Episode #6 Eddie Saldana Bodybuilding World Champion

In this episode we speak with Eddie Saldana about his journey in Natural Bodybuilding and his road to becoming a World Champion!

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:02

Alright guys, welcome back to the Inner Life Coaching Podcast. Today's guest is Eddie Saldana. Um Eddie, can you introduce yourself for us and talk to us a little bit about your bodybuilding?

SPEAKER_00 0:16

Been bodybuilding for about 15 years of my life. I won WMBF Worlds last year, uh, the overall and immense uh bodybuilding, which is probably the greatest accomplishment that well most bodybuilders wish wish they could achieve. So that's um I feel very honored to have that title and uh glad to be here talking to you guys.

SPEAKER_01 0:36

Yeah, dude, we really appreciate you coming on and uh spending some some time with us today to talk about bodybuilding. What um so what was that experience like with worlds last year? I mean, you've competed. Was that the first time you've done worlds or have you done it a couple times?

SPEAKER_00 0:49

That was my first time doing it, and uh it was very surreal because going into that show, I wasn't expecting to win my class, honestly. Um I didn't it wasn't that I didn't believe in myself, I just uh I'm pretty realistic about the caliber of athletes that compete at Worlds. So going into that show, I was my biggest uh hope was that I would at least be top three in my class, but I wasn't expecting to win the whole entire thing.

SPEAKER_02 1:11

Yeah, I we we obviously followed a lot of your kind of prep process, Eddie, and saw you did you know multiple shows uh last year and you won. I think did you win all of them?

SPEAKER_00 1:23

I won all of them except one. I did a NPC show. It was a it was a two-day event. It was a drug tested and uh open, uh they had an open event the following day. I competed in both. I won the natural one, and then I uh I went to the overall in the untested, and I got uh I believe it was second place, uh if I remember correctly. Because for those shows, they don't give you the places, they just announce the overall winner. And I remember I messaged one of the judges who was one of the uh promoters, and I asked him how uh how how did my score look on the scorecards, and he said it was second place in the overall. So that was that was pretty cool. I was I was happy with that.

SPEAKER_02 1:58

Yeah, that's a heck of a season, man. Incredible. And and as Eddie said, he's a world champion. Um, his first time being at Worlds, and if you take a look at his Instagram, you can 100% see why he won the world championships. An absolutely phenomenal physique. You have Eddie. So give us a little bit of uh your background, kind of how you got into bodybuilding and when you really started to think, you know what, this is for me. I want to compete, I want to see what I what I've got.

SPEAKER_00 2:24

Yeah, I started uh well, uh even being younger, anytime I would see anybody that was just jacked, I was it was to me fascinating. I want to be like that. I want to be somebody who walks into a room, people look at that person and say, damn, that guy, that guy's jacked, that guy must lift. I just the appeal of having you know having that reaction from others, uh, it was attractive to me. So I wanted to I wanted to be that person. So I started lifting weights uh at a very young age. I was probably about 12 or 13 when I first started lifting, and I started taking it a lot more serious when I was about 16 years old. And it just kind of progressed from there. I never had any intentions or goals or like aspirations of being a bodybuilder, anything like that. Just like the enjoyment of it. I fell in love with that that aspect of it of the lifting, and then the dieting came later on, as once I actually learned about bodybuilding, what bodybuilding was, I started looking at a lot of like pro bodybuilders. You know, I used to watch guys like uh I remember watching guys like Dorian Yates, um, a lot of the old school guys. I used to watch a lot of the old school guys, and I used to think like, wow, these guys are at the top or were at the top at one point when they were doing this, um, whatever it was that they were doing was working for them. I want to do that. I don't want to necessarily be an IFBB pro. I mean, those weren't really my it wasn't really like something that I wanted to do. I just wanted to be like uh I wanted to put in that same level of of work, whether it be with the training, with the dieting, and just see how far I could take it. And that's what kind of led me into doing my first show uh when I was I was about 19 or 20 when I did my first show. And that was a a very spontaneous decision because uh I didn't have any I didn't have any uh plans to compete, but there was a show that was gonna be done here like locally to me. It was just like a 30-minute drive, and it was a natural event, and I was like, perfect, like I'm a natural guy, I like to live I want to test myself. So I I got a coach, I signed up and I did that, I won that show, and that was pretty much from there. I was like, oh cool, like I kind of got that, you know. Like I got bit by the bug. I wanted to compete again, you know, every so often and see how far I could take it.

SPEAKER_01 4:27

That's awesome. So obviously you you followed some you said Dory Yates and some of those, like uh some of the all-time greats. When you first got into it, did you did you know like that natural bodybuilding was uh was an avenue? Or is that something that you kind of found out later on? Because I know for me it's like I just got into lifting because I like lifting, and I saw all the guys on Muscle Magazine, and that was kind of like my inspiration at first, but um, that's not necessarily directly achievable for naturals. Um, and then later on in my early 20s, that's when I kind of first found out about like some of these natural federations, and that's kind of similar to me. I was like, well, let me just give this a try. I've been training, so started taking my diet more serious, and that's kind of how I got started there. Was that like something you found early on, or what did that look like?

SPEAKER_00 5:11

Uh, I remember. So when I when I first got into lifting and I started bodybuilding and all that, it was around the time that like the social media era kind of began. So there was it wasn't how it is now. You know, now you go on everybody's uh into fitness. At the time, there were some guys who claimed to be natural. I mean, you guys might have even heard some of these names, guys like uh like Simeon Panda back in the day was like, you know, you know, one of those, like you you would see a lot of those names, and I used to see that they're natural. Yeah, Ulysses, yeah, man, those guys. But then uh, you know, you would always you would see those guys get those like accusations of their fake nattys, they're fake nattties. But then I remember uh I saw I remember when Doug Miller was gonna compete in 2014. He was gonna do the Jordan Cup and he was in prep. And I didn't know who Doug Miller was, but he started making like these waves online, like because he up uh he released some progress pictures as he was getting ready to compete, and it kind of just like went viral, like Doug Miller's making a return. I was like, I don't even know what Doug Miller is, but he looked he looked insane, and that to me was like, okay, this guy's actually natural because he's doing he's competing in a federation that is a natural, actually drug-tested, polygraphed organization that has that reputation, and so do all the other guys that were competing there. So I remember following that prep, seeing how he looked on stage, and I was like completely blown away that anybody naturally can look that great. And I remember after he did that show and he won it, he won the Jordan Cup, he did uh it was like an NPC Chake Cutler classic, I believe it was. And for that show, he also won. I remember he he did a video where he was doing like a backstage interview with uh with Cliff Wilson, who helped him prep for I don't know if it was for one or both of those shows, but Cliff was with him, and that's where I was like, oh no, well, this guy, that's his coach. That's that's what introduced me to Cliff, because I saw that I saw who Doug was, how great he looked, this guy was helping him. So that's what I I started learning more and more about what natural bodybuilding was, that it was this actual thing that there is a whole separate community from you look at the guys like the the enhanced guys, which you know I'm a fan of that as well, but then you see that there's a whole different side of it, the natural side, and then you start to see there's you started learning about a bunch of other natural athletes that look great, you know, and the guys that Doug was competing against, like I hadn't heard of any of those guys, so that kind of led me down a whole different avenue of of bodybuilding, and I fell in love with natural bodybuilding then and there because from the very beginning, I never had any aspirations to ever go enhanced, even now. After doing it for almost half of my life, I can say pretty confident that I doubt I'll ever go enhanced. I mean, I've been doing it long enough, drug-free, naturally. I love it, I love the lifestyle. I just don't see myself ever going enhanced.

SPEAKER_02 7:51

Yeah, that's a great point, Eddie, too, because I think when when you first get into lifting and you see these guys that you know they claim natural and you're in your early years, you think there's no way those guys are natural, right? But once, as a natural, you've kind of put the years in and you make you maybe get to year six, eight, ten of lifting, that's when you actually start to realize what's possible naturally, right? And now you've probably got guys that are looking at you saying, Oh, there's there's no way he's natural, right? The new guy's coming through. But what they haven't done is they haven't put those years in. So it's not that you can achieve a phenomenal physique naturally, it's just that it's gonna take you a whole lot longer, right?

SPEAKER_00 8:35

Yeah, and that's one thing. Anytime anybody has ever looked at somebody who is who like uh like take a great natural bodybuilder, you'll you will have guys that will look at them and say, That guy's not natural, that's not possible to achieve naturally. But the way I always see it is the people who are saying that they've never actually done what it entails to be a bodybuilder, whether it's the training, the dieting, maybe they did it for a few months and they saw very little results, and they were like, Yeah, this is they just didn't have the patience, they didn't enjoy the process. The guys who do it for years and years and years, like they actually make it into a lifestyle, then they can look at somebody who has achieved something great in natural bodybuilding, and they can be like, Oh, you know what, I know that's possible because I've been doing it myself long enough. I've seen the the progression over so many years and seen where I've where I've gotten to doing it, I know that it's possible for others. You you you could kind of uh relate, I guess you could say, but the people who've never actually lived this lifestyle for you know more than a few months, and they're those are the guys that are looking at somebody and saying, Oh, he's not natural because they they haven't put in the work.

SPEAKER_02 9:38

Yeah, 100%. And I and I actually saw this yesterday as well was you don't know how easy your training is until you train with someone that trains like an animal, right? So it's like everybody thinks they train really hard until they train with someone that trains really hard, and then they realize maybe this isn't for me because I don't want to work that hard. So I think it's it's the disillusion of how hard people think they're working when they're really actually not pushing that hard.

SPEAKER_00 10:10

Yeah, and that's that's another thing. Uh most uh I feel like when I go to the gym, most people aren't pushing themselves that hard. There are people who push themselves really hard, but the majority of people don't push themselves as hard as they think they are, uh or like they think they do. They may think they train hard, but you know, even myself, I like to think that I train pretty hard, but even then, like a lot of the times when I'm in the gym, I I'm thinking to myself, like as I'm doing a set, like, am I really pushing as hard as as I can, you know, because there's like that pain tolerance, so when you're training, you start to feel that lactic acid build up in the muscle and it burns and it hurts, and everything is telling you to stop. You just kind of have to find like you have to get over that mental barrier to to push through that. And most people, once they start to get to that point, they stop. And that could be like they could have had like seven, eight more reps in that set, and that's just another thing is definitely hard training. I do believe is like one of the like fundamentals into building a great physique. Because, you know, I used to grow up thinking like the the old saying was that that training is like or sorry, not training, dieting was the most important part, and I do think dieting is very important, they both go hand in hand. But now that I've been doing it so long, I actually think that hard training is more important because you can train really, really hard and have a really shitty diet, you're still gonna make progress. Your physique is still gonna change. You could have the perfect diet and half-acid training, your physique is not really gonna change because you're not putting your muscles through what they need, like that stimulus that is needed for them to grow. So I do think that hard training is something that needs to be learned from like the very, very early stages of you getting into this lifestyle because that's what's gonna, you know, you're gonna learn from that, and you you're able to apply it as forever, basically, into your into bodybuilding.

SPEAKER_01 11:54

Yeah, that's a good point. I think I think that's a big a big problem with like the younger generation now with getting into bodybuilding is that delayed gratification side of things where people just want to get on stage without like committing to the process of what it takes to get to that point and training some skills, like learning to push your body to the limits and find what it actually takes to to grow muscle naturally, it's like it's a hard process, and most people really truly are cut out for it. Like they they like the idea of getting on stage when it comes to the process of actually putting on tissue, it takes time. And you see a lot of people that just try to stay like I would say just too lean in the off season and don't actually they're overly focused on like the look and staying lean year-round versus actually going through growth phases and committing to bodybuilding fully.

SPEAKER_00 12:40

Yeah, and that's that's one thing. If you if you want to be a bodybuilder, you just have to enjoy that the process of you know, you're gonna have off seasons and you're gonna have to get your body fat a little bit higher, maybe a little bit more higher than you're comfortable being. But it's just what it takes for you to actually grow. And I'm not saying you have to get fat, you don't have to go crazy. I mean, there's some guys that I know that do, and that that may work for them, but you you have to have the patience to have a long off-season where you like I just got done competing back in November. It's been I don't even know how many months now, and I'm probably like, you know, I could see myself building up right now, continuing to push this off season probably till later this year, before, or maybe a few more months, I'll see how the body reacts, how the body responds. And then you kind of start to, you know, bring the food back down, you lean out a little bit, but then you start to push it back up, you know, until you decide when you want to compete again. And most guys they don't want to do that, they want to compete every year. So if you're getting into this, you if you want to do it because you want to compete. I don't know if that's the right reason to want to be a bodybuilder. You kind of have to just love the lifestyle of of the dieting, the structure, basically, it's structures, everything kind of structures around the bodybuilding lifestyle, the training, the dieting, everything structures around that, and then everything else comes after. If you want to compete, well, you can compete, yeah, but you have to plan it out like, oh, I want to compete next year or in two years, I want to do this show, and then everything that you do between now and the day you start that prep is gonna determine how that prep is gonna go and how you're gonna look on stage, and you just gotta have that patience. And like you were saying, a lot of these guys, they uh they see the pictures of somebody that they look up to uh that looks shredded all the time, like you were saying, and they they they're they're that's what they're uh actually with that like that image, that that appeal. But they don't know that it's it's a lot more than that, especially if you want to do it naturally, it's it's completely different if you want to do it naturally. As a matter of fact, I would say it's a whole world difference if you want to do it naturally.

SPEAKER_02 14:36

Yeah, a hundred percent. Because if you're seeing these guys on social media that that might be blasting gear year round, well, yeah, of course they're growing and staying relatively lean at the same time. But as a natural, that that's not gonna happen. You've got to be in that slight, slight surplus, you've got to be really pushing performance in the gym in order to make those gains. And you know, we tell everyone all the time, I'm sure you're saying the clue is in the name, right? It's body building, it's not body competing, it's not the the goal is to build the body over time, and stepping on stage just is basically resembling the fact that you have actually improved your physique, and um, it's amazing how many people kind of compete year after year and there's no improvements, and you think, you know, at what point are you gonna take the right steps, take the time off to actually improve your physique?

SPEAKER_00 15:27

Yeah, if you look at like the really good natural bodybuilders that are competing like at the world's level, a lot of these guys are taking like multiple year like year off seasons before they compete again. Uh, like one guy that comes to mind is um this guy from Germany, his name is Benjamin. Uh, I don't know how to say his last name, I don't want to say it wrong. It's Schuster, I think something like that. Yeah. That guy, he competed back in 2023. I remember he did really good at worlds, he made it to the overall, he won his class, went to the overall, then he fell short. That was 2023, and so like he's still in this offseason. You know, this guy's gonna come back. Whether I don't know if he's competing this year, if not, then I'm sure probably the next year. But like, that's when you're when you really want to accomplish great things as a natural bodybuilder, you have to love it. Because if you don't love it, if he didn't love bodybuilding, he wouldn't, he wouldn't have stepped off stage at the world's off the world stage and said, oh, well, I'm gonna take a three-year offseason, I'm gonna come back completely transformed, and I'm I'm gonna win this whole thing. If you don't, if you don't view view it that way, you just you're never gonna make it really. Because the guys that want to compete every year, they're gonna come back and the like the progression is gonna be so like so small. Basically the same. And that's just especially when you're young. If you're younger, like you want to take advantage of this long off once you get a little bit older, like in your later 30s, it makes more sense. I can see why these guys only do like a one, maybe two-year off season. But when you're younger, especially, man, like take advantage of that time to have that long off season to really put on that quality tissue and just enjoy the off-season, man. Like, really, really enjoy the off-season. Me being where I'm at right now in my offseason, like this is what I like fantasize about when I was in prep. Because I love I I enjoy competing. I do like to see the the progress that I've made, but for me, nothing beats you know feeling big, feeling strong, having a lot of energy, and just looking forward to going to the gym, just absolutely just like crushing it. That's that's the part of it that I enjoy the most more than competing. So just to enjoy the offseason.

SPEAKER_01 17:27

Yeah, that's a good point. I think when you get switched on to the the lifestyle of it, that's when like things really start to unlock for you. Because you see a lot of people, like I said, that's don't want to take those off seasons because they're worried that they're gonna lose the drive or something like that. But it's like if you if you're truly passionate about the sport of bodybuilding, it's like the off-season is the fun part. Um, but kind of transitioning from that, I am curious. Like, how for you and your off-seasons, um, what is your what is your off-season look like as far as like the training side of things, like training volume, intensity, things like that. And about like how much over stage weight do you allow yourself to get? Like, what's your sweet spot for performance in the off-season?

SPEAKER_00 18:08

Right now I'm about I want to say I'm roughly just over 30 pounds above stage weight right now. I might not push it too much more. And uh, well, I guess we'll see. We'll see. Because the last time I was in the offseason, I was the heaviest I got was probably about 10 or 11 pounds heavier than I'm at now. That was the biggest I've ever been. I was about 215. I remember walking around. That was like the biggest I've ever been. Right now I'm maybe like 204, 204, 205. And I competed uh at worlds. I remember I woke up that morning and I was about like 172. So I would reckon that I probably stepped on stage about like 174 after having you know like a little bit of fluids, a little bit of meals. I was probably on stage about 174, but uh I don't I don't I try not to push it too extreme with the weight gain in the offseason. Try to be mindful. And uh what was the other part of the question?

SPEAKER_01 19:00

You asked me something else about oh yeah, so you're like what is your training, what's your training look like off season one? Well just in general.

SPEAKER_00 19:07

Yeah, it doesn't change much, honestly. But my training has always been uh pretty high volume. Um I feel like the longer that I've been training, the it's it's funny. It's like my approach to training just kind of changes over time. Like I've always been a high volume guy, I've always enjoyed high volume, but now the way like when I go into the gym, I'm doing a set, it's like I feel like man, I could only do like three sets of this. You know, I don't know if uh if my body just can't take as much volume as I used to do, or maybe I'm just pushing each set each set harder than I used to push it in the past. And I feel like I I think I think it's gonna be the latter. Like I'll be at the gym and uh I'll have to do like yesterday I was at the gym and I was doing uh I did legs yesterday. I remember I had to do three sets of hip thrusts, and like by the time I started, like I warm up, I build up to the first set, I did the first set, then the next by the time I was done with my third set, I think I had to bend on the machine for like 40 minutes, you know, because like you know, I'm walking back and forth, I'm putting plates on the machine, I'll do a set, I'll rest, I'll do the next, you know, like I'll be at the gym for three hours doing legs, and I maybe I did like uh I don't know, like I don't really count my sets, I don't, but I'm definitely not more than 20. And uh that'll take me like three hours because the rest periods take so long. So the the volume is I would say it's maybe on the higher end for most people, but I try to keep the intensity to match it. So I would say uh I I've always been a high volume guy, you know. I don't like to do anything the below two sets. Like I don't do anything for a single set, I just can't. Like if I go to the gym and my program says do one set of whatever it is, I'm like, I'm basically gonna treat that like a like a like a feeder set, like a warm up in a way, you know, like okay, one set. But if it's like in the middle of my workout, if I have to do like leg extensions, and you know, Clive obviously does all my he designs all my training, and it'll say like one set of leg extensions, I'm gonna probably do like three sets, you know, just because I'm like one set just doesn't feel like enough. But I feel like uh at this, I've been trading so long that I know when I like how much I can tolerate, how many extra sets I can do in a in a workout. Because one thing that I've always done in the gym is I will always add, I've always found myself adding extra volume a lot of the time, you know. Like uh like if I'm doing lateral races and I will do four sets of lateral races, I'm like, four just doesn't feel like enough. I feel like I could do another two sets. So that's how it's what that's one thing that I've always done. Like all the years of training, I've always had that that that habit of adding extra volume. I've always been a higher volume guy. But going back to what I was saying earlier about like my training kind of like my approach changing a little bit over the years is I find myself doing that less and less now, and maybe it is because I'm pushing myself a little bit harder during those sets, like where I just don't feel like I I could tolerate so much extra volume. I don't I don't know. I just like I said, but it changes over the years.

SPEAKER_02 21:55

Well, yeah, I would completely agree that we're very similar to that as well, and I would. Agree with the second part of the statement, but your work capacity increases, right? So your ability to stay in the set and potentially like I don't want to say grind out the reps as if execution drops or something like that, but just your ability to hold position and push the reps that once upon a time you wouldn't have been able to push is just adding that extra fatigue, which means I don't need to do that extra set, right? And something that really goes big on with people is it's not about inherently how much work you can do or how many exercises, it's the quality and effort that goes into those exercises. And that kind of goes along with your statement of taking three hours to train legs. It doesn't mean you're doing every single leg machine in the gym, it just means that your working sets are so intense, so much effort, that you're having to rest, I would imagine, three to five minutes between those sets. And then when you factor in all your warm-up sets to get up to those heavier working weights, it just takes a long time, right?

SPEAKER_00 23:00

Yeah, 100%. Like that couldn't be any truer. I do think like doing a set now, especially for legs, man. Legs is legs is different because you do a set and it's like you have to be in that set. And that's kind of a I've always I've always trained legs pretty hard, but even more so now I'm I have to be a lot smarter in my approach now because I'm more prone to injuries now. So like I'll do a set, I have to control the weight, I have to move it with intention, and I have to milk the muscle for basically everything that's there. I don't I don't push to failure on legs for the most part, but I push close enough where it feels like I get out of the machine, I'm like, I'm dying. I can't I feel like I can't breathe. So definitely uh the intensity and the effort of the execution, everything like the set has to almost feel like uh like an experience in a sense where you go into it and you're gonna be in this like almost in a different world where like until you've wrapped the weight again, you're not, you know, you're you're in that set. You gotta stay in that set, you gotta not lose sight of what you're doing in that moment. That's almost how I treat sets for for legs. I mean, I mean, I would say for really anything, but for legs, it's definitely different because it's just so so taxing, so fatiguing, so fatiguing, where like I'll do a set and I feel like like man, how am I gonna do the rest of this workout? I still gotta do hack squats later on. You know, I'll be like thinking things like that. I don't know how I'm gonna get through the rest of the workout, but definitely the fatigue has worn uh more and more on me now than it used to when I was younger.

SPEAKER_01 24:29

Yeah, I think I think it's just like the skill of lifting, like as you get more skilled at training, like the intensity just increases and you just naturally don't need as much volume as you did when you're younger. Because I can remember like high school and like you know, early 20s having to do supersets of everything, chasing palms, and just running around the gym like a madman, but that's like when you don't really know how to train properly. But as you get more skilled as a lifter, like I think naturally just volume tapers down a little bit because you're getting more effective reps.

SPEAKER_00 24:59

No, I I agree. I used to train like a maniac when I was young, and uh part of the reason why I get so many injuries now, I think is because of that. Like my connective tissue on my knees is fucked, my low back is always bugging me. Like I was at the gym yesterday, and uh I get like sometimes I'll get like uh sciatic pain on my right side from um from an injury that I've had for for many, many years. So like every time I go into the gym and I start building on something like uh like right now, I just program pack squats back into my leg days, and I'll do them and I'm like you know, like I want to push heavier, I want to push more reps, but I also gotta listen to my body now. So, but no, definitely the intensity is uh I mean intensity is always key, no matter what. But it's like you could do intensity, but you could get it, you could get under the bar and you could just bang it out recklessly, just throw caution to the wind and just bang it out until your body stops working. Or you could control the descent on the hack squat, and you could like just explode out of the bottom and then control it back down, and just almost like I was saying you're like in a trance, like like this is like okay, down up, down up, make every rep look good. That's definitely different than just going to the gym and just banging it out, like without regard to how execution looks.

SPEAKER_01 26:09

Yeah, it's a good point. I've I've actually recently just had half squats. I just rotated them out of my leg day split, but I ended up moving them on to the back end of my attorney sessions because I felt like if I was putting them on the front end, I would just go to a point where load was so heavy that I was kind of running into issues and stuff like that. So I think you just have to get more strategic about like the selection of exercises and where you're placing them as you get a little bit older by the time it catches up to us.

SPEAKER_02 26:33

Yeah, and I think I want to circle back to something you said earlier when you were talking about being above stage weight. For any of our listeners that potentially are new to bodybuilding. Um, when Eddie says he's 30 pounds above stage weight, it's important to remember that this is coming from being inside out peeled, you know, striations all through the glutes, about as lean as you can really be. So, you know, the first 10 to 15 pounds comes back on and not much really changes, right? Like it's you're still very lean, and even being 30 pounds, I'm sure Eddie, you're still walking around leaner, far leaner than the majority of people, right? Because people just massively underestimate the amount of weight they have to lose to get to that level of leanness.

SPEAKER_00 27:20

Yes, and another thing to keep in mind is when you do transition from prep to offseason, is like I put on those 30 pounds over the last five months. It wasn't like, oh, I put on 30 pounds. Like, there's guys that will put on 30 pounds like in two weeks. Yeah, yeah. And uh I'm not gonna lie, I'm not gonna sit here and lie and say that I didn't struggle a little bit after my prep. I really tried to pull back on how much weight I was gaining, but it was like I want to say for like the first uh like month, maybe two months, I was getting I was gaining like four pounds a week, and it was a lot faster. Like that's more weight than you want to gain in a week. I mean, you know, they say the proper way to do it is to reverse. And I've out of all the preps that I've ever done, I've never had like a perfect reverse where I put on, like, you know, I slowly started to put that weight on. It's always been a struggle for me with uh, you know, because you're like, oh, I have the freedom to eat again. So, you know, I try not to go off the rails. I try to control control the binging, but I did I was putting on like four pounds a week. And four pounds is not like crazy. I've seen I've seen I saw some guys that were like like you were saying, like within two weeks, they were up like 25 pounds. It was it's crazy. But uh, I mean I'm up 30 pounds, and that's over the last like five months now, you know. So obviously, once I kind of got things under control, you know, you like you enjoy like the first week you have a little bit, you enjoy a little bit, you know, you go out to eat a little bit, then after that you kind of just try to get things on lock, and then you try to put on like slowly, like gradually put that weight back on, not just stuff your face and just be a fat fuck. You know, you gotta be mindful of like this is gonna set your off season, man. You got you, you got your off season is gonna be determined by how your body starts to adapt back into that phase when you start to eat more and reintroduce more food. So, you know, just don't blow it. I know it's hard, man. I mean it's coming from me, man. Trust me, it's I've struggled with it myself, but I do too, bro. Yeah, yeah, no, it's hard, man. And I feel like that's something that most people don't talk about, you know. Like, I had a really, really hard time with it, and I've done multiple preps, and I've always struggled with it. Like, it's never gotten easier for me. I would say it wasn't the worst that I've had, but it's I still struggle with that even now.

SPEAKER_01 29:22

Yeah, I think reverse, I think reverse dining is harder than prep, personally. I mean, not like like the the back end of prep is is brutal for sure, but like I think the discipline, I don't I've never really struggled with the discipline of like getting to the stage. It's the it's the phase after that. I think it's so challenging because like there's no there's no deadline, right? Like there's no deadline standing on stage exposed and like having to be in and out in and out field.

SPEAKER_02 29:47

Well, and when you felt like shit for so long, you just want to feel good, right? It's like I just want to get back to feeling good again.

SPEAKER_00 29:54

Yeah, and then for me, it's like I eat and I I'll like I'll like oh you know, I earned it, I deserve it, I I deserve to eat a little bit of extra food. And then I just feel like shit because I like the mentally, I feel like shit. If I eat like horror, if I go crazy after a show, I feel like shit because like I'll say mentally. So physically, you know, yeah, maybe I'm gonna gain X amount of pounds, you know, put on some fat, some water retention. But I feel like I probably do more harm to myself mentally by bringing myself down than the damage it does to my body physically, if that makes sense, because I put so much pressure on myself and I'm so hard on myself that if I start to binge, I'm like, why did I do that? Like can I have no self-control? Like, what's wrong with me? I'm supposed to do better than this. So that's that's another thing that I battle with too. Is it's like it's like a double-edged sword. It's like you I wanna treat myself a little bit with extra food, but if I go overboard, then I just feel like shit mentally. I feel like a loser. So I it's just uh it's one of those things that I uh you know, I'm still getting getting a grasp on and getting better with. Maybe my next prep it'll be better. I don't know. I thought it was gonna be easier this last prep, and I still kind of battled with it at the end, but or after prep, but especially with worlds being like the like during the holidays, you know, it ends like the week of Thanksgiving, and then you have Christmas, and then you know, so it's like you just want to like eat constantly. But I think right now I'm at a point, and uh this has probably been for like the last month where my appetite is like completely back to normal. Like it's crazy. I'm only eating 440 carbs a day right now, and I have to drink like 70 grams intra-workout just to meet my carb intake for the day because I just don't want to eat anymore. Because I, you know, I was like, I got it out of my system. I'm like, my hormones are back, everything's like back to normal. Just I don't even want to think about food these days.

SPEAKER_01 31:37

Yeah, yeah, I do think there's that there's that stretch out your prep where it's like you do need to go off the rails a little bit to like enjoy yourself, but it's like a lot of that's just like water retention, anyways. Like if you get back on track and slowly reverse the right way, and it gets better every prep. I I've dude, I've butchered every reverse diet I've ever done except for this past year. But then like we had we got out of prep at the end of September, I think. And we had a bodybuilding show that he promotes over in London that I was helping with. So we were over there for a week and then came back, and it was like what Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Year. So it is challenging. Like you, if you run a prep that time of year, you come out of there, it's like, all right, don't touch the Christmas cookies, it's it's impossible. Yeah, yeah. You gotta find a balance. It is what it is.

SPEAKER_00 32:22

Yeah, but I mean, you know, you once once you get through it, you get back, and you you get back like into your off season, things are coasting again, you you know, you're good. I mean, I enjoy it right now. I feel like things are I'm thriving right now. You know, my strength is going up. Uh I feel good. I also this is this is where I wanted to be when I was in prep. I used to just think about like, uh, just to be like in that in that part of the offseason where you know it I know it's gonna take a few months to go like from being like inside out peels to being in a in a phase where I'm eating enough food that I feel strong, I feel satiated, and my progress is like progressing linearly. Uh my um overloading or sorry, progressive overload is you know, everything is like firing on all cylinders, I'm getting stronger by the week, lifts are going up. That's that's what I enjoy the most, and that's where I'm at right now. So that's it's that's just a good, a good, good place to be in.

SPEAKER_02 33:12

Yeah, and something I remind athletes whether in prep is you know, if you can if you can hold performance through prep, you know, obviously you're not gonna be increasing strength or whatnot, but you can hold performance pretty well as far as your strength numbers for quite a while at least. And then when you get into those last few weeks where everything sucks, remember that when you get in the off-season, right? When you go into the gym in the off-season and you're like, oh, I'm not feeling it today, this is gonna be a grind. Well, remember how you felt when you were in the tail end of prep and you were still pushing. So think about what you can actually do now and take advantage. And I think the key for a lot of bodybuilders is not getting complacent in that off-season, right? It's making sure that when you go into the gym, you are training with intent, you're training with purpose, you're training on a mission, and you should look like you're training differently to everybody else in the gym, right? I mean, as a bodybuilder, it should be very obvious that the intensity and effort behind your training is so different to everybody else in there.

SPEAKER_00 34:13

Yeah, yeah. No, definitely. Uh like going into the gym and training, it should always be you, it should always be with like the thought in the back of your head of what are you really trying to get out of this? You know, like I think I want to compete again eventually. Maybe I was thinking 2028, I don't know, maybe like around that time, but I want to compete again. So when I go into the gym, I'm thinking about the next time that I that I step on stage, I'm gonna look better. So it's not a question of, oh, am I gonna look better? I don't even ask myself that. I know I'm gonna look better because what I'm doing in the gym every day, what I'm doing, you know, what I'm eating, my meals, it's all gonna it's all gonna compound for a better overall look. So I always think about that when I go into like, all right, you know, you gotta train hard, you know, push yourself hard, never like never let your foot off the gas, always, because it's you know, you some people may might struggle with this, I don't, but like they might go into the gym and they just might not want to push themselves harder that day. You know, uh I'm always thinking about like what I want to achieve next. What where do I want to be the next time I compete? So I think about that. I go into the gym and it's like it's like balls to the walls at every workout. And even to the point where I have to pull back sometimes because I'm like, oh man, like I start to feel really run down. Like, okay, I think it's time for a D load. I've been training way too hard the last several months. I I really got put pulled back. But that's because uh because just holding myself to such a high standard of always feeling like I have to like there's just no breaks, you know. That's why when it comes to even speaking on that, just to touch on that, when it comes to like have taking a D load, I don't even do like a week of light training. I just take like five days off of the gym because I can't go to the gym and say today I'm only gonna lift uh 40 or 50 percent of my weights. I like that sounds whole. I don't want to go on. Yeah, I'd rather just stay home for a few days, let my body rest, and then go back and then just kind of start to build on a new program or you know, something like that. But that's because you know I enjoy training that much. That's also another thing because I just really enjoy the training part. Going to the gym to me is like it's it's like the the best part of the day. So if I can't go in there and I can't train boss to the walls, like I'd rather just not even go that day.

SPEAKER_02 36:20

Yeah, I I I want the listeners to take notes of that because a world champion is telling you that it is okay to take five days off of the gym, right? You know, you get those people that they oh I can't, I can't miss a day, I'm gonna lose all my gains or whatever. It's like, no, you actually being rested is gonna help you grow so much more in the long term.

SPEAKER_00 36:40

It's yeah, it's hard to like for those of you guys out there who really, really enjoy training. I it's hard to take even just a few days off of the gym. Like every time I finish a training phase, I usually do my training phases for about 12 weeks with Cliff. Every time I finish a training phase, he'll always tell me, you know, take three days off before you start the next phase. And even those three days off for me, I'm like, I'll take one day off and I'm like, I think I'm ready to go back already, you know? Like I don't want to take three days off, but there have been times where I'm like, you know what, maybe maybe I do need to give my body a bit of a break. Let me just take the three days off. And it's almost like I'm forcing myself to take those days off. But like I said, when I start to feel like my body, like if my connective tissue starts but uh bothering me, or I feel like I might get an injury, my body just starts to feel like susceptible to an injury, then I will, okay, I I need to take a deal or I need to take a break, and just you know, it's just live to lift another day, you know. Don't go to the gym and get hurt, or your progress, you don't want your progress to regress because you're not giving yourself enough time to uh recover. So it's just one of those things to think about. And the longer you train, the more you start to realize that about yourself. Like when you start to see those signs that your body needs to uh just need to break, a little, you know, just needs a few days off.

SPEAKER_01 37:49

Yeah, I think that's something that comes with age too. It's like I usually really struggle with the thought of like taking time away from the gym that you're gonna like lose progress. And but typically what I do is I'll I'll I'll plan my deloads around like trips I have and things like that. So I'm just naturally having like step away from the gym. And in the past, I'd be like, oh, if I take five days off of the gym, I'm gonna lose all the progress I've made. But typically I'll come back to the gym and I'm actually stronger because like the tissue and everything's repaired, my body, like my CNS restored, like I'm in a good spot to actually push again, and my sessions are like I just feel rejuvenated, if that makes sense.

SPEAKER_00 38:25

Yeah. And for me, it's maybe every like uh it's not very often, it might be every like four to six months where I'll find myself taking a D load. I mean, I see for some people it's like every three months. I could probably go uh like you were saying, I think with age, it definitely does come with age. Like the longer I've trained, the more I've trained now, I do start to see uh like just little signs where I feel like I was earlier when I was saying that I need like longer rest periods on like on leg day, I'll be there doing uh certain movement for like 40 minutes. It's because uh the rest periods just need to be so much longer because uh I it could be just because I'm pushing myself harder than I used to. I don't know. I I think that's what I that's what I would want to say that it is, but definitely listen to your body because it you can only take so much before things start to fall apart, man. That's uh that's me right now, especially with like uh I always feel like uh I'm like so close to getting injured these days, at least. Just because I've been pushing so hard. Um and it's always one thing or another. Like for me, like uh my my knee, my connect the connective tissue in my knees, it starts to bug me. If I build like on like I'm doing hack squats now, I feel really good. Like I was at the gym yesterday, I did them, I feel really good. But I'm on week uh week three of this of this program. By like week seven or eight, after like every week trying to push, push it a little bit harder, the hack squat, whether it's more reps, more weight, I start to feel error and tear where I'll get done with the program and I'm like, okay, I need to I need to cycle out the movement and replace it with something else, or just to maybe take uh take it easy on on leg day for like a week or two, just to kind of give that connective tissue some time to to repair itself. So it's just one of those things uh that I I I personally uh battle with.

SPEAKER_02 40:06

Yeah, I love that. And I I do think it is like very individualized, you know. Some people need it sooner, some people need it later, some people enjoy taking them, some people hate taking them, you know, and it's just and the other thing is make sure you're actually training hard enough to need it. You know, there's a lot of people taking deloads that probably don't need to be taking V loads. Um, Eddie, one thing I wanted to go into was, you know, when a lot of people get towards the tail end of prep, especially maybe like the last four to six weeks, they start looking too far ahead, they start thinking past the show, you know, when really you you need to be taking it day by day. So, what would be your advice to any kind of person that struggles with that? Is just what's your daily mindset when you're in prep, especially when you get to the end, and just focusing on the day to day and not getting too far ahead of yourself.

SPEAKER_00 40:56

Are you talking about like transitioning from prep to like off season?

SPEAKER_02 40:59

No, like so. If someone's six weeks out from a show but they're starting to think too much about the show or too much about you know what they're gonna do after the show, rather than just staying in the right mindset to finish the prep strong, you know, taking it day by day.

SPEAKER_00 41:17

Yeah, um I guess think it's gonna like going back to earlier, goal, you gotta think about what it why it is again that you're doing this, you know. For me, like I guess I can only talk about how it is for me. So when every show that I've done, I just got I I don't uh I guess I really don't think about what I'm gonna do after the show. I just focus on that on that moment. Like, am I doing everything that I could do to show up my best on this day? Everything that's gonna happen after the show, that's I'll that that'll that day's gonna come. I'm not thinking about that right now. I'm thinking about what I could control leading up to the stage. Uh I gotta get my steps in, or I gotta do my cardio, I gotta, I gotta eat my meals, I gotta go train, I gotta pose, I have to pose. Like, fuck, I hate posing, but I have to do it. I go to the gym, I come home, I'm fucking tired, I'm I don't want to do shit, but I gotta pose. I'm thinking about the things that I could control, everything that I could control leading up to that moment. Everything, like I said, after the show, what happens on the day of the show, who shows up, what the judges think, who whose physique they like. None of that really matters right now. It just matters like that I could control what I'm doing right now leading up to that to that day. And that's what I that's how I treated all my shows last last season. Because um I always kind of felt like like I wasn't that good of a bodybuilder when I was in prep. I always felt like, man, I'm gonna show up and you know these guys are gonna they have better genetics than me or whatever it is. So I gotta make sure I go to the gym and I gotta train super hard. They're probably training hard as fuck too, but I gotta go and I gotta push myself hard. I gotta do uh I gotta go and I gotta pose. I don't wanna pose, but I don't wanna be on stage. I can't even hold a pose, so I gotta practice my rounds. Uh I gotta make sure that I'm I'm getting my cardio and I look at myself. I assess my physique like every day. I was like obsessed with doing everything that I could do and how that was gonna translate to the stage. That's how I treated my shows. I wasn't thinking really about like um anything really after the show. I honestly didn't even cross my mind when I was like going into a show because I was so like focused on just doing this. Like what the things that I could control are what I would focus on. The things the things that I can control is just like I and I learned that from Cliff actually. It's just don't focus on the things that you can't control, man. Just what you could control, focus on that. Because I don't want to show up on show day and feel like I didn't do something right. I don't want to be like mad at myself because I whether I cheated on my diet or I I was too lazy to practice my poses, whatever it was. Because then then I would feel defeated, because then I would just feel like that's on me. I made those choices that that ended that that got me there. But if I showed up, I did good, I looked good, whether I won or not, I looked good, I I did what I had to do on stage, I would be happy with the outcome regardless. Or at least I uh I mean I won most of the shows, so it's easy for me to say that I was happy, but you know, even if I wouldn't have won some of those shows, at least I could say that I did everything I could to show up at my best leading up.

SPEAKER_01 44:11

Yeah, that's a good point. I mean, I had a conversation with an athlete about that the other day. Like, it's so important to be realistic and have the mindset. It's like you can't control who shows up to the shows, you can only control the work that you've done, the daily deposits you put in over the prep. Like at the end of the day, like you can sleep well at night knowing that you did everything, you checked the boxes, and you brought the best version of yourself to the stage. And that's like that's really what bodybuilding is all about. It's like bringing the best version of yourself out of the process. Like, that's the most important part. And at the end of the day, it's like who shows up shows up, and if you win, you win. But there's more to bodybuilding than being first place.

SPEAKER_00 44:47

Yeah. And uh, I guess you know, the the one thing I will say about bodybuilding too is that it does, it's a very selfish sport. Everybody says that, everybody knows that it is a selfish sport, and I agree, it's only gonna be as selfish as you make it. But if you want to be really, really good, you want to show up and you want to look really, really good, you're gonna have to be pretty selfish about it. And that's just one thing that last prep for me was uh I like I closed off a lot of the other things in my life just because I was so focused, like fixated on this one thing. Um, and unfortunately for me, like I have a very supportive wife who she understands that, she knows how I get when I'm in prep. I'm like, like I'm dialed in, I'm focused. So she would do whatever she could to help me out with that. But it was uh it was hard for sure because there was just so many other things that I was like, I just didn't want to deal with anything else. I was like, I want to get my food and I don't want to go, I don't want to leave the house if I don't have to, just to go to the gym. I just want to eat my meals. I I just want to do what I have to do, get through this day, and then tomorrow the next day starts over, and I do the same thing over and over and over again for the next several months. And uh that's how I was when I was in prep. That's how I am pretty much every prep, but last prep especially, man. I was just like, I was like, I'm I'm gonna do worlds this year, I'm gonna do worlds. I like I'm gonna show up at my best. You know, and uh I never thought that I was gonna win worlds, but I just wanted to do everything that I could in my power, everything that I could control to show up and just look good or look good on stage. And uh I guess it was the that result at and having so much pressure on myself too, because I uh one of one of my like the things that I don't want to say it worried me, but something that I would think about was what if I show up to worlds and like I just disappear in the lineup, like they don't even notice me. Like I'm just gonna I'm gonna leave that show feeling probably like extremely defeated. I wanted to show up and I wanted to look good enough to contend. That's why I said that I wanted to at least be top three in my class. I want to be a contender, I don't want to just show up and not not be at the top of my uh uh of my class. So I would think about that a lot from like the like the very, very early stages of my prep. I was I would think about that, you know, like uh like a year, I guess like a year ago from now. So like the earlier stages of of that prep, I would think about that, and it would drive me to just do everything that I could in my power, just hit everything hard, everything my training, my dieting, uh everything. So it's just one of those things.

SPEAKER_02 47:08

That's awesome. Yeah, and as you said, you know, you you weren't expecting to win well. So now that you did, what is the future? You you talked about coming back in maybe 2028 to compete again, obviously for an even more improved physique. Uh, will it be trying to defend that title that year? What I mean, kind of what's your plan for the future in uh your natural body body?

SPEAKER_00 47:31

Uh 100%. You know, now that I know that I that I did it once and I see the I see that it was like the potential was there all along. I just I never saw it. I would look at myself and I'll be like, man, I don't look nowhere near as good as some of these other guys that are gonna be there. Now that um it's all said and done, the dust has settled, I won, I'm like, I that means I could win it again. Uh that I don't know I don't know who's gonna compete the next time I do it. You know, it could be a completely different uh like it most likely will be a completely different lineup, maybe some returning guys, but you just never know. Uh the only thing that I can do is from then uh from now to then is just keep training and doing everything that I did the last time I was in the offseason to show up and hopefully uh you know be another uh be a contender once again. So yeah, I would like to uh show up and hopefully win again, you know, but then again, like um I think about that. Like I don't want to show up and let's say I show up, let's say I do worlds again, I show up and I don't even make it to the overall. Like let's say I fall short in my class, and there's just maybe like second or third place or something. I don't want that to make me feel like I'm not good enough, you know, because I think about that now. I'm like, I won it once, but what if I show up and I don't win it again? You know, it's like I know how it feels to win it. Now to show up and not even make it to the overall, like how how would that make me feel? You know, what it's gonna make me feel like just like I'm not good enough, you know. That's how realistically I thought how it's gonna make me feel if I showed up if I didn't even win my class. So I I just take it I every day that I'm in the gym and I think about things like that. You know, those kinds of things are in the back of my mind, like when I'm doing a set and it's gonna be hard and whatever it is. I'm always thinking about things like that. And those are the kind of those are the things that that really drive me, that propel me forward with uh with everything that I do uh with bodybuilding.

SPEAKER_02 49:26

I love that. Yeah, I I think that's so key, is anyone listening is you know your your thought process going into the gym, even if the show is two years away, that's what you're going into the gym for, right? You don't wait until you get in a prep and say, Okay, now I'm gonna start training hard. Everything you do immediately after getting out of show is geared towards getting ready for the right.

SPEAKER_00 49:51

Yeah, man. Uh it's it starts the day you step off stage, really. Yeah, that's the day like the day I stepped off stage for worlds, man. I was so fired, I was like on cloud nine, and I was so fired up, I was like, I just want to start my offseason like like like literally tomorrow. I want to go back to the gym tomorrow. I mean, I didn't do that, I think that took like two days and then I went back to the gym, but I was already thinking about like the next time that I compete. And uh that's how if you want to be I guess especially in natural bodybuilding, because it's just so it takes so much longer to just to make the progress. But if you want to achieve greatness, you kind of gotta have that approach to it. You gotta think about it like that, where you gotta hold yourself to a really, really high standard. And you know, if I didn't hold myself to such a high standard with like I was saying, like the training and everything and all the variables that I could control last year, I would have never won worlds because like I was saying, going into it, I wasn't thinking like I think I might win, I might have a shot at winning. No, it was like, man, I hope I can crack top three of my class. So I did everything that I could lead up to that, like leading up to the day of everything that I could control that I could do to the best of my ability, I'm gonna do. And whatever happens, happens. So me having that approach and that way of thinking about it is what ultimately led me to winning my class and then the overall, because of doing everything, just uh putting all that pressure on myself, like just you know, be be good enough, just be good enough to be on that stage. And uh it went from hope I'm good enough to like I'm the best. So that that's it took a while for that to sink in. But you know, it's uh it was definitely a great experience for me as well to kind of you know tell myself, like, you know, give yourself to give myself more credit. And I still kind of struggle with it, honestly. I still kind of struggle to give myself more credit. Like I have this joke uh where like um I have the the glow that they give you when you win worlds. I have it in like in a in a in an acrylic case here in my house, and from time to time I'll I'll see it on the mantle where I have it, and I'll tell my wife, like, like we're living in a simulation because there's no way that I won worlds, like there's no way that I was that good in the first minute, you know? So uh like that's really how it like it's that's how I I kind of view it. I'm like, I how did I win it? Out of all those guys that were there, they all looked amazing, and I won it. I was like, this this isn't real life, you know. So it's just like never feeling like oh yeah, I'm good, I'm good. No, it's always like I could be better, I could do better, I could be better. That's always kind of uh what's that's just the way my mind operates.

SPEAKER_02 52:15

Yeah, it's a fine line between staying hungry because you know you can improve, but also realizing that you are obviously really, really good at the same time, you know? But as often I think as bodybuilders, we we negatively talk to ourselves, not because we actually feel negative about ourselves, but it helps us have that drive and motivation to go into the gym and push ourselves as hard as we need to. Because the minute you start feeling like you're the best and you know that it comes easy or whatever, that's when you take your foot off the gas, you're gonna get complacent with your training. So just that thought process of yeah, I want it, but I'm still not at the level I'm capable of being, is what allows you to continue to drive to get to that next level.

SPEAKER_00 53:03

Yeah, and having high expectations of oneself, you know, I don't want to just win worlds once, I want to win it a second time, a third time, I want to win it multiple times, you know, so that that way I can look back and be like, the first time wasn't an accident. Like this, like I'm really that good. And uh I mean, I would have to have another really good season like this for me to actually feel like like I'm a really like I'm a great natural bodybuilder. And I won worlds once, and I'm like, I I must be pretty good at doing this because I I won. But even now, I still I still like feel like I could be better, like I could, I could accomplish more. I just have to continue doing what I'm doing, really. I can't say like like oh I'm gonna train harder in the gym. Like, no, I've already I already trained hard. I've always trained hard. I can't say that I'm gonna train harder this offseason last because I already do that. It's just continue doing what I'm doing, continue uh stacking the days and coming back and see what see what happens, you know.

SPEAKER_01 54:01

So that's awesome. Yeah, so one thing I wanted to ask you. So obviously in this era of like social media with there's so much comparison, there's so much information out there, it's like it can get overwhelming, especially I think for the younger guys like interested in getting into bodybuilding. Like, what's like one massive piece of advice that if you were starting out you would you would give to others? Um if you're just getting into the the bodybuilding world naturally for the first time.

SPEAKER_00 54:35

Uh just I guess just uh let me see what would I tell my younger self just enjoy the process, enjoy the process, uh fall in love with the process. Like really, really enjoy the process because if you don't enjoy the like uh the dieting, the training, and you're only thinking about how you're gonna look on stage. Well, you're gonna look like shit because you're not you're not really passionate, you're not putting in the best effort at the things that actually matter, which are what you're doing when you're not on stage. The things that really matter are what you're doing on a day-to-day basis. You know, you wake up, you should already know, all right, today I have to eat this much food, I'm gonna go to the gym, I'm gonna train this. Tomorrow, I'm gonna train this. The following day, like you should already have your whole month outlined of what you're gonna train. You know, your the diet obviously that changes, that might that varies. It's like it might change week to week, uh, depending on your goals. But you already have an idea of what you're doing, so you gotta you gotta enjoy that process. If you don't enjoy that part of it, or you don't know what you're doing, like get a coach, figure it out, ask somebody, ask somebody to help you, get a coach or teach yourself. I don't know why there's so much information out there, like you were saying, but kind of do that, go through the days with a plan, have a structure around what you're doing so that when you do compete, you know, you can you know that you did the right things, or at least to the best of your ability to show up and look good, you know, have a a respectable physique. The how you show up, like thinking about show day, it's only as important as uh everything you did to get there, man. If you didn't do anything to show up, it's gonna show up. When you go on stage, you're gonna like disappear in the lineup, nobody's gonna like talk about how great you looked. Nah, man. You you you want to make yourself proud by doing the doing all the things that you could have done. You know, if you if you can't, if you don't feel proud about what you brought to the stage, then maybe you gotta ask yourself if you really enjoy if this is really for you. So just yeah, you know, have a have high standards for yourself. Try to put in the work every single day. And so that you like I said, you can be proud of yourself.

SPEAKER_01 56:41

Yeah, that's on advice. I mean, at the end of the day, it's like the show day and prep is uh it's revealing an accumulation of hard work that you put over the course of several years or more to get to that point. Like it's the pinnacle of maybe five to ten years of hard work, right? It's like nobody that gets on stage and does very, very well just decided they were gonna get on stage and did a couple months prep. It's it's been years of compound interest dues paid over the course of time to get to that point. And that's why it's such a out-of-body experience, I think. That first time you do it the right way.

SPEAKER_00 57:18

Yeah, and then you do it once, and you'll realize if this is something you want to continue doing or not. You know, over the years of going to the gym, I've met a lot of people, and especially now, I meet a lot of younger guys in the gym, and uh some of them they they talk the talk that they like, that they like training hard, that you know, they enjoy the lifestyle, they want to compete, and then you give it a few months, and like I don't even see them in the gym anymore. So it's not for everybody, man. Like, don't try to force it on yourself. You give it a try, do it, and if you like it, just pursue it, man. Just you know, do it, do what you see. The when you see when you see other people that are doing that are better than you, you do that. And like uh, so these younger guys that like they'll come up to me in the gym and they'll ask me how long I've been training, and then I tell them how long I've been training, and they look at each other like like like you know, they're shocked. I'm like, yeah, that's that's how long I've been doing it. And uh, because I I I enjoy it. I love it. I wouldn't want to do anything else. Like, if I didn't have bodybuilding, I don't know, I don't know what I would be doing with my life, but I like I love it, I enjoy it. So if you don't have that, it's gonna be really hard to make this something that you pursue for a really long time, especially natural bodybuilding. And I'm assuming that most of the viewers of this podcast are natural bodybuilders. It's like you gotta be in it for the long haul. If you're not if you don't want to be in it for the long haul, then just this is not for you, you know, because this I've been doing this for 15 years, and even after all years, I still like I still feel like uh like I could I I could achieve more. Like I my physique is just not good enough, you know. I always thought that maybe someday that was gonna go maybe after training for like seven, eight, ten years, I would look at my physique and be like, oh yeah, my physique is nah man, you're always gonna raise that bar, always. And that's not that's actually a good thing though, to actually raise that bar because then you're just gonna hold yourself to a higher standard every time. You're always gonna can you're always gonna want to like pursue more. So it's also you kind of gotta have that about yourself, you know. And that's maybe not that's like something that you could apply to so many things. It doesn't have to just be bodybuilding, but it's something like that you have in you that you want to pursue greater things, whether it's uh uh in your career, um in your business, or whatever it is, you want to accomplish great things, and then you just it goes hand in hand with bodybuilding. You know, you look at your physique and you're like you start to look at your weak points, like you look at the gaps in your physique, and you're like, no, I gotta I gotta work on this, I gotta take an off-season to build bring this up. So it's one of those things that's like the way you view it, your mentality with uh how you view, I guess, the world, it's gonna really uh it have uh an impact on on your bodybuilding if that's what you want to do.

SPEAKER_02 59:52

Yeah, completely agree. That's uh really, really sound advice. Um, Eddie, man, you've been a phenomenal guest. Uh, we've really enjoyed your insights, and I'm sure the listeners are gonna get so much value out of this.

SPEAKER_01 1:00:04

Um, yeah, thank you so much. Is there um is there you want to plug yourself on social media so people can follow you and find you?

SPEAKER_00 1:00:11

Yeah, it's uh I'm just on Instagram, it's Eddie Double underscore 1995.

SPEAKER_02 1:00:16

Awesome. Yeah, and it's I definitely recommend you go and check out Eddie's physique and uh some of his training videos because he's an absolute beast and uh very inspiring to see. So it's been a pleasure, Eddie, and uh we look forward to seeing your progress over the next couple of years, and then uh see him when you run it back, man.

SPEAKER_00 1:00:33

Uh for sure, man. Thank you guys for having me. Um said I love talking about bodybuilding, especially natural bodybuilding, just the training, the the lifestyle, the mentality. I've been doing it long enough now that I'm starting to feel more and more like I have maybe something that I could share with others. So anytime anybody asks me if I want to come on their podcast to talk about bodybuilding, guys, like I love to I love to do it. So thank you guys for having me.

SPEAKER_01 1:00:57

Yeah, you've been a great guest. We appreciate you, brother.

SPEAKER_00 1:01:00

Of course, man.

SPEAKER_01 1:01:01

Talk soon.