Straight Outta The Lair with Flex Lewis
7x Mr. Olympia 212 Champion Flex Lewis presents Straight Outta The Lair, the podcast that aims to bring you vital information for your life's ambitions, providing valuable insight from interviews of the many many different faces that walk through our doors at The Dragon's Lair Las Vegas and a few from the man himself.
Straight Outta The Lair with Flex Lewis
Road to Olympia | Mike Sommerfeld & Neil Hill | Straight Outta The Lair Podcast
Discover the transformative journey of Mike "Badass" Summerfield as he prepares for the Mr. Olympia competition under the expert guidance of Neil Yoda Hill. Mike takes us through the physical and mental challenges of bodybuilding, sharing how embracing intense emotions and a meticulously planned training regime have led to significant gains. From breaking the constraints of the 202 division to optimizing his off-season in Dubai, Mike’s story is a testament to the power of mental resilience and strategic preparation in achieving peak performance on stage.
Explore the profound relationship between athlete and coach as Neil and Mike discuss the essential role of honest, sometimes tough feedback in personal growth and success. Through candid conversations, we highlight the balance between physical development and mental fortitude. The episode unveils the importance of genetic factors, disciplined preparation, and the art of self-assessment in bodybuilding. Uncover how a supportive environment and breaking out of restrictive divisions allow athletes to realize their full potential in the competitive arena.
Join us for an emotional exploration of how family and personal relationships shape the bodybuilding journey. Reflect on humorous tales from backstage to heartwarming family traditions, and learn how significant others can turn dreams into reality with unwavering support. From early beginnings with family training sessions to navigating life's challenges with a partner, this episode captures the essence of dedication, passion, and balance in the world of bodybuilding.
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----- Content -----
00:00:00 - Intro
00:04:51 - Mental Transition and Physique Gains
00:19:00 - Elite Bodybuilding Coaching and Mindset
00:27:49 - Family Bonding Through Bodybuilding Journeys
00:37:36 - Christmas Traditions and Outdoor Activities
00:46:37 - Mental Toughness and Bodybuilding Preparations
00:52:23 - Achieving Balance in Bodybuilding Lifestyle
01:01:41 - Navigating Sponsorship and Olympia Preparation
01:14:02 - Bodybuilding Journey and Competitive Spirit
01:17:48 - Breast Milk Su
straight out the lab, joined today by two incredible gas rock, somebody that I've known for 21 years, my coach under my eyes, the best coach in the ifbb, uh, friend of the family, friend and father figure, brother, all of the above, mr neil yoda hill. And in front of me, right here they man they call badass mike summerfield. My friends, welcome to the show. We are now actually today and going live, a week out from the mr olympia. You guys ready, you excited? Oh yeah, yeah, I can see that look at the face, look at the skin falls in the face.
Speaker 1:You know when somebody's down in weight, when that skin is literally folding up, when you're smiling but not not only that.
Speaker 2:Let's, let's, let's, give a little bit of love to the celebration of hair above the upper lip on my man right here. Look at that, look at that beard, look at that mustache. Is this why they call you badass?
Speaker 3:Not yet, but we will see soon.
Speaker 1:I like it. Is that going to be on stage? I don't know. I don't know. Is this the brand that you've been using and working with the last year? I've seen you with different stations.
Speaker 3:Honestly, I tried to copy a guy His name is Flex Lewis and what he did the past few years. He was cutting his beard off before the show. That's what I did just to see myself and like, okay, it's game time, my friend.
Speaker 1:It's a different guy right, when you shave that beard and you see yourself back, it's like who are you?
Speaker 2:I don't recognize this face, let alone his body. We were just talking about this because, like I asked him specifically, I was like dude, did you ever compete with your beard? And he was like no, he was like the beard comes off. When the beard comes off, flex turns into a whole different human being. So he's like he wouldn't like that guy he knew about that guy.
Speaker 1:Way too much, way too much. But um, mike Neil, it's been great to see you over the last. What have you been here for? A week? A little bit over a week. Yeah two weeks, yeah, and see you putting in the work You've been, you know, putting it all in, obviously, coming into the Mr Olympia. You've made some incredible changes, which we're going to be talking about and how. But let's talk about the Olympia and these improvements that you've made. And what are the improvements the fans can expect to see now stepping on stage?
Speaker 3:Well, we're limited. The past few years with the weight cap right and they changed it quite a bit. So we had the chance to go into our pretty much first offseason this year and I can tell you that it was the greatest off-season I've ever had. You know, neil, he makes sure you don't eat crap food. So my off-season was basically very, very clean, high quality foods. I spent my off-season in Dubai where I was able to get the best quality, high frequency, good amounts of food. It was preppedpped, it was delivered so I could just pick and choose the vegetables, the protein sources, carbs, the fats and, of course, neil had an eye on me all the time. We gained weight very easy, because it was my first off season since 2000, 1980-19. We already reached the weight weight cap for 200 pounds back then and then we had some room to grow and that's what we did Four months. We didn't push really hard, but we increased the calories a little bit, we changed the training, we learned a lot and worked out pretty well.
Speaker 1:What kind of things did you learn during that off season that you you hadn't have learned the previous years?
Speaker 3:um, I would say it's mentally to use emotions, putting into a set where it's beneficial. In other words, if you are depressed and angry and frustrated, very negative emotions, but as you're able to turn that into power or fuel, you will get much more out of every set, every rep, and that's what I'm focusing on for, I would say, at least eight weeks as a mental boot camp, and I was able to create an emotion which is so intense that I can go through pain and through these walls you need to break to make improvements.
Speaker 1:So you are talking about not physically improved. This last offseason, you really found a new mental side to this drive that you never had before. That's what you're talking about Tapping into these suppressed emotions. You know, know things that you've uh, you know. Whatever it is that you've suppressed, you know. You're putting them into each and every training session. So the mental game is something we talk about a lot in the podcast. We've had some incredible guests in all different sports and everybody talks about that time where they were able to unlock that true potential by tapping into that mindset. A lot of these guys let's just take a couple of fighters we've had on. They were fighting on emotion. They didn't know really how to home that emotion in, and when they'd done that, I mean they were on winning streaks. They were able to truly find that best version of themselves, not only in training but also in the octagon too. Have you ever worked with anybody on the mental side of things, like a sports therapist or anything like that?
Speaker 3:no, but I'm working on it since, I would say, eight or nine years, by reading, talking to psychologists and people who are involved in this personal mental transition from a to b and there many, many different types of changes, and for me it has never something to do with breaking my ego. It's more about using it to give me all the benefits. I need to do things to grow, to perform better, to improve.
Speaker 1:What have you seen in the last year?
Speaker 4:coach. Just to touch base with what Mike said. Obviously there's a huge mental transition from the old Mike to the new Mike and it's obviously paid dividends for this physique because he's made some incredible, incredible progress and gains, very much like us back when we transitioned from 202 up to the 212 division. That extra weight allowed you to obviously bring a new level of physique to the stage, but it also gave you the ability to have more confidence with your off-season and be productive. You know Mike talks about that. You know this is the first off-season he's had for such a long time Because obviously we were chasing Olympia qualifications at different times. You know, in a perfect world you want to step on stage at the Mr Olympia place in a place which allows you to pre-qualify for next year. That's obviously only for a very limited amount of athletes. You know that as well as I, as well as myself. So that's positive in one sense. So that's positive in one sense. But the other negative with that is I do feel that sometimes doing shows away from the Olympia allows you to learn a lot as an athlete, as a coach and an athlete and coach relationship. But my point in this is that Mike talks about the mental side, which has changed, which has made such a massive impact on his physique side, which has changed, which has made such a massive impact on his physique.
Speaker 4:But the thing is before, even if mike had that same mentality, you still can't build muscle because you're in a box. And you know, when you competed as a as a 202 athlete in your first pro show flex you were about 192. I can remember you're about 19 and obviously we went through the process over probably like three years to get from 192 to step on stage as true 202 athlete. Once we hit that 202, you know, we brought a physique, or you brought a physique which was worthy of the most prestigious titles in the world, obviously the Mr Olympia. Unfortunately, in the last 202 show for you, that didn't happen. Do I think you should have won that 202 division 100? I have no doubt so, do I? You were the champion that day. No, no disrespect to the champion himself, because you have to show respect to these athletes, because and it's not personal, remember, it's just a personal opinion um, it's just a personal opinion. But when that 2012 division came along, there was a change in your mentality because now you're not being pushed into a box that you've outgrown right.
Speaker 4:So I think that there's many elements with what mike is saying.
Speaker 4:And of course we've been able to increase calories, making sure that his digestive tract is in a really healthy place so that he's able to utilize, not force feed, not overfeed, be in a positive state of being in an environment, to make sure that you're also considering the variable of injury prevention, because as strength goes up, as food goes up, as new muscle tissue takes place, sometimes tendons can't keep up with those strength gains and obviously mike has grown in confidence with his physique. He's definitely so much more three-dimensional and I know that this is a simple question and I know I've answered a lot. But I said to Mike I think it was last week, I said I was at every single photo shoot that Flex did the day after Olympia and you'll know this all right perbanel, between perbanel and obviously the other incredible photographers, kevin autumn being one of those as well those guys may have taken 200, 300 pictures of you over a period of two hours, right and out. Those two or three hundred, we only like 10, we would set the look of it seriously.
Speaker 4:He'd be like don't like that don't like that because there was gaps. You know there was gaps in the physique, but everyone has gaps, everyone. What? What becomes a real three-dimensional athlete is when those gaps get filled. And that's what I've seen with mike. And I remember in your last photo shoot with perp and l. I can remember the room we were in. I remember it's in the dumbbell room. I can remember the room we were in. I remember it's in the dumbbell room. I can remember it so clearly. Per must have taken 200 pitches. You could have probably used 200 pitches because they were all so fucking incredible, because you'd filled all those spaces Right. So that's what I'm seeing with Mike Now. This new muscle is filling spaces. His waistline is the same size. It's allowed his physique to really show a new dimension.
Speaker 4:Of course, he still has to compete and step on stage. We still have to make weight. That's where our focus is at the moment. So we're roughly about four or five pounds away from making weight. So we're in a really great place. And because he's in a great place emotionally, mentally, here in Vegas, he's got a beautiful wife, Shani, with him. I just feel that he couldn't be in a better and we call it base camp right. We used to turn up in Vegas normally about 8-10 days before base camp sets up and then we go into the final phases. So he's in a great place. He's in a. Really I have no doubts that he's going to make some noise on that stage.
Speaker 1:He's already making noise, because we were in the gym last week and him and Rahman were doing an improv pause down right in front of us and obviously I seen him walking around the gym pumped up. But then the improvements were just so much seen. When these guys went and had this pause down I was like, holy shit, incredible fucking improvements. Again, it's hard to see on the internet, you know, and we all kind of follow and see things that pop up. Coach obviously posts a lot of his athletes, but then when you're in this gym, I know who walks through this gym and who has that look. And then when you were training that day, you were like, hey, come on, let's take a couple of pictures. You knew you looked good, you knew he made them improvements and, my gosh, I got tagged in on all this stuff. That photo and that video went viral.
Speaker 1:It's got to be a good feeling for you to now be talked about as one of the you know contenders to break into that top five as well. Right, you can mix it up. It's got to be a good feeling for you to to come from Germany, have the dream to to go from linking up with Neil, have this incredible journey, competing all around the world, and now you're on this Olympia stage this year. Obviously you, just like me, were coming into you know base camp that week and where we were like four or five pounds always overweight coming here too, but again I was the stressor in the weight. This guy be like, shut the fuck up. We're good, my job is my job. You just follow the plan. But it's good to have that coach too, and we spoke about that in the gym. Right, you want a coach, not a cheerleader. Let's, let's talk about that relationship between you and neil.
Speaker 3:In your opinion, I share that for a reason um, I texted him 31st of december, so like close to new year's eve, and I got a message, I guess two hours later. It was the first of january, and he answered straight away. I was like, okay, that's weird, maybe that's a fake. And he said, yeah, flex told me about you. And I was like, okay, that's weird, maybe that's a fake. And he said, yeah, flex told me about you. And I was like, okay, that's 100 fake, can't be real. And they said, yeah, okay, let's have a call. And I was like, okay, oh, wow, okay, I mean for real. And then we had a conversation and he said, okay, you just turned pro, let's see what we can do.
Speaker 3:I had a special health condition that's why I worked with Patrick Tour before and he said he could not take the responsibility to coach me anymore Because my body is not able to produce oxygen in these seven following steps, so the seventh one is not working properly. That creates toxins and raises my liver enzyme levels. And Neil said, okay, there's a deal, we're going to work together. As soon as your levels go up slightly, we're going to stop right away. Deal or no deal. As he is very straight and honest. And I said, okay, deal and since then my levels were dropping and dropping and dropping. I'm healthy as never before. I'm feeling great.
Speaker 3:My body developed tremendously throughout the last five years and we did so many shows. We had so much, I would say, time together not personal but he's much more than just a coach. A coach is somebody who tells you eat more rice, eat less rice, eat more chicken, go to bed early. But he really takes care about your life, business, how you're feeling, what kind of person you are. He's like a real mentor, slash friend, slash coach and I say coach the last point because all the other things before are so much more intense and, as we agreed, he's probably the best coach in the world. So he is really part of my inner, inner inner circle. There's my dad, my wife and Neil. I have basically three people pinned on my whatsapp and he's one of them. My wife is one of them. That tells a lot.
Speaker 1:Can't be missing any messages from him either, right? He's giggling Sometimes I should just put my phone off, you've got to have some stories with him where you've not got back to him in a timely fashion. So many Say so many. I got so many of 21 decades. Get some rest, got back to him in a timely fashion. So many Say so many. I got so many of 21 decades, hey.
Speaker 3:Mike, get some rest. Go back to bed. Tim said hey, mike, I need some pictures now. I love it, yeah, but you can feel that he's on the money, like he wants you to be the best you can be. Of course, every fucking minute.
Speaker 2:Yeah Well, the force is strong with them and they call them. They call them the yoda, right.
Speaker 1:And obviously, if you're the yoda, you gotta amongst other things yeah, well, with with our relationship obviously, with competing from amateur to them pros, the things changed in terms of you know, uh, frequency of meals and stuff like that as we evolved. But what didn't change was his mindset switch. So you have a relationship with with neil. You know, in the off season, yes, you're still working as coach and athlete, but then when it comes down to that critical time, whether it be whatever the number is 15 weeks out for us it was 20 weeks out we'd have that conversation on a friday or something like that, like hey, monday, coach hats on. And then, you know, as I'm waking up, I get a whatsapp from him. I was expecting fucking pictures of seven. Where the fuck are you? What's your weight? I'm like it's 701, mate, calm down. But you go through that period of that new balance because you've gone through, you know, 11 months of not having a show and then it's retraining. You know that mentality.
Speaker 1:Now, a lot of coaches that I work with, they have a consistent relationship throughout the year and I think that's a bad thing because it allows the coach to feel empathy, it allows coach to give forgiveness or be like you know what, yeah, you've worked hard. This week you have a cheat meal because the court, because the athlete's asking for it with us, you know, it was never a question of of can I have a cheat meal. I had to earn something. And he would actually tell me and force feed that cheat meal into me many times where, where many cases where I didn't want it, I was like I don't think I want you're eating it and I want you to send me a video which at that time in the morning was like 3am, so my poor wife was looped into all this stuff. He would message ali on the side and he would say I need you to film him eating this cheat meal because I don't believe he's eating it. Is any story similar to you?
Speaker 3:yeah, my wife. She's doing a lot of conversations, especially the last week because I tried to really chill and, as I said, neil is a huge part of my inner circle, so the moment he moves his lip just a millimeter, I'm like all in and sometimes I feel pressure when there's no need to have pressure, just because I want to be the best I can be for him, because I can feel he puts everything he can into my success. So what I can do is just trying to give everything back I can. Sometimes that creates pressure, but also diamonds are created by pressure, absolutely. So it's my job to deal with it. Yeah, and he has never, ever a bad intention, so I just sometimes need to come back, control my emotions. Sometimes he's straight no, I would say all the time. He's very straight all the time, and sometimes he tells you things you don't want to hear, especially things where you're not the best. That's his job Finding those spots and make you work on them.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 3:And sometimes it feels hard, but it's my job to control it. It's my job to make that happen.
Speaker 1:It's called tough love, tough love, tough love that's what we call it. He would message me before a leg day and be like you trained like a pussy. Last week I seen you, I was there in the gym, you're not going to win the Olympia training that style. So I was like, okay, fuck you. No, I trained hard enough. And then you realize like, nah, I didn't really. I had more in the tank, even though you're in the mindset of I'm going to empty the tank here.
Speaker 1:But that's, that's the difference between having a cheerleader and a coach. You know that coach is going to tell you that you know you suck or you have body parts to bring up or you need to improve on this, and as much as you, you might not want a year at that time because of diets and emotions and everything else that's going on. You need a year. It and and then when it starts sinking in, it might take some time, even though, again, we have a long relationship and long history of it, of a blueprint of all this happening. It would be like, okay, I, I understand now, I understand now, and then we would take that, then that new, you know whatever that conversation would be, and then we would implement it into the training. But there was always that transitional period for us, right where we went from you know, traveling on the road and eating and training and having fun to then that switch, that mentality. And it's not like you show favoritism to anybody everybody gets it right, coach yeah, because I might like.
Speaker 4:My intentions are always going to be good. I'm never going to expect an athlete to step on stage and place in a place that maybe at that given time they're not at that level of muscularity or that level of maturity. It's like layers right, it's like walking up a ladder, so to speak. But I, as a coach, I have to give my everything for me to feel like I'm doing what I'm supposed to be doing. So my expectations of the athlete is to make sure they're doing everything on their part to be the best athlete that they possibly can be, because there's no second chances, unfortunately, on that stage, by any means, you know you have one shot at it. In that prejudging, it's not very often that you're going to have the ability to make a mistake and get away with it. And at the end of the day, when you look at a 12 week, a 13, 13 week, a 14 week, pre-con contest prep, there's many, many days for every day that you haven't applied yourself. That's a day that you sometimes can't get back.
Speaker 4:And, of course, genetics play a massive part structure, generic ability to build muscle tissue, genetic ability to potentially grow into shows if that's something that you're able to do, depending on the weight category.
Speaker 4:You're competing against genetic specimens and you have to be able to look at yourself at night time, especially the day after the show, and ask yourself did I do everything that I could have done to be the best version of myself?
Speaker 4:And the best version of yourself is doing everything that you need to do and nothing that you don't have to do. It's very easy for some people to be into a mindset where more is better more cardio, less food, more training volume. You're in a catabolic state, you're. You know there's a fine line between anabolism and catabolism pre-contest time and you need to make sure that you're potentially trying to stay as anabolic as possible so that you are able to get maturity, be able to lose body fat, potentially grow into a show and certainly preserve muscle tissue. So I never ask my athletes to do more than anything that they should be doing as far as cardio, caloric restriction, whether we're doing high days, low days, training volume in the gym. But as for me, I have to know that I've done everything I can for me to warrant the ability and feel good that I'm doing everything on my behalf.
Speaker 1:What was it about Mike that you've seen? Because you have a very elite group of athletes you work with. You don't work with just anybody group of athletes you work with. You don't work with just anybody. And I've been in in many conversations where you know, where you said, like it's not about the money, um, I want to work with people who take my time seriously, have that little something special about them. But what was it with mike? Knowing that mike had some pre-existing uh, genetic health, health issues, that made you think I want to work with this guy.
Speaker 4:Well, first of all, I'm somebody who gets drawn to shape and structure all right.
Speaker 4:And you could look at that in lots of different forms of life. Right To me, shape and structure is bodybuilding and unfortunately not everybody has the shape and the structure but a big percentage of those people which don't have that shape and structure have these crazy genetics to build muscle tissue right. So there's an element which is just you're fortunate, you're gifted, you're lucky. But there's a lot of gifted, lucky people out there who have never gone on to be successful in their chosen professions because they don't have the drive, the determination, they're not hungry or maybe they don't have that passion, and there's nothing wrong with that. But if you want something and you're passionate about something and you apply yourself, then you're going to see progress.
Speaker 4:Mike's physique is very appealing to me. I just look at it and think that's just bodybuilding. You know, that's just like art. And the great thing about the classic physique division it's allowed athletes who potentially don't have the ability to build the mass to go into a open class division, potentially don't have the ability to build a muscle, to step on the top end of the scale of the two, two or twelve division and it's allowed them to step on stage as the athlete they are.
Speaker 4:I still feel that, like every division, the, the men's physique division, or, sorry, classic physique division it's height and weight. So it's not just about shape and structure, it's about height and weight. But Mike just had that physique which I just think is just like, it's just so appealing. It's a front cover shot. You know, he's handsome, he's got great skin, he talks well, he speaks German, he's gone out of his way to learn multiple different languages, he's a very sociable, interactive person and when I knew about his genetic disadvantages, so to speak, I was also very, very, very mindful that, as I've always been with you, I keep 100% healthy and I like the challenge and I feel that the progress that Mike has made is testament of how we work together.
Speaker 1:Well, listen, I think that the story among many that you have got going going on, you know we mentioned, uh, athletes. I seen that change working with half el brando right, obviously, this is a kid that, um, I kind of uh fell in love with through through meeting him you know, couldn't speak much english invited him over to the dragons there in boca raton and got to truly train on me every day for nearly two years through corvid and I got to see his mindset change. And, of course, he trained myself on coach. And we're talking about what I'm doing, he's talking about what he's doing, and I never tried to put you guys together, did I? He was just. We never had a conversation, no, no, it was just an organic. It was just for him, an organic draw. You know he heard what Neil was doing and making sure his athletes are healthy and he loved all that stuff and obviously he wanted to, you know, make sure that he has a kid. Obviously, now he's, it's coming, come and gone. He hit that target right, uh, but I've seen this guy's mentality to to bodybuilding in the gym and his mentality to life outside the gym tremendously improve, as I've seen yours.
Speaker 1:And again, I love the mindset because once you tap into that and you kind of I hate this word, this sentence, not you have to fake it until you make it, but you really have to retrain your mindset into why you're doing what you do and have to, you know, feel the pain and enjoy the pain.
Speaker 1:You know, there was times I was going to the gym where I was just absolutely exhausted, training for the mr olympia six weeks out, because we were pretty much nearly ready at that point in time and I had to rediscover that new why.
Speaker 1:And every day I had to home in on that. Because you're in the same shoes as me, where you know you're outgrown the class, not that you can't make the weight, but right now you're in this, in this spot, where the improvements that they're looking for you to to see on stage, you know you could actually, you know, walk on stage right now with the improvements, but again, you've got to make a weight right, you've got to step on that weight. So you've tapped into that mindset. Coach obviously has talked about different things that you guys have done, but I want to talk, I want to circle it back to um how this whole journey started and and where and when you first stepped into the foot and the bodybuilding bug grabbed you I started doing bodybuilding when I was 11 years old and I would say my dad is one of the main reasons.
Speaker 3:I found a funny picture. It's, I guess, almost 30 years old. He was competing right next to Dennis James. Wow, junior nationals 19, I have no idea. 1920, dennis still had his afro and yeah, it's old. Yeah, very funny. So I guess he was the main reason. As your dad is a soccer trainer, you're gonna play soccer or baseball or whatever, and I tried different sports like soccer, basketball, volleyball. I have diplomas in chess, like soccer, basketball, volleyball. I have diplomas in chess, acrobatics, stuff like that. But bodybuilding has no end. There's nothing like a perfect body. So, reaching a goal or winning the game yeah, you can win the Olympia, but there's another one coming right next year, so there's always something to work on and that keeps me going all the time.
Speaker 1:Yes, so so I want to talk about. I read um in an article. You wrote that you and your dad started training together in the gym at a very young age, right?
Speaker 3:yes, I was not allowed to enter a gym because I was too young. So my parents made sure that you know these very, very old German or even British houses with the cows and the pigs behind in the garden, yeah, we had that too, like a small little Urban farm, yeah, kind of, yeah, like very small house with the chickens and stuff, but we had no animals in there. So my dad bought very cheap plastic weights. He produced himself like whatever it was metal put together. One was six kilos, one was eight kilos. So I did the set and I changed the weight just to make sure my arms differently, right?
Speaker 3:yeah, very, very funny. And when I turned 14, it was a time when I was able to go to the gym the very first time and it, you remember, it's almost 19 years ago. So we're talking about a time where there's no instagram, no facebook, no social media. So I was going to the train stations daily to get the flex magazines and muscle and fitness and there was just bodybuilding no bikini, no classic physique, no men's physique. We're talking about flex lewis, we're talking about ronnie coleman, flex wheeler, all those guys. So this is where my bodybuilding journey pretty much started and it's still very deep in my heart, so it's not like um 1000 classic. There's still some bodybuilding beating in me, since I'm a kid and I love open bodybuilding. I love the big, freaky guys, but for me, my bone structure, my understanding of bodybuilding, fits better into the classic instead of the open.
Speaker 1:Well, I heard the story about you and your dad, and you helped your dad at the same time too. You guys training together really helped him as much as you training through that time. You both created this inspiring story that I read, and I don't know if you want to talk about it or not, but I think it's very cool to see that bond and hear that story.
Speaker 3:He will actually come to Vegas in two days and there's a reason why he's doing it. I was younger, so I was not able to understand how depression works. And as a kid, a boy, depression works and as a kid, a boy you got a father who's pulling out the weapons when it's time to fight when there was a problem. I was able to see him. All right, my friend, let's go, problem, come over, you're mine. He was truly like he is the badass. And then I saw him breaking into pieces and I did not really understand what happened. It was like, okay, something is wrong here. Maybe he's not the hero I thought he is, so something was breaking, but I didn't really understand what it is. He was not able to go out of his bed for two weeks. He didn't shower, he didn't cook his food, he didn't show up at the gym. He was just I called him. He just, yeah, he didn't care at all and was like, okay, something is really really not good, but I did not have the tools to help him.
Speaker 3:I was like maybe 14, 15 years old and 2014 I prepped for the arnold's classic juniors in madrid and I had a really, really dark and bad day, you know these days, and I called him and said, dad, I I won't make it to the gym today. I have to give up. It was the first time in my life. I told him hey, dad, I don't think I'm going to make it. And he was like what did you? What the fuck did you just say, you say you can't? Okay, meeting at the gym 20 minutes. I was like, okay, what happened? Okay, so I drove to the gym and he was like on fire. I've never seen his eyes like that and he was like okay, mike, we're gonna get it done together. He was just there holding my hand, just he didn't train, but he was there for his kid, to make sure I get my shit together, and I was able to see that I created a reason for him to show up to support, even if it's not for him, it's for his son. So I used that to create a necessity.
Speaker 3:And then it was time to do the competitions one week out, 2020, I guess. So the relationship got better. We trained together more often, more frequently. I found a tool to let's say let's train, let's do this, let's do that, let's go grocery shopping, let's cook together, let's watch a movie, movie, whatever. And then 2020.
Speaker 3:I had nobody coming with me to the, to the competitions. I said, hey, dad, in a week we need to go to Spain, alicante and I know he likes Spain, he was. He wasn't out of germany for many, many years. I asked him, without any, any question. He was like, all right, book the flights, it's so easy. And I told him, hey, dad, you need to take care of my tanning. I was like I can't do, yeah, but we don't have a chance Like you have to. And he was shaky, but he made it and since then, I never, ever, ever, book a professional tanning. Every competition I do, it's going to be my dad shaving my ass. Tan me, super old school, with you know the roll-ons. That's what he's going to at the olympia and the last three olympias and the next hundred olympias, um, yeah. So what a story, mike. Oh, it continues. We went to the competition and he was so nervous, the final touch-up with the, the glossy and stuff. He was like he don't want to, you know yeah yeah, make something bad.
Speaker 3:And then the next show romania and london and the olympia. And then we missed the flight in 2020. It was not that we missed it travel restrictions from germ Germany to the US and you needed to have a special document and it took 12 working days and I applied for it. I was waiting at the airport refreshing my email, so I started to cry. I started to be very aggressive, screaming at him that I really need to go on the plane. They didn't let me, no. And the police officer says also, stop that right now.
Speaker 3:Anyway, um, I started to cry really bad, because it was imagine he was competing against guys going to the olympia dennis james, for example and he never, ever had the chance to be at the olympia, being part of the olympia, not even seeing the show and I created that opportunity to bring my dad to the olympia and we fucking missed the flight. Do you know how bad that felt? Everything I was working for and I'm not talking about bodybuilding, I'm talking about my family and my dad the excitement, the, the pressure before hey, dad, we're going to go to Orlando, we're going to go to Vegas, we're going to do that. And then it felt very, very bad, but fortunately the year after we were able to go to Mexico. First we learned Smart move Mexico for two weeks and from Mexico to Orlando.
Speaker 1:I remember you in Mexico, you guys, when you were in Mexico doing the whole COVID stuff. What a wild time to try to compete with all them restrictions and stuff.
Speaker 3:I competed in Spain during COVID, london, romania and unfortunately not the US, but it was a pain.
Speaker 2:Did you have to wear a mask when you were competing? Excuse me, did you have to wear a mask when you were competing during COVID?
Speaker 1:Yes, Wild right.
Speaker 2:Yes.
Speaker 1:I know we're not the advocates on this, don't worry.
Speaker 2:Don't get me going. Yeah, I know I won't, don't worry, but you're going to meet him. I Don't get me going.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 4:I won't, but you're going to meet him.
Speaker 1:I can't wait. So full circle and here we are.
Speaker 3:He is literally my best friend. Believe me, he's so freaking funny. My wife, she loves my dad. Everybody loves my dad. If we're somewhere around, everybody tells yeah, mike, you're playing the role of being an asshole.
Speaker 1:And he is the nice guy.
Speaker 3:One day you'll be the nice guy, don't worry, it's gonna be on monday when he's eating carbs, right, coach? Oh, what'd he say?
Speaker 1:he said monday, carbs next monday, following monday he got excited when he was pop up.
Speaker 3:He's like carbs monday after yeah, the show yeah, okay, cheat meals every day I got a question were you the one shaving flex's ass back in?
Speaker 1:the day oh my god, he's driving. Who was on I?
Speaker 4:have saved him a few times and I've tanned him, yeah, a few times he tanned he would. He would the only guy that would gloss me yeah, I used to tan most of my athletes, especially when we were on the road. Mind you, don't get like a spray. Like a spray, no, I would old school would just paint with a sponge Like a fucking garden fence man, yeah, like a garden fence. He'd come out green, that's happened too.
Speaker 3:Spread it like, spend it all. You've got to spread the chips a little bit.
Speaker 4:The fucking shit that this guy said to do for me. I've got a lot of stories.
Speaker 1:That's a podcast.
Speaker 2:I would love to hear some of these stories and I'm sure some of the crowd they would love to hear some of these stories about Flex.
Speaker 4:Flex is probably the most unorganized person you'll probably ever meet.
Speaker 2:Everybody's saying yes, not anymore.
Speaker 4:So what would happen? We would turn up. We're prepping for a show competing abroad. Oh, coach, coach, I we're prepping for a show competing abroad. Oh, coach, coach, I've got my clippers. Well, I knew you would. That's why I fucking brought mine, you know. So he would use my beard trimmer, I would. Basically he would shave himself, I would shave his back in the areas he can't get to and then he would finish off himself off, not literally, that's a fucking clip now he would finish himself off with a big razor, all right, and then I would apply the tan and then if he cut himself, especially with proton, it's alcohol based.
Speaker 4:It's the best tan. You know. Proton is the best it stings.
Speaker 1:So this little bitch would be screaming because I'm fucking bleeding all over the place like edward suzanne, because it stings.
Speaker 2:It's like putting aftershave on a broken wound yeah, like a cut on your finger and you get lime in it or something, right?
Speaker 4:but it's like everything you know. Sometimes you try to tell a story. It's not really, it's not funny because people aren't there right and uh.
Speaker 4:But there's been many of those, oh my yeah, there's been many of those and I've been fortunate to obviously travel, you know like intensely throughout the whole world with flex and as well as other athletes and um, all those, all the things that you don't see behind the scenes. You see the, you know, you see the polished diamond on stage, you see the athletes on stage. It's all the small things which are the most rewarding, so to speak. Yeah, so I have stories with mike, um, but poor mike tends to only have my time. In fact, we only have time to be honest together come contest time. It's very, very rarely we actually have any off-season time, whereas with Flex it was a bit different because we live so close together. So, whether it was when he was in Wales or when I was over in the US, etc. So poor Mike sees more the coach cap on than the other side but we're going to change that really soon we'll finish the show prep very shortly.
Speaker 3:I'm not moving to Vegas, guys, but we're going to celebrate Christmas together here, here, that's a nice Christmas in Vegas the typical German the day before Christmas, actually. So we're doing grandma's recipe has to like eight kilograms of turkey. These bread balls I don't know if you, if you have that here stuffing no, we call it knudel. It's like you can make them out of potato like balls, yeah, in the oven or no. You like gnocchi? That's like a pasta, yeah, no, it's made out of bread, but like bigger balls. Super, super tasty with brown sauce and okay, I'm on diet I can tell you guys want to drop some off, or you?
Speaker 2:you know me and Flex, we'll try them out. Yeah, I'll try them out.
Speaker 3:And my dad has to make it because that's a tradition. Oh yeah, we have really really, really fixed traditions on Christmas.
Speaker 1:Okay, cool, as do I in the Lewis household too, and that's why I do the gingerbread every single day. Are you eating it? No, you don't want to eat my gingerbread house after it's done. It's all fucking messed up.
Speaker 3:Oh, we eat it First. We're going to build it, we're going to let it stay for like two or three days. Everyone puts some little presents into it but nobody knows what's in there. And then Christmas night we're going to break it, eating a few pieces, and then we're doing the presents like just pick and choose.
Speaker 1:That's going to be cool for you guys to have that time. Christmas time no diets, no shows, and that's just some quality time in Las Vegas, and we should have some snow in the mountains, hopefully, for Christmas.
Speaker 3:Yeah, usually around there. Yeah, I've never been skiing.
Speaker 4:Never you can ski like 30, 45 minutes away from our home.
Speaker 3:I shouldn't maybe not do it. I'm a really, really intense athlete, so the moment I'm standing on a snowboard or a ski, yeah, I understand that mentality.
Speaker 1:No, I'm all in. Yeah, I went on my snowboard for the first time last year and I'd done the Bunny Hill three times and I convinced myself just through my mindset that okay, I'm ready for the the big slope. I was nowhere near the big slope nowhere near.
Speaker 3:But, uh, downhilling. I just got a new bike for all my. I was like I tried to save all my money for years and I bought the bike, the bicycle, and I, my dad, invited me or brought me to like a racetrack, which was a world cup downhill track. It was like, oh yeah, that sounds, that looks nice. My whole cycle was absolutely damaged. All brakes were broken, my tires are flat, all the suspensions were gone, like you can put it straight into the trash. How's the body?
Speaker 1:fine, really absolutely. We went on the. You get ragged on that downhill stuff 50 years ago it was unbreakable.
Speaker 3:I was doing free running and parkour and stuff. Yeah, I was jumping from house to house didn't really hurt me, but my bike was absolutely damaged you gotta get caught on these downhill runs.
Speaker 1:He's into his mountain biking.
Speaker 3:But up the hill, not down the hill. Yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean, you're a coach of these great athletes. What do you do for your fitness? Are you still in the gym with these guys or you have other protocols? Oh shit, bro, he's strong.
Speaker 4:I train with my athletes very often.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 4:I don't expect them to do something that I'm not willing to do with them, and I like to listen. I'm not competitive in the gym, so what I mean by that is that I do what I know I can do. I don't try to be competitive with the athletes. I enjoy my training, but I also like life away from bodybuilding because I'm very, very passionate about it and I call it my bubble right. So I step into my working environment. I like peace and quiet, I like hiking, I like outdoors. That's why I love Vegas so much. Me too, I love Vegas. It's so diverse and it's very the complete opposite of me. So Flex knows what it's like. Flex knows I don't drink, I don't smoke, I don't party. I don't do any of those things. I have no interest.
Speaker 2:That's why you're never had any of our after parties, and I've never been into that.
Speaker 4:I worked in a nightclub for 14 years, on the door, so the last thing I want to do is be in a noisy nightclub with drunk people. Right? I like the quiet life, I like my coffee, I like the nature and I'm in my happy place, but I like the gym. You know I'm still a bodybuilder at heart. Yeah, you know, I was training today with Norman, one of my friends. We train legs together. I'm quite inconsistent. If I train consistently, there's change. But I spend sometimes probably more time out in the gym than in the gym because there's other things that I need to focus on as well. So I feel I got pretty good balance going on.
Speaker 2:You said something about being out in nature here in Vegas and a lot of people who come here don't realize that we have that right Because they just think Vegas and they think casino strip right. But there's so much beauty out there and you know, even just for your mental health to get out into nature and just think through some things, get a good walk going, get a good hike going right? Is that mental coaching also a part of like how you approach each one of the athletes? Because everybody's different, right. Some guys get motivated differently. Do you take that in an approach and try to change things with different guys because they need different things?
Speaker 4:I try to get to know the individual and find out where their strengths and weaknesses are when it comes to their emotional side. Um, because obviously humans are very complex and you also have to understand that people have different breaking points, different personalities, different drives, different passions. Um, some people will say that if you want to excel in something, then you will never. If you want to be the very best. There is no balance.
Speaker 4:I will agree to that to a certain point, but I also feel it's absolutely essential to have something other than just bodybuilding that you can focus on.
Speaker 4:So it might be work related, right, it might be your children, it might be your relationship or whatever it may be, but I I do look at each individual as individuals. But, but at the same time, they also have to have a reality check as well and understand that their mentality is going to have a massive impact on their ability to be successful. Because anyone who's ever gone through a real, real pre-contest prep and has gone into real contest shape multiple times, they will know that it's a very lonely, dark environment. Sometimes it's not necessarily unhealthy, but what I'm saying is that you know you have to be extreme with your lifestyle habits, making sure that you are just so structured, so disciplined, so focused and I think sometimes not everybody has that mentality to do that and some people will be successful and not necessarily have to be so committed because of genetics and genetics I bring it up a number of times it's unfortunate because we're not all genetically the same right.
Speaker 2:There's always those guys we run into and they're just ripped all the time. You're like they barely work out yeah.
Speaker 4:But every genetically gifted athlete also has weaknesses. So if it's not with their physique, maybe it's with their mentality. We've seen it so many times. I completely agree Incredible individuals. They don't have the mentality and it's a waste.
Speaker 2:Saddest thing in life is wasted talent and you get guys who are naturally gifted in an ability, but they don't have the work effort right. And you see guys who are average in their skill, but they got the work effort, and those are the guys who end up being come becoming champions at times as well yeah, but mentality is everything, mindset is everything.
Speaker 4:Um, I don't. I I will quite often bring up my own experiences as an athlete, not because I am trying to superiorize myself over somebody else, but be like, listen, you're tired. Really, do you want me to tell you what I used to do when I was an athlete? How many jobs I worked? I was a full-time, I was a father, I was a husband, I had two full-time. I was a father.
Speaker 2:I was a husband. I had two full-time jobs, just walking to school every day, with no shoes, uphill In snow.
Speaker 4:Yeah, it's no, yes, yeah, but so it's like don't tell me you're tired, don't tell me you don't have time. You have no idea here what I used to have to do, and I'm not somebody who's like me, me, me, I'm just trying to. Sometimes it's a reality check, right. Some people sometimes feel sorry for themselves, like, are you fucking serious? You think your life is bad and you look at some other individuals and you compare yourself to them. Don't complain, don't start feeling sorry for yourself, because judges don't care how tired you are. They they have, they have no interest about what's taken place over the last 10 weeks or 12 weeks.
Speaker 4:There's been some obstacles, I can assure you, during this pre contest prep with you know some of my athletes. Real obstacles the audience, the so-called fans, the social media interaction, the judges. They're not interested in stories, they're only interested in judging what they see in front of them. And I'm sure that if those individuals whether it's judges or whether it's the audience or people who follow these so-called amazing athletes and individuals on social media if they knew a little more about their personal life, maybe they would be a little bit more understanding and sympathetic. Right, but at the end of the day, on contest day in sport, if you play soccer or rugby or whether it's bodybuilding or anything, or you're a dart player, if you're not playing on point, you're being judged in that moment in time and you have no wastage time. You can't get back time sometimes. But what are we? We're nine days out from Olympia now.
Speaker 4:Yeah, right around the corner and it's, you know it's really fastly approaching.
Speaker 4:So you know it's just mentally staying emotionally and mentally in a good place over the next sort of nine days and all these athletes are going to be going through exactly the same thing. So, you know, I have huge respect for all the athletes which compete in all the different divisions, as well as the coaches as well, for all the athletes which compete in all the different divisions, as well as the coaches as well, and I'm looking forward to seeing these incredible athletes on stage, from amateurs to Olympia, professional athletes as well, because the great thing about the Mr Olympia and not just because it's the 60th anniversary taking place selfishly, obviously, in our home city, it's a celebration of fitness, from amateurs to professionals and the production and everything that they're putting into this year's event is going to be obviously historic. Like it is every year, there's some incredible, incredible promoters and shows out there. We're obviously just talking about the moment, about the mr olympia, because this is where our focus is at the moment yeah, I'm excited to meet my first one first.
Speaker 4:Oh wow okay, wow, you're gonna you're gonna be absolutely blown away, man. You are gonna be really enjoying this because it is, even if you're not a man, a bodybuilder at heart. You're gonna walk away and you're gonna be so overwhelmed with what you're gonna see, because these athletes are just incredible. Yeah, I can't wait yeah, my whole life.
Speaker 2:You know I grew up reading the magazines, getting you know and and trying to learn. You know I'm a little older, so like the internet wasn't around when I was a kid and the information wasn't there, and so I've been through all of that and and kind of like the history and obviously have, uh, become really great friends with flex and and have gotten to be around more athletes and and I've learned quite a bit. You know I try to do a lot of my own research. You know I'm definitely like I deep dive on stuff, but just being around him rubs off on me in a lot of positive ways. I was going to say positive, I hope, but yeah sometimes you rub off me in a negative way.
Speaker 1:That's good that's good, that's my job. That's my job. You got that on camera Right. Yeah, clip that shit. But with that said, we took him to his First Strongman event this past weekend Giants Live. He got to see all the guys and we've done some Activations this week. We took some of the guys To the different schools To meet the world's Strongest brothers, luke and Tom Stoltman. So so you've seen that this week.
Speaker 2:That was awesome. I don't know if you guys have been to one of those, but that was really really fun Incredible.
Speaker 4:That's amazing.
Speaker 2:Yeah, the strength that these guys possess, I mean it's it's crazy, I mean, and their first, you know, they're deadlifting for the world record in their first exercise and then they do six, seven more events after that, you know, and it's like man, like the, just the being able to get through that entire competition in itself is is pretty crazy, yeah let alone try to make a podium finish, right.
Speaker 1:But you mentioned a couple of things and I want to circle back then to mike. You know you've always preached about balance, even since, uh, we first started meeting, we first met our first competition, uh, we, we worked together. I won that show and I was all excited, because the first thing you want to do is think, you know, well, back then, because I was, I was everything engulfed in bodybuilding. Bodybuilding, I would read the magazines, the forums, which are new, and I was just obsessed but I didn't realize it right. So when we obviously started developing our relationship not that he was ever PG at all at any point in time, neil was like after the show okay, coach, what are we going to do now? Are we going to rebound? No, the first thing you're going to do is give back to your family because you were a fucking asshole for the last 12 weeks to them. And I was like oh shit.
Speaker 1:And that's when I realized that this guy was somebody special because he's so conscious about not only what what he's doing with you but also the, the family, the friends and everybody who else has supported you on that journey, because they're also learning for the first time too about going into the show, what it entails. I was in college so I had to bring all my meals in. I was having shakes and they seen this. You know jack, the lad hyper, hyper kid that played rugby and it was everybody's friends. All of a sudden it was very quiet and grumpy, but I utilized that anger on the rugby field. But again, with with his coaching style, he saw on point about making sure that everybody's involved. You know, everybody has the experience. Yes, you are the athlete. He talks to you as the athlete with that coach's hat, but then make sure that everybody's involved and everybody knows what's going on as well.
Speaker 1:So for the first time that we competed together what I love about this guy he sat down with my parents and he explained to them what our plan was and what he was going to be doing with me and stuff like that, because, of course, bodybuilding was pretty big in South Wales. You had a lot of doormen huge, I would say. Actually it was huge. A lot of doormen would compete. But again, you get the extreme guys right. But everybody only focuses on the extreme guys. They only know the extreme guys in the town. And he's the polar opposite of that and thankfully, shout out to Steve Naylor I was training with at the time. He is the complete opposite too Quiet, hardworking, fabricator. And he sat down with my mom and dad and said, okay, this is what I'm going to be doing with Flex. And they fell in love with neil and they knew that I was entrusted underneath his watch, because that was mainly the concern. Right, it's like, here's my son. He's competing all around the world. You know, food and supplements and lack of knowledge come growing up in that generation too. You always think the worst thing I mean creatine was going to take my kidneys out.
Speaker 1:Let's be honest, right during back back in them times, um, but thankfully for for for Neil, you know meeting him in my very, very early stage, my first show, he was able to have that relationship with my parents and tell them this is what our plan is, this is the diet. He was always an open book and then my parents obviously developed a relationship with him and then we traveled around the literal world together, so he's definitely a different person. You know we spoke about that sort of things. But I obviously mentioned the balance side of things because balance for him is a word that he preaches about all the time. He was like you got to do shit that doesn't involve bodybuilding.
Speaker 1:And I mentioned also something earlier where I was so obsessed at one point in time looking what people were saying about me online and it wasn't fucking nice. It was never nice, because I was this young kid who had a little bit of fame. I had big legs and a body of a 20, 21 year old and you had all these guys that were just ripping me apart and he was just stay the fuck off the forums, flex, you're reading shit you don't want to hear. Like, who do you want to hear it? From Me, the people around you, or from people that don't even know you? And I was like you're right, and them small little early conversations that he probably can't even remember but kind of planted a seed in my head. Have you guys had any conversations where he said something to you and it totally changed your perspective on things?
Speaker 3:Many times, many, many times, such as what I can tell you, the last situation. I guess it's two months ago, eight weeks, maybe 10 weeks, and prep hits harder and harder. So the closer you get to a show, the more precise you get and the more obsessed you get. So I fixed my schedule on the minute and then I felt like, ok, I could do probably more. My attention span is like really close. For an example, we went to the Mexican pyramids and I was like, hey, cool, there's a pyramid, a second one, a third one, okay, let's go somewhere else. Like, okay, a few stones looks nice, took a picture, okay, let's go somewhere else. Like you know, it gets boring real quick.
Speaker 3:So I try to do more and more and more more work with my sponsors, new coachings, new this, new that podcasts, conversations, phone calls, um, new businesses, new opportunities and I ended up working 18 hours straight and being under pressure to make time to get my workout in. I was like, okay, something is really wrong. And I got anxiety when I was going back home after workout because I knew that I will sit down all day in my room, locked down, basically until it's night, and then, when it was time for bed, it's like, oh, I could do another video, I can cut it right now, but it's night. And then, when it was time for bed, it's like, oh, I could do another video, I can cut it right now, but it's 2 am in the morning. Maybe I should go to bed.
Speaker 3:It felt really bad and I told him and he said what the fuck are you doing? Just stop. And I stopped and I felt better two days, three days after. I needed some time to adjust, to get rid of the pressure, because you get opportunities the closer you go to a show, the more opportunities pop up Sponsors, companies, many people trying to talk to you, you know. But from that day I said no, afterlympia I'm, I will focus right now. That's my time, that's my focus, that's my job to do, and everything else, if that's important enough, we'll come back I was gonna ask that too.
Speaker 2:I mean, it's just because we're we're living in this digital age now. Social media, video content, you know. So obviously you have to keep up with your social media. I saw you got you know big social media and I saw you looking jacked with uh, with Ramon Um, but is there pressure to create more content for social media, to get those to to, to get sponsors moving? Or you know you have commitments from sponsors so you have to post X amount. So while you're in this, like final couple of weeks, it must be annoying to still have to do that right. Then you have to go and do media interviews and all these type things, those type pieces coming in in this last couple weeks. Do those deter you in any kind of way, or do you plan for those before you start? It's?
Speaker 3:all planned out. So basically, we have our schedule, but things change. Um, just now I got the opportunity to sit with you guys. Of course, I would never say no, and it's not pressure for me because now I got the time, I got the room to do that without any pressure. But we creating every video, every photo you see online, every youtube video, every offer, every website, everything you see is right out of our own hands. We film our own stuff, we cut our own stuff daily.
Speaker 3:My wife, she's cutting for rain, energy. Um, my sponsors, peak climax. I'm cutting my own videos. So what I'm doing? I wake up in the morning, she's filming, I'm cutting before I go to bed, on the treadmill or somewhere else, when we are on the way. But I, I love it. I it's like hypnotic almost. And if I don't cut the videos, I'm thinking about food, thinking about what else could I do? This chills me down, incredibly. I can sit down cutting video for eight hours and not spending a single second on food, thinking on food. So, but I have to tell you that I told many, many people that I will not answer my phone about seven, eight, nine days after the Olympia. Don't text me, don't call me. You won't get any message back.
Speaker 1:Well, this is lunch and Sam Day's out, so you can tell I've done the camera. Don't text me today from here all the way to the show.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it's just honestly to protect myself, because I want to answer, I want to get good opportunities, I want to work with people, I want to answer, I want to get good opportunities, I want to work with people. I love that. This is my biggest hobby next to bodybuilding just creating things but it's not the right time right now. Right, and I needed to learn that.
Speaker 1:It's such a weird balance because this is the time when all your eyes are on you. Everyone wants to see what you're doing. It's like a voyeur, I would say. Experience, right, people want to see if Mike is on or off, what he's eating before the show, getting tips from Coach. And you guys have done an incredible job on that journey, putting out very regular videos for your fans in Germany, for your fans in the US. But again to your point, right, there's this balance. Now when do you forfeit that chapter that's brought everybody on the journey? Now it's obviously the critical week to make sure that you focus on the job that you are being trained to do, right? So it seems like you guys have got that plan down.
Speaker 3:Yes, we are smart. We had this situation many, many, many times before. It's not the first olympia. And just for people listen to this, to understand what's happening in numbers, let's say numbers. You're close to a show and companies can see okay, he's very interesting right now, let's call him. They have your number and they will get it. If not, hey, mike, we want to make you an offer $50,000 per month. If you do this and that and you say straight no, call me right after the Olympia and you know for 99% they will not call you back. Saying no is hard, but winning the Olympia is harder. Yeah, you need to make a decision. If you're a businessman, go for business. If you're a bodybuilder, go for bodybuilding. Simple as that. And these are basically the words Neil will tell you straight in your face. If you want to compete, compete. If you want to do business, all right, leave the gym, do your business.
Speaker 1:I'm fine, high five, bye. Yeah, we had a lot of sponsors who were trying to get a lot out of me on the last couple of weeks, right, and you stood in the line of traffic a few times for me.
Speaker 4:It's not that you can't work. You just need to prioritize, right, because you have to be in an environment that the work that you're doing is not creating stress and puts you in an environment that you don't need to be in. Your focus has to be, obviously, olympia prep. Flex has said this before many times. Sometimes. Flex has said this before many times Sometimes less is better. Sometimes less exposure creates more excitement and more hype.
Speaker 4:And for those companies who literally only want to jump on the bandwagon and use you in that one moment in time, they don't have no interest in those athletes. They're just trying to monetize and there's always going to be the next person Making money. It's a shame because you know social, social media, digital market and everything else in between it's. It's a shame because it's more like prostitution, right, you're just basically a prostitute that they want to manipulize on or take advantage of in that one moment in time, because they have a bigger picture, you know. It's a shame because there are some amazing sponsors out there who are invested into the athlete, whether they're on stage and and off stage, they're invested into. You know the storyline. They're interested in growing together as athlete and company or as a team, etc. So you have to pick and choose. You know where you're going to put that time. You can still work and prioritize things, but not more than what is not going to take away your attention on focus on the bigger picture yeah, I'm really, really blessed with my sponsors.
Speaker 3:Um, I had quite a few changes the last two years, but now, just to give an example, we talked about the olympia and they said, mike, whatever you want to do, just do it. We won't tell you something, we know you. You gonna be on the money, just do whatever you like to do. And now we have they just brought the idea olympia week special sale five selected products. I can pick and choose, and it's basically my own signature products. We created them together. Yeah, same shit. And now I was smart enough because we talked about it before. All the content is already filmed, cut it, I can just upload it. Everything is perfect, nobody is giving me pressure, nothing. And we just had a conversation and they said, mike, if you want to continue doing shows, just book them. We don't care, we gonna support you. It doesn't matter what it is, just do your job. You do a great job, we trust you. The numbers are solid. Do whatever you like to do. And I was like, finally, that's a great sponsor.
Speaker 1:That's Peak right. Yes, how long have you been with them?
Speaker 3:Oh, we worked together 2016, 17, 18. Then I went international because I turned pro. But finally I came back to Peak and we had always, always a very good relationship. So I have a he's more a friend, his name is Dominic and he's the a friend. His name is dominic and he he's the athletes manager and he's a hell of a guy.
Speaker 3:I left peak and he was like yeah, you know, you're living in mexico now we don't deliver to mexico, it's fine, so follow your journey, but as you come back, you have to call me first. That's what I did, did I said hey, domi, you know what. We're traveling, going back here and there, and I trust him. He's a very straight guy. If he says we're going to do this, it's going to happen, and if he needs to fight with the boss, he will fight. He will go fight with them for you, and I really like this guy. He's basically the reason why I went back to Peak. I know the products, I know the quality. They're amazing. But I knew for a fact that Dominic will do everything he can to make my life as good as possible in this relationship of sponsoring.
Speaker 1:One last stress. One last stress you have to worry about as well, when you know you've got a sponsor that is going to be there for you, no matter what. On the note of sponsors, can you?
Speaker 3:remember the first time you and I met BSN 2014 FIBO.
Speaker 1:We were working together on BSN that year, they signed me. It was the first FIBO For you to understand, rock. How big is FIBO? The biggest, it's 13, 14 arenas or something like that. It's absolutely massive.
Speaker 3:It's like 1,500 times bigger than the Olympia.
Speaker 1:You get dropped off at the wrong side, and this has been a problem for me. I got dropped off at the wrong side. I don't know if you and I were together. You need to take a bus. I was an hour and a half hour and 20 minutes late for my sign-in because I couldn't get through. You have to go through all these different expo halls to get to the supplement hall, and all these different halls have gym equipment, they have Zumba, but the fans are running around everywhere.
Speaker 3:So you know, I never say no to a to a fine haver. It's my rule of thumb. I'm fucked at the feeble. I'm fucked.
Speaker 1:They follow you on the toilet there's so many famous toilet pictures holding my dick. They're wrong. I fucking told you he doesn't believe me how many selfies I've had with me taking a piss do you think they're waiting in line for four hours?
Speaker 3:if they see you walking on the toilet, they will follow you straight away.
Speaker 2:I believe it, yeah we had this conversation with Chuck Liddell and he was like you know how many times like with my dick in my hand, like I refused to shake somebody else's hand, and they got mad because it's like, yeah, they wasn't able to touch your dickhead.
Speaker 1:Oh, I got so many stories. That's why I only piss in a toilet and hence why I tore my tricep right. That's the good habit I took into my retirement stage. But to go back to that, you know they wanted to do this impact right and they wanted all the BSN athletes that were signed that year throughout the country and throughout the world to come in and march me in. They had flags, they dressed you up as a bodyguard or something like that. Right, this is super early in his career. Uh, they all these guys that they wear sunglasses remember this. And I walked in. I probably walked about 100 meters and I said fuck this. And I beelined out.
Speaker 1:Everybody else was walking to the booth with flags and they were trying to make this whole like look at facts, look at flags. We just signed this and and I was like I don't want part of this at all they tried to do it like Friday, saturday, sunday we done it on the day that was the quietest. I was like let me just suck this up because there's not many people here, it's just trade day. And then they were like, okay, we got to do it on the main days. And I was like no, it's not happening. For the first time we got to chat and then I could. I'd seen the the potential you had, because obviously there was the German Mike that had already had a fan base you had. He had an incredible fan base.
Speaker 3:Fibo is in Germany, where Mike's from by the way, it's 10 years ago, 10 years, 10 fucking years this guy didn't have a beard back then he had like fucking baby fluff, bum fluff on his face.
Speaker 1:He was trying yeah, no hairs on my back and no hair in the back. Now that's what's called bodybuilding and shaving and shaving. But we uh, we had a good laugh and a good time on that booth. We uh, you know you got to to see, you know, I think, us working together for the for the first time. And now, what a journey now for me to see you back then just living the life, wanting to be around the pros, to dream about being on the Olympia stage around athletes that were signed with BSN at that time, to now go from the guy who was on the booth giving out samples to now being the guy at the Olympia this year. So what a fucking story.
Speaker 3:You have no idea how I grew up. We lived in a house built before the First World War, so it was like stacked stones, and this is where my mom still lives. Basically, I'm owning the house now. My grandma died. She gave it to me and we had no money. I was eating rice and ketchup for two weeks.
Speaker 3:I got dressed up and I'm talking about two t-shirts, one pair of jeans and a pair of shoes once a year, never, ever, had vacation. Didn't know what it is Like vacation was like? Yeah, like time off from school. No, you're going to leave the country To do what I didn't understand as a kid and we had no money, nothing. And I have a list on my phone for all the, all the things I appreciate. I'm thinking about that again and again. I was the guy who had no money to buy a bed. I was just laying on a piece of mattress on top of my bottles of whey, so my bed was basically made out of whey boxes, sitting down lonely at night, dreaming about being part of the bodybuilding industry. And now think about how I felt meeting you the first time, being a part of BSN with Flex Lewis. You know what they paid me For, all the FIBO going back and forth. I got two bottles of whey aminos and a pre-workout.
Speaker 1:You had to pay your own whey as well. What did you say? Did you have to pay your own way as well? What do you say? Do you have to pay? Pay your own way for the hotels and stuff, everything come on.
Speaker 3:I was happy to be a part of that. That was incredible. And you entered the, the fibo. Basically I picked you up as your bodyguard and I tried to act like I'm cool, but I was like guys, guys take pictures. That's flex lewis with me, please take somebody pictures. Now we're sitting here talking about that. I got the same situation with Kai Greene and I always think about Mike 10 years ago, 15 years ago, 19 years ago, reading the magazines, watching those pictures. That's fucking fucking crazy. What a story right Coach.
Speaker 1:Were you there for that people that year?
Speaker 4:No, no, Mike dude, I got to say Mike did look badass.
Speaker 1:It looked badass with the fucking sunglasses.
Speaker 3:I remember you sending me pictures and saying this kid just young kids got really good potential yeah, I just had a surgery two days before the feeble and I told nobody because they would say stay home, didn't what surgery you have really, and you were there, sure, didn't seem with with the tank top. They they said you have to wear a tank top right after the surgery. So I tried to cover everything yeah to make it happen.
Speaker 3:I really wanted to be part of that. Yeah, imagine this 11 year old kid going to bed every night with the same thought, waking up with the same thought. I was 11 years old. That's where you go out and play soccer on the streets and do like coloring, whatever. I was in the gym every day I tried to make sure I get my plain chicken, plain cooked chicken, with no salt, because dad said salt is not good.
Speaker 1:This guy knows fucking less, is he not?
Speaker 3:Greek yogurt. I was eating 500 grams of Greek yogurt and 500 grams of chicken for like 10 weeks for my first show and I was. I loved it. I was, I knew exactly that's the way I want to go.
Speaker 1:It's in your DNA, then this is, you're truly living the dream that, yeah, maybe, and I'm endlessly ugly, fucking competitive ugly.
Speaker 3:It's getting better. Sometimes when we're playing cards, I don't need to break pieces, but I'm, I'm getting angry.
Speaker 1:Don't come to my Lewis household and my daughter's just as confident as my wife in who's gonna win before we even start playing the game.
Speaker 3:Okay.
Speaker 1:Oh my goodness. But that's a good thing, right.
Speaker 3:You just hone that into a skill right, that determination and that competitive side of things as I'm getting older, I get more balanced to know when to use it and when, not when I'm playing with kids. I don't care if I'm winning or not. 10 years back, I would make sure I'm going to win.
Speaker 1:All means necessary. Is there anything that you want to talk about now going into this week? You mentioned obviously you've got supplements that you're dropping. You do a signature series line that you're dropping for the Olympic weekend.
Speaker 3:It's already dropped Nice and it's very, very interesting. You know about HMOs.
Speaker 1:HMOs no.
Speaker 3:Human Milk Oligosaccharides. It's the main ingredients of mother's breast milk.
Speaker 1:You're drinking breast milk.
Speaker 3:Yes, I do. I don't drink breast milk. We extract it at.
Speaker 2:HMOs. How do you extract the breast milk?
Speaker 3:You go to the local titty bar my wife is sitting right behind me. Very bad.
Speaker 1:She's supplying all of Germany with weight protein. You poor girl.
Speaker 3:Basically, we designed a supplement for digestion and HMOs are known to create and build the microbiome in infants. So we did a lot of research and this is my second biggest hobby doing research and being like a nerd and sitting in front of my computer for 11 hours talking to people and doctors and stuff. We found out that HMOmos could be used from adults too. So we checked the research and it's working. Moboscrone, diarrhea, bloating, allergies you can turn that into something really, really healthy just by making sure your microbiome is working properly. That comes with good food, good gut bacteria, but HMOs they create. This environment of everything has its balance and we released it and we are the first company in Europe, as far as I know, with these HMOs combined. Super, super amazing.
Speaker 1:And this is your product, mm-hmm Wow.
Speaker 3:Already launched. Yeah, in April Nice, april nice at the fibo by the way, that's awesome. Hey, you tried this breast milk no, it has bubblegum flavor and I forced them to do a neutral one because I know when I'm telling coach that they put bubblegum flavor in it, he will kick my ass. So now we're coming up with the neutral flavors Bubblegum flavor, breast milk or green apple. Green apple is also.
Speaker 2:Can we get a little sample of the breast milk? I think me and Flex will try this.
Speaker 3:Oh, I'm going to get you one oh there we go, I'll try it A shot of breast milk.
Speaker 2:Is it powdered and then you add to it.
Speaker 3:No powdered and then you add to it, or it's breast milk, bubble gum, breast milk.
Speaker 1:So no, I'm just kidding, it's powder.
Speaker 3:You can tell him anything right now he's like I know, yeah, yeah, but the box is cool, the box has the powder in it and it has a box in a box with pills with beefy dough, bacteria. You know beefy dough, yeah, like the typical yakult, make it healthy stuff.
Speaker 4:Yeah, these are well you can pretty much guarantee that if you have a booth at FIBO and it says welcome, come and sample free titty milk, yeah.
Speaker 1:Right, it's going to be the busiest booth. It's going to be a fucking line. It's going to be the busiest booth.
Speaker 4:It's going to be a line. It's going to be the busiest booth there.
Speaker 1:There's no doubt about it, FIBO. I have never been to an expo in my life where there is literally women's boobs on the side of expo stages. Remember a couple of years when we walked around we were like this would never fly in the UK or the US. Literally have 24 banners with the girls with their jugs out on the booths, and the girls are just as you know.
Speaker 2:Yeah, friendly, he's like I'm going to FIBO next year.
Speaker 3:Oh, you're gonna love it. Yeah, if you want to go, let me know. Yeah, hometown babe. Yeah, it sounds awesome.
Speaker 4:Mike, you're a huge celebrity in Germany. Hmm, you have probably one of the busiest booths out of anyone in the industry in Germany. Your fan base is very loyal, for all the right reasons.
Speaker 3:Oh, I love people. Imagine you know what I'm seriously like. Literally thousands of yeah, you know, you guys know what I'm talking about. You enter a place you don't know where you are like different country, different continent. You don't, don't even speak the language and people waiting for you already two hours in line. That's crazy, man. I was a fucking guy. I was that kid 10 years ago. I can feel every one of them and I had so many incredible stories.
Speaker 3:Guy was shaking my hand and he was like shaking and sweating and he was like 38 years old, 40. His family in the back. And I took his hand and was like hey, do you need something? I can give you protein bars a shake. If you're like hypoglycemic, let me know something. I can give you protein bars a shake. If you're like hypoglycemic, let me know, I can get you. We have drinks. And he's like no, I'm fine. I was like, yeah, but you're shaking, you're sweating. I was like yeah, because because of you.
Speaker 3:I was like what, what? What did I do to you? I was like, no, I'm nervous. Like what happened? What did I miss? I was like no, meeting you. It's like uh.
Speaker 3:And then I remembered, as I was meeting you or Kai or Neil, the first time I wasn't able to breathe next to you and I can feel everything they feel. That's why you said that you never say no to a fan. Same for me if I see them and I'm on the way to leave and I was an hour longer every, every booth was already closed. I'm still sitting there and talking to people in a very friendly way. Everybody's gone already, but I know exactly what they're feeling because you've been there. Yeah, you've worn them shoes many years and I was dreaming about standing on the opposite side. Now I do, and now I can give back and give them the feeling to change it to my place one day. If they work hard enough, if they have a dream and a vision, they can make it. If I can make it from fucking rice and ketchup, having fucking no money, sleeping on the floor, bro, every fucking one can do that, yeah everybody could do that, but there's a few that can.
Speaker 1:That's the difference.
Speaker 1:It's a mindset thing, but you have to give everybody that encouragement that they can do it.
Speaker 1:You know, there's so many conversations that I've had with fans that I've now gone full circle, where some people I'm actually doing business with and some people they'll, you know, like my story with Matt Jansen and your story, matt Jansen, right where he was standing in line and now he's one of the top coaches in the game. Uh, it's where you meet these people and the impact you make when they have that time with you and and that's something I want to commend you on because it's it's great for me, you know, to see again remember that 10 years ago, mike Badass to now seeing the man that you are right now in life and talking of which you've got your lovely better half behind you and we cannot not mention her before we close up this show. But seemingly and talking to coach too every great athlete has the foundation of a partner that's there and supported you through the good, the bad and the ugly, all the things that you'll never talk about but she's been there. For how much has she changed your life?
Speaker 3:She literally changed everything. Before you got married. There was always a thing with not feeling safe. Once I married her, or actually before I married her, I felt, from now I don't need to give a single fucking shit about everything else in life. As long as she's with me, nothing, fucking nothing, can go bad. I can lose both of my legs, both of my arms. I know she will be there for me. I could start playing soccer. She will be there for me. And she stopped competing.
Speaker 3:She won the mexican shows, german shows, and now she's doing tattooing, she's a videographer, she's doing so many different things and we grow, we change, we develop together, and I don't know the english word for it, but it doesn't matter what happens, we're gonna be together. We go through the change together and she's absolutely amazing. There was not a single day, not a single minute, not a single second where we are able to fight or have an argument. It's not possible. You know as well as I do.
Speaker 3:Sometimes we're bitches because we're hungry or whatever, and she's like hey, babe, you know what I feel that you're a bitch. Today I was like yeah, babe, you're right, I sorry, sometimes she's a bitch and I tell her baby what the fuck is wrong. You're like bitch. She's like yeah, I'm sorry, and we can't have an argument, we can't fight, that's not possible. And we go through shit together and it doesn't matter if it's Mexico, deep jungle, no running water, saudi Arabia, deep inside the desert, desert. We're going to go through that together. It's she's I don't know. She's the best person in the world.
Speaker 1:Yeah we've all got that significant other. Obviously I wouldn't be where I am without Ali too, and you know, you've seen the difference when her and I got together, and I'm sure you can see the same thing with Mike, right.
Speaker 4:Yeah, because I think, as a coach, bodybuilding is a distraction.
Speaker 4:Right, it's a huge distraction out there, to be honest with you, and it can be very fake out there as well.
Speaker 4:So, to find a really good partner, whether that's a lady who's looking, who steps and steps in into a relationship with a guy, or a guy stepping involved, stepping into a relationship with a, a woman as a coach side of things, you just want to know that there's somebody positive, somebody who's whose intentions are good, somebody who's there for all the right reasons, because life is fragile, right, and athletes don't look like they look like forever.
Speaker 4:You have to meet somebody, or be fortunate to be in a relationship with somebody who's going to love you through all the transitional changes in life. And you know what I say to the athletes is that, listen, I know in this moment in time it's about you, but you need to give back to your partner. It's really important that you don't think that your life and your dreams and your goals are more important than somebody else's. I think that you know everybody needs that attention and that extra love at times, but you also need to make sure that you don't take advantage of the good and the love and the support that you know somebody else will give you, because I've seen it so many, you know so many times that individuals become selfishly so consumed with themselves they just don't appreciate the things which are more important.
Speaker 3:I mean Shani, my wife. She's amazing in terms of we're traveling together Mexico, Dubai, spain. So we have different opportunities. We need to adapt to different situations and she's not in bodybuilding anymore. She's not working regular jobs. She canceled three jobs because I told her I will move to Mexico in three months. If it's serious to you, you need to cancel your jobs, sell your car, say goodbye to your family, your friends. And she was like all right, I thought she's bullshitting me. She was, she's a little younger, was like, yeah, these girls. And then she sent me hey, babe, I just sold my car. Was like what the fuck? Like whole shit. She's serious and through the process, she did so many incredible things. I still cannot believe it. She's working for companies to create content and she's good.
Speaker 3:You know how that started right here in vegas two years ago, we had a videographer and he left because one of his you remember, one of his cats got lost his 18 cats, jeez, whatever. And I told her hey, babe, this is my camera. This red button right here is to record Go. From now on, we need to deliver daily cutted videos. She never. She didn't know what iMovie is, said okay, do this, this, do that. Cut the video. She did that. I said that shit, that shit, that shit. We need to work on that. That. That is bullshit. Delete that, we're gonna do it like you fucked it up. She had a really fucking bad time. Yeah, but rather, you can do it now or you don't. Yeah, it's game time now. It it was like 10 days out from the Olympia and after two days she had already the level of a not high quality videographer, but someone who you pay like 500 bucks and they will make proper videos.
Speaker 3:And now she's the high end girl. She's awesome, she's really good. Same with tattooing. She stopped doing bodybuilding and she was like yeah, what can I do now? Because you don't need to do cardio, you don't need to. She's eating, still healthy, and she's doing bodybuilding, but not on a competitive level. But and I saw her drawing was like, yeah, she's really creative, she's intelligent, she has 22 diplomas for fitness and what she's teaching in universities and she's smart as hell. And I told her hey, what about tattooing? Yeah, I don't, you know, she's a girl. Yeah, I don't know. So we bought the tattoo machine. Now she's tattooing, like the big tattoo on her leg. The loyality is she did it. I got my tattoo from her already. People get tattoos from her and this, this is what I like Basically. That's one of the biggest, biggest things on her. If she gets an opportunity, if you open the door, she's all in. She will give everything she has to make that happen, to support you, to support the team, me and her. That's amazing.
Speaker 1:Yeah, absolutely. With somebody that's motivated around you, especially a significant other, that is gets you motivated, right. So the same thing for me and my wife. She runs all these companies and and I just see her then coming home and be a mom and put all these different hats on and you cannot not but step up your game when you see somebody that you're literally living with that's doing all these different things and leading from the front. So, um, that's great. Obviously, I know coach speaks very highly of her and her reason mental, you know, impact she's made in your life as well as physical.
Speaker 2:So, uh, rock, anything else before we wrap up this show, my man um, you know, I I feel like I'd have to to do this right. Um, you know, because you know flex so well, I'd love to grab you know a few flex training secrets that we could tell. Uh, we could tell the fans out there maybe some that he probably doesn't even want to give away what about the foreskin crew there?
Speaker 3:you go that's basically how neil broke the ice. As we met the first time. He invited me to Orlando, florida. Back then to your gym, right, and get the invitation from him. And I've never met him in life before. He said come over to the US, we're going to train together and hang out for a week. I was like, oh shit, okay, and Neil, he's a very quiet, very straight guy, uk, so we sit in the car didn't really speak for like one or two days. He was basically sitting in his apartment and working and I was next to him breathing his air, being happy about it. And then we drove to the gym and he was talking about something with foreskin, but I didn't knew the word. He started to laugh and I didn't understand what he said and I I want to be polite and I will start laughing too, just to not be the stupid guy in the car, right and he was like do you know what foreskin is? And was like no, and then he explained me because he doesn't have one. This is how the foreskin crew.
Speaker 4:Flex is like I'm a fucking don't touch me in this fucking competition.
Speaker 1:Flex is like what is this about? What is this about? This is going to be the main reel, by the way this is going to get a lot of traction yeah, I don't know, was it John De?
Speaker 4:La Rosa. I think the story is that most of my athletes, including flex and myself and mike and john de la rosa, and probably most of them don't have foreskins. How? Because we need to make weight yeah, we have to make weight so so. So anyway, let's change the subject. You fucking talked about it?
Speaker 1:We didn't bring it up. He asked for training tips. He brought it up.
Speaker 4:Yeah, he brought it up. Anyway, tip of the day, I don't think that I necessarily have any tips as far as the gym is concerned.
Speaker 1:Certainly don't have any fucking foreskin tips, that's for sure. Yes, he can't. He doesn't have one.
Speaker 4:Just a tip, just a tip, just a tip I would say that sometimes you know in that moment in time when you're in the gym training, you make selective changes or or executions on certain exercises based on each individual. So individuals are going to respond from different exercise um application setup, um. So, off the top of my head, I probably can't answer anything other than just making sure that your exercise selection is in line with what your objective and goal is. You're looking to create some form of positive, progressive overload environment. That being said, I feel that there's many variables which have to be considered.
Speaker 4:It's not just about more weight or more repetitions and adding weight and adding weight. Good quality sets, good quality reps are going to create or magnify bigger changes than just simply always thinking about load and load and load. But maybe this is a podcast or something that we could do on a set on another time, and maybe something what we could do is maybe try to do something which is podcast based but it's a live workout. In that time. I don't think I know if that's something which is possible, but I'm sure that you guys put could put your creative um energy into creating something different yeah, we could.
Speaker 1:yeah, we definitely want you back on the show because j-rock has this list of questions he wants to ask you, mainly pertaining to me. But all the fucking shenanigans we got up to, and if we pop that cherry, poor Mike will be still waiting to piss here, because I know that this guy is dancing with his feet right now and he's ready to go, and we all know that feeling right when you're in prep and you have to drink, like you know six liters, 180 liters, because your coach told you yeah, I know I, you had to drink, like you know, six liters 180 liters because your coach told you yeah, I know I got all m stories.
Speaker 1:I can fill you in on the next podcast too, but listen, matt, I I know, uh, in time of airing this is going to be a week out from the show. Um, any message that you want to to give to your fans that are watching in germany and any message you want to give the fans that are going to meet in you you and mr olympia, that's your camera right there two things first of all, bodybuilding is not made out of genetics.
Speaker 3:Bodybuilding is made out of determination, focus and passion. And secondly, I need to tell you that maybe flex try to turn that into something different, but I truly believe that everyone has the tools to create something incredible if they really want to absolutely, and that's the truth.
Speaker 2:Right there brock anything impacting no, just uh, look forward to seeing there on stage my first uh olympia. So all the all the best wishes and positive vibes for you, man, and obviously the work's already been really done, so excited to see it.
Speaker 3:One more thing. Maybe he doesn't know, but we have a tradition post-Olympia. It's called the family breakfast. Neil hasn't joined it.
Speaker 2:Is that like a giant cheat meal?
Speaker 3:No, I do a salad and a little piece of pancake, but it's more about the company. So my dad will be there. Hopefully I can force Neil to be there and if you want to come, it's basically very, very small circle, having fun sharing food, bullshit talk, stuff like that. The day after the Olympia is amazing.
Speaker 1:It's the best feeling when the bag is off your back. Everybody's there to enjoy that company again and you finally can enjoy that food.
Speaker 3:my friend, I don't care about the food. I go for salad and really I don't give a shit about food. I don't like burgers, pizza stuff. I go for a nice fucking big salad with some nuts and feta cheese and stuff like that. But it's more about the people. So what I wanted to say is hopefully Coach will be there and you guys are invited too.
Speaker 1:Thank you for the invite.
Speaker 3:Thank you, I appreciate it, my friend, it's going to be a cheap fucking IHOP or Denny's pancake anyway.
Speaker 4:But it's not about the food. When has Denny's ever done salads? What the fuck they do.
Speaker 3:They do what the fuck they do?
Speaker 4:they do okay, yeah, okay, I mean you don't know, because you missed the family breakfast last year. It's never personal. Flex knows what I'm like. I'm so mentally exhausted and burnt out come olympia or any major event. But it all starts all over again because the next day I've got peak week for another athlete or another 10 athletes, because bodybuilding is like year round. So it's not that I don't appreciate those special moments, flex will know. Flex doesn't even ask me hey, do you want to come to the after party, mate? Listen, I would ask you. But you say no, yeah, because all I want to do I just want to eat a really nice meal and I want to go to bed.
Speaker 4:That it's not about anti-social. I need to emotionally and mentally recover because there's a lot of pressure and responsibility. Um, that comes with athletes, you know, because it's not just mike, there's other athletes in the show as well. And then I've got to make sure that I'm ready to sort of start all over prep and again the next day, which is a sunday, because athletes are competing I mean, mike might be competing in this the week after. So I'm always thinking, I'm always kind of like one or two steps in front of myself, just making sure I'm prioritizing everybody, because next week's athletes, that's their Mr Olympia, even though it might be an amateur show in a different country or whatever it may be. It's just that you know the coaching cap never really comes off. It's always on, it's always present.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that shows the show a lot about him, because when most people want to be in the light, of you know yes, we won. Where's all the cameras?
Speaker 3:He's in his bed already.
Speaker 1:He was already in bed. He's like. You know me, flex, I would get the whole conversation. I've heard it so many times. He was not. It wasn't that the to what he just said. His mindset is already on the next athletes and the next show. I was impressed. I got him up for one fucking after party. One after party, remember. And my mother was at that after party too, on the dance floor with a fucking walking stick, remember.
Speaker 3:The other thing is we broke the top five and I called him. I said, coach, what about the gala? What about the gala? Let's celebrate? He was like what the fuck are you talking about? I was sleeping. Then I realized, oh shit, it was at least as intense for him as for me. He was the guy who was not sleeping. I was in bed for eight hours chilling my ass off. He worked, running around all the other athletes, exactly. Then I realized, oh shit, this guy didn't sleep for three days. He's fucking exhausted and he doesn't just care about one guy. He had brandon hendrickson, alex cameronero, me, multiple other athletes at the same time and I can't handle my emotions.
Speaker 1:he's he handles fucking eight people, yeah all him and, by the way, before we shoot, who we got at the olympia this year, and the underneath you, obviously, mike uh, mike, it's pretty cool because there's four different divisions with athletes Rafael Brando going obviously into the open class.
Speaker 4:Going into the open class. Karith Banjo, he's going to be doing 212. Ryan Clark, obviously homeboy here, doing his first ever men's physique and then obviously Mike doing the classic physique. So all the athletes are in really, really good places with their physiques and emotionally and mentally. Of course, a lot can change between now and then, but at this present time I feel that athletes are in great places.
Speaker 1:I'm looking forward to it. And, as you said, so many different athletes and so many different divisions, so many different clues Sorry, so many different puzzles to answer, right, Because everybody's got a different physique and everybody's got a different way that you have prepped them for that show not only physically but also mentally too. But in wrapping up the podcast we've already lost Mike. He had to take a piss break. He couldn't go any longer. I was only keeping it on because he was talking, but he has already exited the scene. Coach Hill, always a pleasure to have you on the show, my friend, and looking forward to having a part two, Rock.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I'm excited I got more questions, but I'm going to wait until we get done.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, he's got a lot. He showed me some. I was like, ah, we'll get it back on the show for them. Laughs and stuff. I know this week is serious. The mentality obviously is seen. We try to have, as you know, the week of that, mr Olympia. Humor is very hard to find right when you're when you're so focused and you're so committed.
Speaker 4:I think a lot of people think I'm a miserable bastard because I tend to have a serious face most of the time.
Speaker 4:I definitely have a fucked up broad sense of humor. So I I like laugh, I like banter, I I um, I think my personality is it's pretty good, but I also have like a lot of pressure and responsibility with these athletes, of course. But my workload is really high, you know. So like as soon as I come out of here it'll be my piss, break, wash my hands and then I gotta get in my car and then I gotta go home because I've got probably 12 hours work I've got to get done tonight before I go to bed and it all starts over the next day and the next day. My workload is not so busy that I don't have time for myself. I just need to be prioritizing things and also I'll be shutting down check-ins peak week and then starting them all back up Sunday after the show, just to make sure that I'm able to give the time and the attention into these athletes and also the other deliverables I'm going to have, obviously with sponsors, you know, yamamoto, etc and other amazing companies.
Speaker 1:Well, we just hit the 144 mark, bro. I don't know how that fucking happened, but we've been gassing on for nearly two hours. This is supposed to be an hour show, but I think we got the best out of everybody, and poor Mike has been holding his legs shut for all this time. But that said, I think it's a nice way to segue out. Obviously, we've got a lot of more athletes that are coming on the show this week. We've got the Mr Olympia festivities Red Tail on Thursday for all the athletes that are coming into town. Make sure you check us out there. We're doing a Dragon's Lair event out there. We're doing a Dragon's Lair gym on property at Resorts World and some other bells and whistles throughout that weekend. So make sure you check out the Dragon's Lair for all the updates on my social media. But until then, this is Flex it.
