Bodybuilding For A Gladiator

How does someone get involved in bodybuilding?

Go to a gym. Find someone that is experienced in weight lifting and start slow. Try to do it with one of your buddies or a family member if you have it. If not just go to a gym and get a trainer. Start working out slowly. But the key, besides working out, more than anything for kids is eating right. That whole little myth about what you eat, that's what you are. It really is true. Weight lifting or anything athletic is seventy percent eating, twenty percent recovery, and ten percent the sport.

How would you like to change the sport of bodybuilding?

If I was running bodybuilding what I would do today is drug test everybody no matter what show it is first off. Because you don't need the steroids to develop a pleasing body. Freud said, “It's the majority of society that keeps you sane”, meaning if there's 90% of us sane and only 10% crazy then that's how it is. But now if there was 90% crazy and 10% sane who rules? The crazy people do. And right now in bodybuilding it's just a large portion of the monstrous guys. I mean you guys might think I'm big, I'm six three, two sixty, but these guys are like three hundred pounds, you know at five eight, these guys are monsters. But to me and most of society that's not really pleasing. And I think that yester years, you know, Arnold Swartzenegger, Frank Zane, Steve Reeves, those were great physiques. They had enough muscle on it where society actually liked their physiques and it wasn't too much. I'd go back to that type of jugging where you take it back to the old school where it's a pleasing physique to the majority, not that small two, three percent of society.

What career options are open to a successful bodybuilder?

Fitness modeling is huge. And that can take you mainstream. From bodybuilding, that's one of the things you can do. You can go into athletics from there, with bodybuilding. Weightlifting is a great base for any sport. Besides that, I don't think they mind soap opera guys with good abs. So you can always do a soap opera.

What is an average workout schedule for a bodybuilder?

An average workout for a Bodybuilder or power lifter like me would be one hour a day, five days a week. You don't want to do more than that. You got to work smarter, not harder. You see a lot of people in the gym two, three hours a day, they don't change that much. That's because they're overtraining the body. All you really need is to go in the gym 45 minutes to an hour a day, 5 days a week. Keep your diet clean, except for Sundays. You can go crazy on the diet Sundays, have your popcorn or pizza or whatever. It's just the consistency of getting in the gym.

What is the ultimate prize for bodybuilders?

Ultimate prize: it depends on everybody. For me, it was to win the Natural Universe and show everybody else I could beat the guys on steroids. For a lot of people, it's to win the Mr. Olympia. To be considered the best. But for me, I never did bodybuilding for those judges. There's nine judges for each show and if the judges are going to tell you that you need to be bigger or look different and you're happy with how you look; why would you change? Why, at that point, would winning the show make you happy? So for me, making my physique how I wanted it to look, winning the show on top of it, beating the guys on drugs, was my pinnacle. But for a lot of people, they get sucked into the industry of believing what those nine judges want them to look like and they keep getting freakier and freakier. A lot of them make the endorsement and that pays for their living and stuff; that's a pinnacle of it. The main thing though, is stay with... you're an artist is the best way to put it and you're creating something for you to develop. And bodybuilding is just that, you're creating a physique how you want it to look and that should be the pinnacle of what you're doing.

What is an average diet for a professional bodybuilder?

The average Diet for a Bodybuilder Is Lot of protein, a lot of chicken, a lot of steak in the offseason, rice & oatmeal. Every meal, you're eating 6 to 8 times a day, because you've got to take in so many calories, because you're trying to put on muscle. And you can only put on about 5 to 10 pounds of muscle a year, and that's if you stay consistent. So it's really important just to keep that diet clean. But you're eating six small meals a day, relative small meals. For me, eight ounces of chicken and a cup of rice six times a day, followed up by a couple of steaks at night & vegetables throughout the day.

What is the average percentage of body fat on a bodybuilder?

The average percentage for a bodybuilder when they're in shape - 3-5%, and then it depends on what they do on the off season, how bad they celebrate after the show. It could go up to 8-10, but a 10% body fat for anybody is healthy.

How much money do bodybuilders make in competitions?

It's more through the endorsements, but you can win up to $350,000 for winning the Universe and the Olympia.

What is the future of bodybuilding?

The future of bodybuilding is I think more the style and physique of yesterday. I think they are moving more towards the more pleasing physique of society, to make it more mainstream and also trying to get into the Olympics. Again it is basically an art show. It is a creation. There is apples and oranges. You know you get a six foot five guy next to a five five guy. And you can not compare size wise, but you compare shape. So the future is going to be more shape. More like Steve Reeves, you know Arnold Schwarzenegger.