Original subtitles

[narrator] In the late 1800s, Physical Culture magazine was a pioneer

for having fitness models grace their covers.

They were considered too racy for the times

and overcame an obscenity conviction in 1909 from the Supreme Court,

which made them instantly more successful.

Fitness magazines became the source of information

for health, fitness, physical development and bodybuilding.

Many emerged over the years and if you were a fitness model,

your goal was to be on the cover of a prestigious fitness magazine.

As contests like Mr. America and Mr. Universe were created,

so were great physiques like Steve Reeves.

Steve embodied model good looks built for Hollywood,

and people took notice.

The International Federation of Bodybuilding

was founded by Ben and Joe Weider in 1946,

and popularity continued to grow for the sport.

The IFBB conceived the elite bodybuilding competition,

Mr. Olympia, in 1965, and the quest for muscle emerged,

as did bodybuilding stars and fierce competitors

like Frank Zane and Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Arnold Schwarzenegger had the size that men admired,

and Frank Zane had the symmetry that men desired.

Bodybuilding slowly began to shift over the decades from the Greek-God look

to the extreme muscle monsters of today, tipping the scales at over 250 pounds.

Genetics aside, this new mass of muscle is not an obtainable look for most men

to achieve nor desire, and many gave up pursuing extreme bodybuilding.

A new boost in men's fitness modeling competitions started to take hold,

and the IFBB took notice

and created the new division of Men's Physique,

which shifted the aesthetics back to the classic bodybuilding days

of 30 years ago, where men have a more flattering look with small waists,

a V-taper, and perfect muscular proportions.

The approach between a fitness model

and an IFBB Men's Physique Pro competitor differ by the fact

that fitness models stay roughly between five to seven percent body fat daily,

ready year-round for any given moment's notice for a photo shoot.

The competitors have an on and off season preparing for the shows.

In the off-season, they bulk up to pack on the muscle gains,

and their body fat can be as high as 12 percent,

then they start the leaning-out process at 12 to 16 weeks before a competition,

with their body fat dropping considerably to three to four percent range

to achieve a dry and extremely shredded aesthetic physique.

The better conditioning of the lean muscle mass,

the better their show results.

And since the average man can achieve this body of muscle

with the right lifestyle of diet and training,

the popularity of fitness modeling and competing has gained momentum.

Before there was physique, you know, there's always been fitness modeling,

and there's been bodybuilding, but [stammers] I never got the size

and I never really wanted to be as big as a bodybuilder.

So I made it to the national level um, for bodybuilding,

and I remember being backstage,

and they said, "Look, you've got great genetics,

you know, you've got a good marketable look,

you could turn pro in bodybuilding, for sure.

It's gonna take you ten, 15 years."

And not that I wasn't willing to put in that time,

it's just I know my body and I know my frame.

And to support anything over 200 pounds,

or even close to that, for me, is really stretching it.

So I'm not gonna keep trying to gain and gain and gain.

I'm just gonna fine-tune until it's a perfect sculpture.

There's no hiding anything. Once the stage lights hit you, it's there.

You're gonna see who cheated on their diet,

who cheated on their last few reps, you know.

Then you're gonna see the guys like me, you know, that went above and beyond.

When I did get my pro card, it was amazing.

It was better than winning my first pro show.

You sacrifice for so many years, and it finally happens.

I was on cloud nine for weeks.

No one even knew who I was.

Stepping on stage in my pro debut in 2013 Greater Gulf winner

and your new Olympia-qualified athlete,

and they said, "Olympia-qualified athlete, Jeremy Buendia."

And I'm just like, I just sat there and thought like, "I'm going to Olympia."

Men's Physique is new.

And it wasn't around when I started. If it was, maybe I would've done it.

Being always ready in two days out from a shoot paid dividends

because I have photographers that will call me

because somebody came in, and they were out of shape,

or, uh, they call me because they know

I'm gonna be shredded to the bone, and they don't have to worry about it.

It's never about what you looked like yesterday.

It's never about the picture you submit. What do you look like right now?

I did a magazine cover that's actually coming out next month.

And the guy texts me at eight in the morning,

very professional photographer, and said send in a picture right now,

that he could forward on to the magazine.

If they liked it, I shot the very next day.

Usually, they schedule ahead, [stammers] and you know,

they can give you a little bit of time,

but they don't care what you say you're gonna look like.

There's no integrity in fitness modeling.

[chuckles] There is none. The body is so hard to manipulate.

Never thought in a million years I'd be on a magazine cover.

Every single cover I look at, in some way, like a little trophy.

Magazines were a way for me to build a brand, in a sense,

and to build up my name as a fitness model or fitness expert,

um, which then allowed me to start getting endorsement deals

from the supplement companies, then allowed me to start shooting

all these products, uh, infomercials, and commercials.

Shot with everybody who you could ever think of

like Robert Reiff, I mean, all the best photographers,

and landed my first cover, my first fitness cover,

so that was like a dream come true.

Arnold's doing this new encyclopedia of bodybuilding,

and he wants you to shoot the ab section.

They've got me doing all these weird ab exercises.

[stammers] Anrnold walks in and he says, "I never have abs like you."

I said, "Well, coming from you, that's quite a compliment."

And I remember there were ab exercises I could not do.

And he's like, "You're the abs guy. How can you not do these jackknives."

And I'm like, "I-- Arnold, I don't do jackknives.

I've never done a frickin' jackknife."

I don't even know what a jackknife is, you know.

They want me, you know, with my legs up over my head, touch--

Coming up, touching my hands, doing all these weird variations,

and I'm like, "I don't bend like that."

So he's like, "Hey, Bill, do you have any fishing wire?

We will tie it around his shoe and then I hold it off screen,

and that's what we call movie magic."

[laughs] And I said, "This is Arnold Schwarzenegger."

I mean, I'm sitting here in these little skimpy-ass gym shorts,

I'm trying to do like sit-ups, Bill's taking pictures.

Bill's like, "No, no, we don't have any."

So he's like, "Okay, forget it. I'll just hold him myself.

Come, I'll hold you. You just photoshop me out, Bill." Right?

So we got the shots, and I just thought, this is so frickin' surreal.

["Inner Fire" playing]

-♪ Hunger -Hunger ♪

-♪ Hunger -Feel like hunger ♪

-♪ Hunger -They're watching me ♪

♪ The battle starts ♪

♪ Every day when you wake up ♪

♪ Be easy, boy ♪

♪ Ooh ♪

♪ Is wishing you could measure up ♪

-♪ Inner fire -Inner fire ♪

-♪ Inner fire -Inner fire ♪

-♪ Inner fire -Inner fire ♪

♪ Oh, it's what you need ♪

♪ Inner fire ♪

♪ Inner fire ♪

♪ Inner fire ♪

♪ It's what you need ♪

♪ Ooh ♪

♪ Pride of the lion ♪

♪ He is the leader of the pack ♪

♪ There's no denying ♪

♪ The hunger waiting to attack ♪

♪ Inner fire, Inner fire ♪

♪ Inner fire ♪

♪ It's what you need ♪

-♪ Feel the hunger -Hunger ♪

♪ Hunger, hunger, it's what you need ♪

♪ Ooh ♪

-♪ Feel the hunger -Feel the hunger ♪

[narrator] Greg Plitt is truly a fitness icon.

He has appeared on more than 200 magazine covers

and at least one cover every month, for the last five years.

Motivational speaker, actor, and ex-Army Ranger.

Jeremy Buendia is an IFBB Men's Physique Pro,

reigning Mr. Olympia Champion, and endorsed athlete.

[exhales sharply]

TJ Hoban is a top fitness model, working actor.

He has graced over 100 magazine covers, endorsed over 30 products,

and has appeared on numerous TV shows.

That's what we do. [exhales]

Sadik Hadzovic is an IFBB Men's Physique Pro,

first ever Arnold Classic Champion, Olympia runner-up, and endorsed athlete.

Another day in paradise.

Matt Christianer is the first ever IFBB Men's Physique Pro

and endorsed athlete.

David Kimmerle is a top fitness model and has been on over 60 magazine covers,

and romance novels, and endorsed athlete.

♪ I say, push 'em down ♪

David Morin is a top fitness model

appearing on numerous magazine covers and publications,

an endorsed athlete, and gym owner.

♪ Get 'em out ♪

♪ Find your way Without a doubt ♪

Jason Poston is an IFBB Men's Physique Pro,

third on the Olympia stage, and an endorsed athlete.

Colin Wayne is a fitness model

appearing on numerous magazine covers and novels,

social media sensation, and an ex-Army Staff Sergeant.

Tonnell Rodrigue is an IFBB Men's Physique Pro athlete.

This is gonna hurt a little.

Dennis "The Menace" James is an IFBB Pro Bodybuilder

who's appeared on the Olympia stage a staggering 11 times,

intense pro trainer, prep coach, and an endorsed athlete.

Nice and slow, there you go.

Five of the top fitness cover models

and five of the top IFBB Men's Physique Pro athletes

were brought together to share their lifestyles,

their life stories, their intense drive and determination,

and their enduring sacrifices, which makes them

some of the best physiques in the world.

-Hey, man, take my seat. -Cool, man. How you doing, man?

-Good to see you, bro. -Good to see you again.

-Everybody doing good? -Great to see you, man.

-Yeah, you too, you too. -What's up.

What's up, man? Hey, what's up, man.

Going all around, man, all around.

What's up buddy? Good to see you, man.

[Dennis] How important is genetics? What do you guys think?

A guy with genetics versus a guy with less genetics.

-[TJ] Does heart count? -Heart, of course, heart is--

[stammers] I think, for me, heart is more important than genetics.

-[TJ] In everything? -Yeah.

-[TJ] In business, in fitness? -If you don't have the heart,

the greatest genetics on the planet, it's not gonna help you.

-[TJ] Yeah. - Genetics can take you so far.

We could say Jeremy has superior genetics. That's just my opinion.

I think we've seen the first physique guy that does.

How do we know that, genetically, Jeremy has better genetics than he does

unless we do like some type of crazy scientific evaluation?

The truth is, what-- You just focus on what you can focus on.

It's-- What is Jeremy doing versus what are you doing.

[grunts]

I've always had a good set of shoulders

so when I go to the gym, that's the last thing I'm gonna do.

I have weak calves. When I go in the gym, when I'm fresh,

when I'm strong, that's when I push my calves.

You have to be realistic with yourself and your physique.

Every action has, you know, a purpose.

[Greg] Every action has a result.

And then we never get burned out because hard work pays off.

We start to see the transformation, then we get addicted to it.

So basically you're saying, when something is lacking,

you got to train it more often.

If you've got 12-inch calves and 17-inch arms,

then you're training your arms heavier than your calves.

[David Morin] Genetics can be, to a certain point, manipulated.

If I'm not training the muscle that-- Like a calf, that kind of gets forgotten,

is my excuse the fact that I have small calves or is the fact that I've just...

I didn't man up and I didn't train it.

I got a case of pussitis and I left them out.

The other things that genetics will help determine is, uh...

you know, your shape.

You know, [stammers] the lines in your definition.

[Dennis] Do you have an eight-pack?

Do you have a eight or a ten or a six-pack or a four-pack?

And no matter how lean you get,

it's not gonna change [stammers] your..

you know, certain things about your body structure.

[Sadik exhaling]

[Sadik] Although I worked out at home for many years,

I still didn't feel comfortable to be in a gym.

I was like, "I'm not big enough to be in the gym."

People are gonna look at me, you know, so I didn't.

I never felt like I belonged.

So the gym, for me, was more, uh...

Number one, it was an escape,

but it was also a place where I got to prove myself.

I remember my first gym membership, I was 17 years old.

My brother and I, we helped my neighbor move out,

and she's like, "Please give this $200,

100 to your brother and 100 you keep for yourself."

So I did something wrong and I took all $200,

and I bought my first gym membership, you know.

I bought a few months at a local gym, and it all started like that.

I told my brother, after the Olympia,

and I was, "Hey man, you know, I owe you a $100." [laughs]

I gravitated towards TV 'cause that's all I... you know, that's all I...

All I saw was, you know, Arnold Schwarzenegger,

Sylvester Stallone, guys like this, you know.

I used to watch wrestling, so these guys, one thing they all had in common

was they had incredible bodies, and they exuded this confidence.

So, you know, growing up, I always just did a bunch of pushups,

a bunch of pull-ups, you know, anything I could do.

I used to do, maybe thousand bicep curls a day,

for years and years and years.

I wouldn't gain any muscle but at least I was trying to, you know.

And eventually, it all clicked,

And I guess that's what it was, I was trying to find myself.

-Come on, Sadik, come on. -Come on. Come on.

[Sadik] I could count on one hand the amount of gym sessions

I missed in the last five years, you know.

It's very few, you know. So I work out, you know, twice a day every day.

I love it.

One injury can be career ending.

[stammers] And you know, all depends how bad of an injury it is.

It could be a pec tear, it could be a biceps tear. It's over.

You know what I mean? So how can you mimic heavy training

by not using heavy weight?

[Dennis] Why not just try to use light weight

and use it super, super slow?

'Cause it feels like it's three times the weight.

This is where the time, under tension, right here.

[grunts]

[Dennis] Keep pushing, man, come on. All that tension, come on, there you go.

But it's three times less pressure on the joints,

on the tendons, and on the muscle, you know what I mean?

-And less repetitions. -Yeah. And less repetition.

And with repetition, you know, it causes damage.

Yeah. So that's why, you know, I figured it out.

You know, the mentality for guys that are in the gym, it's very ego-driven.

They wanna go in there, they wanna push as much weight as they can

and that's not it.

That is a one-way ticket to nowhere, to injury.

The way I've been able to do this for [laughs] sixteen, 17 years,

is by just being real conscious of you know, keeping my ego in check

and checking out-- worry about what the guy next to me is benching.

[TJ] People always ask me what compelled me to start working out.

Really, it started when I was pretty young,

about 12 years old.

[TJ stammers] I was always a little kid. Scrawny, tiny, big glasses, braces.

I mean, my glasses were like coke bottles, and funny hairdo,

just an awkward, little shy kid.

It was very difficult for me to, even from that point forward,

talk to a girl, let alone get a date.

And I got bullied, you know, quite a bit as a kid,

growing up in Chicago, tough neighborhood.

[TJ] You know what? One day, I just got tired of it.

I got fed up, then I said, "You know, I wanna do something about this."

[sighs] Come on.

[TJ] And that's when I decided that I wanted to start working out.

And that, for that birthday, I asked my mom for a set of weights,

to my garage and to a gym, heavy bag, speed bag.

And I swear, I thought I was Rocky, fighting for my life, every day.

[Jeremy] I've grown up with fitness.

Every morning I wake up, but it was my Dad clinking weights.

I remember the first time I bench pressed the bar,

I was like five years old, and that's--

Bench pressing 45 pounds for a five-year-old's pretty incredible.

So, you know, I was doing push-ups and pull-ups and sit-ups

since I can remember.

I wouldn't know if I was passionate about it when I was a little kid,

it's something that, you know, I saw my Dad working out.

It's something I did 'cause I followed the footsteps of my Dad.

I had a lot of issues. I had separation anxiety

when I was a kid, I had school phobia.

We'd have like these math... these speed math tests,

you know, like 4th grade, and if I didn't win,

or if I didn't get a 100 percent on the test,

I missed one, I'd literally have an anxiety attack,

and I'd leave school.

I just didn't have the social skills.

I was always a good athlete, and people always,

I was known for sports,

but I was never hanging out with popular kids.

We'd just cruise to the football games,

and my Dad was giving me these pep talks,

you know, just visualization and tell me what I had to do.

My Dad was hard on us both, you know.

Um...

Even like practices, I had goals every practice I had to do.

We'd have live scrimmages and what not, and my Dad would tell me

you have to make this ex amount of tackles.

I did it. I always made sure I did what my Dad asked me to do,

and there would be certain times where I wouldn't do what he told me to do

and you know, I'd hear it, you know.

It's not because he was being a jerk,

it was because he expected, he knew what my capabilities were.

I got in so many fights. I wouldn't really call them fights.

I'd get tapped on the shoulder and just blasted.

My neighbor at the time was about 32 years old,

and he was just jacked.

And I was like, "Man, who is this guy?" Like, "I wanna look like this," you know.

And he got me my first job at the gym.

[Matt] It was a way that I could go in,

And [stammers] I could take all that negativity

and harness it and focus it into something positive.

I was getting bullied and harassed by so many people,

and my car would get messed with,

and I had people waiting with, no joke, baseball bats,

waiting for me, 'cause I worked at the gym late at night. I would leave by myself.

I mean, I reached the point to where...

I felt like I was going to get killed, like it was that, um...

I basically got post-traumatic stress disorder from being bullied so bad

at that young age 'cause I just... I didn't know how to deal with it.

I didn't know what to do. I couldn't understand why it was going on.

-[grunts] -[Dennis] Come on, Matt, five...

[Dennis] Let me throw this question out.

Cardio, fast on an empty stomach. Fasted or not?

-[Jeremy] Fasted. -[David Morin] Fasted.

-[Dennis] Okay, why? -Because I get results.

[Tonnell] There's pros and cons to it.

-Like, I don't do fasted cardio at all. -[Dennis] Why not?

I feel like I lose a lot of muscle when I do it.

I have to have something consumed in my body

before I start my workout personally.

Yeah, but you don't worry about it if you consume,

let's say, three, four, 500 calories before you do your cardio

and that's all you burn off?

Instead of going to the body fat that you wanna lose?

That's why I think fasted cardio is the main thing

because now, you have no calories in your body--

-[TJ] What's your night-time meal? -[Dennis] Are you eating carbs at night?

Yeah.

Okay, so-- But carbohydrates are in and out of the system

anywhere from three to six hours,

so you wait-- You have your meal at 9:00 p.m.,

you're having oatmeal, whatever, I mean...

You're not saying what you eat so I gotta assume here.

You know, if you have egg whites and oatmeal at night,

54 grams of carbs, 50 grams of protein.

Okay, that oatmeal is gonna be in your system.

[Jason] You know, it's gonna be transported into glucose, okay.

It will restore what you burned off all day,

or it'll be, you know, spilled over, and you'll store it as fat.

So by the time you wake up, depending on, you know, what time it is,

that's why you might need to explore healthy fats, you know,

because if you're flattening out too much,

you know, you got to look at a more long term energy source

like a healthy fat, even at night.

If you haven't had your breakfast, uh... Do you keep your heart rate lower?

And what is that number you keep it at the extended period of time?

Um...

Personally, for me, the heart rate should be anywhere between 120 and 140, okay?

And the length of the cardio depends on what your diet is like.

If you're on a high fat diet, let's call it, The Ketosis Diet,

I think you should go longer with lower intensity.

And if you're on a low, moderate carb diet,

you should go faster, higher intensity cardio.

The best time to do cardio is always on an empty stomach.

Lot of people, they don't have the cardio equipment at the house.

They don't have the time to go to the gym 'cause they gotta work, then I tell them,

"Then do it after your workout when you're somewhat semi-empty again."

I'm gonna jump in and say something.

The most effective thing for me is, I'll do a minute walk,

followed by a minute of sprint.

Then I'll bring my heart rate down again and walk for one minute.

-Then I'll sprint for a minute. -[Jason] Mm-hm.

So constantly bringing the heart rate up and down--

You're doing that, uh, for an extended period of time?

Or do you shorten the amount of time you're doing your cardio?

It depends. Right now, I'm holding some body fat,

I'll probably do 40 minutes.

But leading up to a show, I'll be maybe three percent body fat,

I'll probably do 25 minutes.

You know, I've gotten away with doing 15 minutes and still losing body fat.

The way you're looking, you can't argue with Sadik.

I started training super hard, eating 4,000 calories a day,

and two-hour workouts a day, five, six days a week.

I put on about 40 pounds, naturally, in, uh, about six, eight months.

You know, I mentioned I couldn't even talk to a girl, let alone get a date,

but I did actually get a date for homecoming,

and bought the, you know, the new outfit and the corsage and rented the limo,

and she called me the night of and told me she was gonna be going

with my best friend instead.

I was so devastated, but it was one of those things

that it was just like, man, one day, you know, I'm not gonna be overlooked.

[Jeremy] 32nd game of my senior year, went against a 270 pound center.

He came out on me to try and lead block, and I popped him right in the mouth,

but my neck snapped back, and I've never gone down on the field.

My dad told me, "I don't care if you break your leg.

You crawl off the field. You never stop a game."

So, my neck snapped back, stinger down the side.

I just felt this-- My arm went completely numb.

Ran off the side, you know, I didn't stop the game. Ran off, an arm dangling.

Ended up bulging a disk in my neck and I--

You know, it hindered me the rest of the year, you know.

But we had high hopes of me getting scholarships going into my senior year.

When I finished football and I realized I wasn't gonna get--

I wasn't gonna play football in college,

I went to my coach and I told him, "Hey, I'm dropping your weights class."

-I was like, I'm not gonna get big... -[groans]

training the way you're having us train, so, you know, I wanna be a bodybuilder.

I was prepping for my first bodybuilding show before I graduated.

So I'd go to school with [stammers] my food,

-and kids would just give me a hard time. -[groans]

Even teachers would give me a hard time.

You know, I had a teacher call me, "no neck".

Being shorter and having muscle,

you're an easy target 'cause you got bigger guys want to test you.

-Two and three, beautiful. -[grunts]

Been dying to ask, you know, some of you IFBB Pros, are you guys--?

You know, there are so many different equations out there to follow for diet,

and I call it thinning the skin.

Are you guys really into carb cycling or you just going negative calories?

How are you keeping track of how negative you are

to make sure you're not burning up your muscle?

Myself, my coach, we go day to day. [stammers] We read my body every day.

We make the adjustments we need based off of where my weight's at,

the way I'm lookin', and how tight I am.

You know, carb cycling, I use carb cycling.

I'll go up on my high days, my low days, my moderate days.

If I wanna drop down and tighten up,

I'll drop my carbs or drop my calories a little bit,

and you know, if I wanna refeed back up and boost my metabolism,

I'll have a high day, and then I'll drop right back down.

'Cause typically when you do a refeed day, you might hold up the next day,

but the following day, your weight will actually be lower.

-Hold a little water? -You'll hold a bit of water,

but that boost of the higher calories

and higher carbs is gonna speed up metabolism,

so you will be able to drop the next few days after that.

[Jason exhaling]

Cool. Down four pounds. [sighs]

What would your fat and your carb be?

-Personally? -Yeah.

For me, my fats are right around 50 grams of fat a day,

and my carbs can vary between 70 on a low day

between 50 grams to a 125 grams of carbs.

Usually, my weight will hold around 175...

175 grams of carbs, but I don't go super high on fats,

and when I do, my carbs are a lot lower.

It's take in my fats or I take in the carb.

I usually choose between the two. I mean, depends on your body.

Like me and Matt are roughly the same size,

and I carbed up the day before Olympia on 400 grams of carbs,

he carbed up on a 1,000.

If I were to do a thousand grams of carbs, I would... I'd spill over like that.

Right.

When we say, okay, we go up in fats--

Let's say you go up to 90 on a low carb day,

what sources of fat do you choose?

I usually use, uh, salmon, lean red meat, almonds, almond butter.

Yeah, which is good essential fatty acids, of course, yeah, absolutely. Yeah.

-[Dennis] Anybody likes peanut butter? -I don't like peanut butter

-because I'll eat the whole damn jar. -[Dennis] Too much, yeah.

-That's self-manipulation. -[Dennis] I'm a peanut butter freak.

So I went to the show, he told me, "Stop drinking three days out."

I stopped drinking not knowing that you can kill yourself.

Three days out from the show, I totally eliminated the water,

which means, now I'm carb loading.

What do I need to carb load? That's oatmeal.

Don't drink for one day and try to eat oatmeal dry.

-Oh, my God. -[laughs]

[exhales]

[Matt] The quickest way to lose body fat is to double your muscle mass.

You need to lift heavy and you need to eat. Develop that muscle mass.

And then your body will just lean out naturally to sustain that muscle.

[Dennis] More muscle burns more fat.

-[exhales] -[Jeremy] That's what we do in the gym.

We're tearing our body apart and then rebuilding it.

[exhales]

[David Morin] I never liked the gym. I hated the gym, as a matter of fact.

Until, um, my ex-wife left me for a guy in the gym.

I need to get in shape, he's got what I want. The challenge is on.

I'm 6'2" at the time. Uh, when I got into the gym, I was 168 pounds.

If I turned sideways, I'd disappear,

except for that nice little belly I got 'cause I had a desk job.

So I got in the gym, and the fascinating transformation occurred, and I was hungry.

I was hungry for growth. I realized that living in a sedentary job field

and you know, living the domesticated life of the nine to five and coming home,

and that whole grind isn't conducive to biology.

I got in there and started realizing that first, it was anger, you know,

that propelled me into weight training and you know, and all that stuff,

and building the body and becoming strong.

Then it started becoming my therapy, um,

because I started transmuting all those negative feelings,

and it was working, you know, like it helped me transition from that breakup

and get the attention I wanted from everybody else.

What else can I do in my life the same way?

What else did I have that was untapped potential,

that was maybe negative that I could turn around?

And, uh, that's when I realized there was a lot of people

that I knew that needed the gym.

[David Kimmerle] What is harder, losing fat or gaining muscle?

You've got the ectomorph that's screaming, "Oh, my, gosh! Muscle's hard to put on."

You got the mesomorph saying,

"Dude, I wish I could just eat everything I want."

I would much rather have a fast metabolism

than have a hard time putting on size because you can always put size on.

There's many methods.

You know, [stammers] it's takes a daily grind to keep weight off.

Like on your body type though, you're an ectomorph.

-Yeah. -[Dennis] Yeah. Uh...

Kind of meso too.

I mean, I saw your pictures when you were a kid.

-Yeah, yeah. -I mean--

Yeah. I was small.

That's an interesting point because I think,

you know, they say there's a phenotype and that's what you are,

but I think you can transform.

-You can change. -Yeah.

You can get-- You can be a pure ectomorph based on the signals

-of the protocol in the environment. -[Dennis] To each can change a lot too.

[David Morin] You're a soccer player, you're an ectomorph.

But you take that soccer player and you put him on a 12-week, you know,

compound movement plan and improve his diet and supplements,

you can make him into a mesomorph in 12 months.

So genetics and all this stuff people talk,

it's like... it's all relative to the environment.

I can fluctuate five pounds in a day if I'm not eating right.

I drop weight like, phew, like that.

See, and the fact, I hate you.

[laughter]

I started at 93 pounds, ectomorph.

Could not gain weight, could not gain weight.

I just had to eat and eat and eat, eight to ten meals

8,000 calories a day because I wanted to get bigger

and get bigger and get bigger.

Then you finally got there and then you-- For me, I fine tuned it, but it was hard.

I was wondering what it would be like to--

Like have to eat too much and have that be a problem.

It was a problem 'cause it costs a lot of money to eat that much. [laughs]

-[laughter] -Touché, touché. Right. I like that.

-There's more than one aspect to it. -You made me feel better.

-[Dennis] So who believes in cheat meals? -I utilize my cheat meal.

On a-- I utilize my cheat meal on a lagging body part day.

Just getting that higher amount of,

you know, the over-nourishment of the food,

utilizing more, you know, eat, consume more red meats,

get that extra creatine on a lagging body part,

higher amount of carbs, the type of carbs.

I like to go with starchy carbs [stammers] on a lagging body part day

'cause those carbs are gonna hit me a lot quicker.

My body is going to utilize them and I'm gonna grow faster.

[Dennis] I'm glad that you brought this up because a lot of people

cheat on their day off.

They use their day off to do the cheat meal,

and I was always the same.

I said, "I cheat, but I gotta train that day."

I always said the same thing.

I had to cheat at least once a week 'cause I believe

that it spikes your metabolism first,

and number two, it keeps you sane from dieting,

and you get, you know, you feel good, you know, that day,

and it keeps you for another three, four, five days,

and then you suffer one, and you already have another cheat meal again.

You see me, I'll go from 240 to 190 like, you know, with a matter of a couple weeks.

And I know that my body reacts to that type of training.

I believe that when you fluctuate a lot,

and you go through these, you know, vicious cycles of packing on

and then ripping it down, that it messes with your brain,

um, among other things, like your body chemistry.

But I found that once started eating really clean on a daily basis,

and then having cheat meals, like for me, it's having desserts,

and that kind of keeps my sanity.

I, mentally, as bad ass as I try to be,

I got a really hard time stopping the cheat.

That's the difference between people that's gonna make it

and the people that won't make it. [laughs]

Lower it down one more time, right here.

-Come on. -[grunts]

Come on. Come on, Sadik.

-Come on, where you at? -[groans]

-Come on. -I can do this.

-Yes, come on. And three, come on. -[grunts]

-One, come on, two, and good. -Thanks.

[exhales, groans]

You know, a lot of people think that bodybuilders are selfish.

I'm not selfish, you know. I'm focused.

I don't need to sit at home like a hobbit, and that's kinda how I lived before.

I was like, "I can't go anywhere, I'm on lock down.

I got a show comin' up. I can't do this, I can't do that."

And you put people off, and guess what? You lose people.

And guess what? Sometimes you don't get 'em back.

It's hard on your friends too because they're not wrong

for thinking the way that you think. You know, it's not normal.

It's not normal to be in a gym every day for four hours.

It's not normal to be eating every two hours.

That's not a normal thing.

But that's why the sport is so great because it's so difficult.

People that aren't doing what we're doing don't necessarily understand

the things that we put ourselves through.

-[men laughing] -[indistinct chattering]

[indistinct chatter]

I came back from overseas in the military. I was in a hotel lobby bar.

I'm trying to work my game that night,

trying to get the digits and get the shit situated, you know,

and as I'm doing this, I get a tap on my shoulder and, uh,

it was an agent, he keeps on talking to me,

and, um, he's like, "Hey, man, you got a good looks.

You should come up to my room, get some pictures," And, um--

[laughter]

I didn't know how to take that, man.

Those were fighting words for me back in the day.

I went up to his room right away and stripped down. No, um--

[all laugh]

-I told you sexual favors. -[David] And that's how it all started.

Nah. Um...

No, but I took his card down, man.

He's saying, "Hey, I can make you famous. I can get you a cover."

You wanna hear that so you believe it right away.

You don't do the due diligence to really research it.

Next thing you know, you're in a trap, in a corner.

Your integrity's on the line, your name's on the line,

and what are you gonna do? And you can't just back out right away

because then you're gonna burn a bridge, this guy's gonna hate you.

It's a really bad situation, so, that card I did my due diligence, I checked him out,

researched him, found out he's legit.

I gave him a call and said, "Hey, what do you think if I come up there?"

So we did a test shoot, and um,

the test shoot landed the cover of Muscle and Fitness.

If you believe in what you're doing,

and what your work is back-loaded with passion and love,

I think it's gonna go a lot further than glory or fame or just popularity.

[stammers] I think those fuels burn out in that fire,

but, uh, you know, at the end of the day, it's like, you just gotta show up.

You show up, you at least put yourself in a position to get an opportunity.

You know, if you sit at home, no one's gonna come knocking on the door.

Fitness, for me, has always been a very private thing.

It's been my coping mechanism.

It's been my release.

And that's why, you know, I never got compelled to go up on stage

and compare myself to other people

'cause to me, I just wanted to be the best me, you know.

And the sure fire way I knew to screw up something that you love

is to try to make a business out of it.

It's no longer fun. Now it's a job.

[TJ] Covers are a byproduct of just fucking working out.

To be honest, I don't try to monetize 'em.

[Jason] Bullshit.

You don't want to get on the stage, compare yourself to other people.

I think that's why anyone gets in a sport, to compare themselves--

-Some people have something to prove. -I was never in your sport, bro.

Yeah, but what sport--? Are you in any sport?

I wrestled for six years. I did martial arts, I boxed but...

You wanna be on covers of magazines,

you wanna be in magazines, you wanna act, you wanna put on makeup,

you wanna get in front of lights, cameras, action,

but you don't wanna get up and show your hard work,

and show that your hard work is better than someone else's?

I don't understand. How is one--? How is--?

I don't under-- I don't get it.

You're missing my point, bro.

[Jason] Yeah, I am, so that's why I'm asking.

All right. For me, I never wanted to make a business out of fitness

because it was something very dear to me ever since I was a kid.

It was something that actually helped me overcome adversity.

It's something that I've, still to this day, turn to,

every time I got an issue or a problem, I go workout.

I don't-- I respect what you guys do so don't take it that way.

No, I'm-- I know I'm not. I'm just...

You might have, but the truth is,

I admire what you guys do, to put your balls on the line.

Because it's not a pure sport. There's--

It's left to the subject of opinion, to people,

and everyone has different opinions. Judges have different opinions.

And who's to say, you know, you're not as good as this guy?

You guys are fucking at the top of your game.

Who's to say you're not as good as this guy?

He's fucking bad ass. He won the title, he deserves it.

And I ain't takin' nothing away from you. [stammers] It's subjective.

And call me a control freak, but I don't like leaving my fate

up to subjective opinions of others. That's part of it.

The other is, I got into fitness because I just started working out

'cause I had issues I had to sort out as a kid.

So that's what I turned to instead of drugs or alcohol.

And some of us live with two different people.

-Oh, yeah. -Who you are, your persona that you use,

everything you use to manipulate some persona

to get some type of success...

is illusion.

-Yeah. -It's ego.

If we don't have a belief that we can become that person,

that lack of a belief turns every journey into a debate.

Pain versus pride, and pain starts to fill so much

that all of a sudden, we start second guessing who we wanna be.

Well, you can manipulate it. Just at the end of the day,

don't believe that that manipulation was ever you.

Because when that's taken away from you, you'd be pretty sad, you know.

You don't put stock in stuff that's manipulated.

Put stock in who you are, the value of who you are,

and your emotion and happiness

'cause we take away all the stuff that we use,

we take away all the supplements we use.

I mean, ultimately, we became who we are because we really truly weren't happy.

We couldn't accept who we were, you know?

We go through a process of accepting ourselves.

You believe in the title, you believe in the cover,

you believed in this, and then when it was gone,

"Fuck, who am I?"

I mean, how many guys you see go in the gym,

and it's like leg day, right?

And it's their day they don't wanna do, that's their weakest day, right?

They go into the gym, I'm gonna do legs, right?

And, uh, they go in the off hour, no one's really there,

but it so happens Sally's there, some girl that they wanna hook up with,

so all of a sudden, it doesn't become leg day, does it?

It turns right into arm day or something or chest day,

-so they can show off in front of Sally. -[all laugh]

That's someone that's doing something for a third party.

They don't pay your bills yet you give them all this value.

It makes no sense. If you really want Sally, you believe in what you want,

you go after, no matter what, what anyone says.

And when you reach those horizons,

trust me, Sally and Sue and Nicole and everybody else gonna come,

and you get to pick your choice because you're a leader, man.

["Ready for Battle" playing]

♪ Ready for battle ♪

♪ Ready for war ♪

♪ Ready for battle ♪

♪ Ready for war ♪

♪ 'Cause I'm ready for battle ♪

♪ 'Cause I'm ready for war ♪

♪ Ready for battle ♪

♪ I'm prepared for war Before the limelight ♪

♪ Ready for my weapon of choice I know the time's right ♪

♪ Feelin' like a million soldiers ♪

♪ Ready to deal with the agony Of battle in by the light ♪

♪ Ready for battle Ready for war ♪

♪ Ready to fight Hit it on the walls ♪

♪ A soldier at heart The blood on the stone ♪

♪ They fire for bomb Then I get up for more ♪

♪ 'Cause I'm ready for battle ♪

♪ Ready for war ♪

♪ 'Cause I'm ready for battle ♪

[shouting, cheering]

[laughter]

[Jeremy] I grew up cooking a lot. I can cook anything and everything.

But since I'm dieting all the time,

I don't get to enjoy any like-- So I look forward to offseason.

Cooking is like one of my favorite things to do.

I hate pulling water. Do you like--?

It just depends on how conditioned you come into the show

and how ready you are.

For me, like, at the San Jose show, I didn't carb up 'til two days before

because I was already super conditioned, and I had to pull water very hard.

You know, post Olympia, I came in bigger but I was holding water,

so I started carbing up on Tuesday, four days out,

and I pulled water a lot harder the last two days,

and it worked both ways.

But you know, I prefer to not pull water as hard 'cause you don't feel as bad.

-My head was startin' to hurt. -Headaches, dude.

-My head was killing me Friday. -You wake up with headaches.

I was walking through the expo,

and everybody come up to try and talk to you

before you go on stage, like I just wasn't there mentally.

I was like, "Everybody, I gotta go and go rest."

-I train hard all up to the showtime. -Really?

The day before, I don't work out but...

-Yeah. - You don't find yourself swollen?

No.

I don't hit legs hard, that's for sure, before a shoot. My legs swell up.

With bodybuilding, I mean, we'd stop at like,

for me, seven to ten days out, I would stop doing legs,

so they wouldn't hold water, you know. But it's different now, you know?

Pretty much working all the way up until the show.

I don't train too hard the last week so I can walk straight on stage.

[laughter]

It's not just like we diet for two days and then we take a day off.

It's like day after day after day,

week after week after week, month after month after month,

and year after year after year.

I mean, that's like, it's-- You've been doing this for 15 years now

and the way you looked back then wasn't as good as the way you look now.

- Right. -It's just like a constant progression.

[exhales]

We do something that looks very healthy,

but in actuality, it's very damaging to the person, mentally and physically.

You know, if you're training twice a day, every day,

if you're not consuming the right amount of calories,

if you're not sleeping and resting enough, you're risking injury.

I'll tell you what I feel like a day before the show.

Day before the show, noises hurt me, you know, gives me headaches.

Bright lights, they give me headaches. TV, you know, everything's off.

Dizziness, you know, confusion, anxiety,

all these things come into play in the last few weeks before a show,

and you really do, you have to remind yourself,

"Hey, this is only happening,

I only feel this way because I'm so, you know, lean."

You know, your body needs calories.

It needs that stuff to, you know, feel normal.

And it's not normal and you will not feel normal.

I heard a quote one time, they said,

"To get in the best, uh, condition of your life,

you have to feel your worst."

And I never once, you know, had anxiety or headaches or felt sick,

but once I really started dialing down

and getting into that one percent body fat,

you can see how the mind will play tricks on you.

Most people, they would go to a hospital for that, you know, but not me.

[TJ] Yeah.

I've got my six-pack bag.

I'm loading it up with my fuel meals, which prepare all my meals for me,

helps keep me fueled throughout the day. Let's go train.

["Grindin'" by Thomas Tha Franchise playing]

[grunts]

[grunts]

Come on.

[grunts] One more.

-[grunts] -Come on, come on.

Come on. Where you at? Where you at?

-One at a time -[grunting]

[exhales]

The reason most people fail in achieving their perfect physique

is because they fail in the kitchen.

So, I don't care how hard they train in the gym,

you know, how many repetitions, how many days you're training,

you're not gonna see any results unless you eat properly, you know.

If I have a Ferrari, I'm gonna put 93 octane in my Ferrari.

I'm not gonna put low grade gasoline.

I don't enjoy cooking but, you know, I enjoy winning,

and in order for me to win the Mr. Olympia,

I have to eat the way I eat, and it's gonna pay off.

This is probably 60 grams of protein. I have to weigh it.

At this point though, I really, when you weigh something every single day,

all day, every day, eight times a day

for three years, four years, five years, six,

then you literally can look at something and be pretty damn accurate.

Sadik's always got about 80 grams of carbs there.

-[David Morin] That's pretty beasty, man. -I can sit there and count it up.

He's got like, I look at food constantly 'cause I don't have a scale everywhere,

so I'm like, "He's got about what, seven ounces or eight ounces of steak?"

[Sadik] Ten.

-Ten ounces? -[Sadik] That's like ten.

And that's like eight or nine ounces of sweet potato.

And it's a nice, low, glycemic carb,

so it's diabetic-friendly carb, in general, right?

He's going like 75 grams of protein and 80 grams of carbs.

Don't forget about the pickle.

-[Matt] And the pickle. -And the pickle.

One of the things that I noticed that were the differences

between the physique guys that actually compete against each other

and the fitness guys are that physique is a competition.

You guys are gettin' up on stage,

and you are competing against one each other.

And so, that immediately puts you in a different mindset,

to where, this person is your friend.

And you can compartmentalize that,

but at one point or another, there's a switch that happens,

just like fighters fightin' each other that are in the same camp,

where you gotta take that person down

and you got to do everything you can to win within the rules.

And so, at that point, they become your competitor.

David, you gettin' ready to compete. Is this your first show?

I won the Mr. California overall. I won--

-So you're qualified for the nationals? -Yeah, I've qualified,

and I go to the nationals in the USA, and I end up,

I guess my biggest mistake is overthinking it.

I was going up there and doing what I felt like

the judges wanted to see, and I was wrong.

I would go up there and do my fitness model poses.

-So... -[Dennis] So what's your approach now?

I'll have perfected my posing as much as I can,

do a different presentation to the judges,

and hopefully, I place a little better this time.

[narrator] Hany Rambod, known as the Pro Creator,

has 13 Olympia titles to his credit as a pro trainer

and prep coach of some of the top physiques in the world.

[Sadik] I really work extensively on my posing.

A lot of athletes, they just focus on the gym.

Yeah, you can have the best physique in the world,

but if you can't present it right, doesn't matter.

[Jeremy] Through this transition, staying square across the top, small waist.

-Yeah, buddy. -Excellent.

-[Hany] Blow it out, there you go. -There it is.

-You see how he's bending his knee? -Yeah, it's beautiful.

-You know why we do that? -No.

[Sadik] If you bend that knee slightly, catches judges eye.

You're gonna be competing against 300 national level competitors.

All of them have amazing physiques.

You need to grab their attention even though you're standing on that line.

You can't go on stage and display your physique

the way you need to be displaying it.

You're gonna get lost in the mix, so being able to manipulate angles

and accentuate your strengths, and minimize your weaknesses

is gonna make you a great poser on stage.

Having that charisma on stage to capture the audience,

to capture those judges, is very important because in our sport,

[stammers] it's a pretty boy sport, so we gotta go up there and present that.

The last thing you wanna do is worry about what the guy is doing next to you.

You wanna really make sure you maximize what you have to show.

So when you're up there, have that confidence, have that swag

that you already have, just be natural and be comfortable.

The moment you start rushing things and forcing things on stage,

it's gonna show and it's gonna transpire through your routine,

and it's gonna make you look very uncomfortable up there.

Take your time. You bust your butt 24/7, 365 days a year

to go on that stage for 20, 40 seconds.

Maybe if you're lucky, two minutes, okay?

Everyone has a great physique on that stage.

Everyone deserves to be there,

but if you don't show the judges you want it,

if they can't feel your heart and your dedication

while you're up there, you ain't gonna win.

[Jeremy] Walk out, you hit your routine. At the national level and amateur level,

you get the front and back pose, back to the front, three poses, okay?

-[David] One, two, three. -Nope, switch your foot work.

Come on, what we just did. Practice. Step across, step back.

-One, two, three. -Perfect practice.

[Jeremy] And bam, one, two. Open up, elevate the shoulders.

[Sadik] You're not as wide as you could be. Yeah, now you are.

-Feel that? -Yeah.

Right there.

-So my rear delt's not popping? -There.

[Hany] Right there.

Right there. Stay right there.

Stay right there. There.

[Hany] Get the shoulders up.

What you do is when your shoulders come down,

you're gonna look straight up and down.

You're gonna lose your V-taper. You gotta keep your shoulders up.

The best man is gonna win.

You wanna display the least amount of weaknesses on that stage.

[Jeremy] Step back across, nail it, boom.

-One, two, three. Right? -[Jeremy] Tight, right there.

[Jeremy] Okay, obliques tight, good smile, okay, stay smiling.

You gotta keep that smile 'cause when you're smilin' on stage,

you have to be able to keep your abs tight so your breathing technique,

when you're on stage, has gotta be specific.

Short breaths, breathing through the chest not through the stomach, okay?

Let me tell you something about catching your breath.

You're looking at the judges. You know when they're focusing on you

and when they're focused on the guy at the center stage.

When I need to catch my breath, I wait for the right moment.

When they're not looking at me, and I go... [exhales]

I hold my breath again, and I contract the abs.

[Jeremy] A guy covers you up on stage, you gotta make sure you step out.

So what's gonna happen is there's gonna be a bunch of guys lined up.

So line up on the side, Matt's gonna do his routine,

line up on the side, he's gonna step right in front of you.

So bam.

If that's the case, you need to step out this way.

-Keep stepping out. -[Jeremy] Keep stepping out.

The expeditors on the stage-- Not in front of him.

This is important though because if you guys get lost on the side,

you get covered up, they're not gonna see you.

They're not gonna call you out for the first callouts.

You can keep bumping out. There's expeditors on the stage.

I don't care if you get up in the middle of the stage,

it's not your job to get covered up.

It's their job to keep you guys in a line, so keep stepping out,

and they'll pull you guys back in, okay?

So don't worry about overshadowing somebody 'cause it's about you.

So, I used to doing NPC,

I used to switch my pose every six seconds.

Yeah, keep moving a little bit.

And it's gonna attract their eye, like, "Why does Kimmerle keep moving?

Oh, actually, he's got a really good physique.

Maybe I'm gonna bump him up on the score card."

So always have their attention.

One of the most important things going into a men's physique show,

I always tell them three things,

small waist, rounded deltoids, and a ridiculous V-taper.

It's hard to be able to, you know, embrace my off-season,

you know, especially with everything I've been seeing in the social media,

and, you know, the hate I've been getting for not being stage-ready all the time.

Your body needs to rest, and as you know, every time your body gets worn down,

it doesn't wanna change, it doesn't wanna start getting leaner.

It hits that plateau, and it does that because your body's adapting.

It's fighting against trying to come down and get ultra lean.

So, when your body has that break, you saw what it did,

we were able to make some huge changes.

We put seven pounds of pure muscle on you and got you harder and more conditioned

than you've ever been before.

But if we just jump right back into a prep, it's gonna be,

God, three weeks from now, four weeks from now,

we're gonna have to start getting ready.

Your body's not gonna be able to bounce back when you're not even done dieting

for all these photoshoots that we're still doing.

We're not even done doing that yet.

So we have to try to strategize, create the blueprint,

work off of being able to work on the offseason.

The guys keep getting bigger and bigger,

bring you in a little bit bigger, bring you in just, you know, just as hard.

I thought condition was right on point 'cause you don't wanna get too hard,

but being a little bit fuller on your body,

getting a little bit more muscular is okay.

But we can't-- We gotta draw a really thin line

because at the end of the day, this isn't bodybuilding.

We don't wanna go the other way. This is one of those sports

that if you're almost too good, it's gonna hurt you.

You have to have that right balance.

Being the champion is new to me so...

You know, understanding that this is what's gonna come along with it,

you know, is, um, something I'm learning.

At the end of the day, you gotta be confident with who you are,

and you don't have to prove yourself, you already did that.

I have pictures of Jeremy, you know, getting presented the first place award

at the Olympia, on my phone, just to remind myself, you know.

I'm proud of his accomplishment, you know, and that's what I want.

I think hunger is the most important thing, you know, when, uh...

The only thing that makes me hungry is, you know, failure.

And I'm an athlete that's not afraid to fail.

If I get second or third, you know, that's what I consider failing.

Although it's a really great thing,

that's what pushes me and makes me excel to the next level.

After this year's Olympia, a lot of people were like,

"Hey, man, how do you feel? Are you upset you got second place?"

I was like, "No, it was the best thing that could happen."

In my mind, being perfect is being Mr. Olympia.

And you know what? I'm number two in the world.

I didn't win because I wasn't the best.

So I'm gonna get back to the gym, and I'm gonna train until I'm number one.

[groans]

[Dennis] One, two, three. Slow it down. Come on.

-[groans] -[Dennis] Come on, come on.

-[grunts] -[Dennis] Slow it down.

-[groaning] Last one. -Come on! Up!

-First place. -First place.

-One! -More, more. Last one.

[screams]

[Dennis] Let's go. All the way to the top. Do it slow.

-Do it slow. -[screams]

Come on. All you, no help.

Come on, come on. Get it, get it, get it. Come on.

-Come on. -Fuck! Fuck!

-That's how you do it. -Fuck!

-Whoa. Shit. -[Dennis chuckling]

-[Dennis] Woo! -Oh, fuck.

[breathes heavily]

-[groans] Oh, fuck. -You all right? You all right?

I'm good, big boy. This is what it takes to be number one, huh?

[ice splashing]

[Sadik] This is the torturous stuff I do to move from second to first place.

All these little details that competitors don't wanna do

to make the improvements they wanna make, this is one of them.

Are you willing to suffer? You know how bad do you wanna win?

Do you wanna jump in a tub full of fucking ice?

You ask me, I wanna win. And that's what I'm willing to do.

[exhales]

[grunts]

I was diagnosed with diabetes September 1st, 2011.

I admitted myself to the hospital,

and they found my blood sugar was a little over 550,

which the doctors told me was close to comatose level.

Crazy, crazy symptoms, like unhealable sores,

you know, um, numb,

uh, tingling in the hands and feet that leads to amputations,

um, chemicals in the brain that can cause ketoacidosis

if the blood sugar gets too high, you literally just go crazy.

The doctors do tell you, "You can still eat the fruit,

you can still eat oatmeal, you can still eat all these carbs,

you just dose your insulin."

Well, no, you can't eat normal.

You have to come to a point as a diabetic

that I have to eat low-carb the rest of my life.

Keeping up with my blood sugar and keeping up with my food,

I have to know exactly what I eat every single time I eat.

It's gotta be precise,

and the medicine that goes into my body, that when I inject my insulin,

I have to inject the exact amount of carbohydrates and proteins,

and fats that I'm gonna eat,

or my blood sugar will go up or down or fluctuate.

I don't go into the stomach, like most diabetics,

because we've got our shirt off as a IFBB Pro,

and I don't want the scar tissue or the bruising on my stomach,

so, I put it on location that's hidden.

It's not easy, and that's where I'm at now.

My life has changed.

Going through what I went through my first year

of being diabetic, it sucked.

I mean, I was like, you lay there in bed, and you're kinda like,

"This is what the rest of my life's gonna be like, really?"

And 'cause your energy level, I mean, you just wanna sleep all day. There's--

All the diabetics know what I'm going through,

and then the sick people, the other people that deal with health issues.

So, what do you do? Do you cry about it? Do you whine about it?

Yeah, you let it out, but at what point do you say, enough is enough?

Nothing I wanna do more, but to make him proud.

If I have one goal in life, it's to make him proud.

My dad and I are so much alike, that, you know, there's a close relationship,

but when we get in arguments, we're both very, very stubborn,

and we're very, very similar in how we get angry,

that we won't talk for months at a time.

I will lay my pride down to make things right with him

just so we can both be okay again. 'Cause my dad and I are tight like,

I'm on the phone with him every single day, a couple times a day.

It kills me. He didn't come to my first Olympia,

'cause we were arguing, and that's the only show I ever lost.

I've never lost nothing for my dad.

Never. Never lost in front of my dad.

You know, my dad has the highest expectations from me.

You know, when he looks at me, he sees a star.

And that's the way it's always been.

My dad's always told me that you're gonna be somebody.

I wouldn't change anything.

You know, [stammers] I'm proud of the person I am.

I have my flaws and I know that, and I work on them every single day.

I know exactly what my flaws are, and I'm very aware of 'em.

Don't fight with somebody that has a different opinion.

Don't fight with somebody that likes him better than you.

How you gonna do that? You wanna fight with everybody?

That's what you wanna do? That's not a champ.

Champ is keep your cool, keep your cool.

When something like this happens, keep your cool.

You're the champ. [stammers] You're not supposed to fight.

You're supposed to be the champ. Act like a champ.

You almost got in a fight with my director of marketing of last year

the day after the Olympia in the gym. You almost got in a fist fight.

I mean, I got a phone call saying, "You need to drop this guy.

This guy is no good. He is not--

He doesn't have the right attitude, he doesn't have this, he's not fixable."

And I just said I'm gonna do whatever I can

to make sure that we can turn him around.

And I knew that we could try to focus, you know,

all that anger into training and being able to focus on, you know,

that end goal, which is try to, you know, win the biggest show in the world.

I've really seen a huge change just since last year.

I demand respect.

I don't want-- I don't deserve to be disrespected.

I'm a good person. I work my butt off and I do what I'm supposed to be doing.

You know, nobody--

I don't feel anybody has the right to disrespect me or belittle me.

And I feel that's why I get so upset when people do say stuff to me.

Everyone has their own definition of winning.

You know, to me, I mean, I see success in every failure

because every time I lose, I get better. You know, so what is winning?

Getting gold medal when you weren't the best guy on stage?

What about if that does happen

and you know that you're not the best guy on stage,

and then what? You're not the winner.

You know, so you can't sleep at night. That gold medal doesn't mean anything.

So when you know that you were the best guy,

regardless of the placing that--

Where you placed, that's winning.

[exhales]

They can work their hardest all they want to. It's not good enough.

[breathes heavily]

I'm meant to be the best.

Nobody will ever take that away from me.

[exhales]

Yep. Come on.

Come on!

[grunts]

Come on!

How important is supplements, nutrition supplements?

And, what, if you do, what do you use?

You know, I'm taking, uh, the multivitamin from MET-Rx.

[Jason] I'm taking the carnitine, CLA, um...

The whey protein powder, probably once a day.

You guys travel all the time,

-so you can't have a kitchen with you. -Mm-hm.

When I'm traveling, I like to make sure that I bring enough protein,

so I can snack down three shakes a day while I'm there

because I don't know how readily available good quality food is.

I do, uh, two protein shakes a day. I do one first thing in the morning, um,

and instead of adding water, I add egg whites.

It's a hydrolyzed isolate whey, and then I do one post-workout.

Um, I do a pre-workout as well just because I like the energy,

the focus, the endurance of it.

Um, and then I do a fat burner and a multivitamin.

And that's, keep it pretty simple but the basics. It works pretty well.

And it's the off-season, like Jeremy and Sadik,

what do you guys rely on right now?

Um, definitely a fast-acting carbohydrate drink.

-Carbohydrates. -Which I'll either drink pre-workout,

I might drink it intra-workout,

-or post-workout. -[Dennis] Mm-hm.

So you don't use it intra and post, so you choose either one?

I will choose depending on how many carbohydrate meals I had

leading up to that day,

but most of the time, I find myself drinking it during my workout.

I'll mix in some BCAAs to help keep me anabolic during my workout,

um, as well as, I will take a protein shake, of course.

I'm sure all of us use protein shakes, um, in addition to a pre-workout.

You know, I don't get to the gym 'til 8:00 p.m.,

so I need that, you know, boost from the pre-workout to get me fired up.

You know, let's talk a little bit about the differences between protein.

Like, um, do you take in casein?

[Sadik] On the off-season, I'll absolutely take in casein.

This way, you know, I have a steady release of protein while I'm sleeping.

How about Hydro-Iso?

Hydrolyze, not in the off-season because it's...

-It's very expensive. -[TJ] Mm-hm.

But I'll take an isolate, uh, off-season.

And I'll switch to a hydrolyzed when I'm closer to a show.

And how do those react differently for you?

Um, well, under the Olympia stage lights, you know,

if they react you can see the difference,

you know, between the hydrolate and the isolate.

Isolate, you know, has a little bit of dairy in it,

whereas the hydrolyzed doesn't.

-It doesn't convert to dairy. -[TJ] Mm-hm.

So, it's a big difference, you know,

when you're sitting in front of the judges,

but for the average person trying to look good, there's no difference.

Creatine, BCAAs, uh, I like to use a carnitine,

uh, before my workouts to help convert the fat into energy.

Um, I use a fast-acting carbohydrate, and, uh,

that concern-- that is determined on what body part

I'm training, and how much I use of that.

On a lagging body part, I'm gonna use more of that

to just make sure I'm getting the optimal out of my body on that specific day,

so my body is in a surplus, so my specific muscle group

will have more than enough to grow.

To maximize hypertrophy,

you have to consistently give the body nutrients

-and shuttle those nutrients through. -Exactly.

I've found as I've gotten older, you know, recovery is critical,

so a lot of glutamine I use post-workout with my protein.

I do use a pre-workout 'cause I wanna-- I need that kick in the ass, you know.

Um, but I've noticed an absolute correlation between,

you know, um, specific protocol post-workout

that's gonna optimize recovery

because I'm jacking up the intensity to my workout.

So I'm coming in full steam, you know, I'm gonna hit that workout hard,

but I also need to make sure that just as much prep is on the back end

to, uh, help the recovery process.

-ZMA, minerals... -[Dennis] Yeah.

Um, anything I can do, um, as an older guy.

I'm 40, so, um, ZMA is gonna give me that zinc that I need.

Magnesium, that's gonna help me rest and get that, uh, that growth.

There's so many great supplements.

Um, but I think what overrides it, obviously,

I think intensity is the number one.

You're in the gym for an hour.

These supplements really give you 150 percent return of your hour,

as opposed to other things, because it immediately goes to the body,

because it's not really what you're taking,

it's the time in which you take, and what your body absorbs.

So we don't really grow in the gym, we all know. We get weaker, actually.

Well, we create a demand for our body to grow outside with rest and nutrition.

So we can do a hard workout that sponge our muscles, now rung out,

it's ready to be absorbed, anything.

We can pour on these supplements, which is like a concrete, uh,

more pure form that our muscle-- The perfect food for it.

There's certain supplements you take at night,

you know, that slow-released, you know, uh, protein with casein,

you know, but right after the gym, you don't wanna take that.

And just like carbs, and, uh-- There's good carbs and bad carbs.

What overrides a good carb or a bad carb

is a good opportunity or a bad opportunity to take it

because you don't wanna take a good carb right before the gym.

No, you want to take a bad carb, something with sugar,

so at that time, a good carb is bad because of the timing.

So mine... My six are like, so...

Protein, um, BCAAs, L-glutamine, uh, creatine, HMB. I like 'em both.

Um, you need your multivitamin like you said.

You need fish oil, pre-workout to go,

but number one... number one is intensity and pussy, man.

-[all laughing] -You gotta get that pussy.

-Nothing drives you. -The ultimate anabolic supplement.

Nothing drives you better, nothing drives you better.

[laughter]

[exhales]

-Good run, man. That was a good run. -Yeah.

Yeah, it couldn't be a better night for it, man.

-Yeah, it's beautiful here. -Yeah, it's therapy, in a way.

I think most people think the gym

is all about putting on size and everything else,

-and building this external body. -Mm-hm.

And as you know,

especially in the war-time environment in the military,

the mind's your strongest weapon, I mean, how many days have you gone through hell,

and the body just doesn't work anymore. What keeps you going is the mindset.

-Right. -That's always the limiting factor, so...

-You build that in the gym. -Mm-hm.

-And you build this way of life. -Fitness is my lifestyle.

-Sure, sure. -I love every aspect of it.

So I just chase my dreams.

That's a big thing with fitness models and this career. What is your goal?

What gets you up in the morning to go that distance?

It can't be about the vanity of mirrors. It's gotta be something deeper than that.

But also, there is a whole another army

-of lost souls in the civilian sector... -Mm-hm.

That really think this gym is just hard work and it's sacrifice.

They don't understand the return of investment you get.

[TJ] You have the right fire to go the distance.

You have the ability, physically, to achieve all this stuff.

It's about do you have the mentality to endure it?

I mean, have you guys ever felt like [stammers] this career, you know,

it ball and chains on you?

-Like you can't live a life? -Oh, yeah.

As a competitor, a certain extent, it's different because... I know that--

I don't know one competitor who doesn't eat out of Tupperware.

I don't know one competitor that doesn't have everything

structured and systematic.

You know, I don't carry gallons of water with me to the gym

'cause we might have a shortage.

And I'm not Tupperwaring all my meals and stuff.

But there's certain things that you're obligated to do

when we're getting ready for a competition.

Like every morning getting up and doing our fasted cardio

and hitting our workouts, and staying on schedule

for each body part we're supposed to train.

-Let me throw in another question. -Our food in our diet

being in accordance to what we're doing,

because in that specific time, everything has a plan.

Right. Do you see that as, um, a sacrifice?

Do you see it as like, "Oh, man. I wish I could go out with the guys?"

-I wish I could do that. -Yeah. Of course.

You know, I wish, I'd rather eat a burger than eat tilapia and asparagus.

-Yeah. -I don't see that.

Here's my biggest fucking issue with that.

Because a burger's a temporary satisfaction.

Going out with the boys is temporary relievement, you know.

You won't remember any of those parties,

but you'll frame that picture on your mantle.

That means more to me in the balance of life,

the achievement, your title, than any of the sacrifices of--

I can't eat a burger, I can't-- Fuck the burger, man.

You know, you're trying to live a legacy.

Anyone can eat a burger, but not everyone can win.

[birds chirping]

[TJ] That was rip. Let me have some of that.

Look at these.

I always cook mine in a huge bowl.

I've got peanut butter, pumpkin, and salted caramel banana bread.

Pre-contest, I had nothing in my house, right?

Nothing in my house, I'd-- Everything gone.

And I had a freak-out session, a straight freak-out session.

I was broke, you know, whatever,

-so I couldn't even go buy food. -[Sabik] Right.

And I'm opening every cabinet. I'm up on my knees, and my knees hurt.

Like I'm looking for anything, and I find a can of beans.

As soon as-- I didn't even grab a spoon. As soon as I got that thing open,

-it just made it in my mouth, -Yeah.

I'm sitting there in the kitchen, just traumatized.

I go out to the balcony, and I just started crying.

[mimics wailing] "My God, what have I done?"

And then I thought, "How stupid is this, Dave?

You deserve a can of beans. You're all right."

-[all ] -And then I'm having this...

And I'm having this conversation with myself.

I sit down out here, we're gonna be objective,

and I wrote a poem about how sad it is, that at my size and age and time of life,

that eating a can of beans is an emotional experience.

-It's an absolute train wreck for me. -Dude, that's hilarious.

I can't do it, show's done. I ate a can of beans.

-Oh, my God! I was like-- -I ate a can of beans.

You'd be more filled out. It was like two weeks out.

You're just looking at your skin, and you're holding water

'cause you're swollen, and I'm just like,

"Man, this can of beans is just gonna go right here.

You know how it is. You're so emotional.

[grunts]

[grunting]

[grunts]

[exhales]

I go in to see the Vice President of Chippendales, and he says,

"Yeah, sure, we'd love to use you for the calendar."

I said, "Okay, I want the cover."

[TJ] And he said, "Um, okay. But we want you to go on tour."

It was huge in Europe.

I decided I was gonna do two, three month tours

because each tour went to different parts of Europe.

So, there I was in my first show in Paris,

you know, in front of 8,500 women, scared out of my mind.

So we do the show, I forget, seriously, all my wardrobe changes,

I'm coming out in the wrong costumes, I'm doing the wrong choreography,

but all I could think to myself was nobody knows anything.

Just smile. They're not gonna know anything. Own it.

You know, the opening of every show, I get lowered from this cable,

so I'm originally above the proscenium, then I get lowered very slowly,

like almost like a fallen angel.

I have one foot in the stirrup, one hand in the safety strap,

and when the curtains opened for the opening of the show,

they wrapped around me, spun me out, knocked my foot out of the harness,

and then I watched the safety strap just unravel.

[mimics thudding]

And I just went reaching for it, and it went through my fingers,

and I just thought, this is gonna hurt.

Then I thought to myself, "Okay, don't hit your head, don't hit your head."

Landed on the stage first, then, wham! I fall back, but I didn't hit my head.

I held it up, tore every muscle in the front of my body, but I held it up.

Then I relax and I heard... the whole audience gasped at once.

[gasps]

Then all of a sudden, I'm saying to myself,

"Just don't go out, don't go out, don't go out. Don't go unconscious."

One of my best buds is standing over me, slapping me in the face going,

"Don't leave us, bro, don't leave us, right?"

And my first reaction was, "I'm not hurt."

Pick me up. I've taken harder hits in football.

I got a show to do. Let's do this.

They're like, "What?" And it was about a good 35, 40 foot drop.

I didn't know I had internal bleeding and a fractured hip and all that stuff,

but I go to take one step, nearly fainted,

they sat me down, flash forward, I'm in the hospital and I'm realizing,

you almost just died, you almost just died.

You're in a foreign country, you're sitting in a hospital room,

in a backless robe, you have internal bleeding, you fractured your hip.

It was from that point forward that I decided,

you know, what kind of man I wanted to be.

And so I made a checklist of every single quality

I wanted to possess as a man.

If I were to die, how would I wanna be remembered?

Me and a couple of friends were actually headed down to Phoenix,

and we were in my buddies '79 Chevy,

big ol' pickup truck, big V8, no seat belts.

And what we did was, we put our bags in the back of the truck.

But since there was no tailgate,

we all kept looking behind us the whole time,

looking behind us, looking behind us, and they didn't even move, you know.

But I remember we came around this very sharp corner,

and right before we came around the corner,

we all looked back at the same time.

And when we looked forward, we were on the guard rail.

And my friend, I mean, I still remember him to this day,

just over-correcting like... Whoa!

We were doing 75, it was our estimated speed.

And we hit a three-foot boulder, 'cause it launched us,

and we've rolled the truck up to the top of the mountain.

And I actually couldn't get out of the truck.

On the whole top of my head was just wide open.

And I had this, you know, when my face hit the windshield,

it went through right here.

So all this blood in my eyes, I couldn't see.

All these people had to carry me down, and then they put me in the helicopter.

I do remember them telling me this, "We have six hours from the time

of the accident to get you in or you're gonna lose your hip."

[exhales]

[Matt] Once I was finally able to get out of bed,

I just remember looking at myself in the mirror.

I noticed for the first time all the...

physical changes I had made my body make.

I was like, "Man, actually, look what I've done to my body

in just two years, this is amazing."

I remember wheeling myself into the gym for the first time since the accident.

And my dad, I could just tell he was so nervous.

He didn't wanna let go of that wheelchair.

And I got out of balance pretty fast when you can only hit upper body.

It's pretty fast how everything just atrophies and...

It was very hard not to be mad. I was very mad for a little while.

Why me? Why this? Now I can't do legs, you know.

It actually took me nine years before I would step on stage

because I wanted my legs to match my upper body.

-[screams] -[Dennis] Now rep it out, five reps.

I was walking home. I got a message on my phone.

It was my ex-wife, and she said that she's taking my kids

to another state, and my heart dropped.

I mean, that moment I was like, I'm losing my sons.

So, uh-- Sorry.

[sighs]

So at that point...

I just looked up.

I said, "Just give me a way."

'Cause I was working 60 hours a week in a job that I hated.

And the only real thing that I did all that for, was for my family. [scoffs]

[sighs]

I said...

There's so much in this world that happens to us,

that's beyond our control.

And I reached out and I said...

"Whatever that is, I need you to help me."

And I prayed.

[sighs]

And I just asked for an opportunity.

I said, man, you know, I'm gonna take a leap of faith,

and, uh, I'm gonna go to New York 'cause I wanna be close to my sons.

And, uh, I remember a week later, I got a phone call from an agent.

It's the same agent that, uh, Greg worked with.

He called me and said, "Hey. Um, I saw your, uh...

I saw some photos of you, and, uh-- 'Cause I had done a-- [chuckles]

The best way to help your self-esteem after a break up

is to join like a personal site. That was-- Back then, that was like,

you know, instant redemption, you know, like I'm gonna show her.

They used it. Their personal's ad, they used one of my photos to advertise.

And somebody had said, "Hey, man, this guy's got a good look."

Random, completely random.

"And just come to New York, just meet with me for a few hours,

and, uh, we'll discuss your future."

I didn't even know where she had lived, and where the kids had lived.

She lived three miles away from him, and so that was all I needed.

I got rid of all my stuff, and I got everything in my car,

and I moved up there. And I lived there in a house with eight guys. [chuckles]

You know, two to a room, you know, and hustled.

And, uh, saw my kids, like I would surprise 'em and go see 'em at school,

and they would be like, "Daddy!"

You know, and I would walk 'em home because those are moments.

[Jeremy] He always instilled in me, like, you have to be the best.

There wasn't second, there is no second place.

Nothing less than your absolute best is acceptable.

And, you know, that's something that's stuck with me, and...

You know, um, he's hard on us, really hard.

Really, really hard on us. Me and my brother. And, um...

Being able to...

handle that [stammers] and, um...

That's what I'm looking for.

Being able to handle that, and to channel that energy...

into something positive and not being able to let that come down on you,

and let it ruin you is something that... there's a very fine line between.

You know, my brother, um...

I don't even want to go into that, to be honest.

It's a real touchy subject with that.

Kind of lost his way... after that.

He's better now, but... you know.

And it kind of comes down to, you know,

being able to handle what we went through when we were younger,

the pressure and the fear of failing.

My junior and senior year, important years for anybody,

you know, I was a star football player in high school. You know, I've--

3.875 GPA, I was doing everything I was supposed to be doing.

You know, it's tough because...

my family was distracted by situations that were going on.

And I didn't really understand it at the time.

I always knew I can go to the gym and kind of get away from it.

[grunts]

[exhales]

I lived in the boys' home.

My parents were drug addicts. I was born a drug baby.

I had... a bunch of baggage. Oh, man, I hurt inside.

I hurt everywhere I went.

And it turned into acting up in class.

It turned into creating more problems all through high school, all through...

basically 'til I was 30. I carried it.

I felt like nobody... related. I felt like nobody got how I felt.

Being a guy that kind of wears everything on his sleeve,

what I had to do to prove to everybody that I hurt.

Drink, fight, just totally mutilate my life to prove to people that I cared.

Because I went from a drug-abusing, needle-in-my-arm, total loser, bankrupt,

to a cover of a fitness magazine within a year,

within a year of my very first step.

And not only did I have to lose weight, and build muscle,

and figure it all out from total ignorance,

but I had to do it with no money.

I had to do it with no job. I kept going. I kept trying to earn it.

I wanted to get that respect, that affirmation of,

"Kimmerle, you've done it," from those that I loved.

After not stopping and proving that for half a year,

I could be the man I said I was gonna be,

and you're all tired of waiting for me to be that guy.

Well, I'm him now, just-- Didn't notice?

I got lost, you know.

Suicide is...

a very selfish thing.

But...

when you reach that point,

you think it's the most unselfish thing you can do

because you just want the pain to stop. That's it.

All I would do is try to sleep because it's the only time it would stop.

But you can't sleep forever.

And I grabbed two bottles of my medication,

and I drank it with that fifth, and...

I thought that was gonna be it.

But it wasn't. I woke up... three days later, still alive.

And after that, I remember...

driving.

It was the hardest thing I've ever had to do.

[sighs]

I remember driving to my parent's house.

My dad is a barber, he was busy.

I busted in the barber shop.

And he knew something was wrong, seriously wrong.

And I looked at him, and I said, "Dad, I'm gonna kill myself. I need help.

I don't know why. I don't know what to do."

[sighs]

And I saw my dad age 20 years [stammers] in that five seconds.

[sobs] I saw it break him.

It's just so hard to even think about, but...

He made some calls, and within three hours, I was admitted.

It made me worse, by being in there.

And they pumped me full of so many drugs,

that I was in bed for a year after that.

A full year. It's the only time I ever stopped lifting.

I dropped down to 142 pounds.

And I was pretty hopeless at that point.

You're on all those medications, you're not a person.

You are not there. Matt was not there. I was empty.

I'd have friends come and visit me.

And I watched them get scared because it wasn't me.

I had no personality, I had no smile. It was gone.

[sniffles]

It was like I was an empty vessel.

I just prayed and prayed and prayed and prayed, everyday, everyday.

And one day, I woke up, and I felt different. I felt different.

I got up... I actually ate something, and I went to the gym.

It was the first place I went.

That was like the day that... I broke through.

I really believe what has saved my life

has been the support of my family, finding God, but fitness.

By far, the hardest thing I ever had to do was look at myself.

[grunts]

And I had to forgive myself.

I had to forgive myself first, learn to love myself.

It starts with yourself.

There's a certain amount of struggle that has to be accepted.

You got to accept the struggle.

There's this threshold in life,

and where your mind's at, your mind thinks the threshold's here.

And your body, and your destiny, and your greatness is here.

'Cause it's not what you thought about, and what you've done

that's gonna get you where you wanna go.

To get what you want, you have to do what you've never done.

[Greg] I was sitting strong, man.

I bought a house well over a million dollars.

I had, you know, 800,000 in the stock market.

I was on a couple TV shows.

Um, I was doing commercials, everything else.

Within six months, I was dead broke, 400,000 in debt, both jobs were canceled,

and the bills were steep coming in. There's a reality check real fast for you.

And it wasn't like I did something to cause that.

That was just an evolution of the market,

the housing market and the recession that we all went into.

Who are you there, you know? It's real easy in the EKG of life.

It's kind of funny that the heartbeat is that, right?

Because isn't that life itself? And who are you at the top?

The character, who is that person? How do you define yourself there?

And is that different than down here? And if it is, something's seriously wrong,

'cause you can never be defined by success.

You must always define it.

And when you get success, that person's hungry, hungry.

You ask that person, "Hey, uh, what are you all about?"

I'm gonna be this, talking about future. I'm gonna be this, I'm gonna be this.

Then you ask somebody who has the success, the coin flips.

All of a sudden, that success defines them.

"Oh, who are you? I did this."

Well... [scoffs]

There's a past tense there, and if it's past tense, um, or it's idle,

it's not moving, man, and you can't grow from that.

You always have to reinvent the wheel, retry things.

And you can never be a victim of the situation.

It always has to be-- It can never get too comfortable, man.

Those comfort zones are really danger zones

'cause you never try your true potential.

But, you know, I had a big wake-up call, man.

All my friends left me, you know.

I thought they were friends, man. Gone, man.

I started pointing my finger at everybody, saying,

"That's crap. I can't believe that."

Three were pointing back at me. I had to fix myself, man.

I rescued three dogs, man. I was supporting my parents.

Everything was gonna go down. Dogs would have to find a new place.

I didn't know what was gonna go down then. I just knew that it wasn't an option.

I started going-- You know Per Bernal, photographer?

I went to his house doing construction.

I was doing construction. And I remember this girl came by,

we shot a few covers, um, and she came by,

she said, "Oh, Greg, cool. I was hoping we shoot together."

I'm covered in shit, man, covered in shit.

She's like, "Wait, we're not shooting together?"

I'm like, "No." I said, "What are you doing?

I'm trying to keep my house, man."

You know, I couldn't go to auditions and then a call back

and a call back, and not getting paid anything.

And it wasn't fast enough. I had-- These bills were coming in hard.

I make... 30K a month coming in, I had to throw out, you know.

I had to grow up real fast, you know.

Your greatest hour as a human is usually right after your worst hour of despair.

And that was a rebound effect for me. And I look back at that as a blessing.

People like, "Hey, what's your biggest failure?

What's your biggest failure?" I go, "I don't know if I have one

because each of them molded something in me

where I learned so much about myself.

If I were to pull that out of my life, I don't know who I'd be right now."

And I never let failure stand as failure. I just kept trying.

You know they say, "Failure's temporary, giving up is permanent."

I'll be damned if at the end of my days, I'm never gonna have any regrets.

It's interesting what Greg said, you know. Every--

When you're in your darkest hours,

if you just hang in there, and you fight through,

something good is gonna come out.

[birds chirping]

I love competing, but competing isn't just a job on its own, you know?

We gotta do other things to be successful.

You cant-- You're not gonna be successful just competing.

You know, it's...

other things that you have to get involved in the industry to make money.

So guys like me, looking to get a small chunk of money from these guys,

and be in the magazine and competing with, not only celebrities,

but the other six-packs that are amazing walking around, is hard.

So [stammers] I've really upped my game

and made sure that I'm at my potential, and if--

You know what? If that's not good enough, fine, I understand.

If I'm not the right look, the right color,

the right ethnicity, the right anything, the right height, that's fine with me.

But I don't wanna be turned down...

after not showing my best.

In our business, we're building a body.

Then if you wanna get smart and be successful,

you gotta have a business plan, you gotta have a marketing scheme,

you gotta know how to deliver that product to the consumer.

And that's what it's all about, and I think that's what--

That's why I think TJ's been really successful.

Dave, you've been successful, and a lot of other guys,

is that they can take-- They understand that their body is just a product.

You know, it's nothing more than that.

You build a product, and then you sell that product

on how you get the product, the motivation behind the product,

how to maintain the product.

I did a great spread in a magazine and they told me,

"Kimmerle, you're gonna have the cover."

And I'm waiting for this thing to come out. I'm all excited.

And who's on the cover?

TJ. And I'm trying to explain to somebody why that happened.

-[stammers] And... -That was very subjective.

-Yeah, you know, so there's a competition. -[all chuckle]

-That's your competitor. - He's a smooth approach, TJ.

A competitor... [chuckles] He moved right in.

A competitor can go and talk to the judges and you're supposed to.

Why did I win? Why did I lose? What's my edification?

How do I get better? What do I fix?

And as a talent or a model, sometimes you don't get that.

And you just get the, "You didn't get the cover."

You know, they don't even tell you.

Subjectively, you have to look at the guy on the cover and go why.

Why does Greg Plitt get so many covers?

Let me ask you this, Matt,

and you tell me what you think or anyone here, competitors.

SoLet's say you're all dialed in, and you trained really hard,

and you're really cut up, right?

And you go to a shoot. And you know the world's gonna see this cover, right?

And the photographer says, "Hey, man, I want you to go soft. Don't flex."

So they want to take a picture,

show the world that's not your best in your mind.

Are you cool with that? Or are you all ego?

"It's gotta be like this, gotta be like this."

Because if you wanna be successful, you got to be marketable.

You have to have crossover. You got to be adjust up and down, five, six pounds.

It can't all be about how cut you are because, you know,

the population at large is trying to buy this

for inspiration and motivation.

If you're really dialed in, the majority of the public's like,

"Oh, he got some help with that", you know.

He's like, "Hey, I respect the work ethic, but I don't wanna go that route."

It's what they're thinking, maybe.

You get a person in there that's kind of somewhat in shape, whatever else,

the majority of the people looking go, "Man, you know what, I respect that guy."

The hard work, the right diet, it's achievable, you know?

So it motivates them.

Otherwise, if it's too cut up, maybe it's unattainable.

And it's kinda deters that motivation,

so, you know, there's a lot that goes into fitness modeling

that's outside the box of the physique.

It's the motivation, um, and the mentality around the gym,

because we're trying to build a lifestyle. We're not trying to build,

"Hey, you're gonna be in shape three times a year, and that's it."

No, we're trying to build the, "Hey, being in shape is better, it's healthier."

It's not all about the vanity, but also about,

you know, the longevity, right?

And so, to anyone out here that is thinking that

they're gonna do this and get rich once they get on a cover

or hit the stage, it's not that way.

Most guys, you know, they run a deficit

just trying to compete because it's expensive to compete.

-To eat right is expensive. -[Dennis] Yeah.

If you don't have a supplement sponsor to pay for supplements every month,

it's expensive.

And when you say the paycheck,

I've never invoiced a magazine for a cover.

I don't think I've ever gotten paid. Where I've gotten paid is the networking.

You know, you're building relationships with people.

And so yeah, you don't get the shape--

You're talking publicity with the covers.

[Greg] Yeah, that's all it really is, man.

See, the public sees your cover next to GQ,

who's a big movie star, right?

And so they have this assimilation that, you know, you've made it.

I wish that was the case, man. I wish that was the case.

What comes after the cover?

What comes after the 50th, the 100th, the 1,000th cover?

Um, I can give you a million examples, but what happens after a contest?

You know, how many plastic trophies is gonna make you feel good?

I mean, where's the money? Where's that start?

Or is it about the money? Or is it about something else?

At the end of the day, what's it about? Say what's your driving force?

It can't just be about you winning. There's gotta be some higher point.

Like a gym can't be about the ends. The gym has to be the means to some ends.

Get into this for you. Get into this for the love of the sport,

for training hard, for inspiring others, 'cause to me,

and I'm sure everyone up here will say the same thing,

there's no greater payday...

than actually affecting someone's life for the positive

because the way that makes you feel, it's all about helping other people.

-What's up, guys? How you doing, man? -[man] Sup.

[speaks indistinctly]

-What's up, Matt? -How ya doing, man?

What's up, bro? Mind if I get a picture with you?

-Looking good, man. Looking large, man. -Gotta eat, bro.

You don't wanna do it too often. You got to let the muscle heal.

So then you can tear it again, let it recover and then, go back at it.

-There you go, man. -Thanks for setting the standards, man.

-Thank you. -[chuckles] You got it, brother.

[both laugh]

Hey, I love this corner.

Okay, we have our caramel sea salt,

and then we have our strawberries and cream.

Thank you.

[people chattering indistinctly]

Keep it up.

[announcer] That's, uh, 2013's hottest new covers...

...dipping!

[chuckles]

You got it? Not bad for a 60 year old, right?

[both chuckle]

[chuckle] Shadowed up.

-I'm too old to go back to school. -You got this.

-I'm so not cool. Oh, my God. -Get your doctorate, man.

What you're putting in your body, not only,

you know, from the macro-nutrient protein, fats and carbs...

It's about trying to come in with a small waist,

and a really, really, really balanced physique.

Shooting with the right photographers,

uh, you know, building up the social media platform...

[people chattering indistinctly]

[chuckles]

[man] One more.

[Matt] It's never let me down.

It's never abandoned me. It's never cheated on me.

It's never lied to me.

A hundred pounds is a hundred pounds, you know.

It's always been there for me. It's just... you got to put in the work.

And we all... maybe start for different reasons.

But you're only gonna continue if it's for you,

and it's for a positive reason, it's for the right reasons.

There needs to be a sense of emotional turmoil.

You need to be so sick of being, you know, having the same physique, you know?

If you want to look like somebody, do it.

You gotta be so sick of yourself to be like, "Listen, I don't care.

I'm goin' to gym for two hours every single day

for the next month, and I'm gonna see my results."

This is about authentic, about new,

about transforming, and that's a strange brave world.

You gotta be a pioneer.

Your body is a gift. Connect to it, use it, experience it.

It's authentic. It's real.

You have a fingerprint that separates you from everybody else in the world.

Because 99 percent of the world's average, but they don't look like that.

What makes you get up in the morning to make this commitment?

Because, every other week or something, the world's gonna see us.

And as you climb the ladder, everybody hates you.

Everybody's waiting for your trip and fall.

You know, with success, many will love you.

The majority will hate you because your success is like a spotlight

shining down on their missed opportunity.

[stammers] I've beaten the best in the world

and... I'm still not satisfied.

Even with Olympia this year, I'm very proud of what I've accomplished,

but it's just the beginning.

You think I'm gonna sit down and be happy about winning?

No way. I'm back in the gym, I'm back on the grind,

'cause I gotta outwork every single person coming after me.

Sadik and I didn't even say a dang word to each other,

even at check-ins or backstage, nothing,

'cause I knew he was my number one competition going into that show.

The one person I was worried about was Sadik.

If anybody, other than myself, would get the title, it'd be him.

And I'm gonna do everything I can to stay on top,

I'm gonna do everything to keep Sadik at second.

I don't ever go into a show and not think I'm gonna win.

But there's no reason why the man standing next to me

should be any better than me. No reason.

I have a target on me.

Every single person in the IFBB that competes in the Men's Physique division

is coming after me.

There is no off-season. I call that unemployment.

Um, and I can't tell you how many covers I've stolen,

um, when photographers have called me up,

and they'd be like, "Hey, Greg, um, what's my call,

couldn't make the flight or came in out of shape, whatever else,

what are you doing in an hour?"

[Evan Olson's "All the Way" playing]

♪ My skin is pure And my mind is green ♪

♪ But my heart is built Just like a guillotine ♪

♪ And all the world's Gonna feel my sting ♪

♪ Gonna set my sights right On the brass ring ♪

♪ All the doors are opened up for me ♪

♪ If you don't believe it Wait and see ♪

♪ I'm gonna go all the way this time ♪

♪ I'm gonna show everyone what's mine ♪

♪ I'm leaving with everything I know ♪

♪ Anybody wanna come along, let's go ♪

♪ My mood is right For the brand new way ♪

♪ Gonna live this life Like it's the last day ♪

♪ And holding back Never crossed my mind ♪

♪ Gonna say goodbye This is the last time ♪

♪ I can feel it burning deep inside ♪

♪ I can see my future open wide ♪

♪ I'm gonna go all the way this time ♪

♪ I'm gonna show everyone what's mine ♪

♪ I'm leaving with everything I know ♪

♪ Anybody wanna come along, let's go ♪

♪ I'm gonna all the way this time ♪

♪ I'm gonna show everyone what's mine ♪

♪ I'm leaving with everything I know ♪

♪ Anybody, anybody ♪

♪ I've put this on before But I wont fail again ♪

♪ There's only one thing left for me And I will win ♪

♪ I will win ♪

♪ This could be The last chance I have left ♪

♪ Nobody wants it more than me ♪

[TJ] So many people out there fail, not because they don't have the ability.

It's because they don't have the heart to go through adversity.

[grunting]

Your life is not about making money, it's not about having the titles,

it's not about having the hot trophy wife, your life is about a moment to come.

It's inevitable. We cannot stop it from coming.

Right now, we have the most valuable asset

on earth on our side, time. But it's running out.

And to make that first step towards greatness is the hardest step.

There is so much power in failure because you learn so much from it.

If you don't like where you are right now, turn around and look at what you've done.

You've built every single step to create this,

just taken the easy road too many times,

not getting up, not going for that extra rep,

puttin' that extra mile in, the little inches of life

that add up to be first place or forgotten.

You can't fake strong. [grunts]

Let's do this! Yeah, come on! How much more you got?

This is why you're the champ. Come on. Show 'em why you're the champ.

[grunts]

[David] The willpower, the belief, the confidence,

and just like you go to the gym and you lift your muscles, right?

You have to exhaust them to grow 'em. Use it or lose it.

Your confidence must be the same way. It must be tested.

Safety, comfort zones are dead zones.

Because your true potential will never be matched.

You know what struggle is. You know what adversity is.

We know what failure is. No, you have to build that.

The perseverance! To see it through!

The never-say-die attitude. The difference between a champion

and someone's who's forgotten, is that a champion shows up.

Come on!

Don't tell me that what you do and who you are doesn't matter.

You were born an original. Don't die a copy.

[Thomas Tha Franchise's "Grindin' playing]