the most important thing.

And as you said, if you don't have a coach that will listen to you more all the time, this is not going to happen because coach needs to listen of what your feedback is and he will fix your plan accordingly.

Yeah.

And Patrick is one of them.

He always used to follow your feedback, listen to what you will say, and he always fix.

the meals or whatever we

doing to the way you want or he listened to your to your feedback that he fix your plan that's why it's so important to talk to your coach if you have one

yeah yeah yeah agreed um the only stipulation or the only um the only pushback i'd say is like if you're first starting off obviously this is important where you need to try to follow everything as much as you can to a t because obviously when you first start off with bodybuilding it's like you know most people don't really know what they're doing at that point or haven't even had the time to learn their body um and

but you know, once you've been in this for so many years, and this has become like your passion, this is everything you most of us are, I think, too stressed out about making sure that everything's perfect and that we're on our goal.

We're like, Yeah, we almost care a little too much about being absolutely as perfect as possible by the time show comes around.

That I think actually, uh, it's important for us to

not be so neurotic about it and listen to our body and what it really needs.

I think when we start like

want to do everything to 100%, we start getting stressed.

And

that's something will give us stress.

And just managing the stress

will get you so much better.

If you don't stress about, okay, I want to skip this meal because I'm not hungry.

If I didn't eat it, oh, I will not build muscle.

No, you will build muscle if you are training hard, eating enough protein, if getting your calories in, you will not lose muscle.

You will build muscle.

You will not lose muscle.

Or you would, you can build muscle.

Only eating four meals a day.

It just doesn't need everything to be so complicated.

Everything needs to be basic,

not to give yourself enough stress.

And that, that, the way you improve, that's how I feel

for me.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Do you feel like there was a...

I'm trying to figure out the best way to phrase this.

I'm having a little bit of trouble phrasing certain things, but

because there's so many variables, right?

There's so many variables in bodybuilding, but you have this fucking crazy conditioning man it's just like this insane detail and i think almost every time you always come in peeled just freaking peeled to the bone but do you do you feel like there is a something specific like with your programming or with your tailored protocol that gets you there or how much do you think of that is genetics I think it's a little bit of both.

I think genetically, I'm gifted to get lean very fast or or or not let let's say not get lean.

I have in my physique more details than most

and that what make me like uh when I get lean, all those details show off

and then everyone will think, Oh, he's so fucking lean.

Some people will have will be leaner than me, but they will not have the details as much as as I do.

So this is something

genetics, some people will have more details than the others.

Maybe they will have the same body fat, but some

will look much sharper than the others just because he has more details in his muscles than the other.

Like some people will have exactly the same body fat as me, but I will look like

sharper just because I have more details.

But on the other hand,

like I always push myself, like my mindset is very strict and very strong to push

way too hard, way, way too hard.

Like I would starve myself if i didn't feel i'm happy with the way i look or the way i'm conditioned enough like there is so many preps i honestly did every day a three hours of cardio because i wasn't happy with my condition i was really pushing it to the

like to more than the limit i was like sometimes falling off of the treadmill because I couldn't do it no more just because I was I wasn't happy with the way I look.

So I keep pushing and pushing and pushing just to get there.

Sometimes I did three hours of cardio, two hours of cardio, non-stop.

Like there is one time I don't forget I did non-stop in one set.

I woke up and I was very upset from the way I looked.

I did 220 minutes of cardio non-stop on treadmill.

It's like about three hours and a half, just non-stop.

I kept doing the treadmill.

It's just, I just wanted to get there.

It's just the mindset I have.

Just if I have a condition I want to hit, i will hit it no matter what so i stick to the limit if even if i had to starve myself sometimes i was eating like just protein because i wasn't happy with the way i look i was just eating my whole day just protein like 1200 calories only protein no fat no carbs would starve myself just to get to the condition i want sometimes i felt i needed it

And some preps I didn't.

So it depends how much I need to push.

I always push today.

Some people will break, let's say, like in the last three, four weeks

all the time,

we get really into the dark mood when you're fucking tired all the time.

24-7,

you don't want to move from out

like up from the couch.

You just want to lie down.

You just want to rest and you don't want to push no more.

And yeah, I would just...

keep pushing.

Some people will just break after one week.

Okay, let me have a cheat me.

Let me have a refeed.

I'm way too tired.

I'm way too hungry.

They break so easy.

So, I would stick to the plan.

If I wasn't happy with the way I look, I would stick, like, stick 100%.

I would never break.

I would just stick.

Like, if I had to stay on diet for eight strong weeks on low on low calories, I would stick to eight weeks, low calories.

If I was happy with the way I look, yes, I would take it a little bit more easy.

I would listen more to my body.

But if I wasn't ready, if I wasn't happy with the way I look,

I would push

to the extreme.

I would keep doing more cardio.

I would like starve myself more.

I would reduce my calories as much as I can just to get to the condition.

So, yeah, it's just a lot of mental strength for someone to get to the condition he wants, to be happy with the way he look.

And yeah, it's two parts.

One, you have to push way too hard.

And the other part is genetic to be more lean than the others.

Gotcha.

Um,

how do you feel like we're well,

I'm sorry I'm having trouble phrasing my words today.

Um,

I'm having one of those airheaded days.

I don't normally take Xanax for bed, and I feel like I'm still on it right now.

But uh, how do you feel like

your best peak weeks were?

What do you think were protocols that worked the best for you?

I think

I figure out my peak week since 2021 and I never changed my peak week.

I always

like the way I do it, it never changes.

I always do the same thing.

It works every single time to the same way.

So I would like stop cardio at one week out, ready or not.

It helps me a lot to get my details.

It helped me a lot to get the details more.

like even if i felt i'm not ready 100 i would still stop my cardio because i know the minute i stop my cardio the inflammation will go away i will get the

details will get better so every single show i would never do cardio at one week out and i would reduce my training volume a lot just to get myself recovered And I would eat more.

Like I start,

people will start reverse diet after the show.

My reverse diet starts in the peak week.

I start getting my food higher since the peak week start.

Like even I'm not I'm not at the weight limit.

Sometimes my, let's say I'm

my previous weight limit was 212.

I used to be like 215.

I would start carbing up from the first day of the peak week, even though I'm not in the weight limit.

But because I stopped cardio and my body inflammation start going away, I would start eating more.

Like I would start gradually increasing my carbs.

So I would start like the peak week with 250 gram of carbs.

Second day, 300 gram of carbs.

Third day, 150 gram of carbs.

Fourth day, 400 gram of carbs.

Until I reach to two days out, my carbs at the highest, which is 600 gram of carbs a day.

And that way, every time it works out for me, every time I do the same thing for the last five years, and I'm always spot on.

Yeah.

So I'm always starting my peak week with higher carbs.

Like let's say my usual diet is 120 gram of carbs or 150 gram of carbs straight away where i start a peak week no cardio carbs start at 200 and it's just go up from there just go up from there hmm that is

yeah okay so i always did the same thing and just like salt stay the same I don't change nothing.

Water stay the same only at one day out.

I would say like my water will increase, will decrease by like 40%.

My salt will decrease by 50% only in the last day before the show.

Only the last day before the show.

I would decrease my water.

I would decrease my salt.

It works every single time for me.

And I feel since the day I start peak week to the show day, I change by 30% to get better, to be better.

I change really a lot.

Like you would see me the first day of the peak week.

He would say, he would not be the usual condition he has.

He looked watery.

And I will come to the show just still,

just because

recovered.

The inflammation went away.

I feed myself enough, and I know when to cut the water and when to cut the

salt.

Sometimes I don't cut it at all, sometimes I just keep it all the way in salt and water because I feel I don't need it.

I'm just happy with the way I look.

Sometimes I feel, okay, I'm a little watery, so I just drop the water, I drop the salt, and I just wake up much better than the day before.

Wow, that is awesome.

Um, do you feel like when you were having issues making your weight class, you know, before this new seven pounds,

that made it difficult or that caused issues for you to carb up that early?

I was carbing up.

So sometimes, like, let's say I start carbing up at 2.15 and I need to be 212.

I was keep carbon, I will not be scared.

I will keep carbon up.

The first day, let's say I went to 216.

The next day, I was 214.

The next day, I was 214.

I'm getting closer.

I'm not the weight limit.

So, only the right before the weight-in, I would cut food and I cut water for 12 hours and I make weight.

I do some sauna sometimes, most of the time, okay, okay,

okay, yeah,

yeah, but I would keep my food high and I would cook my water high until, like, one day out, one day out from the weight-in, I started, like, okay, I need to make weight now.

I'm two, I'm two pounds or three pounds away.

I will cut the water, cut the food, and start doing a little bit of fat sauna.

As soon as I hit the weight, I start drinking back, I start eating back.

So it's just,

I struggle for one day.

I struggle for one day, but I struggle a lot.

But I don't cut my food like early or right.

I need to push too hard because I need to, I start doing zero cards.

No, I keep my food really high all the peak week, all the peak week, only one day before the weight.

And

I would just manage to make weight.

right on spot.

I don't need to be under.

I don't be to be a higher.

Just right on spot.

If it's 212, I just want to be 212.

No less, no more.

Just 212.

And the minute I hit it, straight away you will see me drinking and eating.

So just, I struggle for one day.

Like most of the time, let's say in the Arnold, because I was having issues with my stomach, I woke up like, I think

5 a.m.

and the waiting was 9 a.m.

and I was

2.50 and I needed to be 212.

I had four hours to lose three pounds.

So I just ran straight away to the gym.

I did some sauna for like 30 minutes, came back home, and I was checked my weight.

It's like, it's 2.13.

And then I just like wear some heavy clothes on and I put the air conditioned high.

Just, I lost the last one pound like by

just like 8 a.m.

I was right on spot, 2.12.

and just went to the check-in, made the weight and started drinking back again.

But I was like, even before, the day before, I knew I'm going to be heavier.

So I was just fasting.

I fasted maybe for 18 hours total.

So I fasted 18 hours total.

And I just made weight and stopped back on it again.

But I don't, I don't,

I always stop my peak week with high food.

I never like starve myself.

Peak week should be, for me, it's relaxation week.

It's always relaxation week.

I don't train hard.

I don't do cardio and I eat much more than usual.

I feel like the sauna thing honestly always helps so much.

And that's the problem I used to have when I first started bodybuilding back when I was a

when I when I was doing my first competition like 20 years old 21 years old

my idea was like oh man when I go to these festivals or or raves or events or something or like like parties or whatever i'm always so much leaner and drier afterwards so my idea was like i'm gonna like emulate that through cardio and just like cardio myself out and sweat as much as I can to get as dry as possible.

And the thing that I never really like,

now that I understand how my body works more, I'm like realizing just how much stress that put on my body.

And in turn, if you really want to, the sauna is just such a better way for you to just relieve some of your water weight than to freaking induce yourself to hours with cardio.

And I think that's, that's the thing that I had to learn.

And I don't know why it took me so long to learn.

But yeah, I, i think your your peak week plan really reminds me of i don't know if you've heard of 3dmj the 3dmj coaches back then they're a bunch of like natural bodybuilding coaches uh they were

they've done a lot of work with jeff nippert before jeff started doing all his like science-based youtube videos that he got famous for but um i'm trying to remember some of these people uh like eric helms and I think Lane Norton could probably be attributed to this as well, but they always discussed that the best peak week was done in the most moderate fashion, basically continuing everything as it is,

but maybe just slowly titrating up carbohydrates, for example, until the show.

And if anything, maybe just slowly reducing some water intake, but nothing like, nothing like profiling.

Nothing verse

20.

Nothing verse.

Right.

And that's always

a philosophy that, or well, that's also a method that I believe Stefan Kienzel also stands by, where he says, like,

you never have to do anything crazy.

Like, for some reason, a lot of the bodybuilding industry, especially in the 2000s,

thought,

you know, the most extremes would provide the most extreme results.

But realizing now, that really just creates a

an atmosphere for higher risk of ruining your peak.

And I mean, at that point, like the worst thing you could possibly do is

create a higher risk profile for destroying the last 16 weeks of hard work you did

in three days, you know?

Like, 100%.

I agree.

Like, I've done this methods of having 800 carbs, 800 grams of carbs in one day or two days, sometimes 1,000.

I just feel hit or not.

Sometimes it's hit, sometimes not.

Sometimes you look better, sometimes you look worse.

So just

there is not

like you're always risking because you don't know what the result is gonna be with having too much food.

Because when you're eating that much food,

you don't see yourself.

Like the way I would look myself when I was starting my pick, after every meal, I'm improving.

But when I was pushing so much food, you need to eat so much and then take some duretics and sleep and wake up.

Okay, let's see, worked or not.

that's how most of them do it but when i start doing like slowly increasing my calves all the peak week just i i feel i'm changing every every hour to a better not to worse even at night i look at myself i'm still lean i'm still conditioned i'm still sharp like every day i'm looking like two percent better two percent better five percent better So come closer to the show.

The first day you saw me from peak week to the end of the peak week, you will see like I improved by 30% by just recovering well, resting enough, and eating more, and not doing anything stupid or drastic.

Just my food never gonna change.

It's rice, cream of rice, and potatoes.

I always carb up with nothing crazy, nothing dangerous, nothing else.

I just make it as simple as is and just take it easy all the peak week and just slowly increase my carbs up to the show.

And when I'm like last day before the show, I'm eating five or six hundred grams of carbs, but I was just increasing my carbs all the peak week.

I just felt this is always works for me, and I don't see myself ruining myself.

And every time I'm looking much better than I started, so I know it works for me.

So I kept doing it since 2021 when I started working with Patrick because a lot of peak weeks we done together, it was this way.

Yeah.

If you don't mind mind me asking how do you feel about quote-unquote cutting drugs like clen or albuterol

well i i use i i love clen it's one of my favorite it's one of my favorite drugs i feel like uh

i don't need anything else i don't use any other fat per i don't i don't use superdrool or whatever other stuff

i just use climb petrol i i feel it's enough to make me shred it so i like uh i like starting at eight weeks out, maybe earlier than others.

I would start like at eight weeks out for two weeks, and then I take one week off, and then another two weeks on, one week off, and then another two weeks up to the show.

So I always doing it that way.

I start like Coon Patrol at eight weeks out, and it's one of my favorite fat burners, and I feel it works really, really crazy.

Yeah, there's a lot of people that complain about Clambuterol with its effects on the heart and sleep as well.

And I think those are extremely important for people to take note of.

But I'm the way that I personally do things always is in a more of like a micro-dosing fashion, except for my year now.

That that shit's like that shit's in good, good dosages now.

But um, back in the day, though, especially for like any research chems or things that I would be a little bit uh wary about, especially if it affects my sleep, I would do it in a very small dose fashion.

And like starting off clen at 10 milligrams, then titrating up to 20, no, micrograms, sorry, titrating up to 20 micrograms.

I don't think I ever exceeded 40,

but keeping it at that dose, honestly, bro, I thought it was kind of awesome because it kind of just, it made me feel like I was on like a nice cup of coffee throughout the day and

not as fucking exhausted.

I don't know.

I just kind of felt like a really light adder all, to be honest.

Yeah.

Do you ever feel like it affected your sleep or caused you sleep?

I think climb petrol.

That's why I started a bit early because I don't feel it affect me at all.

Like first couple of days when I take it, I start getting shaky and I start getting like uncomfortable.

But then three, four days later, I feel regular normal again and I don't get that shakiness or being nervous all the time.

Just the first three, four days, maybe.

And then I get used to it.

And it doesn't affect my sleep at all.

I do like I start most of the time the first five days, maybe 20 million, 20 microgram, and then I increase it to 40 for the next five days, and then again, I increase it to 60 for another five days, and then I come off.

I come off for the whole week, and then I come back on it again.

So, I always when I come back, I start from the beginning, 20 micrograms, and then I increase it from there.

So, I always do it that way, and it doesn't affect my sleep.

It doesn't like give me a bad feeling or any side effects, except for the first three days when I get used to it.

Yeah, but I love clean petrol.

It's one of my favorite.

Just, it's dangerous, of course, but you just need to be cautioned how you take it.

And I think up to 60 microgram is not too dangerous.

I heard some people detaining under 20, under 60, and it's crazy.

120, 160, exactly.

Yeah.

Yeah.

How can they manage that amount?

Because on 60, I would like, I would feel I start getting uncomfortable.

But I know it's only for five days.

So I take it for five years and then I come off.

So I mean, I start from the beginning at 20 micrograms again.

So it just, I

struggle for five days, but it doesn't affect me, my sleep so much.

And when I'm increasing that dose that slow, I feel my body is getting used to it slowly.

So I don't feel I'm going crazy in the dose, but I have heard so many athletes that they take in 120, 160, and they told me, like,

what do you think?

I was like, I just say, it's just fucking insane.

How can you manage 160?

I would, if I took 160, I would feel I'm dancing all day from shaking.

You know, just crazy.

Right.

Yeah.

I know that everybody responds differently.

And there definitely will be some people that maybe have like, say, a slower, well, have maybe like a faster metabolism of certain drugs and may be able to tolerate those.

But I know for a fact there are a lot of people that will just take the higher dosages without doing some risk mitigating or evidence-based type protocols, like you were stating, where you manage your markers and you're managing your fatigue and you're managing your side effects by titrating your dose up and then coming off if necessary, and then try titrating your dose up again and then coming off if necessary, just so that you're never having to go to those places where, like, even in it, even in the sense of like caffeine, you're drinking 800 milligrams of caffeine per day, right?

100%.

Because when people keep taking it for a longer time, your body will just want more.

So instead of going more, just come off a little bit.

Come off a little bit.

Just come off for five, six days.

Get your body

fresh it again and then take it again.

Then you don't need to go that high because some people, they will keep taking it for the last whole six weeks.

That's why I start a little bit early so I can come off when I need to, so I don't need to increase my dose so high.

Yeah, yeah, 100%.

um this is a question that was asked a q a that was asked uh on my podcast with wesley but uh a lot of people were a fan of it and i thought it was interesting but if you don't mind me asking um are there any like peptides or research chems or um

say what was the most experimental drug that you have used

Well, I use like PPC-157 and TAT 500 just for injuries, but I don't believe in peptides, so I don't believe in them.

I believe they are a waste of money.

I've tried most of them.

Yeah, they're fucking expensive, that's for sure.

Yeah, I tried most of them, and

I didn't think I got any results except the peptides, which is PPC-157 and TAT 500.

Because when I get an injury

in my shoulder, it helped me a lot to recover faster.

So I felt it really works.

But the other stuff, I tried it.

I felt it's useless and it's a waste of money.

Because I tried it for like a total of four weeks.

I forgot like for the statine and this stuff.

I tried it all and started experience on myself.

I felt shit.

It doesn't do any shit.

So I would say it's a waste of money except the PPC 157 and TAT 500 dose from

my experience.

It worked for me.

So I think it really works.

But the other stuff I feel is just a waste of money.

Yeah, yeah.

When it comes to value for what you're getting out of the peptides are always amongst the lowest, in my opinion.

I know they can help some people still because they tend to have a lower side effect profile, but it's like how much extra are you paying in order for you to get this

extremely minimal or almost negligible benefit

for the same price that you would be getting for the rest of your gear stack or something.

So like SLU is something that I tried because I was lucky enough, just like you, where someone sent it to me for free.

So that was a little different of a story.

But when it comes to paying for it, I don't think I'm ever gonna fucking buy it myself, to be honest, because some of this shit is really expensive.

Even in the Weptize, they do IGF one.

And if you took the real IGF one and the Peptized IGF one, you see the real difference.

When I took the IGF one from the peptides, I didn't feel nothing.

When I took when I tried the IGF on the real one, just make you crazy pump, man.

You get crazy pump, diabetic.

Yeah, the pump will go outside of your head.

Like you are so pumped, dude.

It just, it's crazy.

And you don't feel when I turn the IGF-1, there's nothing close to that, nothing close to that.

So I knew

peptides are just like a waste of money most of the time.

Yeah, I get my IGF-1 from Transcend.

So it's obviously PharmaGrade because it's an HRT company.

And that shit hit like crazy.

And I think, like you were saying, how insulin kind of was for you and your lats.

You know, I obviously communicated this with Patrick.

And so he implemented into my program where we were doing 50 micrograms into my quads on every leg day.

And I really think since I was doing it for the last two years, it's probably been one of the biggest contributors, except for aside from my training style and how I changed my training for legs and also, you know, ate my highest carb days on leg days, implementing the IGF-1 and combining it with the high carb days, I feel like just made some of the biggest differences in my legs in the last two years.

So, I don't know.

Yeah, it's crazy.

It really works.

It really works.

It's expensive as fuck, but it really works.

Yeah.

I need to get myself some cancer screenings now, though.

Just in case.

If you feel like any of the medications that we spoke about today may benefit you, such as BPC-157, GH acreaglogs such as tessamorellin, IGF-1, Oxandrolin Troche, semiclutide, then you can obtain these from TransEnd HRT, and the link for that will be in the bio.

If you feel like you're experiencing symptoms of low testosterone, such as depression, anxiety, lack of motivation, as well as lack of sex drive, then you can get this checked out as well by getting your blood work done at Transcend and they will provide you expert medical analysis.

Transcend HRT has worked with many professional bodybuilders and pro athletes, such as Thor Bjornsson, Phil Heath, and Jeremy Bundia.

And if you feel like this podcast has any relevancy to you, I do believe that this clinic will provide of great benefit to you as well.

How's the prep going right now?

Now that you just started

yesterday, so

until now it's great.

I enjoyed the last three weeks.

I was eating whatever I want.

I was still eating low because, as I said, my appetite is not so strong.

It's not like

I'm not hungry.

I'm hungry.

I'm trying to manage to eat first two, three meals when I'm hungry and not going crazy and just not feeling, okay,

off-season or my, I need to push food.

I was just eating like

what I want.

Just like when I wake up, I feel I want 140 gram of cream of rice.

I eat 100 grams of 100 gram of 140.

And then, like, for the next three, four hours, I'm not hungry.

I don't eat.

When I'm hungry, okay, I eat a meal.

It's a big meal.

And sometimes I eat two, three, four.

And before bed, I feel I want a burger.

I eat burger.

Before bed, I want to eat pizza pizzas.

So I eat whatever I want for the last three weeks.

And I thought I'm ready now to start prep.

So

I'm ready to stick to the food plan.

That's awesome, dude.

I did the exact same thing, too, because like for the longest time in the offseason, I don't know why I didn't feel like I was ready to start prep yet.

And then just like the last two weeks or so, I was like, you know what?

Fuck it.

I'm just going to...

I'm just going to eat a couple of the things that I just want to have.

And you know that like being with Patrick, that's just like,

that's just not something you can do.

So because he's so strict.

He's so strict with the food, bro.

So strict with the food, man.

It's crazy.

You know, you're going to struggle and you know you're going to suffer.

So you have to fuck it thin.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I mean, I stuck to diet like to a T the entire time.

But then when like the last week before came around, I was just like, I got to eat some stuff before prep starts or else I'm going to fucking explode.

Or else I'm going to fuck this prep up for sure.

Yeah, it's better to eat whatever you need because when it comes to the prep, you just want don't want to crave for it, you don't want to feel, you just want it, just get rid of it, move it from your face, and eat it.

And then you start prepping and you don't think about it.

Yeah, it's a lot better now, so I haven't had any craving since, and I haven't started Red Atreutide yet, but um, I did experiment a little bit with Trzeptide just a couple weeks ago, just to see.

I just like to experiment with these things just so I can have some kind of data for people as well.

Um, I did uh 0.02 milliliters, which I believe was 0.4 milligrams of truzepatide, when the standard dosing protocol is 2.5 milligrams per week, I think, as a starting dose, which is mind-blowing to me because the first 0.4 milligrams, I felt it, right?

But 0.4 milligrams twice a week was like, holy shit, like

cravings went completely away, like all cravings were gone.

So, that's really interesting.

For me, it just made me feel sick.

Maybe if I tried a lower dose like you did, because I tried a higher, much higher dose than you.

Yeah, so I felt that I felt I got really sick and I felt for vomiting.

So that's why I stopped doing it.

Yeah, but yeah, maybe if I managed myself until now, I don't need it.

Since I moved to Dubai, I feel my appetite is really great.

And I don't know what that is.

Yeah, bro.

Don't worry about it.

Don't stress out about it.

I don't want to make you, I don't want to put it in your head too much.

You're doing everything perfect already, as is.

Yeah.

Yeah.

This, like, this last six, seven months was really great and changed really a lot in me me since i was in the uk maybe it was if i was in the uk i would 100 need it i was starving 24 7 and starving god do you feel like this was your uh favorite off season too or was there an off season that you felt like was the best for you where you just gained the most i think i think this i since i moved to dubai yeah i like between the arnold and the dubai pro it was my best offseason Okay, and what do you think that is?

Is that because of the focusing on your lats and growing most of the muscle in your lats?

Yeah.

Okay.

That's cool.

yeah i felt i built the muscles i need i improved my quads i improved my lats and i changed a lot since i

like was in the uk and since i finished the the arnolds so i felt it's really paid off and i improved my physique a lot and that's why i'm excited to the olympia because i know i'm so much better than i was last year olympia yeah uh like the physique i brought to dubai pro was very competitive even in the olympia lineup so i'm really excited to be better by the Olympia and just

finally hitting my weight limit.

Right.

Yeah, I think so too, bro.

Every time you do the front relax or you're like your front pose with your like arms out to the side and your lats are just coming out like fucking wings or like your front lat spread, bro.

That those are sick poses, man.

Those are awesome.

I never did front lat spread because I felt my lats used to be very weak.

And when I do it, I don't just have a V taper at all.

But since I improved, I was all the time just sitting in the front lats, bro.

Because I feel it's look awesome now.

That's so tight, bro.

That's so sick.

This is just a question that I really enjoy asking some of my fellow athletes and stuff.

And I asked Fuad this too.

And we don't have to go dive too deep in this or anything if you don't feel comfortable.

But I was discussing with Fuad

this

comment he made about finding the sweet spot for all bodybuilders, like whether you're in open bodybuilding or whether you're in classic.

Um,

what do you feel about this sweet spot, like this compound sweet spot?

Um,

have you found like a sweet spot for you to build your own physique?

Do you believe in this?

Yeah, yeah,

I like I've since I started taking, I took stereotypes when I was 25.

That was like eight years ago, And at the beginning, I was stupid enough to try the higher dose and the lower dose.

And

for the last, I think, five years, I never changed my dose.

So I find my sweet spot, let's say.

And I feel my sweet spot is like around 600 milligrams of test a week.

Okay.

And around like 600 milligram of mastarone a week.

and around 400 tremblon a week.

Sometimes trembling were to six.

I tried trembling 600 and I couldn't sleep at all when I tried it that much.

And I feel like the sweet spot for me is taking it like four times a week and

like 100 milligrams every time.

Trembolon acetate, because I only take trembling acetate.

I never took trembling acate and I felt it's way too much.

Like this is six years ago.

So since five years, I felt this dose was

the

like the sweet spot for me, just taking on prep for the last six weeks like 600 milligram of tests 600 milligram of mastarone and 400 of trimbalone i feel this is the way i improve the most and this is the way i keep my sleeping on point and uh

i don't get so many side effects so i felt this is the the sweet spot for injection for me i never go higher i never go lower for the last five years it's just that's that's what i need like when i start taking stuff of prep let's say for now I just take train and

train test and master and that's the only thing I take and up until six weeks out sometimes it's eight weeks out I introduce trend

gotcha and every every prep I've done it in the same way

like

I never had to go more because I feel the way I'm taking this stuff my physique just improve every time even when I prep when I start prepping like even if I didn't off see do an off-season between prep to another I would still improve by doing this dose so why would I increase it if I'm improving every show and I'm getting better every show so I felt this is the sweet spot for me I don't need to go higher I don't need to go lower like I've done some coaches they told me to take less some coaches told me to take more and when I felt I couldn't listen because it's too much or too little for me because i found my sweet spot and that what i need

so this is what works for the most for me so

sometimes train affect me at 400 i feel i need to take it a little bit i i need to take less

but um i fucking love the results of it

let's

go

um

do you feel like there was also uh

your dosages are very similar to mine as well and i feel like for most people obviously people metabolize at different rates, but for most people, I feel like the average for classic physique guys are normally around this level where you don't really know, need to go any higher.

Like Patrick had me jump up to 750 for

from 16 weeks out to 10 weeks out, 750 of test, sus.

But now that we hit 10 weeks out, he dropped it back down, changed it to test prop, and then he dropped it to 600, which was my dose for the offseason.

And I was running 600 the entire offseason.

It feels

like a great place to be, to be honest.

So, yeah.

Without disaster being androgenic, I would say in my off-season, I increase my tests to 750.

I take with it sometimes baldiron, sometimes primo, same dose, 750 and 750.

If it was Nordino or

Primo Polan.

So in my off-season, I take two compounds only test, Primo or Baldiron, one of them.

So it's test all the time and just Primo bonan sometimes and baldegeron sometimes

I just I don't feel I need to take so much stuff in the offseason because as I said as a classic physique guys we don't need to increase so much size because we have a weight limit and we just need to balance our physique to look at the best so we just don't don't want to build just muscles everywhere we just want to create the balanced look

to hit the weight limit and

have all the muscles balanced.

We don't want to like have big arms and small legs, or big legs, small arms.

We just have

every single muscle to look as big as the others.

And that's why we need to be very careful about our doses.

We can't just

push ourselves to the

and start pinning ourselves so much.

So, as a classic physique guys, yeah, we don't need so much stuff.

Like,

if I compared myself, total of compounds is always in off-season or on-prem.

Total a week is 1,500 from all stuff together.

I don't go over like 1,500.

I don't think I need it.

I've tried before, six, like five years ago.

I tried, I hit maybe 2,500 total of compounds and I tried 2,000 and I felt it's a bit too much for me.

Like I got so much side effects and I felt the results are the same.

Yeah.

I've heard this so many times, actually.

I've heard this from even like my guest Ziegler monster, for example.

He did his own little experiment where I think he was doing,

I can't remember if it was total.

I think it was testosterone alone.

I think testosterone, he decided to try open bodybuilding dosages and went to like 1.2.

Man, I don't remember.

Sorry.

I don't remember if it was testosterone or the total compound use, but basically he was doing 1.2 grams for a while and he was always making great progress.

That was like the best progress he's made.

And his idea was like, well, good thing that I have mega doses in the pocket.

You know, I still got mega doses in my pocket.

Like, I have these mega doses I can leave or release whenever it's time.

And then by the time he felt like it was time, he bumped it up and doubled the numbers to by about 2.4 grams.

And he saw no change in the rate of progression of gains.

Like no change,

which to him told him that like, fuck, his blood break is just going to get worse for the the sake of no extra benefit.

So, I mean, he ended up just bringing it back down to 1.2.

And I think that happens with a lot of people.

Like, maybe certain people can push the markers, certain people with good genetic capabilities where, like, they are almost not affected

by blood work.

I think Big Ramy was one of those people I heard.

I think Chad Nichols said, like, Big Ramy, like, he'll just, he takes what he takes, but for some reason, Big Ramy's like, blood work is always pristine.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Unless you're like someone like that, I think most of the time this is the case.

Yeah, you just need like everybody needs to do the blood tests.

And then, as you say, finding the

sweet spot to build muscles and keep your health on check.

So my sweet spot, as I say, like

not to go over 1,500 of total compounds a week.

It works for me.

It gives me the results I need.

And as a classic physique guys, we don't want to go over the board.

We don't want to get so big.

We have a weight limit to hit.

So whatever muscles we will build in the offseason, you have a weight limit.

And sometimes you need to lose the muscles you build.

So why would you build so much muscle if you have to lose it?

Yeah.

We also got some hair to save.

Hopefully.

I think it's too late for me.

Hopefully you're safe.

We need some hair, man.

All right.

Let's ask these questions.

You got some awesome ones from the, from the...

The audience.

We actually already talked about some of these things, which is good.

So,

like, Sifri asks, what made you put on the most mass and how much?

Like, food, cycle, sleep, training.

Question mark.

I think we kind of went over this a little bit.

Yeah, I think so.

Like, just

we, I say it when I came to the Y, just I improved the most by

training and eating and this stuff all we answered, I think.

Was there any kind of like specific type of food or even specific type of compound that you felt like didn't work well with you?

I think Beka didn't work out for me.

It just made me feel

uncomfortable.

I was holding so much water and my back was hurting me a lot.

So I felt this compound is not for me.

Even MPP, just the fast acting Decca.

It just hit me the same.

I tried it and it felt doesn't work for me.

The lower back pain was insane.

So I couldn't even move when i sit i just feel my lower back it just pumped as and i'm so much in pain so i i like i put an x for it so i never took mpp or the for the for the last six years i've tried it before and just i felt it's not something for me the anabol the same uh anivar doesn't work for me as well just make me feel anxious so i didn't start i i stopped taking it me too isn't that that's weird huh like i took like real pharma grade, real pharma grade anivar, and it was different than like, you know, the normal anivar you get from any other fucking source.

The shit was stronger, and it, like, I felt like I was getting heart palpitations from it and anxiety.

Yeah,

it made me feel the same.

Like for the last five years, I don't take Anivar.

I feel like it's the most popular drug that everybody use.

And when everybody tells me, what about Anovar?

I tell them, I don't take Anivar.

How the fuck you don't take Anovar?

I just don't like it.

It just doesn't work.

It doesn't work for me well, you know?

Yeah,

so strange, man.

So strange.

And then here I'm on the other side, and I'm like, oh, I love halo testing.

Works great for me.

I know.

Shit's weird, man.

Danny Rennicker asks:

Closest caller, biggest health scare with PEDs, if you might have had any at all.

I didn't have any health issues, thankfully.

So

I'm always like checking my blood

results, and it's always on point.

Luckily in Dubai since I moved here, I have a clinic that sponsor me and they do like every four weeks for me blood tests.

Oh, that's awesome.

Yeah, if I had any issue, they do IV drips for me.

Just

you feel safe, you feel comfortable.

There is a lot of clinics running after you to do sponsorship for you.

So

since I came to Dubai, my health is 100% on point because I'm doing every four weeks a blood test.

Whether I want or not, they come clock on my door

fuck dude I'm moving to Bubai just yeah man you have to

have my girls trying to get me to move to Kentucky and I could be moving to Dubai right now

Wesley Young asks

about your chocolate chip cookie peaks

chocolate cookies peaks yeah he says it's chocolate chip cookie peaks i'm a little bit do you have like

you don't peak like chocolate chip cookies right

sounds like that'd be awesome i don't think i don't think it's for me just maybe he asked the wrong person but uh yeah maybe i like sweets whatever it is man

um ahoda asks uh shoulder training your delts are astrom astronomical

my delts Yeah, he says your shoulders are fucking awesome.

And he's asking about your shoulder training.

Well,

I think my shoulders are the best body part I have.

It's always been this way.

Like

I do a lot of lateral races, if that makes sense, maybe.

Genetically, I'm really lucky with my shoulders and my arms.

Those are the biggest muscles I have.

And I don't have to train them a lot.

It just grow very quickly.

It's the opposite of my chest and my back.

I retrain them really, really hard to improve them.

While my shoulders and my arms, they just grow.

So I think genetically I'm gifted with my shoulders and my arms.

Nice.

God.

Yeah.

Must be nice.

Honestly, my like

specifically arms, I train my arms like once every four weeks.

Wow, that's crazy.

Yeah, I don't need them at all.

Just it grows very fast.

So whenever I train them more, I just, I feel it's getting, it's overpowering my chest, overpowering my shoulders.

So I just train them once every four weeks and it feels enough for me to keep the size I need.

So it just, it's really fucking weak.

Yeah, I can fucking tell, bro.

This shit sounds classic to me, man.

I know that like these days, classic, like lats and quads, lats and sweep, like that's always like, God, that's fucking classic today.

You know, they want to see that insane fucking hourglass X-frame, but like, I don't know, maybe it's just a dream, maybe it's just a dream in my heart.

But I just

hope for one day the big, big 90s classic arms to come back.

I just fucking love those movies.

Hopefully, Mary, hopefully,

when I will be Mr.

Olympia.

John Benjamin 90

asks,

How did you finance yourself without sponsors when you became pro?

Well,

I work like my job is, my actual job is a watch dealer.

I work as a watch dealer.

So

that's my actual job.

So

since I turned pro, I was really,

if I relied on bodybuilding, I would be really broke.

I would really,

I think bodybuilding started paying me really good in 2023.

Even like I

qualified, I turned pro and I turned pro in 2019

and I won my first show in 2021.

I was still broke in body regarding bodybuilding and 2022 it started getting

a bit better.

Like let's say I was getting sponsors pays me

two grand a month, which is still nothing for bodybuilding, you know.

And since 2003, I got a bigger jump and I started getting paid really well in bodybuilding.

But before then, I was really struggling.

So it doesn't happen over day, You know, it takes time, take really, really long time.

Yeah, and even until now, if I rely only on body, and but of in bodybuilding, I wouldn't leave very comfortable.

I feel the same way.

I, um, I had to do a lot of, obviously, before I was able to do what I do now, but um, I always wanted to be a bodybuilder.

I always wanted to compete, but I, uh, just at the time when I got my pro card, I was around 22, maybe.

Yeah, I think I was around 22 years old.

And I, I didn't, I just wasn't wasn't good enough.

Like I was in men's physique and I had just started taking gear for the first time and I just still wasn't good enough and I wasn't making any money.

So I had to do a big hiatus and I just stopped competing for four years so I could just stay shredded the entire time and staying shredded on social media and taking advantage of TikToks blowing up at the same time during COVID was literally the only reason why I have this platform today was being able to like gain an audience that was able to support me.

So it's hard sometimes.

Like sometimes you do just got to sacrifice certain things in your life for you to be able to get to be a bodybuilder and also be paid at the same time.

There's definitely a big space of time where you're just not able to do the things that you want to, or you have to pursue up certain things.

There's a lot of other stuff that I'm sure we had to do.

We don't want to talk about,

yeah, of course, man.

Most of the bodybuilders are stupid, man.

They don't use their brain to make money, you know.

Most of the, most of like, uh, many of them, they're just lazy.

They don't want to really use their brain.

Like,

they just want to train and have the sponsor come.

Why the sponsor would come?

You have to have something they would come for you, you know, just

and you have to think over the box.

Like, for me, I invest a lot in crypto.

I invest a lot in

like

states, real estates, and I invest a lot in watches.

So, my main job is watches and crypto.

So, that's why I feel comfortable in life, making enough money.

But if I rely only on bodybuilding, I wouldn't be comfortable 100%

unless you are Chris Bumstead.

Yeah, yeah.

But I mean, Chris Bumstead, if you thought about it, he's investing in everything.

You know, it's just

he did it right.

He invested in the body.

He did the Jake.

He invested in

like supplement companies, invested in his app, he invested in so many things that he felt if he would rely only on bodybuilding or competing, he would leave broke.

I'm very amazed at what he was able to accomplish while he was so focused on competing.

Because he's a very smart person, he's very smart, he always thinks outside of the box.

Like he was able to, when he prepping on competing, to build his app, to build his company, but like he was selling clothes and like he was doing everything he can as a businessman, not only as a bodybuilder.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I agree.

It's nuts.

It's nuts.

Sam Xiong.

Oh, fuck.

I wish I just didn't say.

I wish I just didn't say it.

Sam says, gain two to three inches down there or win Mr.

Olympia.

Win Mr.

Olympia.

Fuck that.

It's a pleasure for me.

I don't want pleasure for others.

Oh, shit.

A lot of these we actually asked already, which is cool.

Like, people are asking, like, how did you maintain to consistently come peeled,

et cetera.

Mindset, man.

Mindset.

If you have the mindset to always keep pushing

way over your limits, just to reach your goal, because I know the goal, I put a standard for myself since I reached that condition in 2021.

And since I reached that condition, I always want to hit the same.

I just want to come as peeled as I came in 2021.

If anything else, it's not good enough.

So I always have the standard for me.

It's the condition of 2021.

And I always want to hit it.

So every time if I felt I'm not, I start comparing pictures like between prep of one week out before 2021, the first show when I got peeled.

And now, if I feel I'm not close to that condition, I keep pushing harder harder and harder and harder.

I don't get cheat meal unless I'm very close to that condition.

So, I'm

always struggling just to push as hard as I can to reach that condition.

And just the mindset some people break during the prep.

They will just okay, let me have some extra 100 gram of oats.

Let's have

extra 200 grams of rice.

It will not break me.

No, it will break me.

You have to stick to your plan 100% all the time.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Um,

Some of these names are crazy, bro.

Nabil Baba asks, what's a common bodybuilder mistake before they go to stage?

I think the common mistake is just they eat rice cake and jam.

I think it's one of the main mistakes.

What the fuck is going to change in 30 minutes, man?

20 minutes before stage.

I feel I'm just, I need to eat one meal and this meal has to be two hours out.

Why do I need to just

10 minutes, 20 minutes before the stage, I need to eat rice, drives cake and jam.

And I see a lot of people,

specifically amateurs, they do like a lot of jam and dry scape.

What's going to change in 10 or 20 minutes?

The work is done.

The work is done.

Just like,

it will get you bloated or it will increase your blood sugar and then you will start sweating on stage.

It doesn't make sense for anybody

to do this shit.

So I see a lot of mistakes of people like

in the backstage snacking on a lot of rice cake and jam and peanuts, butter.

I feel it's useless.

Okay.

I'm glad you said that because I'm one of the amateurs that made the mistake of eating sugar backstage.

Well, like I think sugar, it really makes you sweat a lot on stage because

it makes you blood sugar.

And yeah, yeah.

Imagine if you eat cheat meal.

You always, when you're eating, when you are like like dieting for a long time and you start eating cheat meal, you start sweating.

Why are you sweating?

Because your blood sugar increased.

Why do you need to drive before the stage?

Just chuck your body and then go on stage when you will do some intense shit and you will start sweating for no reason.

And you

many people like, when I go to the stage, I never swap.

I never sweat because I don't touch sugar.

I don't touch sugar or any food.

I never sweat.

And some people, they will sweat their ass off.

I always like having a little bit of honey before I go to stage because it just makes me feel the honey high.

You know what I mean?

I just feel happier when I go on stage.

So I feel happy doing my brain.

I give you a nice taste, but I feel it really makes you sweat a lot.

I sweat off.

For me, I would just have a little bit of salt, just not too much.

Maybe a quarter gram with a little bit of simple water

just to get some pumps, you know, but I don't feel I need any sugar.

I feel most of the people do this mistake going right before the stage and they start sweating a lot on stage.

That makes sense.

I was wondering why I was sweating so fucking much last time.

I mean, everyone was sweating, but I was sweating the most by far at the first pro show I did last year.

So they actually

go ahead.

No, no, I'm going to do that.

I'm going to do that.

They were like calling all of us off stage to dab us because they had us up there for a whole hour, which was kind of crazy.

Like, you know, obviously interchanging positions.

But

out of the 20 competitors, while everyone was sweating a little bit,

I was the wettest person by far on stage, bro.

Just fucking black, a black arc down my fucking chest and back.

It was, and it was probably because I just well, it could be stress as well.

Stress play a huge part, but so if you are someone who get anxious and stress same like me, you can get sweaty a little bit.

But if you got some sugar in you, then it just like you will push your sweatiness to the highest level so you start sweating way too much makes sense fuck you know i'm learning bro

uh u r d r m 3 3 3 asks uh over-the-counter supplements while on cycle

the most important supplements you mean um yeah like the most important like normally over-the-counter supplements i think they mean like citrus bergamot for your cholesterol or astrologous root for your kit for your kidneys or the one like like i i

i think like

basic what everyone does yeah like keep your health in in check you know you just need mac 600 and um like uh tutka and all stuff that you need to keep your health in check you know i don't stop it but there is uh

and my previous sponsor called Supplement Meads and they have really nice stack.

I always order their stack even

I don't work with them anymore because I believe in their products.

They were really, really good.

And when I was taking it,

my blood tests used always to be spot on.

And my new sponsor, they don't have those stack.

So I always, up until now,

I order their stack, which is called Health Stack.

They have heart stack, liver stack, and kidney stack.

I order all of them together and I take them.

They have Tootka, they have NAC 600 on side, and they have all the supplements that we need to keep our health

on point.

So I just ordered all three bottles and I just take them and my health always on point because of them.

So shout out to Supplement Needs for having one of the best health supplements.

Nice.

Wow.

That's awesome.

That sounds big shit when you're not even working with them anymore.

So that's fucking sick.

I'm gonna get their health stack.

I need their heart stack, honestly.

They are really, really good, man.

They just just need like to take the liver stack, kidney stack, and health stack.

They sell them as a offer, three of them together.

And you don't really need anything else, honestly, for your health.

You don't need anything else.

Those are enough for me.

I've been taking it for the last six years.

I stopped working with them for the last one and a half years, and I still take in their stuff.

Damn.

Okay, awesome.

Cool.

Yeah, we already talked about this.

Well, I ask everyone one last question at the end of every podcast.

But if you were to disappear from the world tomorrow and you had one last question, or

God, man, I am fucking Xanax the fuck out right now.

You need to sleep, man.

But I think it's still early in the US, right?

It's not early anymore.

It's 1.15 p.m.

now.

Oh, shit.

I don't take that shit normally.

If you were to disappear from the world tomorrow and you had one message you could send to the entire world today, what would that message be?

I don't know.

That's a hard question to say.

There's so many messages.

Just

like...

Be good to people, you know, just treat them well, treat everyone well, and

just

don't be shitty to anyone, even on your prep, even

when you feel you're low, you're lowest, sometimes like we just do stupid shit.

Yeah, and we regret it for

many, many days to come.

So, just think about what you're gonna say, what you're gonna do, and be nice to others.

You know, just that's what we take in with us.

Your reputation, how good you are, and how how you treat others and this is what people respect you for so just be good to others simply i love that yeah that's um it's a reminder i needed right now while i'm on prep because

sometimes man yeah

when we are taking stuff sometimes we do stupid shit we just need to be good to others you know

and just

people respect us for that you know sometimes i'm just some people come to me, to the gym,

inside the gym to me.

Like when I'm on play previously in the last few years, like I was getting angry for something for no reason.

And specifically in the last year, I started watching myself, how I'm going to react for anyone who's talking to me,

how I'm going to speak to them.

And just being nice, really, like, even if you don't have to, just being nice will really change

the look of yourself in front of people of how people look at you because you just sometimes you just need to be nice man yeah

yeah when

we are a lot

a lot of unbeing assholes when we take some stuff back we just need to fix our behavior yeah

for real

well thank you for coming on bro that was awesome man thank you for having me bro so thank you for having a good luck in your show 10 weeks out it's not long i think i'm competing just two weeks after you so in the Olympia.

Yeah.

So hopefully, we'll see you there.

That you will choose to compete in this year, Olympia, instead of next year.

And hopefully, we'll see you there, mother.

Thank you, bro.

Thank you, man.

I'm really excited to see you at Olympia.

So, I know you're going to kill it.

Where can everybody find you?

Wish me luck.

And I think I'm going to be in the top five this year.

I know some people like

think I will not be able to, but I believe in my ability and I'm not delusional.

I'm realistic with my goal and realistic where I can be.

I think top five is really realistic for me for how the improvement I made.

And yeah, since last year, everyone, oh, Michael will not make make it to the top ten.

Here I am in the top six.

The year before, just Michael will not make it to the top ten.

Yeah, here I am in the top seven.

And this year, I'm saying I'm gonna be in the top five.

And I know I'm capable of.

Thank you for having me.

And we don't wanna repeat everything else again.

Thanks for coming on, bro.

Where can everybody find you?

Sorry?

Where can everyone find you?

Like socials or anything you want to promote?

Your YouTube or Michael Lapool on Instagram, Michael Lapool.

I haven't been posting anything on YouTube for the last two months, so I'm sorry for that.

Whoever follows me there, I promise you, I will get back and I will be posting again on my YouTube channel coming to this trap.

And yeah,

wish me luck.

And I will be like

trying my best to post everything on YouTube: how I eat, how I train.

So, if you want to follow me on YouTube, it's Michael Lapool as my name showing here.

And you can find me on Instagram on the same name.

I don't have a TikTok, I don't have a Snapchat, so just follow me on those two places.

Thank you for having me again, Niall.

And I'm looking forward to see you in 10 weeks on stage.

All right, YouTube, bro.

Thanks for coming on, man.

Thank you, bro.

Take care.

See you, bro.

Bye.