Quinton Eriya: How He Self-Coached Himself To Dominate 5 Pro Shows In A Row & Improve Drastically After Leaving Jansen

Quinton Arrea, also known as Quintin Beastwood, a young self-coached Open IFBB Pro bodybuilder previously with Man Jensen, one of the best, if not the best, shapes and mindsets in the Open IFBB, with four second-place pro shows this year, competing at Texas Pro, Tampa Pro, Italy, Germany, and France Pro, all barely missing his Olympia qualification, and two of which barely coming second to Urs.

I spoke to Chris Tuttle and he gave me some really, really good advice on how to keep my check-in process more objective and to lean less on other people.

So you recommended the year before with the math situation, I don't know if I've ever spoken about this. I was on the verge of retiring.
I'm like, I'm tired of this shit. I put everything into this.

I sacrificed so much. I didn't even go out.
I was doing everything I was supposed to. It blew up in my face.
So I started drinking. In the offseasons, I have gone up to 7,000 calories.

Now, last year, I was up to like going prep of way more healthy than I am in the offseason. One of the biggest problems for me in this prep started in the offseason.
I like the Mot C.

I did like the SLU PP. I do that during the prep.
It works extremely well for Martin, and it works extremely well for Earth.

What's up, brother? How's it going? Pretty fucking good, man. How are you doing? How's the jet lag going? It's good.
It's like when I'm awake, I feel okay.

It's just when I go to sleep, I don't know what's going to happen.

Yeah, I'm sure.

I don't even remember the last time I've had fucking overseas jet lag, so I'm actually extremely worried.

But I don't know. I'm fucking stoked, man.
I haven't been traveling in, I don't even know how long.

Yeah, I don't know how long. It was like years and stuff.
And I realized, like, I've just been like,

you know, when you're like on prep and you're just so focused and everything,

I also feel like I use that as an excuse to just not go anywhere and not do anything. You know what I mean? No, I get that.

It's a good excuse.

Except you fucking travel, dude. Yes.
All over Europe. Yeah.
How is that? Bro, it was an awesome experience, bro. Like, Europe is so beautiful.

And I just, there's so many things whenever you travel, so many things that you can learn and kind of gain from like the different places, different way people do things.

I just love the vibe in Europe. Everybody just seems like they're enjoying their life a bit more than over here.

Like they're like a little bit more present, maybe? Yes. Yeah.

Okay, that's kind of nice. I remember I traveled.
I had the blessing of my parents traveling a lot because of my dad's job when I was younger.

So I traveled to Europe a lot when I was a kid, but you know, when you're a kid, you just don't appreciate that shit. No.

You're just like, you're just like, I want to like, the highlight of my trips was always watching the movies in the airplane, which like I'm looking back on.

I'm like, God, dude, I was so fucking embarrassing. That's hilarious.

We would be like at the Great Wall of China. And like, I would just, my mom would be asking me if we could take pictures.

And then it would be like 10 pictures and then 15 pictures and then 20 pictures and then 25 pictures.

And I'd just be like, God, I fucking hate this. And I'm looking at it back on it.
I'm just like, how did I not fucking appreciate that, dude? That was like the most beautiful place. Like, God,

it's so fucking sad.

But whatever. It's growing up.
Sorry, my cat's attacking something.

You good, brother.

By the way, I just want to say, I don't think I told you this, but... I think it was around like last year sometime, or maybe the year before, where I first found you.

And then slowly after that, I think you created the video kind of opening up about your experience with Matt and moving forward, which I thought was fucking awesome, by the way.

So I like went in and creeped on your Instagram account because I was like, damn, this guy's fucking huge.

Creeped on your Instagram. And then I saw that you and your girl and some of your homies were going to raves and shit.
And I was like, ah, this guy fucking knows.

Fucking ultra, baby. Yeah,

it's a crazy time, man.

Yeah, fuck. So it's funny because I actually didn't do it for like 10 years.
I stopped and I was just one of those people that's like, okay, I'm just bodybuilding. I'm not doing anything else.
Yeah.

Partying, no going out. Like I maybe have a drink like once or twice a year.

And meeting my girlfriend, she kind of like brought that fun side out of me again. Hell yeah.
Doing it. And I really enjoyed it.
So it's

awesome, Doug. It's a great fucking time, man.

That's cool, bro.

I actually had to do that for my girl. I had to bring out her fun side because she likes to be more wholesome wholesome and shit.
Yeah. And I'm like, no, let's go to raid till 4 a.m.
Come on.

It's off season. Let's go.
Got to get some steps in, baby. I don't do.

Don't do cardio and treadmill anyways.

That's awesome. Yeah.
Good old days.

I feel like if you're a bodybuilder, you got to do something like that, though. How do people look at you when you're out there? People just like staring at you, bro.

Yeah, you get a lot. You get approached all the time.

Like, it's pretty crazy because when you go to those things, like, if I'm ever going to the bathroom by myself, women will like grab me and I'm just like, oh shit. Oh shit.

It's pretty wild.

Does your girl ever see women grab you? One time I think she was like right behind me. She's like, what the heck? I'm like,

what the hell? Oh, usually it's guys when it's like they're being kind. They're just like shocked, right? Which is totally fine, but it happens.

How many of those guys just ask you for your workout routine? Oh man. You're just like, dude.

I'd probably have way more stories if I wasn't so blitzed.

That's awesome. I fucking swear, every time they ask for the workout routine, I'm just like, I don't know what to say.
Like chest, shoulders, back,

legs.

It's kind of hard to fucking say something. I don't know.

Well, congrats, congrats on this last year, bro. Like, you, it was clear.
You're on a fucking mission and your showings were fucking incredible, brother.

Those last five showings were awesome. I think they were amongst the most consistent and your shape was unreal, and probably one of my favorites up there.

And I think it was pretty clear that this is your best physique and most accomplished season by far. And I think you made a damn statement.
Thank you. Thank you, man.
I really appreciate that.

It feels, it's funny. Like, now it feels like that all happened so long ago.

Yeah. It's been so busy since even though it's only been like, what, like a couple months, right? Yeah.

Yeah, just like, maybe like eight weeks since the last one. But yeah, that's, yeah, it's super short.
No, it's been a crazy time.

But yeah, man, it was a cool experience, you know, getting to see Europe, getting to compete.

And I got to compete against a lot of guys that I've never competed against that I have had a lot of respect for that I've watched over the years.

So, you know, you got to focus on those moments, you know, because when it's all said and done,

those are the things that you're going to cherish the most, the moments, you know, the times that you and your friends were laughing backstage, your girlfriend was backstage.

And there's a lot of times and and moments that I really captured the way I made sure to live in the moment this year and enjoy everything or enjoy as much as I could.

You know, it's funny, bro. I don't know why I didn't.

Maybe I have to think harder because I have ADHD and I forget everything. But like, I feel like this year was the first year I really made sure to just enjoy it and be super present with bodybuilding.

I think all the future, all the past years, I would always be a little bit more anxious about like my placing and my future and like the goals. Be like, oh man, like I just need to get to this goal.

So I need to do whatever it takes.

But this year, I realized, like, after listening to all these podcasts of all these, you know, pros that I look up to, all these retired bodybuilders, a lot that were on Foods podcasts, of course, they're always like preaching just, bro.

Like, the one thing I wish I did was be more present and enjoy the process.

Plus, like, fucking what they all say is every time they enjoyed it, every time they just had fun with it, every time they were just like, I love doing this, and the stress was low, that was the best physique.

So fucking tried to keep that in mind. Yeah, I mean, it's hard to at times because there's just so many variables involved in it.
It's hard to, yeah,

it's hard to go in with a level head, but yeah, I think it's definitely the best approach because you could be in a contest prep for like 16 weeks, 20 weeks, sometimes 24 weeks.

And when you just focused on like one day, like you're overlooking six months of time, you know? So it's like just for one day. And if that day doesn't go the way you want it to, then it's like...

Oh, God, it fucking sucks.

Like, man, I I had a miserable six months.

And now everything's going to suck leading up to the next one because now everybody's shitting on me online. That's what it's.

Hey, you gotta, you gotta look for the, you gotta make lemonade out of something. Yeah, yeah, for real.
For real. I'm, um,

I'm very proud of your last season, though, and I think it was awesome, dude.

And I think the potential is painfully obvious, especially considering that the stack this entire last year, like, was, well not the the the fucking lineup for this entire last year was stacked incredibly fucking stacked plus you know i i know that this i don't i don't know if you've ever really just had this high of placings consistently like fucking five shows in a row which is pretty nuts dude um so um and i gotta be real too i love urce and in italy

In Italy for his debut, his hardness, his pop and conditioning and his front was just, I think, undeniable.

But in the second showing against Urs in Germany, I feel like you kind of deserve the dub, to be honest.

And I feel like he looked a little less dry and a little put together, less, less put together than is open to be, and that you outsize him in many poses. And I was thinking, but maybe that's just me.

And then I listened to your pod with Chris and Milos just the other day. And it sounds like Milos and Samson kind of felt a little bit similar to me, too.

But I mean, hey, I mean, I guess that's just our opinion, and we weren't really there. Yeah.
But

I mean, I think that shows a lot.

Thank you. I really, really appreciate it.
It means a lot to me. Yeah, man.
It was, you know, to go into this year with this whole self-coaching process.

I really had no idea what it was going to look like. I knew that I would be good enough.
Like, I knew I would,

I knew I'd figure it out, but it was just more so like, okay. Some of the things that I've done in the past maybe haven't worked the best.
Some things work terribly.

Some things worked really well many years ago when I had a lot less muscle. So let's just figure something out.
So I just was trying different things. I mean, a lot of it was just very simple.

you know, train hard. And I focused a lot more on staying full for the majority of the beginning of prep.

There were some obstacles that kind of arose around that time. I think the biggest issue was I let myself gain a little too much weight in the offseason.

So this offseason, I'm already handling it much differently. But

yeah, for the prep, it's just, I just kind of went with the flow, man. Just did what I felt made the most sense in the moment.
And I tried not to stress myself out too much.

And yeah, it was just with the peaking process, that was something I had no freaking clue about. So yeah, just, I mean, I know what I've done with coaches before, but I think

when you come in with like new tissue, everything is different. You could everything is different, absolutely, bro.

And it's just not going to work the same. So it's like, it's something that you have to be paying attention to what's happening like day by day, hour by hour.

So going through that and figuring that out was pretty interesting. But I just know next year I'll be even better with everything.

Yeah, dude. Honestly, I would absolutely love to go in depth into this if you're open to it, because I think this is something that's extremely valuable to people.

And I don't know if you've ever really, I don't think I've seen anything online that you've discussed in depth regarding like your new coaching or like how you attack this versus like how coaching was before.

And I think a lot of people run into this too, because all of us are like kind of.

It's easy for us to trust the coach, but at the same time, when something happens or they like instruct something that you're kind of just like, uh, about, you know,

that kind of gets us in a little stickler where we're just like, do I really need this much sodium?

Like before I'm going on stage, like I feel like this is gonna, this is exceeding exactly what I need or whatever. And sometimes you have these certain gut feelings.

And obviously recently we've been seeing a lot of coach jumping.

So I guess

first off, back on Foods Pod a year ago that I listened to that you were on,

I remember you stating that when you were with Matt, you mentioned that you just like the fact that you don't have to think about it, yeah, right.

And I can totally get that because as there's like this decision fatigue, and as the show comes around, it's like you wanted to reduce the amount of fatigue as possible, and just overthinking about things just fucking exhausted me, man.

And it definitely raises my cortisol. So, I guess now that you've separated from Matt and you attack this by yourself, what was your new mindset going into this?

Uh, my new mindset was that,

regardless regardless of how i did it i knew i was gonna figure it out you know so even

it's i i basically got in good enough shape right before the tampa pro like literally the week of that show i got into the condition that i wanted and i wasn't stressed about i'm just like okay like you know we're pushing my body at this point i really really pushed myself that last week and i didn't get much out of it but I just always believed that it's going to work out.

And, you know, I kind of like went into that peak week with that more calm and accepting mindset and just really believed that things would work out and honestly i had a really good drop and the look drastically improved so nice hell yeah yeah just i i honestly just trying to keep this thing called the kiss method keep it simple stupid that's basically

that i went into every show with like i try to keep everything as simple as possible I like that. Stefan Kinzel says the same thing.
He thinks people, most coaches, just

overcomplicate bodybuilding, especially peak week. And then at that point, you're kind of like, you're more

at risk of just destroying all the fucking hard work that you put into it in the first place. Yeah,

when you said that you pushed hard this prep,

how would you compare your push this prep versus your pushes with Matt? Like, was your diet any more stringent, or was it about the same? Cardio

diet, I was eating more this prep

for a majority of the prep.

My cardio. Okay, so when I worked with Matt, my cardio went up to about two hours a day.
Jesus Christ. Fuck.

I'm a big guy. So even if I do like 30 minutes of cardio in the morning, like I can feel what I lose from that cardio in the workout.
I normally like to train a little bit early.

So even if it's split up like cardio 5 a.m., workout 11 a.m. I can still feel like a little bit, it's like something is lost when I do the

when I do that training session. So I pretty much made sure to keep, I made sure to stay away from the fast of cardio for as long as possible before it made more sense in terms of scheduling.

Because then you start getting to that crazy prep mindset where you're like, okay, I don't want to be in public in the evening. I'm like, I can't stand being around people in the evening.

So, so yeah, I would start to do the fast of cardio in the morning. The most I've ever gone up to was,

I want to say

40 minutes and then an extra 10 minutes on some days before that first portion of the prep.

And then in Italy, or heading to Italy when I was in the UK, the most cardio that I did at that point was 55 minutes. Gotcha.
Yeah, that was my peak.

So almost like basically half of what I did last year, the diet was low and the training, the training intensity this year was way better than it was ever in my life.

And I think that's what carried things on, brother.

Dude, I love seeing this because

I feel like this is progressively

evolution in coaching and just, I think, managing fatigue in general when it comes to preps,

that it's clear that

preserving training performance is just so much more important than just running yourself into the ground with two hours of cardio. And it's becoming more clear.

Chris Tuttle did this with Jordan, where they're like, all right, let's like make sure that you're recovering properly. If you're doing too much cardio, then we're going to limit that.

Same thing with Martin Fitzwater when he won Olympia, or no, when he came fifth at Olympia and then won Prague.

They did the same thing with Boss, where basically they added, I'm trying to remember how much cardio, if it was 20 minutes, 30 minutes or so or something on the bike i think it was 20 minutes on the bike hit 20 minutes on the bike for like two to three weeks and they realized that he started flattening out and it was already affecting his training a little bit so boss is like honestly bro i would rather just like run even like a couple like quote unquote junk sets or just like a couple extra sets into legs

and just hit that shit hard and train fucking hard rather than like doing this cardio because I just feel like it's not working well for me. And they dropped the cardio and he came and fucking peeled.

They just did their own little depletion phase, and uh, which was zero carbs for about one and a half weeks, and then he started filling out pretty immensely.

And bro, like, dude was peeled as fuck when he came on stage. Holy shit! So, yeah, the no-carb thing is scary, though, bro.

Yeah,

I'd be a little worried at first. I could barely handle 70 grams of carbs, much less thinking about zero grams of carbs, especially at that guy's size.

I'm just like, dude, how are you not starving to fucking death? Yeah,

well, you probably smoke a lot of weed, it'll help.

Oh my God. That would be crazy.
If you don't mind me asking,

where in their journey with Matt did you start feeling like progress wasn't progressing and that the partnership might not be benefiting you?

So I'm the kind of person that when I work with a coach, I just trust the process entirely. And, you know,

when I look at myself and like something looks off, this is very normal. Sometimes I look my best this year and I'm thinking, something's a little off.

And I would run it by one of my good friends, and they let me know what they thought because they could see it more objectively from the outside.

And I would lean on, you know, my good friends to tell me like where I was and where I wasn't. So, when you have a coach, you trust that your coach is the person in that position.

So, if something is a little off, they're going to tell you. So, as much as sometimes I thought I saw something I was off, he always eased my mind.
And I was like, okay, you know, this is my coach.

I hired him for a reason. So, I trusted what he was telling me.
And I wasn't going to other people. You know, the last thing that I would ever do if I'm working with a coach is go to other coaches.

Hey, what do you think? I'm not that kind of person. And a lot of people were respective of our collaboration.

So even though there were friends I had at the gym that saw me and probably were like, what the fuck's going on? They were respecting. that collaboration.

So they weren't trying to like step on anybody's toes or poach or anything. So yeah, I just never got another opinion during that time period.

And, you know, I thought, okay, maybe I'm just a little flat and maybe, you know, maybe we're just going to do a crazy peak week protocol and fail out completely. But yeah,

I just trusted the process.

I'm trying to remember what you mentioned in the video, but

I guess

what exactly was the gear situation with Matt?

So, oh, sorry, ask that again? What exactly was the gear situation with Matt? Was there

anything? No, no, nothing. Nothing bad.
No.

So it was the week after the show, like the couple days after the show, where

I wasn't really getting anything from him, like feedback. And then at that point, you know, the whole world, the bodybuilding world is like

giving me their two cents about my performance, about my appearance at the New York. And it's

pretty much like 90% negative. Right.
So my coach is telling me, no, man, you look amazing. You killed it.
But then everyone else is is like, dude, you fucked up. Like, something's bad.

And I think Phil Biz, you know Phil Biz?

Yeah. Yeah.
He was, he was, he was one of the guys that was very outspoken at the time. And

he posted a throwback of me at the Texas Pro in 2022. Oh, my God.
And then me at the University of 24.

And I remember at first I was annoyed. Everything, I didn't agree with anything I saw at first.
I was annoyed at it, whatever. And then I think it stumbled on my feet again.

And I actually looked at the comparison picture and I'm like,

holy fuck, like, I'm actually better two years ago. Like, wait, how did I get to 330 pounds, hold this way for a fucking full year for more than a year in the offseason, and then come in smaller?

I'm like, what happened?

Then now my brain is starting to unravel. I'm like, what just happened? You know, what the fuck happened? And how am I just realizing this? So, yeah, it was,

and it's, it's all Phil Viz's fault. Like, no, no.

And then I, oh, fuck. There was also comparison pics of those, like, I think they're like Brazilian fan pages.
And they're like doing pics of me being compared to Chris Bumstead.

And I'm like, oh, my God. Jesus Christ.
What are you doing? What the fuck is classic now? So I'm like, okay, something's clearly, something clearly went wrong.

I clearly much smaller than I, like, than people expected me to be. Smaller than I expected to be, right?

So I just, you know, I said, this is one of the things I probably wouldn't recommend to a lot of people.

I started reading the comments and I also went to see people that made videos like attacking people when they don't look their best.

And I watched the videos because I wanted to gain the other perspective. Because I wasn't being told, like the, I wasn't being told like an objective truth.

And I'm like, okay, like,

I honestly could see where they're coming from. Like, I get what they're saying.
So, you know, it wasn't like nice to hear, but it was also good in the sense that it kind of of gave me some clarity.

I'm like, okay, I know exactly what went wrong. And yeah.

Gotcha.

What do you think? What do you feel like happened? Do you feel like

maybe he just ran you into the ground with a lot of cardio and just really, really low on diet? Or like kind of like a

situation where Samson was trying to come in as peeled enough as possible for Olympia? Or what do you think the situation might have been? So, listen, I

always want to give somebody the benefit of the doubt. And, you know, which is respectable.

Yeah, with with my kind of physique, similar to like a Samson and an Andrew, I think, you know, there's some people who you're going to get that super paper dry look.

And if you just diet them harder, they're going to get that look. And then you could just stop and fill them out.
And it's good. I think with certain body types, if you do that,

you don't necessarily, you're not going to look, the athlete's not going to necessarily look drier and drier and drier.

You start to kind of look smaller and flatter, and then have that same level of condition.

So, I think from a certain point in the 270s, okay, we just need a little bit more, and just kept pushing, pushing, pushing.

And he was looking at certain things like these things need to be tighter, and they weren't necessarily getting much tighter. So, he kept pushing, but the juice chairs wasn't worth the squeeze.

That's what I believe. But, uh, yeah, yeah, that's that's me giving him the benefit of the doubt.
And then, obviously, the other situations with the other athletes.

So just I just think, you know, it just was a bad timing for us.

I think that would make a lot of sense, honestly, man, because like for every athlete, there's like this individual response where you have to tailor just how much you're pushing because there's like a give and take, right?

Like some athletes, like they'll get a little bit more glute striation, but

in trade for what? Maybe they might lose like a large percentage of their leg circumference.

you know and this happens with all these athletes they all have their own little like trademark part that just gets lost in, you know, the process.

And most of the time, this is normally the muscle group that just is the newest,

I guess, what is it called? You know, the newest,

the newest gains. Yeah, yeah.
You know, like Urs pushing for classic, normally his arms always get lost, even if he builds it up during the offseason.

So I think this is just something that we all have to look out for. For me, it seems like mine is my chest and my legs that go first.
Oh, yeah.

Yeah.

But

I think, and I think for the, I think normally the darker skinned,

darker skinned athletes tend to experience what you feel like you're experiencing more often.

And then it's always the white guys that they just push hard and they get fucking hard as nails and shit somehow.

They might have like one random body part that's always like fucking, always fucking like never gets shredded like fucking Jared Feather and his glutes or like freaking like Urs in his back, but then they always just get hard as nails and all the other body parts.

But I don't know. It's interesting stuff.
So I guess that's what makes bodybuilding fun, honestly, is because we all have to tailor it to ourselves. So I think that's

also why a lot of the audience likes to listen to this podcast because it's like a fucking live video Reddit forum where like literally you know, you get to actually see the athlete talking about their experience.

And then the people in the audience can be like, is this, is this what I'm experiencing or is this something different than mine?

Like, how does this apply to me and how does this apply to like my next preps? So it helps a lot to hear your experiences. um when you uh did those last when you did these five shows was there any

any point in time where

like

you had to make some hard decisions

and it was kind of hard for you to make that decision for yourself um like i had to cut certain people out like certain people off i just

it wasn't like there was like negative energy

okay so that's something that i had to do but honestly it wasn't a hard decision when you're deep in prep

like

anything like emotional is like no i don't yeah

i guess i know nah we need we just need peace quiet and just function we need things to function right now so yeah yeah bro the last three weeks of prep i just have this itch to kind of just almost cut everybody off which is almost probably like too far in the opposite direction but

joe i've been there i've been i've had some preps where i like end up unfollowing like half the people i follow and then like afterwards afterwards like you know they might message me or I'll see them and I'm like oh I don't know why I did that like I really like that person

it's funny

gotcha okay so I guess um for these last five shows if you don't mind me asking what did the uh prep and the peaking look like

like how uh how high were your calories and how low did they go so

like

so I'd like to

just based on memory I want to say my depletion days

they'd range from like

3,000 to 4,000 calories, just depending on the show, because every show was a little different.

How tall are you again? 6'1.

Like just over 6'1, yeah. Big ass motherfucker.
I know you get to like, what, 330 or something in your off-season, some crazy shit. I've been there.
I'm trying not to do this here, though.

That's fucking crazy, bro. Yeah.

And

doing cardio, doing high steps and all that. So just making

I'm making my body composition like a much bigger priority because I don't think I need to put on a crazy amount of tissue year to year.

I know I'm big. I know I have a good amount of tissue.
It's just about refining it and not losing anything during the prep.

So if I can make the prep easier, I think it's going to look like I did it like double the offseason.

Yeah,

I've been leaning more towards keeping the body as insulin sensitive as possible throughout the offseason as I've discussed more and more with like some of these coaches that I really trust in.

So, you know, like Chris Tuttle, I'm going to go on with Dom Super Slice next week too. But I'm pretty sure that he has very similar beliefs as to Chris as well.
Chris and John Drewett too.

It's like you don't have to push things so freaking hard, you know?

And there's a level of, I guess, there's only a level of work that you can do where you still require, your body still requires energy for recovery.

So if you're pushing yourself into the ground and you're not recovering by your next training session, this is just hurting your ass, you know?

So,

yeah, I mean, because I know the old school,

the old school way of off-seasoning was like just fucking

going hard, right? Going ham. Fucking, I think Lee Priest kind of made a lot of people think that they could just

slam some fucking burgers in the off-season and gain 200 fucking pounds. And then, you know, that's how you get huge as fuck.
But not everybody has um,

what is it called, man? God, fuck,

what is it?

What is that thing called? Where it's like uh, it prevents you from gaining extra muscle. And if you have a, um, you could have like a

Todd, something like a dumbass right now. Like, the like

starts with an M.

I'm just brain farting. Metabolism?

No, it's um

mesomorph, endomorph, that shit.

You know what? This is actually important. I need to look this shit up.

Hold on, you give me a second. Fucking

inhibitor, inhibition. Um,

what is YK11? Oh, myostan. Fucking God, I'm so dumb.
All right.

Yeah, yeah, fucking Myostan. Dude, I was hanging out with Danny Hester this last weekend in Vegas, and he was like, Yeah, dude, Lee Priest was my roommate.
That guy actually had like a Myostan,

Myostan inhibition deficiency, which I don't know. I don't know how true that is.

I don't know how true that is, but I mean, I could fucking believe it considering how fucking huge Lee got when he was a teenager, dude.

Even before he jumped on. So, I don't know.
But he was always impressive. Dude, always, man.
It was fucking nuts, man.

Like,

my old-time goals is to get arms like that, which I never will, but it's fine. I'll just imagine if I dream.
He's driving for it. We all are.

Yeah.

But

what was I saying?

Yeah,

I experimented with doing a rebound last year with Patrick. And Patrick likes to push hard because he believes that you just have to.
I'm trying to remember who else has this. I think

I'm just in this mind state of brain fighting right now. But basically,

there's this classic idea that you want to push the boundary as hard as possible in the beginning because after you get to a certain body fat percentage and your metabolism starts slowing down, the gains start slowing down as well.

So you kind of just want to get at it from the very beginning. And it's kind of like this old school mentality.
That's what I did last year.

Now, I don't know if it's if the reason that I didn't make as many gains is also because I didn't have an opportunity for a health phase, but I just didn't make as many gains last year.

pushing hard and not having like a 12 week, eight week or whatever off cycle after the show ended versus the year before, I gained like seven pounds.

Last year, I gained close to around maybe like five pounds of like lean tissue. So that was my own experience.

Interesting. Yeah.

Yeah.

No, I've done the well, I've never, okay, so after every show, I've basically come off. Like, I've never done like a full rebound going false to the wall.
I'll always just come off and

like I still train hard or try to as much as my body can handle after a certain point. Yeah.

But yeah, that's after every show. I just, I do believe that we need that balance.

And then once your body's prime, and I think with, just with super compensation from competing and being in that like depleted state to just eating a ton of new calories, I think you do build.

a good amount of tissue doing that. Yeah.

Absolutely. Absolutely.

I think that's the key factor is that when you are in that insulin sensitive state, because you're in that state and you're consuming all this new food that you haven't been been consuming for a long time.

This is the perfect opportunity for you to take advantage of that and go on an off-cycle or an off-season because you can only gain so much muscle in a certain amount of time, no matter what you're doing, bro, no matter how much you're pushing.

So, if you have that, that's almost like a handicap for you being off-cycle. And that supports you maintaining the muscle mass when you're off-cycle.

And then when you jump back on, that's the new stimulus for you, for you to start making some crazy gains, especially if your trading stimulus increases as well. Oh, exactly.

So, yeah, and that's, I mean, Chris talked about that in our last podcast together. So, fucking love that, dude.

Yeah, yeah, I've had offseasons where I've pushed very hard, and that's kind of like been in my mind because even when I did last year's offseason, I kind of pushed similar to how I would in the past.

But this year's a lot different.

I do want to keep things a lot more tight with the diet. So, I'm not pushing food that hard.
If I

if I make room to eat out, I'll take out like two meals, you know. Like, I just want to make sure that I'm always in a good spot and I'm always in shape.
I always feel good. And honestly,

my training performance, even being off-cycle, is better than it's ever been.

That's awesome. Yeah.
So just, I think taking care of these things, making sure your body's healthy and functioning at a high capacity, like you're going to get the most out of it in the long term.

I agree. Bro, my training performance goes down a lot when I'm eating way too much.
Like I'm still digesting the food when I'm in the gym.

Bro, it crashes.

It's bad.

Bro, it's like you're always digesting food from the minute you wake up.

I can't even sleep at night because my body's still breaking down. Same.

Same.

Same, bro. Plus, I'll fucking part of the problem is probably because I can smoke weed at night too.
So then I just eat more before bed and then it just fucks me up. Oh, yeah.
So that's great.

If you eat out, what's the first, what's your first choice? Well, honestly, after going to Japan for like 10 days, I just, the burger and fries, man.

I've always been my go-to. But, like, bro, when I was there, it didn't feel right to have a burger and fries because I'm in Japan.
So I have,

you know, Japanese or Asian cuisine. But man,

yeah.

So

my girlfriend hated the sushi there. Really? She hated it.
Why?

It's more flavorful the way they make it in North America. Like, you know, we have our own little spins on things.
I think the way they make it here is better for, you know, us.

Yeah. But I tried it and I can appreciate it.
It's just, it's different. Okay.
It's different. Like it's like the meat, like the fish is bigger.

Like the portions of the fish they give there are like bigger.

The quality is much better. Hey, relax.

The quality is much better. But

yeah. Okay.
Yeah, that was.

I liked it. I liked it.
At least good protein for bodybuilders. Exactly.
Exactly. Went there post-workout one day day and it was good.
Yeah. Because I guess I'll be there in two weeks.

So trying to get some fucking advice from you. Which part are you going to? I think we're just going to send it to Tokyo

first. Yeah.
Do you have planned for like gyms while you're there? I haven't planned anything yet, bro.

I need to. I need to.

I think one of the things I'm worried about, too, is that I think most of the gyms there, I don't know about Tokyo, but most of the gyms in Japan, obviously they don't really like people with tattoos to have those tattoos exposed.

Yeah. I guess.
Yeah. Especially Especially at the especially at like bathing houses and shit like that, too.

So I don't know what I'm going to have to do if I need to wrap some fucking scarf around my neck or some shit.

We were told that, but, and we had a lot of people that have tattoos in our group, and we never rent any problems.

Now, we went to bodybuilding-specific gyms, so it seemed like it wasn't really much of a thing over there. But after the pod, I could send you some of the gyms.
I went to this gym. His name's Sean.

He's a men's physique bro. He has a gym in, it's outside of Jokyo.
It's called Conneck and Fit. Conneck and Fitness gym, I think.
It was a really, I'll send it to you after.

But that was my favorite gym when I went out there.

They had a really good.

I like the equipment. It looks really nice in there.
And yeah, it was a fucking sick junk.

Okay, cool. This is going to be really helpful, bro.
Thank you. Yeah, of course.

For peaking for the last five shows, what did you do for that? What was the plan? Because I know you wanted to keep it simple, right? Yeah, yeah. So basically, so I had the depletion days about

until about the Wednesday or Thursday. So, okay, so

in Europe, most of the shows were on Sunday. Oh, hold on.
For reference, how much do you eat in the offseason?

In the off seasons. In the off seasons, I have gone up to like 7,000 calories.
Okay. Last year, savage.

Last year, I was up to like 5,000 to 6,000.

Okay. Yeah.
So

in prep, like I was lucky enough for most of the prep to be dieting close to like 4,000 calories.

So yeah, that was between 3,000 and 4,000 for the depletion workouts or for the depletion days. And then when I started loading up, I think Thursday, Friday, Saturday.

So that was from four days, four days out.

Tell him my math is, my head's all messed up.

I think it's four days. Jet lag.
It shows on Sunday. Yeah, the jet lag is killing me.
Yeah, so from the fourth day, just depending on where my physique was, where my weight was,

I could tell, okay, like I'm going to have to push this a little hard because

let's say my weight was starting to tank from being on the depletion days for so long. Because during the regular week, basically the depletion days were my regular, my everyday diet, right?

And I would do like a refeed or a high day. And normally once after the...

temp the first show they were all just clean high days so i would do that like once or twice a week just depending and that was to keep myself from from flattening out too much, keep my performance good.

So, when I did that for like four to five days extended, I'll start to get really flat.

So, sometimes I would start the peak on the Friday, or yeah, start the filling out process on the Friday, sometimes the Thursday. And basically, I would just kind of ramp it up a little bit.

So, the first day might be like about 5,500 calories, and then the next day is like 10,000, 11,000 calories. Fuck.
And then

the day before is basically the same, about 10 to 11,000 calories. And then the day of the show,

the day of the show was, it was less just because I didn't want to be full on stage, but

probably around 7,000 calories. At least around 6,000 before getting on stage.

Do you happen to know approximately how many carbs and fats you're consuming?

Let me see if I have it here.

I d there's an app that I use sometimes. I don't know if I put this all into the app at those times.

No, I don't think I have it in the app there.

I could tell you the amount of food. Hold on, let me put on my notes.
Yeah, I'm curious. Okay.

So, yeah, so for Germany, this is one day out of the Germany show.

So I had

so about, so at this point, my meat portions are about four ounces of meat.

For the first meal, I had 160 grams cream of rice, 30 grams almond butter, a banana, a bagel, 10 grams grams of honey.

Nice. For the second meal.
See you guys.

See what's good. 500 grams of rice, 100 grams avocado.

Fuck, 500 grams of rice. Yeah.

Is that, is that... I'm assuming that's a, yeah, that's uncooked, right? That's, no, it's cooked.
500 grams of rice cooked. Yeah.
Holy shit.

Holy fuck, dude. That's crazy.
Yeah.

50 grams asparagus, four rice cakes.

Then the next meal, same thing, about four ounces of meat, and and then 150 grams oatmeal, 20 grams almond butter, 100 grams raspberry, 20 grams honey, 50 grams asparagus, and a banana.

And like, that's essentially what it was. And then I added an extra meal at the end of the night, which was again four ounces of, so seven meals total, because normally it would be six.
Yeah.

Seven meals total, and then, yeah, 500 grams of rice, 100 grams avocado, 15 grams honey, 50 grams asparagus. So basically,

the meals were consistently around there. Yeah,

about

seven meals, it was about 10 to 11,000 calories.

That's fucking savage, brother.

It sounds like 500 grams of rice in one meal is nuts.

I think I was eating like 120 grams of how many? I had six meals and I was eating like 120 grams of rice per meal.

So it ended up being around like,

yeah, I know I did have the, I didn't have the fucking, dude, I know I'm fucking small and my, my fucking stomach would still be full of shit, but I mean, that was like what?

It ended up being like around 550 to 600 grams of carbs each day.

For you, I know I was like way over the fucking goddamn bro.

Yeah, I gotta punch it in later. It's uh, yeah, I'm curious now.
Yeah, I'm fucking curious. Holy shit, dude.

The thing is, I always, what worked best for me was always writing down the diet, like the measurements of things, the calories, and focusing on the macros.

I did that for a bit, but for some reason, I just felt like it worked better when I just wrote out the amounts. So I just stuck with that.
Right. Okay.
Yeah, that makes sense.

I mean, I think just different styles work for different people.

Plus, I think I remember you saying in one of the podcasts, too, that you like to do your diet in the old school way with just like the measurements of each food. Yeah, yeah, exactly.
Yeah.

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I'm just a fucking nerd. So I like, I used to do macros for like the longest time, like fucking the last seven years.

And then being with Patrick, obviously, and some of these coaches forced me to do the old school way.

So I just fucking ended up familiarizing myself because I would just get their food and then I would still input it into my app for some reason because I got this like neurotic tick or something where I have to like have it in the app.

But it's cool though, because now I can like kind of understand how much like 120 grams of rice or fucking 500 grams of rice or something would end up being in the amount of carbs.

But

how did you, did you do anything for your GI attract and GI health or to like keep digestion flowing?

So I use like I work with HC Muscle. I use all their health supplements.

One of the big things that I implemented and I made sure to have with me on every trip.

Well, there's a lot of HD products I brought with me on every trip, but the glutamine, like I would say, I have like 10 grams of that in the morning, 10 grams midday, like another 10 grams at night.

And

just that.

Dude, I feel like.

I feel like mega dosing glutamine has helped a lot of bodybuilders more than they think. And Martin, this last show with Boss, they had decided to up the glutamine to immense levels.

Um, and they said it helped a lot. And he was running 40 grams a day, so I'm kind of like you, 10 grams four times a day.
Yeah, okay, run a hundred. Yeah, so yeah, no, it's it works, man.

Like, I really didn't have to.

So, in my morning shake, uh, usually I would have the glutamine, 10 grams of glutamine. I would have

a tablespoon or two tablespoons of

one tablespoon of apple cider vinegar, one of the

not lemon, yeah, the lemon juice without sugar. Yeah, and if I could find it in that country, I would also have like oloe vera.
So like two tablespoons of that.

So I would just mix them all together, have that in the morning. And

the Germany show was probably the biggest amount of food I ate leading into the show. And that specific show, I had no issues.
The week before in Italy, I had like acid reflux.

I had to like slow down what I was eating at times. Germany, for some reason, I was just on fire.
I could just just. Okay.

And you're not really sure why you had the acid reflux in Italy. You're not really sure where that came from.
I'm not too sure. I'm not too sure, to be honest.

That was your first show in Europe, too, though, right? Italy, yeah. Yeah.
Yeah. When did you land for Italy? Would I wait? When did you land? Oh.
From your flight?

We landed on the... Tuesday?

Tuesday. Yeah.
Tuesday before? Got there Tuesday and the show was on Sunday. Sometimes I I wonder if just like the flight creates like excess stress in your system, including in your GI tract.

I feel like there's always been a potential possibility for that. I think.
I don't know. I feel like flights just fucked me up for some reason.

They fucked me up too, man. They fucked me up more.
See, the thing is, we're coming from the UK, so it was only like an hour and a half flight. So in my head,

I didn't think it would damage me too much. It wasn't like I was coming from North America.
That definitely would have been a lot more taxing. But yeah,

was also really deep in the hole in Italy like I was really really flat at that point I lost too much weight heading into that show so I I think

I had the the amount that I had to go even though I did eat more in Germany I think my body was just more stable there whereas in Italy like I was putting weight back on with the amount that I was eating

You don't feel like the quality of food had anything to do with it, do you?

In those countries? No? It's better. It's better.
It's much better than in Canada and definitely better than the U.S.

or I guess like Germany compared to Italy. Oh, I'm just shooting shit out there, honestly.

I mean, it's possible. It's possible.
Like, Germany, I had my best experience ever. Just in terms of anything, that was my favorite trip all over.

I'd go back and have a good time. Like, that was a.
Fuck. I'd go back to Italy too.
Don't get me wrong. Like, the Italy is awesome.
You need to hit up the Dark Raves in Berlin. Yeah.
Fuck.

That'd be fucking savage.

Yeah. That's cool, bro.
Germany looked savage, too. Your look in Germany was absolutely fucking savage.
Thank you, man. This is huge.
Yeah, it was such a cool experience. And, you know, the

fans in Germany were, dude, like that.

That audience was insane. Like, they were loud.
They had those freaking, I don't know what those things are. They slapped them together.
It was almost a soccer game. Like, you'd feel like you were

for the Europeans. You're out of football.

You know, like, it was wild they were going nuts and the thing is earth would come on they'd go crazy but it wasn't like exclusive to earth it was just every german bodybuilder that went up they went crazy dude when tim buddershine went up they went

awall and i was just we're just there like whoa now that's a audience man like that's that's sick that's cool

Damn, that's dope. Fuck.

Yeah, I really want to. I just

I need to let go of the whole and figure out the whole like traveling and flights fucking me up and shit because I would just love to travel for shows. I feel like that's such a cool experience.

Then afterwards, you guys got to like check out some shit.

What I will say, when you're in prep, when you're deep enough in prep, I think it's better because you're already feeling like shit from the prep. And like, you know, when you're,

you're high stress, so you, if you can get some sleep at night, it's like you might be doing sleep for like four or five hours and that's it.

So because that, I feel like you don't really get that jet lagged, at least I didn't because I always was able to choose when I would have that sleep instead of like now.

It's like my body's on the circadian rhythm, and like this is the time I sleep.

So, now when I traveled and I came back, it messed me up where I'm sleeping in the middle of the day for like five hours, right? So,

yeah, I think it might be a little better than you think.

And then, when you're in that prep mindset, man, you just it seems harder than it is, but when you actually do it, it's like it's like you'll feel like you could do anything.

Okay, that's cool. That's cool.
What do you pack when you ever go to these shows, especially overseas?

What do I pack when I go to the shows? Yeah, whenever you're going to like all of these shows, especially when you're going overseas.

Let's see.

I bring like a sweater or a blanket. I bring some extra nut butter, some rice cakes.
Nice.

I usually bring like for the Europe shows where

basically the so the Europe shows come on at nighttime, right? So they air around like noon afternoon-ish in North America, but they're on at nighttime over there.

So you've already like five, five, four or five meals in. So that's interesting.
Yeah, I'd only bring like one meal potentially if there's like some sort of delays.

But they wrap those shows up pretty quick. So I'd have one meal and a couple snacks backstage.
I'd have like a bottle of water,

some salt,

coffee.

and yeah like like I said like a blanket a pillow backup shirt get comfortable backstage and something that I would forget to bring sometimes was a t-shirt because it gets awesome

I always forget a t-shirt everywhere I go okay

just thug it in a sweater you start sweating worrying about the tan and shit

yeah um

I just I have to ask because I feel like I pack so much shit whenever I'm going to these shows like I pack already a lot whenever I'm just going anywhere much less going to these shows.

Like, I feel like I'm a walking supplement store as a bodybuilder. And I asked Wesley visitors, and he says he has a whole nother luggage just for all the supplements.

So, that's why I had to ask because I was just curious: like, do you end up bringing a lot of supplements with you as well?

Okay, yeah. So, for the travel from like country to country, yeah, I bring all my health supplements.
And if I was staying long, like I was in Europe for

five weeks, I think

from the UK to Italy to Germany.

So, yeah, within trip so i did that and i also had stuff shipped to me at times so okay that's cool i would yeah if i'm gonna be stationed somewhere for long enough i will also have stuff shipped because it's it's just not worth bringing everything with me on those trips just because it's more shit to carry but i had two luggages

what supplements do you normally take around this time

i so jerk prep so the we have like these like really high-end like multis called vita hd and this is something i recommend for all athletes So it gives you all the nutrients that you need at doses that people that are very active would need.

So I use that all the time.

We have a liver support product, kidney support. We have omegas, curcumin, magnesium.
Like, bro, I use everything. Citrus, bergamot.
I basically bring the entire supplement store with me. You know,

it's a fucking annoying. Yeah, I bring me like three glutamines.
Yeah. You know, usually I cut, when I'm traveling, I'll just cut the protein out.
And that saves like a lot of space.

And it's heavy and it's big. So I don't really have a lot of protein during those time periods, like protein tubs.
Okay.

So yeah, that's probably the only product that I don't have when I'm like on the road and competing. But yeah, everything else I bring with me.

Is that just because you try to like preserve it for real food? Yes, exactly. Exactly.

I digest it very well, but I find that when I'm very close to show,

it takes a little bit longer for me to digest than some other things.

So I just want to minimize the amount of sweeteners that I have as well.

I cut that out. You don't happen to have lactose intolerance, do you?

I do, actually.

Okay, okay.

I literally can, honestly, I can only do whey isolate around that time. Like, I have lactose intolerance too.

So it's like, if I do whey isolates, though, normally I have absolutely zero issue, especially because, you know, it's some of the lactose is filtered.

But whenever it comes to my dad, I just got a text from my dad congratulating me on the best posing award. That's funny.

That's awesome, bro. My dad and I didn't have the greatest relationship growing up.
So it's really cool to have such a good relationship with him now.

Anyways, without having to be deep.

Yeah, so what was I saying about... Yeah, dude, the fucking lactose thing just wrecks me.
So if I do, I can't do any normal way around then.

And then the sugar, like I feel like there's never, I've like experimented with sugar substitutes around prep, and none of them have made any difference except for sugar alcohols, like erythritol.

That shit fucking tears me up. So, honestly, like erythritol, sugar alcohols, I just try to avoid that throughout all of prep.

But I have tried doing like no sugar substitutes for like several weeks before the show, and then I tried just running it up to the show.

And I swear to God, man, I haven't experienced a difference, to be honest. Yeah, but yeah, so I don't know, there's certain things that I do, like the protein is something I do cut out.

There's certain sauces that I won't cut out just leading up to the show. From, I think, about three, four days out is finally when I cut out some things.

Like if I am drinking Diet Coke sprite zeros, that's something I'll cut out at least around four or five days out. Yeah.

I just feel a little bloated when I drink that kind of stuff. Just a tiny bit.
Nothing crazy, but just around four or five days out. Like I cut that out.

I've cut it out two two weeks before, cut it out a couple days out before, and it is basically the same result. But

I know I definitely have to cut it out at least a couple of days. Yeah, yeah.
I cut it out at least for a few days as well.

Cool.

If you don't mind me discussing this and asking about this, because the reason I'm curious is I did my own little experiment, and I also discussed this with Martin in the last pod.

He had some really valuable information to share as well.

But basically, Patrick Petor had me running no orals except for like Proviron and then, obviously, Lil Halo for my first show, which was shocking to me because I'm just like, bro, I've always run menstrual for all my shows.

Yeah. So, I mean, obviously, since this was our first prep, he wanted to start me at the lowest cycle and lowest stack

because that's what he likes to do is like start slow, start low, and then grow with his athletes. And so we did that.

And honestly, it was an interesting look that I wasn't, I was expecting more of like this kind of like geared out, full fucking like thin skin look, right? Normally, that's what we go for at shows.

Obviously, it didn't, I didn't really get that,

but some of my lines were a little bit deeper.

And also, I had so many people telling me that my skin looked amazing before a show, even people that don't follow bodybuilding, so they had no clue what I was doing or what I was on.

They were just like, Your skin looks so great, or whatever. Like, what do you do? And I'm just like, I don't know, I'm just not running orals.
I don't know.

And then, um, fuck, I'm fucking Asian. And then, um,

coming as the show came closer, um,

I noticed my face kept staying sucking in. And I'll notice sometimes for some of my preps, that doesn't happen.

Like I gain this like water retention in my cheeks sometimes as the show comes closer around.

But basically the feedback for the first show was that I

wasn't quite as full as the other athletes. And also from people that weren't the judges, some people in the crowd were saying I looked like the like less like geared out

compared to like the top five and some of the other competitors.

And so I think to achieve this look, I kind of proposed this argument to Patrick. And I was like, they're saying I look like I'm running less gear.
And he's like, yeah, that's a fact.

You're probably running like half an Olympian stack right now, but slow and steady runs the race. Obviously, as we increase and

you build up, you know, it's going to increase. And I'm like, well, what would you think about me adding Windstrol for the next two shows for just for us to just experiment? And he was open to it.

So I added 37.5 milligrams of Windstrol for the second show, which was three weeks later. And then 50 milligrams of Windstrol for the next show, which was another three weeks later after that.

And I came in fuller each time and like a little bit like the lines and like the glutes, for example, weren't quite as like sunken in.

And my face started gaining some like water retention in the cheeks each show. Like I had like a little bit more water retention in the cheeks.

But

there was like, I don't know if you've ever heard Stefan Kinsley use this term. but there was more pressure as the muscle was like pressing against the skin.
You know that look? Yes. Yeah.
Yeah.

And obviously vascularity was increasing as well. So I think that look the judges liked.

And I think they rewarded that at my last show a lot more than like my first show, which just didn't have that like full tight look.

Even though it's classic, it seemed like the judges still liked that look. So it was cool to see that that made an improvement.

But for that last show though, bro, like my digestion was perfect for the first show. And then for that last show, man,

my digestion was kind of fucked, to be honest. Like

just a lot of farting a lot of bloating and i had to like do some extra management to make sure like everything was going down fine using betane as well and tudka and um oral bpc and kpv and all of these things to make sure that my inflammation was down so i guess my curiosity is like your waist is just so fucking small bro and i just feel like you maintain that at all your shows so well And

Martin has had some issues as well himself with like some orals. And so they like pick and choose.

But I was wondering if there's any orals that you ran for the shows and if there's any orals that you experience more digestive discomfort or I guess digestive like disturbing,

if at all.

So it's funny that you say that because honestly, there was some experiences where I'm like, man, my stomach's blown out here.

Yeah. But I think it's just we all have like a vision of how we want to look in our own heads.
Yeah.

If you see something's off by like a centimeter, you're like, ugh, it's all you look at, but other people might not notice it. Right.
It's funny. I mean, thank you.
It's funny. It's nice to hear that.

Because I was like, some shows are like, ugh.

I'm like, oh man, I'm losing. It's gone.

So, yeah.

No, honestly, I'm not very resistant to anything, to be honest. Like, there's nothing.

I just think it's when there's an accumulation of a lot of things, then, you know, I will start to,

you know feel that like pushback you know start to have more digestive issues but

yeah

uh yeah no i haven't i'm not really that sensitive to many many of the things

okay and you haven't really had to play around with anything to like try to bring your waist back down or whatever no not for that for

for the france show i was trying to be mindful because i felt

i thought that the germany show i thought my waist was a little i thought it could have been tighter. So the France show, I just timed the meals a little bit better.

And I'm trying to think what else I did. I guess it's just better with timing.
And I didn't push, I didn't eat as much as I did in Germany. But also,

I got pretty sick. The second I flew back home from Germany, I was sick.
And, you know, my body just, it was hard to bounce back.

So I ended up flying home and then flying back to Europe in the next five days. Holy shit.
Yeah. So there's like a film that I couldn't get rid of.

So I'm like, okay, I can't really push the food as hard because this film makes me look less lean. And if I push, and now I'm full and soft, you know, it's not going to equate to a very good look.

So I pulled it back a little bit so I could control the abdomen more and not be like just watery and, you know, just like a... a fluffball on stage.
Now,

I guess it didn't work because I didn't win.

I mean, I guess it's depending on your outlook I guess it worked well to come second right but yeah so that's that was my experience with that but for me it would just be with how I time stuff and just slightly reducing food and seeing if we could get more.

I noticed specifically with my preps one of the biggest things with the issue with fullness and flatness was

doing shows that were at night. I've never competed at night before.
I've never worked with a

maybe Romania. I did Romania many years ago.
I just don't remember much of it. So I only did one show at night before.
I don't remember that experience, right?

So just having to peak myself with this show, when I'm very familiar with the data I have from like morning shows,

it was definitely more challenging. And trying to figure out, okay, what are we going to do with the water manipulation? That was

probably the biggest challenge for me with this whole problem. I think when it came to, you know, supplementation, orals,

food, I don't think a lot of these things were as big a problem as they might have seemed to me at the time i think one of the biggest issues was just finding the balance of the water manipulation and making sure that i'm hydrated enough but not bloated and full of water by the time i compete because i don't know if you're like me but usually by the end of the night i'm just retaining a ton of water oh yeah i'm a thousand percent like you bro i try to tell patrick this all the time and he's like still pushing some fucking sodium and water at me and i'm just like bro i'm gonna

he's like no we gotta get you fully by finals And I'm like, well, my fucking abs are gone now. Yeah, yeah.

Yeah, I get it. Yeah, no, it's a struggle trying to find that balance and find that, get that like hard granite, like that hard granite, like dry look for the night show.

But yeah, that was basically what we had to try and do for pre-judging and finals because they were basically at the same time.

Yeah, that's kind of fucking cool, though.

I fucking love it when they're so close together, man.

See, but the only negative thing is when it's at nighttime, bro, like, okay, imagine you wake up to to compete and you're just like, all right, it's show day. And you wake up at 5 a.m.

because you can't sleep because of prep. You're up at 4.30 a.m.
and the show is not till 7 p.m. Oh, jeez.
You're just like,

oh,

how,

how many hours can I lay down with my feet up? You know?

How many shows? How many movies can I watch before it's like, you know, and then you get to the venue and then you still got to wait. Right.

And I'm just like, I don't know how I would even stay dry for that. I just don't.
Yeah. I don't even know.
I don't think I'd be the best for open.

Like, I was even thinking about that when I was at Olympia, watching the open guys

go

on at 11 p.m. for pre-judging.
I was like, that's fucking crazy, dude. I would be a fucking water bag and I'd be tired.
Yeah. Just fatigued, honestly.

Somebody get me the strongest sleeping pill you could find. I'm going to sleep at 7 a.m.
and I'm going to wake up like 5 and

run it like that.

Honestly, bro. That's what I want to do.
Yeah.

Well, since you were speaking about water, like, what did you do for water and sodium for these shows? And were they ever different, show to show?

They were

for the Italy show, I pulled the water completely, or not completely, but basically, but pulled most of the water like from the morning of the show. And that was that was a mistake.
That was

a mistake, yeah. But again, like this year, I was trying to.
Why was that a mistake?

Because the look was flatter. And I don't think,

okay, so it was flatter. Like, I did dig myself into quite a hole right before that early show.

So there was a component of it where I could have been fuller if I didn't dig myself that deep, if I didn't.

But then it was also, you know,

I needed to be more hydrated for my muscles to look fuller the day of the show. So that was just just a learning experience.
And, you know, I took second place.

And I think it was because I wasn't as full as I should have been.

For Germany, I corrected it, and I was a lot better with the water.

Now, again, same thing, like with the water, it's like you still want to be careful because you don't want, you're still trying to fill out and maintain fullness.

So you don't want to start drinking water and all of a sudden you're like actually just holding water, right? Yeah. Absolutely.

It's fucking like little, it's just a, it's a fucking tiny balance, man, that you have to just

like oh not too far and not too close, whatever. And then all these coaches, you know, even my coach had me do this this time.

And I know Hanny's done this a lot, but it's like drink as much as you pee, you know.

And sometimes some of these coaches will literally make you like measure out your piss in like a bottle or something and then drink that,

not drink that piss, but you know, drink.

Yeah, I've heard of that. Yeah.

I've heard that. I heard, I don't know if this is true.
I heard one of them would make you measure your shit. Now,

i don't want to believe that's true that sounds a bit ridiculous but

if it works it works that's crazy i don't even have know how that what yeah i don't even know how that would work bro

i oh i hope it's not true but that's what i heard about one of them i feel like you're i think your shit's like less it's just i feel like it's less measurable in terms of like your food volume and what you're consuming like I tried carnivore for a period of time and the shits were like way smaller, if I remember correctly.

Like, it's just

like, it changes based off of like the types of food you're consuming as well. So, I don't know, that's interesting shit.

Very pun intended.

Yeah.

Yeah, no, I, I've, I've, yeah,

drinking in the amount that you think you're losing when pissed. Yeah, I've uh I've been told to do that, but for me, I've always felt weird about it because it didn't seem as measurable.

But I guess if you actually measure it, being measuring what you're peeing, then yeah, that would probably be the way to do it. But I do feel weird about that, putting that on my scale.

Have to get another scale just for that, you know?

Including my little drug scale where I measure all my salt that people think is cocaine.

It's fantastic. Yeah.

What did you do for water for Germany? Oh, so I just kept sipping on water essentially from

the first portion of the day before I ate. I drank about a liter.
I had a coffee and, you know, kind of flushed that out pretty easily.

Then I ate, and as I ate, I'd have about 250 to 500 milliliters between meals. So

I wasn't like drinking a ton of water, but I was just keeping that in

throughout the day with meals

with a very steady progress. Yeah.

Yeah, I was able to maintain the look that I had.

But a part of me still feels after the fact, I'm like, oh, I I could have drank even more water. Like, you know, I think I could have been even

like the amount of food I was eating was 100% more than enough. Like, I know for a fact, the amount of food I ate at these shows was more than I needed.

So, I know if I could have been fuller, it had to have been water. Okay, that makes sense.
It's just

probably right. And you probably would still come in just as dry, but fuller, basically.
Yeah, with just a little bit more water.

So, like, even when you come off stage, you know, I'm like, I went between the pre-jetting and finals, which is like, I don't know, 45 minutes apart.

I ate a meal and I also drank some water. I think I should have just drank water.
Like I did drink water, but I should have just drank like a liter of water or like a liter instead of eating.

I don't even think the food did anything for me except for like kind of like keep my body busy with digestion. Yeah.
But yeah, yeah.

So it's just little things like that where you have to, you have to go through, you have to experience it to know, okay this is what would have made me better because like i'm not going to add an extra 50 calories to that like i was i've never eaten that amount of food in my life so i know that this was enough food you know yeah yeah it's it's yeah but like i said you live and you learn and i'm very excited because now i have a lot of data to work with like i went into this year confident knowing nothing essentially about how i knew this was going to go i'm like all right i'm just going to try some things out and we'll see what works we'll find what works and Now I know exactly, okay, this works, this works, this works.

This didn't work. And just to have these things all noted down so I know exactly how to master it next year.
Bro, that's fucking awesome, man.

How does that feel to literally have your best season ever by yourself?

Bro, it feels great, man. It feels great.
I mean,

I just think my body is not the easiest to figure out for a coach. I think, you know, working with somebody that, oh, Dorian Hamilton is an incredible coach as well.

And I learned a lot from him. We've had some good showings together.
Uh, yeah, I just, I just don't think that I'm someone that's easy to figure out.

And I think by the time I hire someone and they figure out how my body works, it's like, okay, well, we've already lost one show, two show, three show.

It's like, you've already kind of wasted these experiences. And you see it with other athletes that have harder bodies to figure out.
And they start coach hopping, right?

And people get on them because they're co-chopping. And honestly, I just think it's just, it's not simple for everybody, man.
It's a, it's a tough process and it's different for everyone.

And, you know, I'm able to identify that it's a little bit different for me than it is for other people. So I just, I'm in my body, man.
I've been with me for 30 years. So absolutely.

I should have some level of understanding as to how this works.

Right. Yeah.
I remember us talking about this in the DMs that like.

That's the thing is like these coaches will provide such valuable information for you to learn from, but in the end, you know your own body the best by far.

As long as you're obviously also considering the observations of others that you trust if you know sometimes we're a little bit biased right when we're looking at our body we get a little self-conscious about things but i mean who's the one that's putting in the data and then seeing the results over the course of like what the last 30 years it's you so i think that's the cool thing about bodybuilding and that's the thing that we all need to like remember is that every year we are making progress but we're putting data in the data book and we're learning our body better and that's what it is is that we're continuously doing that putting in the work and and that's why it's good for you to like log certain things, not just throw something at the dartboard and never like log what you're eating or log what you're training or log, I don't know, what you're drinking or your cardio or whatever.

Like, as long as you have an idea of what you're doing,

that gives you a reference for you to change that up the next time around to make sure that you're coming better.

So, it's cool, it's cool.

Um,

just for reference, so we know, I guess, how much you dropped in water, how much water were you drinking throughout peak week, like each day do you know seven and a half liters okay cool i was at six liters huh i wonder if

i guess i never really think about like you know how like uh much you're like twice my size bro so it makes sense that you have to eat twice my amount of food but i guess it's never it's not quite the same with water so i always find that interesting What about sodium?

Do you know how much sodium that you were consuming for per meal or maybe salt? So

I have a quarter tablespoon of like himalayan pink salt with every meal, and that's normally with six meals.

I would have that with seven meals leading up to the show, and then the day of the show, there was a couple meals where I would have double salt, about three meals. Oh, shit, yeah, where I

double the amount of salt in that meal. Yeah,

but you didn't have like double the amount of carbs in that meal, also, did you? No, no, okay, so trying to make use of, sorry, yeah,

just trying to make use of what? Just like,

just trying trying to make use of just sodium and water, that last bit. Because

like I said, I know I have enough carbs. I know I have enough glycogen, enough food in my system.
It's just a matter of just the hydration at that point.

Hydrating the glycogen that's already in there or hydrating the carbohydrates that you've been consuming. That's very interesting, man.

I always felt like I was always scared to drink and consume more salt, I think, closer to the show. Because for me, normally, when I'm I'm drinking a lot of salt,

I tend to spill over very easily. I just like my abdomen first

becomes watery first, then I lose my abs. I may have more pop elsewhere, especially if I'm pumping up my chest or pumping up my back pre-stage.
Then the salt and water helps a lot with that, right?

But it takes away from the abs like significantly to the point where it's like I have this film over.

And if I do an ab and thigh shot or something like that, I'm going to lose that shot to the other people.

So, um, and I think maybe that's a little bit more significant for me in my head as a problem because I used to compete in men's physique.

And it's like, God, dude, that became like one of the most important things about men's physique is your abs.

Uh, in classic, it seems like that's different, a little bit different, you know, like classic in bodybuilding, they're looking at your overall structure, the overall pressure, the muscle, the overall fullness.

So I feel like nowadays I'm hearing more

I'm hearing that judges like the look at finals better, like every show because we come in with a fuller look, which is interesting to me because even if it takes away from like a little bit of definition your abs or a little bit of definition your glutes it just seems like they still like that fuller look all around yeah yeah that's been the theme of this competition season for me like just understanding because yeah understanding it's that fullness that they want

the

Yeah, you could be tight all around and there's looks I have where my stomach is tighter and like I like it better when my stomach is tighter. Yeah, same.

Sometimes I sacrifice a little bit of fullness for that and clearly

they didn't choose me for certain shows. So, you know, it seems that they would have preferred for me to just be fuller.

And even if that came with me being a little softer in that area, I think it would have been just fine. Is that the feedback that you got from the judges at each show?

Do you remember what the specific feedbacks were? So for Tampa.

So Tampa, I didn't even speak of this peak. Tampa's peak, again, because it was the first one, it was just like, all right,

I got the dice here and we rolling it. Like, so that one, I had like two of my friends with me, and, you know, or just kind of like showing them what I was doing.

I asked them some questions about how I was looking. And ultimately, I'd make decisions just based on what I felt would make the most sense, like with pulling water and stuff.

And I really liked that look. I really, really liked that look from the Tampa show.

Yeah, but that show, we what I did is I ate a ton of food that from the Thursday, that show's on a Saturday, so two days out.

Yeah, two days out. Like a ton of food.
And I pulled it back a little bit on the Friday. And then I pulled the water heading into like the Saturday.
But that was like a morning show, right?

Like those shows are much easier to peek for because you kind of wake up and you have a few hours. So even if like at that time, waking up around 5 a.m., let's say I compete around

noon, right? Seven hours. Cool.
I could get like two good meals or maybe three in that time on like 7 p.m. So I didn't have to wait around much.

So I can, like, my look is still a lot more fresh, more polished in the morning.

So, yeah, I was able to pull the right amount of water before getting on stage, and I just thought that look was really good.

What did the judges say about all of these? So, the judge,

Sorry. So for the Tampa look, the judges said I could have been leaner and I faded in the night show.
So

the fading thing kind of like is confusing for me sometimes because I think there's two definitions of fading where they're saying like maybe you're not holding your poses as well or maybe you were losing fullness as you were posing.

So I next time I need to ask them to clarify which one they're referring to. Yeah.
Because that one, they said, okay, I faded a bit in the night show, and I could have been leaner. So, cool.

The Texas show was just a lot going on. And yeah, I was just

a lot of things going on in that show. And I just missed, right? Just

I just missed that one. And yeah, that one they said,

hey, I told you to come in sharper. Like, what happened? And I just laughed.
I'm like, yeah.

Yeah, there's a lot going on. So I just brushed it off.
But that was like my bad. I just clearly fucked that up.

For the Italy, I knew they wanted me leaner. So I pushed really hard.

So again, I don't think that the juice was worth the squeeze.

Now, so here's the, this is the thing where it's like

the judges have an idea of what they want to see from you, and I know exactly what they want to see from me. They want to see like almost like a replica of like a Samson or an Andrew Jack.

They want to see that kind of fullness

and

like the level of condition I'm coming in with, I think, is fine. They just want to see that kind of fullness.
They want to see that kind of polish. And

that's basically it, you know?

So even if I'm not lean enough, they're always going to say, come in leaner. Like Samson can show up.

I think he was at the Arnold's. You know, his criticism was to be leaner.
So it's like he was the defending Mr. Olympia.

And even when he won the Olympia, I'm sure the judges said, listen, like, you're the best in the world, but you can be a little tighter, right?

So it's like, there's always going to be that sort of criticism. And I think where I went wrong is I just hyper-fixated on the criticism.
Like, okay, they want me later. I'm going to.

So I pushed it really hard. And I think I lost a little too much.

And

again, like, I say that, and I go and come second in like every show from that point on, which is probably good in the eyes of many, right?

It wasn't terrible, but I think, you know, I could have looked better if I held back on that that a little bit.

But yeah, that's just something that I have to learn from. And I think everyone, like, you know,

the judges,

yeah.

Yeah, so I showed up leaner. I was leaner.
Like, I think certain poses in that show were definitely the best, but I just didn't have my fullness.

And it wasn't rewarded, even though I brought what I thought was.

thought I was asked for.

So Joey reached out to Jack Sullivan, who

who was the

I'm drawing the blank,

he was judging, he was the head judge, yeah, and he said, He said, Listen, like he's in great condition, I can see that he says something along these lines.

He said, But he also needs to be fullness, and fullness is a part of conditioning. Like, so he's essentially when he's fuller, when that pressure is pushing, he's gonna look leaner, right?

And then that's what happened for Germany because that came fuller. So, that that show, honestly, the it's funny, Jack Sullivan judged my last show, too.
Oh, he did. Bro has a crazy accent.

It's like fucking sly southern accent where he's like, you know, calling out your names. And he's like, I don't know.
I don't know what it is. It's fucking funny.
It's interesting, though.

It was comforting hearing it

in Europe. Yeah.

You're like an American or Canadian. I'm like, hey.

That's funny. Yeah.
So,

yeah, yeah. So then the Germany show, honestly, Jack gave me all positive like feedback.
He didn't really say, hey, you need to work on this. I think he just said to listen with time, you know, just

I think the main thing is just fullness and just like more muscle tissue. But I think I think I could just could have been fuller.
And I didn't identify what he was saying to me at the time.

And in the France show, I didn't show up fuller. So I think that that ultimately hurt me.
And the Russian guy was very good. Well, so

yeah, but now I have a great, I have a much more clear idea of what I need to do for next year. And the hardest thing is like

the hardest thing is having the right people in place, like to give you the criticism.

I think like, you know, you can have 10 different people and they can all tell you different things.

Not that I had 10 people, but sometimes like if one person's influence is like more like, but fullness, fullness, fullness, like, no, no, you're too fat, you're too fat.

And you're hearing that kind of stuff. Like, it might push you too far in one direction.
If one person's like, you're, you're not in shape, you're not in shape.

They might put you too far in another direction, right? So it's like

when you're in that moment and you're coaching yourself, it's like you're, you need that second opinion. You need it 100%.
Like, I need it.

Like, I just need, it's like, it's like, I know how to get there.

I just need somebody to kind of put me in the right direction at times because there's moments where you just can't see yourself objectively. There's moments where I'm like looking at myself.

And I think I was telling my girl one point, I'm like, man,

I'm not as hard as I was a couple of weeks ago. I'm like, I feel like I was, my glutes were harder

in Texas, in Tampa. And, you know,

everyone knows us competitors are in our head and kind of crazy at times. So maybe she's thinking, oh, you're just in your head.
Like, you know, well, this person's giving you good feedback.

So they're giving you good feedback. So you should listen to their feedback.
I'm like, yeah, but I feel like I see something, right?

And then when I compete, I kind of get like from the judges, I get kind of both, right? I get the good from what people were telling me.

And I also get the part that I was kind of worried about where I, you know, like I said, like in Italy, they said the not being full was preventing like that pressure from pushing on the skin.

So like I ended up not looking as lean as I actually was. So I was like, okay, okay.
I'm like, that's what it was, right? So just trying to find that balance of like leanness and fullness.

So no matter what I learned this year, no matter what anybody tells you, I don't think one is more important than the other. You need both.

But if you're lean enough, it's good, but you need to be fucking full. Don't be afraid.
Like, you got to be fucking full. And that's like where I'm at for next year.

But again, I'll still have to have a good friend there to make sure that I don't push it too much. I love that you said that, Mary, because I think I learned the same.

I think I learned the same this time too.

Is that

the that's the confusing thing too, when a judge is giving you feedback that more so pertains to almost like the peaking process or just how you came in rather than how your actual structure is.

Cause it's like at that point, it's like sometimes you don't really understand fully what they mean by like full, you know what I mean? Because like full could mean looking bigger with more pop.

Full could mean like, oh, you look flat. So they think that you need to be fuller.
So you don't look as flat. So you don't look as like watery, you know, like your skin doesn't look as thick.

Um, and it could just mean so many different things, you know what I mean.

But I think at the end, what they just want to see and what I see rewarded at all of the shows that I've been to, even if it's classic, has not been who has the smallest waist or the best shape.

It's always like just who has that crazy pressure of like the muscle pushing against the skin, and the skin just looking dick skin thin, you know?

And it's just this fucking full hardness that they just really like. So, I don't know.

It's um, that's what I'm trying to keep in mind now as well for myself, too, is like, just fucking dry, hard, and false. This is me fucking everything, bro.

Yeah,

it's it's really hard to find that balance because I'm more reserved by nature. Like, I'm not the type to like do any extreme things, yes.
Yeah, so

it's hard to

sometimes that's what it takes, right? And And that's where

the coaching would be nice because they could be like, do this. And I'm like, yeah, I'll do it.
But like by myself, it's hard to be like, no, I'm pushing.

I feel doing that sometimes, even like with the amount of food I was eating, I'm like asking myself, I'm like, am I doing this? Because I'm fucking hungry or am I doing this?

Cause I actually need to, you know?

Yeah, yeah, yeah, no. I'm the same way, bro.

I'm the exact same way, actually. That's why, that's why I get too scared about coaching myself because I'm just gonna fucking eat because I'm hungry sometimes.

And then I get anxious that I'm doing too much because fuck. Oh man, it's a process.
Yeah, like, um, it's funny that you say that too.

Cause, like, I've always been on the more conservative side for doing things too, um, and keeping things simple.

But when I heard about how Martin came in, you know, because he just his peak for both Olympia and um Prague was something to talk about.

And when he told me how him and Boss did it, I'm like, fuck, that's extreme, dog.

No carbs for one and a half to two weeks, and then you feed up on like a thousand grams of carbs a day. Oh, and something else crazy.
They fucking pulled injectables in GH 14 days out.

Is that not nuts?

I've heard boss do stuff like that. And

yeah,

I have friends that have worked. I mean, he's coached half the industry at this point.

I don't think, like, the weird thing is, like, it's just one of those things where it's like things work on a person-to-person basis. Like, I met Stefan, I actually really like him.

He was very, very nice. I really like him.
We had a good conversation.

But yeah, like it's like it works extremely well for Martin. And it looks like it works extremely well for Earth.
I don't know that that would be

like, I don't know if that would work well for me. I don't know.
Yeah. But, you know, just like it works for some people and some people might not.
Right. Yeah.

I have

no fucking clue if that would work for me either, bro.

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When do you pull out GH and injections, if at all?

Yeah, honestly, bro, everything is just basically played by ear.

Oh, really?

So it was like different every show? Well, because the thing is,

when you're traveling too, right? Like, it's like, okay, it depends on what you have access to as well. So

for uh,

if you're doing like two back-to-back shows, like I guess for the second show, it would be like

you wouldn't have anything in the system for like two weeks at that point. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Yeah, it just depends, but it's based on the year I had and all the traveling, it's kind of been all over.

But I honestly don't think, like, I'm not too anal with how that process is because I think that you're just at a point where, especially when you're using orals,

like you're still using anabolics and a lot of that stuff is is still in your system. And I've never seen a decline from it.
So,

okay.

Obviously, the upside is to retain less water, right?

Less inflammation on the body, which I do feel like I've experienced that. But yeah, I'd say ideally, like at least

four days or something.

Yeah, that's about me too. Yeah.
Yeah. I'm the same.

Patrick has me pull.

actually, I think it's even closer than I thought. I think Patrick has me pull

Patrick has me pull tests.

I don't know, Patrick does a lot.

I see why it's hard to like think about it and talk about it sometimes. It is.

Fucking, yeah. So Patrick cuts the test in half for like Saturday, Sunday, Monday, and then Tuesday.
I think the last injection of tests is either Wednesday or Tuesday.

And then the last injection of like masked and trend was

Wednesday or Thursday. I think it was Thursday.
So it was interesting because I didn't expect to still have an injection like two days before the show, I guess.

But test was definitely lowered in the beginning of peak week. And then it was cut by, I believe, Wednesday.
How did you feel? Like, how did your body take like that

injection process around that time?

I feel like I had to do it kind of strategically because I was like, man, I don't want any injection problems, you know, because it's coming out so close to the show.

So

I was able to deal with it just fine because I like to do everyday injections, which tend to be smaller. And then because they're smaller, I just make sure to make them.

Normally, if I make it more shallow, I have less of a chance of like hitting a vein or something or doing something that's going to cause it to inflame and create a knot.

So I just try to do it more shallow and then I try to do it in an area that I really feel like is not going to cause a problem.

I'm like extra fucking self-conscious about it, where I'm like, if I put it in and I feel like it hit something wrong, I'll fucking take it out and I'll keep doing it again and again until I fucking hit something.

And I'm like, all right, that's safe. Like, it's fucking bad.

And then I think one of the injections, like, I'll do it in a place where I know that like my trunks kind of cover at the very, very top of my glue.

It's a little weird because there's not very much space there. But since there's not much liquid going in, since peak week, we're cutting the tests in half.

And then obviously cutting you know um you know thursday is literally just mass and trend and i'm only it was 100 megs of trend so the liquid is like that much you know it's very small so that one wasn't a problem thursday wasn't an issue because the liquid going in was so fucking tiny um

yeah

so no that seemed to like work out fine plus actually i um i told martin that i do this or i told a lot of the people and a lot of people that I do this recently, but I've been experimenting with certain antioxidants and anti-inflammatories for peak week to try to help make sure that I'm not gaining any inflammation or water attention or like consistently maintaining a level of water attention or inflammation.

And that would be like liposomal glutathione, KPB, and oral BPC. And then I was actually doing injection, like glutathione injections all the way up till the show.
But the way that I would do it

is there's an anazole. If you get a compounded from anazole, you get this non-sting version, like this version that just doesn't hurt as much as other glutathions.

and i would get an insulin needle with i think it's just a one-fourth inch so it's extremely tiny inch inch needle very shallow um and 30 gauge i think and um i would just pull that and the the amount of liquid in that syringe is just is 0.5 milliliters i would pull it full of glutathione and i would just inject it inject it into the front delt and it would go in like butter like water And if you inject it in there, there's like, there's no knot there.

There's no problems there. Maybe it's a little sore for like a couple hours.
But other than that, like there's absolutely zero issues, nor can you even see that anything was injected there.

And so I'll do that on both delts. And that way I'm having like at least some glutathione coming into my system.

And normally I've noticed that whenever I do glutathione injections or IV or whatever, my weight drops the next day. And I feel better as well.

And for me, what that feels like is like, okay, I've got a little bit of inflammation reduction. I've got a little bit of like overall stress reduction.

I feel like it actually helps. So, I mean, whether or not it's psychological or not, I do see a little bit of weight dropped.

So that's something that I've been experimenting with that I feel like helps.

Yeah. Yeah.

You always stand up there confident and smiling, bro, which is fucking sick.

And I kind of need help with that, honestly, during pre-judging. I always have a hard time.
Like this last show, I did well during pre-judging and I'm proud of it. But

I do tend to have like a. higher propensity, higher propensity of like anxiety as pre-judging comes around.
And then when finals comes around, it's like butter. Like, I don't care anymore.
Yeah.

So, um, I guess, what is your mindset when you go up there on stage? Um, my mindset,

it's my mindset is, well, for I'm coming to the wind, man. I'm coming to the wind.
So, I'm like, yeah, I'm

doing something that I love doing, doing something that I've been doing for like 13 years now since I was a kid.

So, you know, every time I go on stage, every time I make it to the stage, it's a blessing. You know, we made it here.
There's no injuries. I'm happy with with the look.
I'm happy to be on stage.

I'm happy to put on a show for the fans. And I'm happy to, you know, fight for an opportunity to win.
So when I get up there, I'm just over the moon. Now, there are times where I do feel nerves.

Now, it's like, it's weird because it's like,

I don't think I'm nervous. I just, I can tell from like little things that's happening with my body that there's nerves there.

But I just, I just fight it, man. I just fight it.
I'm like, you know, fuck you. Get out of here.
It's like,

just,

I just act like they're not there. And like, there's moments where I'll like pose.
And it's funny because I used to shake a lot when I posed. And I, you know, same.
People would attack me for it.

And I'm like, I'm like, it's weird because I don't feel like I'm nervous, but the nerves are there somewhere, right? Yeah. A lot.

Maybe we're flexing just like a little bit, like a percentage too hard sometimes. Yeah, yeah.
That's

trying to win. Oh, 100%.
And also, like, if you've gotten posing

feedback in the the past, where they're like, you got to pose as hard as you can. I've had that before.
So I did that. I'll be shaking.

I look back and be like, fuck. But, but, yeah, no.
So I just think the more you do it, you just kind of understand like how to go about it, how to compose yourself better.

So, yeah, just using everything that I've learned over the years and just going up there and trying to have a good time. Yeah, I agree.

Like, I've been doing posing practice every week with my coach, and I'm like practicing posing consistently.

But the thing that's taught me the most has just been getting there, getting up there on stage

easily yes yes that's dude like experiences

i've been working with posing coaches for years and i would pose with posing coaches often and like i would do

what is going on

is it baby

i don't know what they're doing oh there's a we have a self-cleaning litter box there there's a sound going on but one of them is trying to get into the bathroom that's hilarious sorry what was the question

Oh, I think we're talking about learning posing and then practicing it and getting better by showing on stage.

Yes, so yeah, yeah, I've done so much posing rounds with posing coaches, and then I'd do like one or two shows a year, and then I'd shake and I'd get attacked, and people be like, You need to practice your posing.

It's funny because most times when fans comment criticism, they have no idea what they're talking about, like they really don't know what they're talking about.

Like, there's so many people that practice their posing every single day, and they get on there, and that can happen, right? So, yeah,

being this year, having done five shows and every show, I just felt like I was just more composed, more composed, more composed to the point where I could just get on stage and pose. And

it just feels a lot more comfortable because you're just there all the time, you know.

So, I think it's good as a competitor to compete at as many shows as you can do, whatever works out for your schedule. Just because for one, like, you know, people want to see you compete.

You know, people want to see bodybuilding. They want to, they're a fan of you.
Sorry, what was that?

Loki, I feel like even the judges want to see you compete like even like the federation wants to see you compete sometimes oh dude 100 man like one of the things that was cool for me this year was it felt like you know when you go there like it felt like they're like happy to see you happy to meet you you know once you're like you know you're at this for a while they see you at other shows so they're excited the promoters are excited that you come to do their show and like it was like kind of like a cool experience like oh shit me like i'm just feel like i'm like a regular person right so just nice to kind of feel welcome like that.

And yeah, no, 100%, man. The judges are happy to see you.
The judges are happy that people are choosing these shows because it gives them, it makes their job more fun, man.

It makes their job more fun when you got somebody that's on the rise that's continuing to like battle it out with, you know, other guys.

So, yeah, it's a

yeah, getting up there is definitely, I think, the best thing you could do for your posing.

The fucking fans went crazy for you, too, right? Dude, that was

this is the thing man people there's people that are like negative and they'll they'll say things like oh you shouldn't be happy you should be whatever whatever right like man like

but why though i'm like dude i walked off to a standing ovation like what should i go cry in the car like you know like yeah

should i like how could i be upset man like it's it's uh it's truly like an honor and it's it's in a it's a really beautiful thing to be able to connect with people just through something that you love you know like we don't speak the same language, you know.

I can, I understand like 0.5% of French, very little, you know, we, you could speak a different language than people, and this is what I learned traveling at different places.

Whether it's somebody in Texas or fans of Texas, fans in Tampa, here in Toronto,

anywhere over there in Europe or even Asia, like

people can appreciate what they see. When they see like a good physique, like they understand a good physique.
And when they see good posing, man, like it really can touch people, man.

And I think that's what made the difference between, you know, me,

me losing the show and also just the way I connected with the fans. Because, yeah, they just enjoyed how I presented my physique.
I love that, bro. That's awesome.

I think that's one of the things to take home that I experienced this year as well is that,

Dude, don't worry about what the judges do because that outcome, what they feel like, what they think is out of your control.

But what is in your control is how you perform, how you look, and that stage presence that people watch when they're up there. And people will see that.

So regardless of whatever the judges place you, you give your best and people will see that. Everyone will see that and people will acknowledge that because you've put your work out there.

You've tried your best. You've gone as hard as you can and

you've given the best package that you could possibly give.

And if you put that out there,

It's going to be seen.

So when I came off stage as well, like even though I did not place as well as I would have liked, of course, because, you know, we all want to get first or we all want to get qualified and everything.

But like

each time I came off stage, I felt like how much I practiced the posing and how much I put into my art, how much I put into my finals routine was seen and was acknowledged.

And like coming off the stage and having so many different random people that I've never known come up to me and be like, holy shit, dude, your posing was fucking amazing.

Like it was like, it was literally a gift to like see your finals routine and just all of these really nice words to hear from people was very, very comforting and very uplifting, you know, and just makes you excited to do it more.

Yeah.

Posing for bodybuilding is fun, man. Like, no offense to men's physique, but like posing for bodybuilding is so fucking fun, bro.
So it's cool to hear that.

Yeah, because men's physique is like pretty limited, right? You can't. It's so limited, man.
You only add so much personality into quarter turns. Yeah.
So, no, no. It's not even a quarter turn.

It's just literally a half turn for men's physique, which sucks. Yeah, man.
I wish they gave them more freedom.

I do too, man. I do too.
I think it would be cool.

I don't know if they have any intentions of doing that, but I think it would make things a little bit more interesting. I think so too.
Yeah.

I think that's important, honestly. Because

front double bicep, you can do it in multiple ways. You can do it with a twist.
You can do it in a turn. You can do it straight on.

But for men's physique posing, it's like they kind of want the same thing.

You know, I mean, there's some guys that could do straight on, like

Ryan Terry, for example. But it seems like the more variation you do and the more transitions, the more they count off.

You know, they count off against you, which sucks. Okay.

Because it's like the judge feedback I had in the last show was like, it was a common thing that all the judges in the panel said that they really loved your transitions in between poses.

That's fucking cool to hear. If I did that in Minsk Physique, they would not say that.
You know what I mean?

So I think they deserve more freedom.

Well, here's the hoping.

Yeah, for sure.

I wanted to ask one last question before going to the QA, if you're down.

But

I didn't really get to ask you about your background. So I was kind of curious about when bodybuilding started for you.
Like what inspired you to start this bodybuilding journey in the first place?

And

I guess, were there any obstacles that you ended up having to face along the way getting started?

So

basically,

as soon as I got out of high school, or even when I was still in high school, I was 17, I was playing basketball, and I'm realizing, okay, when I turn 18, the community center, they're going to start charging me to play because it's

me for teens, right? So like, okay, like shit, like, I don't got no money. I don't, I can't pay the hoop.
Also, I'm not really going anywhere at this at this point.

So I started using my brother's key tag to get to the gym. And I just wanted to stay active because I've been an athlete my whole life.

So I was, I was, I would go in and out of the weight weight room. Like, because during the phys ed, we'd have like portions where we'd go in the weight room, start litzing, and stuff.

So, there were portions throughout my teen and preteen years where I'd be in the weight room, but I was never consistent until I was 17.

And when I realized, okay, like basketball is done now, and all my friends are going to college. I took the year off, right?

I took the year off at the time because I'm like, I don't know what the hell I'm going to do, but all I know is I do like training, and yeah, I'm just going to keep training.

So, I was 17 and training 18. I just was just training, I was just in the gym, and some of my friends would come to the gym with me.

And then at some point, they started to fall off, and they fall off. I'm like, Well, I'm still going, I need to get my work on it.
So,

I'd uh I'd keep going, and then I got a job at American Eagle.

No,

I was balancing in America. I remember we're in that shit in high school, bro.
I love that shit back then. I was getting they had some really cool stuff back then.

I was working there and in a city far away from where I lived. And I just used that opportunity to train at like different gyms on the way home and stuff.
And yeah, it was just cool.

It was a cool experience. And it's just funny because I was just...

I had no direction in life. I didn't know what I wanted to do.
And I was just kind of stressed out because, you know, I have a Nigerian dad. They apply pressure, man.

They're like, oh, all your peers are in school. Like, what are you doing? Like, you're working out.
And I'm like,

yo, ease up, man. I took a year off.
Let me give me till the end of the year to figure it out, you know? So, yeah, I'm just training.

And, you know, every year, just kind of like progress into something else. And then eventually I started working at a gym.
I was doing personal training.

And yeah, I just kept snowballing, snowballing. And then eventually, when I was 19, I'm like, I'm going to compete later this year.
So when I turned 20, I had done my first show,

but not before I went to a few rays. I went to a few rays that

my first festivals.

And then

after the festivals, I went to this thing called Caravana, which is like a Caribbean festival. And then I was, yeah, and then I was like, all right, like I, I went hard this summer.
It's time to prep.

And I went right into the contest prep and I did my first show. And yeah, it was just from that moment on, I was just like, okay, like this thing's kind of kind of addicting.
So I just kept doing it.

Oh, yeah. That's fucking tight.
Hmm. Was there ever any ruts that you experienced back then that you felt like bodybuilding helped pull you through?

Um, I didn't think that I was capable of being a hard worker, you know, when I was around those

years. I didn't think that I was, I just thought some people were

by design, supposed to work harder than others. I thought some people were destined for certain things.
I didn't think that I was somebody that was ever going to be able to follow a diet.

Honestly, I remember you saying in Fuad's podcast that you didn't really care about school too much. You were just kind of like

making by and just making sure you graduated, I guess. Yeah, because honestly, the thing is, I didn't have belief in myself.
I didn't think that I was afraid that if I tried, I would like

I would look.

I was afraid that if I tried, I would fail. And if I tried and failed, it would expose me for being like worth as worthless as I thought I really was.
So I didn't want to try. So instead, I

just fucked around basically. I just, you know, picked around and got through.
Like, hey, I got through without trying. And that was for me,

it was like more of a flex than like trying and failing. And yeah, I just didn't, I just didn't believe in myself.
That's where it came from. I just didn't have any self-belief.

And through working out,

it started such a superficial goal. You know, you want to, I'm like, I want arms.
I want good arms. I want sharper abs.
You know, I want the girls to be like, who's who's that at raves? You know, like

I was training, I was almost training exclusively for raves at first, man. I was watching all these rave videos of these guys looking all jacked.
I'm like, man, that's got to be me.

So, I'm good at it, bro.

I'd prep for raves, bro. Legit, man.
I would like to try. I remember doing like a trial cut for like this small festival first.
And yeah, it was just, it was a really cool experience.

But it wasn't until I, yeah, so I was training. I was training, and it was actually,

I was still in high school at this point, a girl in one of my classes came up to me and she's like a girl I had a lot of respect for because she's like one of those student government, you know, like hardworking people.

And she said something to me about like, wow, you have really good work ethic, like pertaining to me being in the gym. And I remember like, I've never heard that before.

I've never had somebody tell me that I worked hard. before at that point in my life so it was like i had an epiphany you know and

it was like those words like i they stuck with me for like basically like the rest of my life because at that point I was like, holy shit, I am doing something that is hard for a lot of people. Yeah.

I'm doing something consistent with it. I'm seeing progress.
I'm like, shit, this is what it is. I'm working hard.
I'm like, and it's not that hard.

It's not that hard. Just like, you're just applying yourself.
So once I came to that realization, what it helped me do is just it helped me believe in myself, man.

I feel like, like, I believe I could do anything. And I think, I believe in everybody else, too.
I think that we're all capable of a lot more than we think we are.

It just comes down to applying yourself and giving it a go. And the difference between what I was then and what I am now is I'm not afraid to fail.

You know, some people be like, oh, you lost to a classic guy. Like, you know, they'll talk shit.
And I'm like,

what are you doing? You know?

You know, like, you'll get people criticizing and talking shit. Right.
But, and I just take it in stride, you know, because at the end of the day, you know, I'm putting myself out there.

I'm putting myself on the line. And that comes with it, you know, the feedback is going to be positive and negative.
You just got to take the good with the bad.

But, you know, I know that at the end of the day, sometimes you have to take risks. And it can work positively and sometimes not so positively.
But I do think overall, this was a positive year.

Yeah, I think so too, brother. I do.
And I really love what you said there.

That's the thing, right? Is like a lot of things really do feel like work and they feel exhausting.

But when you find that thing that you really, really love and that you're passionate about, don't really feel like work anymore. No.
It kind of feels a little bit easier.

So I think we're all very blessed to find our passion in bodybuilding and to continue to grow through it because it does make us greater men, not just in the gym and not just in our sick-ass physiques, but definitely all around humans and in our mentality as well.

So

it's a blessing for sure. Yes, sir.

All right, let's run this Q ⁇ A real quick. A little speed run if you're down.
Let's do it.

I never leave enough time for the Q ⁇ A and it's a problem I need to fix because our boys deserve their questions answered if the internet will work.

That was such a fucking sick pic of you, dude, by the way, that I used for the story. God, that's so fucking tough, dude.
That's crazy. Thank you, bro.
I really appreciate it.

I loved that picture when I first saw it. Damn.
I can't wait to see you on the Olympia stage, man. Genuinely.
You got the craziest fucking physique and structure.

Yeah, man. In due time, next year we'll make it happen.

Fee Tugo asks, Q became more of a fan favorite with the trials. Does he feel coming so close helped?

Sarah, what was that? He says

that you became more of a fan favorite with the trials, like I guess the shows. Do you feel like coming so close helped?

Yeah, yeah. I think...

I think so, and I am glad that they think I'm a fan favorite.

Yeah, I think, you know, coming close helps and just not giving up. You know, the fact that I just kept going and I had a good mindset about it.

I got a lot of feedback, and I had a lot of like people talking to me, saying some shit to me at the Olympia where I just had to like stand there and be strong.

Really?

Yeah, they were saying some, like, it was good stuff, but just like, you know, like, almost got me emotional, you know, but I had to stand be gangster because

couldn't break, couldn't fold right there.

But no, like, it's, I think a lot of people can connect to that because you know, it's more relatable for people to go for something and not get it than to boom, you do it out of one shot and then you're going to the Olympia.

Whereas, like, it shows like a little bit more, you just see a little bit more out of the athlete when they have to work a little harder for it. Gotcha.
Uh, Ryan

says his thoughts on the PPL split. Make sure he knows who it who asked the question, he'll get it.
Ryan, she fit this.

Oh, oh this guy

yeah honestly i i chirp him about the ppl but the truth is i think like i think the ppl is great and i actually program it for some clients just depending on what their goals are i've done like a modified ppl before i prefer the broke the bro split personally but it's it's it's gonna if you're training hard enough if you're applying yourself correctly like almost anything is gonna work you could do an upper lower split it's going to work.

You're going to build a lot of tissue doing anything and you're doing the right things. Is that what you do? Is that your training split? The BB or the BBL split.
The BBL split? BBL split. Yeah.

The bro split. Yeah, bro split, basically.
Gotcha. Yeah, just chest one day, back one day, legs one day, rest.

And right now, it's like with all the travel, dude, it's like hard to say what my schedule is because I've been like here and there and here and there recently. So it's like a four or five day split.

Sometimes I'll do shoulders and arms. Sometimes I'll split shoulders and then arms.

But yeah, it just depends on

where I'm coming from that week. Cool.
That makes sense.

I think the cool thing, though, about the thing that I do like about the bro split is it's a lot easier to make sure that you're basically training everything in proportion, which you have a pretty damn proportional physique.

So, I mean, it seems to be working. Thanks.

The only advantage of like doing the other things is like if you can't train yourself to the ground with each muscle group, then you know train half the volume and then do it again.

And so you have a frequency of two times per week. It's just like a different type of style that I think allows for one to

like increase the stimulus a little bit. But if you're training fucking hard on each day, there's not very much difference, you know.
Yeah, exactly. Especially if you enjoy it.

Frankie Gutrez asks, how did his approach to prep change coaching himself versus working with his last coach?

Yeah, so I guess we touched on that earlier, but.

yeah.

The biggest thing was like,

like I'm like, I'm calling the shot, so I can see if something is going wrong and I can make decisions on the fly.

Whereas in that experience, like there were times where maybe decisions weren't being made or things weren't being caught.

So yeah, when something goes wrong, essentially I could be able to pick up on it fast. And just had a lot less hiccups this project.

What hiccups do you remember from the last prep? Like things not being caught? Well, just like losing a bunch of tissue, like that's that's basically it, you know, just not never

it was just all good job, man, you're doing great, right? Where it's there's no acknowledgement of like, hey,

something's a little off, like, what's going on, right? So, without that, there, it's like, okay, if there's no identifying that there's a problem, how do you really fix it?

Yeah,

but this time, obviously, it's a lot more work for me to like really like over, have to overanalyze my physique because I don't really like to look at myself that much. You know, it's like

it's, it's repetitive, right? So

I did, I did, I had to this year. And yeah, I would basically catch if something was off and make the necessary changes.
Gotcha.

Speaking of that question, Mike Geary430 asks,

do you plan on ever getting a coach?

Well, at this point,

you know, you would hope that the trajectory continues to be positive with having more data than I ever have had before.

So I would hope, and I'm obviously working and doing things much different than I have in the past, even during this health phase slash off-season period.

So I am expecting a much better outcome at the future shows. And if things keep trending that way, I wouldn't see why I would have to have a coach.
Yeah.

What's different about this health phase than earlier health phases? So the biggest thing is I'm just prioritizing cardio and or steps, like depending on where I go. Okay.

Because in Japan, with the schedule we're on, it's hard to stop at a gym to do cardio.

But yeah, so I'm just keeping my activity level much higher, keeping the food at a good level, keeping it capped at a certain place. So I'm not pushing food hard.

So that's basically something that I'm implementing during this health phase and that I'm going to keep going throughout the offseason. So

I'm not gonna increase the food much in the offseason if I increase it at all. Right now I plan to keep it the exact same.
We're doing about the same thing right now for our health phase.

Yeah, I'm like,

I really like the whole like staying as insulin-sensitive as possible, you know? And so I decided to do something different.

Like instead of just fucking pushing food immediately hard after the show, I'm like, now during this health phase, I told Patrick I'll be back in 12 weeks after it's over. I'm going to do it myself.

And I'm just trying to keep my body fat percentage as decently low as possible while maintaining as much mass as possible. So that by the time the cycle comes in, you know,

I think it's a good idea, man. Me too.

You're going to be able to optimize so many things without having to put so much stress on your body. Yeah.
Yeah, for sure.

Jared Jack asks,

was this cycle for prep and off-season the same? Or if it was different, how was it different than the prep for

with Matt?

How is it different with the prep with Matt?

Oh, the cycle stuff is not much different, to be honest.

Yeah, like

that's that's like, yeah, I'd say it's not very different.

I don't really go into detail on this topic, but

yeah, okay.

Honestly, if I was doing, if I was doing shit myself, I would probably keep most of the stuff consistent as well. Like, I don't really feel like

I don't ever really feel like much things change anyways. Like, normally my preps with most of my coaches, it's all like the same comp, I was going to go in.
Yeah. So, I mean,

it's just, I keep it so simple, right? Like, you got like a test base and like one or two other things. Like,

there's only so much more you can do or add to it before you start getting more sides or your body's under more stress. So

I just, I know what has worked for me in the past and you just keep it there. You can't replicate that.
Yeah, yeah.

I'm just, I'm looking through the questions because some of these questions we kind of already answered. Like Darren Farrell, IFBB Pro, great guy.
He uh, he works under Jon Jewett.

He asked, how, how did you objectively monitor the final few weeks and adjustments?

And you kind of like said, like, sometimes you would like reach out to someone for like a second perspective, but most of the time you're just trying to make decisions on the fly, right?

Oh, so I do have another one to say about this. So I spoke to Chris Tuttle and he gave me some really, really good

advice on how to like keep my check-in process more objective and to like lean less on other people.

So he basically helped me with like he's like he said, told me like what he does or what he would do.

And I would just start doing check-in videos, which I would send myself pictures before, but he would send himself videos. So he recommended doing video.

And I would end up sending myself like videos and try and get it in the same spot, same lighting. And

with all the necessary feedback for that week or for that half week, I would send that off to myself. And I send it to myself on WhatsApp or email.
Yeah, WhatsApp, I think.

And that way I could pull it up on my computer and I could put the videos side by side, which I've never

before. And I could actually look to see, okay, I'm looking at the videos in real time.
The videos are around the same amount of time. And I could see, okay, this looks fuller.

Like, I'm clearly fuller in this one. That's cool.
Yes. So that was something that I implemented that I think a lot of people can implement that would help objectify that process.
Yeah.

Where you don't have to lean on the opinions as much. I think the opinions are still good to have.

But yeah, I think the more you can do by yourself is the better because, again,

somebody else's influence might not always be the best for you, or it might not always be what you wanted in the end, but it might be, but it might be.

But it's still good to get that opinion because sometimes you're just not where you need to be. Awesome.
Yeah. That was super valuable, bro.
That's cool.

I've never, I don't even know why I never thought about doing that, but it makes a lot of sense. What do you,

Raza Raf asks, what do you think it is that made you successful as a self-coach pro?

Just self-belief, man. You know, I'm not, there's so many coaches out there that have, you know, been coaching for a very long time that have a ton of athletes.

Yeah, there's a lot of coaches that theoretically should be,

you would think this coach if I hire them would be the ideal coach for me or whatever. But I just believe, I just really believed in myself.
And I just, obviously, I know myself. I've been in my body.

And

I'm just not that anal the way that a lot of people are.

And there have been times in my career when I've been super anal about, okay, it's got to be this, got to be this, got to be to the ground, got to be,

dude, I've been around bodybuilders that are very successful that aren't that anal about it and i'm i've just decided not to let myself be too anal so if something's a little off at times

it is what it is you know we'll make it work like sometimes let's say if my uh girlfriend she wants to make my meal she chooses to right if she messes a measurement up like i like have like this mini panic in my head and then

i'm like i'm like panicking like you know you did what like this is way more than i was supposed to eat and i'm like okay okay and it's it's just like, okay, it's just like, it's just like probably like 20 grams of carbs.

And like, it's realistically, it's not going to make much of a difference, right? So it's just like, you just like, you just learn to like handle things better.

I think just because I was just so ready to adapt to things. And I also, like I said, I had good people in my corner.
So if I was off, they'd let me know, hey, you're off. Or hey, you need to do this.

And the posing, dude, I work with Joey Belt. He's incredible at posing.
But I just think think as much as I was self-coached, like it still takes a village.

So I still had like a good circle of people. And yeah, I just really believed in myself and I wasn't going to allow myself to fail.
That's cool, man. I like that a lot.

I think that what I learned as well is kind of similar, where it's like, you know, you're on your purpose and you're fucking executing everything as well as you can.

But when something goes wrong, it's already gone wrong and now that's out of your control, I have to turn that switch on and be like, I don't give a fuck. I don't give a fuck.

Now it's time for me to focus on the next step for my purpose, the next step on what I want, because that's going to get me even better in the future. So I just look forward and I move forward.

Dude, you could end up fucking harping on that for like a day if you're not careful. Yeah.
No, seriously, man.

I've done that. I've been there.

There's a lot of good questions here, but there's so many, bro.

Nick Bailey.

You're fucking popular, brother.

Nick Bailey asks, what's the biggest thing you've learned about training and nutrition since coaching yourself?

Biggest thing I've learned,

again, like it's

training prior training it should be the number one priority that's what i would recommend that's what i prioritize this year i would say there was the point where that fell off

but when you're doing so many shows within like a short time period you're not going from one show into a peak week like you're not actually able to train hard and if you train hard yeah it's hard right yeah you're gonna be inflamed if you train hard if you're competing one week and then the next week so you can't drain hard so one of the things that you know I kind of fell off of that for periods of time was just because of the nature of the scheduling of the shows.

However,

for the actual prep, when I had extended periods of time to get ready, the priority was the training. Like I always prioritize the training.
And I didn't care how the rest of my day went.

I could have been miserable at the beginning of the day. I could have been miserable right after the workout.

I was going to have a damn good workout every single day.

And it didn't matter what I had to do to get there. I made sure every workout.
I didn't have one bad workout that prep. I totally agree with that, man.

And it's tough too, because during the end of prep, man, you are dragging and you're like, fuck, I don't want to work out. Fuck, this workout is going to suck.
Fuck, it's hard for me to push.

But it's something I kept reminding myself. So this time I even tried to like prioritize the carbs more around the workout.

And even sometimes I do a little bit of cyclic dextrin during the workout, even if it meant that I get less food to eat.

But it would always help so much with the actual training. And I think it just benefited so much in the actual final outcome, as well as preserving size and fullness in my muscles.
Yeah.

Yeah, I've been big on using cluster destruction during training

for most of the prep, for most of the. I pulled it out at a certain point.
Like I said, there was a point where I was like, okay, they want me leaner.

And I pushed hard, and I pushed like probably harder than I needed to. But that was when I went to the UK.
So as low as I was eating, my training was still crazy. Yeah.

I was trained like an animal with something.

That shit's fucking fire, man. I love close reduction.

Um, personal question, actually. Did you happen to, um,

was there anything that you adjusted with your training as you got closer to the show aside from peak week? Like, was there,

I'm trying to remember who I was speaking to. I think it was, it might have been Chris, honestly, where he and Jordan, or was it Chris or John Jewett?

Actually, I think this was John Jewett, where he pulled,

I think, with Sean Clarita, the volume was maybe just like 80% of what it was in the beginning because Clarita was still hitting it very intense.

But at a certain point, you know, with how low the calories were and

the activity, even if it was just steps,

it was he, it started affecting his recovery a little bit. So they had to pull back the volume by just like maybe 20% from like the normal off-season volume.

Is there anything that you ended up having to do like that, or was volume pretty consistent consistent throughout prep?

My volume was pretty consistent um my recovery i don't know why my recovery is just never an issue like no that's awesome

at least that i can think of like i don't yeah no i don't think i had an issue at all with recovery just so i kept it as hard as possible until the peak week is there anything special you do for sleep or any special or any supplements that you take for sleep oh dude um

so my apple watch said that for about two months my average sleep was like four and a half hours what the fuck yeah during that how the fuck are you recovering bro you're crazy i have no clue so some days

some days it was six but like

yeah i don't know i really don't know how i was recovering but dude i'd wake up i'd feel pretty great i'd like get up i'd take all whatever supplements i needed to take in the morning it's like 4 a.m my girlfriend's still sleeping I'd go to the gym.

I'd do cardio. I'd come back.
She's still sleeping. I'd go for a walk.
I'd go for a walk for like 40 minutes. And like, I'd have like this whole day.
I'd answer some clients in the morning.

And then she'd finally wake up and do her fasting cardio. And then I'd wait for her to get back.
Then we'd eat. Like, I was just, dude, I was on fire, man.
I just felt like I could do anything.

And I was doing like literally anything I could. That's awesome.

But yeah, I don't know. I don't know.
For some weird reason, I just function. I think being heavier for me is like harder for my body.

And once I'm like in that like 280 pound weight range, my body's just like, yeah, we like being here, and we're, we're going to show you that we like it here.

Nice, that's sick. Wow.
So, I'm assuming you didn't use any like peptides, like mitochondrial supports or anything. I, I, I've tried it.
I've dabbled. I've dabbled.
I like the Mozi. Okay, cool.

Me and uh, both me and Martin both use Mozi as well, and I think it really helped. It helped a bit with like fatigue and energy, I think.

I mean,

I paired it with other things, so I can't really like isolate what I really felt from it. I did like the SLU PP, though.
Yeah, it was really cool. I used that during the prep.

I've used the BPC, TV500, all that, you know, KPV.

Like,

I like a lot of those ones. Like, good for recovery, trying to help.
One of my elbows is a bit banged up, so put that in there from time to time, and it helps.

Okay, gotcha.

SRC Aesthetic says, why is he so pretty?

Why, thank you. Andre Cox asks, how does it feel to be on live TV during the World Series?

That was cool. You know, honestly, it's,

I wasn't like,

it was a cool opportunity. And first and foremost, like the best part was I got to spend that time with one of my good friends, and he...
is a super fan of baseball.

And yeah, I knew it was just such a, like, just in terms of like being him and him being such a good friend of mine, it was like I knew it was going to be a life-changing experience for us.

And then the fact that you know we went viral and we're running the elevator stuff was really cool. And the feedback that we got after was really funny.

So that was nice, it was a cool experience, dude. That game was awesome, too.
Like, we

really showed the Mariners who was boss. That's fucking awesome, bro.
That's dope.

Hajang Yo says, shout out to his gainer recovery videos. His videos really helped me out.
Oh, hey,

glad that it helped you.

Yoseba Para,

the homie, big fan of the pod,

asks, have you had a partner be a stressor? What was it like having Brit for this year of competing? Oh, Brit is like literally perfect, man. She's,

yeah, it's...

I can't say enough good things about her. She's just such a sweet part.
She's such a loving person. And I will have moments where I'm just like not my best.

Like, when I say I'm not my best, I'm just like not very affectionate, especially in prep.

Like, you get to a point where you feel like such garbage that you, like, you like, you just don't want to be touched, right? It has nothing to do with anyone else.

Like, the cats will come close, and I'm like, oh, like, I'll tell you that. I've been there, bro.
I've been there, bro. Like, I fucking love dogs so much.
And I'll be in prep so hard.

And like, a dog will fucking come up on me and like rub its shit around me while I'm trying to do work and just relax. And I'll fetch so fucking irritated on the inside,

so irritated. I love dogs, yeah, dude.
Trust me, I'm obsessed with my cats, they would like come to me and get close.

I'm like, I'd pick them up, like the girl, she would literally come on, like sit on my lap. I literally pick her up, move her away.
She'd come back on my left, move her away.

Like, literally, it would happen like 10 times some nights. And I'm like, man, why is she so fucking annoying? You know, I just pick her up, I put her in the cat tree, and I go sit down.

Like, so, so that's the thing, it's just like you're just not your best self. And

yeah, she,

the worst thing is, I understood that I was going to be like that and I prepped her. I made it seem way worse than it would be so that she

wasn't as bad when it happened. Right.
So she handled it very well. But I just never wanted her to think that it was anything personal.
And she never did. So yeah, she was a rock star, man.

She helped. She would make.
a bunch of my meals.

She wanted to come with me to every show. She always wanted to be there to support me.
And it just made the process so much easier.

Where, as they asked, I have had a relationship where it was the opposite. I've had

people in my life that added stress and that's happened. Honestly, with a job like bodybuilding, I can't say that I would blame the other person because it's a very hard process to get accustomed to.

So, you know, your average person that's not into bodybuilding or just not just a super compassionate person isn't really going to blend well with this lifestyle. So

you got to be very careful. You got to be very careful.
And

yeah, if you find someone as a competitor that's very supportive of your goals and understands the process and doesn't kind of take things personal, then yeah, you've got yourself a keeper.

I couldn't agree more, man.

It is so powerful to have that support system, especially as like your partner being there for you, especially if it's like a wifey material and they're like helping you cook your fucking meal preps.

That's just fire. Like I've had my, all my exes in my past were not bodybuilders.
Like they didn't really understand it.

And it was really tough for me to like keep doing the bodybuilding thing with their kind of lifestyles, not being able to like do the same things as them or really like go out to restaurants all the time every week.

You know, it was always kind of tough. And when I found my most recent partner, like there were a lot of times that she was there for me.

And there were a lot of times where like she'd cook my sweet potatoes, for example. And it would just be the most amazing thing, man.
And it would make everything so much smoother and easier.

But she did also go through a lot of things herself that made her unable to be there for me at certain periods of time.

So I realized like in those periods of time, I had to learn like, okay, when she wasn't around or if she wasn't able to be there for me or she had to take care of herself and only had energy for herself, I had to go find that support system for my own friends or the people that I call my family, which are normally my closest friends around.

And that would always be very helpful too, because they were there to uplift me, you know.

Even if I had to like cook everything myself and prepare everything myself and do all that stuff myself, it's totally fine because we can do that because we're men and we're strong, we move forward.

But having that support system i think was very powerful regardless of who it was so if you can find a partner that can do that for you even better man i think so 100

i mean like i know a lot of people that do this and like some of their partners they're they don't even want to touch their food they they won't they won't help them and i'm like i mean like for for me if like my lady needs anything like i'll

i'll help her out like you know yeah same same corporate it's like you want to make their life easier and that's what their mindset is towards you too so when i hear that, I'm like, my uncle, they don't even, they don't want to help you at all.

Like, all right. Like, well, I mean, hey,

to eat their own. But I feel like when you're this deep in this lifestyle, like, it's, you guys have got to be locked in.
I couldn't agree more. Yeah.

I do find that kind of surprise when they don't want to help. And I don't know.
But.

Because I always felt like a, I think I always felt the urge myself. Like every single day I would ask, like, is there anything you need?

And then I would always go get the groceries for her whenever she was prepping herself and i just like she already had so much on her plate when she was prepping and i wasn't you know especially with the crazy exhaustion and no energy and just feeling like fucking having to be couch potato all day so i feel like i feel like there's ominously a lot of things that we can do to help them out that are just very small things that don't take too much time out of the day just like grabbing grabbing the groceries for

for both of y'all you know i don't know something simple so yeah uh john benjamin john benjamin 98 another um big homie of the podcast asks was it summit's fever or you believed you could have qualified and kept going to shows try and win i actually don't know what summits fever is do you know what that is no

should i look that up yeah search it up

summits fever

john summits fever

Summit Fewer.

It's a movie. A young English mountaineer is lured to the Alps by his his friend to help him conquer the big three.

This is probably not what he's referring to.

Trying to reach the top? Something about trying to reach the top, I guess. Summit fever definition.

Summit fever is an overwhelming desire to reach a mountain summit that overrides good judgment and leads a person to ignore safety concerns. Oh, interesting.

I feel like that wouldn't be you.

I feel like you care about your safety and your health, especially as a self-coach person. That's funny.
No, man. No.

That's a, yeah, I never heard that one.

You definitely could have qualified, bro. You could came fucking, dude, you came so close every time.
And I think you deserve to win some of those shows. So yeah, I think you definitely.

Yeah, honestly.

And honestly, even on top of that, even on top of like wanting a specific outcome, man, I love bodybuilding, man. And to be in the position where I'm like, well, yeah, I'll just do another show.

And to just keep competing, keep doing shows. Like, it's something that I love to do.
Yeah, I agree.

So, yeah, like, and no, no, like, see, I think sometimes people think

maybe from the outside, like, this person might think, like, there's a lot of sacrifice in terms of like my body, like my health. Like, there wasn't.
Like, I was fine.

Like, glutathione is also something that I would use for the majority of the prep. I did it on point with my health supplements.

And honestly, the craziest part for me is like during prep, I'm way more healthy than I am in the offseason because that's like my body's finally at like a healthier weight my sleep apnea isn't as bad

that's a big one yeah yeah so it's just like my body just i'm doing more more cardio than i normally do so like my heart's that is healthiest like i'm usually healthier in prep gotcha makes sense i actually feel the same weirdly i feel healthier in prep even if my

Normally, my blood work is about the same off-season and prep, but I have had healthier blood work during prep like last year.

And I think this year was probably even healthier because I was running less shit and on even more antioxidants and more glutathione. So I just haven't gotten it checked.

But yeah, honestly, yeah, bro. It's weird.

It's kind of weird. I think that was a good question, honestly.
I just,

for me, for example, too, I wasn't even nearly as close to winning, but I still did three shows for the experience because I got better every time, just like we said.

You know, like I, I'm so fucking glad I did this third show because not only was the outcome fucking fucking awesome, but like, damn, like, that's the best I performed.

And now I know that I can perform like that or better next time. Because you learn every time.
You do. That's it.
Let's finish up. Last couple questions.

I don't want to take too much out of your time, man. I know you're fucking hella jet lag right now.
Oh, no, no, I'm good, bro. I'm good.

I'm just starting to feel leg tight. And I trained legs yesterday, and I was wondering.

Huh? Same. Yeah, I was wondering, like, it was a hard leg day.

So i was like this morning i did a cardio i'm like huh i'm like like why don't i feel it yet i'm like i know it was a good one i'm just starting to feel it in my glutes right now

that's funny bro

dude that's the worst when you start feeling it more and more and then i have this thing too when i if i do a really hard leg day

it's so easy for me to get the leg cramps that night oh yeah yeah yeah

i don't i don't even know like i'll take magnesium i'll take electrolytes i'll hydrate it just still happens. It's crazy.
That's why one of my friends is like, I'm lucky.

I don't, that doesn't happen to me. But

yeah, one of a couple of my friends, that happens to me.

Bro, I was on this date, right, after leg date. I was dressed up in a bow tie, suit, everything.
Oh, no. Bro, and Italian restaurant and mid mid fucking eating some pasta and shit.

My fucking legs cramped up. And I like had to go like this.
And I fucking.

I was like, I was like, fucking like, I was like having this cut.

I'm trying not to be offensive, but I looked like I had Tourette's for a second and it was really bad because then I just started sweating profusely and I was like

what did she say

it was very awkward

was she like a good goer or nah um no this was this was lexi my partner so at least you kind of understood but it was it was still pretty damn awkward

she was like very concerned but like didn't know what to do and was just like uh

was like the beginning stages.

No,

this was

this was kind of recent. This was pretty recent.
Super recent. Yeah, super recent, honestly.

We've also just been going through a little bump the road because she's had to, um, I'm trying not to be, I'm trying not to talk too much about personal stuff, but you know what happens whenever like someone has to,

you know how, like when hormones change, like as a bodybuilder, you understand how it felt like when you took your first cycles and all of these things.

Well, she's had to go through a lot of experiences where she's trying to like figure out how to stabilize her body. And, you know, as she's becoming more an adult, because she's a lot younger than me.

And one of those things is, for example, coming off of birth control and Prozac and then, you know, other things associated with hormones.

So it's, it's kind of tough, especially when birth control is associated. So,

but, anyways,

um, the Jackson Jackson asks, uh, did you ever come to Buffalo, New York, or have you always been in Canada?

I mean, I've passed through Buffalo. I've stopped in Buffalo at like a Trader Joe's before, but I've always lived in Canada.
Yes. Gotcha.

Canada breeds some fucking excellent athletes. And Justin Bieber.

Can't forget Bieber, man.

David Lamlam asks, what is the most important lesson you learned from this year?

The most important lesson I learned from this year is that

you got to trust your gut. You got to trust your instincts.

Yeah.

Trust yourself. Trust your gut.
Trust your instincts. And just believe in yourself.
And, you know, keep a positive mindset. I would say.

You know, it's easy to get caught up in other things and be hard on yourself because other people have expectations of you and other people are, you know, feel like you haven't met where you need to be right now.

But the thing about life is, you know, we all move at our own pace. And when something's for you, it's for you.
And when your time comes, your time is going to come.

You know, as long as you're moving in the right direction, just keep doing what you're doing. If it's not broken, don't fix it.
Like, if it's working well, do not do something crazy.

Don't try and add anything new. And just, yeah, stay positive and just keep working.
Facts, facts.

I was literally saying, as you, I was literally thinking as you were talking that your time will come. And then you said that.

Joshua Kramer asks: biggest regret in the journey if you have a regret at all.

No, I don't think I have any regrets.

Cool. Yeah.

Nice.

Everything that happened led me to where I am now and I'm happy right now. Yeah.
Yeah.

Maybe if you asked me last year, I wouldn't.

Gotcha.

Christian B. Carter asks, what specifically are you planning to improve on to secure your spot at next year's O?

See, so that's the thing. I think the biggest issue for me this year was,

okay, so the year before with the Matt situation, so I don't know if I've ever spoken about this, but like I was, I've said this part somewhere. I was on the verge of retiring.

I'm like, I'm tired of this shit. I put everything into this.
I sacrificed so much. I didn't go out.
I didn't do this. I wasn't.

I wasn't.

I wasn't doing all this shit.

I was doing everything i was supposed to it blew up in my face um and it's just like frustrating because also when you're an influencer like you're you're sort of your career well i'm a bot i'm a pro bodybuilder first and off of the back of being a pro bodybuilder i'm an influencer but now unfortunately when people see you show up like that they're like oh this guy don't got it they unfollow you They don't really care about what you have to say.

Like your value, the value of what you're saying, of what you're doing is very low when you have such a bad showing like that. And I think that's something that a lot of people don't realize.

So, it was like more of like a tough year, probably like my hardest year for bodybuilding as a career.

And I'm like, well, I don't even know what the point is in doing this because, you know, I'm putting all this pressure on myself and I'm putting myself through all this work.

And, you know, to have an outcome like that, I just, you know, maybe this is just my sign that I should be doing something else.

So

I started drinking.

i did it we wasn't i wasn't like you know like just cracking bottles at night i was just being human you know i was uh i remember i was single at the time i was you know going on dates with like you know regular people uh regular women that i can't leave that too open-ended and like

you had drinks Yeah, drinks on the dates and stuff. And, you know, I'd meet up with friends.
I'd have a beer or whatever. I'm just being being like a regular guy.

So also, if I'm going to eat something, I'm going to eat something. Now, during all this time, I was still training just because it's like, this was part of who I am.
So I'm still training.

I'm still like posing, even though I'm not like really bodybuilding. So my offseason wasn't really an off season during that period.
I was just.

kind of training or I was training, but I was also like just living a very balanced life. So like my

sorry? You're taking time off that you needed yes exactly so it wasn't like i had a real off season so by the time i like really like got structured

i probably had about like from the start of the year like january to march from for being structured and not like going out a ton so it wasn't really a lot of time and i wasn't really like i didn't go into that off season with a plan of like okay this is a structured offseason where we're going to do this this this this this so yeah there's a lot of things things that I can do differently this year.

But basically, what I, what I'm trying to get at, I said all the shit to say that

one of the biggest problems for me in this prep started in the offseason from how I conducted myself in the offseason.

So, you know, letting my weight get to a certain point by, you know, not living the proper lifestyle, that plays a role because when the prep time comes around, I had to lose so much fat.

So I had to work so hard to lose so much. So in that process,

there is tissue that was lost. So I I may have showed up between 274 to 280 at the shows that I did this year.

But I think if I had not had to lose so much weight, maybe I could have been like 280 to 284, right? So maybe that range would have changed. So

ideally, with how I'm conducting it this year, I think their question was, what was their question again?

What specifically are you planning to improve on to secure your spot at the next year's Olympia? Yeah, so what I'm planning to improve on is just,

it's everything. It's basically living my life like I'm in prep in the offseason and in the health phase the entire year.
I'm focused the entire year.

Now, of course, there's going to be times where I am more relaxed, where I'll have off-planned meals, but that's essentially what the difference is going to be.

So I'm going to show up with whatever fullness and tissue that I lost during the...

last year's prep and with new tissue because I'm doing every single thing possible to make sure that every every box is ticked and it's not a matter of okay this is this one muscle that needs to be bigger it's this one muscle

like when i compare myself to the best of the best these guys complete everywhere so i was like everything needs to come up everything needs to be better so i'm working on everything yeah and i i do believe this i'm very very confident in this approach

awesome hell yeah brother i appreciate you sharing that by the way about like your um your little rut there that you experienced in the previous year because i think we've all been there man and i definitely have especially when you're single at the same time Yeah, that's kind of a dangerous conversation man Yeah,

I want to piggyback off it because Brittany like we her like go out sometimes and uh Brittany really brought out a more balanced side of me But she also met me at a time where I was like more open to being balanced because of that experience and there is a part of it where I realize okay some of this is actually really good.

Now, I don't I don't drink. I don't like we're going to Mexico next month.
Maybe I'll have some drinks there, but like I don't actually, I don't like drinking. I like how it makes my body feel.

I like what it does to my metabolism. So that's not something that I will do this year.

But but yeah, so it's just having the right balance of like doing things, having fun with your partner, having fun with friends, and like still doing everything you need to do to improve.

So that's basically what that is looking like for me. And yeah, she's like I said, she's brought that balance to me.

So, you know, I'll I'll go out with her from time to time, but it's not going to be like it was last year. I feel that.
I feel the same. I will do some fucking streams, though.

Oh, dude, yo, I rock with you heavy, man. Heavy.

Yeah.

If you don't mind me asking, how did you guys meet?

We met at

the Olympia at the expo. Oh, shit.
That's fucking sick. Yeah, last year we had it.
What a love story.

I know. It's funny.

So we're both from Toronto. Like, the Toronto.
She lived in downtown Toronto. I live like in the suburbs.
And yeah, we like, I've seen her before. She used to come to my gym sometimes.

And yeah, we were introduced and she posted something.

She ended up following me. I followed her back.
And like she posted something on her story one day. We love this little follow-in, follow-back.
Yeah, yeah.

And it was about the sauna. And I like, I love the sauna, right? And I just saw a sauna and I started talking to her about the sauna.
And then somehow that like materialized into something else.

And she invited me to come out and like, you know, come see her. And like, they were her and like a group of my friends, because we have like mutuals, they were out one night.

And like, I just got back from like a Halloween party. This is like when I was like, like I said, like, this is like retirement version of Quentin.
Like, I'm like, I just got home. It's like 3 a.m.

And I just drove home from somewhere that's like an hour and a half away. And I'm like, you know what? Fuck it.
I'm coming out. And I drove to the city, which is like 40 minutes away.

And I went there.

Yes.

I've never done something like that. It was such a crazy idea.
But yeah, we did. And we hung out.
And we had a great time together.

And we ended up talking for like that whole, up until like the sun came up. Yeah.
And yeah, we just never stopped talking. Dude, that is awesome, bro.

Brother, that actually kind of gave me chills because

it's those times that you just say like, fuck it. I'm going to fucking do it, dude.
Even if it's kind of weird or it's just so out there.

It's those fucking times where you make shit happen, and then you're just like the next day or like the next week, you're just like, holy fuck, man,

this is awesome. Like, life is awesome.
Like, I've been, I've been getting myself in this more stoic mindset about just focusing on my purpose and moving forward.

And just like fucking, just fucking cutting off the things that just aren't serving me or that are bringing me back, you know, focusing on moving forward.

And it's been allowing me to attack things and just like make moves and do risky things that I just haven't been doing because I've been in this like rut of being in this kind of like the same scheduled routine with

like certain relationship dynamics that just weren't very fitting for my growth and like now i'm just like training being my own individual self again and this last weekend in vegas and everything was just like the most best the best experience i could have ever experienced so i just want people to remember like if you have a chance to do something you know just say fuck it and just do it you know yes like put yourself out there you know take that risk move forward let's just finish up with a couple last questions so uh ifpb pro rob quadsa quadzilla Quadzilla, baby, asks, how does he keep his kidney health on point?

I'm assuming the kidney supplement that you were talking about earlier. Yeah, I guess.
Yeah, so I use kidney HD year-round.

And yeah, my kidneys are healthy. Like they've been healthy, like the majority of the prep.

Well, all prep. I say majority because I didn't check at the beginning of the prep, but yeah,

everything's on point right now. Cool, cool.
And then Mike the Strongman one asks, favorite free meal.

Not Not the one that you said earlier, burger and fries, just because you're off still burger and fries? Even if you didn't go to Japan.

Okay,

definitely coming from Japan, definitely burger and fries. But even when I think of it, what do I have the most? I think it would have to be burger and fries over the years.

As basic as it is, like,

yeah, that's got to be it. That's awesome, bro.

Honestly, dude, I like what back, I don't know, back when I was competing like years ago, I never really cared to feel like getting a burger and fries after the show.

And I think that's because sometimes the coach would be like, get a burger and fries before finals or something. You know what I mean? Yeah.
I think that's why I never cared.

But like now that I've been working with Patrick and he literally only gets me clean, only has me eat clean food ever.

I've been craving burger and fries mad, bro. I went to BJ's three times to get their brisket, burger, and fries, and it was gas, bro.

Every single time, man. I've been obsessed with that shit.
So I get it. I get it.
You know what I mean? I want a bazooki on top. Oh,

yeah. That's me, man.
You have to, you, You have to end off with something sweet.

Hopefully, Patrick isn't listening to this, but I also ate two of my friends' bazookis as well.

That was great.

Hey, you're a hungry boy, man. He did that to you.
It's his fault.

Yeah. No, for real, bro.
So you get it. Yeah.
So it's funny because I'm going to Vegas tomorrow, bro. I guess we're going to go.

And it's, bro, there's a place there.

And I guess maybe I could change my answer here because last time I went to Vegas, I went, I was there for seven days and I went to the Grand Lakes Cafe three or four times. I don't remember.

It was either three or four. And every time I go in, I get their

chicken and waffles, bro. It is.
Ooh.

Shit. I'm going to be there this weekend.
And you know damn well I'm going there at least.

Oh fuck. Take a picture and put it on your story so I can see it.

I definitely will.

That's all I have to say. All right.
I have one last question I ask everyone at the end of every podcast.

But if you were to disappear from the world tomorrow and you had one message you could send to the entire world today, what would that message be?

You know what? I'm going to switch gears and go a little political here.

So

you have a lot more in common with the people that you think you hate than you do with the people that are like

that are leading the groups that you guys belong to.

You know, you people have a lot more left and right, people have a lot more in common with each other than they do with the billionaires that are, you know, leading those packs.

I think. Like a lot more in terms of your day-to-day.

A lot of things you don't have in common, but and yeah, I just think it's unfortunate that you know we we're so divided in like Western or at least in North America, I should say.

It's really unfortunate. And like, you know, I know a lot of people feel very strongly about this stuff.

But I just try to remember, you know, well, not try to remember. I always know that we're all humans.
And I try not to judge anybody. And I try not to get

too opinionated or too emotional or think that my shit doesn't stink. Like, you know.

We're all just different. You know, people see the world differently.
And it is what it is. All our shit stink.

No, that's awesome. Fuck, bro.
I don't think I've ever gotten an answer like that ever.

I don't know. You got to be like episode 160 or 170 or something.
Yeah. I've never had an answer like that, bro.
It's crazy. Oh, yeah.

That's a good one. I like that.
Thank you. Yeah, no, for sure.
We do have a lot in common, and we are all human. And it's a good way to look at it.
You ever watch The Boys? The TV show? Yes.

I fucking love that show, dog. I fucking love that show.

So I just started watching it this year, and I watched it. Yeah.
And I was like, bro, I like, I like it. I knew it.

Oh, yeah. It's so fire, bro.
It's fire. All right.
Anyways, thanks for coming on, bro. That was epic.

Yeah, that was awesome, bro. Where can everybody find you? Anything you want to promote? Anything at all?

You can find me in Quint Beastwood on Instagram, YouTube, Mr. Beastwood on TikTok.
I don't really post much on TikTok. But dude, thank you for having me.

And sorry about the messing up the time earlier. I slept through the initial agreement.

You're totally fine, brother. I get it.
I get it.

But I appreciate you uh yeah us getting this in because yeah i've been looking forward to this world for weeks no me too

me too brother me too me too i'm glad we got to do it and um honestly best of luck with your uh future endeavors and bodybuilding man you got a giant you got giant potential and um

i really do think you have like the best one of the best structures by far out there so I can't wait to see you bring it in and

fucking kill it at Olympia. Thank you so much, brother.
Appreciate it. Yeah, bro.
Yeah. Well, I'll catch you soon.
All right, man. I'll catch you later.
All right. Later, brother.
Peace out.