Mike Sommerfeld: How He Improved to Be Classic Mr. Olympia Runner-Up

I saw the judges, I was looking in their eyes and I was like, don't act like I'm fighting him.

There's no chance that I'm fighting Chris Bumsett.

The 2024 Classic Mr.

Olympia runner-up, we have Mike Summerfield.

I gained 60 pounds in four months.

60?

I just slightly upped a little bit, like 1500-ish, 1600-ish, and I was growing, growing, growing, growing.

I needed to come back to eating because I was on low food for three, four years.

And then it's like, eat whatever you need to eat to grow i was weighing every piece to see what's happening after day one day two day three day four digestion bloating water retention inflammation and everything worked out perfect higher dosages comes with higher amounts of food i call it hell week basically triple drop sets 20 reps drop 20 reps drop up to 60 reps i remember the third week i was doing that for some time too it was hell week bro it was unreal if you follow the awards you can see that i'm always talking to my grandma and grandpa before they call my name.

I was looking upwards and I was saying, hey, grandpa, grandma, look at that.

Makes me proud to show them.

And this is how I want to change the classic physical key.

Do you think the next championships will be you and Ramon, the big battle?

Honestly.

Dude, your shoulders are still crazy.

Jesus.

Thank you.

Might be the fastest podcast I've ever had, but we'll make it work.

I'm so sorry, bro.

No, you're good, bro.

You're super busy.

That's what happens when you're a Mr.

Olympia runner-up.

Bro, honestly, like these last four or five days, bro, my fucking Instagram exploded.

I'm not surprised.

I'm not surprised.

I was actually expecting.

I'm going to be real with you, bro.

I screenshotted your Instagram like right when you were like winning just because I was curious just how much it was going to grow because I knew I knew it was going to blow the fuck up.

I'm pretty sure you've already like doubled, right?

Tripled almost.

Yeah, that's fucking nice.

That's awesome.

I mean, it's well deserved, dude.

It's well deserved.

That's the funny thing about bodybuilding is like, there's so many amazing physiques out there, but it's just like, when are they going to be recognized?

You know?

Yeah.

But you've always had like the craziest fucking shape.

And honestly,

I think you've made some of the most insane improvements the last couple of years that I've seen.

So, I mean, in my unimportant opinion, all in the right places.

Let me put my headphones in real quick.

Yeah.

By the the way, homies, I'm sure most of you guys already know, but one week after, though, we have Mike Summerfield, the 2024 Classic Mr.

Olympia runner-up.

All right, I'm ready.

Bet,

thanks for coming on the podcast, by the way, man.

Really?

I know that you have a crazy schedule going on.

But I am kind of curious, and

I know that you're working with Neil right now.

He and I have actually spoken a little bit in the past, and I know that he's a very,

he's a very, how do I say this?

When I talk to him, I actually feel like I'm talking to Yoda sometimes.

He definitely has like this weird aura of wisdom about him.

I call it he's a guru.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I think he and Patrick Tuore kind of give me that vibe.

I was coached by these two guys.

Oh, both of them?

Yes.

Okay.

Okay.

I mean, obviously,

without putting anyone on blast, I'm sure you don't have anything to say, anyways, regarding putting anyone on blast, but what did you feel like was different for yourself being coached by both of these two?

Because I know everybody is different.

You know, everyone reacts differently to things.

Everybody has their strength.

And Patrick is incredibly precise.

He's more of a scientist.

He will give you ideas of what kind of color of vegetables you need to eat at certain times.

He's like that precise.

And Neil is, he's the guru.

He makes decisions out of his stomach, like right away.

He sees you in like in a quarter of a second.

He can tell you, okay, eat 20 grams less carbs.

You're going to be fine.

Wow.

That's an eye.

Yeah.

He knows his business.

Do you feel like that?

Do you feel like that's just as on point through like WhatsApp and pictures and check-ins as like in person?

I mean, I've won pro shows just by online coaching.

I've met him maybe five or six times in my life, and this is basically like a few weeks out from the show.

So all the prep before is basically online.

Okay, I see.

So what were you and Neil's most focused areas for improvement through 2023 and 2024?

Of course, we asked the judges and they told me we need to work on hamstrings and back and fill the gaps in between the thighs, especially from the back and we did that my back improved tremendously and now we're switching over to a little bit more chest shoulder roundness and like more detail work

but we have still some weight we can go up it's not the end of the scale that's awesome how much weight yes four pounds three four pounds okay that's still a good decent amount

yeah definitely especially if you're putting it all in your chest and your shoulders and libid I mean, you can get your waist smaller from year to year if you know how to do it.

That's the goal.

Like, keep your waist small and add some, you know, round shoulders.

It's going to be a fuller, complete a look.

Wait, tell us about that, keeping your waist small.

Oh, I have an e-book on my website.

It's called Don't Waste Your Waist.

It's more about food frequency, volume of food, digestion, of course,

the workouts, belts, like equipment.

And

it's not that complicated.

I mean, it's pretty much its logic.

Our midsection is not secured by bones.

It's just tissue.

And if you eat like super big meals all the time, high volume,

it's going to stretch over time.

And the problem is that it's not coming back that easy.

So you need to make sure you keep your midsection tight and like you should practice vacuums and do a little bit of

app work and make sure your meals are on a higher frequency, not that big.

All these small details come into play on, you know, long term.

Okay, cool.

Yeah, that's a, it sounds like you and I have the same perspective when it comes to that.

I was just discussing the same thing with Patrick Tour and Dr.

Todd Lee about keeping your waist small and trying to prevent growth.

And they said the exact same things, but just in a little bit more detail when it comes down to the science.

Essentially, like avoiding axial loading, like you were saying, like putting on belts, not doing a whole lot of volume on like something like deadlifts when that's not really necessary to build your physique.

One of the most important parts, digestive health and gut health, like you were saying, also food volume, which is super important.

And then, last things were like a lot of bodybuilders that just push compounds too hard because that blows out your waist as well.

And this is like an art, you know, it's not just like an all-in and whatever, you know, it's an art.

You got to be really distinct.

Yeah, here's the deal:

As you talk about compounds, it increases protein synthesis and glucose transportation.

And

you need to eat those proteins and carbs.

Yeah.

If we're talking about higher dosages,

comes with higher amounts of food.

And that's what we're talking about.

Yeah, 1,000%.

1,000%.

It just, it seems like every time I talk to any like top coaches or any top athletes, we all agree on the exact same thing.

But then, you know, obviously, uh like you'll just go on some comments on like some tick tock reel or some instagram reel and

it's like it's like i wish i wish more of the world didn't have such a cynical view and uh you know understand that i think most of us that are doing well do have the desire to help others you know we do want to see the world go up in a positive direction not all of us want to see the world burn so there's reasoning behind these things 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.

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I was curious about this because I was hearing Samson talk about this on Fauant's podcast.

But what was running through your head when you were called up during the first call outs and you were fighting in the middle for pre-judging?

Oh, listen, that's a funny story.

We had the numerical order comparisons.

So they're going to call number one to eight, nine to whatever, 16.

And they're going to pick and choose the first call out.

That's how it works.

And I got the first call out shot.

And the judges were telling us two days before: if you leave the line or you go out the box, we're going to send you back and you will not be compared in

the lineup again.

So if you get the top five spot and you make a mistake by going out the box, they will send you back and you have no chance to get the top five spot again.

So this is a big deal.

So we had the top five lineup on stage, and I saw Chris is stepping a step forward out the box

and I saw Urs going behind him like and a step forward and I was like okay two options I'm looking small or I go out the box and it's probably could be dangerous

and okay I stayed there just to be you follow the rules you know yeah and then they said Urs, Chris and Mike back in line and I was like

no no please not man I made it please it's a top five I made it please don't send me back I oh my gosh and then I already lost my mind I was like oh man and they said go backstage and I was like okay

it's over like I missed it all the preparation for nothing

okay we were backstage and Chris like put his hand on my shoulder and was like man that's gonna be the top three this year and I was like wait a second.

They would never ever send Chris Bumsett backstage if he goes out the box.

And Urs, they would not send him backstage.

There's no way.

And then I realized, holy crap,

that's actually the top three.

That's awesome.

So the first, first step done.

But you never know.

You're going to compare it again in the finals.

Or they compare you again with like the top four, five, six to see if it's if you're really good enough to stay in the top three, right?

Right,

and

they did not compare us again, so it was time for finals.

So I thought, okay,

I didn't believe it, so I was waiting for the email.

You get an email, and they're gonna send you a message.

They say, Okay, you're in the top 10.

See you at 7 p.m.

for the finals.

I got this email, and I was like, Damn, I'm in top 10.

All right, let's go.

Finals, they they compared, the last comparison was Chris and me.

Staying next to Chris is a big deal.

Just be in his like two meter, like five, six foot range is a big deal.

Right.

And they compared us again and again and again.

And I saw the judges, I was looking in their eyes and it was like,

like writing down was like, guys, are you serious?

Don't don't act like I'm fighting him.

There's no chance that I'm fighting Chris Bumstead.

And they switched the places and the poses and did the poses again.

And I was posing like hell.

I was sore.

I'm still sore from the posing five days after.

Damn.

And then

the awards.

I was so nervous.

Place number six, number five, number four.

And then was like, okay, Urs three.

And he was shaking my hand.

And I hold his hand like tight and said, Urs, Urs,

what's happening now?

Is there anything I need to do now?

I was super nervous and like insecure almost.

And he was laughing at me and Chris started laughing at me.

And they said, yeah, you should grab your medal because they called your name.

And I was just going with the flow.

There's so many emotions.

And if you follow the awards, you can see that I'm always talking to my grandma and grandpa before they call my name because my grandpa he was the guy who who showed me that work always leads to results like the logical consequence of hard work and dedication will always be a result whatever it is positive or negative And I was talking to them basically, like I was looking upwards and I was saying, hey, grandpa, grandma, look at that.

I know that they didn't really care about bodybuilding, but the fact that I was working hard all my life to reach this specific goal makes me proud to show them.

And this is what I do every time I'm getting an award or like a medal, a trophy.

Like

I show them that it was worth to teach me how to work, like

work for it.

Yeah, absolutely.

Wow, man.

That's an exhilarating story.

Man, I can tell you, it still feels like a movie.

And I get so much attention now, it feels almost weird.

I love that.

I love to be the person who is able to inspire and motivate others.

Because now I get messages like, hey, Mike, you're inspiring me.

Like, it's so motivating what you're telling me.

Like,

I'm still the guy.

Like,

hey, mate, we're eating chicken, broccoli, and rice together.

So we're basically on the same page.

The only difference is that I'm competing.

Like,

I'm at the Olympia.

Of course, that's the biggest show in the world.

And I don't want to make myself small, but basically, we are all on the same page.

We're working hard to achieve something big, and this is what it's about.

Wait, so how long ago did you start this journey?

Like, when did you start the bodybuilding and the competing?

I started lifting when I was 11, and I won my first show when I was, I turned 16.

Oh damn that's young 16 holy shit.

And then when was your first Olympia?

Officially 2020.

Unfortunately it was COVID time and there was a travel ban from Germany to the US so I got the Olympia qualification.

It was pretty tough

and then I was sitting in the airport at the airport with my dad.

My dad is always following me to the competitions and he's supporting me.

He's doing the 10 before we go on stage.

I never get the professional 10, he's always doing the 10.

So, we were sitting in the airport, that's awesome, and they told me,'Yeah, you're not allowed to fly.' I was like,'Wait, I have everything, I have my ESTA, I have my passport, like, everything is set up.' And they said,'Yeah, you need a special document.' Like, it's called National Interest Exception something.

So,

like, doctors and like special people get these invitations.

And I hadn't, like, I did not get it, so they didn't let me fly out.

It was the hardest time of my life seeing my dad, like, look into his eyes.

And he, he was a bodybuilder before, like 30 years ago, and he competed.

And I was able to bring him to the Olympia, not as just a guy who sits in the crowd and sees the show, he would be actually a part of it.

Right.

And I was, I saw his eyes, and he was so like, he wasn't disappointed.

He was sad.

Yeah.

That broke my heart.

But next year,

we were a little bit smarter.

So we picked a show in Mexico.

We stayed in Mexico for two weeks.

And then you were allowed to travel to do yes.

And that's what we did.

And then I competed at the Olympia and I placed top 10 in my first Olympia.

So how does your dad feel now?

Right now?

Honestly, if I ask him how he feels, he will tell me exactly the same as I'm going to tell you.

I have no idea how I feel.

I was thinking about it nights and nights and nights.

And there is no word for it because not many people are able to feel the way I feel.

I'm so close, so close to reach the biggest goal of my life.

Imagine the 11-year-old kid sitting in his room, like dreaming,

competing at the Olympia, and now I'm so close to to get the title obviously there's so much work to do the athlete's gonna be everybody will bring their a game everybody's chasing the title it's my job now to go back to the gym back to work keep my head down and work

yeah but I have no idea how he feels he he told me he's super proud he's super happy he had basically the time of his life

And that makes me really proud and happy.

That's awesome.

I think something that's really cool though about your story that I think

both you and actually Samson's story that I think resonates with not just me, but I'm sure a lot of people out there and also a lot of young competitors is the fact that like not everybody is a Chris Bumstead.

Not everybody is a competitor that walks on stage and wins every show all the way till they make it to the top.

I personally, for example, took me nine shows before I got my pro card, five national shows.

And a good period of them were natural and I didn't really understand the competition I was going up against.

And for me, I would be getting like 16th plus place at nationals.

So, you know, me being a young kid, always having wanted to be on Olympia, like it being literally my biggest dream.

And all I can see is like, wow, I have the worst potential.

I am 16th place.

I will never get there.

And I think something that's really beautiful about you and

say Samson's story is that you guys have been grinding.

You guys have been in the pit working from the bottom, having no idea where you would end up.

And that's where all this like suspense comes from, right?

Inside you, like in your heart, as you are on there, on stage, you have no idea where you're going to end up until the moment your name is called and you're like,

there is no way.

There's literally no way, but all my hard work has finally come to fruition

it's pretty fucking cool to see dude yeah it's it's an incredible feeling and there's a reason why the word like i'm trying to find a word for it but maybe you need to find one first

yeah

i think it's just uh it's nice to see just

since I think most people

uh you know like a lot of people have ideas and stuff but they don't ever, I think the hardest thing is like taking the step in and realizing like you're never gonna, you're never gonna know that you're gonna be there, if that makes sense.

Like you just have to put the work in, take the step into that zone.

And, you know, hopefully someday, many years from now, you'll get closer and closer and closer.

What is definitely hard is

to lose, not getting the placing you're wishing for.

and setbacks, dark days, hard days.

But as soon as you understand it,

you can be thankful for every stone in your way because this will teach you how to solve problems.

And problems are always,

they keep a potential somewhere.

If there is a problem, that means you're actually not good enough to solve it or to make it happen.

So you need to go back to work.

Problems will always tell you where you can improve.

And as soon as you understand that problems are not a bad thing, it's basically basically a good thing,

you end up learning and developing so much faster.

So, backtracking a little bit, what was different about this prep, like training or nutrition-wise, that you feel brought you this best package?

Oh, we changed basically everything we did.

We came back to an upper-lower split, which is,

yeah, not that common as a professional bodybuilder.

Like, upper-lower, upper-lower lower is like a beginner split.

But

if you have a high frequency,

limit less volume, but high intensity, your recovery is on point, everything needs to come into play.

Nutrition, recovery, sleep, frequency, volume, intensity, like everything needs to work with each other.

And I was living in Dubai at the time for my off-season.

And maybe you know Bino's gym, the biggest gym in the world.

I know the owner pretty pretty well.

I'm well connected to him.

And he offered me to do the meal prep.

I was able to train there for free.

They took care of everything I needed.

So I had the best foods available, prepped, cooked, ready to eat for me on a daily base.

I was able to work out twice a day.

Dubai is a perfect place to keep your head free.

You don't need to go grocery shopping.

They're going to deliver it right to your doorstep.

I was waking up.

I did my cardio.

I had a meal.

I was working out.

I had a meal.

Took a nap.

Had a meal, work out, had a meal, took a nap again and again and again.

That's all I did.

I have my coaching, and so I'm working online at home.

And that's what I did: cardio, check-in messages, bang, bang, bang.

Working out, come back to work, eat, bang, bang, bang, back to work, back, bang, back.

I gained 60 pounds in four months.

No, 60.

I was 60, 6-0.

And I was able to keep, listen, 12 pounds from last year to this year.

One year, 12 pounds solid muscle in condition.

Even my condition was better than last year.

And that's a big deal.

12 pounds on a high level in basically four months of off-season is a big deal.

You have to give us all your secrets now.

That's crazy.

Yeah, it really...

came down to food, quality of food,

workouts, and my workouts are

that precise that people think it's not necessary anymore.

I was counting the seconds for each and every rep.

I was writing it down.

I was writing down how I felt systemically,

soreness, sleep, quality of sleep, sleep duration, recovery, food, calories, sets, reps, rest in between.

How long did a set take?

How did one rep look like?

Eccentric content.

I was paying attention to every detail possible.

I was writing it down so I had all the notes ready.

I was able to see, okay, in three weeks' time, I need to be there.

If not, I need to adjust it right now.

And I'm a hobby nerd.

So I was sitting at home, just checking the numbers.

Of course, with Neil together, he was always in the boat.

And it worked out amazing.

That is awesome.

Yeah,

I think it's very undervalued how much food and um training is and is just so profoundly important in bodybuilding i mean obviously with the older crowd and the people that are experienced they understand right but that's one of the reasons why i really enjoy this podcast is i think um

to the younger audience or whoever is out there that hasn't had as much experience in competing like you start realizing just how profound that like upping your nutrition and then following certain regimens of training will really make an impact.

And I guess I know personally, too, from my talks with Neil, that he really cares about quality of everything, everything that goes in your body.

He's like profoundly, very concerned with quality.

And

for training, this has been something I've been curious about because I've noticed that my physique has built more when I implemented like sarcoplasmic focus type training in addition to my myofibril training that, you know, for example, Patrick Tor has in his SST program or Hanny has in his FST7 program.

Is there anything like that that you implement in your training?

Yes.

Neil works with his Y3T,

which is

basically three different types of workout.

He works with different muscle fiber types.

So you have week one, which is more kind of

heavier sets, heavier workouts, myofibrical.

And then you go into week number two, which is between 10 to 14 to 16 reps.

And you have week number three.

I call it hell week.

It's basically triple drop sets: 20 reps, drop 20 reps, drop 20, like up to 60 reps.

And

this will show how much you really want it.

Yeah.

And you go through all these protocols.

I remember the third week.

I was doing that for some time too.

It was hell week, bro.

It was unreal.

Listen, bro.

Oh, man.

That was a video.

The first time I met Neil in 2019, I was flying to Florida to meet him.

It was a super big deal for me.

And he wanted to train legs with me and Alex Cambronero, who was in prep for the Olympia, five weeks out, I guess.

And it was our first meeting, the first workout.

And I knew that he wants to see how

if I really want to be a professional athlete.

I was smoked after my second warm-up set.

Honestly, he killed me.

After doing leg presses and hack squad, I was not able to bend my legs anymore.

He was just making fun about me, and he was like, you know, he was laughing all the time.

And listen, after we did walk-in lunges outside in Florida, summer heat,

we were almost, almost fainting and collapsing outside.

And he was staying in front of the camera, three athletes behind his back.

He was not able to see us.

And we were like, like this, literally, like

shaking and not able to talk and walk anymore.

And he was just talking and talking.

And we were looking to each other.

It was like, Coach, please stop that.

He wants us to be in the video.

So

behind him, so everybody can see it.

And we're like, hey, Coach, we can't stay on our feet anymore.

Like,

so funny.

It's on my YouTube, I guess, but it's like five years ago already.

He made me cry, man.

He made me cry.

I think the density of

a workout is heavily undervalued in bodybuilding.

Like, you know, everyone's always talked about volume, but like, I think that's just such a good way that that Patrick Torre describes intensity is like density, if that makes sense, which obviously is something that we do a lot of when we're doing like those triple drop sets.

Yep.

What was this thing I was going to ask?

So when it comes to your, do you happen to remember what your calories, protein, and carbs were when you were gaining those 60 pounds in those four months yes 4630 something

okay not that high because it was my first off season since four years they raised the weight cap so i was able to have an off season to gain because i already had my weight cap like i was i reached my rate weight cap for 200 pounds there was no need to eat more than necessary like i was basically on 3 000 calories all year round was waiting for go jump on diet.

And then I just slightly upped a little bit, like 1,500-ish, 1,600-ish, and I was growing, growing, growing, growing.

And

I haven't seen any value to increase it even more because I don't want to get fat.

I just need to fill my body with the nutrients necessary.

And that's what I did.

If I needed, more recovery, more fullness, more

I was able to feel that and I was able to see it in my notes.

And food is always a huge thing when it comes to recovery.

It's not only sleeping and relaxing and stress levels, it's also food.

Oh, yeah, 100%.

How high did your carbs go?

Do you remember?

What were like your highest high days?

400-ish.

Okay.

I need to check the notes.

Everything's written down, but it was not that high.

And do you remember?

How tall are you?

5'9

points something.

Okay, okay.

I feel like that sounds about reasonable, too.

I think the highest my calories have gone is 3,800 and I'm about 5'7 and a half.

At least that's what the IFBB measures me at.

So

I'm assuming that I'll probably approach your calorie intake at some point soon.

But

I think that's a good high calorie intake without you literally like bursting your gut through your stomach.

The eating was a hot part.

I needed to come back to eating because I was like

on low food for three or four years, and then it's like, okay, eat whatever you need to eat to grow.

And I needed to find out because I had no expectations anymore.

What, how does an off-season feel?

And eating so much that you're not hungry anymore.

That was weird.

I was always hungry, which is basically a good thing because then your digestive system is on point.

But in off-season, I was like, I've never, I never leave a rice corn on my plate, never.

And in this off-season, I was like, pooh, okay,

bang.

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Real quick, I know that you have to go real soon, but would you be up to do running through this Q ⁇ A real quick?

Because

a lot of people give you a lot of questions.

Yeah, let's make QA fire.

Okay, let's do it.

Let's do it.

Jacob asks, what does your peak normally look like?

Did you guys do anything different for Olympia?

Nope.

This time we did almost nothing.

We kept the salt the same.

We kept the water the same.

We kept everything the same.

We had practiced the low days and we practiced the carving up three times to make sure everything is on point.

I had sushi so I was splitting my sushi into pieces.

I was weighing every piece.

We went there three times to see what's happening after day one, day two, day three, day four.

Digestion, bloating, water retention, inflammation.

And I pick and choose everything precisely and then everything worked out perfect.

Gotcha.

This is this difference per person, of course, but how many carb days do you feel like you normally need?

We carved up for two days, but not pretty high.

We had like 200, 300 grams of carbs per day.

Okay.

Not that much.

I think we have to, I think you and I tend to have a little bit more similar numbers than others that I'm used to.

Jonathan asks,

what do you think of the scorecards?

and Greg Dussette's video and the discussion of Chris winning by split decision.

It's written on paper.

There's nothing to talk about.

I feel

it's basically the first time somebody else got some points compared to Chris Bumstead, which is unbelievable.

Some of these questions we already answered.

Mario, KST Mario asks, now that T-Bum is gone, what does he think the new trend for classic will look like?

C-bum will always be the leader.

He basically

formed classic physique so everybody will be compared to chris even in 10 years but there's the thing i'm i'm a bodybuilder deep deep inside my heart and i know that my bone structure looks very aesthetic but at the same time i can bring some more muscle which makes it look more freaky in a very aesthetic way and this is how i want to change the classic physique

i like that i think you and terrence both have that.

Yeah, and he will compete next Olympia and he will be on point.

On point.

I'm so ready to see it.

Kai HPLR asks, do you think that you can achieve this same condition next year or better?

Better.

That's the goal.

That's why I go back to work.

This is what my grandpa told me.

Never be satisfied.

You can always be better.

Still Dre asks, what is better culture?

Schwaben oder Badener?

Badener.

That's part of Germany.

Schwab is more like Salvon, Stuttgart, and I'm Baden-Wittenberg, like Heidelberg, Frankfurt area.

Gotcha.

JT Telebong asks, did the beard give him super secret powers during the 2024-0?

Yes.

I went to Pittsburgh and JM told me, keep the beard.

And I was not really sure if that's a good idea, but it was a good idea.

And it's it's like, it's a trademark now.

People printing shirts with my beard.

I think it's fucking awesome, dude.

Arthur Oder-Ley asks, What's his favorite body part right now, and which is your favorite to train?

My favorite body part is

to train legs because that separates champions from losers.

This is like leg workouts are more a mental thing than a physical thing because you need to nail it.

Optically,

I think chest and shoulders.

This is what turns a boy into a man.

Okay.

I was always a chest and soul, chest and shoulders, too.

But now, looking at your physique, I realize how much I need to work on my lance.

Your chest looks pretty good, though.

And I was not joking when I sent you the message.

Thank you, bro.

You have a big, thick chest, bro.

I appreciate it, man.

Means a lot coming from you.

Guys, he thought I'm making jokes about him.

He sent me a message.

I was like, bro, one day I will have a chest like you.

And he thought I was making jokes, but I didn't.

James Alabaster asks, are you coming to UK this coming year for travel or Arnold's?

Would love to get a session in being a competitor.

If I'm competing in UK, I will not be able to train someone.

I will be deadly focused because I need to.

I know that all the other competitors are chasing the title, and I'm not sleeping.

I'm not the guy who thinks, okay, I'm good enough.

Never, ever.

I really need to go back to work.

Favilius asks: Do you think the next championships will be you and Ramon, the big battle?

It's not about me and Ramon, it's about we have 60 world-class athletes around, like almost 60 athletes qualified for the Olympia.

And no one of these guys are looking bad.

Some need to improve, as every one of us, but there are plenty good athletes.

Debum303 asks, drop the back workout.

Okay.

Pullovers,

unilateral rows,

unilateral luck pull-downs,

and T-bar rows.

This is the main part.

I try to attack every different fiber.

So, like, you know, I don't want to go into detail, but

these four exercises are really, really beneficial.

Okay, cool.

That's cool for me to see because the top three of your four exercises are also top three of my LAN exercises too for growth.

We're on to something.

Yep.

Okay, so I ask

one last question at the end of every podcast, but if you were to disappear from the world tomorrow, whether or not you pass on to the next life or what, and you had one message you could send to the entire world today, what would that message be?

Okay, listen, because that's deep.

That's really deep.

That comes straight out from my heart.

So, everybody who's able to hear that, please listen carefully.

The moment, the last day of your life, should be worth

to go to your museum and have a look on each and every picture.

That being said,

once you're done,

you made memories with different people, different places, different moments.

And all these moments are pictures in your museum.

And if someone enters your museum, I want to make sure that they inspire, they're motivated, and they feel good.

I made so many, many good experience and memories.

Like, I'm traveling since three years.

I took my wife before I married her.

I told her, hey, listen, if that's serious, I will move to Mexico in in three months.

And she was like, okay, you know what?

I'm going to cancel my jobs, sell my car, and say goodbye to mom and family.

And then we left the country.

We moved to Mexico and we had the time of our life.

We moved to Dubai, we moved to Spain.

We don't have a home since the years.

We met so many incredible people, so many lovely people, so many great places.

We had ups and downs.

We were living in the jungle, no running water, no showers.

We had no car.

We needed to walk to the gym an hour and back in prep.

I had no one there.

We just moved there in my Olympia prep and I made it.

And I placed top five.

And all these moments, all these memories are collected in a museum.

And once you walk through and you see all these pictures, you're going to be inspired.

And that should be the goal for everyone.

What I don't want to do is

working on my nine to five for the next 60 years doing the same thing, not enjoying life.

And I chose to

live life on my terms.

And nobody knows if that's really,

you know, you never know if it's a good thing in the end.

But now I can see everything I did was absolutely worth it.

I'm really, really, really close to reach the biggest goal of my life.

And

that's what I'm saying this feeling is so rare and incredible that there's no word existing so what I'm telling you guys is live life on your terms and make the best out of it in each and every way be the best person you can be for everyone who's worth it your family your friends mom dad wife husband do whatever you can do to be the best person you can be i love that bro that's awesome

thanks for that

I also forgot to say that I think you and your wife are awesome.

And I love y'all's style, by the way, down to the tattoos, too.

Fire, she's a tattoo artist, she's a videographer, she's a teacher in university for sports.

She was running five gyms.

She's a beast, man, bro.

Running five gyms?

She was running five gyms.

What the hell?

She was 21.

What?

Yeah.

She has like a bachelor for sports and science, and she's the girl sitting in front of all the students and tell them she has like 20 over 20 certificates, and she's a freak, she's a brain man.

That's awesome, bro.

She's amazing.

Like, literally, I met her, and after a few months, I said, hey, you know what?

Please marry me.

Please, please.

Oh, fire.

She's the best.

She's really.

And since today, we had not a single argument.

Not one.

It's not possible to have an argument with her.

Wow.

Wow.

That's goals, bro.

Bro, listen.

As I got married, I was like, you know what, guys?

Bro, I'm out.

Don't ever ask me again.

Like, I'm happy.

Do whatever you want to do, but you know, I'm out.

You know,

everything's fine.

Don't bother me anymore.

Fire, fire,

this is the journey of uh, the Mr.

O himself.

Well, we'll see.

Thanks for coming on the podcast again, bro.

That was really awesome.

I know that you had a little bit of a talk.

The talk was amazing, so easy to talk to you.

That's amazing!

Thanks, bro.

That means a lot.

I'm really glad we were able to do it in the time that we had, but you're a huge inspiration to everybody, bro.

And I'm super excited to see the rest of your journey.

And hopefully, hopefully, I might be up there with you someday, some some point of course you need to work as you know then you're gonna be there when I can finally grow out a beard

and if if your if your community wants to have me again for some other questions I'm down next week's gonna be less tight so whenever you need me let me know hell yeah I would love to because I uh I really wanted to deep I wanted I really wanted to dive deeper into your actual story, but I knew that we didn't have too much time today, so I was kind of curious about some some science.

Sorry for that.

I'm really sorry, but thank you for your understanding.

Yeah, thank you, bro.

Definitely sometime again soon.

So, where can everybody find you?

Instagram, it's MikeTheBadass, or on YouTube, it's Mike Sommerfeld.

Awesome.

And if you're guys interested in the e-book, I told Don't Waste Your Waste, it's for free on my website.

It's MikeSommerfeld.com.

You can just check out the shop, download it for free.

Easy.

I'm about to download that myself.

Well, guys, thanks for coming on.

Mike Sommerfeld, the new 2024 Mr.

O runner-up in classic.

And if you guys would like to support the podcast, you can by writing us a five stars on Apple Podcast, Spotify, or anywhere you find your podcast.

Subscribe to the YouTube channel, clicking the bell button because that's what gets us sick and amazing guests like today.

Thanks, Mike.

Thank you, buddy.

Later, brother.

Safe travels.

Thank you.

Bye-bye.