Transcript for:
Lecture on Strength Training, Injury, and Motivation by Dorian Yates

but I didn't want to stay like that I wanted to try and get better so I was forcing it and I got injured and I was like here I am top of the mountain my career's over that's it torn bicep really bad injury career's over this contestant he has a heart of a lion and you know I doubt a f about a train harder than enough gu he won six consecutive Mr Olympia the one and only D unes strength training our body building is easily the most important thing you can do for your health you just got to find out what's your motivation what's your and whatever works for you squeeze it up squeeze it up we got one more M come on General Public was not really aware of steroids one it's any of a thing now it's like everyone knows about steroids right just been aware of the consequences 20-year-old now has 50% the testosterone level of a 20-year-old from 1980 going back would you have changed anything with your approach to training one is that what is up guys and welcome to First Things thirst we are outside in Sunny Marb and as always whenever I come to Marb I have to do the annual Meetup with the legend six times M Olympia winner Dorian Yates cheers mate welcome back to Mar Bayer it's always a pleasure people ask me especially from America because they don't why do you live in Spain well this is why yeah this is why and it's not exactly Spain as it's very like International kind of bubble here in Marb so uh it's got the best of both worlds yeah it's its own unique place I feel like even during Co the rules didn't really apply here yeah well rules don't reapply to me wherever I go generally so that's just glad there's some other people here on the same Vibe you know yeah that it's uh it's good I'm sure many people who have been following my stuff have seen the workout videos which I've done with Dorian there's actually a lot of people who are requesting me to do it again but I feel like how how would it be any different from what we've done it's not like we wouldn't be drastically different because the same principles apply the same things that we did unless you said to me I have an injury I can't do this we need to work around it find some way to work around it or there's something that's different in your where you are in your journey than you was last time if you want if you want to come in a gym and you want to build muscle which is what it's about it's not going to be a lot it's not going to be a lot different the only thing is I should say is the way that we were training the intensity that we're training uh you can't do this continuously there's the thing yeah so you're probably find you can in my experience with all you know I logged everything and not only with myself if I train other people I observe what's going on so it's not just me I'm working with as other people as well um if there if there's one about six weeks is about you can go bore out you're trying to get stronger you're trying to go up you're trying to get rep more more more you're trying to go up in my experience after about six weeks generally you tend to hit a bit of a plateau and uh that could be more systemic like your nervous system gets a bit you know start to get a little bit overtrained and then you need to what they call a D Lo now we just call it train lighter for a couple of weeks well below Your Capacity but you're still putting some thing some resistance through the muscle still pushing the blood through there and so on so it's not a complete rest but it's kind of active rest training so you need to cycle it it's not something you can do all the time otherwise you're just going to hit a wall get burnt out or get injured and you'll be forced to back off anyway so you might as well plan it in the cycle would you still push the failure and lift lighter or would you back no the idea is that you active rest so rather than let's say don't do anything for two weeks then you might regress a little bit because you're not putting any stress with the muscle for two weeks then might go back a little bit so the idea is just put some resistance through the muscle let's say maybe 70% of what you normally would lift and no not to failure the idea is just put some resistance through the muscle pump the blood through there kind of an active rest so you don't want to be going anywhere near failure you're just kind of backing off for a few weeks and then getting ready go push forward again it is it's amazing how during the sessions I didn't feel like I was doing anything crazy in terms I wasn't doing like any magic exercises if if anything I was surprised about how I was doing less yeah than what I was doing normally the volume was less but I remember in particular of course the leg data was pretty [ __ ] up for a few days afterwards but even the chest and the bicep session they were so [ __ ] sore for like five days well the thing is first of all let's let's understand what triggers that damage and then the damage being repaired is equaling growth you got to kind of um surpass what you did before but not in terms of volume otherwise you would just continuously add sets there's do 10 sets of squats the next week 11 and so obviously that's not it and um Mike mener that I learned a lot from learned Here There and Everywhere but I learned a lot from AR the Jones and and then Mike mener and Mike mener had this analogy which was really like you know they're simplistic but they get the point across right so it was like if you have a stick of dynamite and a pencil and you hit the dynamite with the pencil one time is it's not going off right why the force is not sufficient right that's the point so if you hit the dynamite with the pencil one time it doesn't go off if you hit it twice or 10 or 100 times does it go off no because that force is not enough but if you had a hammer and you hit it once with a hammer bang it goes off so that's kind of like that with exercises it's about the intensity not how long you're there so it's not an endurance sport yeah I could do more I could train yeah you could do but it's not what you should do um the idea is to train the muscle intensely put it under that stress but for a short period of time not a long period of time cuz you need the signal number one and you need the recovery number two and then number three is the over compensation and that's the order that it happens in so we need to train intensely enough and we need to recover from that's the thing so yeah we didn't do any magic exercises cuz there isn't any magic exercises there only exercises that are good that take that muscle through its range of motion efficiently and it can go to fail so there's no magic exercises there's the Magic in how you perform them maybe that's all yeah can it be done without a training partner yes it can be done like to a degree I mean when I started training I'm just a new kid at the gym so nobody wants to train with me anyways so I got to I'm train on my own so yeah so sometimes if someone was in the gym and I'm doing something like a squat or a bench where I could maybe get stuck I'd just ask can you give me a spot if not I work on a machine because in a machine safe you just boom you put it back so um and you know you can train to failure on your own the only consideration is that safety you know so you don't get stuck under the bar and so maybe there's nobody in the gym you train on a machine and just you can just dump it when you're failed so or you you know you do dumbbells for bench press or whatever you can just you can just s them you don't get stuck under the bar so um you train to failure so yes you can do it on your own but it's it's kind of better and easier if you've got somebody there and also I like that if I could have somebody that's got some good energy and they're coming here and they're coming here to train they're in the same mode as me that whole back and forth thing uh uh works great and you know when it's when it's your Set uh after you're set and you're resting you're kind of focusing on helping your trainer partner do do his so there is no real downtime for you to like start thinking about something else you know maybe people do their set at the gym and then listen please the worst thing you can do I see you doing it uh looking on your phone yeah don't do that look guys we're just connected to that walking phone 24 hours a day you got 1 hour a day or arguably if you're lifting weights should be less than that three or four hours a week go in the gym take that time to really like focus on what you're doing and leave everything behind that means leaving your umbilical cord to the rest of the world which is your phone yeah leave it in the locker leave it in your bag surely for one hour yeah there's nothing on there that you really need to look at yeah so ditch that ditch everything and focus on what you're doing for for an hour and it's not just for your body it's for your mind as well it's beneficial it's kind of like um a meditation that you're you know you're uh you're forgetting about everything else you're not thinking about your relationship your business your bills and all that if you're in a workout you shouldn't be because you're just engrossed in the workout and the and the movement of the muscle and it's stretching it's Contracting and to get to some type of failure that's just you know negotiable where are you going to fail at you know it depends on your motivation you could easily do one or two of more reps usually if you're really motivated and you're really in the zone if you're thinking about something else you're not going to do it so it's a lot of concentration it's a lot of mind and little things when people come to train with me I like we got four guys this week doing doing a week with me doing a certification learning and they're all you know Dorian Yates fans I guess and they've all they've read the books they've read the watched the the DVD and YouTube stuff so they learned a lot they know a lot but it's actually doing it is different yeah do you have a lot of fans that come up to you that that train with you that look like they've never even lifted in their life uh honestly know because most of the people that come to train with me they know you know they know who I am they know what to expect it's it's not for beginners really although whatever I do I mean it in a slight variations on the theme applies to everybody I I've trained guys that really haven't done anything for 20 25 years and they they're in bad shape physically and uh we do a blood test you know all the parameters blood pressure everything to start with and uh just like three sessions a week 45 minutes to an hour total uh and a good diet and everything obviously and some supplements after a month 6 weeks you see people's health results Health markers really really changing yeah and you of course the the bodybuilding Mr Olympia and all that is it's my background but I'm actually more interested and maybe it's you know it's my age as well it's more relevant to me I'm more interested in health and quality of life and like taking what I've learned from you know it's an extreme right I competitive bodybuilding is just really the tip of an iceberg isn't it like but whatever we do there it kind of applies uh and can benefit many people as far as exercise we're all told to exercise but what do we do I would say that strength training or bodybuilding whatever you want to term it as resistance training is is easily the most important thing you can do for your health you know we're all brought up now running and cardio and stuff yeah it's cardio condition is important but muscle mass as you age is like a key marker of longevity and I I heard it somewhere I don't know where actually so you sarcopenia sarcopenia is the condition where you lose muscle mass as you get older generally around 1% for each year after 40 Years of Ag and this has devastating effects on your health on your bone density on your ability to um process sugar and insulin and and everything if you can get your muscle mass back when you're over 40 or 50 or 60 whatever you get your muscle mass back to 20 year old level not talking about 20y old Juiced up bodybuilder level talking about an normal fit athletic 20y old if you can re keep that muscle mass when you're 50 and 60 your health out comes and your uh perspective quality of life if you're getting older is just it's going to make a massive difference more than anything else that you can do what's what's your routine like at the moment okay so I got I got the weight training um quite limited because of my injuries like I tore a bicep and a tricep tendon and down my shoulder during my career which means there's quite a big strength IM balance between left and right yeah for those people who don't know you you tore your tricep once was it three weeks before you competed yeah insane he still won insane yeah and then the other one was a bicep one but you were able to still train yeah the bicep I did six weeks out from the 94 Mr Olympia and I kind of trained around it wasn't didn't affect my training too much but obviously not ideal and then 97 I tore tendon almost like 100% tricep tendon I think it was hanging on by 5% um you just and I couldn't train I couldn't do anything but I've been through it before in '94 and I overcome this thought in my mind that in 94 I tore my bicep six weeks out and don't forget at this point I'd won the Mr Olympia twice and the second time was like this is this guy's going to be unbeatable for a decade like he's just set a new standard and if he stays like that he won't get beaten it's just got to stay like that yeah but I didn't want to stay like that I wanted to try and get better so I was forcing it and I got injured and I was like here I am top of the mountain my career's over that's it torn bicep really bad injury C's over that was the that was the dialogue and then the the tricep one you had did you literally just did cardio for three weeks before the competition you didn't tell anyone well the point is like six weeks out I had this thing with the bicep and had a conversation with myself and I said well if you give up now and you blow your diet and you I'm done well that's going to be the fact is that is a fact you you know that will be so but how about if you say look maybe I can't make it to the contest but let's give it a go let's give give it whatever I can do 100% if I can't do this I'll do something else I stay on my diet I'm in good shape maybe I can pull it off and uh day by day that's what I did I pulled it off that time so when it happened the second time it was it was worse it's three weeks out now and this was totally debilitating I couldn't train at all couldn't let weight 3 weeks so obviously much less than ideal but um I don't know maybe life threw these challenges at me because I was already at the top and I needed something else yeah as a challenge um and it's good that you I guess we didn't witness you getting beaten by someone yeah also that you know um I had a surgery on the tricep tendon and as I you know wasn't happy with the prep and my condition on stage I I still believe that I was legitimately the winner but it was not uh my personal best and I thought well if I can do another year maybe I will to try to redeem that but after I had the surgery it was very obvious that uh the damage was too much and it was permanent and also with the strength of the train I just couldn't train the way I wanted to so I do like light machines and dumbbells now for any upper body stuff and legs I do I was training legs quite heavy till a few years ago I have some issues with my hip so I just do leg extensions and uh leg curls at the moment um so I do twice a week in the gym yeah uh I do twice a week on the road with my bike that's more like long cardio mhm I do once a week which is stretching Mobility based so I do patus class at the moment I've done a lot of yoga in the past um but I find yoga irritate my hip as well so kind of ease that out so I do some cardio generally outside twice a week I go to the gym I might do like an 8 minute interval hit interval like 20 second burst on the airbike or something like that and uh like two exercises chest two for back I'm just doing it to maintain my strength and muscle mass that I have keep that as much as I can not really you know I'm not trying to put it back on again think what were the exercises that caused the two injuries I was curious to know uh I did reverse grip uh barbell Rose and what I was trying to do I still had this mentality that I wanted to train out all out all the time and I didn't want to really back off the weights coming into a contest cuz some in my mind it's very simplistic but I think I don't want to start training lighter I'm going to get smaller it's not it's not correct it's not correct thinking but that was kind of my mentality and it was just gung-ho 100% all the time I mean I was like 30 years old I really felt like I could just walk through walls and stuff you know nothing could hurt me um so I was training doing reverse grip bent over rows six weeks out before the contest and one thing I was just training too heavy I was doing like six five six reps I was 200 kilos I was run with there so unnecessary so I put myself at risk unnecessarily and what I realized now as I go back and I'm thinking where did it it started in my shoulder you know little bit of little bit of pain in the shoulder and when I was going to superate and get the bar I started noticing the left one was kind of hard to get I had to like squeeze it around it was so it was already tight when I was pulling the weights so you know looking back but at the time I didn't notice it so it probably started with a shoulder injury which changed the position a little bit so then I had more tension going through this arm and yeah it was just too heavy and for a contest your calories are restricted you're doing cardio you're not sleeping as well because anyone that's done a real contest diet knows you just can't sleep because your body just keeps waking up telling you to eat and you're like no I can't so you you sleep less your body fats less you're dehydrated you're tired you're more vulnerable to an injury yeah so I advise people that are help now like let's just ease it back because all you're doing really the last six8 weeks just let's maintain what you've got and while we're getting rid of the body fat and everything like that so um not to say that you should train light or anything still train to failure but maybe bring the Reps up to 10 to 12 and uh so on you know would do you going back would you have changed anything with your approach to training at all I get ask this question all the time and it's like couple of ways to look at it because I don't believe in like I would change this because then I would change everything right so I would rather uh phrase it as what did I learn that I would you know would have helped me if I wasn't doing it and I can tell other people about it one is that um but it is a general theme behind it behind that like pushing unnecessarily too much before a contest there's this passion and there's this drive behind it which got me from where I was in a you know kid in in a small gym in Birmingham that people in Birmingham didn't even know what bodybuilding was really from there to be the best in the world with this drive all the time this passion and it's it's not like a dial that you can just turn it up and down it's it's on or it's off right so it's uh my advice to myself would be yes you know be more sensible and and ease off and and go into the and that's what I pass on to people now but uh you know maybe I was meant to have that injury you know and to stop bodybuilding when I stopped and learn what I learned and to be where I am today which is in a very good place and very happy so I I wouldn't change it but uh if it was somebody else doing it I would say hey don't do that and don't do that maybe but I don't I don't live life with regrets and looking back I should have changed this and should have changed that because it all made me the man who I am today that I feel good as you know you've seen uh Dr Mike Isel made a video about you reviewing it yeah it was very complimentary actually actually it was funny because uh I was just over in Romania I got the offices there in Bucharest for Dy nutrition so I'm there I go now and then and all the people in the office we got a big screen there so we put it we all put it up and watched it yeah it was fair enough there's another guy on there as well the that analyzes more analyze the movements and with his little marker pin and all that hypertrophy coach or something oh yeah yeah uh John Bennett yeah yeah they both analyze my training and they both like know what they're talking about from that point of view so they understood what I was doing and why I was doing it and the choices that I made he seems to think that could have squeezed in a fifth session yeah well I said four days a week to make it simple for people but if actually was four days out a six so he realized that when he looked into it he's like ah but um four five it all depends on the individual and if they can recover or not um but they understood the exercises I was doing and why I was doing them and everything so thanks for the legend out of 10 mate uh don't worry if you come to England and tell them you're know me nobody's going to stab you yeah what for the for the rest of the week when you weren't training what were you doing back then resting man just resting resting depend you weren't coaching any people back then no man never never I mean that didn't even exist anyway yeah there was no coaches and who am I going to coach nobody's interested this didn't exist didn't even exist mate you know like maybe Mike mener who was uh one of you know he had phone consultations there no online right his books or letters or phones before we had email so Mike used to do a lot in person at Go's gym and uh on the phone so I guess he was probably the one of the first people that was kind of a coach or doing coaching um well you know he obviously had coaches in the gym people in the gym personal trainers but not you didn't have a coach for bodybuilding you had to coach for training yeah like I trained with Mike menah as I learned a lot from him and and he was kind of like my hero when I started so I got to train with him and we did some training and discussed training and it was great but I didn't discuss with him nutrition yeah because I knew I already know more than him I didn't TR discuss with him steroids or any of that because I already knew I knew more than him so this was not even a conversation we had it was personal experience yeah it was me in the gym with him and exchanging and he was saying what you doing now and you know like explain my training it was like maybe try cut because I was doing like warm up whatever couple of sets and then I do a set to failure and then I do another set to failure a bit lighter just hit that nail twice to make sure it's in there right yeah so that was my thing just and it's like how about you just cut back to the one set from two to one I said well let me give it a try and I I gave it a try and I feel like I got a little bit another burst of progress as I was kind of you know maybe maxing out so that would fly in the face of everything that anyone ever thought right do less and get more I genuinely think if if you were in this scenario if you coach me four times a week I would for however many months I would stack on quite a significant amount of muscle anyone would as long as they're you know taking care of everything outside the gym yeah that's their job but with the train I've had a lot of people that's come for a month and they're literally get a little bit bigger and A Little Bit Stronger they're looking the light I look bigger than last week I'm like yeah I know you should be right uh especially if you've been doing some training which is quite efficient because inefficient let's say because I mean when you first go to the gym any training you do is a shock to your body right yeah and you get some results from it but after a while it maxes out and then you got to be smart you got to train hard enough and you got to balance that with your recovery so I often see people training too much or too often I don't know that I've ever really seen anyone train too hard yeah well I always recommend people at least once or a couple of times go and train with somebody who's like genuinely going to push you because how how do you even Define intensity it's very relative like somebody might think oh well yeah I train pretty hard and because I used to be a coach for years I would watch them train I'm like no no like that's that's not training hard now we're going to train hard and then they'll be like to take them there you got to help them get there yeah that's what I do with people and I say look what you did man you did this well okay you did it you got those couple more reps cuz I'm [ __ ] shouting at you and I'm Dorian Y and you're going to do it right but actually you did it I mean you lifted the weights I'm here I'm just shouting and being me right so I was your motivation then to get those two reps correct right but you can do it cuz you did do it so you're physically capable love it it was just that you were a bit more motivated today but I've showed you that you can do it so now you know and you just got to find out what's your motivation what's your key and that's that's like the key inside your psyche inside your brain whatever works for you what used to work for me I call it [ __ ] you motivation [ __ ] you to everybody to the teachers at school that say you're not going to get anywhere and prepare you for a life of being uh medicure you know uh [ __ ] you to everyone that said I couldn't get anywhere even imagination that people are saying bad things about [ __ ] you like that's I always use that I rather use that that the anger that I had or the negative things or whatever I rather use that as motivation and kind of get rid of it in a way it's like you changed it into something good so you've took it out of yourself where it could be damaging and with with your workouts you've like kind of transformed that negative energy into something that's positive yeah yeah I think if anybody's dealing with any kind of [ __ ] in their life whether it's like family career whatever it might be the best thing you to do is just go to the gym yeah and let it out yeah [ __ ] everybody in the gym you know they won't know yeah they don't they don't take it personal you're just in your head right whatever it is um I used to think like people are trying to stop me from getting there and then when I got there I was like how do I deal with this now cuz I'm at the top right so I turned it around like I've got a son and I've got a wife and the other guys are trying to take the food off my table for my family so now I had another reason to be like combative and angry and you know I just it was just my imagination I was comfortable I had a nice big house and income and I could chill now right yeah that's the danger so I had to find another thing which is and that was it it was like they're trying to stop me these other guys it was pretty amazing that despite winning and having all this potential Temptation at your doorstep you were just like right um back to the UK yeah back to training the next week well back to training but uh it wasn't quite as simple as that because I was like why am I training now so it wasn't quite as transition wasn't quite that smooth it was this is after you f yeah like you know I'm finished but I didn't exactly plan my exit yeah as I was really a planner and a controller and I like to control everything that I could and through my career I did very well at that but an injur is an injury and C other the bang well hold on I didn't I'm ready for this didn't think about this what should I do now and where should I go and what should I do and yeah I'm going to gym but why am I going to gym now like it's just the whole uh your whole identity is lost and many men get depressed like guys you know they're 60 theyve been doing this job all their life or whatever and they retire and then they get press cuz they have no purpose anymore even if it's driving a van or working a post office or whatever it is that was your purpose in a way and now it's taken away and like who are you and what should you do as a man like uh so there's a lot of questions there a lot of changes in my life uh what year was this 90 I'd say 97 98 I announced my retirement so we're talking 99 into early 2000s uh went through like real clinical depression not knowing like what's I've been doing this thing for so long and it's all I've been doing I don't know anything I don't know who I am outside of this anymore I'm lost like I remember who I was when I was 20 years old before I started but I'm not now I'm 35 and all I've done is bodybuilding really it's all cut the rest of the world off like tnal Vision didn't go out didn't even I didn't want to go to social events or anything just wanted to be I loved it I wanted to do it but uh I think people need to understand as well how different the world was back then yeah well here's the thing now it's like so you got myself uh Chris Cormier came out very recently did a podcast with me he's doing well he's doing coaching around the world and so the younger generation that came in through the internet they got to learn about us old school guys that they call us and I get hundreds of guys coming to see me at an expo and I looking they're like wow most of these guys not even born when I was competing so the internet opened up a lot of opportunities and maybe relaunched a lot of guys that whose careers was like what should I do now because it was just the magazines right once you're not in the magazines anymore it's like you virtually disappeared yeah and I Disappeared to Birmingham as well so I kind of lost all my not much going on in Birmingham no and I'm not I'm not one I don't really like like I'm not guy that wants to sit on the phone all the time and when I was depressed it was even like I don't even want to talk to anybody I don't feel like myself I feel bad I don't want people to see that I'm not good and so I even cut myself off more so I was like cut off from the bodybuilding and not really knowing what to do um and then slowly I turned it around to be like well when I was bodybuilding I couldn't do this I couldn't do that I couldn't travel and go to places I want I couldn't you know had to everything had to be scheduled now hey you know there's a lot of things in the world you can do so but it took it took a lot of time to get to that conclusion what did you start doing after that like when you realized or maybe I can start traveling and go around got divorced went partying chased women the usual stuff like every stuff until you get tired of it you know like all the things that I like couldn't do before like hey man if I want to stay up for two days if I want to go to the other side of the world and do something I can do it I can like I can do what I want so yeah I suppose um you could say I went off the rails a little bit but I had to how long did that last for oh 10 years on and off on and off um I pretty much slowed down when I met G I guess you know so it was probably like seven or eight years where I was loose I mean you're not I was still training I was still stay in shape and everything but if it was a weekend or I was away then yeah there a party going on well I think you've you definitely earned it yeah I definitely earned it and maybe I had to do that as well because I was so regimented I had to swing the other way where uh I wasn't and I felt free and doing crazy stuff I mean that I couldn't have done anyway because I'm somewhat of a whatever you know celebrity or well known it open a lot of doors that wouldn't have been open when I was younger anyway so yeah and then you know I got to the point where hey I met a good woman I mean it didn't stop straight away fortunately girl was very tolerant and she didn't she's like maybe you want to stop that at some point but you know not going to be the one cuz if anyone told me not to do something is just the best way to get me to go and do it more not going to work right so I guess you uh figured that out um so then yeah it became it's not really fun anymore it's not really fun anymore and it's you know start to get hard in your body and everything so I've been all through through that I've been through a lot of stuff I've been through depression I've been through drug use and everything but I think it gives me more connection and more empathy with people because if they're talking about it I'm like hey I know yeah you know and and that way you can help people I mean I had guy come over for a month his father send him over here cuz he had a a drug problem and we spent time together we trained and just like that helped him and keeping away from well he told me had a drug counselor over in Canada where it was where he came from I like how much drugs is your counselor done did you ask her it's like no she I was like yeah that's Aid Point how's she going to help man you know like so uh everything in my life had a point and I've had a lot of experiences in life you know uh that's what it's all about that's what it's about in the end yeah not just I haven't been just one thing it's almost I've had like if I had a book there's all different chapters in there there's a bodybuilding chapter but there's other chapters as well in there uh and I don't get caught on that idea of who I am I'm doryan AES I'm Mr Olympia I'm a bodybuilder no I'm not I'm what like I'm whatever I want to be you know um but we all have a tendency to get stuck in that mold of especially if they're really good at something yeah you tend to stick there because it's comfortable right I went to do yoga with a load of ladies like I couldn't stand on one foot I was falling over I was stupid yeah but didn't matter I was there to do what I was doing and didn't need to be the best in these things and I had a yoga coach and she used to ask me what I want to do I said I want to do what you tell me to do cuz in the gym I'm the boss and I tell everyone else what to do and I tell myself what to do but this is yoga and and I'm I'm just a student yeah I want to learn so I'll just I want to switch off and you tell me to do this I'll do this I'm not thinking about it yeah yeah so um I remember even when I was in my 20s I'd kind of built up this reputation that I was a coach bodybuilder guy yeah and after a while it started to get a bit bit repetitive and I was like is this how long is this going to continue for I don't want to be those guys who's only onedimensional is just known for doing one thing and you know what when he gets into his late 30s 40s 50s you know the physique is going to start to go downhill then what do you do exactly if if you're but more importantly is your own selfworth yeah what do you think about it that's the problem with a lot of people they get uh in a way addicted to that that image that personality and you know especially the guy that are using steroids cuz they don't want to give it up right they want to go back to being that guy that was a bit smaller and everything before so it's kind of a that can be a cycle as well you know just just being that guy and if you're doing something really unprofessional competitive level then it is your life it has to be like that but if you're not it doesn't have to be like that and it shouldn't be really but uh it was I mean imagine that's all I did and then you start to like think well this is a bit strange isn't it is this what life's really about is this this more and then you know that that was the journey that I went on to like discover uh about life and not just the physical life the spiritual life uh been on a big Journey with that and it's never ending you know so it might makes life exciting every day I can learn something more and I'm I'm always trying to do that when did the spiritual journey start I guess it you know I always had some awareness but it was more like uh when I finished bodybuilding and some things happened in my personal life uh I got divorced and uh I lost my nephew who was was very young uh just a lot of trauma and it just it's like dropping a bomb on my life but maybe that's what had to happen because it had to just all blow apart and had to like figure out stuff without most people been on a spiritual journey it normally starts with some kind of life crisis because while we're comfortable we don't change anything we just carry on and carry on something drops in your life everything falls apart and you're like what the [ __ ] is this all about and you you just start thinking and searching and um uh that's how it started yeah I reckon does it have to involve taking some sort of hallucinogen drug or something because I know you've you it doesn't but let me tell you this all the spiritual practices and religions they all started with psychedelics they all started with plants and then it gets changed and watered down and and so on but all the people you read about having visions uh the ancient Greek mystery schools and they to go into the temple and they call it like you die and you're born again in the temple in these secret ceremonies uh and you know the evidence Left Behind like uh diagrams of drinks and plants and so on so it's been used people are aware of you know um indigenous people in South America using plant medicines but is is everywhere everywhere every culture has being used in plant medicine so so no you don't have to but it's uh it's a massively helpful tool this is the whole thing with the life experiences cuz I I I've tried a couple things I've experienced a lot but the iasa thing I've never experienced and it's it annoys me that I can't relate or have a proper discussion about it because I've not yet experienced it myself so I want to try I can't have a proper discussion about it either and I have experienced it but my attempts to describe it will never be sufficient yeah because I don't have the vocabulary I don't have the I can't show you what was inside my head so people try to describe it but it's it's very difficult to describe because it's multi- level is it oh it's going to help with your trauma and what yeah but there's there's levels to this not just about that there's levels to it and the main thing is that you're going to become aware that there is much more here then what you can see right now what you can perceive of me sitting in this couch and this things here is about 1% of what's in this space the other 99% you can't perceive at this moment in time yeah so so we could be sitting here and you can tune a dial on the thing on the radio whatever and pick up Beach grooves I like beach grooves good Channel out here it's a plug for Beach grooves house music and Marb we can tune into that yeah will we sit in the same space and tune into like how many 100 more channels we already got F we can got five senses yeah but what I'm saying is we could tune a dial now and pick up 100 different radio stations or whatever just for argument sake 100 but they're all here right yeah but while you're listening to beach GRS you can't be listening or aware of the other ones but they're still in the same space yeah yeah so that's the same thing with with a lot of stuff there's a lot of stuff in the space in this time and space that you're not aware of and when you take psychedelics you will be aware of a lot more and you will know and you won't be able to forget as much more and that just changed the whole perception your whole thinking process an ability to think it just blows it open uh so it's much more than and it's not like hey this is fun I haven't done any psychedelics for 5 years because I've done a lot and I've really got a lot from it but it's not like fun it's not like let's go to Club and pop an ecstasy and have fun yeah it's it's a deep uh it's a deep spiritual journey and uh I think if you're really thinking about and you start to get curious then that's the time yeah I think definitely 10 years ago I would not have been in the right mind space to do it but now so let me use this analogy that I've used a couple of times and people appreciated it so let's say you're in a box yeah there's four walls and you're in a box and that's all you know yeah yeah you can see the four walls and that's it so as far as you're concerned that's all that exists right because it's all you can touch and smell and see and hear there in the box right but they I bring you a little trampoline and you jump on the trampoline you can see over the wall of the box and the whole world out there then you come back down but you know that you know it's there now yeah well the thing i' recently in particular I know it's there yeah but I now I want to see it though you've answered your own question Now's the Time is it Now's the Time to start looking where is the place to do it where is the place to do it well I'm sure there's lots of places but the where I did it um is in they place in Costa Rica and Peru salara mhm um just cuz they're very professional they got a whole team there that prepare you before look after you afterwards and everything like that so that's with the guys that I did it with I've done some s Arizona in Spain with different people but I'm kind of like a cowboy I'll go in and do it but I see that some people didn't really have a good experience because they weren't properly prepared and they weren't like talk down coached afterwards lotss of questions and they just sent home with all this and they got no one to talk to so soara you have people there during before and after and everything like that so I had some friends when used to live in Newcastle they would just [ __ ] do it in Newcastle I'm like can't think of anything worse than doing it there well the thing is I mean you you're opening yourself up to a lot of energies right so that's why when you do iasa the space that you're doing it in is cleaned out they burn incense in there you they pray in there it's a Sacred Space yeah because everything's energy so if you want to take some psychedelics I don't know you're in a party or a nightclub or something got all these different people in there of all different energies bouncing around and you're probably not going to have a good experience cuz you know uh it's not meant to be used like that it's not recreational you know you want to you want to do it in a quiet place with a shaman with people watching over you making sure you're safe and and everything like that you're you're a big proponent proponent of smoking weed as well aren't you you I'm just a big proponent of cannabis and I'm provocative about it I smoke it and take pictures and I put it on the internet and everything like that yeah because I'm just trying to change people's perceptions as I have a lot of knowledge about cannabis I have a question for you guys do you take supplements and if you do do you really know what supplements you should be taking you see this is a problem I had for years I would walk into a supplement store I would buy loads of random bottles of supplements and just pop p pills every day hoping for the best but in reality I had no idea whether or not I should be consuming these supplements that is where bionic came into the picture and solved that problem you see I've been working with bionic for the past couple of years and since 2021 I've been getting my blood work done with them every 3 to four months and based on that blood work they send it off to get analyzed and then they put together a very specific customized formula for me which will last me for three to four months until I get my next blood work done and honestly it's been an absolute game changer for me they also offer another product called bionic go where all you need to do is go on to the website fill in questionnaire and then based on that questionnaire they can give you your customized supplements so if that sounds like something that would be of interest which I highly recommend go on to the website bic.com and you can use the link in my description to get a nice little discount on your first order what do what do you think is the common misconceptions that people have about marijuana I don't know you tell me what what's what what what do you think what's the negatives tell me I personally don't see any negatives with it because I never see anybody fight when they smoke I don't see anyone like losing their mind or doing weird [ __ ] like everyone's just chilled in a good place I feel like the government authorities try and push this agenda that's dangerous bad for your health yeah I mean in in America it's still certain States it's legal yeah but federally you know America you have the federal government then you have the state federally it's still schedule one with the heroin and cocaine which means it has no medical applications yeah well go online there and Google uh patent on cannaboids cannabis and cannaboids and you see the US government has patented it as a powerful antioxidant and a neuroprotectant and that's what it is uh unfortunately it passed away but there was um uh molecular biologist his name was Dr Robert malamed and he said his he's a molecular biologist but his field of speciality so narrow field of speciality was uh oxidative stress and aging of the cells and he said the number one thing on the planet to protect your cells antioxidant power oh you heard about vitamin C and everything forget about it it's THC cannabis massively protective on your cells yeah um so it's got massive health benefits regardless of recreational use and everything it's a medicine it's a very powerful medicine it's been used for thousands of years and it's been demonized for various reasons um first of all there would be a high percentage of pharmaceuticals that would just not be needed if people would use cannabis instead and it's non-toxic like tell me something else that's you couldn't consume enough of it to kill yourself impossible tell me water no you're going to drown cannabis never killed anyone in the history of mankind it's not possible it's not toxic it doesn't suppress your breathing or anything yeah so there's not many things you can say that about right um so it's non-toxic it has many many health benefits and you can Google that cannabis patent US Patent um so Robert malamed was saying it's like the most protective thing you can you can take for yourselves the most protective single so it's for me it's multi-level first of all it's a mind opener right um people that smoke cannabis have an ability to think outside of boxes and programs and programs don't really work on us so they say it makes you rebellious Bob Miley said makes you rebellious against what yeah nothing nothing good so only rebellious against uh control and systems and of course if you're a government you you want to be able to control R people so that's not good having them thinking for themselves um so it's recreational for me it's like I like to think and I like to explore so it's great for that and I'm not on a crusade to make everyone smoke weed because my wife don't smoke Weir doesn't like it doesn't feel good for her right but I just put it out there be especially as I'm an athlete and then people are like bit perplexed like what you're being a bad example to my son smoking cannabis oh okay sorry was okay when I was doing growth hormone and steroids yeah that was okay but I'm doing cannabis now which has never harmed anybody I mean arguably there are some mental health concerns with young people but you know I wouldn't advise young people to be drinking alcohol at 12 and 13 years old either but I was I was in the pub at 13 years old it'sing you know I don't know you're younger than me but British culture is like especially back then it's pubs like everyone's drinking Ben's drinking at like got into when I was 15 yeah like there was no uh no way out of it every single one of my friends was drinking if you weren't drinking then you're a little bit exactly and look at the damage that alcohol does not only to your body and your brain but to society most murders are done under alcohol most car accidents are done with alcohol like violence alcohol um but if I posted on my Instagram page drinking a glass of wine I one zero yeah zero people commenting anything what how can you smoke cannabis and be a sports person I don't know ask 80% of the NBA players that smoke cannabis during according to recent surveys NBA NHL uh hockey football in America they've done surveys on all those Sports it's around 80% of the professional players that use cannabis on a very regular basis so if it was bad for your health or bad for your performance which is not neither it's benefit icial for both do you think the best most highest paid athletes in the world would be using it every day and more to the point do you think the owners of the clubs would be allowing them to do anything that's going to decrease their performance yeah no so it's true most athletes use cannabis yeah who's the fastest man in the water Michael Phelps cannabis user who's the fastest man on land you saying B yeah man Jamaica you know you know he was spoken a lot of it it's true though like if I I could spend an evening smoking marijuana versus spending the evening drinking if I spend the evening drinking I'm going to feel like absolute trash next because it's poison and your body's got to process the poison where your body already has a can cannaboid system in there cannaboid system in your own body I found I don't know like 10 years ago or something basically we have a cannabis system in our bodies it it fits with our bodies that's why it works for so many uh different ailments the only the only problem I've had with it is it makes me extremely antisocial so when I when I whenever I do smoke I don't I like to just go off by myself so if if I'm going somewhere and I'm expected to be social that's probably not going to happen yeah it might it might feel a bit uncomfortable like with a lot of people and everything and there maybe there lots of different strains as well you see there lots of different strains of cannabis with different types of effect and broadly speaking it's very broadly but you have sativa and indicas so sativa is more it's like a high you're thinking it's more creative like artistic and and musicians would use it and you're quite up yeah then you got the indicia which is more sedative which is more for like your pain and appetite and sleep and stuff like that but it's couch lock you have it you just I'm not going anywhere now yeah so it depends on the strain and the person and so on so it's you know it's a whole W world like getting into wine or something and there's different different types and different strains I think as well because when I'm in Dubai I'm I'm super clean obviously there they don't tolerate much Choice have you you have no choice in Dubai you got to you got to respect the rules so whenever I do a bit of traveling over the summer I think it's just because my tolerance is so low that it's uh it just knocks me back a bit yeah I mean it's it's a matter of dosage isn't it like if you regularly consume cannabis and THC you builder for tolerance like me I can smoke a whole joint and do something where somebody else will not yourself probably would not yeah uh so you know you just have a little bit I got this saying with my guys cuz we go out biking and stuff I said it's called two Puffs and go you just have two and that's it and then we go off and we go a bike ride and like and you I feel great yeah I said but if you had two more he probably wouldn't feel great so it's just a matter of you know what what suits you have you have you got into the marijuana business at all uh I'm kind of involved in a club here down in you're going to come down down at ala called cannibis come down and visit me we we go down next week or something it's uh it's a nice Villa we've got Kitchen in there we got pool we're going to put a sauner in there and an ice thing so it's like a community everyone there is like more into sports and it's older crowd like business people entrepreneurs I'm like I'm looking at all the people here and I'm like it's funny isn't it like the there you know the stereotype of a of a cannabis user like nobody there fits that stereotype you know so uh all kind of people from all walks of life use cannabis and they're successful like if you're a lazy bastard and you smoke weed you'll be a lazy bastard like you know what I mean I'm not so slows me down sometimes but I probably might need to slow down sometimes yeah what what are the laws here the law here in Spain is you're allowed to consume cannabis in your own private house and you're allowed to have plants for yourself like in your own house so you know I don't know arguably three or four plants you could have and you can smoke here and you can smoke on a balcony and you can do what you want right outside no but if you're in um it's like a collective like a members Club M uh you're in a private members place you can consume cannabis there so that's that's what we got with cannibis and that's where we're at at the moment but for me it's just a slow just a slow tiptoe to being legal or soon or later you know same as in America at first in California when I used to go there you had to have a a license like you go to the doctor and you know literally have a card with their pitch on and everything I used to love it like 007 cannabis the pitch like a driving license but then you know it was like anyone could get a license it's just [ __ ] and now it's totally legal so I think it's like that it's politicians nobody want got any balls they want to make changes so it's very slow but it might as well be in the UK it makes sense I mean in the UK as well the police have just said look we're not we're not going to prosecute anyone for smoking cannabis so it's not legal but effectively it's halfway there um so hopefully in a few years it'll just be legal and you you know you you''ll be able to buy it if you're over 21 at certain locations or you know just like alcohol you should definitely do your own strains yeah I'm thinking of it because um I mean a sativa is is ideal before training because it's kind of up and super narrow focus and then you got other ones that's more for recovery so I'm I'm working on it yeah you could have the munchies one for people who struggle to eat need don't worry we got that we got you there just be careful what you're munching though that's all yeah eat your steak and everything not your you know it's cake it makes food taste unbelievable well it what it does it enhances a lot of Senses so and sex as well feeling your nerves so yeah sex is better plus you you're being more shun with the energy if you're having sex you can feel like just way to go right uh music you listen to music when you smoke listen to music before you smoke and listen to the same music after you smoked and you will hear a little background things in the little never heard that before like the details the same with the food your taste sense of taste is increased uh so a lot of your senses are enhanced that's why it's very good for Creative people but some are not enhanced like your short-term memory yeah so you might feel like a genius but you can't remember where your car keys are lit right everything short term in shortterm memory it's not like people oh weed damages your brain or anything look it up patent neuroprotectant okay neuroprotectant stop with that nonsense we tried um mushrooms yeah I've never done like Mega deep mushroom uh trips I've done like a gram which is you know functional amount it's interesting uh the Deep really deep work I've done has been with the iwaska and uh DMT like just pure straight DMT which is just a 10-minute job but it's like you're out of here yeah I mean you're gone man yeah and 10 minutes is what wherever you are there is no [ __ ] time so you could have been there for hours you don't know you only know when you come back and your mate tells you oh you're you're good you're back 10 minutes [ __ ] iasa is contains DMT but it's is mixed with another plant which allows the DMT to stay in your system and be active for hours a DMT just you burn through it if it's just a straight smoking DMT yeah yeah what uh what else do you you spend a lot of your time doing at the moment now what business ventures you got going on well the main one is dy nutrition uh we've just gone through a massive change because we've got our own Factory now but it's not a neutral Factory which is most people use we got a Far We've gone in partnership with a pharmaceutical Factory so everything is a higher level of scrutiny as far as the the products go and I've got the bodybuilding range to deal with the shadow line which is the bodybuilding stuff which is good as good as I can get it um but I'm excited now because we're bringing out a whole new range of products like in the areas that I'm actively been studying and so on like how if you want to call it Wellness or anti-aging I just call it aging better like how can you be more functional as your age and how can you slow down possibly the aging process that's what I'm studying now so I've got products that coming out more on that end and as we're manufacturing ourselves we can monitor everything as far as the quality and hopefully give people a better product for a a better price without all the [ __ ] and the hype because the end of the day you pay for a product and what's in there unfortunately lot of times you don't get what's on the label yeah there's a lot of uh supplement Brands a load of them at the end of the day just get all the stuff made in the same Factory yeah who AR they is it Gambia who made there's lots of uh factories out there but the thing is this is Dorian Yates this is dy yeah and it's my whole life it's my whole reputation I can't first of all I would never want a short change but if I did and somebody found out then I'm finished I'm Dorian Yates right I can't go anywhere I'm Doran Yates but who's behind XYZ ABC like it's just a name right it's I tell you there are money crunches number guys guys with suits on it just want to make money and uh if they can cut a corner they'll cut a corner what the biggest some of the biggest lessons you've learned from starting that supplement brand that's one of them you know people approaching me and asking me can you do a protein for x amount like cost me that much to make it well they want it cheaper yeah it cost me that much to make it yeah I know but what they're saying is I just want the bottle I don't really care what's in there yeah there's people that out there that want to do that they want to sell that they want to cut uh costs and uh you got things like proteins with heavy metals in there because it hasn't gone through that level of of testing so not only sometimes are you getting short changed but you might be taking what you think is a health product it's not even really good for your health cuz it's got contaminants in there and so yeah so um so what happens with the normally in the nutrition business if you got a nutritional level manufacturing you get the ingredients you know amino acids from China and creatine from here and and different places and it'll come in a bag and they'll say that's what's in there so then you go on and you manufacture it and you send it out uh pharmaceutical it comes in and it doesn't matter what says on there there's another level of responsibility we don't care what he said that sold it to us we need to check this double check this as well as we're now responsible in the chain of care so we have to check everything and uh we're going to have a code on the products so you can go your product code see which batch number it was see the certificate of analysis with all the content in all the microbiology and the heavy metal analysis everything so that's going to be part of the service that we're going to give in the future yeah I think definitely in particular with the the journey you've been on it's more than just the supplements to get you jacked or enhance the session that you have but also I'm beyond that now you know I can help other people with that but it's like how do I enhance my own health and things I've learned on that journey to be a make them available for other people I said to my business part I said I'm glad we're getting this bloody line out yeah because I'm spending about 500 euros a month on other people's supplements right now cuz you know uh we don't make some of the supplements I'm using but now we're going going to making everything so um I'm looking forward to that and there's lots of different areas that we want to get into like maybe products for for kids at school products for pregnant women and all those things is re really really important that you're getting a sufficient protein and Amigas and uh vitamins and minerals and stuff like kids at school studying and how can you study man when youve just deed like sugary drink and a bowl of corn flakes for breakfast every morning I'd have a massive bowl of cereal and two or three Scotch pancakes yeah and I remember caring up for school all morning I was just like struggling to stay awake too half a box of cornflakes a bottle of milk and half a bag of sugar that was my breakfast so yeah there's there's lots of areas that could uh benefit from from supplements imagine a pregnant woman I mean the the milk that you're giving your baby is dependent on the nutrients that you're eating there maybe you're not getting enough protein or Omega fats and and vit D and stuff like that so I haven't got a product yet I'm just speaking out loud the these are the areas I like to get into that really can benefit people uh aside from the Sports Nutrition industry which of course I'll carry on with that but I'm interested in other areas like I don't know if you're familiar with some of the um research that's coming out now on creatin on the brain cognitive health and brain health and everything it's almost like I mean everybody should take creatin yeah everybody your granny everybody should take it because it's good for your brain and it's going to slow down the muscle loss so even if you don't exercise I would argue you can benefit from creatin that's amazing man that stuff's been around for 30 years and we're still finding new benefits I remember I was uh I was put off from taking it because there was some study that linked it to hair loss which was just one study and it's been proven that it actually doesn't have no no chance no chance uh hair loss is genetic and speeded up by HT maybe dihydro testosterone so I feel like every more people should be getting their blood work done because many people are trying to diagnose like what is wrong with them and just randomly guessing like oh let's take some random supplements or let's try this let's do that when they don't actually know what yeah there's a lot of blood markers you could take I mean one that everybody should check that fairly simple blood marker is your D3 levels yeah I mean D3 is not it's it's not even a vitamin it's it's really it's a hormone and it's involved in lots of processes in the body um especially your immunity right so if you're living in the UK yeah you need to take D3 4,000 IUS a day like here you are you're living in the UK and so if you look at the parameter for vitamin D recommended levels in your blood is from 30 to 100 or nogs per whatever so 30 30 to 100 so I I I was curious I was living out here and G G's resilient she got dark skin we going on to beach every day we're walking around no top shorts on I don't need Vitamin D surely my levels would be high well let's do a blood test and find out and both of us was like 34 35 we're in the sun all the time so I would argue even the quality of the ray that we're getting from the sun is not it's not stimulating vitamin D production as it used to be I should be up there 70 80 from the Sun every day but I wasn't so even I take uh vitamin D supplement that's one thing you can get in your blood uh inflammatory markers liver readings kidney readings just to know if there's something wrong if there's something out of whack like let's let's try and fix it I had a guy that came to me he had to liver enzymes readings you know I got guys with dball they're en enzymes are a bit up yeah this guy wasn't on anything his enzymes are higher than these guys so I said do you drink he didn't drink I said you got non-alcoholic fatty liver disease probably got fatty liver um cuz it was out of shape it was fat his blood sugar was high as well so I put him on basically very low carbs almost zero carb diet for a month I put him on N till 16 for his liver and obviously dropping the carbs right down and doing the train and stimulating the muscle it's regulating his blood sugar I think it's like four or five weeks later his liver readings was normal his blood sugar was in the normal range just from a few supplements and and training and the and diet his doctor's couldn't do that in a month yeah his doctor told him you've got fatty liver disease so you need to stop eating fat you've got fatty liver disease because you uncontrolled blood sugar from too much carbohydrates and your doctor's telling you to stop eating fat if you stop eating fatter what are you going to eat more of carbohydrates for energy you're going to make your condition worse so I mean doctors are good if you're in a car accident or something like that Pat you up but Health want be the last person you go to speak to who do you think at the moment with a reasonably large social media presence is doing a good job in terms of the message that they're spreading regarding health Wellness um I like watch some of the guys like hubman yeah like hubman I like to watch guys that analyze data and studies and so on that always studies are always right because it depends how they performed and very all lots of different factors you know but I I like to watch those guys I got Peter ater's if you know him he uh I'm doing a podcast with him next week so uh those guys are good at getting you know analyzing the information and getting it out so they seem to love going balls deep into the scientif studies and they both been wrong on cannabis so I to what did they say um well Peter Atia was saying he doesn't know if cannabis how much cannabis smoke damages the lungs but he assumes as there's the same tar and stuff in there as there is in tobacco smoke that it would be the same MH but it's not because there's a 20-year study that he's probably not aware of that was done by Donald tuskin and it followed thousands of people well funded because they assumed that they were going to prove that cannabis was bad for your lungs and that's what they were looking for but unfortunately that was not the conclusion that they got yeah so they followed cigarette a group of cigarette smokers a group of weed smokers I think there was a group that mixed both and then a control that don't smoke anything uh okay so smoking cannabis is there some negatives yes it will irritate your Airways they'll get irritated they'll get a little inflamed from the smoke yes that happens uh could slightly increase the chances of you getting um like an effect like a bronchitis or an infection increase your chances don't mean you'll get it uh but after 20 years the cigarette smokers have lost a massive amount of Long Function and a lot of cancers so there's permanent damage done by the tobacco smokers loss of lung function empyema COPD all that stuff yeah weed only smokers no no increased uh cancers or anything like that how about the lung capacity of 20 years smoking daily cannabis did it affect the lung capacity yeah slightly slight increase in the capacity that's right slight increase why I I haszard a guess that as um cannabis is a Vasa dilator it opens it opens all the Broncos opens all the the the blood vessels where cannabis is uh tobacco is a constrictor closes so as you're smoking you're open and open and open all the time I'm guessing that what gives you a slight increase in lung capacity I would not expect that no you wouldn't would you but a conclusion is a conclusion yeah um so the answer is could irritate your lungs yeah it could irritate it could cough and have some mucus and stuff uh you might increase your chances of getting a respiratory infection but that's a temporary condition so yeah to be fair there is a little bit negative but yeah it's not what you would expect I mean it's counterintuitive you're inhaling smoke in your lungs and surely it should damage them but now there's other plants that people use to help the lungs there's there are other herbal plants out there that's used um for bronchitis smoking it when you got bronchitis to help it so um that's the conclusions Dr Donald t a k i n yeah there it is 20 years and test subject only one of me but I'm a test subject me smoking daily for more than 25 years M yeah just last time I was in Brazil was in Rio went to a sports clinic there and they did my V2 Max cardiovascular fitness heart everything like that yeah and they were quite surprised because they had bodybuilders in young 30 years old and they didn't get very good results is that because of what they were taking I don't know I mean it's individual I don't know if it's what they're taking the fact that they're too heavy and their blood pressure is too high and they don't do cardio I I don't know cuz I don't know the individuals it's just their reaction uh so the overall score like C up like the V2 Max the lung capacity the recovery heart rate recovery from Peak under you know high as you can get it one minute recovery all these things combined uh they estimated my uh biological age to be 37 so wow yep thanks to the Cannabis well at least it wasn't a negative I I believe it I believe it is a health wellness and anti-aging uh medicine that's what I believe but those anyway we can say from those results we can prove it didn't damage my lungs I it would be impossible for me to get those results so my own experience mirrors what these uh what these studies concluded do you take anything else at the moment like trt or anything like that trt yeah I take uh testosterone we take that for like since I was 40 so yeah 150 to 200 milligrams a week I don't know if you noticed this but I I have noticed that it's quite alarming there seems to be quite a a lot of young people hopping on some form of steroid being far too young no [ __ ] man and not need to do it I don't know why if it's it's fashion now yes it's fashion it's Internet it's uh it's totally different from when I started in the gym the only people that knew about steroids were powerlifters and bodybuilders in the gym and the only people that took steroids with powerlifters and bodybuilders that would do competitions not everybody in the gym just the serious guys that really that was it it was like I don't think general public was not really aware of steroids one any a thing now it's like everyone knows about steroids right and they used so widely um I think in a way it's a male cosmetic thing you know women have tits right ass tits mouth [ __ ] face everything right because they want to look a certain way and they want it now and they want it and they can get it it's the same thing with the guys they want to look muscular they want the ABS they want to look lean it's going to be much quicker to do it taking some stuff so they do that's that's the world we live in you know everything's instant right instant information Google this boom I got it straight away uh want to be famous for nothing go on Big Brother or whatever I don't know you know that's the world we live in yeah there's not much substance to it and you know who am I to tell people what they should do I just say like just been aware of the consequences possible negative consequences and weigh it up like that's it I had a kid come up to me in the gym and he was like uh I'm thinking of going on steroids like what do you think I should do and I said first of all how old are you he said he was 19 I said how old you how long have you training for he said one year I was like there's absolutely no need for you to be going on any sort of St here's the thing and I was talking to a doctor the other day anti-aging doctor you know because yeah you're right 19 years old he should be having his Peak own testosterone anyway and getting to some kind of level with that that for at least a couple of years more and you know I ask when people ask me that I also I fire back questions at them so how many calories you on how much protein if you can't [ __ ] tell me that mate don't ask me about steroids first of all yeah so I do that but I mean I think there's almost becoming an epidemic of young guys that actually do have issues with low testosterone yeah I mean it used to be a concern maybe over the past 40 45 you could be looking at guys and saying hey let's have a look at your testosterone because it could be low now and that could be having some negative consequences on your overall health so let's have a look but I believe this guy is 25 years old that would be in that low range now because uh the amount of plastics that they've been exposed to like since birth and you know foreign substances vaccines all that kind of stuff uh there's an estimate that a 20-year-old now has 50% the testosterone level of a 20-year-old from 1980 from 40 45 years ago yeah when I was I was 18 in 1980 so um what to do about that I don't know going forward are we going to have guys going legitimately to the doctors and having trt at 30 cuz the testosterone's on the floor it it might be I don't know but if you don't need it it's not testosterone replacement is it steroid it's like you're just putting on top and your body will slow itself down um so I think it's important to to say this to people yeah really the gains that you make on steroids are somewhat temporary while your hormone level is up there you can do it and you can recover and you can build but as soon as you come off it will go the other way so what do you do then yeah that's a sticky situation yeah I say it's a mergo round yeah once you get on the mergo round it's hard to get off because you'll start you'll do it you'll feel great obviously more hormones you feel more positive going to gym and getting gains and getting bigger and getting stronger but when you stop you will that will go the other way I mean I had a guy train with me and I said I want to do a course and then well I'm going to get bigger and then afterwards I'm going to just keep training and keep it I'm like that ain't going to work and he's insisting that it would and I'm like do you know who you're talking to like I'm going and you know what I predicted happened it went up it got it looked great and then it came off and it's not just there's a physical effect that you will start losing and going backwards a bit was also the the mental that you were feeling and now you your own production is low so now you're lower than you started yeah you're going to feel depressed and everything uh there's going to be a lot of people in trouble mentally because of steroids yeah and not just guys girls more I think a lot of guys don't understand that to to probably look the way they want to look they can achieve it naturally if they're just willing to put in the [ __ ] work it depends what their expectations are of what they can look like you know because if you're looking at a lot of people you know it's a facade like I had a guy who seriously and you know because we're from the gym so we're like we're educated you know it's a friend of mine good friend but he doesn't go to the gym and doesn't know anything it's a smart guy but he doesn't know about the gym world so he's very impressed with the liver King and his liver eating Antics and all this stuff and he was like do you think he's on steroids I was like do I think 100% every penny I've got in the world yes and he was a bit disappointed yeah because he was following his liver advice and all this like you know uh meanwhile nobody's really going to do that eat that liver and all so they buy his liver supplements you know and is making millions um so have your goal to be realistic if you're going to be natural you're not going to look like a lot of guys uh who maybe say they natural I don't know there there's a limit mhm and whatever you're game Beyond that's going to be temporary anyway yeah so it's just my opinion as I said I can't tell people what to do it's your life and you should do what you want to do I'm just here to give the benefit of my experience and from my experience I would advise people if you're not really thinking about like doing this is you know Sport and competitions and stuff where how you going to step on stage with people using it right so you're need to be on a even playing field if you're going to compete well I really don't think it's worth it if you're not that's just my opinion because you're going to lose it anyway unless you're going to make it part of your life was was there an age where you felt like this is this is the the peak like performance wise performance and the way you looked H it depends like you're asking me on the way look it might sound strange range but it depends look for what yeah like competitive bodybuilding training on stage everything I'd say 93 was 31 years old so 30 31 I think was the peak of my like you know strength and not a single injury to like have consideration I'm better not do this or change this exercise something just doing exactly what I wanted and I think around that age 30 31 but it's I'm a bit removed from it because that's a competitive physique M my physique that I had in my first competition when I was 23 years old uh novice competition take that for every day walking around yeah I think I've I've seen that picture yeah that's like a Z that everyone would like yeah you know girls liked it guys would like to look it wasn't too big you know um so yeah that's all that building and all that was it's a sport and it's a challenge and but it wasn't for my like I don't really feel good walking around at [ __ ] 21 22 stone man it's a project you know it's not like good for everyday use clothes do not fit well no clothes don't fit well you're powerful as a beast in the gym and you can lift the whole gym but walking down a street stuff you know uh stuff like that so it's not practical it was just you know like Eddie Hall trying to be the strongest man in the world and deadlift over ,000 pound and his blood coming out of his nose and his like wh overweight and everything like 10,000 calories a day you're not doing it for your health it's a sport yeah yeah I'm I'm I train and use what I learned from that Sport and combine it with other things for my health so there's a lot of stuff that I learned from bodybuilding that is a healthy but no sport is really healthy at the extreme you know getting punched in the head kicked in the head that's not it's not good for you it's not really healthy especially if you want to be the best it's competition yeah that's what it's about so it's kind of like I got separate views on it I really like my early physiques because it's more aesthetic and and everything like that I probably could still get some trousers to fit me sometimes and so on so Everyday Use yeah that was like 15 and a half Stone RI then so H that was good for everyday use I wanted to ask you as well what was the you did you open a gym here it was the Dy gym yeah it was uh now m113 gym what was the story with that painful story mate it's called the marer story it's called the everyone has their Marb story when they first come here and they get involved in some business and it turns out to be a nightmare so that was mine and I don't to go a long story but short story is I got out of it quick and got my name off it and uh somebody El now has the gym but uh I mean I got all the equipment in there from the stat so it's all hardcore old American Equipment Hammer flex nless and everything uh so I helped get all that in there and I am there so no it's not my gym but I am there people come and meet me there and train me and everything it's the gym belongs to a friend any any lessons to share or advice to give people who are thinking about setting up businesses in different countries with a partner well in Spain you don't need a partner you can set up a business here but I wouldn't say Spain's a very business friendly country CU it seems like they love their red tape here they're Tak ages to do everything and they try to like tax you before you've even started you know everyone's coming around the fire department this you know pyramids pyramids pyramids and in England like they's say if you want to open a gym you probably speak to the guy and say look got to paint the walls you got to put the bathrooms in give me a few months you know Grace to get the place going and usually get it here you don't you got to pay from day one um so my you know my business my main business in Romania that's where Dy nutrition is based the offices and the the factory and everything so I don't do business here I just choose to live here a place to live it's amazing but I wouldn't do a business here personally [ __ ] I think drive me insane the the the work ethic of Spanish people I'm not saying every Spanish person but from what I have experienced they're a little bit too late back well you know we're in Spain but this is Costa Del Sol yeah so this is South Spain uh so the people in Madrid or the people in north of Spain would look on these guys and say a bunch of lazy bastard no don't do anything down there it's the tourist place so it's kind of that's the vibe you know like same as Italy north Italy's all business and and the South's like more laidback so it's like that it's but to live it's great it's just a bit you know you're coming from England where like the systems and the government and all it's quite efficient in contrast here everything takes long and it doesn't seem to make sense or be very efficient but I just take that and you know if that's the only negative then uh no problem yeah I mean I certainly I can't I'm debating whether to get a place here or I beater I like the same thing mate it's just Spain I mean as far as the the government goes and everything just I think I have a friend in the and he said the price is there for what it is it's going a lot especially for I was actually looking a property to buy there and what you can get much more for your money here in comparison to Aba in the winter I don't think it's that great you know it's dead yeah it's dead in the winter and full of you know hippies P people off their heads on this in the summer yeah but uh yeah my bay is a class apart from um I I don't if they had a problem with crime being on the increase recently I don't have you experienced that there's always a bit of crime here because there's money and uh I mean every criminal group from Europe is basically a hub here in my be but usually you know they keep themselves to the themselves right but there has been there's been a few shootings round about recently so there's a publicity about that but I'm sure there's much more crime in Birmingham than there is so in in contrast yeah it's uh it's not really any crime that bothers the average person here there's just sometimes some breaks in the high end is some very wealthy houses here and stuff so obviously they might be a Target but I think compared to the UK crime levels less here is [ __ ] yeah what's um so what's what's your your plans moving forward next couple years focus on the new nutritional Line new nutritional line yeah as far as as uh as business goes and you know continue working on that and um I'm hoping and like looking forward in a few more years I'm a bit less on the promotional track and the bodybuilding Expos and stuff like that I've been doing it for so long they're tiring and uh I do travel a lot and I've been I was cting the other day been 44 different countries and most of that through you know through bodybuild through my work connected to bodybuilding and I do sometimes travel for myself but it's in the minority of the time because I'm traveling for work then travel again I just stay home and it's nice to stay here anyway but uh eventually I like a bit more time to myself to just do stuff like that just you know Fall Off the Grid a little bit and do some some traveling for myself um well everything's going good I don't have extreme goals I have my goals for my business and uh enjoying life you know I got um my grandson is coming up is going to be a year old soon so that's great you know and the family and everything so so you know everything's getting uh quite balanced at this point in my life which is which is good that's good to you what do you want to be uh known for uh somebody that thought fought for himself and made his own path and inspired other people to believe in themselves and do the same thing yeah and had a positive impact by his life being here and being myself and meeting people and somehow that had a positive effect that's it really forget about all the other stuff uh Mr Olympia and that's great but what did you do yeah you know did you make a lot of money for yourself made trophies for yourself you made things for yourself that's good but what did you do for other people what did you do for the world like you know something positive as I feel very privileged to have done what I've done and I say to the guys sometimes we go in a gym I'm like before you work out let's just think how [ __ ] privileged we are to be able to be here have this body have this health and ability to come to this gym and do this thing that we like to do like yeah that's great man [ __ ] come in here with a long face like you know it's a it's a blessing to be able to do that and all the things that I can still do physically I'm going to ride my bike up in the mountains go hiking and everything um yeah I've got some injuries from bodybuilding but overall if I hadn't done all that training and everything maybe I wouldn't be able to do all those things I'm doing now so yeah continue to look after the body continue to look after my mind and continue to learn uh you're asking me what I do some days I'm just reading all afternoon and I have the time now to be able to sit I'm just going to read this afternoon sometimes I'm busy sometimes I'm not if I'm not busy I'm mostly reading like I just I got hundreds of books plus I read online and watch videos so I'm just always trying to learn something all the time so there's no destination here you know just keep going until I'm I'm not going anymore in this body anyway until then it's learn and enjoy that was a good way to finish yeah where where can people find you uh best way to contact me is really Instagram the Doran my personal one uh believe believe it or not I do check my DMs on there so if you message me there you will get to me that's good yeah not Facebook none of the other ones it's other people monitor those we've got those pages but Instagram is the one that I I can't check them all every day so that's the one I check so if you want to contact me you can you can contact me through there and of course Dy nutrition if you want to check out the the supplements and uh the Youtube channel is also Dy nutrition with my podcasts on not trying to be competition to you and all the other people I'm just doing one in mon so don't worry I'm going take audience away from there's plenty of room for more people I think it's as well with you you've got access to a lot of people I wouldn't have access with true yeah I'm wondering who I'm going to get on uh next I would like Joe dispenser on but it's a bit hard to get a hold of as his like one of the main guys I've learned on meditation techniques and visualization and stuff I mean I knew it before but enhanced it and understand it more and everything um so I have a combination of people from from the bodybuilding the fitness and people that's more from the let's say from the scientific background so combination of interesting people and um at the moment I'm just doing like one a month or something because it's one of the things I do and uh also I don't want to be a slave to it like I must get a guest on this week like if I do it once a month I can really get someone on that I really want to talk to you uh so yeah got my fingers in a in a a few pies good stuff I look forward to checking out the new uh supplement linee as well yeah I mean Dy life should be out we're hope we're aiming by uh September October and we're doing something a bit gamechanging as we like to be the game changers yeah uh all the products are going to have their nutritional profile on the front it's normally on the back right yeah yeah but what are you paying for so we're just going to put it on the front and there's scan code you can check all the so nobody's done that yet because they usually put some hpe on the front and the nutritional information on the back what we're think like what you're actually paying for is that right so let's put it on the front so yeah I like that um wait for somebody to follow us awesome man I appreciate it thanks for the time man no worries