Martin Fitzwater: How He Won Prague, Shocked Olympia, & Beat 5 Mr. Olympia Champs (PED Real Talk)

Speaker 1 Martin the Martian Fitzwater, fourth place at the 2024 Olympia, fifth place at the 2025 Olympia just last month, and winner of the Pog Pro, beating the previous Mr. Olympia champion Samson Dabbit.

Speaker 1 I did implement some peptides this prep that I've never done before. I use every morning.

Speaker 1 I also use both of those made a pretty good difference because one thing I started to notice about the last two, three weeks, the next day start in the morning, it's 10 meals.

Speaker 1 About 120 carbs every meal comes out to like 1,200, 1,400 carbs, depending on... I've always done a good bit of glutamine, but this prep, we went above and beyond with that.

Speaker 1 So I was doing ⁇ grams a day. Whoa.
I was doing ⁇ milligrams four times a day.

Speaker 1 We really saw a drastic difference in that just in digestion and absorption and then helped keep inflammation off the gut. If I would take it above 25 milligrams,

Speaker 1 I was instantly having issues. To the point where when I would poop, you could almost smell the f ⁇ slash chemical smell if anything ever comes back bad on my blood work, it's my liver.

Speaker 1 I think that that's one thing. A lot of guys make the mistake of trying to take too much water out and then that really slows digestion.

Speaker 1 You just need to make sure after those final 12 to 14 hours that we were a little bit worried on like should we introduce carb? Because we haven't had carb for like a week and a half, two weeks.

Speaker 1 Like actually no carbs? I was doing pro-veg. That's it, bro.
We were pushing it and it was hard. I was actually hungry this year for the first time in many years.

Speaker 1 I knew that it was all to come in with this conditioning that would make guys like you really appreciate it and go, damn, Marty did something different. I actually use this prep.

Speaker 1 This subtrend is the best I've ever felt. The minimal side effects, but also the all-fish diet, the reason that actually thins your skin, you have to be on f ⁇ for that to work.

Speaker 1 Collagen degradation. It kills collagen type 2 and type 3.
Fish only has type 1 in it.

Speaker 1 It's not super effective multiple weeks in a row because what you're doing is just pulling stuff off the receptor to then it be replaced with so unless you're taking a decent bit of oral there's no reason to take

Speaker 1 how does it feel to have the five hash mr olympia champs

Speaker 1 Before starting this podcast, I just wanted to say that ideating steroids for a full show is not widely accepted because it discounts the real work which is the backbone of this sport and unfortunately spreads that that an unsafe chemical solution is all you need for results.

Speaker 1 Both of these are an antithetical to society's understanding of the sport and while there will always be some that claim that PEDs are all you need, I would like to deliver an honest message of what is required for achieving top performance as well as the dangers associated with this route.

Speaker 1 I received this comment from a user named Night Scarens.

Speaker 1 But just as a rock climber, The athletes undergoing this path in the sport are willing to put their life on the line for their passion. Just the danger between the two sports is different.

Speaker 1 Luckily, we do have safety nets in the sport, such as organ imaging and regular blood work.

Speaker 1 But that doesn't change the high risk one must accept in taking on this competitive lifestyle.

Speaker 1 Soup looks fucking beautiful, though. I love to cook, bro.
So like, I grew up, my dad was like, always had the cooking channel on when I was growing up.

Speaker 1 And so like, I know how to make like everything. And then she's just like, I want beef and vegetable soup.
I'm sick. I'm like, all right.
right well i'll just go to the store

Speaker 1 buy all this stuff and make it from scratch

Speaker 1 we need to wipe you up

Speaker 1 i dude i it's weird like i've always loved to cook even since i was a kid so

Speaker 1 yeah did you um does she cook too or not

Speaker 1 yeah she's she's more of like the baker so she does like she makes homemade sourdough and all that stuff and like the cookies and stuff and i usually do like the meats and the proteins and stuff like that

Speaker 1 Bro,

Speaker 1 I feel like that's my love language: is to receive baked goods. Back when Lexi wasn't making me some baked stuff, especially the protein-baked shit, like she made these protein donuts, dude.

Speaker 1 That was like, um, that's like how I knew. Yeah, Lexis doesn't do any like protein stuff.
She just does like, it's all clean, though. So it's like sourdough.

Speaker 1 She does like everything bagels. She makes homemade English muffin.

Speaker 1 Like, it's all shit that I can actually eat on prep, you know, which is nice. So, like, I eat, I eat her bread all the way until like

Speaker 1 probably about like four weeks out, and then I'll kind of cut it just because it kind of slows digestion a little bit. But otherwise, I run it all the time.

Speaker 1 That fucking sourdough bread, though, is underrated. I think it's a little bit more underrated in the bodybuilding industry.

Speaker 1 Freaking Jordan Hutchinson was telling me that. Yeah, it's like catchy.

Speaker 1 I see see it's like starting to catch a little wave,

Speaker 1 but it's like, like you said, it's definitely underrated. Like, I mean, fermentation of any food generally makes it digest better.
So it's like bread's kind of hard to digest.

Speaker 1 So if you can already start that process in some way, which the sourdough does, you know, that makes a huge benefit.

Speaker 1 Yeah, after I was talking to Chris Tuttle about what he does and stuff, now I'm starting to be like, damn, I need to get on the

Speaker 1 probiotic and fermented foods wave. Like, stop with the whole like, yeah.
I never felt like my probiotic supplement really ever did anything, to be honest.

Speaker 1 I really did feel like I was just wasting money away with that shit. Yeah, it kind of

Speaker 1 definitely one of those things. I mean, it's more about feeding the probiotics the right stuff.
So, like, when I first got with Boss, one of the things that we did was

Speaker 1 we implemented my last meal was like four cups of Greek yogurt.

Speaker 1 And it was purely just to create more gut biome for me because he was like, there's no way you should be eating 10,000 calories and like not gaining weight.

Speaker 1 And I'm like, well, yeah, my metabolism is fast, but you're right, I probably do have somewhat of an absorption issue if we're eating so much food and I'm not assimilating all of it.

Speaker 1 How did that help? So

Speaker 1 we did that for like three and a half months and I felt like it really made. digestion better it was kind of hard to like

Speaker 1 say like it was a hard line drawn on the sand because also he reduced my protein at the same time like we talked about in the last podcast where i went from like eight ounces of cooked protein per meal to down to like five wow so that also drastically made a huge difference in my digestion as well you know so it's kind of like I couldn't tell you if one was more important than the other.

Speaker 1 Probably the protein, honestly, was more important than the gut biome. But then I felt like I was also assimilating, especially like insulin sensitivity-wise.

Speaker 1 I wasn't having to eat a thousand carbs to get the same kind of pump that I was getting with like 700 carbs or 600 carbs, you know. So that makes sense.

Speaker 1 I felt like absorption was definitely a little bit better. Right.
I'm honestly just being a little transparent about this. I haven't even discussed this with him himself.

Speaker 1 I'm sure I probably will someday, but I get a little nervous when I'm talking to Patrick because, you know, Patrick's so straight and freaking hardcore as shit, you know?

Speaker 1 But he does try not to feed his clients too much protein.

Speaker 1 But I do have this like, maybe I'm just overthinking things, but, you know, some of his most monstrous, freakish clients, like Nihat and Kian and even Devain, at a certain point, like I could tell, especially during the offseasons, their guts would start growing just a little bit.

Speaker 1 And I always felt like, honestly, it was still the, the protein was still just a little bit high. Like when I try to consume how much protein that Patrick has,

Speaker 1 it definitely slows down my digestion. This shit gets backed up in there.
And then by the next morning, I'm like still a little bloated and got some flashlights going on.

Speaker 1 And I'm like, damn, bro, I can't even like I'm having a hard time vacuuming and all this shit.

Speaker 1 So I think pulling it back even just a little bit more would be more optimal, honestly. Yeah, I would say that.
And I would say the other thing is, is like 99% of bodybuilders are magnesium deficient.

Speaker 1 Yeah. Everything that we do uses magnesium from transporting different molecules into other molecules, using it for muscle recovery,

Speaker 1 hydration purposes. Like by the end of your day, you have no magnesium left in your body.

Speaker 1 So if you're not taking magnesium and pulling water into that digestive tract, it makes it that much harder to assimilate, to break it down, and obviously to excrete it as well.

Speaker 1 um so like something i do implement at the end of prep that's like a non-negotiable for me is like the last

Speaker 1 really for me, it's like eight weeks, but I would say like for clients, I try to implement it like it lasts three weeks at least in Ebson salt bath every night or every other night if you can make that possible.

Speaker 1 Yeah, so like the thing is, is like. It's really, really kind of hard on your digestive tract to take as much magnesium as you actually need.
Like you'll probably shit yourself, to be honest. Like

Speaker 1 you'll get diarrhea from having trait yeah so you'll you'll get diarrhea from taking that much magnesium so to be able to absorb it the best way is honestly through the skin so you can either do ebs and salt bass there's also some like pump foams that have ebs and salt in them essentially that you could just rub on the skin and also you're going to get it absorbed that way so like if you don't have a bathtub that's an option

Speaker 1 But I also like to implement it. Like what I do

Speaker 1 when I had clients, I really don't don't coach much anymore

Speaker 1 but the thing i would implement was like kind of a sleep protocol higher melatonin take some gaba maybe if you want to use that some l-theanine

Speaker 1 um just recently started talking to people about using blue blocker lights um just to make sure that you're you know blocking those like uvs and stuff out it really like helps just calm the brain down a little bit and then do that epsom salt bath and drink your magnesium and your night drink and those things and get ready for bed.

Speaker 1 And that bath is just going to help you

Speaker 1 be able to relax a little bit more, bring that heart rate down, you know, put you in a like parasympathetic state to where it's like time for bed.

Speaker 1 And that'll also help, you know, release cortisol and stuff too. Just like chilling, soaking in a bath.
Like, I know it sounds silly, but I love it, man.

Speaker 1 It's like, it's kind of my zen time at the end of the day every day. So,

Speaker 1 I mean, honestly, I don't think it's silly at all, man. I don't think it's talked about enough.
Have you ever used it during peak week, though, to like help you? Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 1 So, I honestly, what I do, like, you've seen my process. So, I tan, I start tanning on, like, Tuesday, but I'll run Ebson Sawbass because I wash it off every night.

Speaker 1 Um, I'll run Ebson Sawbass usually in fellow around Thursday. Um, and then Friday, when the tan is like staying on the whole time, we we don't want to fuck it up.

Speaker 1 And that will, you know, usually Thursday is like my last bath or Wednesday, kind of depending in there.

Speaker 1 And yeah, man, I mean, it makes such a difference.

Speaker 1 I've I've also had to use it like a couple like wake up in the morning and you're like, oh shit, I'm spilled back in my amateur days and like crawled in an Ebs and salt bath and was like, all right, we're gonna,

Speaker 1 we're gonna get this off quick and we'll fix my tan afterwards. But that's a whole nother story.
But I just honestly, man, like

Speaker 1 the routine of like getting in the bath, you know, as soon as you get out of the bath, it's kind of bedtime. Your body kind of starts to get in that relaxed mode.

Speaker 1 And it just kind of like, it just kind of ends the day in a nice way and just kind of gets you ready for that.

Speaker 1 Like I said, try, you know, at the end of the, at the end of prep, really the most important thing is

Speaker 1 making sure cortisol is low because like really you're not going to lose body fat or any of those things if your cortisol is crazy, crazy high. So, you're going to have to manage that stress.

Speaker 1 My biggest focus at the end of prep that like takes a hit is generally just my sleep. Everything else, recovery-wise, like I usually don't lose my appetite unless I completely smash my CNS.

Speaker 1 I can always train. I'm never like too sore to train,

Speaker 1 but

Speaker 1 they're like six to four weeks out, my sleep starts taking a hit. So that's something something that I'm like diligently focused on and like super you know

Speaker 1 super have my routine of like these are the things I do these are the things that have made a big difference like another thing I do is I take like anywhere from 60 to 100 milligrams of melatonin which sounds psychotic

Speaker 1 but The other thing about melatonin that a lot of people don't know is it's like one of the strongest antioxidants on the planet.

Speaker 1 So

Speaker 1 not only is it knocking you out and just essentially like kick-starting your circadian rhythm because you're kind of telling yourself when it's time to mellow out and your body to go into that parasympathetic, but then everything extra that you use is just going to go to being antioxidant, killing free radicals, honestly going to lower stress and oxidative stress in a way.

Speaker 1 So it's super beneficial in that.

Speaker 1 The first couple of days, obviously you have to fight that like melatonin grog that like kicks your ass a little bit.

Speaker 1 Um, but after you do it for a couple days, you won't even notice the difference, like, you'll notice the difference when you don't take it. But

Speaker 1 yeah,

Speaker 1 no, um, I remember you discussing that in the last pod, too, and honestly, that brings me to want to tell you, like, thanks for coming on again, brother.

Speaker 1 Cause, like, even uh, the last pod, people absolutely fucking loved it when you came on because you're just so real about everything down to like how you uh optimize your health and your like your gains just from managing your peptides, your PEDs your antioxidants and all that shit yep and

Speaker 1 I I

Speaker 1 don't think I started this until after we had that conversation because you know I have this podcast with Dave Dave Lee who is a big proponent a big proponent of a high-dose melatonin not just for the antioxidant benefits well mainly for the antioxidant benefits but also just

Speaker 1 I think I'm trying to remember what the other thing is with that he said, but ever since then, I started experimenting with it myself too.

Speaker 1 So I've been on 20 milligrams consistently for like the last, I don't know, four months or so now, and I fucking love it, bro. It makes and I feel like I can,

Speaker 1 especially because, like, you know, when we're traveling and shit, especially for shows, and then you have to adjust your zircadian rhythm, anyways, it's like, well, I'm already on a consistent dose of melatonin, so it's like I don't really have a problem adjusting if I need to.

Speaker 1 Yeah, no, I mean, that's one thing too, man.

Speaker 1 Like, with us traveling to like Europe and doing these other shows, you know, and other places, that's one thing that I usually don't struggle too bad with.

Speaker 1 If anything, it's like post-show when we come home. I'll have some jet lag and stuff.

Speaker 1 But like generally, traveling into the show, because I'm so diligent about everything and like really keep my routine and even try to keep the baths and stuff in place, even when we're in Europe,

Speaker 1 because of that, my body's like,

Speaker 1 okay, he took his melatonin, he took his bath. It must be bedtime, whether we think it's noon at home or not.
Like, we kind of know this process enough to know like it's time.

Speaker 1 Right.

Speaker 1 So, and then and like, like you, I mean, you've seen kind of throughout my career, man, is like, if you just keep stacking perfect days, like eventually it's all going to come together, you know?

Speaker 1 So it's like, I know this works. It's definitely worked throughout my prep.
So just keep using it. And then obviously now we know like, okay, we had.

Speaker 1 significant amount of data that shows that this is definitely makes my sleep better so i'm going to continue to use yeah yeah i'm saying speaking of bro, you were on a fucking mission this last year, dude.

Speaker 1 I

Speaker 1 honestly, man, Pittsburgh was a big kick in the teeth for me, dude. Like,

Speaker 1 I just didn't show up how I wanted to show up. We did not peak how I wanted to peak.
We spilt.

Speaker 1 We tried to clean it up. It cleaned up nicely, but then...

Speaker 1 going on stage, I could just feel that I wasn't at my best.

Speaker 1 And that's that's always like a tough blow, especially because, like,

Speaker 1 I come from a sports background of like, you could maybe have like shitty practices all week and play like a really shitty game and still score like the game-winning touchdown and be the hero, right?

Speaker 1 But, like, in bodybuilding, there's no such thing as like a gamer moment, is what we called it in football. It's like

Speaker 1 when you want the ball in the last 30 seconds and you want to score the touchdown, like there's nothing like that in bodybuilding.

Speaker 1 Like, either you nailed nailed it on the day, or you shit the bed, and like, you missed the beat. Like, there's not really

Speaker 1 a gamer moment of like, okay, well, in 30 minutes, if we take this pill, you're going to look perfect. Like, no, this, it doesn't really work like that.
You need to nail it, you know?

Speaker 1 So, like, that was a little bit tough for me to swallow. But the cool thing about Pittsburgh was I was in a house with boss, and I was also in a house with William.

Speaker 1 And William being this like old school vet, been doing this so long like bro literally going on stages like visiting his children to him like it's just like the most like everyday thing like he doesn't care like at Pittsburgh bro like he was so pissed that Steve put us through four rounds he was like what the fuck why did he go four rounds that's bullshit like we post too much like he's hilarious bro so like

Speaker 1 We came home and obviously like I'm beating myself up and like I'm pissed, you know, and I put like the sorry thing on my story, and like, both him and boss, like, pull me aside, and they're like, All right, like, first off, like, never again.

Speaker 1 I'll kick your ass. Like, boss is like, I'll fight you if you ever do that again.
Like, you don't need to apologize. Like, we just didn't show up how you wanted to, but, like, that's that's life.

Speaker 1 Like, sometimes stuff's gonna happen. Sometimes, like, you're not gonna be at your best.
Like, that's just how things go.

Speaker 1 Um, and so, like, Will pulled me aside and was like, look, man, like,

Speaker 1 bro, you're, you're doing it at the highest level. Like, you know, the only like you missed, and the only two guys that beat you are top five in the world guys.
Like,

Speaker 1 remember that, like, you're that good now that, like, even when you miss, you beat 90% of bodybuilders in the pro.

Speaker 1 Yeah. And I'm like, okay, like, you know, put a good perspective for me of like, okay, you're right.

Speaker 1 Like, yeah, I'm not Phil yet where like I can miss and still win the Olympia, but I am getting to a point where like I'm a good enough bodybuilder that like I don't have to be 100% to like win, you know?

Speaker 1 But when I am 100%,

Speaker 1 it's going to be right on the money, you know? So

Speaker 1 going in, like we talked about doing the Arnold. It was like, no, let's sit out.
Let's just put all of our focus on the Olympia. Really show up at our best.

Speaker 1 And I didn't even think about Prague, honestly. That was like decided on Friday night at the Olympia that we were going to do Prague.

Speaker 1 Oh, shit. Yeah.
That's crazy. We like just really focused on Olympia.
You know, I really liked my look at the Olympia.

Speaker 1 Feedback from the judges was like slightly flat, which like in hindsight now, after my obviously my awesome peek at Prague, like I can see like, okay, yeah, like I could have pushed the limits at the Olympia, but it's the Super Bowl.

Speaker 1 Like sometimes chasing five percent and then it up 15 is not worth it so like it's not worth it plus right whereas like prog was more like okay if we miss we miss but like let's let's play with it just a little bit so we honestly didn't change too much we pushed me down just a little bit in between because of travel and like There was no time to really feed me or anything in between.

Speaker 1 You know, it's only two weeks.

Speaker 1 But in between there, it was like just flying and stuff. I kept my food low so I didn't have any water retention.
So it was already in better condition anyways.

Speaker 1 And then really the only like changes that we made going in was a touch more salt throughout the day in

Speaker 1 mostly on Friday, Saturday, Sunday.

Speaker 1 Because we kind of... As we taper water, we also taper salt as well.
Salt. I think Patrick kind of does something something similar, right?

Speaker 1 Slightly. It's more of like as the carb up happens,

Speaker 1 the salt is slightly less. Okay, yeah.
So then on the on Friday, when

Speaker 1 water's less, the sodium is about the same as Thursday, which I would prefer it to be less like you, but you know, he's got his methods. Yeah, yeah.
So

Speaker 1 anyway, so at least you understand the idea of it, right? So

Speaker 1 obviously holding less sodium, less water retention, kind of obviously playing on that. But because we knew, like at the Olympia, I was slightly flat, I was like, okay,

Speaker 1 we kind of have two options. One, we can try to up fluid and salt and see how that helps with full myth.

Speaker 1 Also, we can obviously eat more, but you guys have seen, if you've paid attention to my preps, like it's usually like 4,000 carbs in like three days. So

Speaker 1 more food is not really the best option.

Speaker 1 Right, right. Like if it is, it's like, okay, like, can we do more almond butter or something like that? I don't really want more cars, right? So, yeah, exactly.
Yeah.

Speaker 1 So, we did play, like I said, we played with fluids a little bit. Um,

Speaker 1 mostly fluids did the thing, but we upped salt just a little bit so that I actually did have some more water retention within the cell.

Speaker 1 Um, and then food sources, Olympia, I did pretty much all rice all the way up until between pre-judging and finance.

Speaker 1 After pre-judging, Phil came to me. He was like, Hey, bro, you're a little bit flat.
This is what I did. This is what you should do.
I think it will look really good on you.

Speaker 1 Obviously, you and your coach have your methods, but like, run this by him and see what he says. So, Phil was like, I think you should eat some potato.

Speaker 1 I think the starch will help you hold fullness longer.

Speaker 1 And then he was like, tonight, just do extra salt. Like, you need some extra salt.
Replenish everything that you kind of burn through for the show.

Speaker 1 Also, I think you could, like, it will just pull some water into the cell. So, we listened to Phil.
I actually got McDonald's French rice between pre-judging and finals that night and went to bed.

Speaker 1 And we woke up and it was like, I was flat, but I had so much more pop to the muscle already that was like, okay. That was a great decision.
It held fullness overnight a little better.

Speaker 1 So we kind of knew going into Prague, like, hey, we can utilize potato a little bit more than we ever have.

Speaker 1 And digestion was like perfect with it.

Speaker 1 So I was like, hey, like, as weird as it is, like, let's try this a few times throughout the days, boss, and like, just kind of replace a cream of rice meal with

Speaker 1 McDonald's french fries, honestly. So we did that on Friday.
We did that on Saturday in between pre-judging and finals, and then we did that before finals at Prague.

Speaker 1 And it was just like the perfect combination of that starch.

Speaker 1 Obviously, there's a little bit more fats, obviously, in McDonald's french fries than, like, if you're going to do cream of rice and almond butter, or it's a little less controlled because it's a fried food or whatever.

Speaker 1 And McDonald's, you can order it salt-free. So, I just give the french fries without salt and then control how much sodium we're putting on the fries.

Speaker 1 And that was like, that was the secret to Prague's peak, if you will. Like, it wasn't really that much of a change.
It was just like one food swapped out for another.

Speaker 1 And, like I said, upping sodium just a little bit. But that's the beauty of staying with somebody, calculating all this data, and kind of finding that perfect recipe.

Speaker 1 You know, it's like if we didn't know what we did exactly at the Olympia, plus I take tons of notes and write everything down and calculate my meals and all those things. But

Speaker 1 in that process of going through it, it was like, okay, we know that we kind of have our recipe.

Speaker 1 Now, what do we need to add or take away to make it better?

Speaker 1 And I think, I mean,

Speaker 1 I, as far as Prague goes, man, I don't think that we could have came much closer to nailing a peak without

Speaker 1 going in one direction or the other. You know what I mean? Like, it's like, if I push fullness this much more, I probably would have spilled.

Speaker 1 If I push dryness a little bit more, I probably would have cramped. So, like,

Speaker 1 it was like, there was really not much leeway to get better. And, and that's the goal, you know what I mean?

Speaker 1 Like, that's the ideal peak is to put it all together and at least display the best physique that you have in that moment. And I definitely think we did that.

Speaker 1 Has there ever, have you ever done anything if you got cramps on show day or on stage? Like, is there any like ever like something?

Speaker 1 Yeah, so there's a

Speaker 1 it's kind of like I've had a few moments. So when I did the Arnold UK with Branch,

Speaker 1 backstage, I

Speaker 1 right before pre-judging, I started to have full body cramps, like hamstrings locked up, glutes, low back. Like it was my full body was going.
So there's a pill. It's for malaria,

Speaker 1 but it actually stops cramping instantly. It's called quinine.
Okay.

Speaker 1 I always have at least one of those with me backstage. So if you're some pro that you're having terrible cramps and I'm at the show,

Speaker 1 Come to me. I can help you with the problems.

Speaker 1 But quinai is something that, as a pro bodybuilder, if you're taking diuretics and stuff, it's probably something that you should have in the toolbox. How do you spell this shit? Just

Speaker 1 asking for a friend.

Speaker 1 I'll text it to you.

Speaker 1 All right. Thanks, bro.

Speaker 1 But yeah, it's for malaria. It was

Speaker 1 developed in Africa from all the mosquito bites that were causing malaria.

Speaker 1 But it stops cramping instantly. So it just opens those channels and helps with the regulation of obviously sodium and potassium.
Okay,

Speaker 1 um, but it instantly stopped it, and honestly, it didn't affect my look too much, which is kind of the cool thing about quinize like it's not gonna make you look like shit by fixing the cramps.

Speaker 1 Because, like, obviously, you can chug some

Speaker 1 something with sodium in it or something, and generally you're probably gonna fix the problem, or depending on which way you're trying to push and what diuretics you're taking, obviously, right? But

Speaker 1 you can usually drink electrolytes and fix the cramping issue. But in the process, sometimes it makes you look watery.
Sometimes it makes you look spilled. Sometimes it gives you cortisol.

Speaker 1 So it's quinine can help in all those senses of one. It's it's like an instant relief for the brain of like knowing like, hey, these are going to go away like that.

Speaker 1 Like we're not going to have to like drink a little, hope it goes away, drink a little, hope it goes away type of shit.

Speaker 1 And then

Speaker 1 I've, that's the only time I've ever had to take quinai. Then a few times I've had it where like

Speaker 1 a ham is like cramped up or something. And usually Alexis is backstage for me.

Speaker 1 So I'll just come to her and like, have her dig an elbow or something into it and just try to get it to release like that. Ghost.

Speaker 1 You know, honestly, it's awesome to just have a partner that understands.

Speaker 1 I mean, at the Olympia,

Speaker 1 one day out, my hamstring cramped in the middle of the night, and I was like laying on the hotel floor, like screaming, like, oh my God.

Speaker 1 And she's like, got up and stretched my hamstring and like bick sneaky. And so it's like,

Speaker 1 I know I'm ready. I know I'm dry.

Speaker 1 But

Speaker 1 yeah, so I mean, for the most part, it's like my team usually knows, and I can, I usually can kind of feel that

Speaker 1 coming on or like kind of know, like, hey, I'm really close to that point where I'm like, I'm so dry, my calves are starting to feel tight and stuff. Like,

Speaker 1 the cramps can come. So, usually I'll tell boss, like, hey, have the quinine in your pocket.

Speaker 1 Know that like I'm on the edge of cramping. And sometimes he'll be like, you're so dry, like, let's take a few sips of Gatorade.
Like, let's, let's alleviate that feeling just a little bit.

Speaker 1 And so that's, that's the other thing that's nice is like, him and I communicate so well. So it's, it's easy for me to be like, hey, I'm feeling X, Y, Z.

Speaker 1 You know, what can we do about that? And sometimes it's like, hey, nothing.

Speaker 1 Like, Between pre-judging and finals at the Olympia, I was like, boss, I have the worst migraine of my life and he was like yeah i mean you're dehydrated you've been dehydrated for like two days and you just posed your ass off like

Speaker 1 there's not much we can do about it it's like i don't want you taking a bunch of nsaids and stuff right now so like if you can avoid taking aspirin or tylenol like let's avoid it and just try to like push through and go to bed and like hopefully that's that'll alleviate the headache you know and it's like okay if boss says that then like he has a rhyme or reason so like let me not go take some aspirin.

Speaker 1 You know what I mean? Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 1 For sure. That's good to hear, too, because, bro, I have I have like genetically prone

Speaker 1 cramps that I got from my dad. Like, my dad's just like a runner and he will randomly get leg cramps consistently all the time.

Speaker 1 So it's like, bro, when I go on stage, like the first time I won overall at an amateur show, they had to pause the show because it was me versus another guy for overall.

Speaker 1 And I started cramping on stage. That's literally couldn't walk.
It was

Speaker 1 But I've never had like I've never really had cramps like that. Just once or twice in the gym, I also had really, really bad ab cramps and we found out it was coming from Clenn.

Speaker 1 It was like, I can't take very much Clenn, otherwise I cramp like crazy.

Speaker 1 Okay.

Speaker 1 Taurine never really help with that?

Speaker 1 Taurine does help,

Speaker 1 but it definitely still,

Speaker 1 I don't know what it is. If I take more than like 40 micrograms, I get cramps in the bottom of my feet.
Yeah. In my taint,

Speaker 1 which is like the worst spot in the world.

Speaker 1 And then, and then sometimes my abs will cramp.

Speaker 1 Fuck, dude. Shit.
I fucking hate the ab cramps, man. Oh, they're fucking.
Especially when you look at it.

Speaker 1 Brett's actually like the one that, how I figured out that that's what it was doing to me was because his every time he takes Clann like 20 micrograms his abs like lock

Speaker 1 20 that's crazy yeah no brett can't take hardly like any fat burners he just doesn't need them but

Speaker 1 damn

Speaker 1 we're both lucky that since real quick guys so while i was looking at the youtube analytics i actually saw that

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Speaker 1 Bro, I have to ask you this because not only am I the one who wants to ask you, but literally everyone wants to ask you.

Speaker 1 But I was like, I was at Open Olympia Prejudging and the moment you stepped on stage and opened up with your front double buy, I was like, holy fucking shit, bro.

Speaker 1 Martin is peeled, like peeled to the bone, dude. I swear to God, I feel like that's the most peeled and detailed I've seen you.

Speaker 1 Like, I saw lines in places that I swear to God, I like did not ever see before on you.

Speaker 1 And I know that you were like, I know the judges told you that you were a little flat, probably for what they would have preferred on stage, but I just feel like the level of detail that you had just really had you stand out, like had you pop, had people like their eyes drawn towards you.

Speaker 1 um and

Speaker 1 i mean i think i think that look honestly like you guys continuing to bring like that condition look and obviously you're gonna feed in and try to fuel up and uh fill out before stage so you can come in as full as you need to be but bro that look was like just a fucking game changer yeah man so i mean

Speaker 1 What did you guys do to, what did you guys do to get that level of conditioning this time? Yeah, I mean, so we started pushing me a little bit earlier than we ever have.

Speaker 1 Like, usually we don't drop the hammer until like three weeks out because my body changes super, super fast, right?

Speaker 1 You don't mean by drop the hammer, like, I mean, generally, bro, my food stays like

Speaker 1 four

Speaker 1 to five hundred carbs

Speaker 1 all the way in until that like three-week out mark. And then we'll drop it to like Jesus Christ, 300, 250.
And usually, my weight starts

Speaker 1 coming down consistently. This time, how's dude? How were you a skinny kid? Were you skinny? Yeah, I've always like I've always had abs.
I've always been muscular.

Speaker 1 So, like, I mean, I started lifting weights at 10, bro. So, like, and I started eating six meals a day at 14.
So, like, I've, I don't even like know a different life to be honest with you.

Speaker 1 Um, yeah, but yeah, so for the Olympia, we started more like six weeks out, um, so like probably like a full three weeks earlier. Um, okay, and then we got to a point

Speaker 1 probably about three weeks out where it was like,

Speaker 1 okay, we're close to ready.

Speaker 1 Let's see how far we can go before

Speaker 1 I kind of fall apart and just look like shit.

Speaker 1 And then we have enough time that I can feed up into the Olympia if I need to a little bit to try to get back to a point where it's like we won't go off of a cliff, but we're going to push the limit, right?

Speaker 1 And that was kind of a cool moment for us this year was like seeing the density and how hard i train

Speaker 1 i we were able to take me all the way down to zeros

Speaker 1 and like i weight wasn't really plummeting and i wasn't really disappearing so it was like i was riding that flat spot for a really long time

Speaker 1 But it was like

Speaker 1 every day boss would be like, oh, we'll probably feed you tomorrow. Like you're going to be flat.
And I would get like a new low,

Speaker 1 but it would just be like, damn, it's just more detailed. Like, yeah, it is flat, but it's just more detailed.
Like, let's just keep digging it out.

Speaker 1 So, we just kind of started seeing lines just get deeper and deeper the whole time, which was really cool.

Speaker 1 And then I did implement some peptides this prep that I've never done before. So, I use Mot C

Speaker 1 every morning, and then i also use sloopy

Speaker 1 um which is that slup

Speaker 1 slu yeah yeah

Speaker 1 i experiment yeah and i i've i really i mean i thought both of those made a pretty good difference in mitochondrial activity um because one thing i started to notice about the last

Speaker 1 three two three weeks um

Speaker 1 was like I was cold 24-7.

Speaker 1 Like I could even eat a a meal with a little bit of carbs, and I, like, wasn't getting a sweat. I wasn't getting super warm.

Speaker 1 So, I started to see like metabolisms, okay, maybe starting to fight back a little bit. On like, yo, dog, you're starving us to death.
Like, you have never done that before. Yeah.

Speaker 1 Um, but then implementing those kind of started to like fire it back up to where I'm like, okay, like

Speaker 1 if I take Sloopy within 15 minutes, I can kind of feel like body tempest coming back to

Speaker 1 more definitely. yeah, more like comfortable spot.

Speaker 1 Um, so I really like, I really enjoyed that. And then

Speaker 1 the only other thing that we did differently this time was pull growth hormone a little bit earlier. So it was like

Speaker 1 14 days out instead of 10 days out just to see

Speaker 1 if it cleared a little bit more. Um, for me, I just get more and more detail the longer I'm off of growth.
But obviously, there comes a fullness factor with that.

Speaker 1 So, you kind of have to gauge it right. With me, I stay so round.
We were like, we don't need that fullness factor at all at this point. Like,

Speaker 1 you're big enough, you have enough size, we have enough detail, so like, let's not worry about that. Fucking Mr.
Bubbles, dude. You're so round.

Speaker 1 Yeah, so we pulled that and test both at the same time, about 14 days out.

Speaker 1 Wow, okay. And rode in like that, man.
And it was the best it's been, you know, it was super easy. And there wasn't too much manipulation as far as like

Speaker 1 water and stuff goes. The other thing I would say that was like

Speaker 1 a super focus of mine was going into the show,

Speaker 1 probably at like eight weeks out, I started calculating my salt and my water every single day.

Speaker 1 So it was like every single day I'm getting five liters. Every single day I'm getting getting 10 grams of salt.
No more, no less.

Speaker 1 Just keeping it like as constant as possible. Every once in a while, we get to like five.
You said you didn't really.

Speaker 1 I'm assuming that you definitely hammered down on this too, because I remember you mentioning on Fuad's podcast, Pittsburgh, the like the sodium intake and calculating it like you did this time didn't go so well.

Speaker 1 Yeah, so it wasn't as accurate, right? Yeah, man.

Speaker 1 So my problem was, is like, it was more of a communication issue than anything, but it was like, I told boss like hey yeah i'm doing five liters but at that point i was i was drinking two and using three to cook my meals

Speaker 1 versus like now it's five of drinking water plus whatever it is to make my meals right

Speaker 1 so that was that was a big thing and then like the salt like you said It was something that I noticed like

Speaker 1 I don't salt my meals at all. Like I don't really care about that.
So, other than like, I, when I pre-season my proteins and like make my meat and stuff, it's all ready.

Speaker 1 Um, but besides that, I don't really like use a ton of seasonings and stuff. So, that was something that was like, okay,

Speaker 1 to actually get 10 grams of salt a day was a fucking challenge for me at first. Like,

Speaker 1 I, what ended up working for me was

Speaker 1 I started

Speaker 1 putting it in my water

Speaker 1 so like every liter I was putting like about a gram to two grams of salt in it and that was how

Speaker 1 I was getting it

Speaker 1 so you don't really salt your foods that much then on a nice not really bro not crazy because nine grams of salt is kind of easy for me to get on most people kind of enjoyed it yeah I mean even Alexis probably does like 14

Speaker 1 she she loves seasoning

Speaker 1 but yeah I just like I never really messed with it I just just just eat my food how it is you know if i have a ton of rice i would salt it but otherwise like i just salt my pre protein when i make it and otherwise it's like gucci for me you know so i've never really like

Speaker 1 worried about it too much um

Speaker 1 but yeah so that those were the biggest changes going in really besides that it was pretty

Speaker 1 Pretty much the same. I mean, drug protocol, all those things were exactly the same as far as that goes.

Speaker 1 Like Olympia, drug protocol, and everything, like it wasn't less of a stack or more of a stack than Pittsburgh. Like, no.
No, literally, like, the exact same PED protocol, honestly. Gotcha.
Wow.

Speaker 1 That is fucking dope, dude. There's a lot of thoughts going through my brain right now about...

Speaker 1 all these changes like one of the ones specifically is uh you pulling out gh and test 14 days prior as an open bodybuilder i think is a cool it's just really cool to hear like on this podcast because you'll hear like people like Jon Jewet, for example, who have an experience of where it's more optimal for them to even keep in GH all the way through the show.

Speaker 1 Yeah.

Speaker 1 But to hear from an open bodybuilder's perspective that you can gain what an insane fucking detailed physique that you had on the Olympia stage, pulling it out so far in advance.

Speaker 1 Like, bro, I just pulled out GH yesterday. What is that? Like fucking four days before, five days before my show.
And I'm in classic. And

Speaker 1 honestly, to be honest, I also kind of fucked up. I actually pulled out test.
I forgot to pull out test.

Speaker 1 I forgot to reduce the test like on Sunday. So

Speaker 1 Patrick's like, Patrick's like, you're like two to three pounds heavier than you were last show at the same time. So we're going to have to change some shit,

Speaker 1 which is my fault. Oh, well.

Speaker 1 I look fuller at least, I guess. But yeah, that's

Speaker 1 just maintained so much size going in.

Speaker 1 speaking from experience, you know, like that's kind of the cool thing of doing this with Brett and like obviously knowing every single thing that he does drug-wise and training-wise and food-wise, is like if he did that, bro, he would look like shit.

Speaker 1 Yeah, so like certain people, you can't, you can't do that with their body, they're not gonna hold on to the fullness and the roundness and the

Speaker 1 hardness.

Speaker 1 Um, so some people like him. Brett, he's more of like we pull it at like six, five days somewhere in there out.

Speaker 1 And test is similar, like probably about seven to five days out, somewhere in there, we pull his test.

Speaker 1 But when he's off of that for like 10-ish days, you notice a drastic drop in fullness, especially in like his arms, in a few weaker body parts, you know, especially.

Speaker 1 And that's probably something that gives me an advantage: is like, I don't really have a body part that's super weak, so it nothing disappears more than like something else, if you will.

Speaker 1 You know what I mean? Like,

Speaker 1 um, I think that that's probably part of why I can do that. The other side of it is, like, I'm naturally already super, super round.

Speaker 1 So, that GH fullness that gives you that roundness, I don't necessarily need that from GH. Obviously, it helps.

Speaker 1 But

Speaker 1 one thing,

Speaker 1 Pittsburgh, we pulled it at like seven days out, I think.

Speaker 1 And one thing I noticed being on it closer was also

Speaker 1 kind of pumping out while posing, if that makes sense.

Speaker 1 Like my quads were so full at Pittsburgh by the end of like round three, when I went to like step him down for like the most muscular and flex him out it felt like I had done a set of squats with like 405 and had a pump

Speaker 1 like I could feel the lines were kind of like blown out and kind of like

Speaker 1 too pumped to actually show the detail you know what I mean

Speaker 1 and so that was something that I discussed with boss right after the show was like hey

Speaker 1 Obviously, I know we kind of spilled or were right on the line of spilling, so part of why the fullness was too much.

Speaker 1 But I think that it could possibly be PEDs as well, because there's a certain point when food is high and I'm in prep, that I'm getting the same feeling in the gym where it's like my quads are going to explode after two or three sets of extensions when food is super high, right?

Speaker 1 So it's like, I know that part of that is just we have way more blood in the system. We're able to pump more blood into that system,

Speaker 1 obviously.

Speaker 1 And then water retention from the growth hormone just makes the blood more viscous to be able to go in there as well, you know.

Speaker 1 So, those were all things that we kind of just took notes on after Pittsburgh. Um,

Speaker 1 and then I checked in with boss pretty much every other day from Pittsburgh all the way into the show. Then,

Speaker 1 at like eight or ten weeks out, I started sending pictures every single day.

Speaker 1 And part of that's not just for him. It's like, honestly, probably just a mental ease for me because half the time he sends me like, you look awesome.

Speaker 1 Like, let's just keep rolling with what we're doing.

Speaker 1 Or like, you look tired, go back to bed.

Speaker 1 You know, but. But that also just eases my mind.
And I love to pose. So that's kind of like my cardio is like taking the check-in video for him and going through a couple rounds.
um

Speaker 1 for the olympia

Speaker 1 i guess that was one other thing we implemented we did put in cardio for a short period of time uh yeah that's what i wanted to ask yeah so you know that i've like hardly ever done cardio for this one um there was probably about two weeks where i was doing 20 minutes on the bike um and we ended up having to reduce that Because we were just kind of seeing like, hey, we're probably going to have to feed you if we keep on this path.

Speaker 1 Whereas we want to just kind of keep riding this flatness. So, if you just have enough go to train hard, then, like, let's just keep riding lower food and kind of using that.

Speaker 1 And I do better that way, man. Like, I hate cardio, to be honest.
So, like, I would, it would,

Speaker 1 yeah, and I, like, I would just rather you starve me, to be honest. Like, as much as I hate saying it, like, I would rather just do zeros than get get on a stair step or a stair mill because

Speaker 1 I want all that energy to go into training. For me, that's what I have the most fun doing.
Like, I love to train. So, if I'm wasting

Speaker 1 or what it feels like wasting energy in the morning on, say, fasted cardio, and then two hours later, we're going to train legs, and I'm like a little bit zapped, it's like, yo, if I could do five more sets in this

Speaker 1 leg session, I burned 300 calories that I burned during the 20 minutes of bike easily.

Speaker 1 Because there's no way you're crawling under a fat leg press set, killing yourself, and not burning a psycho amount of calories. So, like, we're always trying to find that, like, how can we be

Speaker 1 utilized or do more in the gym versus

Speaker 1 cardio versus walking versus steps. Makes sense.

Speaker 1 And if anything, I would probably

Speaker 1 like in hindsight now, looking at it, is like, I would probably just go in and hit a session in the morning if we need to do something like that again.

Speaker 1 Instead of a 20-minute bike session, let me go in, let me train some abs, let me hit arms, you know, and then in the afternoon, I'll come in and do back or something like that.

Speaker 1 And I think that that would just be more beneficial mentally for me because I just hate the cardio. Like, it's just not fun.
I can't find,

Speaker 1 I can't find the groove. I don't get the runners high or anything like that.
Like, somebody gets. So, like,

Speaker 1 I can, I can walk the dog, and I really enjoy that. So, like, that's not bad.
Um, right.

Speaker 1 But outside of that, man, like, I would just rather train. I love to train.
That's my favorite thing to do. So, like, why not try to burn calories doing that, right?

Speaker 1 Yeah, yeah. How far out did you guys start that cardio? I think it was about five or six weeks out.
About the same time we started to hammer on food and start to pull food down.

Speaker 1 It was like, okay, let's

Speaker 1 push this. And then, like I said, we can always get to a point where we're ready and then we can.
have to eat up and kind of like yo-yo if we need to.

Speaker 1 And like I said, we got to to a point kind of where it was like, okay, you're ready. Now let's see how far we can dig into this and just see if you disappear.

Speaker 1 And that was kind of the cool thing for me is like, usually there's a certain point when my arms started to disappear last year that it was like, okay, this is kind of our tipping point.

Speaker 1 If I diet much harder, I think my arms are going to look like shit. Like,

Speaker 1 whereas this year, as we started to go, it was like, okay,

Speaker 1 arms are holding size. Nothing's disappearing.
Chest isn't going too flat. Those are kind of my two weakest body parts, in my opinion, is like my arms and my chest.

Speaker 1 They were wild. And they were kind of the thing, they're just kind of the thing that goes flat first because it's kind of newer muscle as well.
You know, it's like

Speaker 1 they match now or pretty balanced, but that is way newer muscle than like, say, my quads.

Speaker 1 Like, I've had good quads since I've been in the pro league versus like I've had to grow a chest over the last two, three years. So

Speaker 1 last year we really saw like newer chest, newer muscle. It just kind of started to disappear when we started to dig a little too hard.

Speaker 1 And this time we just never really saw that. There was never a point.

Speaker 1 Like there was probably two or three points where he was like, okay, let's do 300 carbs today.

Speaker 1 You know, and the next day I'd wake up and be the exact same weight or lose a pound. And then it was like, okay, now let's just go back to Lowe's.
And we knocked off that fatigue.

Speaker 1 We see that the chest is flat, but it's not terribly flat.

Speaker 1 You shuttled some food in there and like, now let's rock and roll and go back to pushing hard on those leg days, especially.

Speaker 1 You know, that's something that's like, I'm not going to lose tissue in my legs, or I'm going to have to like try to eat that tissue off. It's dense as dense can be.

Speaker 1 So, on those days, it's like if I do a zero day and push that leg day as hard as I can, you can't tell me that that's like not gonna burn more calories than doing two hours of stair stepper in a half-ass leg session.

Speaker 1 So, around three to four weeks out, did you guys end up pulling that cardio completely, or did you just reduce it when they started?

Speaker 1 So, I still was a little flat, I was still posing in the morning really hard, but we pulled the like actual bike walking

Speaker 1 type of stuff.

Speaker 1 And

Speaker 1 he just kind of said the same thing, like, hey, like, maybe we add a couple more sets of junk volume, if you will,

Speaker 1 to the session to just make sure that we are burning some extra calories there.

Speaker 1 So, I mean, that's easy for me.

Speaker 1 It's like, yo, instead of doing three-leg curls, we do four-leg curls and then and a leg or something and you know that didn't that didn't hinder your recovery at all or anything yeah no and that's that's something man like i'll say that i'm also super lucky with is like

Speaker 1 if i'm on peds bro i really pretty much don't have a problem recovering like right now i'm natty boy and i am sore

Speaker 1 my whole body with a baseball bat That's funny. But

Speaker 1 as far as like when I'm on PEDs, when everything's going good, man, like it's

Speaker 1 I couldn't tell you like the last couple weeks of prep where I was like actually sore from the session even though we were still murdering it, you know

Speaker 1 Yeah,

Speaker 1 sorry, I just oh

Speaker 1 Someone's coming in

Speaker 1 Your girl coming? Oh,

Speaker 1 I guess so.

Speaker 1 I was caught off guard because she was uh

Speaker 1 someone's breaking in. Burgolar.

Speaker 1 I was like, what's going on right now?

Speaker 1 Anyways.

Speaker 1 What was I asking? What are we doing?

Speaker 1 Oh,

Speaker 1 yeah, regarding the PEDs. So you were mentioning whenever you're doing the leg extensions, right? And then you just feel like

Speaker 1 that's

Speaker 1 in the place where the water retention is just abnormally high in in your quads and like you just feel like this pump where like the separation is gone. Like, were you

Speaker 1 kind of focusing on any particular PEDs in general? Are there any particular ones that you feel like you see this happen for?

Speaker 1 I think growth is probably the one like I noticed the most,

Speaker 1 like where the pumps get crazy and stuff is when growth is in there, obviously. And the higher you go, the worse it's going to get, obviously.

Speaker 1 So that's something too. Like, I can't, I've never really been able to go over six IUs of growth.
I've tried eight a few times. Um, and just it's almost too much for me.

Speaker 1 Like, it's just it's kind of a battle and training and stuff where it's like the pumps are fighting me to where I'm having to, like, take extra time between sets before I can even get back in the machine and things like that.

Speaker 1 So, there's kind of a fine line there for me where it's like, I don't know if it's benefiting me that much when it's super, super high.

Speaker 1 And so then just reducing it back, even

Speaker 1 I think at like that three-week out mark, like I said, was we reduced it, we cut growth in half. So I was running three.

Speaker 1 And then, like I said, at that 14-day mark or whatever it was, I think it was 14 days, might have been 13 days, one of those two. We just pulled it completely and just rode into the show.
And

Speaker 1 then

Speaker 1 going into Prague, I never reintroduced it. So, that also

Speaker 1 kind of to give you an overview. So, like, so Prague, I was off of growth hormone and tests for like a full month.
Holy shit, no way.

Speaker 1 Did you feel anything from that?

Speaker 1 I felt like I started to feel like dog shit. That last like

Speaker 1 peak week of Prague, I was like, okay, my test is like crashing like even though I'm on other PEDs, I can feel that like test is finally like completely out of the body,

Speaker 1 you know, and stuff. And obviously growth kind of, the main thing you feel with growth and notice is one, I think it helps with sleep a ton, obviously.

Speaker 1 And then just like when you're that dry, elbows and knees and hips,

Speaker 1 when you don't have it in, you are like, okay, yeah, no, I'm an old man.

Speaker 1 I actually have some arthritis in my right knee.

Speaker 1 You know, but when you're all when you're all full and on PDs and stuff, like, you know, eight weeks out, you feel like you're invincible. So those things, you don't feel them as much.
So now,

Speaker 1 you know, it's like, especially now that I've been off everything for coming up on six weeks,

Speaker 1 my body feels like an old man, bro. Like, I'm 28 years old, but I feel 48 right now.

Speaker 1 Holy shit, bro. Oh, I'm not looking forward to it i was looking forward to freaking going on a cycle for a second but

Speaker 1 it's like you know it's such a we were talking about it today while we're training man and it's like it's always a humbling experience to get reminded that like you're still human yeah it's like you're at super low physiological levels at least half the year as a bodybuilder so it's like half the year you're like I feel like a god.

Speaker 1 And then when you go to feeling like this, you're like, oh, shit, I actually am human.

Speaker 1 So, it was like Brad and I were talking, and I was like, Yeah, man, like now that I haven't been on anything for a couple weeks, and like everything is like inflammation is down, and like nothing is all juiced up, I'm like, Bro, my elbow, this shoulder, my

Speaker 1 right knee. I'm like, this shit's banged up a little bit.
And he's like, Yeah, bro, how do you think I feel?

Speaker 1 I got fucking 10 years on you, and I'm still just trying to keep up with you every day, you know. And I'm like,

Speaker 1 yeah I respect it bro I'm about to double dose the BPC and the TB for this fucking life cycle dude I will say that's something too that has been a huge factor over the last year in this shoulder at least is I've been doing injectable TB and BPC

Speaker 1 and it's been it's made a huge difference because this shoulder was absolutely trash from college track.

Speaker 1 I did I slapped toward the labrum doing a snatch, and like it went completely behind me, about fucking body slammed me to the ground, and it tore the shoulder to shit.

Speaker 1 And I've always kind of had issues. That's part of why I have that front light spread mobility issue is because of the shoulder.

Speaker 1 But the BPC and stuff has made a drastic difference, and that's kind of what's helped with my mobility: just being able to get into positions without paying because I've been able to do that now with the BPC and the TV.

Speaker 1 Gotcha. Okay, gotcha.

Speaker 1 Um, when I saw you two at Olympia, dude, uh, especially during pre-judging, your waist looked so fucking tiny. Like, I almost felt like it looked smaller than like your past shows.

Speaker 1 Was there anything that you guys might have like done to attack that in particular? And if you don't mind me asking, like, what orals might you have been running for this show?

Speaker 1 Yeah, so orals was just Anabar and Windstraw.

Speaker 1 Um,

Speaker 1 very like straightforward stuff. Um, I will say, I do think part of my waist being better, it was slightly smaller this Olympia than last Olympia.

Speaker 1 And I think a big portion of that was taking oral BPC,

Speaker 1 which decreased inflammation in the gut drastically.

Speaker 1 And then I've always done a good bit of glutamine, but this prep, we went above and beyond with that. So I was doing like 40 grams a day.

Speaker 1 Yeah, so I was doing 10, I was doing 10 milligrams four times a day.

Speaker 1 And

Speaker 1 we really saw a drastic difference in that just in digestion and absorption.

Speaker 1 And then and then, like I said, the BPC, I really think helped keep inflammation off the gut from just how much food we have to eat. There's going to be some damage there, right?

Speaker 1 So then carbing up and stuff, I was still trying, I still took that all the way into the show, trying to keep that inflammation off the stomach.

Speaker 1 Um, you know, because eating a thousand carbs in a day is also going to cause some inflammation,

Speaker 1 yeah, for sure. Um,

Speaker 1 did you always take the glutamine on fasted in like fasted states, or like, did you try to shoot for fasted states?

Speaker 1 I'm, yes, to be honest, I feel like it's always difficult to try to do that somewhat.

Speaker 1 So, obviously, first one in the morning, that first liter of water, I try to get it in before I have any food or anything. So do glutamine in that.

Speaker 1 And then my second one was after

Speaker 1 my meal one, about two hours after. So right before meal two,

Speaker 1 which is my pre-workout meal.

Speaker 1 And then we were doing 10 in my intra

Speaker 1 and then 10 before bed.

Speaker 1 So still

Speaker 1 somewhat fasted or at least minimal amount of food in the stomach to try to get that absorption good so that it's helping repair that gut lining without anything in there, you know?

Speaker 1 That's cool. That's dope.
Because the reason I was asking is because

Speaker 1 Patrick had me not run any orals except for just Proviron for my first show, which I was like shocked about because I'm like, dude,

Speaker 1 I've always run Winstroll. So this was like probably one of the smallest prep stacks.
Well, this was the smallest prep stack as a pro I've ever run.

Speaker 1 But then afterwards, I didn't have quite the same like pop that a lot of the other competitors had, according to people in the audience.

Speaker 1 So after discussing things with him, he let me introduce Winstroll in it because I always felt like Winstroll got me that like dirty paper thin skin, you know, and

Speaker 1 started implementing it. And I feel like it got this better, fuller look for the second show, which was three weeks later.
But now

Speaker 1 six weeks later for the last show, I can like, I'm starting to get acne in my chest and my back.

Speaker 1 I'm starting to feel like maybe they could be contributing a a little bit more inflammation, a little bit more hepatoxicity. And my digestion has absolutely slowed down for sure.

Speaker 1 Like I'm starting to get like weird grumbles and shit. Things that aren't very pleasant.
So

Speaker 1 that's actually something that I experienced.

Speaker 1 Is that something that, because I remember you mentioned that? Yeah, bro. So just like you, early on

Speaker 1 in some preps, I had some experience with that where like. If I would take it above 25 milligrams of Windstraw, I was instantly having issues like that.
Like, even

Speaker 1 to the point where when I would poop, you could almost smell the like Windstraw/slash chemical smell. Cause my body, can be honest,

Speaker 1 like if anything ever comes back bad on my blood work, it's my liver. That's it.

Speaker 1 And so that's...

Speaker 1 That's definitely something I've experienced in the past. And that was part of the reason that we had kind of abused the glutamine, if you will.

Speaker 1 um but yeah something i would say is you want to look at wing straw

Speaker 1 i wouldn't want to run it any longer than four weeks i think after that you just get into hepatotoxicity you get into

Speaker 1 like you said it's a collagen degradation agent that's a what something that a lot of people don't really understand about wind straw

Speaker 1 So like,

Speaker 1 although it's really good for thinning the skin skin out, and it actually does thin the skin,

Speaker 1 what most people, the like fish thing, I think we talked about this on the last one,

Speaker 1 but like the all fish diet, the reason that actually thins your skin,

Speaker 1 you have to be on Windstraw for that to work. The collagen degradation agent.
It kills collagen type two and type three.

Speaker 1 Our skin is made up of all types, one, two, and three.

Speaker 1 Fish only has type one in it. So you're feeding only like the smallest membrane in your skin, and the other membranes are made of two and three, which is in chicken and beef and like collagen powder.

Speaker 1 Those are mostly twos and threes. If you can eliminate those from your diet and then only have or have

Speaker 1 the system to be able to degrade that, then you will see a drastic difference difference in

Speaker 1 skin texture, especially.

Speaker 1 And that's something that, like, I've played around with and done completely all fish. I've done some fish with a little bit of egg whites and kind of seen the difference.

Speaker 1 The only problem with that is

Speaker 1 you're also degrading the collagen in your tendons, in your ligaments, and all of those as well.

Speaker 1 So, you have to be smart in how far you're willing to push it, how high you're willing to run that degradation agent, and how much collagen you truly want to take out

Speaker 1 because you run the risk of bone

Speaker 1 by taking too much wind straw and also degrading the collagen down.

Speaker 1 So, you kind of want to find that happy medium, but there definitely is some science running wind straw and using it to actually thin the skin, Right. Yeah.
Makes sense. Fuck, bro.

Speaker 1 That's some fucking valuable information.

Speaker 1 Like, I've never known the details of why you can get that look. Yeah.
Maybe that's something I need to focus on a little bit more. Get that thin.
That fucking thing.

Speaker 1 I mean, bro, so that was honestly like that was kind of the coolest thing about me going to pharmacy school is like

Speaker 1 I could

Speaker 1 use the the knowledge I learned in school to mostly it's just be able to read studies because because, like, studies are kind of hard to read if you don't have like a background and being able to understand medicine, like medical studies, you know?

Speaker 1 Yeah, um,

Speaker 1 but that was like that was one of the biggest things I took away from pharmacy school, honestly, was just being able to read medical literature

Speaker 1 and be able to apply it or understand it. Cause it's like they use such big words and stupid words and

Speaker 1 try to

Speaker 1 use seven sentences to explain what you could explain with one sentence.

Speaker 1 So just being able to decipher that is honestly like some of the hardest part of reading that stuff. But that a lot of that knowledge just came from when I was in school.
I was just

Speaker 1 like reading in the background of the class. Trying to figure out different steroids and things like that.

Speaker 1 That's tough, bro you have a crazy background by the way pharmacy school and then just construction i know where and then now you're just dude so like epic olympian bodybuilder i i worked i mean like i worked construction kind of all throughout high school and like in the summers and worked in the oil field with my dad so i always had that blue collar background

Speaker 1 but It was school, dude. I was so smart.
Like, I graduated high school with 4.0 and I never cracked a book.

Speaker 1 So

Speaker 1 when I went to college i was like

Speaker 1 one i was on a full ride for track so i already had my whole school paid for so i was like i'm gonna make them pay for a doctorate what's the fastest one i can get

Speaker 1 um

Speaker 1 and so like it was like they're like well you can get into pharmacy school in four years and then it's only a four-year program so like Really, it'll take about eight years.

Speaker 1 And I was like, let me see the requirements to get into pharmacy school.

Speaker 1 So I looked at him and I was like,

Speaker 1 I can do all of this in two years.

Speaker 1 And I promise you I'll get in.

Speaker 1 And they were like, no one's ever done that. I was like, okay, watch.

Speaker 1 So I got A's in all the required classes.

Speaker 1 And then

Speaker 1 like

Speaker 1 pharmacy school is like medical school. So you take what's called the P cat to get in instead of the M cat.

Speaker 1 I took that and I scored in the 90th percentile. And they were like,

Speaker 1 I mean, you have better results than most of the people that took four years to try to get into the program. So like, and you're a college athlete.
So

Speaker 1 being an athlete also looked really good on their resume as saying like, we have a student athlete that's also going to be a pharmacist someday in our program.

Speaker 1 So it was kind of a no-brainer for them to let me in.

Speaker 1 And as like all the teachers kind of met me and stuff, they realized like I was super smart without having to try at school.

Speaker 1 So when I did, I finished two and a half years of pharmacy school.

Speaker 1 And when I went in to like turn in my books and say, hey, I'm not coming back after Christmas.

Speaker 1 The teachers, like half of them were like,

Speaker 1 are you psychotic? Like you're the, you're one of the top 10% in this class. You're one of the only people that will like make it as a pharmacist or graduate with good grades.
And you're gonna quit.

Speaker 1 And like half of these people are gonna have to quit because they fail classes or like can't make it through the program. And you're just like, fuck it, I want to be a bodybuilder.
And I was like,

Speaker 1 yeah, like I can always come back to school, but like you're only 20 once. So like I only have a 20-year-old body one time.
Like, I need to use it, you know.

Speaker 1 And I only had one professor that was like kind of just like that. Was like, no, you're only 20 once, man.
Like, I went back to school when I was 35. So, like, who cares? Yeah.

Speaker 1 And I was like, okay, like, that's cool. And now, like, they all still follow along.
So it's kind of cool. Like, a bunch of them messaged me after prog.

Speaker 1 And we're like,

Speaker 1 a couple of them were like, I didn't know you were going to do this.

Speaker 1 And then the one that told me, like, you can always come back to school, he messaged me and was like, I always knew you'd be like a world champ or something, Marty. Like,

Speaker 1 we all knew you had the work ethic, except for you were in the back of our class watching bodybuilding videos.

Speaker 1 That was me, bro. That's awesome, dude.
That was me, too, in college.

Speaker 1 I was just listening to, I was actually listening to Jeff Nipper's Ice Cream for PRs podcast before he even started doing the crazy. Before he was like famous.
Yeah, it was before he was famous, bro.

Speaker 1 This shit was fire, though, back in the day. That's cool.
And now look at me. I'm

Speaker 1 a bodybuilder.

Speaker 1 And you have one of the most famous podcasts. Thank you, bro.
But look at you now. From fucking 10% in your class to fucking top 0.000001%

Speaker 1 of all bodybuilders in the entire world, dude.

Speaker 1 Dude, honestly, it just comes down to doing what you love, man. Like, you, I mean, you know it as well, too.
It's like...

Speaker 1 It's really easy to be passionate and really easy to like do this every day and like live in monotony or what people think is monotony when like you really love it like yeah i love the structure of my diet i love dieting i love being on a plan like some people are like you doesn't it give you anxiety knowing like you have to eat the same thing every day and i'm like no no doesn't it give you anxiety not knowing what you're gonna eat tomorrow

Speaker 1 like doesn't that bother you oh

Speaker 1 I feel like there's something to be said about for us, though, man. It's like when we eat the same shit every day, it's that we are doing this.

Speaker 1 Everything we're consuming on a day-to-day basis, this meal one, two, three, four, five, six is literally bringing us closer to our purpose and our goal.

Speaker 1 We are growing by the minute, getting closer to our goal by the minute, about to achieve greatness by the minute, you know, versus someone else who doesn't have that passion or that drive or that vision for their purpose.

Speaker 1 they're just like, oh, fuck, this shit's boring, man. I want to go fucking eat some pasta.
Yeah, go eat some raw. I mean, that's that's the other thing I love about it too, man.
Is like

Speaker 1 there's real, like, there's no, you have to make those conscious decisions like every meal.

Speaker 1 Like, you could, like, 90% of the time, no one is watching me eat my food. Yeah, you know, if I really wanted to eat a Chick-fil-A sandwich, like, I can fucking do that,

Speaker 1 but

Speaker 1 there's also repercussions for those choices.

Speaker 1 So it's like, it's

Speaker 1 that part of school to me. And then, like, I know I talk about all the time, but like, the endless chase is like, bro, you know how many times I've said, like, oh, when I get to 210

Speaker 1 pounds, I'm going to look so sick. And like, that'll be where I want to stay.

Speaker 1 Then I get there, and it's like, okay, if I get to 225,

Speaker 1 I'm going, I'd like,

Speaker 1 then I'm going to have enough size. This is going to be sick.

Speaker 1 And then you get there, and like, it's like, a little more, a little more. And, like, now I don't really care about being much bigger.

Speaker 1 Like, size will come over these next couple years, like two, three pounds each time. And

Speaker 1 obviously, it's important to continue to grow when I'm competing against guys that are 300 pounds. But, like, now my endless chase right now is like, how much detail,

Speaker 1 how conditioned can we truly get? like

Speaker 1 like munser status type of shit it's like i want to be

Speaker 1 i want people to put my name up there as like yo i've seen a lot of bodybuilders in person but like you know who i saw in person that was like didn't have skin marty

Speaker 1 you know like i know people that got to see branch in person and were like

Speaker 1 Yo, I used to talk shit on Branch and then I saw him in person and was like, I completely understand why he wins shows now.

Speaker 1 Like, the dude was inside out, disgusting, nasty peeled.

Speaker 1 Yeah.

Speaker 1 Yeah, bro.

Speaker 1 I feel like we're so blessed to be here, dude. So blessed to do this.

Speaker 1 Yeah, dude. I gotta ask you.

Speaker 1 Yeah, go ahead. How does it feel to have beat five past Mr.
Olympia champs?

Speaker 1 Yeah, bro, that's crazy. So So

Speaker 1 all together, it's like 13 titles, I think, total,

Speaker 1 which is like wild in itself, man.

Speaker 1 Obviously, I think the biggest triumph is Samson, of course, because, you know, he won last year and like he's 300 pounds. I only weighed 235.

Speaker 1 You know, I mean, all those things added together. And like, I was still kind of the young pup.
So like, this was kind of my moment of proving it.

Speaker 1 Um, but each one, like, kind of has a special place in my heart because they've all like played a kind of a specific part in my journey, right?

Speaker 1 Um, so like Chris, especially, because like going into that, we trained together and stuff too.

Speaker 1 And like, I got so much

Speaker 1 insight from him on just like

Speaker 1 how to handle this all. You know, like this life comes at you so fast, and then when you start to get success here and start to have some wins and stuff, like

Speaker 1 it literally feels like my life is a thousand miles a minute right now. So

Speaker 1 getting those moments with Chris where he was kind of like, hey, man, like you definitely got to step back and like soak it all in and like enjoy the process and like don't get too caught up in like what's next and the next show you're doing and like the next prep's got to start right now and stuff.

Speaker 1 Um, so, like, that was really important to me. And then, like,

Speaker 1 obviously, Keon is like, it's super cool, full circle, because we trained together when we were younger, back when nobody believed in us or always had something to say about us on the internet.

Speaker 1 Um, to then us both being at the forefront of the sport, and like just displaying our passion, both at what we

Speaker 1 want it to be, and like being able to show the sport in a light that we feel is best.

Speaker 1 So, that part's been really cool to me. And then, obviously, like, I'm a teammate with Samson.
I've spent a lot of time with Samson outside of the gym and stuff.

Speaker 1 And, like, I respect him a ton as a person. And then, also, like, Samson was a blue-collar guy, too.
So, like, he we both understand each other on that level.

Speaker 1 Of like, we're so lucky to get to do this versus like having to build houses every day before this, you know? Yeah, uh,

Speaker 1 Sean,

Speaker 1 we're not as close

Speaker 1 as

Speaker 1 like people,

Speaker 1 but we've always kind of been interconnected through like people that we're around or with.

Speaker 1 And so that part was really cool in that when we did Prague together, we were both coached by boss.

Speaker 1 I got to see his whole carb up process. He got to see my whole carve-up process.

Speaker 1 And just kind of being a part of his journey and watching that kind of his transition from Matt to a new coach, how much progress they made between the Olympia and Prague.

Speaker 1 That was really cool to watch. And then,

Speaker 1 you know, Curry,

Speaker 1 when I beat him last year,

Speaker 1 there wasn't, we didn't have much of a connection.

Speaker 1 But this year, we kind of have gotten a lot closer.

Speaker 1 And it was really cool this year at the Olympia backstage, getting to bullshit with him, is like, bro, he's won an Olympia title now, and like his son is probably going to the league.

Speaker 1 Like, his son is one of the best recruits in the nation for a wide receiver. Um, and he'll go play for like Tennessee or Alabama and be a starting wide receiver.
So, like,

Speaker 1 bro, he like his journey is so different now. Like, bodybuilding is like probably his least important thing.

Speaker 1 You know, it's like when your dad and your son is killing it like that, like, you're excited to go to the football games on Friday night, not necessarily the shows anymore, you know?

Speaker 1 So, like, that was kind of cool hearing his, like,

Speaker 1 that he's pretty much ready to transition and, like, be able to just watch his son kill it and do those things with him.

Speaker 1 And, like, now, after the Olympia, they had it set up for them to go visit like five different colleges, like, five weekends in a row. So, they're like on Division I visits.

Speaker 1 They last weekend, they were at Tennessee. Um, so it's like, it's cool to see also get to watch him kind of like

Speaker 1 slowly transition out of

Speaker 1 the sport too, and like kind of seeing that side of things. Because obviously, we all get to that point eventually in bodybuilding where it's like, okay,

Speaker 1 maybe this,

Speaker 1 this isn't at the forefront anymore, you know. You know, guys, either guys start passing you that shouldn't pass you, or you get an injury, or you start a business.

Speaker 1 It could be any of those things, but just kind of seeing these guys that are at that point in their career, William too, getting to spend time around him and seeing like him build his businesses now and him build his family now and stuff.

Speaker 1 And watching that process is also super cool to me because obviously that's something in the next five years or so that we want to embark on, you know, is trying to do this and have a family, which is, you know, some people say it's impossible.

Speaker 1 Some people have proven that it's not impossible.

Speaker 1 But it's definitely,

Speaker 1 there's definitely difficulties that come with that.

Speaker 1 So being able to see some of these guys at the top and be able to get insight and watch them and the way they move when it comes to those processes is also super cool for me.

Speaker 1 I remember you mentioning, since we're talking about mindset, and this kind of came across my mind, but at the last pod, and I think you also mentioned this on Fuad's pod

Speaker 1 but the last podcast you said you've never been super confident in nailing it on stage and you've always been wary about your peaks and I know that Pittsburgh was kind of like a tough place coming out of that being like all right I have I have things to amend so coming into

Speaker 1 Olympia and then coming into

Speaker 1 Prague

Speaker 1 What was your mindset going into it? Do you experience any anxieties?

Speaker 1 How How did you feel and how did you attack being on stage?

Speaker 1 Yeah, man, this one was completely different for me, man. I felt like we had taken enough notes.
We knew the look that we needed to bring to be my best.

Speaker 1 And I felt like we had all the data to be able to do that. So honestly, like...

Speaker 1 Going into it, I really didn't question much. And

Speaker 1 the coolest thing probably about it was like

Speaker 1 every morning of the Olympia,

Speaker 1 we were waking up and boss was like calling my weight before it came,

Speaker 1 before I texted it to him. Like he would guess and he would be like within point two.

Speaker 1 Like we just, you know, we had honed in the process so much that I kind of, that anxiety was eased. The other thing for me was like,

Speaker 1 like we talked about, where it was like i always would get to a certain point in dieting where it was like okay now my chest is disappearing so i could never like be on stage flat and feel comfortable if that makes sense

Speaker 1 um because it was like okay if i'm flat then like i can't feel my chest at all when i hit a most muscular and then i would get like that panic feeling of like oh fucked i'm flat because i can't feel my chest um whereas this time i I knew, kind of going into it, like, hey, we're going to play the flat game.

Speaker 1 I'm going to be slightly flat. If there's a moment of like, you don't feel the muscle push against the skin, it's okay.

Speaker 1 That's the goal right now is like dry, hard, peeled, a little bit flat is okay. And you're big enough now.

Speaker 1 that your flat is still big.

Speaker 1 So that, those few things gave me confidence. And then I'll say the thing that like put the icing on the cake for me was Phil pulled me aside backstage at the Olympia and was like

Speaker 1 he told me a handful of things.

Speaker 1 Um,

Speaker 1 but the two main things that really stuck out to me was one, he's been watching me since I was a kid, and I kind of knew that, like, being around Denver. And I got introduced to him at like 19.

Speaker 1 I mean, I watched him guest pose, pose and that was the reason I decided that I was going to be a body or like actually compete.

Speaker 1 But so one, hearing that from him, like, I've been watching you and he told me like the one thing you're missing, Marty, is like, you wear your heart on your sleeve.

Speaker 1 And when you think you, you might not be winning, you show that.

Speaker 1 And he was like, I want you to go out there tonight and show them your Mr. Olympia, whether you're in fourth place or whether you're in first place.

Speaker 1 And that just kind of like lit a fire under my ass. Like, yo, Phil believes in me and he also knows that like

Speaker 1 that is the key to winning.

Speaker 1 He told me, he's like, yo, man, like, at the end of the day, the judges are still humans.

Speaker 1 They still are impersonable. They're still impressionable.
So if you walk out there and you have a demeanor of like, somebody beats you, they might allow that to leak into them a little bit.

Speaker 1 Whereas if you come out there and you're like, I'm the fucking man,

Speaker 1 it's hard to not be excited about you. He was like, there was lots of times on Friday night that I think I lost to Kai,

Speaker 1 but to the judges, there was no way I was going to let them know that I thought that.

Speaker 1 Like to the judges, Phil was still winning in his head. And that's.

Speaker 1 That really stuck out to me. And then the other thing was, is he told me like,

Speaker 1 man, elude the confidence that you have in the physique that you have because like you have everything you're not missing anything you don't have any weak body parts conditioning is insane and then i hit some poses for him and he was like you're on bro like go show the world that you're on you know yeah

Speaker 1 so Those things kind of kick-started the Olympia and like really helped that, obviously.

Speaker 1 And then I was just able to build off of that confidence going into Prague because it was like I obviously knew the physique was only gonna be better, the peak was only gonna be better,

Speaker 1 but then on top of that, like

Speaker 1 Prague is so

Speaker 1 it just feels like home for me. I mean, you know, part of that's just doing the show a couple times, being in that country.
Like, I don't, there's no language barrier.

Speaker 1 I know where the grocery store is, I know where this is. Like, it all felt very at home to me.
So, there was no other stress

Speaker 1 involved in Prague, which was

Speaker 1 probably made it that much easier to not have to stress about, like,

Speaker 1 what do I look like? And how is the peak going? And, like, should we look at me? It was like,

Speaker 1 kind of like, oh, pull my shorts up and look at my quad. And, like,

Speaker 1 things are going exactly how they need to go. We just keep doing what we're doing.

Speaker 1 You know, it's like, I didn't need to like strip all the way down and like, do my glutes look good whereas in the past

Speaker 1 i needed that bit of reassurance to keep my confidence going whereas this time it was like i didn't need anyone to tell me i'm on like it was like i i know this one is right on the money we just gotta land the plane

Speaker 1 Do you do anything or do you and boss do anything to manage cortisol around these times?

Speaker 1 I mean, for me, man, I'm very, very chill anyways um

Speaker 1 you know me i smoke weed and i would say that's probably like my my cortisol reliever is like sometimes boss is like hey go have a joint and just relax like

Speaker 1 just chill out a little bit you know yeah um but besides that like i'm a fairly

Speaker 1 cortisol free person if you will like i'm not much of a stressor I would say I grew up in a pretty like stressful environment in childhood.

Speaker 1 so I manage that super well as far as like throwing things at me as like a flat tire or something like that.

Speaker 1 Like, it's just how life goes, like, I don't really like get into tizzy and stuff about that.

Speaker 1 And I think that helps a ton with just being good bodybuilders, like not letting things get to you too much, you know. Yeah,

Speaker 1 um,

Speaker 1 and then the other thing is, is just being with boss for me, he's

Speaker 1 so calming and so like we have so much fun and we're fucking around 24 7 and cracking jokes and like talking shit and stuff so much that like

Speaker 1 it almost is like more fun to be at the show than it is like the weeks leading up to it because i get i have that anticipation of like two weeks of like I can't wait to see boss.

Speaker 1 I can't wait for him to see me in person.

Speaker 1 And then when we're together, it's like it's so much fun and like i know you've watched my youtubes like when i pose and i'm like going through poses and boss is like holy shit and like well you know like look at that like damn like it just gets me more and more excited too so like

Speaker 1 being with him definitely eases my mind i would say Out of all the shows I've done with him, the ones that I've peaked without him and we've done it through the phone have been been the hardest because I didn't feel as

Speaker 1 at home and like as comfortable and like as eased, mind-eased as when I'm with him.

Speaker 1 Okay. Hmm.

Speaker 1 Do you?

Speaker 1 Bro, one of the coolest scenes I saw was when Boss got so fucking hyped, wouldn't you want Brog? Oh, he lost

Speaker 1 Botsy's mind, bro. It was so cool.

Speaker 1 That was great to see.

Speaker 1 He ran away away because he started to cry and he didn't want Alexis to see him cry.

Speaker 1 And then it was so funny because, like, then Alexis is like about to start crying because she sees how happy boss is and like how excited he is.

Speaker 1 And George Ferris snatches Alexis's arm and is like, don't cry. You'll mess up your makeup and you have pictures.

Speaker 1 It was like so funny. George was like looking out for like, don't, don't mess up your makeup.
You got, you got pictures to to take with the champ so

Speaker 1 is that's honestly man like i know i talk about all the time but like my whole circle everybody's so stress-free and like just loves bodybuilding that like

Speaker 1 the trips are honestly like the most fun i have all year to be completely frank with you is like i mean i would say prog is probably one of my most memorable weekends of my entire life um but every show weekend to me is like a movie.

Speaker 1 Like, it's like, we have so much fun. We fuck off.
We mess around. Like,

Speaker 1 there's only a few moments of like, oh my God, this is so serious. Like, the rest of it is just us boys having boy time and like hanging out and just having a blast.

Speaker 1 You know, it's like we get to watch my body change every two hours as each meal goes in. And like, it's really like the fun part of it, you know, it's like the work is done at that point.

Speaker 1 So like, there's no reason to stress either you did it or you didn't right. Yeah,

Speaker 1 what do you feel like is the reason that

Speaker 1 you and Moss were able to have you not shrink as opposed to other bodybuilders like Samson who, you know, they'll dig hard and diet hard to get to this conditioning, but then you see them shrink on stage and at a substantial amount from the previous shows.

Speaker 1 Yeah, I mean obviously like I don't think it's a knock on Samson anything, but I do think my training obviously keeps a fullness that

Speaker 1 helps.

Speaker 1 And having Brett is a X factor that I don't think any other pro has. You know what I mean? Being able to train with somebody else that wants it as bad as I do, pushes as hard as I do.

Speaker 1 It's like, even when

Speaker 1 in those moments, especially this, this prep, we had him ready kind of early, so he got to eat at the end and like kept yo-yoing.

Speaker 1 So then it was like, I know Brett gets food today today on leg day. I got to keep up with him.
So like, there's just a standard that I have to match.

Speaker 1 And I think that that helps a ton, right? Obviously.

Speaker 1 And then I think the other part of it is just

Speaker 1 how long I've been training like this to where, like, I mean, I train like this with Branch. I've had so many years of training kind of like a psychopath

Speaker 1 to where I think like like, this tissue is really going to have to be beaten off of me now at this point, versus some of these other guys.

Speaker 1 It's very volumist tissue, but as you die down, it always shrinks. You know, that's bound to happen,

Speaker 1 especially with guys that grow quicker. So, like, you've seen my physique.

Speaker 1 The change from Olympia last year to this year was a pound, maybe two max

Speaker 1 if if you really want to give it to me you could say i gained like four or five pounds and i was two or three pounds tighter and but but on the scale olympia to olympia i was like 232 to 234.

Speaker 1 so you know i it's not like i made this drastic jump in tissue to where then you're like, oh my god, he shrunk so much. It's like, I'm, no, really, like, I'm pretty much the same size.

Speaker 1 Everything is just getting denser and harder and more refined.

Speaker 1 And then the more detail we get in it, the more it looks big.

Speaker 1 Yeah, that makes sense. Plus, it seems like you and boss were really on top of it and managing, looking at it every single day from a perspective of just how much, how is your recovery and how much,

Speaker 1 how much flattening out, I guess, is he seeing in your physique as as you're doing this cardio and then pulling back on the cardio and prioritizing training as well to make sure that you're maintaining all that muscle mass and maturity.

Speaker 1 I think those all are like very valuable points to focus on to prevent this from happening.

Speaker 1 But I know this shit's still tough, man, because it's like, no matter what, it's always a balancing game, like finding that perfect middle ground.

Speaker 1 And I think that's the hardest thing for all these coaches and athletes. Like Patrick had that hard time with

Speaker 1 He I'm trying to remember the other client he did it with, but with Logan Franklin, for example. Like, I'm pretty sure the judges wanted Logan to come in fuller and bigger.

Speaker 1 So, obviously, the plan was like, all right, we're going to bring a fuller package. But then Olympia comes around, and the judges didn't like that as much as they liked his build physique.

Speaker 1 Same thing with

Speaker 1 the vice versa. Yeah, yeah, which is crazy.

Speaker 1 You know, it's like, I mean, it also depends on the day, you know, and that's that's the craziest thing about bodybuilding is like, you know, a lot of people were like, well,

Speaker 1 how did Samson lose or beat Martin at the Olympia when he was flat?

Speaker 1 and then he gets better and improves and is much fuller and much better

Speaker 1 and Marty

Speaker 1 maybe got like 10%

Speaker 1 better at Prague versus like Samson's drastic jump but then Marty beats him it's like one you need to see it in person yeah

Speaker 1 but two

Speaker 1 Sometimes, like you said, being in a hole,

Speaker 1 like there's just no coming out of it in two weeks.

Speaker 1 like sometimes you just it takes longer to fix and a mess up than that in bodybuilding and that's that is the hard balancing act of like hey if the seesaw tips too far in one direction it's really hard to get it to go back to center line

Speaker 1 if anything sometimes you end up seesawing it the other direction you know yeah yeah

Speaker 1 What exactly did you guys do in between Olympia and Prague aside from like, because you mentioned that you kept out GH and testosterone, right? Completely. That's wild to me, man.

Speaker 1 Thinking about keeping out testosterone for like

Speaker 1 two and a half. No, wait, no, freaking what? There's a month.
Four weeks. There's a month.

Speaker 1 Dude, what the hell? How did you, how did you survive that? Yeah, man.

Speaker 1 I mean, it's definitely, like I said, the last week I really started to feel like, okay, body's like going through it at this point. Haven't had tests long enough that like joints are achy

Speaker 1 everything's achy recovery is starting to take a hit but one training obviously was pulled back at that point because I was traveling and doing all those flights and everything like that so there's there was a bit of that to where it was like yeah

Speaker 1 I don't really need it because we're not going back to like 100% balls to the wall sessions in between here.

Speaker 1 And obviously, you want to regulate that water retention/slash fullness factor that you get with those things.

Speaker 1 And besides that, man, like

Speaker 1 just

Speaker 1 trying to manage it for us was one managing stress. My dog,

Speaker 1 after the Olympia, got like insanely sick, and we spent like 24 hours in the veterinarian hospital in Vegas, and I thought she was going to die on us. Oh, shit.

Speaker 1 So, like, that was, I had already committed to the show. I already booked plane tickets, and then my dog decides to like almost kill herself.

Speaker 1 Um, and so that was super stressful. Of like, one, we spent two and a half extra days in Vegas that we weren't prepared to do.

Speaker 1 Then we got home, and we had a 48-hour turnaround before I had to fly to Prague.

Speaker 1 So, in the midst of that, I'm also trying to fit in the training sessions, make sure that meals were perfect.

Speaker 1 But once we got on the plane to Prague, it was kind of like, all right,

Speaker 1 like we're back to doing this like we always do, travel, get there, hit the grocery store, make all my food, and we're ready to rock and roll.

Speaker 1 And like, I already, because we'd been to Prague, I already stayed in that Airbnb last year.

Speaker 1 So it must be good luck. But I kind of knew where everything was.
So it was like, we'll get there. I know where the grocery store is.
I know I can get everything there.

Speaker 1 I know I have XYZ already at the Airbnb.

Speaker 1 So it was easy in that sense of like just being prepared. Also, Alexis is like super type A, so she has everything written down and everything mapped out.

Speaker 1 And like our day is kind of somewhat in the planner already on like when we're going to start my tan

Speaker 1 and all of those things, which also just helps ease my mind because I am not that way, but it's nice to kind of see it visually written out and stuff.

Speaker 1 Um, so that also helps, and then also the other thing that helps me be pretty stress-free is like having a partner that understands, you know, it's like, hey, if I have to say, like, hey, I'm gonna go train right now, can you make me some chicken and stuff for when I get back?

Speaker 1 She can do that. And like, she wasn't doing the show, so she was willing to, you know, even give me a little extra time comparatively to like last year where she was doing it as well.

Speaker 1 But yeah,

Speaker 1 we worked really well together, man. And that's like, if there's anything that I would say is like my secret,

Speaker 1 it's truly just the people around me. Like, how much boss believes in me, how much Alexis believes in me, and how much like they're willing to

Speaker 1 give their all to this

Speaker 1 one singular goal. You know, it's like, like, it's pretty crazy that like, I mean, it, it takes a whole army to, to chase the Mr.
Olympia down, if you, if we're being honest, you know.

Speaker 1 Wow, dude. She's an MVP.
Holy shit. That's awesome.
She's a, she's a baller, man. I couldn't ask for a better girl at home, to be honest.

Speaker 1 And not only on top of that, she, you know, she still works as a nurse. She's still delivering babies and stuff like that.

Speaker 1 She's still, she, like I said, she does the baking and she has her own little baking business so she sells like 20 loaves of bread a week just to bring in extra cash because she's a hustler like that and it's really it's cool to just be like everyone I'm surrounded by is like has endless work ethic, you know, and that's something that I really take a lot of pride in like even my new camera guy Cooper

Speaker 1 You saw the, I mean, the movies are like the the YouTubes are like movies for one. Yep.

Speaker 1 But two, like the kid never stops working like he he's during the day as he's filming me he's also editing it to where like 90 of those videos in prog were done at like 8 p.m what the

Speaker 1 that day same day like if morning we filmed and from at 8 p.m the video was put together and edited and everything bro so like find this guy

Speaker 1 he's in the uk

Speaker 1 yeah no he's in the uk man so um he's definitely somebody that will be on my team forever now. And

Speaker 1 yeah, so we're looking at actually trying to get him a visa and get him like fully here full time so he could film me fully.

Speaker 1 I have somebody that's going to work with me until then and is also super good at what they do. So I'm excited to have Chloe as well on my team.
But Coop is

Speaker 1 very, very special at what he does, especially the show day movies and

Speaker 1 these, like this

Speaker 1 days leading into the show is like

Speaker 1 the best thing about him was that he captured so much without me having to really say anything. You know, I just he caught the vibe, he gave the motion with the music.

Speaker 1 Um, and I didn't have to talk to the camera a bunch, which, like, at that point, I was really ran down and super tired before we started carving up.

Speaker 1 So it was easier for me to be able to do that style with him. Obviously, still have a camera on me, but not have to give so much to the camera, if you will.
Right.

Speaker 1 Speaking of carbon up, what are the foods that you guys eat? Or I guess what are the food choices that are normally on your plan?

Speaker 1 Yeah, I mean,

Speaker 1 for my carb up, we do a chicken and rice meal with

Speaker 1 what

Speaker 1 used to be pineapple. We actually pulled pineapple at the Olympia and went to banana instead

Speaker 1 for a little bit of the potassium purposes. And also, the pineapple was giving me some indigestion and like heartburn.

Speaker 1 So, we just pulled that out. So, I used bananas this time.

Speaker 1 But it's like literally no chicken. It's pretty much just rice.
It's like a sprinkle of chicken just to help with hunger, essentially.

Speaker 1 And then my other meal is cream of rice, rice milk, and almond butter.

Speaker 1 So, it doesn't even have any protein in it. It's just cream of rice essentially rice milk is a

Speaker 1 it's like oat milk but it's rice based um and it's just extra carbs so

Speaker 1 it makes it a little more carb dense without adding too much volume to the actual meal itself okay um and then just almond butter you know yeah then like i said The one thing we did change was we swapped that meal out a couple times for the McDonald's fringe fries.

Speaker 1 the fries are pretty similar in carbohydrate-fat ratio.

Speaker 1 Um, so we just kind of use that same thing, just replace that meal instead. Yeah, brother, I gotta ask Patrick if he can get me some french fries, dude.
Like, make McDonald's fringe fries.

Speaker 1 We made Marty look crazy. That's what we do.

Speaker 1 Oh, shit. Uh, how far out did you guys start the carb up?

Speaker 1 Um, so for Olympia, we started on Tuesday. For Prague, we started on Wednesday.
So it's usually about three to four days out from

Speaker 1 the actual show day we'll start. I have was pre-judged on different days on both shows.
Yeah, yeah. So Olympia was Friday.
Prague was Saturday. Saturday, right? Yeah, right.
Yeah.

Speaker 1 And so

Speaker 1 really the... It was the same process.
It was just pushed back a day because of how Prague was set up. Gotcha.
But so how we kind of do things is like we deplete me, deplete me, deplete me.

Speaker 1 And then that first carb up day that I start, I do meal number one, which is just protein. We go train and completely deplete out, like try to just kill all glycogen stores, if you will,

Speaker 1 and prime the body to be able to absorb food. And then we start after that, like every hour and a half meals.

Speaker 1 Oh, like training in the morning of Tuesday yes wow okay cool yeah yeah so I train we train at like nine o'clock in the morning on Tuesday of Olympia

Speaker 1 and we just do like a one exercise of like everything

Speaker 1 so it's like one I don't hit any legs but I do like one chest one lateral raise one front delt one rear delt one tricep one bicep one back maybe two back so I can hit like both areas of my back essentially.

Speaker 1 Yeah.

Speaker 1 Fuck. Yeah, and then the show, bro.
Fuck.

Speaker 1 And then just to plead out like that. And then the second I'm like done training and posing, boss is like, okay, now we start eating, go.

Speaker 1 And so that day, it's usually about eight meals.

Speaker 1 Each one comes out to be like 100 to 120 carbs. Okay.

Speaker 1 And then the next day is like. This is crazy, brother.
Yeah, the next day's

Speaker 1 start in the morning and it's 10 meals so it's it's like about 120 carbs every meal and it's 10 meals so usually comes out to like 1200 1400 carbs depending on how he has it set up i don't think i've ever heard someone eating 10 meals it's a

Speaker 1 to be honest it's like

Speaker 1 it's such a

Speaker 1 It's like I literally have to put timers on my phone because like otherwise it just gets so spread out and then it's like 10 o'clock at night and I'm like, fuck, I I still have three meals. Like,

Speaker 1 I can't eat 300 carbs right now, either. Is there anything that you like to supplement on top of that? Like, extra digestive enzymes, extra betane, HTL, anything like that?

Speaker 1 Because I was just, your waste was tiny at Olympia, dude. It was crazy.
No, man, honestly, like, it's just the food is so easily processed at that point. You know, there's such minimal protein.

Speaker 1 The carbs are all pretty much getting shuttled at that point.

Speaker 1 Water is still

Speaker 1 high enough that digestion is working really good. I think that that's one thing, like a lot of guys make the mistake of is like

Speaker 1 trying to take too much water out, and then that really slows digestion.

Speaker 1 It's like, yeah, yo, you still need that water to absorb those carbs and to like actually shuttle those to where you need them to be.

Speaker 1 So, you can't be scared of water during the carb up process, you just need to make sure at those final

Speaker 1 hours, those final 12 to 14 hours, that you make sure that you are drying out and not necessarily filling out at that point.

Speaker 1 Like it's once you're full, then it's time to start sucking it down, you know? Yeah, that makes sense.

Speaker 1 Oh, God, Jesus Christ, that's crazy.

Speaker 1 How much would you say

Speaker 1 if you had to estimate by percentage that y'all's protein goes down when the carb up starts?

Speaker 1 Oh shit, bro.

Speaker 1 Like, say if five ounces was 100%, then that literally go to like five percent wow protein intake yeah like we it's almost zero protein the last three days wow okay cool i mean that makes sense though with the amount of food and carbohydrates that you're consuming like it makes all the sense yeah and i mean like we're not in protein synthesis you're not really breaking muscle down at that point we're just trying to like fill glycogen stores up and stuff um

Speaker 1 And he does it different with other people.

Speaker 1 Like William, he always does a big steak the night before pre-judging because the protein and the triglycerides actually make William look full and look good. Wow.

Speaker 1 Isn't that crazy? How some people just react completely differently to completely different foods.

Speaker 1 No, it's super fascinating because, like, I honestly think Brett would probably benefit from that too.

Speaker 1 Whereas my body is just so different. Like, my body is a carb-loving machine.
But Brett hasn't experimented with that? No, we haven't yet. No,

Speaker 1 that's something I think that we'll look into is adding. I think for him, I'd like to see him try the potato as well.

Speaker 1 And then I would like to see him add some red meat just because I think the triglycerides would give him a more intracellular fullness.

Speaker 1 I want to talk to Patrick about this because we have an experiment with this, but I feel like it's worked with bass coaches where I feel like I respond to fats a little bit better when it comes to

Speaker 1 getting a proper level of fullness, but without spilling over. Do you know anyone that's like that?

Speaker 1 There's actually, I mean, a lot of people are like that. Even Alexis is.
I do know a lot. Yeah.
Yeah.

Speaker 1 even more like that.

Speaker 1 But somebody that was like die-hard about that was Tony Freeman.

Speaker 1 He would like his carb up was like maybe 200 carbs, but he just did a shitload of fats.

Speaker 1 And he always looked really good and always stayed really tight. And his stomach always stayed really small.
So it just kind of depends on how you digest. For me,

Speaker 1 I can digest certain fats really well

Speaker 1 in moderation.

Speaker 1 If you try to go too high of a fat in one meal, my digestion instantly like

Speaker 1 slows down like a motherfucker. So I have to kind of find that gauge of like

Speaker 1 what is too much fat to where my digestion is so slow that like one, I can't eat the next meal, but two,

Speaker 1 the actual digestion, like you almost feel like you're not absorbing everything because it slows down so much, you know? Right.

Speaker 1 Does y'all's fat go up any significant amount whenever you do start the

Speaker 1 filling out process for you? A decent bit, yeah. I would say,

Speaker 1 like on average, going into it, I was having like

Speaker 1 30 grams of almond butter throughout the day. Okay.

Speaker 1 And then total for like carb up days is like 80 to 120 grams of almond butter. So like almost triple the fats.
Okay, wow, somewhere in there, double to triple, depending on the day. Yeah,

Speaker 1 I definitely need to communicate with Patrick. I feel like our fats don't go up hardly at all.
Like, maybe like that's 25. I would say that's what holds on to

Speaker 1 like, I mean, I could eat a million carbs, but because my metabolism is so fast, like you need a break, within two hours, I'm flat again. Right.
If it was just carbs.

Speaker 1 Yeah, that shit would run through you without the fats.

Speaker 1 Yeah, so we have to use the the fats just to be able to hold on to it enough so that was actually alexis's suggestion was like maybe we add more fats after the olympia and that was where i was like honestly like i think we should try the potato because it has more fats but also the starch gives me a different kind of fullness than the rice does.

Speaker 1 And I liked the look.

Speaker 1 Also, you have a little bit higher potassium in there, which is fine for me and it's not a risk at all because i don't take any potassium sparing diuretics so it's not a problem to push potassium kind of in that higher direction and like it's not dangerous if you will

Speaker 1 um

Speaker 1 but it gives me a harder look so that's something that we also kind of wanted to focus on you know okay cool that's cool to know um

Speaker 1 what exactly does the depletion phase look like for you like how many many days, what is the activity looking like? How much does your food drop if it drops any?

Speaker 1 Yeah, so it doesn't really drop. We just kind of keep the baseline usually at that point

Speaker 1 and just kind of ride it in for like three or four days so that we make sure that I'm kind of at that point where it's like, okay, we've pushed the body really hard and it's really ready to soak up food.

Speaker 1 It's kind of been different all of them going into it. Obviously, Prague and Olympia were very similar because they were so close.
But

Speaker 1 for those, it was we did zeros going in

Speaker 1 and then and then obviously you know deplete that morning, like I said, and then start eating up.

Speaker 1 And that was

Speaker 1 we were a little bit worried or like a little bit on the fence on like, should we introduce carbs maybe a day or two earlier at like 100 or like 50

Speaker 1 just to see how the response is on the stomach because we haven't had carbs for like a week and a half, two weeks. Like, actually, no carbs.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. I was just doing pro-veg.
That's it, bro.

Speaker 1 So, oh, shit.

Speaker 1 Yeah, so we did that for two weeks on no carbs whatsoever. Yeah.
What was the protein and fats at?

Speaker 1 Like I said, fats was like about 30 grams of almond butter in a day. So, like, probably like 16 grams of fat total.
What?

Speaker 1 And then what I was getting from my protein, obviously, but I don't eat, we don't have any red meat or anything. So all my meat is very lean, either 99.1 turkey or chicken.

Speaker 1 Is there a reason for the red meat?

Speaker 1 So one, it's to be able to control our fats more. So if

Speaker 1 he wants me to have fats with a meal, we add it with like avocado or almond butter instead.

Speaker 1 And then keep the protein the same.

Speaker 1 Some athletes he does use red meat with.

Speaker 1 I think for us in the beginning, it was I was using a lot of red meat, and we thought we could reduce my waist size by pulling some of that back.

Speaker 1 And then we just saw that I really didn't lose any fullness, really didn't lose any muscle tissue by getting rid of the red meat.

Speaker 1 So we were just like kind of rolled with it.

Speaker 1 And then I noticed by cutting the red meat out, my digestion became a lot better like more efficiently on this do you know why that is or is that just something specifically

Speaker 1 um i mean i think i mean i think some of it is probably just person dependent but i think

Speaker 1 for me the the protein was digesting slower because i like to eat my red meat a little bit raw I like it to be, you know, like,

Speaker 1 so I think that that's also a little bit harder for us to process. You know, the more cooked a meat is,

Speaker 1 the easier it is for it to go through the digestive tract.

Speaker 1 Same thing with vegetables is like eating a raw Brussels sprout is going to make you like super farty and all those things or like same thing with broccoli.

Speaker 1 But if you were to air fry it until the point it's like almost crispy, you won't have, you won't see any of those effects on the digestive tract because you've already started that breakdown process.

Speaker 1 You've already started to break down the dietary fiber in

Speaker 1 the actual vegetable. So, same thing with meats.
As you cook it, you're starting to break those bonds and make it easier for your body to essentially break it down and absorb it quicker, you know.

Speaker 1 So, like a red meat, you know, it's like I love a raw steak, but

Speaker 1 how good is that for the digestive tract when it's sitting in there for four or five hours? Yeah,

Speaker 1 that's true. I just love that shit, rare though, bro.
It's so fire. Yeah, oh, it's at least medium rare.
At the least, yeah, yeah, you gotta have medium rare at least for sure.

Speaker 1 Fuck.

Speaker 1 That's uh,

Speaker 1 it's funny because I kind of already knew that too, but it's like I just could not stop eating medium rare 96. Yeah, I mean,

Speaker 1 that's so funny. And that's for me, honestly, it was easier to say,

Speaker 1 I'll eat.

Speaker 1 Because he was like, you can do, like, you could do like 97.3 beef and just drain the fat

Speaker 1 or whatever like that. And it's like, honestly, man, like, I would, at that point, I would just rather eat chicken because, like, beef at that point is kind of dry, kind of tastes like shit.

Speaker 1 It's not really like that great. It's like beef is good when it's like juicy and raw.
And

Speaker 1 so, so it was like, it was kind of like, it was easier for me to honestly stay with the lean protein and just add the fats as well. Cause McKee really like avocado and stuff too.

Speaker 1 So it's, it's not that hard for me to make those changes. Gotcha, that makes sense then.
Uh, for the um, before we ask the QA real quick, which I think we should totally rapid fire, but uh,

Speaker 1 what was the last thing I was gonna ask? Oh, dude, I'm just so shocked that you were able to, I guess, just handle literally like that low of food and zero carbs with how crazy your metabolism is.

Speaker 1 Like, how did you guys manage that doing that for so long without you like flatting out like crazy or just shrinking down?

Speaker 1 And how were you able to like even deal with the hunger with that situation because like if you're consuming fucking what 400 grams of carbs on a daily basis for prep and then all of a sudden you drop to zero i don't know man i feel like i would that would shock me in every fucking part of my body yeah i mean it's definitely tough man but like one i'm not super food driven person so For me, as long as I have an end goal or something to like really focus on,

Speaker 1 I can kind of avoid that hunger. And I think that's probably just growing up wrestling and kind of always cutting weight.

Speaker 1 And like, how we cut weight was definitely way worse dieting than I do in bodybuilding. It was just like starve myself for four days until I made weight.

Speaker 1 And then as soon as you make weight, then you eat like a fat shit, you know? So, like,

Speaker 1 that mentally part is like super easy for me. I honestly enjoy dieting.
I kind of like the suffer of it.

Speaker 1 The only thing that was was really hard to manage was the body fatigue. I've noticed each prep as I put on more muscle, the actual tissue begging for

Speaker 1 calories is much stronger feeling than the actual stomach asking for calories. So it's like for me, my leg fatigue and body fatigue gets like so high, I get grumpy.

Speaker 1 And that's just kind of like me managing it. Like the one thing is, obviously, Alexis understands, but she knows if I'm quiet, that I'm probably just at that point.

Speaker 1 So it's like, just kind of leave me alone. If I'm super quiet, then it's kind of, I'm in my zone and I'll just kind of deal with it like that.

Speaker 1 And then for me, like my favorite part of the day is training.

Speaker 1 So no matter what, even when food is low, it's like, yo, you get to do this.

Speaker 1 Remember that, like, you used to have to wake up at six in the morning, go work 12 hours construction, and then you got to go lift weights. Like, now your job is just to go lift weights, bro.

Speaker 1 Like, it's not really like,

Speaker 1 there's much, much worse, you know? And I think having that background makes it so much easier sometimes to even just trick yourself. Yeah.

Speaker 1 And just be able to say, like, bro, you, like, you built houses and did this. Remember that.

Speaker 1 Like, you carried 20-foot boards for hours on end and then went and trained legs afterwards, or like mixed 100 bags of concrete, poured those bags of concrete, and still went and did chest after that.

Speaker 1 Like,

Speaker 1 I did that. So, for me,

Speaker 1 the pushing thing is not that hard, especially because like my body is pretty efficient, so I don't get the cortisol response very often. So, I kind of can see

Speaker 1 daily the results coming from the suffering, if you will.

Speaker 1 Gotcha.

Speaker 1 So that also makes it easier for me. It's like,

Speaker 1 obviously, you know, it's like yesterday was super hard. We hit a new low.
And then I look at my check-in video and I'm like, oh, I see that like abs are tighter.

Speaker 1 I see that like I have new veins running up my. quads.
I have this new striation here.

Speaker 1 Those all just kind of make it that much easier for me to be like okay yeah we can keep leaning into this keep pushing into it and there was definitely a few days where I was like hey like training was absolutely fucking garbage today like I couldn't feel a thing and boss was like yeah but like looking at your video post training you're not that flat so like

Speaker 1 just mentally dig you know and it's like okay like I know he's not going to let me disappear.

Speaker 1 So I also trust in him enough to like say like, okay, if he says i'm really not going that flat then i'm probably not going that flat

Speaker 1 and it's just in my head you know did you guys do the suppletion phase for pittsburgh too yep

Speaker 1 wow wow bro for pittsburgh i think we were at like 50 or 75 carbs though we didn't go all the way to zero okay

Speaker 1 but it was very similar Well, I think you were the most conditioned one on stage, bro, at Olympia. I really do.
I feel like the only other person I could think of potentially was Tonio.

Speaker 1 Yeah, he was peeled too, man. Tonio looked really good as well at the Olympia.
Yeah.

Speaker 1 No, yeah, man. And that's something that I take a lot of pride in, bro.
Like, that's something that I, like I said, I want to be known for that. I want to be the conditioning guy.
Me too.

Speaker 1 So I'm definitely willing to lean into that even a little harder than I think some guys are.

Speaker 1 in the in the chase like i said i i'm i know i'm never gonna be the biggest guy on stage bro like that's not really my goal, you know? And that's,

Speaker 1 I, I've watched some interviews from Phil. Um, he did a Cutler cast that was really good where he kind of talked about that and was like,

Speaker 1 look, I knew I was going against Jay. Like, I was never going to be bigger than Jay.
Jay weighed 275 pounds. I weighed 232 pounds.
Like, I was never going to be bigger than Jay.

Speaker 1 So there was a, there had to be a different approach on like what bodybuilding is for me. And that's kind of the same way way i feel is like

Speaker 1 yo like i know if i try to push my physique to 270 pounds all i'm gonna do is have a shit waist it's gonna it's just gonna blow the lines that i like that makes my physique look cool and it's also gonna take away from my extremities because like that weight has to go somewhere so like even even if the extremities grow

Speaker 1 The also the midsection is going to grow and it's the X factor is not going to be the same. So, I kind of like, I have to take a different approach than that.

Speaker 1 Like, some people's physiques that just work, you know, the bigger they get, the better they get. Sometimes we kind of have to be strategic on like what's worth it and what's not.

Speaker 1 And there's probably,

Speaker 1 I think,

Speaker 1 my physique, I think the biggest I can probably be is like 245, and then you're going to start to see diminish on return

Speaker 1 in somewhere, which and and you know that's where sometimes you have to

Speaker 1 make a sacrifice like okay is it worth it to have bigger legs if my waist grows just a little bit at this point

Speaker 1 um but when i get to 245 i think it's somewhere in there maybe even 240

Speaker 1 um there will be a point where i kind of have to start asking myself those questions like okay in the pursuit of getting better

Speaker 1 is it better to chase three to five more pounds, or is it better to try to bring my waist in and lose a little bit of weight and just try to build on the actual shape itself, you know? Yeah.

Speaker 1 Holy crap. For

Speaker 1 Prague, did you guys do this depletion phase again? Yep.

Speaker 1 How long was it for this time since I know you guys only had two weeks to kind of fit everything in? It was kind of

Speaker 1 pretty similar. It was

Speaker 1 like i said we flew there on monday

Speaker 1 so from that sunday

Speaker 1 to wednesday was pretty much zeros

Speaker 1 before that i think that saturday he fed me just a little bit and it was mostly because the stress was so high from our dog from bonnie getting sick yeah um that he was kind of worried about me losing too much weight on the flight over because I'd already hit like two lows in a row

Speaker 1 that Thursday and that Friday. And then so going into Saturday, he was like, okay, our last training session at home.
Let's shuttle a little bit of food in because

Speaker 1 I always lose somewhere between like two to five pounds when I fly overseas.

Speaker 1 And he was like, if we get another five pound low, like you might be so flat when you get there that like it's going to be a rescue mission. So, like, let's not get to that point.

Speaker 1 Let's keep you just above that point. So, he was like, I want you to eat on Saturday.
And then, when you fly,

Speaker 1 when you land in Frankfurt, send me pictures. And if we need to kind of start eating,

Speaker 1 because I got there at like 10 in the morning or something. And then from Frankfurt to Prague is only an hour flight.

Speaker 1 So he was like, send me pictures when you get there. Your morning will start.

Speaker 1 And we can kind of decide, hey, do we need to

Speaker 1 give a little bit of food to try to get back to where we need to be? Like, did I flatten out too much?

Speaker 1 And the food on Saturday kind of held me over. We were right at that tipping point, pretty much when we got to Frankfurt.

Speaker 1 It was like, damn, I'm flat as shit coming off the plane, but also I'm a little bit dehydrated because

Speaker 1 of not trying to drink too much water and not try to get water retention on the flight XYZ.

Speaker 1 So we knew, okay, today if I get all my water in, get my 10 grams of salt in, we should have still an okay response enough to where Tuesday we can wake up. I'm not too flat.

Speaker 1 We can deplete where we want to deplete to.

Speaker 1 and then be in a perfect spot for Wednesday to be able to feed up. So

Speaker 1 it's really, I mean, a lot of it's just playing it by ear and just obviously discussing things with coach back and forth and him knowing my body really well.

Speaker 1 You know, especially like with the flight thing, you know, it's a lot of, a lot of people would be like, oh, we'll be fine. But it's like, no, like, I know this is how I fly every time.

Speaker 1 I eat my meals a certain way when I fly because I know that I don't hold water that way.

Speaker 1 And so because of that, we've kind of just always

Speaker 1 kept that idea of like, we know that I'm probably going to lose three to five pounds when we fly. So let's try to factor that into the equation.
Got it. Got it.

Speaker 1 Do you mind me asking what PEDs that you guys did keep in from

Speaker 1 Olympia to Prague since I know you since you took out Tess and GH? Yeah, yeah. So we kept tra uh I actually used Pearborn this prep instead of trying.

Speaker 1 Um but so I did that in math. How do you feel about that, by the way, if you don't mind mind me?

Speaker 1 I think it's honestly probably the best that I've ever felt

Speaker 1 on a trend molecule. I've heard this before.

Speaker 1 Yeah.

Speaker 1 It's just like minimal side effects, but also

Speaker 1 I always feel a little bit on edge with trend ace.

Speaker 1 or a little bit of anxiety. And I felt like that was kind of eliminated with the trend hex or parable, if you will.

Speaker 1 but yeah so that kept that in did mask p

Speaker 1 as well and then we kept anivar in when strolling

Speaker 1 um and proviron i guess because that we started that a week out from the olympia

Speaker 1 and then we just left i just left that in as well

Speaker 1 you don't happen to know why boss introduces it a week out do you

Speaker 1 So, I mean, really,

Speaker 1 Proviron's not super effective, like multiple weeks in a row. Um,

Speaker 1 because what you're doing is just pulling stuff off the receptor to then it be replaced with something else, right?

Speaker 1 Um,

Speaker 1 so unless you're like taking a decent bit of orals and kind of in that

Speaker 1 spot, there's no reason to take provirin every day, in my opinion.

Speaker 1 Okay, cool. Wow, damn, bro.
Um,

Speaker 1 you don't happen to know what your estrogen was during that time, like when the test was out, or do you? Or how you guys are doing it? Oh, it's probably Vero because I take

Speaker 1 we I end up using a little bit of Letrozol at the end, okay.

Speaker 1 Um, so we, I always

Speaker 1 done that, and it's always been super effective. Um, I've we've seen my look

Speaker 1 with just other anti-estrogens, and there's definitely a skin texture change when I take gletrozole.

Speaker 1 Okay.

Speaker 1 It's a drier, thinner skin texture. Do you feel anything from that though? Like taking that? Oh, I feel like an absolute bag of assholes.

Speaker 1 It's like, there's truly zero emotion in my body. So

Speaker 1 it's definitely a lot harder.

Speaker 1 Just even like giving someone emotion of like, that's cool, is like more of like,

Speaker 1 yeah, that's awesome. That's hilarious.

Speaker 1 That's that's only that's probably the only thing, like, let's all that feeling, and it also makes training a lot harder because you can feel the joints are

Speaker 1 dry and shitty. And

Speaker 1 so, we only try to use that for about seven-ish days, also going into

Speaker 1 a show. Um, I think

Speaker 1 for

Speaker 1 Olympia, it was like seven days For Prague, it ended up being like 10 because

Speaker 1 we dropped it for like two or three days coming out of the Olympia and then put it back in

Speaker 1 just because we saw that my skin texture changed again and we were like, no, we want it to be back to where

Speaker 1 it was.

Speaker 1 Man, it's crazy that it is. Sometimes you got to do the hardcore shit in bodybuilding to really get the best achievement or the best fucking outcome.

Speaker 1 Sometimes you don't, but sometimes you freaking do, man.

Speaker 1 It's definitely a give and take bro it's there's there's definitely no rhyme or reason for like why sometimes

Speaker 1 being all the way hardcore works and why sometimes being hardcore your body like fights you tooth and nail um but you just kind of like

Speaker 1 i mean it truly is that Every day you wake up and your body kind of tells you what you're going to do. You just gotta,

Speaker 1 you gotta match its attitude, you know? Yeah,

Speaker 1 I've been experiencing a lot of the same things being with Patrick now as you and going through these very like period to period of times of like very, very, very low food.

Speaker 1 And then suddenly I'm eating a fuck ton of food. And also in the last seven weeks, you know, since I've been doing three shows, three weeks apart each, like

Speaker 1 just estrogen has just been so fucking low, man. Yeah.
Your joints hurt. I feel fucking emotionless.

Speaker 1 Emotion is just gone.

Speaker 1 Your girlfriend's like cuddling on you and you're like, you know, I love you, but it's not like, I don't feel any

Speaker 1 the nice thing is is like alexis completely understands and like her old coach was kind of shitty and put her on letters also so she also knows like

Speaker 1 what that feels like to be on letro what is it like for a woman to be on that shit yeah i mean

Speaker 1 only most women that only know that are breast cancer patients you know so like but so she's like i yeah i mean like it made me completely emotionless so i'm sure it makes you that way and i'm like yeah no, it makes me feel like a complete

Speaker 1 asshole because I like my grandma can call me and tell me she loves me. And I'm like, yeah, yeah, grandma, I love you too.
Yeah, yeah, grandma.

Speaker 1 Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 1 Like, normally I'm like, oh, granny, I love you so much.

Speaker 1 That's funny as shit, dude. That's hilarious.
Like, yeah, I'm dead inside. It's okay.

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

Speaker 1 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.

Speaker 1 Transcend HRT has worked with many professional bodybuilders and pro athletes such as Thor Bjornsson, Phil Heath, and Jeremy Bundia.

Speaker 1 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.

Speaker 1 I guess if some people are going through some tough shit, though, at least, you know, a little lettrazol is going to help blunt that a little.

Speaker 1 Definitely. Dead.
Definitely will kill your emotions. So if you're

Speaker 1 going through it and you're super sad, just take some electrol and you'll not feel anything.

Speaker 1 Some let your some halo and some super drawl. That's all we need.

Speaker 1 Yeah, you'll want to run through a wall.

Speaker 1 Chase Irons asks, what did he say to Nick Walker on stage at the Mr. O pre-judging when they turned to the back?

Speaker 1 I told him he was looking pretty fat.

Speaker 1 Did you really? Yeah, 100%.

Speaker 1 Holy shit. You got to talk a little shit.
That's crazy. That's fucking hilarious.
Oh, man. That's epic.
That's fucking savage as shit. I mean,

Speaker 1 he did the same thing to me at Pittsburgh. So it's just kind of like a little kokeback at the bear, you know? That's fire.

Speaker 1 Stone Moses asks, how does training with Brett work? They both have different things to improve. Very curious.
Expand, please.

Speaker 1 Yeah, man. So, I mean, like,

Speaker 1 obviously we've been doing this long enough that we kind of know each other's weak points and we know what each other has to... What the hell?

Speaker 1 What the hell?

Speaker 1 They keep saying low device storage. Device storage is running low.
You should stop recording, but I don't have any device storage because I'm not recording.

Speaker 1 Oh, shit.

Speaker 1 So is it your thing? Listen,

Speaker 1 I don't know.

Speaker 1 Well, we'll just do this really quick. We'll just.
Yeah, no, it's all good.

Speaker 1 So, shit.

Speaker 1 So, yeah, so I mean, like, yeah, we do have different things to improve on, but we also have some of the same things to improve on. Like, my back still needs to improve in the lats.

Speaker 1 He also still needs lats.

Speaker 1 Both of us still both need to really improve our arms.

Speaker 1 His chest is obviously crazy and my chest needs to improve.

Speaker 1 But that's kind of the cool thing about us training together in that sense in the opposite direction is he doesn't need to focus super hard on his chest.

Speaker 1 So in those moments of training chest, he naturally presses through his chest. He naturally keeps cues.
So I don't really have to be on him or tell him to be focusing on those things.

Speaker 1 And in those moments, he can kind of give me full

Speaker 1 attention and be able to push me and really focus on me being the main focus on those chest days.

Speaker 1 And the kind of vice versa for us going into the back days is like, only my lats really need to improve. So yeah, I'm focused on that portion.

Speaker 1 But for the back day, most of the focus goes on Brett and making sure that his movement pattern is perfect, making sure his elbow drive is right, all of those things.

Speaker 1 And then legs were pretty much equal and really don't need to improve like front or back, just kind of continuously improve the legs in general.

Speaker 1 And so that side of things on those days, we just get to be competitive. It's like, I got 12, so you better get 13.

Speaker 1 And so that, like, that part of it really works for us too, because we both came from sports backgrounds. So that competitive nature of pushing each other, we build off of that.
And then

Speaker 1 we're still great bodybuilders in the sense of we know what we need to improve on.

Speaker 1 So there's obviously moments and times when it's like, hey, you know, on a chess day, Brett still wants to improve his delts a lot more. So he might do three of the five chest movements I do,

Speaker 1 and then he's going to do three delt movements when I don't really need much delt.

Speaker 1 So I'm just going to catch him on that last delt movement when he's doing laterals and I'm going to get a few sets of laterals in.

Speaker 1 And then he's going to come over in between his sets of shoulder press.

Speaker 1 and come spot me on another chest press because I don't really need front delt as much as I need chest. Got it.

Speaker 1 And so we make those sacrifices and we kind of veer from each other every once in a while to then end up coming back to the same point at the end of the session.

Speaker 1 But, you know, at the end of the day, both our progressions

Speaker 1 are

Speaker 1 important to one another. So we both feel a responsibility to make sure that the other guy is improving.

Speaker 1 And because of that, we take it very seriously in the gym on hey bro like you know he's always on me about chest posture and keeping my sternum up and making sure that i'm not tucking my chin um because then i'll roll my shoulders forward and use my front delts and i'm kind of the same way with him on his back posture things of like hey chin needs to be up chest needs to be high we need to be rowing through those lats versus shrugging um and in those moments when he does those things you know i'm calling him out just like he's calling me out on the chest stuff.

Speaker 1 So that's how we make it work. It's obviously, it would be more ideal if we had the same exact weak body parts.

Speaker 1 But in that sense, also, like I said, then I don't think we could give each other as much focus as we do now because we would be trying to focus on that weaker body part at the same time versus being able to kind of help one another make those changes.

Speaker 1 That's cool. I like that.
Makes sense.

Speaker 1 Andrew B asks, what mindset of fuel?

Speaker 1 What mindset or fuel do you use to get through mentally hard times?

Speaker 1 I mean, so one of the things I talked about was like just knowing that like this is a privilege at this point.

Speaker 1 Like, yeah, it's hard in like relativity, if you want to speak like that, but like there's way harder shit out there. There's work in construction 78 hours a week.
There's

Speaker 1 people out there that are like starving to death, and we get to eat six meals a day and train for a job, you know? So, like, I think a lot of it is perspective.

Speaker 1 Um, and if you can kind of put yourself in the right perspective, you can make any situation feel better than it is, or actually

Speaker 1 feel how it's supposed to feel versus like you making it more than this.

Speaker 1 Um, and I would say the other thing to that is

Speaker 1 like still knowing your why and your greater purpose. Like

Speaker 1 everything is hard in life. You're always going to have challenges and difficulties and

Speaker 1 things that come your way, whether it's bodybuilding or whether it's life or your job.

Speaker 1 But knowing

Speaker 1 why you have to get through that obstacle or the reason that you want to get through that obstacle always makes it easier to push through and chase that down you know for me it's i want to be mr olympia there's nothing i want to do more but i also want to change the sport in the direction that i see fit for bodybuilding and that's more classic style body more you know classical poses and beautiful lines and really finer details and so you know, a lot of those times in that moment of the conditioning part of like we were pushing it, and it was hard.

Speaker 1 And I was, I was actually hungry this year for the first time in many years, and stuff like that. Um, I knew that, like, it was all to

Speaker 1 come in with this conditioning that would,

Speaker 1 you know, make guys like you really appreciate it and go, like, damn, like, Marty did something different here than he's done before.

Speaker 1 Got it.

Speaker 1 Simply Browning asks, when's the mustache coming back?

Speaker 1 Man, everybody loves the mustache. It's so funny.
Alexis hates the mustache. She hates it.

Speaker 1 It's like it's always a funny joke. I always have the beard usually to hide my face and like my diet face and stuff.

Speaker 1 Especially because when I go home and see my family, my granny is always like, my great-grandma's always like, you look so skinny, honey.

Speaker 1 You look like you're starving, you know, when I have the sunken face. So I always try to keep the beard around a little bit, especially for those moments.
But that's funny. Then pre-show,

Speaker 1 I always talk around with the mustache a little bit. But to be honest, man,

Speaker 1 I think for stage, I'll probably always do the clean-shaven thing. I just think

Speaker 1 it's prim and proper and pretty, and it's still a beauty pageant.

Speaker 1 I still want to just look my like most clean-shaven cut, you know? I get it. I get it too.
I was doing clean-shaven for the last two shows, but this weekend, I'm going to keep growing this one out.

Speaker 1 Let's go. Just for the last one.
Let's go. Bring it back.

Speaker 1 This is funny. GTI Hanov asks, is it true that Brazilians are the most PED abusers?

Speaker 1 No.

Speaker 1 I would say Germans are just...

Speaker 1 Close up there.

Speaker 1 I would say Russians are close up there. I could see Russians.

Speaker 1 And Iranians are pretty fucking nuts with what they run as well.

Speaker 1 I can see that. I mean,

Speaker 1 as in the grand scheme of things, man, like bodybuilders are crazy.

Speaker 1 They're all abusers throughout each country. It just depends on whose stack you got a picture of.
For sure.

Speaker 1 I feel like,

Speaker 1 who was it? I think Dora told me too, like, in Iran and in the Middle East, it's like a life-saving sport there. Yeah.

Speaker 1 So the guys are just like, it's life or death. I either get to Olympia or I'm dead.
So, yep.

Speaker 1 100%.

Speaker 1 Kid Griffith asks, typical off-season diet and cycle.

Speaker 1 I mean, cycle is tested. We've talked about that before, right? Yeah.
You always say the 750 test. And then

Speaker 1 literally,

Speaker 1 that's it right there. 750 test, 600 to 800 EQ

Speaker 1 and a little bit of growth hormone, like four to six I use, and that's yeah, that's it, man.

Speaker 1 As far as food goes, again,

Speaker 1 similar to what I do on prep, just more. So

Speaker 1 it's lean proteins. I add fats to

Speaker 1 roughly

Speaker 1 out of the seven meals, it's usually three to four. Get some fats added to them.

Speaker 1 And usually around training, we try to keep it pretty minimalistic.

Speaker 1 And then

Speaker 1 as far as

Speaker 1 carbs go, like I said, it just slowly tapers up from coming out of a show, it'll be you know, four or five hundred, and then make another little jump of two, three hundred carbs, and then make another little jump of 150, 200 carbs, and so on and so forth.

Speaker 1 Until we get to a point where I tell boss if he feeds me anymore, I'm going to punch him in his face.

Speaker 1 How much are you eating at that point?

Speaker 1 It's usually, I usually get to like a thousand carbs and then I start to

Speaker 1 fuck.

Speaker 1 It's usually like, especially, it's usually I get there

Speaker 1 and then we spend like a week or two there.

Speaker 1 And then I'm like, yo, every day, this is like a full-time job. Just

Speaker 1 like it's like, I have to focus and like pay attention and be on my shit about time and stuff or what's like, you know, you miss even an hour and then it's like you're up until midnight just trying to get food.

Speaker 1 You know, so it's, it's one of those things where it's like, it just becomes your whole day is eating because it's

Speaker 1 40 minutes to finish the meal. And then by the, you only have an hour before you got to start the next one practically, you know? So

Speaker 1 that, that's when it gets hard. But

Speaker 1 for the most part, like, I'm not, like I said, I'm not super food driven, but I'm also not like in the opposite direction where I'm like scared of food.

Speaker 1 So it's kind of just part of the process for me until it gets to that point. And then I'm like, okay, I hate this.
Yeah.

Speaker 1 Yeah. That's uh, I was struggling already with just 500 grams of carbs in my offseason.
You're fucking doing twice that much, man. So let's see.
Yeah, bro.

Speaker 1 No, it gets it definitely gets difficult for sure. What are your food choices normally? Your standard food choices in the offseason?

Speaker 1 So we like rice and chicken and yeah, so

Speaker 1 blended

Speaker 1 or like like ground turkey or ground chicken. I try to, in the offseason, I start going towards a lot more ground meat just because I feel like it's easier to digest.

Speaker 1 And then

Speaker 1 my carb choices are almost 100% rice at that point when it's when food's that high because it's just

Speaker 1 if I eat potato, then I'm like, fuck my next meal. I'm like, oh, I don't want to eat this motherfucker.
Whereas if I do rice, I can usually consistently stay pretty on top of it.

Speaker 1 And then the other thing we implement a bit more of that I feel like a lot of coaches don't is

Speaker 1 he'll as those carbs get super high,

Speaker 1 he'll adjust and add a lot more fruit.

Speaker 1 And it's, I think, one, it's just makes it easier to get the other carbs down because I'll add like fruit to cream of rice and stuff like that. Okay.

Speaker 1 But then two, obviously, the fructose is obviously super good for like liver glycogen stores and things like that, as well.

Speaker 1 So, it's just another good option for you, as well as then doing berries and things like that are good antioxidants as well, right?

Speaker 1 Yeah, and I'm sure having the food variety helps with digestion and the GI tract in the long run. Exactly.

Speaker 1 I'm trying to, I'm sorry, guys, I'm trying to pick and choose because you got a lot of questions, of course, which I'm not saying that. Yeah, yeah, worse,

Speaker 1 um,

Speaker 1 Ollie Wallace says, first he says, Martin, you're my favorite bodybuilder, but then he says,

Speaker 1 was there ever a point that you doubted yourself?

Speaker 1 Yeah, man.

Speaker 1 After the Arnold in 22,

Speaker 1 I called Brett and told him, like, I'm done bodybuilding. I'm going back to construction.

Speaker 1 I don't feel like they were rewarding what I

Speaker 1 wanted them to reward. And in hindsight, I was just angry and didn't get the result I wanted.
So I was going through it. But at that time,

Speaker 1 yeah, man, I was really, really struggling. One, I was at a point where Brett and I were separated.
He was in Denver, or he was actually in Florida at that point, and I was in Texas.

Speaker 1 And

Speaker 1 he's a lot of my mental reassurance or a lot of my

Speaker 1 help in knowing and believing in myself. If

Speaker 1 If I can give anyone credit for that, it's him because he's kind of, you know, he's believed in me since 2019.

Speaker 1 And so it's always, it's always a little bit easier when you have one of your crew around you or whatever. So I was in the Arnold, UK.
I was alone over there by myself and shit.

Speaker 1 And so I definitely had a moment of like, I'm done bodybuilding. I can't make it.
I haven't made any money at this.

Speaker 1 At least in construction, I was making fat money and kind of,

Speaker 1 I was pretty much at the point where I owned the construction company before I left.

Speaker 1 So i was the boss i was picking the jobs we were building decks we were doing remodels and i really loved what i did um it just wasn't conducive with bodybuilding so in that moment i was kind of like you know what maybe i don't love bodybuilding as much as i used to uh maybe i'll go back and do this and

Speaker 1 um

Speaker 1 Brett absolutely ripped my ass up one side and down the other and was like, you're stupid. I don't want to hear any of this shit come out of your mouth again.
Let's go.

Speaker 1 Like, you're going to, you're going to come home. You're going to get back to training.
And like, 2023 is going to be just fine, you know? And, uh,

Speaker 1 and it was, man. You know,

Speaker 1 he was exactly right. It was just

Speaker 1 a moment of weakness that I needed to get through and have those feelings.

Speaker 1 And, you know, that's why you have best friends so that you can let emotions like that out and they can tell you that you're stupid or that you're in the wrong or whatever, you know, and then

Speaker 1 you get through them. But definitely, definitely had moments in bodybuilding,

Speaker 1 more than one, but that one specifically comes to mind

Speaker 1 where I was like, yeah, no, I'm going to walk away from this and this isn't for me. Maybe I wasn't cut out for this.

Speaker 1 And then, you know, to be where I'm sitting now. So definitely, if you're questioning yourself, just keep.
Just keep doing what you're doing. I promise it's probably just a mental breakdown.

Speaker 1 you just need a little time yeah

Speaker 1 lemon lemon lemon

Speaker 1 sorry brother uh lemon lime stir fire tips you would give someone trying to make it in the sport

Speaker 1 biggest thing is is who you surround yourself with i i can't preach that enough um you know i don't you don't have to have a top-level coach it doesn't need to be patrick or boss But you need to have somebody that believes in you a lot, obviously has a good knowledge base.

Speaker 1 And then the X factors are like the things I've talked about today, you know, Brett, Alexis,

Speaker 1 all those things that just make

Speaker 1 this, the other side of bodybuilding easier.

Speaker 1 You know, if the people around you understand it, the people around you love it, are passionate about it, it just makes it that much easier to be successful in it.

Speaker 1 You know, I've had girlfriends in the past that were negative about bodybuilding or didn't love it as much.

Speaker 1 And just having that as your home life starts to leak into your brain and starts to feed some of those demons that are telling you that you're not good enough or that you're not going to make it and those things.

Speaker 1 So you just kind of, you know, like I said, perspective is huge. And then every literally everyone that you allow into your life

Speaker 1 has an effect on your personality, on your mood, on your perspective. So, just keep that in mind.

Speaker 1 I like that, man.

Speaker 1 The last one is very special because it's tough to, I think, filter out certain people, especially if they're close to you, they're your friends, maybe they're a family member or even your own partner.

Speaker 1 And I think it can be tough to do that when it's someone that

Speaker 1 you take care of and you care for or that you love or anything. But if it's someone that I think isn't the best suit for your mindset moving forward

Speaker 1 or

Speaker 1 doesn't contribute to your purpose and you growing into your goals,

Speaker 1 then it's something that I think you really got to second guess and be like, is this person deserving of being in your life? Yeah. No, man,

Speaker 1 it's not necessarily like, yo, you got to cut him out and you can never talk to him again.

Speaker 1 It's just like, yo, remember that the people closest to you also have such a drastic effect on your mood, on your confidence, on your personality, on your perspective.

Speaker 1 And like, man, if you have somebody that's negative around you with that negative perspective, like it, it will leak into you, I promise. Like,

Speaker 1 as much as we talk about it, like there, you see the videos on Instagram, it's like, yo, one drop of food coloring can turn a whole glass of water a whole different color.

Speaker 1 And like, that's what one negative person can do to an entire group. So just, just remember that, man.
Like those things are really, really special.

Speaker 1 Yeah, I agree.

Speaker 1 If you were to disappear from the world tomorrow and you had one message you could send to the entire world today, what would the message be?

Speaker 1 And that one's deep.

Speaker 1 I mean, I feel like there's a lot of things I would want to

Speaker 1 send a message to, but...

Speaker 1 Since we're on the topic right now, it's like,

Speaker 1 love the people that love you as much as they love you. Like, give back to them as much as they give to you.
Cause like, it's really easy to take and it's really easy to accept love.

Speaker 1 But like, remember in those moments that like they deserve it back as much as you deserve it in those moments, right? So

Speaker 1 that's something in the last like two years that I've really tried to pride myself on.

Speaker 1 And like, it's something that I know Brett and I both take a lot of pride in is like we both give to each other as much as we take from each other um and that's like that's what you want out of every relationship but it doesn't usually happen that way so like

Speaker 1 just try to like even try to be the person that's the one that gives too much because like it will come it will come back in the end I promise

Speaker 1 hell yeah brother I couldn't be more aligned with that I think that was the the perfect answer. Thanks for coming on, brother.
Really? Of course, brother.

Speaker 1 This was a gift and a blessing to be able to do this podcast with you.

Speaker 1 I can't even explain just how happy and excited I was for you when I saw you at Olympia and just absolutely built just this fucking filthy, disgusting package, bro.

Speaker 1 Means the world, bro. No, like I said, bro, like...
Guys like you that love this and just have so much passion for it, man. Like, I always have time for you guys because this is...

Speaker 1 I love this shit so much, man.

Speaker 1 i i truly don't know what the fuck i would do without bodybuilding so

Speaker 1 i'm so like i'm so grateful and so thankful and like that the fact that i have people that want to ask questions and like look up to me in the way they do or say i'm their favorite bodybuilder and stuff is still just completely crazy to me because like i'm just a gym bro that like I guess I'm good at it.

Speaker 1 You know what I mean?

Speaker 1 Like, I truly just love this from like the same standpoint as like all of you guys that like just fell in love with it from lifting weights in high school or like with the bros in college.

Speaker 1 Like I was the same exact way, man. Like there was so there was even a point in my life when we went to the gym and like got a pump so that we could go to the bar and look good.
You know what I mean?

Speaker 1 Like I was still like I'm still one of the boys. So like that part of it to me is so cool, man.

Speaker 1 Like I love this shit so much and like the fact that I got to make a career out of it is still crazy to me because, you know, I did work hard jobs and I did work real jobs and like I did work in a pharmacy and as an intern and I fucking hated it and I didn't, I did not want to do that for the rest of my life.

Speaker 1 So the fact that like I get to do this now, man, like, it's the coolest thing ever, man. And

Speaker 1 having guys like you that want to like share my story or get info for me, like, I'm so happy to give it because like,

Speaker 1 I wouldn't be here without bodybuilding. So like if I can give even one person enough advice to be able to chase this and make something of it, man, like that, that means the world to me.

Speaker 1 I love that, man. And I really appreciate that.
There's not very many people that are as real as you and as open as you. And I think that that is really, I think that really just changes the world.

Speaker 1 And I think it really provides so much, so much, so much value for all of us that are listening and that follow you and that look up to you, man. So I really appreciate it.
Always, always, bro.

Speaker 1 Like I said, you got my number, man. If you ever need to text me or anything, you always know you can hit me up.
So whatever you need, I want you to kill this next show, bro.

Speaker 1 Can't wait to see the results, man. And

Speaker 1 if you need anything or you want some more advice on prep side of things, you just hit me up on the back end, bro. Thank you, brother.
Thank you.

Speaker 1 Is there anything you'd like to promote or anywhere people can find you? Anything? I mean, you guys can find me on Instagram, man.

Speaker 1 You guys, you know, you can support me however you want to support me. There's links in my bio and all that fun stuff, but there's nothing I want to push to you guys.

Speaker 1 You guys support me enough by just being a part of the journey and following along, man. And that's that's what means the world to me.
So we can change the world one day at a time.

Speaker 1 That's all we can do. We can't rush it.
So let's just keep doing what we're doing and having fun while we're doing it. Hell yeah.

Speaker 1 All right, let's go. Thanks for watching.
All right, brother. I'll catch you soon, man.
Yes, sir. I'm going to go eat some soup with Alexis.

Speaker 1 All right, well, catch you later.