Original subtitles

Sleeping was terrible.

I'd get on a scale and I was like, "Oh, this is real."

"This is your fighting weight."

I plan on, tonight and tomorrow, bringing the pain.

Ain't that something?

Man! How long are you staying?

- You tell me, it's done. - Okay.

8 p.m., so we got an hour and 45 minutes.

-We can end this tonight. -Right.

See, I know what it feels like to win the first one

and have to defend the second time.

That's the hardest shit.

There's no feel about it.

'Cause if you feel, you're conflicted.

Because if it controls you, you're done.

-Yeah, you're done. -You're done.

-You do something stupid. -Yep.

Tonight it has to be one emotion, that's it.

Yeah. Well, I know what that is.

-Yeah. -Kill 'em all.

The elusive eight.

It was tied, the all-time record,

with Lee Haney and Ronnie Coleman.

In the world of bodybuilding,

this would be the biggest comeback of all.

He was up against having his whole stomach

be put back together.

He knew that this could be the end of his career.

I am greatness. I am opportunity waiting to happen.

The road downhill starts when you believe that it's over.

Was he ready to close that chapter in bodybuilding?

Was he ready to leave that behind?

I wasn't afraid of work.

I wasn't afraid of passing out in the gym.

Everything was crumbling.

Was it just to win number eight?

That person that was there before

isn't the same.

To introduce

the greatest bodybuilder on the planet...

the recipient of the 2017 iconic Sandow Trophy.

The seven-time...

...Mr. Olympia,

Phil "The Gift" Heath!

This was a really difficult year

to promote local and regional, um, Olympia qualifying events.

In many cases, promoters weren't even allowed to sell tickets,

which means they took big financial losses

just to make sure these athletes had every opportunity

to compete and to qualify for the Olympiad.

As the most coveted titles in the world are up for grabs,

we hope to see you guys all out there in December

to witness history.

Athletes like myself, they just want an opportunity

to get onstage, to show their art.

Without bodybuilding shows, I have to totally pivot into another career.

For us to hear that more athletes have been qualified

is a beautiful thing.

It's dope.

The Mr. Olympia is, and forever will be,

the greatest bodybuilding show on the planet.

In over 190 countries, bodybuilding exists.

Fifteen people in an over 50-year time period

have won the Mr. Olympia.

In America, bodybuilding probably ranks maybe 20th.

On ESPN, we see cup stacking on that shit over bodybuilding.

I don't know why.

But bodybuilding in these other countries

that don't have the big three,

with the baseball, football, basketball,

bodybuilding is king.

You could be a great bodybuilder,

win a bunch of pro shows,

and once you get to that Olympia stage,

you could be shitting in your pants.

I remember backstage,

everybody was pumping up.

And I look over and I see some of the other guys pumping up.

And I'm like, "Holy moly. Am I in the right place?"

They do battle to win the ultimate prize,

the Sandow Trophy, which you see sitting behind me.

You pay to see something that makes no sense.

What is that muscle? None of these guys have it, but he has it.

The roar on that fucking stage. Oh, boy.

You're gonna compete against your idols

who now become your rivals.

I'm at the place where the gods exist.

It's impossible. It's a dream.

It's last man standing.

Just like Jordan, just like Ali,

just like some guy known as The Rock

who used to raise his eyebrow.

Arnold Schwarzenegger was Mr. Olympia.

Larry Scott was Mr. Olympia.

Sergio Oliva was Mr. Olympia.

Frank Zane, Franco Columbu,

Dorian Yates, Jay Cutler, Ronnie Coleman,

Dexter Jackson, Chris Dickerson,

Samir Bannout and Lee Haney, all Mr. Olympians.

You win the Arnold Classic, that's great.

You win a New York Pro, that's cool.

None of those matter.

It's the Mr. Olympia or nothing.

My name is Phillip Jerrod Heath.

I'm a seven-time Mr. Olympia.

I was born December 18th, 1979, in Seattle, Washington.

I grew up in the Rainier Valley area in the early '80s,

what we would call the inner city.

A little ghetto. A little rough.

But a lot of spirit in that area.

It was just untapped.

My father, Don Heath, and my mom, Rosella Braxton,

had a divorce.

I remember my mom and I being in the guest bedroom,

my mom was really upset,

and I never saw that apartment again.

My stepfather and my mother, they raised me.

My mom, she worked her ass off every day.

Even on her days off, she was always working.

I mean, she had to endure quite a bit.

I didn't feel any, like, "Oh, where's my mom?"

like, "She's not at my game."

She exemplified hard work, sacrifice.

It was in order for me to live a better life.

The most bonding we had was from zero to eleven.

Twelve, thirteen, I started becoming more distant.

My father was in my life, but here and there.

I would see him on holidays.

I get a lot of my traits from him.

Our muscles. He was a very muscular guy.

The most dapper man I probably ever knew.

Stetson hat, snakeskin boots. He looked like a movie star.

He was a binge drinker, so I'm sure he was trying to escape from something.

His mom passed when he was very young,

and I'm sure that was part of the reason.

My mom, she wasn't one of those disgruntled wives

that was like, "You know, your father's a piece of shit."

She would bring up his negatives, his flaws,

especially if I exhibited those.

That's where I get a lot of my fire, passion,

dark side from.

Rainier Beach High School.

If you went to that school at that time,

especially '80s and '90s,

you weren't expected to do a whole lot.

High dropout rate, kids on suspension, drugs, fights.

We were having what they call an all-city dance.

I see a guy just pull out his gun, just...

You hear a guy saying, "Oh, I'll knock your head off your shoulders,"

that's pretty much what you saw.

About that third shot,

that's when I turned around and ran.

My parents, obviously concerned.

But at that given point in time,

they were willing to get an extra job

to go put me in private school.

I remember being approached with that,

and I just told 'em, I said, "Violence is everywhere."

"You can't run from it."

I was always into sports.

Anything that had to do with track and field,

or basketball, football, baseball, it didn't matter.

Bo Jackson, Michael Jordan, I grew up in that era.

Bo Jackson was huge for me.

The guy broke bats with his bare hands.

It's like, how do you do that?

Just to see someone do two sports in the pros

and be good at it.

And to see his career get cut short

was just, you know, crazy.

I loved Magic Johnson.

We'd never seen someone like this,

six nine, running the point,

won an NBA championship right out the gate.

Michael Jordan, for sure, he could fly.

To me, defying logic.

Doing moves that we'd never seen,

like being able to switch hands,

spin moves, him dunking on somebody.

Every kid would do a move and say, "Jordan!"

They made Jordan rules. I mean, I thought,

"How dominant is a player to transcend a sport

to where they have to make rules just against one guy?"

And they'd murder this guy every year,

but he just kept coming back and back.

Outside of those sports

was this guy named Arnold Schwarzenegger.

You all know, Arnold has won more bodybuilding awards

than anyone in the world.

And critics are saying some very nice things

about his performance in his latest film called Raw Deal.

Here is Arnold Schwarzenegger.

This is the guy that I see in these movies

that my parents watch.

Predator.

Terminator.

Red Heat.

Running Man.

Total Recall.

Of course, Conan.

His chest and his biceps, and all this other shit,

I don't know what that is, but I like that, that's dope.

He had charisma.

Growing up, I didn't know what it took to be an action star.

That wasn't accessible at the time.

So I just immersed myself in what was, playing hoop.

Basketball for me was an obsession.

I couldn't get enough of it.

Once he found that basketball hoop,

it was like he was attached to it.

He would be out there all night long.

That was his outlet.

After years of training, I make varsity.

Going into my senior year, we get a transfer

by the name of Jamal Crawford,

three-time Sixth Man Award winner,

who ended up playing in the NBA for quite some time.

Our team was stacked. We were such a family unit.

Come pre-season, we're stomping the shit out of everybody.

Then when regular season hit, we didn't look back.

It was win after win after win.

Our coach did not let up.

He didn't care if we're up by 20,

we were D'ing you up from end line to end line.

It just seems like it's destiny for us, in honesty.

King anniversary. Hey, we're ready to go.

He developed that killer instinct in all of us:

destroy the competition.

We went to state.

We played on Fox Sports Northwest.

We win the whole thing.

He was making the paper.

People knew who Phil Heath was, and they always said,

"We're gonna watch out for you. You're gonna be somebody."

When someone tells you that, that becomes your identity.

He really thought, "I'm gonna be in the NBA."

I end up going to the University of Denver

on a full-ride scholarship, the Division 1 program.

When he went into D1 basketball

with University of Denver, everything changed.

August of 1998.

I, along with my parents, drove

from Seattle, Washington, all the way here.

These stairs right here, those are the easy ones to run.

The minute I got on campus during student orientation,

I realized I wasn't just a student,

I was a student athlete.

I got to really embrace what that meant.

All new friends. They didn't know me. I didn't know them.

My name on the locker.

And I still remember my first game.

I'm trying not to look in the stands too much,

but you're hearing the band play,

you're hearing the crowd roar.

Oh, man. Sometimes I wish I could go back to that moment.

My life changed. I've arrived.

Being a new Division 1 program, we had a lot of expectations.

Being a freshman,

your whole goal is to not get punked by these seniors.

I was trying to be first in all those drills.

I played my freshman year.

But as time went, I noticed that I didn't progress

as well as I thought I should have.

I was behind and I knew I was in trouble.

I was like, "Shit."

My sophomore season, I was playing really well pre-season,

was hedging a screen, ended up hyper-extending my knee.

Now I'm out.

If you're right on the cusp of actually being a starter,

you go to forgotten.

They gotta move on.

That was, uh...

That was a very difficult year.

To rehab a knee, it was like it got pulled away from me.

My junior year, I remember we were losing quite a bit.

Coach is about to get fired.

My best friend and I, Tyrone Turner,

we're getting pulled into the office

to get kicked off the team.

I went from high school being a state champion

to college not anything special.

I did better on the road than home because I played.

At home, I didn't play.

So what I would do is, after the game, I'd go run.

I'd just keep running sometimes, crying, hoodie's on.

When I turned 21 years old, it led into a lot of drinking.

And that's when the demons started coming out.

I wanted to kill myself.

And I don't even think my parents know this,

but I laid in the street on Evans...

hoping that someone would run my ass over.

Two in the morning, laid near the median,

and just hope that someone would take away this pain.

I was a big star in high school.

You get to college and it's like a whole different story.

You're not the big guy on campus anymore.

And I remember getting real depressed, like,

"Man, now what I'm gonna do?"

I can't play football anymore.

I'm just real upset.

I didn't really know what that was

until I was a certain age.

I understand Phil's depression.

Football was my ticket out.

Football was gonna be the thing

that allowed my family not to get evicted anymore,

it allowed me to buy my parents their first house.

And that didn't work out for me. I've been there.

You start to second-guess yourself

when you're not in the top position anymore.

You wonder, "Hey, am I good enough for this?"

"Is this my destiny?"

Past like 1:30, two o'clock in the morning,

I'd be laying out in this fucking street.

I mean, I look at this now and just realize

like how fucked up I really was.

I'd had it with the lies and the... and the politics

of playing for these coaches

that don't give a fuck about you.

They don't care.

And, really, I just hated myself.

I thought, "How stupid was I to...

to leave home, like, to go here?"

"I have no family here."

And, um, I thought this was my only option out.

To realize that you are the master

of the telling of your own story.

You can write your own heroic journey

or the memoir of your own demise.

I'm good, yeah. It's very overwhelming.

It's like I'm chewing myself out right now, like,

"Why, why, why did you do that?"

"It's gonna be okay, man. Like, just..."

How shitty would it be if, like,

my parents would have to read in a newspaper that he took...

their son, my mom's only child,

took his own life because of a game.

I didn't have the courage to just acknowledge

that life isn't fair.

Life ain't fucking fair, man.

You have one life. Don't take it.

When our coach got fired

that spring in '01,

I was happy.

We got a new coaching staff.

That coach told me like it was,

then asked me what my goals were in life,

not just with basketball but in life.

He said, "If you wanna go to grad school, I'll help you go to grad school."

"If you wanna be a coach, I'll help you be that coach."

"But these are my rules."

"I need you to help coach these freshmen."

"I need you to be a great teammate. That's your role."

"And if you don't want that role,

we'll figure out another option,

but you will not be fucking here."

And I looked at him and said, "Thank you for being honest."

I accepted.

The last game of my college career,

I remember, clock went down to triple zero.

I realized that those hoop dreams were over,

that I'm no longer a student athlete,

I'm just a student.

One of the most difficult challenges athletes have

is letting go.

The hardest part was trying to figure out,

"Who am I now?"

In that transition can come clarity.

That clarity can give you a new drive

and a new perspective.

I look over to one of my classmates' laptops,

and I see on his wallpaper Ronnie Coleman, Jay Cutler,

Kevin Levrone and Flex Wheeler,

and I'm like, "Who are these people?"

These guys look like action-book heroes,

like comic-book characters,

but they were real human beings.

Out of the depths of the basketball chapter in his life,

he focuses himself to one of the hardest sports in the world,

the sport of pro bodybuilding.

Once he learned that he could actually

be somebody in bodybuilding,

it became his new thing.

In basketball, a coach can decide

if you're rewarded enough to go into the game.

But with bodybuilding, I just had to worry about

grabbing a pair of dumbbells

and just putting my best foot forward.

Here is my path.

That's when he kind of dove into it.

We didn't have the internet like we do today.

There was Netscape, shit like that.

I immersed myself in the VHS tapes.

So this was Pumping Iron.

I watched it so many freaking times,

I'm surprised it, you know, still is intact.

We all knew this film verbatim.

We knew it. We knew the dialogue.

I'm like getting the feeling of coming in the gym.

I'm getting the feeling of coming at home.

I'm getting the feeling of coming backstage when I pump up.

When I pose out in front of 5,000 people,

I get the same feeling.

So I'm coming day and night.

Arnold Schwarzenegger was one of the main characters,

along with Lou Ferrigno.

Arnold mind-fucking people really won a lot of people over.

You didn't get the timing right, I'm telling you.

A month from now would have been perfect for you.

But then I get bigger too again, so, you know...

It doesn't matter. What the hell?

That gave the insight

to what bodybuilding was all about.

One of the books that I would use

was this bad boy right here.

It's called The Precontest Bible.

This is my second copy.

The first copy got stolen 'cause it's so freaking good.

I would look at all these different physiques.

They would be able to show you their diets,

and that was really important

because how in the hell do you learn?

Basically giving up all the secrets.

So they would tell you, like, on what day they trained, what did they train.

Like one of the questions is: "The thing I like least about contest prep is..."

He said, "Nothing. I really don't mind the diet or training." Hmm.

Goes from posing, to tanning, to backstage,

applying for a contest.

This was like my way of learning.

Books were my resources. Nautilus training programs.

Arnold's encyclopedia to bodybuilding.

I should really be studying differential equations,

linear algebra, all that shit.

I'm studying about protein and biochem.

I bought a camera on eBay, 2.1 megapixel camera.

And on October 8th, 2002,

I took my very first selfie.

Less than 10 people in the world have seen that photo.

To me, that picture is priceless.

That's the first time that I ever said,

"This is Phil Heath

transitioning away from basketball."

I took pictures every four weeks,

and then it'd become every week.

Then I would actually print those photographs.

Right here...

That's me when I first started bodybuilding.

I would then go from here, take a pen,

and start shading in where I wanted more growth.

These are rear delts. These gotta get better.

Need some upper traps,

need to work on that, have that more pronounced.

Then... I would take this photo,

which was about two weeks out before my first contest.

Look at Dorian's calves. Like, wow, massive, right?

And so I gotta make sure

that I get more calf development.

If I need a back, Dorian Yates, Ronnie Coleman.

The traps, shoulders, triceps, Kevin Levrone.

Chest, Ronnie Coleman, Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Abdominal work, Shawn Ray.

Take a little piece from here, a little piece from here,

and then I'm starting to write my own workouts.

It just made sense to me.

I would do this pretty much every week.

I knew that in order to be a good pro,

to a great pro, to a Mr. Olympia,

I had to be a student.

We're looking at everything.

Your shoulders, arms,

your chest, your legs.

It's nothing but condition, shape and size. That is a bodybuilder.

Six months later, I end up doing

my first bodybuilding show, April 4th, 2003,

the NPC Northern Colorado in Boulder.

Jay Cutler was actually the guest poser at that time.

There's like an old picture of he and I shaking hands.

He had his friends that would kind of critique him

and help him with posing.

His posing was horrible.

You're naked.

Well, that's how I felt going out onstage

with these little-ass posing trunks on.

This is the first time I ever really publicly did that.

That was the thing that kept me from doing it,

'cause you do all this posing stuff

which I never knew anything about.

I'm like, "I don't wanna see no dudes

in no skimpy short draws, man. Are you crazy?"

It's a bizarre sport. And it's your body.

I mean, there's nothing more personal than your body.

Now I gotta get like a sense of false bravado on my face.

And I hear this old lady.

She goes, "Smile. You're beautiful."

And everybody starts laughing.

I'm like, "Oh, all right."

I won every medal, trophy that night.

Putting my hands up like this, laughing, 'cause I'm thinking,

"I don't even know what the fuck I'm doing."

I immediately picked up the phone

and I called the editor of Flex and Muscle & Fitness,

and I said, "I just found the next Mr. Olympia."

It just took off from there.

Two months later, the Colorado State Show.

I won my weight class.

Now I'm being more immersed in bodybuilding.

I'm going to more shows.

I'm bumming rides from my roommate,

riding a bicycle, catching the bus.

I was like, "I'm just gonna be in the gym all day."

Reading, lifting, eating,

training, bodybuilding, that's it.

The first time I saw him,

I judged him at the Junior Nationals.

Unbelievable. I mean, you could see there was Phil Heath

and everybody else at that time.

I win that show.

Now I'm signed with AMI, Joe Weider.

Magazine covers, sponsorships everywhere.

I get the cover of Flex. I'm in a track stance.

Poster of me dunking a basketball as a bodybuilder.

All eyes were on him. He was the up-and-coming star.

He was looked upon as the future of bodybuilding.

When I first noticed Phil,

he'd just won the Junior Nationals.

And I was like, "Eh, he looks okay. He shredded."

"He got a good future, though."

First time out, he did the USAs

and he burst on the scene and won his pro card.

Phil Heath had arrived.

When he won the USA, that put him on the map.

He needed a coach.

I saw him onstage. He had won the overall.

We ran into each other at a restaurant and he said,

"Hey, I know you. You're the pro creator." He shadowed me.

He's like, "Hey, I'd really like to work with you

for my pro debut."

It was really for another second set of eyes,

so that I didn't waste years

trying to figure out how to get to that next level,

'cause that can mean second or third or first place.

That's all you get. That's all you get. That's all you get.

That's all you get. That's all you get. That's all you get.

I'm a person who gets paid to find flaws.

Because he played in the NCAA,

because he was coached as a kid coming up,

it really helped make my job easier,

because he's so coachable.

With Hany on his side,

alongside Phil's no-lose mentality,

they would basically tear up the bodybuilding scene.

He just doesn't stop. He just tears it apart.

I'm just chasing this guy

and I'm seeing like I'm getting farther and farther away.

New potential talent on the rise.

You just start to take notice of this bald guy

with the green eyes and the muscles.

I'm going against pros now.

The guys that I was reading about

transitioning out of basketball to bodybuilding,

I'm competing against.

They think I'm, like, mad-doggin' 'em and shit,

like checking 'em out, like playing games.

I'm like, "Nah, man," like, "Hey, what's up man?"

like, "What's going on, man? You look great."

My trainer Hany Rambod came backstage

and he's like yelling at me

to not be so enamored by the other pros.

By the way, Phil Heath also won that show.

He actually received all first-place votes

by every judge in every round of every contest

he's ever competed in.

What do you say, everybody?

We got the guy in the purple trunks tonight.

Thank you...

In the back of my mind and my heart,

I'm not supposed to be excited like a fan in this point,

to, um, "Can I take a picture with you? Can I... Can I..."

Something's wrong.

I did it. Again? What?

Phil Heath!

But it's very short-lived,

because I gotta do it again the next week.

The New York Pro, I collected some more scalps that night,

won that whole damn show again.

He was number one.

In order to try to catch up,

there was a lot of work that had to be done.

Yeah.

He won every pro show he did in the beginning,

right out of the gate, until he got to the upper levels.

No one really does that.

People knew he needed to put on more size to be competitive

with the likes of myself and Ronnie Coleman,

but that was just a time thing.

Phil was prepared. He paced himself.

He chose the shows that he felt he could dominate.

He came out and did the Iron Man

his third year being a pro.

He had brought up his back substantially,

showcased those crazy hamstrings and glutes and that back detail.

I remember when he came out onstage,

I was sitting in the office in the gym

'cause I was watching it online.

I almost fell out of my chair, I was laughing so loud,

'cause I was just like, "Man, he just destroyed everybody."

Most people, once they win a show

and they qualify for the Olympia,

they jump into it right away.

I literally told him, "I don't think it's a good idea

for you to do the Olympia."

He was solidifying his spot

as somebody that could have done some damage.

But I knew in my heart at his size

that he was gonna need some time and some seasoning.

We did that for two years back to back.

Everyone in the industry was pissed at me.

I'd be sitting in a press conference

and I'd have guys like Dexter Jackson, Melvin Anthony,

all these other guys talking shit.

They'd be like, "There's someone in the audience

that's just too scared to get up there with the big boys."

They looked at him and they knew he was gonna be dangerous.

He was a champion on the rise. They could see what was coming.

When I actually met him, he was like,

"Yo, man. What's up, Dex?"

He was on my jock that day, you know?

Y'all been doing this shit ten years pro.

I would be a fool to just think that I know everything

and go in there with these big-ass gorillas.

I'm just a puppy.

Everybody was saying, "Why isn't he doing it?"

And I just kept saying,

"Don't be in such a rush to get your ass beat."

He chose to jump in the ring in 2008.

I studied each athlete that I was gonna compete against.

Phil was standing the same height as me,

and I knew that if he came on the money,

he was the most dangerous guy in the lineup.

By the time he stepped onstage,

he ended up placing in the top three.

Jay was dethroned by Dexter Jackson,

and Jay got second.

But I felt... I was like right there.

I felt like I pushed him.

The plot thickens.

Jay had asked if I would coach him after his loss.

I asked Phil, "Are you okay with me working with Jay?"

And he actually said, "Yeah, no problem."

Jay Cutler, he'd become the most awesome representation

of what extreme muscular development

and conditioning could grow to.

He was a god killer that became a god himself.

I became a pro at 23, my first Olympia at 26.

Coming from Sterling, Massachusetts,

a town of 6,000 people, the youngest of seven kids,

no one understood what I did.

When I won, I knew I was ready for it.

I was ready to be the best in the world.

We worked together in the off-season.

Phil would come out periodically and train.

We were kind of a team.

We were coming into direct shot pretty much at the 2009.

But that next year,

ended up getting food poisoning on that Thursday night

and was throwing up all night and barely made the top five.

It was supposed to be Phil Heath and myself

battling for that title.

The motivation, the confidence that those guys gave me,

I came in at my best of all time.

Jay Cutler!

"Could I hold off Phil Heath?" was the question.

The apprentice and the teacher.

As a fan of the sport, you would think it's just impossible

and it just can't be done.

I actually told my coach to go work with Jay.

He gets his title back, and I gotta go against him.

Did I just set myself up, you know?

2010, Phil was knocking at the door.

He was coming on strong.

"The next name I read, 2010 Mr. Olympia..."

Jay Cutler!

Watching Jay get his fourth title.

I watched the tape. I exhaled.

I rewind it, I watch it again,

and I'm getting furious.

I was okay with being second,

because second was safe.

Second doesn't have the responsibilities

that first place has.

I'm watching the video in 2010,

I'm saying, "Stop saying that shit."

There were still some questions

whether Phil arguably could have won.

Jay knew what was happening.

Jay's an intelligent guy,

and he could see the writing on the wall.

Phil was kicking that door in, and you knew if he continued,

he was gonna kick that door in completely.

2010 spelled it all out.

He was next in line to win the Mr. Olympia title.

I wasn't comfortable being second.

Although Jay and I were friends,

it wasn't about beating him,

it was about beating myself.

It's the Olympia or nothin'.

I don't remember anything that year

but just training for that show.

I made sure every day in that gym it was war,

saying, "No more complacency."

"You are gonna bring this war to his doorstep,

and if you do not, he's going to embarrass you."

I was working close with Hany at that point.

We were training in the off-season.

My goal was to win five and walk away.

Unfortunately, three weeks prior to the competition,

I tore my bicep on my left arm,

so I stood onstage with the torn bicep.

But Phil Heath was at his absolute best in 2011.

Put all your chips out there. Say you're all in.

I just knew it. I was like, "This is my night."

Man, I was really having the most fun I ever had.

I remember hitting that back double bicep.

It was like Arnold's voice was in my ear saying,

"If people are cheering and they love it,

you hit it and you hold it,

but if they don't, you get the hell out of there."

I held that thing.

If you asked me to this day,

that was Phil Heath's best of all time.

I don't think anybody at that point

was gonna be catching Phil.

I wasn't even in the mix enough to even get close.

You had some of the greatest shapes

bodybuilding has ever seen.

It's hard to beat anybody with that.

I said right then and there,

"He's gonna be there for a minute."

"He's probably gonna break the record."

For the first time,

I felt vulnerable in a long time.

I ended up second in that contest.

Phil Heath won.

Phil Heath!

It's kind of unusual, because Jay Cutler found the guy

that put him in retirement.

I watched Phil

since backstage at a local contest.

I told him, "You can be the best someday."

Little did I know that best was gonna come against me.

And now you are the king.

Losing to him was... it was probably the best loss

any Mr. Olympia has gone through.

I was able to hand it to, at the time,

my best friend and someone I respected.

When Bob Cicherillo called my name,

I went all the way back to when I was a kid.

All of the good, bad, ugly shit,

every instance of... how I got here...

it all mattered.

I'm the 13th Mr. Olympia,

and no one can ever change that.

You could be down on your luck, think your life's over,

and all of a sudden become a king again.

I'm sure that replaced the hurt in his heart

by not being in the NBA,

because he became a superstar overnight.

Now I gotta figure out how I'm gonna hold this damn thing.

Let the games begin.

The seven-year war was basically

Phil in the beginning versus Jay.

Then it became the Phil versus Kai.

Jay Cutler, he respected and appreciated

the new king in Phil Heath.

I didn't.

Ooh. Who is Kai L Greene?

My greatest nemesis.

I know I'm one of one, but he is too.

Kai Greene's from New York, Brooklyn.

He is an orphan, had a rough life growing up.

He's been a champion for a long time.

Masterful poser, poetic, not just onstage but offstage.

He was now gonna be in my way.

I came there with big dreams,

and this means something to me, and I wanna win.

Behind the scenes, everybody makes their sacrifices as they do,

everybody deals with their demons as they do,

and now I'm a fighter.

He was so impressive.

I had attended shows

where I would be cheering for the guy,

standing on my chair, like, fist-pumping,

and then people looking at me, like,

"What the fuck are you doing?"

Man, did we go at it!

2012, he came in sharp.

I came in more dense.

Mandatories, or compulsory poses,

is what I did better, in my opinion.

If it was just signature shots, he probably beat me,

but that's not how it was judged.

I was able to win.

Phil Heath!

2013, that was a blowout. He'll admit that.

Back lat spread!

Phil Heath had one callout in the show,

and they said, "We don't even need to see anything else."

I don't know if in my era I've ever seen that happen.

Three-time Mr. Olympia, Phil Heath!

It was that 2013 Arnold Classic Europe show

that it started to bother him a lot.

I downsized for that show, he upsized, and I beat him.

I remember hearing him backstage

screaming and hollering, just pissed off.

And of course I'm like...

Your goal or expectation personally had to be

to aspire to come up with something

that could answer that.

So...

now I picked a fight.

Although I can talk about it much more positively now,

during that time, I fucking hated him.

It's one thing to say, like, Jay and Ronnie had a rivalry.

We just fucking despised one another.

Without me, he would have been Mr. Olympia

probably eight times.

Those other guys were not as good as him.

That following year at the press conference,

I knew he was going to go into attack mode.

After all these years of training, after all this work,

all this... this... this... all this angst

that's like built up inside of you, "Listen, man, this is it."

He's gonna do something fucking nuts at this press conference,

'cause he hasn't tried to get into this yet.

Everyone came here with the expectation that you're the best,

and if we don't hold hands with you

and aren't ready to turn around

and respect you because you won 2014,

suddenly we're being disrespectful?

That's not true. 2014 is 2014.

2013 is the past.

You got Team Kai and Team Phil.

"Fuck you, Phil." "Fuck you, Kai."

I mean, it was bad.

So let's do it, Phil.

Kick my assets, then.

I'm here.

People would see us in the same room and be like...

Like, other athletes would get uncomfortable.

Give me three facts as to why you will beat...

He can't do it.

...Phil Heath on Saturday night.

You just gave him a chance and he started rambling on.

"Can't"? Are you interrupting again?

This is who I am. I don't care what you say.

I don't care what to do.

I'm gonna be the best me on this stage

that is worthy of what I believe will be Mr. Olympia this year.

His objective was to rattle the cage.

Fact one, we'll outweigh him by 40 pounds.

Fact two, we'll be wider.

Fact three, it's all over from the rear.

How does that feel, though, Phil?

Did you hear it? Are you thinking about it?

And I was doing everything in my power

to keep it from him.

Phil, give me three facts

as to why Kai can't beat you onstage.

2011, 2012 and 2013!

That's the past, brother.

Nobody ever tells you what will happen

if you spent all these months, all these years, you know,

building yourself up to this one moment of opportunity.

He's trying to breathe down my neck onstage,

his hair extensions into my face.

And I was like, "This motherfucker just do this shit on purpose?"

It got to the point where it was almost physical onstage.

Before you know it, he and I are, like, toe to toe.

Okay, what the fuck are we doing right now?

Are we about to scrap?

Just for a moment, you know,

yeah, maybe the way it starts to look,

it doesn't look like you're making great decisions.

You know the appropriate thing to do.

The appropriate thing is to keep your hands to yourself.

The appropriate thing to do is to, you know,

just present to the judges and to the...

like you're supposed to, however...

Damn!

Steve Weinberger's, "Kai, Phil, stop!"

You snap out of it, you realize how weird is this.

You got two big-ass black dudes, oiled up,

in these little-ass trunks, about to fight.

"What did he do?" "He looked at... Well, he looked at..."

"Well, he just looked at you."

"What are you, 12? What are you, two?"

Nah, I'm cool, fam, like, I don't do that.

This is not a place for gangsters,

so we're not gangsters today.

And this is not MMA. This is a bodybuilding stage.

At the end of the day,

as much as you may feel passionate about some things,

you really still have to be responsible and control yourself.

I was head judging at the time. I saw the whole thing evolve.

You train a whole year for a show

and the guy's this much better than you?

It's frustrating. It's like, "Fuck. Not again."

We never did a callout next to each other again

in that prejudging,

so it really fucked the whole thing up.

He and I fucked it up.

Was it worth it to do? No, I guess.

There's some things you're just not supposed to do, so I...

Mmm.

Yeah, yeah.

Mmm.

He never overcame beating the champ onstage.

Although there was always the fans

that thought Kai Greene should have been a winner,

Phil, he just dominated the stage.

Really, what burned Kai out,

Phil mentally beat him,

and Kai took off, and he hasn't been back since.

A lot of times people will think

that a rivalry is the thing that defines you.

I am always gonna be the guy

that did not like Phil Heath, you know?

But... that is... That... That's not true.

I have to be thankful for being focused

and disciplined enough as he had to be

in order to be the success that he... he became.

We've now come full circle

and actually sit in the same room.

We've talked on the phone. We'll both cuss each other out.

"Fuck you, Kai." "Fuck you, Phil Heath."

"I like you, man, but fuck you."

And I'm good with that.

He had answers.

And you have to give respect where it's due.

I lacked an extra gear with him away.

It was a different why.

All right, I've had enough of this clown.

Shurie, Chad is up to his bullshit again.

- Chad? - Ocho.

Oh.

These are 150s, Phil.

150s.

Listen.

-I got your potatoes cooking. -Mmm.

Um, steak and potatoes, not a bad dinner.

The first time I actually saw Phil

was when I was watching Kai Greene.

I was a fan of Kai Greene before I was a fan of Phil.

Phil, at the time, he was Mr. Olympia,

four-time going on five-time.

I saw her and I was just like, "Who is that?"

It was because of just how we vibed together

and things that we talked about.

People say we're actually married,

but we're still engaged.

Online it says you're married.

-How does that work? -I don't know.

The fans actually decide if we're married or not, I guess.

For the longest time I was called "the girlfriend,"

which I actually named my Instagram "the girlfriend."

I brought her on tour. I told her, I was like,

"You're gonna fly a million miles

within a two, three-year span."

She's like, "Okay," and next thing you know, she's like,

"Holy shit, this is a lot to deal with."

I'm talking about a woman that has four autoimmune issues,

fibromyalgia, Hashimoto's, you name it.

And she still wanted to accompany me

to the gym every night.

I never thought I would be able

to spend time with someone

day after day, every day,

all day, help manage them,

help support them on every aspect of their life.

My dad was a huge baseball fan.

He would even go to the Minor League games.

- Really? - Yeah.

Phil found out that his dad had a rare disease

that was going to take his life.

The day he went into hospital,

he never came home again.

He was always in the hospital.

He would go to Seattle and sit with his dad,

even if it was just for a few days.

He would make sure his dad would eat.

When I was winning the first one, he was there,

the second one as well.

Wait a minute, like, we're just now starting

to reconnect through this sport

and he's able to share with me some intimate moments,

and my win is his win.

I was scrolling through my phone the other day

and I just randomly saw some pics from Olympias.

That's me, that's my uncle, that's my uncle's wife,

and there's my dad in the background.

I like this pic because it lets me know

that he was always there, watching.

- Okay, look up there. - Hey, Phil, Congratulations.

I'm really proud of you. We're all proud of you, Phil.

Hey, we knew you could do it.

So now get ready for number four. Okay?

Thank you for making my life

and everybody's life a lot better.

And we all love you.

Congratulations, Phil. You did it!

You would think you'd wanna watch it

over and over and over again.

But... I just couldn't,

because it's like accepting that he's gone,

instead of celebrating a good moment.

It's crazy how your mind works.

To know that that spirit of my father is living through me.

What boy doesn't wanna impress his dad?

That's how cool my dad is.

Mr. Cool Breeze, man.

He was over here dying,

and he was trying to make me feel special.

I'm appreciative of the fact that he didn't quit.

The next spring, he passed.

He was only truly given one month,

and he hung out until that following spring.

I take that with me every day.

I was by myself in the gym a lot.

I'd talk to my dad many times,

on the cardio, on the leg press, on squats,

especially on leg day.

It was always like, "You can do more."

Come on, man. Yeah.

Come on. Come on.

He was walking it with me.

Around 2014, that's when things really changed.

Phil was the first Mr. Olympia

to deal with Instagram, social media.

That shifted the whole way

bodybuilding was viewed by fans, by... by everyone.

Minute-to-minute, second-to-second updates

where people could see what was happening

inside people's lives for the first time.

People were very tempted to try to tear that person down.

When Instagram came out, oh, man.

Initially it was cool. You're just sharing.

Everything was so positive.

Winning the third time, fourth time,

that's when the hate started getting, you know, pretty big.

Scary enough to make you realize,

like, you shouldn't give that much access to people,

because if you do, like, it could get really ugly and dark.

Nobody could instruct him on what was coming,

'cause nobody dealt with it before.

Jay didn't deal with it. Ronnie didn't deal with it.

He's the first one, so he's the learning curve.

I think he was frustrated.

And instead of just ignoring it, he was firing back.

I would just intentionally feed into it.

In the gym, that's when I went to a different place,

and I just said, "I'm gonna become

the fucking dream killer."

He's on his way to just continuing to destroy,

take title after title.

I was like, "Oh, no, I'll show you motherfuckers."

"I'm gonna go in there. I'm gonna train twice a day."

"I'm gonna do cardio twice a day."

I wanted to ruin their fucking dreams.

I wanted to basically beat 'em until they stopped screaming.

That was me.

2015, Phil Heath keeps winning.

Dexter Jackson arguing he should have won.

Hear it every year.

The guy who's second always thinks they should have won.

I said the same thing when I was second.

And in 2016, oh, man, that was nasty.

I was so excited to go give them hell.

Keeping Shawn at arm's reach.

The six-time Mr. Olympia...

- There it is. - ...Phil "The Gift" Heath!

Phil Heath makes it six in a row, tying Dorian Yates.

Going into number seven, different territory.

It's Arnold time.

Just to put your name next to him,

I mean, who can say that?

Even now, whew!

Going back to the drawing board,

Encyclopedia of Bodybuilding,

watch Pumping Iron again.

The battle between Ramy and I is on,

a guy that weighs 300 pounds onstage.

And I think that year I was like 246.

For the first time, Phil Heath had some competition

that was wider, bigger, but not as sharp.

People online are like, "Oh, he's gonna get dwarfed."

'Cause Ramy, he's a walking shadow

on these other competitors.

Was he bigger than Phil? Absolutely.

Did he have better shape than Phil? No.

He was able to highlight Big Ramy's weak points.

He won from the back. He smoked these guys.

And all I remember saying is, "This is yours."

"I'm gonna step into this new era."

And I heard: "And the seven-time..."

And then the whole crowd just...

No matter what happened from that day,

I was tied with Arnold Schwarzenegger,

the Oak, the Terminator, the man!

I'm seven-time Mr. Olympia.

Walking off, I felt like my life was limitless.

I was born with a hernia.

My parents got me surgery a little too early.

At like three years old. You're supposed to wait.

It just started slowly becoming a problem.

2014, 2015, then 2016.

It looked like I had a thumb coming out of my fucking stomach.

Phil ended up having intestinal strangulation.

Three inches of his intestines were in his belly button,

pushing it forward.

I got patched up, a quarter size piece of mesh.

I thought, "Okay, this is nothing."

"I'll be back in no time in the gym."

But the doctor had told me I don't have much fascia

around my abdominal region.

As I'm cinching my belt, getting ready for another lift,

I feel like a pop, and I'm like,

"Oh, my God. Oh, my God. Oh, my God."

I can't feel my belly button at all.

He tore that piece off.

At that point, his abs were separating now.

The hernia turned into two hernias.

It's three weeks out before the fucking show.

I'm going for number eight. I'm supposed to win this thing.

I did what any athlete would do,

work on being 90% or 85% better.

You don't always have be 100% to win.

We all have a limitation

where our physiques look the best.

Phil shows up. Shawn Rhoden's there.

Where Phil was lacking was Shawn Rhoden's strong point.

That was the midsection.

I still thought, even on Friday night,

that I'm easily gonna win this show.

Woke up the next day, Hany Rambod, my trainer, comes in.

"Bad news. You're not gonna win."

"There's no way mathematically that I can win,

or that I still can fight?"

"Just go do you."

"Fight hard, fight hard, fight hard."

Back double, back lat spread, most muscular.

Side chest, side tri.

You're telling me I'm losing these shots?

I remember looking at Dexter, 'cause he's on the side,

and he's just like, "Keep fighting, man."

Oh, it's in every pose, the stomach, almost.

Front double bicep, abdominals and thighs.

You could even see it on a side chest

and a side tricep sticking out.

It's hard to hide a stomach.

It finally came to the point where it hurt his physique.

When I would hit the shots, everything would be fine.

Transitioning in and out of poses, it was definitely difficult,

because if you can't feel it, you can't feel it.

In my opinion, I mean, you're supposed to be judged

on the... the time that you hit the pose,

not when you're in transition, that's just in the rules.

When I heard that Shawn won, I'm like,

"Well, I know they'll make mistakes."

I had him winning it,

but I wasn't judging,

so my opinion didn't count.

It would have sent the wrong message to all the other competitors

that you could show up with a bloated stomach and win,

even though everything else is good.

You can't.

That was enough,

that Shawn was at his absolute best on that day,

he nailed it, and he was able to beat Phil.

I was like, "Get it over with. Just do it."

I can disagree with the call,

but I'm not sitting where they're sitting.

Honestly,

I judged that show and...

That's...

I feel fulfilled, 'cause Phil really didn't lose that show.

How can I say that? Well, 'cause they were so close.

Some say it was controversial. It is what it is.

On the day, the judges picked who they wanted to pick.

It was... It was a bad day for Phil.

It was hard to look at the audience.

You're hearing...

"Breathe. Be calm."

I still told Shawn that he looked great,

which he did, that he deserved it,

that he should enjoy this moment.

Not only did he lose the title.

He also didn't get number eight.

I can't imagine the mindset that he had

wondering what's next.

When he was up there, I saw the pain.

He felt like he devastated us.

He was broken.

I felt like I deserved to have to walk home,

because I felt like I let everybody down,

and I just didn't wanna see anybody.

"What the fuck, man? What happened?"

"What am I gonna do?"

'Cause I'm gonna do a lot more than just a surgery now.

I can't run from this.

Definitely not the outcome that we had wanted.

Um, but, look, uh, these things happen.

I've watched them happen to Ronnie Coleman back in 2005.

I watched it happen to Jay, losing to Dexter.

Definitely a lot of heavy emotions with it, uh,

but it is what it is.

I just wanna say thank you, guys,

for all the ongoing support.

And congrats to Shawn Rhoden.

You did a good job.

I was already on the phone

trying to get him surgery again.

You have to realize that a body can only be pushed so far.

After so many years, there's nothing you can do.

When the injury's gonna come out, it's gonna come out.

- Gonna take care of you. - All right.

Our anesthetist will speak to you in a couple of minutes,

and he'll make sure he keeps you extra comfortable.

- You ready to do this? - Yeah.

Doctor, a question for you...

That meant don't even think about

stepping in the gym.

You're gonna need help just getting up,

going to the bathroom.

They have to take it, bring those abs back together,

put titanium staples in

and then six inches of mesh.

He knew that this could pretty much be

the end of his career.

Your belly button didn't waste back.

-So the timing was perfect. -So you got it right in time.

Got it in, tightened everything up.

I actually went up on the rectus muscles itself,

because even the edges of the fascia on the muscle

were thinned out because this stuff had been pulling on it.

You've worked out heavy of late, I bet.

This is a foam tape,

so it should come off fairly easily,

but it will pull on your skin a little bit.

The rehab on my body had nothing on the rehab

I had to do on here and in here.

Yeah, you can shower and bathe, get them wet.

You get home, and very quiet.

There was days that I would see him

just staring at the wall.

I knew at that point, this must be depression.

This must be what he felt when he got out of college.

This is happening again.

Didn't talk to Shurie much.

I think it affected our relationship a little bit.

She would have to beg for me to communicate.

I didn't know how to address it.

I didn't wanna bring up the failure.

I didn't wanna bring up, "You can still do it."

I didn't wanna do any of that to him. I'm not him.

I'm not a seven-time Mr. Olympia champion.

I don't know what this feels like.

I took upon a challenge to journal.

Shurie would bring over, um, a cup of coffee,

and I would sit there with my thoughts and pad and pen

and just write down words that just came to my mind.

It was just a way for me to stay away from the internet.

After a couple of weeks,

man, it was getting very dark on that pad of paper.

"I'm so upset. I'm so angry."

"I am not happy with who I am."

"Quit or continue?"

"Quit or keep going?"

"You have to love yourself more."

Yeah. So, yeah.

Now the reporters are coming in.

"He's never gonna be the same."

Fuck. The fans, they started getting upset.

I've heard it all.

"I hope you die." "I hope Shurie gets ill."

"I don't give a fuck about her illness."

Right after my dad died, say,

"Yeah, I'm glad that your dad died."

"I hope your mom does too."

It's something that I haven't mastered yet.

Even the enthusiast, the most devout enthusiast behind the scenes

will probably never even care to know

how hot that spotlight is at times.

So there's a lot of room for misinterpretation.

The merit of your work,

it speaks for itself.

All you gotta do is remember who you are,

stay healthy, and you're ahead of the game.

And, you know, out of all the athletes,

he was the one that fucking called.

Can you believe that?

The guy that I said I hated at one point in time

picked up the fucking phone.

When I've said in other interviews I love that guy,

I can say I love him for that.

It was actually what he needed. It re-centered him.

It refocused him on,

"What do I want? Because bodybuilding is not forever."

I didn't know who the fuck I was.

Now I know who I am.

At that point, nobody saw him basically coming back.

I thought that Phil was done.

Don't do the Olympia.

No matter what, make a commitment this summer

and live like you're retired.

See what that feels like.

Shurie was like, "What?"

When he started to feel a little bit better,

I had gotten really sick with breast implant illness.

I had actually been sick for three years,

not knowing what was wrong with me.

I had some people ask me,

"Hey, are you gonna have someone take care of you

while Phil does the Olympia?"

I told Phil, I said, "Do you wanna go?"

"I'm okay. I can have my mom stay."

He's like, "No, I'm staying home."

I was starting to heal this,

and I was starting to heal, obviously, this.

Not going to the Olympia was key.

The 2019 Mr. Olympia champion was Brandon Curry.

I started my first Olympia in 2011.

I placed last place two or three times.

Last basically means you don't place.

Each year after, kept improving,

until last year I just end up taking the Sandow home.

Someone has to win.

Brandon was the best on that night and he won.

There was no one there to challenge him.

Even with Phil's stomach, maybe it would have been good enough

for him to beat Brandon, maybe.

Brandon's been around for a long time.

Brandon's not new.

He brought up all the body parts

that he had missing or lagging.

Mr. Olympia now.

Brandon gonna see that trophy every day.

Everybody criticized me last year.

"Ah, he didn't beat nobody."

It doesn't feel great, but, you know,

I still got the title, so it's cool.

All of 2019, I was hoping he'd come back.

I was questioning whether I was ever gonna get the opportunity

to stand toe to toe with Phil.

After watching Brandon win, the fans were excited.

I thought, "Hmm, if I made a comeback,

what would that look like?"

I remember looking at Shurie

and it was almost like trying to get permission,

like, "Hey, one more time? One more time?"

If you tell that to anybody, they think you're crazy.

Why would you wanna put yourself in that position to even risk it?

He was risking it for seven years.

Ten years from now you're having regrets.

You're like, "Man, I could have won

eight, nine, ten of these things

if I would have just gave it my best shot."

To provide added motivation,

Shurie made sure that this trophy case,

along with the Sandows, were placed in an area

where I'd have to stare at every day.

And normally I would never do that.

They would be in the basement.

Just the opportunity to go after number eight again.

I owe it to myself to give another crack at this.

Here we were, both of us healed,

ready to get through this prep,

kind of like starting over a little bit,

and COVID happens.

A SARS-like virus which has infected hundreds in China

has now reached the United States.

It is a pandemic at this point.

Let's talk about what that means.

When spring hit, that's when the lockdowns happened.

Now we're at the mercy of a pandemic.

They closed the gym,

and that was like that for months.

And I said, why don't you turn the lights on?

He goes, "I think the city's gonna find out if I'm in here,

and I don't wanna put Dylan in that position."

I'd just be in there with the light on the iPhone.

We would see canceled shows left and right.

Gone to Australia. They canceled everything after that.

And we're like, "Man, are we gonna really have a season?"

We're getting ready for a show.

"What if I'm training and doing all this for nothing?"

The Olympia might not happen.

States started opening.

There were shows starting to be thrown in states.

And I'm like, "Okay, we got hope."

"This is gonna go down."

Knowing that we were gonna do the Olympia

months before the announcement

was very, very hard to keep quiet.

We were on lockdowns and people are just now

getting back in the gym during the pandemic.

So now the countdown begins.

Will the fans go crazy?

Let's see what the hell happens now.

Hmm.

How does that feel?

Um... relieved.

'Cause everybody in the freaking world is like,

-"Are you coming back?" -Yeah.

"Are you coming back?"

Are you... Are you happy?

Just, uh, waking up to you breaking the internet,

putting the announcement out there.

As far as today is concerned,

I mean, a lot of people are happy,

but, I mean, obviously

we got a lot of work to do.

And then I get to ask you, Hany,

um, shall we have the crab or lobster?

And I say why not have both?

Right? Oh, man.

I'm glad you're happy. I know you're motivated.

But you know me. Now it's time to get to work.

Now every day, every hour,

every meal, every set, every rep.

All right, man. All right, bro. Love you.

And I'll talk to you later, man. All right.

-All right, later. Bye. -Okay. Bye.

4,000 comments in three hours.

I love this one:

"The return of the king."

I'm like, "Dude, that was my tagline."

When he announced that he was coming back,

I was shocked, I was ecstatic for him.

That made me train even harder,

because Phil is the one guy that drives me.

Who would have thunk it? Who would have thunk it?

When I got the news... Man...

You know, I'm not a real emotional guy,

but I let out "Yeah!", you know?

Can't believe it, in a sense. Everybody don't get this, man.

Everybody don't get this.

Couldn't thank anybody more. I really couldn't.

When we committed to doing the Olympia

months in advance before we announced it,

we already were preparing. We needed to get the business taken care of,

get things running smoothly,

so then he can focus on the prep.

Getting ready for a prep,

it generally takes me about four months.

You blink twice and it'll be like two weeks out.

When I go train, it's do or die, it's war,

and I must learn something.

You gotta know how to make the proper adjustments

to be able to land and peak onstage for the show

and not before or after.

Starting 12 to 16 weeks before the contest

is when we started going into the fat-burning stages.

What we're trying to do is get leaner

up until about a week out from the show.

Then it's about the water manipulation.

The biggest obstacle I can tell

from every bodybuilder that's ever trained for Olympia title

is the nutritional aspect.

It's extreme eating,

extreme dieting, extreme physique.

My role in this whole prep life that we have

is to support him in every way possible.

Every two hours, fresh meals, um, every day.

He'll never have something reheated.

It's been about five years now

that I've been doing this with Phil.

It's just a whole different body

that we're dealing with this time,

so it'll get a little bit more intense as we go.

It becomes a full-time job.

I spend seven hours a day eating food, no lie.

But I didn't know that it was such an extreme level.

He'll sit there for hours and just chew.

The jaw gets tired. The stomach gets tired.

You get tired of running to the bathroom.

People say, "Oh, that's bullshit."

"They're eating seven times a day. I could do that."

No, you can't.

We're meal prepping, going to chiropractic,

doing the cryo...

coming home, doing orders,

eating, more calls.

Then we're getting another meal then,

and I'm doing one of these.

I'm tapping him on the shoulder saying,

"Hey, it's 10 o'clock. The gym is finally closed."

"Let's go train."

He'll push himself to the limit

until he's hobbling out of the gym in exhaustion.

You drive 35 minutes to get home.

He has to have another meal and then digest.

So our day doesn't end till about 3 a.m.

Then it's the routine of doing it day in, day out,

without any distractions.

Those long, late nights turn into early mornings

day after day for months.

It's like Groundhog Day.

Living the same day over and over and over.

It is mentally and physically,

emotionally draining.

They have no social life at all. You're kind of withdrawn.

You have to keep like this.

And you have to stay focused and locked in

and stay in the pocket.

Now, does the body follow the psyche?

How far can that go? He's gonna turn 41.

Him and I haven't trained at all this year because of COVID.

How heavy could I get, while lean,

before I potentially tear something again?

Whatever trick I got up my sleeve

that I've always wanted to try, you're doing it.

Ah, fuck.

Michael always wanted to stand out.

Tiger always wanted to stand out.

There's nothing normal about the way Tiger thinks,

there's nothing normal about the way Michael thinks,

there's nothing normal about the way Phil thinks

and the way they do things.

They're all crazy.

Crazy means you have the ability

to see and do things that other people can't,

and that's the best part of all.

He would ask me,

"Am I training hard enough?" "What can I do more?"

And I said, "Well, you're doing everything great."

"You're doing everything you've always done."

And he said, "No, something's missing. I wanna fuck shit up!"

He's like, "I just wanna... I wanna tear these walls down."

And I said, "Do it!" He's like, "Yeah!"

It was that moment where it was like, "He's back."

You quads are... They're there.

Yeah. Still got a ways to go.

Not bad for them being depleted.

Yeah, and you're already separated

all the way to the hip.

- Yeah. - Which is sick.

Look at that.

Wow. You're already corded through the back.

Where are your calves?

You're holding onto your weight, finally.

It's almost 1:15, or it's actually already past it. Jeez.

I'm so proud. Keep it up.

The night before we left for the Olympia,

we had a blizzard snowstorm.

We were standing there looking out the window,

and it's one in the morning.

He says, "You know, Shurie, we have to train no matter what."

It's a whiteout.

We're there till 3:30 in the morning.

Dominoes were lined up, just...

and watch 'em all unfold.

I started getting like chills, like just chills up and down.

He lands in Orlando.

He's a little out of place because it's not Las Vegas

for the first time.

We get off the plane.

Phil goes, "Oh, this is gonna be rough."

In Vegas, it's a little easier to lose that water

'cause there's no humidity, it's dry.

When you're in a place such as Florida,

it's a little harder to make that water adjustment.

You have to keep going,

get his meal in, try to get his body moving.

- Let's get to work! - Get him to the gym.

Hany does an incredible job with making sure

that Phil is doing well, everything's working.

His body is changing literally every hour.

But we have our friends stay with us.

A chiropractor who's working on Phil the entire time.

Every hour adjusting his body.

Even in the middle of the day and night, 3 a.m.,

he's getting worked on.

I don't think you're gonna have any problems.

On Wednesday, it's the athletes' check-in.

I have no idea what I'm walking into.

The fight week.

Mr. Olympia competitors, can you please find your seats?

We recognize that this has been

one of the more challenging contest preps

maybe in the history of this sport

when you consider the litany of things

that you guys have had to endure.

For those here for the first time, welcome.

This is the lineup for your 2020 Olympia.

The greatest threats that Phil has right now.

Let's start with William Bonac:

big legs, great conditioning.

Densely muscled, huge arms, huge chest, huge back.

A little monster.

Hadi Choopan, great newcomer from Iran.

He was very dangerous.

Hadi runs the stage.

I seen it. I experienced it.

Tremendous physique, so I knew that he was gonna be ready.

Dexter coming back at 50 years old.

He's won more contests than any bodybuilder ever.

I have won a total of 29 IFBB professional shows.

I've won nine Arnold Classics. I've won Mr. Olympia.

I won Masters Olympia. I've won Olympia Europe.

If I win the Olympia this year,

I will be the oldest man to win the title at 51 years old.

Next guy in line would be Big Ramy.

A lot of people started hearing from big Ramy's camp

that Big Ramy was in really good condition.

But mind you, everybody says that.

It's just always that elusive combination

of conditioning he has yet to master,

and everyone's waiting, you know, "Is this the year?"

If Ramy can come in shredded, he could beat anybody

because of his sheer size alone.

Those are the main names,

but right now the person that everyone's looking to knock out

is Brandon Curry, the current Mr. Olympia.

He's looking for vindication.

He's never had to consider me onstage competitively

'cause I've never really been in his box.

I think he is less aware of what he's gonna face than I.

To him, it's gonna be new. To me, it's not.

Everybody's got their game face on

even through a fucking mask.

I even have the opportunity

to maybe possibly even retire with two Mr. Olympias.

I don't know if that's been done.

Once you realize everybody's human,

that's all the motivation you need.

It's like, "They're just like me."

Competitor number six, Phil Heath.

When I put my name on the dotted line,

I knew for fucking sure

that I was gonna get their best effort.

If his stomach's on point

and he come back "Vengeance Phil,"

then everybody's in trouble.

The hype now, all eyes on you.

Emotions drain you.

It's like a sugar high. You go up and down.

And if you can find that one emotion,

happiness, anger, it could be sadness,

it puts you in the zone and it creates the clarity.

What's the most expensive

and the precious real estate in the world?

It's what you have in here.

And the people that can keep those individuals out of there

are the ones that become unstoppable,

the ones that become champions over and over and over again.

Seven-time champion,

Phil "The Gift" Heath!

You have a lot of anxiety.

You have a lot of unanswered questions.

If you asked nine out of ten people

who was gonna win this contest,

Phil Heath was still chosen.

I think he took in the fact

that a lot of people are rooting for me

for the first time in a long time.

We are here and it's Olympia time, brother.

First word always goes to the champ.

And give it up for your reigning,

defending Olympia champion, Brandon Curry!

Well, I wanna say, I really do appreciate Phil

for coming back to the table.

Uh, this is a dream come true. It's an honor.

Is that the same Brandon Curry

you competed against a couple of years ago,

or is this a different guy?

I have no idea, and that's no disrespect to him.

It was... It's just not about that.

I wanna go get my title back, that's it.

Did you lose the Mr. Olympia,

or did Shawn Rhoden win the Olympia?

And how did you economize that in the past two years?

It doesn't matter what I think

about what happened at that time.

Just get fucking better, and don't get bitter.

And that's what I did.

-Big Ramy. -Yes, sir.

We have heard this for years now:

"Big Ramy's coming. Big Ramy's coming."

"He's 300 pounds. You can't beat him. He's too big."

"He's bigger than Phil. He's bigger than Brandon."

"He doesn't have the quality, though."

Do you have the quality now?

He wasn't defending for the first time

in a press conference.

I took notice, it was almost like he was happy to be there.

I've been perceived as the villain.

I've been perceived as the asshole.

People that once hated you are now loving you again.

I didn't get that when I was winning

year after year after year.

They were like, "Yeah, it's you again. Yeah, okay, yeah."

The passion I have for this sport,

that press conference was, for me, all about that.

At the same time, there was business to be done.

I know how I can make mistakes,

I know how I could take things for granted,

and I know that I can grow from it, and I'm here to show that.

I knew when I get back there,

I'm gonna be a different person,

and that different person is dangerous.

I think everybody's waiting to see

what's gonna happen tomorrow night.

Seven, six, five,

squeeze, squeeze, four, three, two, one.

There you go.

Good. Hold it.

Yeah.

Twist.

Roll.

Last workout. Thank goodness. We made it.

Last workout ever, maybe.

-Ever. -Ever?

We'll see after Saturday.

I ain't gonna get too sentimental,

but I appreciate it.

I appreciate you guys, you know.

It's been a long time, a long-ass journey.

- It's a wrap, homie. - I know.

We've been working together now for 15 years,

15 years, through most of my adult life.

He was there the first night I met my wife.

He was in my wedding.

And he was there when my dad died of COVID.

Sorry, guys.

When my parents got sick, I talked to him,

talked to, you know, a handful of people.

He would always text and say,

"Tell your dad we're gonna go to Red Lobster."

'Cause that's where we would always go eat.

And him and my dad would always eat those damn biscuits.

But, um, yeah, it's been a tough year, man.

It's been a tough year.

It was nice.

My team put balloons in my room,

so that was... that was cool.

Yeah. I'm still a kid.

This is when it gets real.

-This looks clean. -Mm-hm.

You ready to get your clothes on?

-Yeah. -Okay.

Last night I was asleep and I kept...

You know, I was waking up 'cause I kept having to go pee.

Then you wanna like peel down and see what you look like.

And I'm like, "I need to get back to bed."

And then I woke up and I was like nauseous all morning.

You're anxious, wanna get it on.

Overthinking is the art

of creating problems that don't exist.

Yeah.

Every time you went to work out,

you were down there alone.

I know she was in the gym with you.

- Right. - All right?

At times your trainer

was in the gym with you.

But even the times

when you were in there alone,

you weren't alone.

You was with the people up here that you needed to be with.

I haven't stepped on a stage in two years.

What's that gonna feel like?

You can cut the air with a knife. It's nervous.

You don't know what anyone's looking like. They're all covered up.

It's only when they start to put the oil on

and you can start looking at what people look like.

"Oh, shit, he's in shape," or, "He missed his peak."

I was trying to make sure that I wasn't,

"Oh, I'm just happy to be here, guys. Hey, what's up?"

Nah, man, I'm happy to be here,

but I'm here to take what's mine.

The minute I pulled off my sweats

and was able to take a look at myself

and it became more familiar, then it became pretty fun.

When Ramy or Brandon would come by, I'd have to switch it,

because I'm trying to make them realize

that, like, I'm still that dude.

"Watch yourself, motherfucker. I'm still that dude."

Everybody's gonna be waiting on Phil

to come out of those clothes, get oiled up, start pumping up.

Everybody's gonna be waiting.

Some people are just gonna be looking, "That's Phil Heath."

They're not gonna be able to get that out of their mind.

Other guys, they're gonna study him,

they're gonna analyze and break him down.

If he keeps his shirt on too long, gonna be like,

"This guy, he ain't took that shirt off."

"Something's not right."

Don't give me anything. I'm gonna take it.

It'll build my confidence.

I knew what everybody wanted to see.

They wanted to see the fucking stomach.

I take off everything and now everybody's taking pictures.

I was talking some shit, like, "Y'all wanted to see this."

"Look at this in the mirror."

I'm not embarrassed of any of this.

Took a lot of ass-whippings in life

for me to get to this point.

I'm not ashamed of any of it.

Thank your body for all the grueling workouts,

your mind, just to get yourself here.

As I'm hearing my number get called

and I have to go out there

for the first time in 27 months,

I was tight in the chest and just trying to get my air.

Last thing I wanna do is pass out.

When I walked up to the on-deck area, I'm ready.

What are they gonna think? Why am I here?

The pivots that I've had to make,

the failures and victories.

The feeling of my job is not finished until I say it is.

When you get under those lights, anything goes.

Hearing my name being called,

"Seven-time Mr. Olympia, Phil Heath," walking out.

"I'm back."

That's what I kept thinking to myself, "I'm back."

When you first step on that stage,

you're not even capable of processing:

"How do I take this all in?"

You just feel the energy.

It's moving around the room.

You can only go by what you feel.

Did I hit this right? Did I rotate my shoulder back?

Did I pull up my chest? Did I arch my back just enough?

When you open that whole thing up

and they start seeing that back expand,

and those muscles contract and those fibers start to move...

It's like being in your body,

but it's not like being in your body at the same time.

"Everybody's analyzing me right now."

"Please tell me I'm on."

Everybody has a different style,

what they do onstage, how they handle the stage.

Some guys pace themselves in a certain way.

Some guys are always rushing, nervous energy.

If you don't own it months out, it will show up on that stage.

It's one thing having practice reps,

another thing doing game reps.

These were championship Olympia reps.

It was a beautiful moment

because of everything we knew that we went through.

He said he was gonna get back onstage. He did it.

But your job's not finished. You gotta keep going.

The comparisons, really, is where it all happens.

We'll call out the bodybuilders side by side,

then put one back and another one next to him,

then switch one to the left, one to the right,

and that's when it really starts to break down.

When you take them through the poses and you pose 'em a lot,

some guys do better and some guys fade.

Phil by himself was absolutely amazing.

His stomach was in. He looked really good.

I thought, "Holy shit. It looks like he's gonna win."

But then one by one, they started coming out,

they started doing comparisons.

Ronnie had a great back double bicep,

and his glutes looked amazing too.

Ramy and I were toe to toe, so I was like,

"He's probably winning right now,

but I'm probably not that far behind."

When they put 'em through the rounds,

like, they almost couldn't make a decision.

We just kept going over and over and over again.

"All right, Big Steve, you just wanna keep going?"

"We'll just go all night." And we did.

That was the longest prejudging of callouts I've been in

in my Olympia career.

Coming out of night one,

Phil Heath was in a solid second place.

Ramy was pretty dominant.

He had the size, he had the shape,

he had the conditioning for the first time ever.

Ramy, Phil.

It was close between Bonac and Brandon.

But the next night it completely changed.

Every decision that I made led me to this point.

The future is gonna be a lot different

after I get off that bodybuilding stage

for the last time.

There's gonna be some unknowns.

I wanted to leave it all out there.

You gotta do this for your future self.

Hitting that front double bicep, hitting that lat spread,

I was just having the time of my life.

Have fun. Embrace this.

This is gonna be your last time up here.

They don't know it. They will later.

If you're not enjoying it, neither will they.

Enjoy this moment in time.

You do not know when your expiration date is,

so you might as well just give it everything you got.

'Cause I'm still fucking standing,

and I still have more in the tank,

and I still have the fire.

I ain't dead. I ain't dying. I'm... I'm good.

Round after round, as your body's getting tired,

as you're fighting to maintain, you're looking at those judges,

"Ah, they can't see me fade. They can't see me slip."

You're fighting against yourself.

You have to be able to use your peripheral vision.

You have to see if this guy beside you

is gonna cheat up on you.

You're trying to get the energy from the crowd.

They know you're fighting.

I prepared for months and months and months.

Before you know it, you're on, you're off, and it's done.

But as you go on that stage year after year,

you have the ability to take those moments in

and kind of slow those moments down.

I did all this and it's already gone.

To get back to the stage after going through

the adversity and the surgeries,

and a lot more personal things,

demons that you have to face,

him getting up there and displaying a physique

that was at that level was pretty damn amazing.

He came back to fucking compete,

and that's what he did.

That's how you go out on your sword.

You go out fucking swinging.

Now is the moment of truth.

It's time for us to line up

and have the verdict.

Who's gonna win the 2020 Mr. Olympia?

Where am I gonna land in that?

And how's that gonna feel?

It's a Hail Mary that you're gonna win this one.

They call out Hadi.

Next thing you know it's myself, Ramy and Brandon.

This could go either way right now.

Then they said, "In third place Phil Heath."

Almost in disbelief.

And as I'm walking, I'm like,

"This is fucking bullshit."

"Third, bro? Okay."

When I got closer to the center of the stage,

I realized that you would be a liar

if you didn't follow through with what you were set to do.

You walk in and you leave as a champion,

and no matter what happens, that's how you're gonna be.

You have a choice,

and you're gonna do it honestly.

I got third at my first Olympia,

and I got third at my last one,

and I kicked a lot of fucking ass in between.

No one can take that shit away from me.

Yes. Yes. Yes. Put that shit around me.

Yeah, I know it's third place and I don't fucking like it.

But just put it around me. Come on, let's go. But yes.

He finished third,

but that was kind of a shock to everyone,

but, at the same time,

probably more of a shock to Phil Heath.

It just was too much ground to make up.

He wasn't able to do it.

He wasn't able to secure number eight.

Was this the year Big Ramy was coming to take the title?

And... new Olympia champion,

Big Ramy!

He showed up at his all-time best.

He shocked everyone and won the title.

When they called out Ramy for winning that,

I was so excited, was excited for both of 'em.

Because you climbed a mountaintop.

It requires a huge amount of discipline,

hard work and sacrifice, all of which I've seen in both.

Brandon has sacrificed a ton.

I remember going up to him and I just say, "You look great."

And I said, "Anything that was ever said,

don't ever take it personal."

And I just needed him to understand that.

If I would have told people

I was gonna be a Mr. Olympia,

especially when I started competing

and my career wasn't looking the best,

people would have probably looked at me like I was crazy.

I've lost too much in bodybuilding

to care about losing.

And I like the person that I've become

because of that process.

To be compared to greatness is a dream come true.

I wouldn't be the person without the process.

Having to leave my family every year

is probably the hardest thing of all.

It's my job. It's how I put food on the table.

I'm so looking forward to being able to say,

"I'm done."

I was onstage when they made the announcement of Mr. Olympia.

I was handing out the award.

And I saw Phil's emotion. He looked at me.

I saw greatness arrive, and I saw greatness exit.

There's never gonna be another Phil Heath again.

He stayed injury free most of his career

until the very end.

Phil led an era of bodybuilding

that we may never see again.

His comeback was more about the psychological win

than it was holding another Sandow.

I don't think Phil has to prove himself to anyone any longer.

I was able to look at myself in the mirror

and love myself for the first time.

I haven't been able to say that in a long time.

It's not always the athlete retires on top.

-Good run. -It was a good run, bro.

A good run.

You look at some of the greats,

Muhammad Ali, you look at Mike Tyson,

you look at all these guys.

Same thing happened to me too.

It just wasn't meant to be sometimes.

I'm gonna say this one time. No fucking sad faces, please.

All right? It is what it is.

So if I can smile...

'Cause none of y'all died and shit, so...

All right?

Every day you wake up, there is work for you to do.

Maybe I'm an actor, maybe I'm a writer.

Anything you decide to do, once you recognize

that it's important enough for you to do, it becomes valuable.

Heck, I grew up playing the piano.

I could say that I ran track.

I could say that I went to college.

I could say I worked bars downtown Denver.

You will always define yourself.

I just want you guys to know that I love you

and I appreciate everything, family and just good times,

'cause we've all definitely gone through enough

during this freakin' F'ed-up year.

So I'm just telling you guys thank you, you know.

I am no longer competing.

That's it.

I said it.

I actually said it.

Holy shit. That's it.

That's the last time you'll ever see me in posing trunks.

Unless I'm in a action film.

It's their turn.

I'll be sitting there on Mount Rushmore

of Olympia champions.

I'll be watching.

Who knows? Maybe you see me with a basketball in my hand again.

To be continued.