Ronnie Coleman - The King - Vidéo Dailymotion

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Ronnie Coleman is known as 'The King' and for good reason. He is the 8x Mr. Olympia champion in the world of bodybuilding - sharing the world record for most Olympia wins. Now retired, he has undergone over 6 surgeries leaving him unable to walk without crutches but his desire to train like a pro bodybuilder has not dissipated. The film explores the history of his career as a bodybuilding legend and following his journey to recovery; for the first time ever discover the true man behind The King.

Transcript

00:00:00 [MUSIC PLAYING]

00:00:03 (dramatic music)

00:00:06, (indistinct chatter)

00:00:11 (dramatic music)

00:00:13 - Now from the flashlight,

00:00:32 you can see that down the lane to her house,

00:00:34 she's also gonna be a retired officer.

00:00:36 Those who have a weapon at her location on millimeter.

00:00:38 (indistinct chatter)

00:00:42 - Everyday thing.

00:00:56 I've been working here for 12 years now.

00:01:00 Best thing about working this job

00:01:04 is being able to wear shorts.

00:01:08 (laughs)

00:01:09 - Let's go to work and do briefing.

00:01:11 Only schedule change is Steve Smith's

00:01:14 gonna take five hours vacation today.

00:01:18 - This is meal number three of chicken and baked potato.

00:01:23 - That's right, grandma's son by the way,

00:01:27 I said you're going back inside,

00:01:28 well, she lost it and got ahold of me.

00:01:36 - Good old chicken.

00:01:38 - Damn.

00:01:44 - What's gonna be the problem here?

00:01:56 - Where's mom?

00:01:57 - She hit on her foot and it's swollen.

00:02:00 - Well, she'll be lucky if she just got hit on the foot.

00:02:04 - Poor child just got hit on the foot when I was a kid.

00:02:07 I got hit all over.

00:02:09 If I hit my mom back, I'd be dead.

00:02:15 - Why are you crying?

00:02:18 - I don't know.

00:02:19 - Status, arrested.

00:02:21 I've been body building for 10 years

00:02:26 and I've been working here for 12.

00:02:33 And the famous question is,

00:02:36 why do you still work here and you're Mr. Olympia,

00:02:39 two time Mr. Olympia?

00:02:40 My answer to that question is, because I love it.

00:02:45 (upbeat music)

00:02:48 ♪ Nothing gonna stop me ♪

00:02:51 ♪ Nothing ♪

00:02:54 ♪ Like Ronnie Cole, Flex, made 'em ♪

00:02:57 ♪ That's why I'm flexing on all year long ♪

00:03:01 ♪ All year long like I'm Ronnie Coleman ♪

00:03:05 ♪ I believe you got me wrong if you think you can hold me ♪

00:03:08 ♪ Yeah, you wanna count me out but you can't control me ♪

00:03:11 ♪ I won't let you control me ♪

00:03:13 ♪ That's why I'm flexing on all year long ♪

00:03:16 ♪ Like I'm Ronnie Coleman ♪

00:03:18 ♪ I believe you got me wrong if you think you can hold me ♪

00:03:21 ♪ Yeah, you wanna count me out but you can't control me ♪

00:03:24 ♪ I won't let you control me ♪

00:03:27 ♪ I'm the type that like to do what can't be done ♪

00:03:30 ♪ Walk with bulls, lion hunt with the lions ♪

00:03:33 ♪ Bear hug a bear, I don't care ♪

00:03:36 ♪ In the valley of death, only God I fear ♪

00:03:40 ♪ Count me out, I count me in ♪

00:03:43 ♪ Just when you thought I would end ♪

00:03:46 ♪ You realize I began ♪

00:03:49 ♪ And that's why I'm flexing on all year long ♪

00:03:54 ♪ Like I'm Ronnie Coleman ♪

00:03:56 ♪ I believe you got me wrong if you think you can hold me ♪

00:03:59 ♪ Yeah, you wanna count me out but you can't control me ♪

00:04:02 ♪ I won't let you control me ♪

00:04:04 ♪ That's why I'm flexing on all year long ♪

00:04:06 ♪ Like I'm Ronnie Coleman ♪

00:04:09 ♪ I believe you got me wrong if you think you can hold me ♪

00:04:12 ♪ Yeah, you wanna count me out but you can't control me ♪

00:04:15 ♪ I won't let you control me ♪

00:04:19 (soft music)

00:04:21 (soft music)

00:04:23 (soft music)

00:04:26 (soft music)

00:04:53 - The doctor said he's gonna go in and perform a surgery

00:04:57 in which he's gonna take out screws

00:04:59 'cause all he's doing now is just causing me pain.

00:05:02 And when I say pain, it's a lot of pain.

00:05:04 It's like 24/7, it never stops.

00:05:08 (soft music)

00:05:10 (soft music)

00:05:11 After a while, you're being pained so much

00:05:12 you kinda get used to it

00:05:13 and you just kinda learn to block it out.

00:05:15 (soft music)

00:05:18 (soft music)

00:05:19 - I feel bad for people who didn't get to witness

00:05:22 what Ronnie was in his prime.

00:05:24 Videos and pictures don't do no justice.

00:05:27 To witness it, to feel the electricity in the air,

00:05:31 to just to gaze your eyes on that person.

00:05:34 (soft music)

00:05:36 - Late 90s, the guys that were there were so good.

00:05:39 You had the Kevin Levrones,

00:05:41 you had the Flex Wheeler, Shawn Ray.

00:05:44 - I mean, if you change the judging panel,

00:05:46 Kevin Levrone could have a Mr. Olympia title,

00:05:47 same could Flex.

00:05:48 - What I didn't have, Flex Wheeler had.

00:05:50 Flex Wheeler didn't have.

00:05:51 Shawn Ray had.

00:05:52 It ran deep.

00:05:53 You had Chris Cormier.

00:05:55 - Everyone was so good.

00:05:57 Everyone's hungry.

00:05:58 We're all aggressive, especially on stage.

00:06:01 You don't find someone stepping in front of someone

00:06:04 without getting an elbow or something like that.

00:06:07 It was just, it was pretty aggressive.

00:06:09 - There was no room for anybody else to get in.

00:06:12 So you had to be just another crazy level.

00:06:15 - And you need to be able to see those things

00:06:17 in order to be able to appreciate what the hell happened

00:06:20 when Ronnie Coleman pulled out of the backdrop

00:06:23 and just-

00:06:24 - Just wasn't human to just naturally

00:06:26 to even perceive what he looked like at his peak

00:06:31 and at his best.

00:06:32 - This guy, Ronnie Coleman, looked like an alien.

00:06:35 There was nobody that you could compare that to.

00:06:37 Nobody had that.

00:06:38 - Meat was just hanging off of his back

00:06:41 and it was just traps and lats that were forever long.

00:06:46 Peck line, that was just, you know,

00:06:48 these muscle attachments that would go on forever, seemingly.

00:06:52 - Ronnie Coleman had things on his body

00:06:54 that we hadn't seen on another Mr. Olympia prior to him.

00:06:57 And we probably won't see it

00:06:58 on another Mr. Olympia after him.

00:07:00 - Ronnie just had it all, man.

00:07:01 He was strong. He was big.

00:07:03 He was bigger than everyone.

00:07:03 He was more conditioned than everyone.

00:07:06 And he just didn't give a shit.

00:07:08 Like he stood up there on that stage and just was like,

00:07:10 "I'm here. Give me my sandal and I'm leaving with it."

00:07:15 That was it.

00:07:16 He had to admire that.

00:07:17 He was humble about it.

00:07:19 Wasn't cocky, wasn't arrogant.

00:07:21 He knew it was his and he came and took it.

00:07:24 (soft music)

00:07:26 (soft music)

00:07:45 - All right, Ronnie, so I want to ask you

00:07:47 about your childhood.

00:07:48 Can you tell me about your family growing up?

00:07:49 I know you were born in Louisiana, right?

00:07:51 Can you tell me a little bit about your upbringing?

00:07:53 - First, it was just me and my brother and my mom.

00:08:00 She worked at the plant.

00:08:03 It was a clothing manufacturing plant.

00:08:06 I can remember when I was young,

00:08:08 my mom, she was real good at making clothes too.

00:08:12 So she made a lot of our clothes.

00:08:14 A lot of our clothes she got from that manufacturing plant.

00:08:17 On our second marriage,

00:08:19 I remember the guy she was married to this time,

00:08:21 you know, he used to take me hunting all the time.

00:08:25 We used to hunt like deer and rabbit, squirrel,

00:08:28 all kinds of stuff.

00:08:29 And yeah, that was a lot of fun.

00:08:30 But I think the most fun I ever had was fishing.

00:08:34 He taught me how to fish and we'd go fishing all the time.

00:08:39 After a while, fishing kind of like developed into a hobby.

00:08:43 I got to the point where I was just going to the site

00:08:45 every single day.

00:08:46 I had a bike that I would just ride right down

00:08:49 to the local bayou and just fish all the time.

00:08:53 So that kind of developed into a small hobby.

00:08:56 I always had some kind of way of making money.

00:08:59 That's what I remember most about my childhood.

00:09:02 Man, I had to be like 12 years old, 13 years old,

00:09:06 somewhere in there.

00:09:07 I started working at this convenience store.

00:09:11 And I would go up there and work,

00:09:14 make probably like a dollar a day.

00:09:16 Back then, that was a lot of money.

00:09:19 And then I had another little hustle where I used to go

00:09:23 and I had a lawnmower, used to knock on people's doors

00:09:26 and ask who needs their yard mowed.

00:09:29 So I made money that way.

00:09:31 When I was in high school,

00:09:33 I was always making the honor roll every year

00:09:35 and every semester.

00:09:37 I played football.

00:09:39 I was on the track team and I was on the powerlifting team.

00:09:42 I used to do the field events, the shot put, discus,

00:09:45 javelin, stuff like that.

00:09:47 I always did pretty good in all those events.

00:09:49 I was, yeah, you know, first or second

00:09:51 and just about all the meets we went to.

00:09:53 (soft music)

00:09:55 (sighs)

00:10:05 (sighs)

00:10:07 (sighs)

00:10:11 (humming)

00:10:15 (humming)

00:10:26 This is my trophy case.

00:10:33 I don't know if you saw it when I first came in.

00:10:35 - I noticed it when I walked in.

00:10:36 - Yeah, that's the Arnold Classic trophy right there.

00:10:38 I won that most muscular thing too.

00:10:40 I won two, I won that twice.

00:10:43 I got two of those.

00:10:44 I don't know, the other one's somewhere in there.

00:10:49 Yeah, all the sandals up there.

00:10:51 - If you had to pick the most special year.

00:10:53 - The first one, easy.

00:10:54 Yeah, 'cause flex is supposed to win that.

00:10:57 Like I said, I had got ninth the year before.

00:11:01 So I was nowhere in the running for that.

00:11:05 So I was like, if I can finally make the top five,

00:11:10 I'll be one happy camper.

00:11:12 I never made the top five in the Olympia.

00:11:14 Never made it.

00:11:16 - So ninth to the first.

00:11:17 - Ninth to first, yeah.

00:11:18 I started powerlifting when I was in high school.

00:11:29 You know, we traveled all over the state.

00:11:31 Did meets and stuff.

00:11:32 And I wasn't that good either.

00:11:34 - You wasn't that good?

00:11:35 - No.

00:11:35 I wasn't good at all.

00:11:38 But you know, those guys, they were strong.

00:11:43 They were squatting 500, 600 pounds in high school, yeah.

00:11:47 I remember one time I saw this little bitty guy,

00:11:49 he was about this tall.

00:11:50 He was getting under 500.

00:11:52 I'm like, no way he gonna squat that.

00:11:53 Man, he got on there and squatted like it was 200 pounds.

00:11:58 He went down.

00:12:00 I'm like, that is not happening.

00:12:02 I did not, just see that.

00:12:04 He had to be about 15, 16 years old, something like that.

00:12:10 He was short.

00:12:13 Blew my mind.

00:12:15 I can still see it today.

00:12:17 Back then I could only do like 400, you know.

00:12:23 3,400, 350, 400.

00:12:25 It took me a long time to squat 800 pounds.

00:12:30 I used to squat, I mean, seven, you know,

00:12:33 and 750 like when I was in my early 30s.

00:12:38 But when I got to almost 40 is when I got to 800.

00:12:42 It takes time.

00:12:43 I mean, no matter what you do,

00:12:45 and I was working out hard too, you know, consistently.

00:12:48 Yeah, so no matter, you can't speed up the genetics,

00:12:53 you know, process.

00:12:54 It takes time.

00:12:55 (upbeat music)

00:12:57 - Ronnie Coleman is a story that lore is made of.

00:13:19 This is a guy that lifted weights

00:13:20 that nobody else could lift.

00:13:22 'Cause even Arnold Schwarzenegger in "Pumping Iron"

00:13:23 and Lou Ferrigno, it looked like they were throwing around

00:13:26 a lot of weight in the 70s.

00:13:27 Like, wow, you know, here's Lou Ferrigno saying,

00:13:29 "Put on another 10 pounds."

00:13:30 But I mean, Ronnie Coleman doesn't even warm up

00:13:33 with the weights that Lou Ferrigno was lifting.

00:13:34 And he's six foot five, 280 pounds.

00:13:36 Ronnie was lifting weights that were at the far end

00:13:39 of the rack that were dusty.

00:13:41 Things that nobody would even fathom picking up.

00:13:44 And he was doing it with relative ease, with repetitions.

00:13:47 - I wanted to work out with Ronnie.

00:13:49 I wanted to see how intensive champions work at the core.

00:13:53 But yeah, you felt like you'd been in a physical fight

00:13:56 after that workout.

00:13:58 (upbeat music)

00:14:00 - When I went to the gym, you know, I lift hard.

00:14:11 I lift heavy.

00:14:13 I'd get in there and I wouldn't stay in the gym

00:14:15 no longer than an hour.

00:14:16 And the whole time I was there, you know, I was focused.

00:14:20 And I think for the most part,

00:14:21 I worked a lot of those guys, you know.

00:14:24 Like I said, I train for six days a week.

00:14:27 You know, I only took one day off.

00:14:28 I trained Monday through Saturday, you know,

00:14:31 working full time for the police department.

00:14:33 I didn't have enough time to, you know,

00:14:35 like break my train up and train the body part here

00:14:38 and train the body part there and stuff like that.

00:14:40 Like some of the guys would do that didn't have jobs.

00:14:43 So I'd get all my training in in one session.

00:14:46 - If you can't go in the gym and train like Ronnie Coleman,

00:14:48 you don't have a chance of looking like him.

00:14:49 So without having the fear of the weights

00:14:51 and you see this guy throwing this kind of weight around,

00:14:53 it couldn't help but press rewind

00:14:55 and watch it again and again and again.

00:14:57 Suddenly you're not even caring that he's a freak of nature

00:14:59 in terms of a bodybuilder.

00:15:01 You're just looking at this freak lift this weight.

00:15:03 - You know, his mindset is just at another level.

00:15:05 Things he do, videos with that amount of weight,

00:15:08 it's not normal strength.

00:15:09 It's a gift from God, number one, that he has.

00:15:11 He's gifted with the genetics.

00:15:13 - If you're a strong bodybuilder,

00:15:14 you have the propensity to put on more weight.

00:15:17 The taller you are, the bigger you're gonna be.

00:15:18 They can eat and they can outlift you.

00:15:21 And the only thing that we would have to rely on

00:15:23 was our genetics.

00:15:24 Flex Wheeler was, you can't say flex

00:15:25 without saying symmetry or genetics.

00:15:28 And that's what made me who I was.

00:15:30 - I think Flex had the best genetics in the world,

00:15:33 but I kinda outworked him.

00:15:35 - You know what?

00:15:36 Hey, listen, sometimes, you know,

00:15:37 they jokingly say about me, you know,

00:15:38 when God made you, he broke the mold.

00:15:41 Well, when he made Ronnie, he broke that mold too.

00:15:43 He was just a freak.

00:15:45 (dramatic music)

00:15:48 - Hey, Erica, how you doing?

00:15:54 Can I get you to give me a hand?

00:15:57 - Gotcha.

00:15:58 (Ronnie laughs)

00:15:59 - You want me to drive your car?

00:16:00 - You wanna drive my car?

00:16:01 Thanks a lot, Erica.

00:16:04 You have a good one.

00:16:05 We'll see you tomorrow.

00:16:06 - One thing I'm most stressed about Ronnie,

00:16:10 which really annoys me,

00:16:14 people sometimes think because of his Louisiana drawl,

00:16:18 you know, he's not very well educated.

00:16:20 He's not, maybe he's not that smart.

00:16:22 He's as smart as a whip

00:16:23 and he knows exactly what he's doing.

00:16:25 You can never ask him a question with him,

00:16:27 but I don't know, you know,

00:16:28 he knows what he's doing and why he's doing it.

00:16:31 (upbeat music)

00:16:33 - You know, when I was in football,

00:16:38 I kinda like walked onto the team,

00:16:39 made a team and worked my way up to the first string.

00:16:43 I started out, you know, in fifth string

00:16:45 (Ronnie laughs)

00:16:46 and worked my way all the way up to first.

00:16:48 I've always tried to be the very best

00:16:51 at whatever it is that I've always done.

00:16:53 When I was in college,

00:16:55 I always tried to be the smartest guy in the class.

00:16:57 And if I wasn't, then I would study for the smartest guy.

00:16:59 But nine times out of 10, I was.

00:17:02 I started out in management

00:17:04 and then I stumbled up on accounting

00:17:05 and I was real good at it.

00:17:08 You know, I was doing,

00:17:09 I was making hundreds on each and every test that I took

00:17:12 and one of my instructors said,

00:17:14 "What are you majoring in?"

00:17:16 And I'm like, "Management."

00:17:17 He's like, "No, dude, you need to change that to accounting

00:17:19 'cause you like acing every test that you go through."

00:17:23 He said, "I think accounting will be more lucrative

00:17:27 than management."

00:17:28 So I'm like, "Okay."

00:17:29 (Ronnie laughs)

00:17:30 (upbeat music)

00:17:33 - Hey, Corey, you ready, man?

00:17:38 Stay no joke.

00:17:39 You gotta get that back bigger, baby.

00:17:41 Yeah, bring it.

00:17:42 You gotta get deep.

00:17:43 Come on.

00:17:44 So after you retired professionally,

00:17:47 you started a business, your own supplement line.

00:17:50 Tell me about that.

00:17:50 - Every year, the company has grown

00:17:52 and got bigger and bigger and bigger.

00:17:54 And we're on our sixth year now.

00:17:57 We launched in Europe and Middle East, India.

00:18:02 Did pretty good.

00:18:03 And then like two years later, we launched here in the US

00:18:07 and we got to the point where we started with two products.

00:18:10 You know, the first couple of years,

00:18:12 and then we worked our way up to like four,

00:18:15 then six, and then eight.

00:18:17 You know, now we are branching out to,

00:18:19 we got like almost 20 products now.

00:18:22 And we started out doing like four million the first year,

00:18:26 six million that year after that,

00:18:28 then eight million, then 10, you know,

00:18:31 and then 12, and then 15.

00:18:33 So getting bigger and better every single year.

00:18:36 Just growing it and, you know,

00:18:38 just seeing how far we can take it.

00:18:41 Ah, I got it.

00:18:42 What's going on with you?

00:18:44 Oh, doing all right?

00:18:46 Man, you know, I ran out of stuff again.

00:18:52 I'm always running out.

00:18:53 You have peanut butter, King Whey.

00:18:58 Oh, you got a big one over there, huh?

00:19:02 That's all you got?

00:19:03 How many you got over there?

00:19:08 - I got enough, I got three.

00:19:10 - You got three? - Yeah.

00:19:11 - Okay.

00:19:12 I don't want to take your last one, you know.

00:19:16 (phone ringing)

00:19:19 - Yo. - Hey man, you talked to,

00:19:25 what's his name?

00:19:26 - So yeah, I'm in Mullen James right now.

00:19:28 I'm gonna talk with you on the email too.

00:19:30 - Hey, what about that shot?

00:19:30 What about that shot you was talking about?

00:19:33 - The yeah buddy shot? - Yeah.

00:19:35 - It's not, we're having a problem

00:19:37 with one of the ingredients.

00:19:38 - I ain't got a bitch.

00:19:39 - Yeah, it's like right now,

00:19:43 we're having a very good month.

00:19:45 - Yeah, oh cool.

00:19:46 - So we can kill this shit and get it out.

00:19:47 - Oh cool, that'll work.

00:19:48 That'll work, that'll work.

00:19:49 We need a damn good month.

00:19:50 (laughing)

00:19:51 - All right. - All right, dude.

00:19:53 All right, bye, baby.

00:19:54 (soft music)

00:20:01 When I got out of college,

00:20:04 I started looking for jobs in accounting

00:20:06 and most of the jobs I went on interviews,

00:20:10 they all required you to have some kind of experience.

00:20:14 And since I never worked anywhere,

00:20:16 I never got a co-op job or nothing like that.

00:20:18 While I was in college, I didn't have no experience,

00:20:21 so I missed out on a lot of the hiring.

00:20:23 So I just took pretty much the first thing that came along.

00:20:28 The first thing that came along was Domino's pizza.

00:20:31 I didn't like pizza after a while.

00:20:34 I worked for Domino's for two years.

00:20:36 I remember when I worked for Domino's, I was so poor.

00:20:40 I looked forward to going to work so I can eat

00:20:43 'cause pizza was free and I ate it every single day.

00:20:47 And after a while, about a year or so into it,

00:20:53 I'm like, man, I'm tired of eating pizza.

00:20:57 But Burger King was right next door to us

00:20:59 and I'm like, I wonder if they tired of eating hamburgers.

00:21:01 So I called them, hey, y'all tired of eating burgers?

00:21:04 They're like, yeah, y'all wanna trade?

00:21:07 They're like, yeah, we wanna eat pizza.

00:21:09 So I would trade pizza for hamburgers.

00:21:13 Then I got tired of eating hamburgers,

00:21:17 Kentucky Fried Chicken was right next door to them.

00:21:20 So I called them up, hey, y'all tired of eating chicken?

00:21:23 They're like, yeah, y'all wanna trade?

00:21:26 But the whole time I was there,

00:21:28 I was looking for jobs in accounting.

00:21:30 I went on a lot of interviews, but like I said,

00:21:32 everybody was still saying I need experience and stuff.

00:21:36 And I'm about two years into this and I'm like,

00:21:41 man, I don't think this is gonna work out.

00:21:44 And I noticed that every time I got the newspaper

00:21:49 in the classified section,

00:21:51 there was always a big old ad there for police officers.

00:21:56 And they all said no experience needed.

00:22:01 So when I went to Arlington,

00:22:03 I had taken like two tests already.

00:22:08 So I kinda got to Arlington

00:22:10 and kinda breezed through the process.

00:22:11 But it was a long process.

00:22:13 Biggest thing was the background check.

00:22:15 You have these officers,

00:22:18 say two or three guys going and talking to everybody

00:22:21 that you talked to over the years.

00:22:23 I still kinda breezed through it

00:22:25 'cause I was in no kind of trouble.

00:22:28 I always got along with people

00:22:30 and never did any kind of drugs or nothing.

00:22:32 So I kinda breezed through it

00:22:34 because I had a real clean record.

00:22:36 I was always trying to be the best.

00:22:38 And my first year, I was able to get rookie of the year

00:22:43 'cause I worked so hard

00:22:45 and tried to be the very best that I could at it.

00:22:49 And I was able to get that award.

00:22:58 - Girls, take a break.

00:22:59 Daddy needs to record something.

00:23:01 Turn the water off.

00:23:02 Okay, go outside.

00:23:05 Oh Lord, that's so small.

00:23:10 Do you wanna stand or?

00:23:11 - Yeah, yeah.

00:23:12 - For me, he's perfect 'cause he does what he wants to do

00:23:15 and I do what I wanna do.

00:23:16 And at the end of the day,

00:23:17 together we come home and we all have a family time

00:23:22 and we don't get in each other's way.

00:23:24 At the same time, we work together.

00:23:27 - Okay, can you read it from here?

00:23:28 - Yeah, yeah, I see it.

00:23:30 - You ready? - Yeah.

00:23:32 Hey guys, DeGron here.

00:23:35 Just wanna let you guys know.

00:23:36 - We met at his show, the Ronnie Coleman Classic.

00:23:39 A friend knew him and said,

00:23:42 can meet up with him afterwards.

00:23:43 A big group of us all together afterwards.

00:23:46 And we all ended up staying up till 5 a.m. talking.

00:23:51 Yep, at the end, we exchanged phone numbers.

00:23:53 - Let's all make some games together.

00:23:56 Yeah, buddy?

00:23:57 - No.

00:24:00 Try again.

00:24:02 - Okay.

00:24:03 Follow the link below to check out our official website.

00:24:09 Let's all make some games together.

00:24:10 Yeah, buddy?

00:24:11 Yeah, I'm up for it, let me see.

00:24:13 Keep going on, man.

00:24:15 Oh, where's my key for my car?

00:24:19 (knocking)

00:24:22 - I've always been real fond of kids

00:24:35 when I was in high school and college.

00:24:38 Had my first one in college.

00:24:40 I got my 32 and 33 year old, you know, my 32 in Houston.

00:24:46 I actually have a granddaughter too, with her.

00:24:50 And Susan has two kids, 15 and 13, you know.

00:24:55 And then me and Susan have the four together here.

00:25:00 - Touched to you, buddy.

00:25:02 - So, you gonna give me a kiss, kiss, kiss?

00:25:07 Mwah, thank you.

00:25:09 Huh?

00:25:11 - Layla.

00:25:15 (laughing)

00:25:16 - Hey, girl, how you doing?

00:25:18 You doing all right?

00:25:19 Gotta have a kiss?

00:25:21 Gotta give a kiss?

00:25:21 Mwah, thank you.

00:25:25 Ready to go?

00:25:26 You okay, Sophie?

00:25:30 You all right, mommy?

00:25:31 What happened?

00:25:32 Did you hit your shoulder?

00:25:33 She bumped her head?

00:25:36 (laughing)

00:25:40 What are you looking at, Layla?

00:25:44 (laughing)

00:25:46 Yeah?

00:25:46 - Over here.

00:25:47 - What's over here?

00:25:48 Yep.

00:25:51 Layla, didn't you have a jacket on this morning?

00:25:56 Layla?

00:25:57 Layla, where's your jacket?

00:25:59 Did you have a jacket on this morning?

00:26:00 - No.

00:26:01 - You didn't?

00:26:02 You sure?

00:26:03 I think you did have one on.

00:26:06 Yeah, we got four together.

00:26:09 So, we got three year old.

00:26:11 She's adorable.

00:26:12 She's not in any sports or anything right now.

00:26:15 She's doing her own thing.

00:26:17 The four year old, same thing.

00:26:18 She's not in any sports or anything.

00:26:21 Just doing the kid thing,

00:26:24 and I'm not trying to rush him.

00:26:25 Did I scare you?

00:26:28 - Daddy.

00:26:29 - Daddy, I scared you?

00:26:31 You okay?

00:26:32 - Yeah.

00:26:33 - Give me a kiss.

00:26:34 Mwah, thank you.

00:26:39 For the most part, I pick up the three and four year old

00:26:43 every single day from school.

00:26:45 Layla, you blowing the horn, mommy.

00:26:48 - Daddy, what is it?

00:26:55 - It's a stick.

00:26:56 - It's a stick.

00:26:57 - Mm-hmm.

00:26:58 - What is it?

00:26:59 It's a stick.

00:27:00 Daddy, can we take it off?

00:27:04 - Mm-hmm.

00:27:06 You wanna take it off?

00:27:07 - Yes, daddy.

00:27:08 - Okay, hold on.

00:27:10 - Aw, daddy.

00:27:12 I wanna take it off.

00:27:17 - Man, it seems like their energy level is endless.

00:27:21 I mean, they're always going, even when I get them home,

00:27:25 it takes another two hours to wind them down,

00:27:29 to get them into bed.

00:27:30 And sometimes they don't even follow sleep.

00:27:32 They are watching TV and stuff.

00:27:35 It keeps us pretty busy.

00:27:38 - I'm coming, daddy.

00:27:39 Uh-oh.

00:27:40 - I always mix up a King Whey Shake,

00:27:55 and then take this Yeah Buddy, pre-workout for training.

00:28:00 And I take a Stacked N O, I'm on with it.

00:28:02 And a couple of, maybe a multivitamin,

00:28:06 vitamin C, I'm with it.

00:28:08 - How much pain do you feel every day

00:28:16 on a scale of one to 10?

00:28:18 - About nine, 10.

00:28:19 Yeah, it's pretty heavy.

00:28:21 When I do appearances, my pain level goes up to like a 12,

00:28:26 13.

00:28:27 It's almost unbearable.

00:28:28 It's almost unbearable.

00:28:31 If I'm in a whole lot of pain,

00:28:35 I'll just sit and just do the appearance.

00:28:37 And have people take pictures.

00:28:40 But for the most part, you know, I always try to stand up.

00:28:45 I've been in pain for so long now, I'm just used to it.

00:28:47 I can take the pills too.

00:28:52 Helps it a little bit.

00:28:53 When I say I take about four, sometimes five a day,

00:29:01 every single day.

00:29:03 They're called oxycodone.

00:29:06 These pills right here, I even keep them with me.

00:29:11 They 30 milligrams.

00:29:13 And they work pretty good.

00:29:17 This is the highest potency you can get.

00:29:22 It's 30 milligrams.

00:29:26 So it eases the pain up a little bit.

00:29:33 For about three or four hours.

00:29:35 And then it comes right back.

00:29:41 I take another one.

00:29:45 (gentle music)

00:29:48 (gentle music continues)

00:29:51 (gentle music continues)

00:29:54 (gentle music continues)

00:29:58 (gentle music continues)

00:30:01 (gentle music continues)

00:30:25 (gentle music continues)

00:30:28 (gentle music continues)

00:30:40 (gentle music continues)

00:30:44 (gentle music continues)

00:30:51 - All sweet?

00:30:54 How's it going?

00:31:05 - Good.

00:31:06 - Been busy?

00:31:09 - Today not really.

00:31:11 - How did you decide to become a professional bodybuilder?

00:31:14 - After I graduated from the academy

00:31:19 and they cut you loose on the streets,

00:31:22 one of the guys saw me on one of the calls,

00:31:23 like, "Man, you're a pretty big guy.

00:31:25 "Where you work out at?"

00:31:25 I told him, "Man, I work out at the station.

00:31:28 "Where it's free."

00:31:29 He said, "You ought to come over to Metroflex.

00:31:32 "It's the gym I work at."

00:31:33 I was like, "Okay."

00:31:34 So I go to Metroflex and Brian is there.

00:31:37 - Well, my name is Brian Dobson.

00:31:38 I'm the owner and operator of Metroflex Gym.

00:31:40 We're here in Arlington, Texas.

00:31:42 - Brian is the guy that got me into bodybuilding.

00:31:44 A friend of mine brought me to this gym.

00:31:47 Brian was insistent upon me.

00:31:49 Bodybuilding told me that I could do good in the sport.

00:31:52 Finally told me that he'd give me a free membership.

00:31:54 And I said, "Oh, what the heck?"

00:31:56 - Brian Dobson, I'm the owner of Metroflex Gym.

00:31:58 Been here since 1987.

00:32:00 I mean, we get new equipment here and there,

00:32:02 but pretty much stays the same, man.

00:32:04 You know what I mean?

00:32:05 We believe in the old school ways.

00:32:06 Our training methods here are hard.

00:32:08 I mean, we get criticized a lot for that.

00:32:09 - He trained in a dungeon type gym.

00:32:12 In my terms, it would be labeled as a shithole.

00:32:16 (upbeat music)

00:32:19 Rusty weights and very dusty and whatever.

00:32:25 But that's where he trained because he loved to train.

00:32:27 - (laughs) Yeah, so that plays the trick.

00:32:30 I mean, I was from California.

00:32:31 We got the ocean breeze coming in through Golden Venice

00:32:35 and I wasn't accustomed to all the heat.

00:32:37 You know, 100 some degrees in the gym.

00:32:39 I don't know how they do it, but they do it.

00:32:41 They do it.

00:32:42 It's hot as hell in there.

00:32:43 (dramatic music)

00:32:45 - Soon as he walked in, I knew who it was.

00:33:03 He had the red sweatshirt on

00:33:05 and you could see the veins bulging through this thing.

00:33:09 (laughs)

00:33:10 And of course, I was used to being around

00:33:12 champion bodybuilders,

00:33:13 but I don't think I'd ever seen that yet.

00:33:15 - Brian took me on his wing

00:33:19 and taught me all the poses and stuff.

00:33:21 And then he would go over and like diet and stuff

00:33:24 and tell me what I need to eat.

00:33:26 - The thing that separated him, of course,

00:33:30 is just his work ethic from the very start

00:33:32 has been supreme.

00:33:34 Never, he was never one of them guys you had to push.

00:33:37 - My first show, I went in and won first and overall.

00:33:40 And I'm like, "Oh, I could probably be pretty good at this."

00:33:43 (laughs)

00:33:44 (dramatic music)

00:33:47 (gentle music)

00:34:04 (sighs)

00:34:06 - When I was in high school,

00:34:20 the gym I worked out was like Metroflex.

00:34:23 When I was in college,

00:34:24 the gym I worked out at was like Metroflex.

00:34:27 So I got accustomed to working out at a gym that had no AC,

00:34:31 the dirt on the floor, there was no carpet.

00:34:33 And I kind of like fell in love with that type of gym.

00:34:38 You know, you get used to a certain thing,

00:34:40 you just don't want to change

00:34:42 because that's kind of like what's worked for you

00:34:46 your whole life.

00:34:48 And you fall in love with it and that's what you want to do.

00:34:51 And that's what Metroflex is.

00:34:54 And that's what it's been for me all my life.

00:34:57 Yeah, it's what I'm accustomed to doing

00:35:00 and it's what made me successful.

00:35:03 So, like they say,

00:35:06 if it ain't broke,

00:35:09 then you ain't got nothing to fix there.

00:35:12 (laughs)

00:35:14 - I knew he could be Mr. Olympia one day.

00:35:25 There's no man who trains harder anywhere.

00:35:28 I truly believe that if Ronnie put his mind to it,

00:35:30 he could set the all-time record in powerlifting

00:35:33 and not only be the greatest bodybuilder of all time,

00:35:35 but the greatest powerlifter of all time also.

00:35:37 I think Ronnie could be Mr. Olympia

00:35:39 till he's 45, 50 years old if he wanted to be.

00:35:41 (laughs)

00:35:43 - This is 2000, I'm still here.

00:35:45 I've been here for almost 11, 12 years.

00:35:48 Been the happiest times of my life

00:35:49 and I kind of like hope Brian's been kind of happy

00:35:52 with me being here.

00:35:53 - Yeah, yeah.

00:35:54 (laughs)

00:35:55 - Me and Brian are kind of like an angel to me

00:35:58 because I've been working out now for about 25 years

00:36:01 and when I first walked in that door,

00:36:03 Brian had told me I could be a world champ

00:36:06 and he stuck by his belief and his feelings toward me.

00:36:09 It's kind of like we got a bond here.

00:36:12 So, I think we're kind of like a family.

00:36:14 I didn't do this thing all by myself.

00:36:20 I had some help.

00:36:21 Right here, my angel, Brian Dobson.

00:36:25 (laughs)

00:36:27 - One of the stories that stands out to me

00:36:35 goes all the way back to 1992, Helsinki, Finland.

00:36:38 I believe that was Ronnie Coleman's first Mr. Olympia.

00:36:41 He and I were one of the last at the baggage claim

00:36:44 and I thought, what's he doing here?

00:36:46 Like, who's he here with?

00:36:48 I didn't know that he was actually there

00:36:49 to compete in the competition

00:36:50 and lo and behold, by the time the show was going on,

00:36:53 he was backstage warming up

00:36:55 and he obviously was a work in progress.

00:36:57 I believe he got dead last in that competition.

00:36:59 When it comes to Ronnie Coleman,

00:37:02 he was so far back in the pack,

00:37:04 in my economy of a great bodybuilder.

00:37:09 You gotta remember, I came up behind Lee Haney

00:37:11 and behind Dorian Yates and with Flex and with Kevin

00:37:14 and with Nasser and those were the guys

00:37:17 that made the fabric of the Mr. Olympia.

00:37:19 So every time I looked at someone to measure where I stood,

00:37:22 it was never at Ronnie Coleman.

00:37:24 Ronnie on a competitive level,

00:37:25 he's just never thought about him going into competitions.

00:37:28 You know, he was nowhere close.

00:37:30 If I was in the first call out,

00:37:31 he was probably like in the third or fourth, if that.

00:37:33 He was placing, you know,

00:37:35 in the back of the pack a lot of the times.

00:37:36 I didn't even get a call out, you know.

00:37:38 I didn't think I could be like with the top guys anyway.

00:37:45 So I didn't even qualify for the Olympia in '93.

00:37:48 So I went to the Olympia in '94

00:37:50 and placed 15th, 16th, somewhere in there.

00:37:53 But at least they called me out

00:37:55 and compared me to the other guys.

00:37:57 So 1995 rolls around and I went to the Olympia that year

00:38:00 and I think I placed like 11th, somewhere in there,

00:38:03 12th, somewhere in there.

00:38:04 So, you know, I'm moving up in places

00:38:07 and I'm doing a bit better, you know.

00:38:09 In '96, I did pretty good in the Olympia.

00:38:11 I ended up in like seventh place that year.

00:38:14 So things are getting better and better every year.

00:38:17 '97 rolls around and that year at the Olympia,

00:38:20 I got ninth, you know.

00:38:23 I started noticing, you know,

00:38:25 this is the first year and the second year,

00:38:27 same thing, third year, same thing.

00:38:29 So Ronnie would be on the road with Vicky Gates

00:38:31 and just carrying his food.

00:38:33 We're talking about, you gotta go from Spain

00:38:36 to compete in Italy and, you know.

00:38:39 So he's got this whole thing mapped out.

00:38:41 He's taking trains, you know, we're flying and stuff.

00:38:44 And I'm like, "Dude, why do you keep doing this?"

00:38:47 I felt like saying, "Why are you wasting your time?"

00:38:49 It was like, "Man, what are you doing?

00:38:50 I mean, I wouldn't even do this if I'm not winning."

00:38:54 That's my approach 'cause I'm out there to win.

00:38:57 And Ronnie looked at me and he says,

00:38:59 "This is because I love doing it.

00:39:01 I mean, I love bodybuilding."

00:39:02 He said, "Man, I love bodybuilding."

00:39:05 You know, when he said it like that,

00:39:07 I was like, "Damn, yeah, you must really love it."

00:39:10 You know?

00:39:11 - Well, I can remember like it was yesterday.

00:39:14 They finally let me in the Arnold Classic.

00:39:16 The show before the Arnold was the Ironman.

00:39:20 And I ended up in like third place, I think.

00:39:23 But the guy who won the show was Lee Priest.

00:39:25 I'm like, "Man, he beat me, you know, Lee about this tall."

00:39:30 I'm like, "I don't know, this is a sport for me."

00:39:36 So I'm at the Arnold Classic and I remember going,

00:39:40 after the pre-judge, I went back to my room.

00:39:42 And I like, my girlfriend at the time was Vicky,

00:39:46 a girl named Vicky Gates.

00:39:47 She was competing in the show too.

00:39:48 I'm like, "Vicky, I think I'm done

00:39:50 with this bodybuilding stuff."

00:39:51 And then guys like Lee Priest beat me, huh?

00:39:55 I don't think this is for me.

00:39:57 She's like, "Boy, shut up.

00:39:59 You ain't gonna quit."

00:40:01 And I thought about it.

00:40:02 I'm like, "You know what?

00:40:04 If I do quit, I might lose my free membership in the gym."

00:40:06 So I think I ain't gonna hang around here

00:40:10 for a little while longer, so.

00:40:12 (traffic humming)

00:40:15 I've always had back issues from my high school days.

00:40:19 I hurt my back in high school, I hurt my back in college.

00:40:22 One day out on the football field, something snapped

00:40:24 and I went to chiropractor

00:40:26 and I've been going to chiropractor ever since then.

00:40:28 We're going to utilize the Apollo Code laser here

00:40:34 with different types of laser therapies.

00:40:37 Of course, we wanna protect the eyes.

00:40:41 The Code laser therapy is a slower laser therapy

00:40:46 that is utilized for musculoskeletal injuries.

00:40:51 We're putting this on Ron's muscles here

00:40:56 on the lateral aspect of the pirilumbars

00:40:59 and then we're gonna work our way down

00:41:02 into the sacroiliac joint.

00:41:05 - Ronnie had injured his back, I believe,

00:41:07 when he was doing a squat.

00:41:09 (laughing)

00:41:10 - Yeah, it was painful to have a disc just pop out.

00:41:14 I was getting ready for the Arnold Classic at this time.

00:41:16 It was December 1996, I was 600 pounds

00:41:20 and 600 pounds for me is like nothing.

00:41:23 I always do 12, 15 reps with that

00:41:25 and I was coming up on rep number eight

00:41:27 and ta-ya, the disc just popped out.

00:41:29 And I didn't know what had happened.

00:41:30 I just heard a loud pop.

00:41:32 I thought the guy actually that was spotting me

00:41:33 had hit me and getting me fired up, for the sake.

00:41:36 But he told me, "No, man, I didn't touch you."

00:41:37 I'm like, "What was that loud sound?"

00:41:39 He said, "I don't know, I don't know either,

00:41:41 "but I'm done with squats."

00:41:43 So I went on over and did leg press,

00:41:45 did my hamstring, a couple exercises,

00:41:49 came home, I ate, took a shower,

00:41:51 put on my uniform to go to work

00:41:53 and I'm like, "Wait a minute, I'm still in pain."

00:41:55 And I like, "Should I make this right turn and go to work

00:41:58 "or should I make this left turn and go to the hospital?"

00:42:01 So I made the left turn, went to the hospital

00:42:04 and found out I had a herniated disc.

00:42:07 (dramatic music)

00:42:10 - Have you ever recommended for Ronnie

00:42:15 to stop lifting so heavy?

00:42:17 - Yeah. (laughs)

00:42:19 I sure did.

00:42:20 You know, Ronnie, he had a goal in view.

00:42:25 He wanted to be the number one bodybuilder in the world.

00:42:28 But of course, eventually, with the massive weights

00:42:30 that he was lifting, those discs can many, many times

00:42:33 pay a pretty heavy price.

00:42:35 Bodybuilding on the surface is, again,

00:42:38 it's a great way to build confidence, relationships,

00:42:42 overcome fears, but it comes at a price for some.

00:42:45 - Ronnie trained hard, but did he train smart?

00:42:47 That was the only thing that I questioned,

00:42:49 especially now, seeing Ronnie with injuries

00:42:53 and everything else.

00:42:53 - Through time, I've wished I'd known what I know now

00:42:57 because I still think that you could train

00:43:02 not as heavy, but train your body to failure

00:43:05 or train your body to gain, leave muscle mess

00:43:08 and not have to train where you're gonna get injured.

00:43:10 I think someone like myself or even like Ronnie Coleman,

00:43:14 we were just training, pedal to the metal,

00:43:17 it didn't matter, and we didn't think,

00:43:18 are we gonna get injured doing this?

00:43:20 We just did it.

00:43:21 - Get to that level, you have to train like that.

00:43:23 You know, Ronnie had enormous amounts of size

00:43:26 and the quality of the muscle.

00:43:27 You know, that can't be done through just

00:43:30 sitting there pumping 25, 30 or 40 pound dumbbells.

00:43:34 He put the workload on his muscles

00:43:36 to make them get to a level to where there were deep cuts,

00:43:40 deep striations and hard work, you know,

00:43:42 and that's what his body prevailed.

00:43:45 You saw that, you know, so if you're not willing

00:43:48 to go to that place where he is going to

00:43:52 and train like that and withstand that

00:43:54 and live like that and do that and do that and do that,

00:43:57 then you don't have a chance against him.

00:43:59 (cheering)

00:44:02 - Yeah, baby!

00:44:03 Hey, queen!

00:44:05 Hey, queen, baby!

00:44:09 Yeah!

00:44:12 Hey, queen!

00:44:29 (dramatic music)

00:44:32 (dramatic music)

00:44:34 (dramatic music)

00:44:37 (dramatic music)

00:44:41 (dramatic music)

00:44:44 (dramatic music)

00:44:54 (dramatic music)

00:44:57 (dramatic music)

00:45:08 (dramatic music)

00:45:15 (dramatic music)

00:45:18 (motorcycle engine roaring)

00:45:31 - A lot of people don't know it,

00:45:41 but I learned from the guys that beat me.

00:45:44 You know, I applied the same knowledge

00:45:45 when I was in college, you know.

00:45:47 If I'm not the smartest, go talk to the guys

00:45:50 that are the smartest.

00:45:51 When I got to bodybuilding, I wasn't the best,

00:45:54 so I went and talked to the guys that were the best,

00:45:56 like Flex and Kevin and all those guys,

00:45:59 and they gave me the knowledge

00:46:01 that took me to the next level.

00:46:03 We were in wrestling one time, he came to me,

00:46:11 and I had won everything, you know.

00:46:13 Six straight shows.

00:46:14 I was placing like fourth and fifth, you know,

00:46:17 in every show, because I was kind of like burnt out

00:46:20 for the most part, you know,

00:46:21 from doing all those shows anyway.

00:46:22 I did the Olympia, I did the show before the Olympia,

00:46:25 so I was kind of like burnt out,

00:46:27 but I remember Kevin is winning every show,

00:46:31 and I'm like, "What the hell is he doing

00:46:33 "to win all these shows?"

00:46:34 So I went to Kevin's room, I'm like, "Kevin."

00:46:37 I was in there eating pizza and stuff, you know,

00:46:39 just chilling, I just won a show.

00:46:41 Heard a knock on the door, I look up,

00:46:43 open the door, it's Ronnie.

00:46:45 - Hey man, what you doing?

00:46:46 You don't mind if I come in here,

00:46:47 I wanna ask you something.

00:46:48 - Sir, come on in big dog, you know, what's up?

00:46:52 - Man, what's the trick, what you doing, Kevin?

00:46:54 - What are you doing, how you stand so hard,

00:46:57 you know, to win all these shows?

00:46:59 He's like, "You wanna know what I'm doing?"

00:47:00 I'm like, "Yeah."

00:47:01 I said, "Dude," I said, "Listen, man,"

00:47:02 I said, "You've been carrying your food around,

00:47:05 "you're so serious, you're measuring out your food,

00:47:07 "you're doing it, you gotta just relax, Ronnie."

00:47:10 I said, "Why don't you just have a seat, man,

00:47:11 "and take a shot of this vodka with me?"

00:47:12 - So he goes over to his coffee maker,

00:47:15 pour a little coffee in the cup,

00:47:17 then he goes to the refrigerator,

00:47:19 and pours out a bottle of vodka,

00:47:22 and he pours that into the cup,

00:47:25 and he says, "Drink that."

00:47:29 I'm like--

00:47:31 - I don't drink no alcohol, Kevin, you know that?

00:47:33 I don't drink no alcohol, man,

00:47:34 man, bodybuilders can't do that.

00:47:36 - Dude, I don't drink no vodka, I don't drink alcohol.

00:47:39 - I said, "Look, big dog," I said, "Listen,

00:47:41 "take a shot of this vodka, man, you'll be all right."

00:47:43 I said, "You know, just chill, man, take it easy."

00:47:46 So he took a shot.

00:47:48 "Man, you sure?"

00:47:49 I said, "Yeah, I'm sure."

00:47:50 (laughing)

00:47:51 So I'm like, "Okay."

00:47:54 So he drank it, and, "Man, this stuff don't taste right,

00:47:57 "man, I ain't used to this in my body,

00:48:00 "but if you say do it, I'm gonna do it."

00:48:02 I said, "All right, go ahead and drink that."

00:48:04 All right, so he drank it, we sat down and talked

00:48:06 a little more, talked about training and working out.

00:48:09 I gave him another shot.

00:48:10 Gave him another shot.

00:48:12 Gave him another shot, right?

00:48:14 So about a fifth shot, he's like,

00:48:15 "Man, this stuff pretty good, got it?

00:48:17 "Let me have another shot of that.

00:48:20 "Man, that vodka, that made me feel real good."

00:48:23 So he got up, and I says, "Man," I said, "Listen,

00:48:26 "eat some of this pizza," ate a little bit of pizza.

00:48:29 And he left and went to his room.

00:48:31 So I didn't see him 'til the next morning when we woke up.

00:48:34 You know, went to something backstage,

00:48:37 pumping up, pulled his clothes off.

00:48:40 And I looked at him, dude, and my jaw just dropped.

00:48:43 I was like, "Damn."

00:48:48 I drank that coffee and that vodka

00:48:50 and went to the show the next day and be kept.

00:48:54 I think that by him having the alcohol,

00:48:57 it dehydrated him just a little more,

00:49:00 but it was able to also relax him

00:49:03 to not think about any food, not think about anything.

00:49:06 And I think that relaxed state of mind

00:49:10 just let the water just leave his body.

00:49:13 And when Ronnie hit that stage, man, it was all over.

00:49:16 It was like, "Where'd this dude come from?"

00:49:19 I remember going to the Olympia,

00:49:25 they said, "Durban ain't competing this year."

00:49:26 I said, "Well, the Olympia's wide open."

00:49:28 (TRAIN WHISTLE BLOWING)

00:49:30 Flex had been getting second, Kevin had been getting second,

00:49:40 Sean Redd had been getting second,

00:49:42 Nassau had been getting second.

00:49:44 I'm like, "Well, I ain't got to prep."

00:49:46 Leading up to the competition,

00:49:53 it was highly anticipated 'cause Dorian wasn't there anymore

00:49:56 and everyone was trying to see where they were going to fit in.

00:49:59 There was me, Nassau, somebody, Kevin.

00:50:01 Ronnie Coleman wasn't even on my top six list.

00:50:04 The media at the time, which was only magazines,

00:50:08 was pumping out Flex Wheeler, you know.

00:50:11 Flex Wheeler, you know, Sultan of Symmetry,

00:50:14 Flex Wheeler, you know, '93 Arnold Classic, you know, '94.

00:50:18 I mean, you're expecting this.

00:50:20 He managed to go from getting his pro card

00:50:23 to being, you know, the top in the Mr Olympia all in the same year.

00:50:27 You know, it was just... That was in '93.

00:50:29 His first pro year, he swept through everything.

00:50:32 Every pro show, he won.

00:50:33 And as the Olympia came,

00:50:36 you kind of really expected for that to one day,

00:50:40 you know, end up on his mantle.

00:50:42 Flex Wheeler, congratulations for winning the Arnold Classic.

00:50:47 And tell me now, how much did it help you

00:50:50 to come out of this kind of momentum of winning

00:50:53 the Ironman competition a week ago?

00:50:55 I think it played a tremendous influence on me,

00:50:58 especially that that was my first pro debut,

00:51:02 and I won that show, and I think it gave me a little momentum

00:51:04 going into this show, which I think I needed quite a bit.

00:51:07 Flex was always the heir apparent to the title.

00:51:10 Flex Wheeler was definitely looking to be

00:51:11 the heir apparent to the throne.

00:51:13 He was the heir apparent, logically,

00:51:15 he would be the guy to win.

00:51:16 From that time, he was always destined to be the next guy.

00:51:21 (OLYMPIC GAMES, JANUARY 2016)

00:51:24 I would have bet millions he would never win the Olympia.

00:51:36 The first five, six years of his career,

00:51:39 he was a journeyman pro, he'd had a good few shows,

00:51:42 but you never really thought he was going to make the breakthrough.

00:51:45 (OLYMPIC GAMES, JANUARY 2016)

00:51:48 When I saw him backstage in New York City,

00:51:56 I knew that it was pretty much game over for me.

00:51:59 It was night and day, it was Ronnie,

00:52:01 and then there was everybody else.

00:52:02 We all took off our clothes and went out there to compete.

00:52:04 That's when you knew that it was going to be

00:52:06 a change in the regard.

00:52:07 I remember going into the show and being compared to Flex

00:52:12 and Kevin and, you know, those guys that I had already won.

00:52:16 And a couple of times, they had put me in the middle,

00:52:19 and I'm like, "Oh, I'm doing pretty good here."

00:52:21 They put me in the middle,

00:52:23 compared me to the big dogs of the sport.

00:52:25 I think in 1998, the world had never seen

00:52:28 the total package that Ronnie Coleman presented.

00:52:30 And when he presented that package,

00:52:32 he knocked out a bunch of Hall of Fame bodybuilders in their prime.

00:52:35 And although Flex Wheeler thought he was in the hunt,

00:52:38 I don't think he was beating Ronnie Coleman in any of the poses.

00:52:41 My goal was just to place in the top five, you know?

00:52:43 I was like, "Man, if I can just place in the top five and limp you up,

00:52:46 you know, it'll be a dream come true."

00:52:48 And I remember they called, you know, like, fifth and sixth,

00:52:52 and I'm still standing there, and they called fourth,

00:52:54 and I'm like, "Oh, shucks, I'm doing pretty good."

00:52:56 Third, and I'm still standing there, I'm like, "Whoa!"

00:52:59 And then I can remember me and Flex standing there,

00:53:02 and they were down in the first and second,

00:53:04 and I'm like, "Wow."

00:53:05 (LAUGHS)

00:53:06 I was truly blown away.

00:53:09 And then Wayne, when he called out second place,

00:53:11 he waited for a long time.

00:53:13 Flex Wheeler!

00:53:17 (CHEERING)

00:53:19 That's when he collapsed, of course,

00:53:27 the famous officer down move that he did.

00:53:32 But I think that got to everybody.

00:53:34 That made everybody in that theatre, Madison Square,

00:53:37 got warm to this guy.

00:53:39 Here was the guy, real emotion,

00:53:40 at taking the sports top title when nobody thought I had a chance.

00:53:44 It was a rocky story.

00:53:46 You know, everybody was happy for him.

00:53:49 To be at the top, the best in the whole world,

00:53:53 you can't get no better feeling in the world than that.

00:53:56 (UPBEAT MUSIC)

00:53:58 Ow!

00:54:11 I suspect somebody cut this one open.

00:54:18 Was it you?

00:54:19 Maybe.

00:54:20 (LAUGHS)

00:54:21 Maybe.

00:54:22 Uh-huh.

00:54:23 OK, I want you to know these are very, very expensive.

00:54:27 You have to just adjust to whether he's going to be here

00:54:30 or not be here for long periods of time.

00:54:32 And the household is run more or less the same way,

00:54:35 but there's just— I mean, there's a few differences, of course,

00:54:38 cos there's one extra person or one less person.

00:54:41 And I have to buy another one now to get your other ankle.

00:54:46 At least I gave you money.

00:54:49 Yes, at least you gave me money.

00:54:51 Every now and then, it's challenging on me and him,

00:54:53 but, I mean, we're grown-ups.

00:54:55 We understand this is the way it is, and it's OK.

00:54:58 And, you know, technology helps a lot.

00:55:00 But it's challenging on the children, the girls,

00:55:04 you know, cos they miss him.

00:55:06 And as they get older, they understand better.

00:55:10 You know, he has to go, but he'll be back.

00:55:12 I just don't really wanna wash the dishes.

00:55:17 Only if you come outside with me to play.

00:55:20 After?

00:55:22 I wash the dishes.

00:55:23 Deal.

00:55:25 Lola is the one in black, and she is just like me.

00:55:29 Susie, the one in blue, she's emotional like me,

00:55:33 but in a weird kind of way, she's analytical like him as well.

00:55:38 Lola, you gonna come to the swing with us?

00:55:43 (GENTLE PIANO MUSIC)

00:55:45 (GENTLE PIANO MUSIC CONTINUES)

00:55:47 OK, you gonna get in the swing with sister?

00:56:05 Do you want me to push you?

00:56:09 No. No?

00:56:11 You don't need me to push you. You know why?

00:56:14 Why? Because you're strong.

00:56:16 Strong like Dad.

00:56:18 One reason we have so many kids is cos he and I both love kids.

00:56:24 You know, when you choose that, that becomes your world.

00:56:27 And I don't know that you change into a different person,

00:56:30 or you just evolve into the person you've always been,

00:56:33 which is the person who cares about the next generation

00:56:37 and what happens with them.

00:56:39 (GENTLE PIANO MUSIC CONTINUES)

00:56:41 He was a simple country boy from Louisiana

00:57:00 that came from not having much of a chance to dominate in the sport.

00:57:06 (GENTLE PIANO MUSIC CONTINUES)

00:57:08 Yeah, I mean, Ronnie took it to another level with the size.

00:57:12 He was metamorphosising into something that we'd never seen before.

00:57:16 Ronnie Coleman had reached a point

00:57:19 where he didn't look human backstage.

00:57:22 Lee Haney already had the record about numbers.

00:57:26 He had eight Mr Olympia's running match there.

00:57:28 The guys that got second to Lee Haney,

00:57:29 when you stacked them up against the guys

00:57:31 that were getting second to Ronnie Coleman,

00:57:34 Ronnie Coleman was putting to waste guys

00:57:36 that arguably could be Mr Olympia.

00:57:38 I still worked for the police department too.

00:57:40 I worked, let's see, my first three or four Olympia's.

00:57:45 I would work for the most part until the Olympia came around.

00:57:48 When the Olympia came around, I'd take like three months off

00:57:50 and get ready for the show, and I didn't go to work or nothing.

00:57:53 I didn't even know he was a cop for a long, long time.

00:57:57 You know, until he started beating me.

00:57:58 So, yeah, it brought a lot of attention to...

00:58:01 to him and what he was as a person and as a man, you know.

00:58:06 You couldn't beat him in size,

00:58:08 couldn't beat him in condition.

00:58:10 And, you know, when you just really feeling yourself,

00:58:13 I mean, you know, peacock strutting with his tail,

00:58:16 all his feathers out.

00:58:17 I think once he tasted victory,

00:58:19 he didn't want to taste defeat,

00:58:20 and that can move mountains as well.

00:58:22 People wanted to have that size.

00:58:25 People wanted to adopt what he has adopted

00:58:28 through his physique.

00:58:30 The Mr Olympia for Ronnie Coleman's confidence

00:58:32 was exactly what I think he needed to cement

00:58:37 and put the ribbon around who he was.

00:58:39 I mean, because it's like winning the lottery,

00:58:42 but lottery's luck.

00:58:43 When I first started competing, I was 215,

00:58:55 my first when I turned pro.

00:58:56 And when I won my seventh Olympia,

00:58:59 I was 296, almost 300 pounds.

00:59:02 So I went from 215, almost 300.

00:59:06 It was like a gradual thing, getting bigger year by year.

00:59:12 So you couldn't really see a whole lot of size

00:59:15 come on me at one time.

00:59:16 But I do remember the first time I hit 300

00:59:20 'cause I couldn't bend over.

00:59:21 The bigger Ronnie Coleman years later

00:59:25 was not the quality Ronnie Coleman

00:59:26 that won in New York in '98.

00:59:28 But the judges saw it differently

00:59:30 that Ronnie Coleman was just too big and too muscular.

00:59:33 And that's, I think, the turning point in our sport

00:59:36 where they started over rewarding size over quality.

00:59:40 When he started getting bigger,

00:59:41 started just losing that look, that small waist,

00:59:45 and he just got too thick, which I think was a mistake.

00:59:49 Sometimes he was heavier and bigger and blockier,

00:59:52 but he was on such another level

00:59:54 in terms of the muscle size.

00:59:56 Ronnie Coleman still won the eight Olympias,

00:59:59 but it was questionable on the last two Olympias

01:00:02 that he won or the last Olympia that he won.

01:00:05 Ronnie was starting to get a little heavier

01:00:07 than what was best for his physique.

01:00:10 His Olympia look wasn't great.

01:00:13 It was 2001, I did Arnold Classic,

01:00:15 and I decided I was gonna do the Olympia that same year.

01:00:20 The night before the show, I'm getting tanned.

01:00:24 My girlfriend is putting my tan on

01:00:25 and we're in the bathroom.

01:00:27 All of a sudden, I just faint.

01:00:29 And I've never in my whole life fainted before.

01:00:33 And I wake up, I'm in the tub,

01:00:36 I'm like, "What happened?"

01:00:37 They're like, "You fainted."

01:00:38 I'm like, "What?"

01:00:40 I know, it's never happened to me before.

01:00:42 The next morning when I wake up to get out of bed,

01:00:46 I'm so tired, I'm so exhausted, I can't even get out of bed.

01:00:53 I know how I'm supposed to feel the morning of the show.

01:00:55 And I'm always very energetic and I'm ready to go

01:00:58 and I'm ready to fight and I'm ready to get it on.

01:01:00 This morning, I'm very exhausted.

01:01:03 I can't get out of bed, I'm so tired.

01:01:06 I'm so tired to the point that I actually feel like

01:01:09 I'm about to die.

01:01:11 So I call my nutritionist, I'm like, "Hey, dude.

01:01:13 "The show is over with for me.

01:01:17 "I'm going to the hospital."

01:01:18 He's like, "No, man, don't do that.

01:01:20 "You wasn't working to do this."

01:01:22 He's like, "Just grab a gallon of water

01:01:24 "and just drink as much as you can

01:01:26 "until you feel like you're okay."

01:01:28 So I'm like, "Okay."

01:01:29 So that's what I did, I grabbed a gallon of water.

01:01:32 I think I drank about the whole gallon that morning

01:01:35 for the morning show.

01:01:38 And by the time I finished that gallon of water,

01:01:39 I felt pretty good.

01:01:40 And I'm like, "Okay, I'm all right now.

01:01:43 "I'm back to my old self."

01:01:45 - He's at the top being Mr. Olympia.

01:01:48 And then there was guys like Jay Cutler who was chasing him.

01:01:51 - I went into the Mr. Olympia every year

01:01:52 thinking I was going to win.

01:01:53 I never had a doubt.

01:01:55 He was an obstacle for,

01:01:58 I was trying to be the best in the world.

01:02:00 You know, and Ronnie was standing in my way.

01:02:01 So every year it was a battle against Ronnie Coleman.

01:02:03 I didn't give a shit about anyone else but Ronnie Coleman

01:02:06 because I knew that was the only guy

01:02:09 that could possibly beat me.

01:02:11 - In 2001, a lot of people thought Jay Cutler

01:02:14 had beaten him and he beat him based on the dryness

01:02:17 and the hardness of his frame.

01:02:20 But the judges saw it differently,

01:02:22 that Ronnie Coleman was just too big and too muscular.

01:02:25 - Jay was sort of satisfied

01:02:26 that he'd made the big breakthrough.

01:02:28 I thought he'd won.

01:02:29 - When I landed that second place in 2001,

01:02:31 I was highly disappointed,

01:02:32 even though I may not have shown it on stage

01:02:34 because I put a lot of effort into training

01:02:36 for that contest.

01:02:37 - The policeman out of Arlington, Texas, Ronnie Coleman.

01:02:41 Jay Cutler has to wonder what he has to do

01:02:43 to upset the champion.

01:02:45 (indistinct chatter)

01:02:48 - When I looked at this house, I fell in love with it.

01:02:57 It was brand new.

01:02:58 I moved here in '96, 21 years.

01:03:01 I paid cash for it when I won my first Olympia.

01:03:04 - I noticed you have your own gym here, right?

01:03:06 - Yeah, yeah, yeah.

01:03:07 You wanna check it out?

01:03:08 - Yeah.

01:03:14 - Everything that I use at Metroflex, I put in here.

01:03:17 My hack squat, my leg extension, leg curl,

01:03:21 a calf machine over there.

01:03:22 I got a decline, I got an incline, and I got a flat bench.

01:03:29 It started at five and go all the way up to 200.

01:03:34 I even put a T-bar row here.

01:03:37 My legs are still numb, so I can't go heavy.

01:03:39 I do light, so.

01:03:40 They call the police on me all the time

01:03:42 when I used to work out.

01:03:44 (laughs)

01:03:45 'Cause I be loud.

01:03:47 - Duke, this way, let's go.

01:03:49 - Yeah.

01:03:55 (sighs)

01:03:57 (groans)

01:04:02 (groans)

01:04:07 (groans)

01:04:11 (groans)

01:04:14 (sighs)

01:04:21 (sighs)

01:04:25 (groans)

01:04:27 It's hot in here.

01:04:31 (laughs)

01:04:33 (sighs)

01:04:39 Yeah.

01:04:42 (laughs)

01:04:45 I mean, I told you, we got the gas stealing out of the car.

01:04:53 I got this monitor right here.

01:04:55 - Over here?

01:04:56 - Uh-huh, yeah.

01:04:57 The lights down there, they come on at night.

01:05:00 You walk past and it lights up the whole thing down there.

01:05:04 - The day that Jay Cutler actually beat Ronnie Coleman,

01:05:11 you could hear a collective,

01:05:13 at passing of the torch, the crowd shift.

01:05:17 It just really went straight to Jay.

01:05:19 I think a lot of people were making up for the 2001 victory

01:05:22 that Jay should've got that he didn't get.

01:05:24 People were cheering for the upset.

01:05:25 We've seen so much of Ronnie Coleman

01:05:27 that eventually, like Mike Tyson,

01:05:29 you tune in to hopefully see the champ get knocked out.

01:05:32 - The younger version of you is lurking out there somewhere

01:05:38 and you're gonna meet that hellfire person,

01:05:41 so it happens.

01:05:43 - I was fed up.

01:05:44 I wasn't sure how much longer

01:05:46 I could keep getting second place.

01:05:48 And my whole family came out.

01:05:50 I always had my family there,

01:05:51 my brothers, sisters, everyone came out.

01:05:54 Family, friends, I think I bought 100 tickets

01:05:55 for that event that year.

01:05:58 - Ronnie came in off.

01:05:59 Ronnie doubted himself that night.

01:06:02 And I remember being backstage and seeing it unfold.

01:06:06 You know, when you compete at that level,

01:06:08 you can kind of sense and see.

01:06:12 You get to know people's personalities

01:06:13 and their approach and everything.

01:06:15 And Ronnie just showed up as a different Ronnie that night.

01:06:19 - Ronnie was going for nine and didn't get nine.

01:06:23 Jay Kortleby said.

01:06:25 - The Olympia gold medal,

01:06:26 to the 2006 Mr. Olympia,

01:06:30 Jay Kortleby!

01:06:34 - When Jay knocked out the champ,

01:06:39 it validated years of work

01:06:42 that Ronnie Coleman had done before him.

01:06:43 And there's not a champion out there

01:06:45 that's not susceptible to getting knocked out

01:06:47 and getting beating.

01:06:48 We've seen it happen.

01:06:49 We saw Mike Tyson lose.

01:06:49 We saw Muhammad Ali lose.

01:06:52 And we saw Ronnie Coleman lose to Jay.

01:06:56 - The night I beat Ronnie, 2006, it was a flash.

01:07:01 He knew he was gonna lose.

01:07:03 And I think he didn't think that until the very end

01:07:07 because he was Ronnie Coleman.

01:07:09 He hadn't lost in a very long time.

01:07:11 - I thought it was pretty much automatically

01:07:12 that I was gonna win number nine

01:07:14 because I had won like eight in a row.

01:07:16 So like, you know, you come up for number nine

01:07:19 and like, okay, those eight were, you know,

01:07:21 I worked hard for them.

01:07:23 So I'm thinking, you know, number nine

01:07:24 is gonna be a breeze.

01:07:26 - I won on that stage

01:07:28 and it was the first time in history

01:07:29 that a Mr. Olympia was beaten on that stage.

01:07:33 - When Ronnie Coleman was beaten by Jay Cutler,

01:07:35 it took a little bit of the shine off.

01:07:37 I can only imagine Ronnie Coleman being Mr. Olympia

01:07:39 for like eight times.

01:07:41 And then he loses to a guy that he was routinely beating

01:07:44 in head-to-head competition.

01:07:46 - You know, in the end it was, it happened,

01:07:49 you know, Jay took him, but that wasn't Ronnie at his best.

01:07:52 You know, the injuries had shown up

01:07:54 and you know, he was battle-worn by that time.

01:07:57 - I didn't beat the best Ronnie Coleman ever.

01:08:00 I don't want people ever to think like,

01:08:01 oh, well, Ronnie was at his best and Jay was at his best.

01:08:04 It's not the case.

01:08:05 I just was better that day.

01:08:06 You know, time was creeping up.

01:08:08 He was going for his record number nine,

01:08:10 a lot of publicity going into the show.

01:08:12 But I felt bad for Ronnie.

01:08:13 I felt bad winning, which is weird

01:08:16 because you know, it was everything to him, you know,

01:08:20 and he was going for number nine.

01:08:21 It was the record to beat with Lee Haney's record.

01:08:25 And he was upset.

01:08:26 You know, he was visually upset.

01:08:28 (crowd cheering)

01:08:31 (soft music)

01:08:33 - My name is Mike Heisey.

01:08:46 I'm an orthopedic surgeon with Texas Back Institute

01:08:48 and I specialize in spine surgery.

01:08:51 So Ronnie came to me from a friend of mine

01:08:53 who has known him and has worked out with Ronnie

01:08:55 for years and years.

01:08:56 And when he had a particular problem with his back

01:08:58 that Rob knew that I knew how to operate on,

01:09:01 he referred Ronnie to me.

01:09:02 And it's an advanced stage of really degeneration,

01:09:05 wear and tear.

01:09:06 And that's from all of the weight he's been putting

01:09:08 through his back over the years.

01:09:09 So it has worn, had worn out the discs.

01:09:11 And he had had operations before I met him

01:09:15 to try and unpinch some of the nerves

01:09:16 and make room for the nerves.

01:09:17 And then ultimately an attempt at trying to hold

01:09:20 the bones still that didn't heal up.

01:09:22 So we tried to do another operation to get him to heal up

01:09:25 and try and improve his alignment.

01:09:28 These are the artificial hips now that are already in

01:09:30 by the time I met him.

01:09:30 There's one of them on the other.

01:09:33 And then you can see the screws

01:09:35 and you can see how it collapsed this disc

01:09:37 as we were able to lift it up some.

01:09:40 Got his alignment a little bit better.

01:09:42 I always get this spacer in here.

01:09:43 This is lifted up.

01:09:44 We were able to get that one lifted up.

01:09:46 You see how collapsed this was.

01:09:48 We weren't able to get this one pulled back

01:09:49 as far as I hoped, but some.

01:09:52 And this looks like it's on, the CAT scan looks

01:09:53 like it's healed.

01:09:54 We were able to get the nerves unpinched at that level.

01:09:56 Disc is okay, but the joint is wearing to some degree.

01:10:00 We see this all the time.

01:10:01 Not all of our patients are competitive bodybuilders.

01:10:04 It's a common problem, but he puts himself at higher risk.

01:10:08 Some of the people are gonna get it

01:10:09 because of their genetics.

01:10:11 It's years, miles, and your activity.

01:10:14 And his activity, I think, is what put him at the risk.

01:10:17 It's what he lives for.

01:10:20 So we're just taking care of it.

01:10:23 Doctor said he's gonna go in and perform a surgery

01:10:28 in which he's gonna take out screws

01:10:29 'cause from that nerve block shot that I had,

01:10:33 the pain went away for a whole day.

01:10:35 And that showed that the hardware

01:10:38 was causing the pain, those screws.

01:10:41 Screws just there just to hold the fusion in place.

01:10:45 They fused my disc together.

01:10:46 They've been there almost two years.

01:10:48 They've pretty much done their job.

01:10:50 All they're doing now is just causing me pain.

01:10:52 - He's still working out, obviously.

01:10:53 He's still in the gym.

01:10:54 - I don't think he'll ever stop.

01:10:56 - And do you think it's a positive thing?

01:10:58 Would you recommend it or not?

01:11:00 - If I had to pick just for his back,

01:11:02 it's probably not the best thing.

01:11:03 But for his overall well-being, I think he needs to.

01:11:06 Step in the room, we'll check out your nerves and stuff.

01:11:10 Yeah, where's your wife today?

01:11:11 - She's get the kids.

01:11:13 - Just scooch on back there.

01:11:14 Lift your big toes up for me.

01:11:19 Hold 'em up real strong.

01:11:21 Real strong, you're a little weak on this one still.

01:11:22 - Yeah, I'm real weak.

01:11:24 - Okay, push down strong, down towards the floor strong.

01:11:27 That's much better.

01:11:28 How about holding up straight?

01:11:30 Hold that up real strong, straight, straight, straight.

01:11:33 Hold this one up real strong, straight, straight, straight.

01:11:35 Oh, that's gotten so much better.

01:11:36 - Yeah.

01:11:37 - That's gotten so much better.

01:11:38 So much better.

01:11:40 Yeah, that's perfect.

01:11:41 That may not come back.

01:11:45 - That ain't gonna come back.

01:11:46 - That may not come back.

01:11:48 - That ain't worked in a whole lot of years.

01:11:50 - Yeah.

01:11:51 I don't think I've ever seen that one work.

01:11:53 - I don't think it's nearly there.

01:11:54 - No, no, no.

01:11:56 Yeah, he's an amazing guy

01:11:57 in terms of being able to work through things.

01:12:00 But with this operation,

01:12:01 with as much time as we had to spend,

01:12:03 it's not uncommon to have weakness

01:12:04 on the leg on the side we go in.

01:12:06 And so he had that and that's been getting better,

01:12:09 but it certainly was an issue for him early on post-op.

01:12:12 I don't think he's done with treating his back

01:12:14 at any, by any means, but I think he is on his way.

01:12:17 His recovery, I think is better than average

01:12:19 for what he had to start with.

01:12:21 It's not perfect.

01:12:22 There may come a time when he wants to try

01:12:24 and get it a little bit better,

01:12:25 in which case we might extend it up

01:12:27 and get a few more levels above or below

01:12:28 to correct his overall alignment.

01:12:31 I don't think it's gonna do anything

01:12:32 about getting strength back,

01:12:34 but it may help with pain

01:12:35 and it may help him stand up a little bit taller.

01:12:37 - What happened was they put in four screws

01:12:47 'cause the discs were shifting forward

01:12:49 and pushing up against my nerves.

01:12:51 So they had to clamp them together

01:12:54 and they used these screws.

01:12:56 Anyway, those screws ended up breaking.

01:12:58 And in the process of breaking,

01:13:00 they broke bones in my back, you know,

01:13:02 and then the pain got so bad where I couldn't even walk.

01:13:05 Hey guys, what's going on?

01:13:07 Big Ron here, coming live to you

01:13:09 from the Wadeen Mile or Ronnie Coburn Recovery Center.

01:13:13 - You know, a lot of people that go

01:13:14 through this kind of surgery

01:13:15 tend to have the mindset that they may be in a wheelchair.

01:13:19 And they say people like that

01:13:20 who eventually do go to a wheelchair never get out

01:13:24 and they could, but it's just a mental,

01:13:27 you know, thing that they have.

01:13:29 And it's never occurred to Ronnie.

01:13:31 - I'm ready to take off.

01:13:35 Take off his blades and second gear.

01:13:36 Put some Nikras on that wheelchair.

01:13:38 So I stayed in hospital for like a whole month

01:13:44 trying to get better and trying to deal with the pain.

01:13:48 And this is what I get early in the morning

01:13:54 for the next day's meal.

01:13:55 I'll be having cranberry juice.

01:13:58 It was real bad, you know,

01:13:59 but I made it through all that

01:14:01 and started out in a wheelchair.

01:14:04 Did that for a while.

01:14:05 Then I graduated to a walker.

01:14:07 Did that for a while.

01:14:08 And then I got to the point where I got to crutches.

01:14:12 Doing that for a while.

01:14:13 And I'm still on crutches,

01:14:14 but for the most part,

01:14:17 I can walk around the house like short distances.

01:14:20 I use the crutches for like when I have to walk

01:14:22 for like long distance and stuff like that.

01:14:24 So I'd say I've come a long way.

01:14:27 (car engine roaring)

01:14:31 (upbeat music)

01:14:36 (upbeat music)

01:14:39 - The six and seven year old,

01:15:03 they're kind of like figure skaters, both of them.

01:15:06 Susan, of course, she's a lot older,

01:15:09 so she's a national level competitor.

01:15:11 - This family comes first.

01:15:21 We're the ones he chose.

01:15:24 (upbeat music)

01:15:27 (upbeat music)

01:15:29 - Solo.

01:15:46 You give me a huggy?

01:15:49 - He's very good with them.

01:15:52 He's very patient.

01:15:55 (upbeat music)

01:16:23 - Quitting too soon, you might have regrets.

01:16:25 Lee Haney was 31 years old, but he had eight sandals,

01:16:28 nothing else to prove.

01:16:30 And he was able to turn the page.

01:16:31 The majority of the guys are gonna go out

01:16:33 out of this sport a loser.

01:16:34 So how do you go out?

01:16:36 I think Ronnie is one of those guys

01:16:37 that would go out fighting.

01:16:38 - With Ronnie, win or lose, he always was always the same.

01:16:46 And he's always been very humble like that.

01:16:49 And I can appreciate who he is

01:16:51 because that's what makes a champion is someone

01:16:54 that can stand on all stages and be thankful

01:16:56 for every gift that they're given

01:16:59 and indirectly affect a lot of people.

01:17:02 - I didn't wanna see Ronnie Coleman get on stage in 2007.

01:17:07 I didn't wanna see him push and not get rewarded.

01:17:10 - It's hard to advise bodybuilders of that caliber

01:17:13 what they should or shouldn't do

01:17:14 because they are in control of their careers.

01:17:17 But I think Ronnie Coleman did what was best for him.

01:17:19 If there was a way for him to compete tomorrow

01:17:21 or next week or this year, Ronnie Coleman,

01:17:23 I don't think any of us would stop him from doing it.

01:17:25 Thank God he's not a boxer

01:17:26 'cause he'd probably be brain dead.

01:17:29 - People, they know the type of talent

01:17:32 and they know how hard I work

01:17:33 and they know I put my all and all into it.

01:17:37 I don't have any regrets about it.

01:17:40 - Everybody said, "Oh, what a shame.

01:17:42 That's how we'll remember him."

01:17:43 No, you'd remember the eight time champ.

01:17:46 Nobody remembers the fourth time.

01:17:48 Nobody remembers Muhammad Ali last two or three fights

01:17:51 being a shambles.

01:17:52 They remember the king when he was on top.

01:17:55 That's how they remember Ronnie.

01:17:56 That big smile and that personality

01:17:59 who's got time for everybody,

01:18:00 who's never turned a fan down.

01:18:02 I've never seen in a temperamental mood.

01:18:05 So he's got a great legacy

01:18:07 as well as being the best bodybuilder of all time.

01:18:09 He's one of the most loved, I'm sure.

01:18:11 (gentle music)

01:18:14,

01:18:17 (gentle music)

01:18:19 (gentle music)

01:18:22 (gentle music)

01:18:24 (gentle music)

01:18:27 (gentle music)

01:18:30 (gentle music)

01:18:32 (gentle music)

01:18:35 (gentle music)

01:18:37 (gentle music)

01:18:40 - I can just get up in the morning, you know.

01:18:43 (gentle music)

01:18:45 Take a minute for me to get going.

01:18:47 (laughs)

01:18:48 I'm really used to it.

01:18:50 (gentle music)

01:18:53 Never get used to it.

01:18:54 (laughs)

01:18:56 (clears throat)

01:18:58 I've been here almost 30 years now.

01:19:00 (gentle music)

01:19:02 (gentle music)

01:19:05 Long time.

01:19:06 Yeah, when I first came here,

01:19:09 it was hardly nothing here.

01:19:11 There wasn't any people or nothing.

01:19:14 Now, man, it's doubled in size.

01:19:18 Just like that.

01:19:20 I'm put up houses everywhere.

01:19:24 You can do all kinds of stuff.

01:19:26 Make this place huge.

01:19:27 I came to this city and this gym at the same time.

01:19:34 (clears throat)

01:19:35 About 30 some years now.

01:19:37 Yeah.

01:19:40 (gentle music)

01:19:43 (gentle music)

01:19:46 (gentle music)

01:19:48 (gentle music)

01:19:51 (gentle music)

01:19:54 - How you feeling, bro?

01:19:55 - Same old, same old.

01:19:56 You?

01:19:57 - Another day at the office?

01:19:58 - Yeah.

01:19:58 - A little bit cooler this morning.

01:20:00 - Yeah, I'm surprised.

01:20:02 - It was warm yesterday during the day.

01:20:04 - It was warm yesterday.

01:20:05 I got up this morning and went outside.

01:20:07 (gentle music)

01:20:09 (gentle music)

01:20:12 - When I first got out of the hospital,

01:20:14 both my legs were numb.

01:20:16 Now I got to the point where just one is numb.

01:20:20 The numbness is going away slowly.

01:20:23 I remember when I had my neck done,

01:20:25 the doctor told me it was gonna take two years

01:20:29 for the numbness to go away.

01:20:31 And I remember two years to the date,

01:20:33 the numbness went away totally.

01:20:35 So I know that if my neck can recover

01:20:38 and the numbness can go away there,

01:20:40 that I can recover also on my legs and stuff.

01:20:44 - If somebody embodied what Mr. Olympia was like,

01:20:47 I think Ronnie Coleman probably loved being Mr. Olympia

01:20:49 more than anybody else.

01:20:51 And I had to be happy for him.

01:20:52 - But Ronnie Coleman took bodybuilding

01:20:54 to another whole level when it came to size and symmetry.

01:20:58 Size and symmetry.

01:21:00 - You know, we had someone like Dorian

01:21:01 that introduced mass into the bodybuilding era,

01:21:05 but then Ronnie did it with aesthetics as well.

01:21:08 - I don't think there's still been anybody since

01:21:10 that brought the same combination of size,

01:21:15 shape and condition.

01:21:17 Not only with a great chest, not only with a great back,

01:21:19 not only with all those arms and everything,

01:21:21 shoulders, glute and hamstring,

01:21:24 it was just unparalleled.

01:21:27 - He just had it all.

01:21:28 He had the training, he had the crazy diet

01:21:32 that he was able to eat, you know, all these crazy things

01:21:35 and be able to still get in that kind of shape.

01:21:37 - He brought a lot to the table, you know,

01:21:39 and he was the strongest Mr. Olympia of all time.

01:21:44 - Oh, yeah.

01:21:46 Oh, yeah!

01:21:47 - Let's go.

01:21:48 - Let's go.

01:21:49 - Yeah, baby!

01:21:50 - Yeah!

01:21:51 - Come on.

01:21:52 - All right.

01:21:53 - You ready?

01:21:54 - Yep.

01:21:55 - You ready?

01:21:56 - Yep.

01:21:57 - Go!

01:21:58 - Oh, my God!

01:21:59 - Yeah!

01:22:00 - Yeah!

01:22:01 - Yeah!

01:22:02 - Yeah!

01:22:03 - Come on!

01:22:04 - Yeah!

01:22:05 - All right.

01:22:06 - Let's do it!

01:22:07 - Yeah, my man!

01:22:08 - He was a beast, and, you know, he set a new standard

01:22:11 for bodybuilding, which, you know, came to my time,

01:22:13 and I couldn't get as big as him.

01:22:16 Phil Heath took over.

01:22:17 He's not even close to big as Ronnie was.

01:22:19 You know, they can't compare Phil Heath to Ronnie Coleman.

01:22:21 - Ronnie Coleman was challenged by Hall of Fame bodybuilders,

01:22:23 and, of course, in Phil Heath's era, he's not.

01:22:27 - And I say this today.

01:22:28 I still think that Ronnie Coleman at his best

01:22:30 would still win the Mr. Olympia today.

01:22:34 - I don't know if you can say mind-fucked,

01:22:44 but it's a mind-fuck to the max.

01:22:47 Like, you can't-- you can't imagine coming from

01:22:50 being an upper echelon of your sport to not being that anymore

01:22:54 and then just have to deal with that part.

01:22:57 To be on the other side of that is pretty hard, you know?

01:23:01 I won't lie.

01:23:02 I cried the first time.

01:23:03 I mean, I never told him that or anything,

01:23:07 but, you know, seeing him like--

01:23:08 'cause to me, his strength was supernatural.

01:23:11 I mean, it was so above and beyond everybody else's.

01:23:16 You know, it was very, very hard to see that, you know,

01:23:19 and especially when the hips went.

01:23:21 I mean, he had to use a walker and all that.

01:23:23 That was tough for me, you know?

01:23:25 And, you know, he got down to, I don't know,

01:23:27 215 pounds probably at one point, maybe, you know, 220.

01:23:31 And, I mean, you know, I'd never seen him this small ever,

01:23:34 you know?

01:23:35 ♪ ♪

01:23:42 ♪ ♪

01:23:47 ♪ ♪

01:23:52 ♪ ♪

01:23:57 ♪ ♪

01:24:02 ♪ ♪

01:24:07 ♪ ♪

01:24:12 ♪ ♪

01:24:17 ♪ ♪

01:24:22 ♪ ♪

01:24:27 ♪ ♪

01:24:30 - Hola.

01:24:31 - Hola.

01:24:32 - [laughs]

01:24:34 Wake up.

01:24:37 - [groans]

01:24:39 - Oh, no.

01:24:40 [siren wailing]

01:24:43 ♪ ♪

01:24:46 - The Nuggets whisper up on the clippers for the eighth spot.

01:24:49 - Where you at?

01:24:51 - About five minutes away.

01:24:53 - Okay. - Five minutes away.

01:24:55 - Making sure you made it okay.

01:24:57 - Oh, yeah. Yeah, be there in just a minute.

01:24:59 You okay? You feeling good?

01:25:01 - Yeah, yeah, yeah, I'm all good.

01:25:03 We're gonna get this over with.

01:25:05 - I heard that. I wish it was already done.

01:25:07 - You and me both.

01:25:09 - [laughs]

01:25:10 - All right, we'll see you in a minute.

01:25:12 - All right, big bro. - All right, bye.

01:25:14 - Bye.

01:25:15 - See, this surgery's gonna last only, like, three hours,

01:25:17 but the only thing about it is,

01:25:19 instead of going through my back,

01:25:21 because I've had so many back surgeries

01:25:23 and I have so much scar tissue there,

01:25:25 you know how to go through the front now.

01:25:27 In order to go through the front,

01:25:28 there's all this stuff in the front,

01:25:30 you know, to get to the back,

01:25:32 so you got to take out my intestines.

01:25:34 You got to take those out to get to the back.

01:25:37 So he said this surgery should last about three hours,

01:25:41 but the recovery time is gonna be the same

01:25:43 as the last surgery, six months again.

01:25:46 - You made it in, huh? - Of course.

01:25:50 Yeah, the traffic was always fun.

01:25:51 You ready to go? You ready to do this thing?

01:25:53 - I remember when the doctor said when he took a break,

01:25:56 he would always go out and talk to my mom,

01:25:58 'cause she was there the whole time.

01:26:00 Fortunately, she's no longer here,

01:26:02 'cause she passed away in August

01:26:05 from, you know, pancreatic cancer.

01:26:07 You know, she was always there in all my surgeries,

01:26:10 so, you know, that's gonna be real hard to go through

01:26:13 and not have her there, 'cause I'm so used to,

01:26:15 you know, waking up and seeing her.

01:26:17 - All right, Ronnie, let's get this thing done.

01:26:21 - Yeah, buddy.

01:26:23 - I'm gonna vacuum you in. - Okay.

01:26:33 - Okay.

01:26:35 - It's very sad, you know?

01:26:43 It hits hard for me, because,

01:26:46 remember, I stood next to him and battled him,

01:26:49 and I admired the way he trained,

01:26:51 and sometimes I wish, wish I--

01:26:53 oh, man, I wish I could do that.

01:26:55 And now I look at it and say, well, you know,

01:26:58 you know, what did it?

01:26:59 I don't know the answer, 'cause Ronnie's not gonna cry

01:27:02 about anything.

01:27:03 That's the thing about Ronnie Coleman.

01:27:05 He's not gonna make excuses for himself.

01:27:07 Well, this is why it happened.

01:27:09 He'd rather just say, you know, when people say,

01:27:12 "Hey, you know, you're laid up.

01:27:14 You had this many surgeries. What do you think?"

01:27:16 He goes, "Well, I'm really disappointed

01:27:19 I only squat 800 twice."

01:27:22 That's just Ronnie.

01:27:23 Everything negative is a positive to him,

01:27:26 and that's why he's great.

01:27:28 - I think I could've got five with 800.

01:27:31 I could've got five reps.

01:27:33 I think I could've got five easy reps.

01:27:36 But I went--I did the 800 squat,

01:27:40 and then I went to the leg press,

01:27:42 and I put 2,300 on there, and I got eight reps.

01:27:45 So I kind of made up for it there.

01:27:47 - I can't feel sad for Ronnie Coleman,

01:27:50 because I knew that there would be a price to pay

01:27:53 for what he was doing, and I think for him,

01:27:55 that price was worth it.

01:27:56 You know, Ronnie Coleman was one of the few bodybuilders

01:27:59 that paid his house off,

01:28:00 bought his mom a house,

01:28:01 took care of his entire family,

01:28:03 created his own supplement line,

01:28:05 and had multiple opportunities worldwide

01:28:08 to see the globe as a result of what he did.

01:28:10 So if this is the price you have to pay,

01:28:13 I think if you ask Ronnie,

01:28:14 he'd say he'd do it again.

01:28:16 If you ask me, I would say it's foolish.

01:28:18 I would never do that.

01:28:19 I don't want any of those standout trophies

01:28:21 to have the body that 53-, 54-year-old Ronnie Coleman has.

01:28:25 It wouldn't be worth it for my lifestyle.

01:28:27 - And that's why you gotta respect the guy,

01:28:29 because he could be crying to everyone,

01:28:31 "Oh, I'm so beat up, and bodybuilding did this to me."

01:28:34 But Ronnie's enjoying his time with his kids.

01:28:36 He's doing his travel still.

01:28:38 He's making the best of it.

01:28:39 He's wheeling in Expos in a wheelchair.

01:28:42 I feel sorry that it happened,

01:28:43 but I don't think Ronnie feels sorry about it,

01:28:45 because you know what?

01:28:46 He just did what he had to do

01:28:47 to be the greatest bodybuilder of all time.

01:28:50 And he will go down in history

01:28:51 as the greatest bodybuilder of all time.

01:28:54 [soft music]

01:28:57 ♪ ♪

01:29:04 [baby crying]

01:29:07 ♪ ♪

01:29:15 - How old are you, Layla?

01:29:18 [baby crying]

01:29:21 ♪ ♪

01:29:30 - I've been bodybuilding for 10 years,

01:29:34 and I've been working here for 12.

01:29:37 And the famous question is,

01:29:42 why do you still work here?

01:29:44 And you're Miss Olympia, two-time Miss Olympia.

01:29:48 My answer to that question is,

01:29:51 because I love it.

01:29:53 [soft music]

01:30:00 - Nothing gonna stop me.

01:30:03 Nothing.

01:30:06 Like Ronnie Cole, Flex, Beta.

01:30:10 ♪ ♪

01:30:15 ♪ ♪

01:30:22 - I was just in China, you know,

01:30:25 and there's a language barrier and everything,

01:30:27 but whenever I said something like...

01:30:30 - Lightweight, baby, you know.

01:30:31 - Lightweight, lightweight, baby.

01:30:33 Everybody got it without being perverted.

01:30:36 ♪ ♪

01:30:43 ♪ ♪

01:30:49 - Ronnie took the time right back to every fan.

01:30:52 And the people around us would be like,

01:30:54 "Man, I can't keep up to Ronnie," you know.

01:30:57 He had everything timed perfect,

01:30:58 but he would sit and do his emails,

01:31:00 like, at that super early time in the morning to every fan.

01:31:04 ♪ ♪

01:31:11 ♪ ♪

01:31:18 ♪ ♪

01:31:25 ♪ ♪

01:31:31 - I had to throw everything I had from New York,

01:31:33 to the burgers out in Texas.

01:31:34 I said, "No way, Ronnie."

01:31:35 I took 'em--I had to take 'em to Old Homestead.

01:31:38 I'm just kind of looking at him,

01:31:39 "Oh, I hope I'm right. I hope--

01:31:41 I hope I'm right."

01:31:43 I took Mr. Olympia, you know,

01:31:44 arguing with him on the best burger in Texas.

01:31:47 So, bites into this burger.

01:31:50 All he kept saying was,

01:31:52 "Man, this ain't no burger.

01:31:55 [laughs]

01:31:56 This ain't no burger."

01:31:58 And I was like, "Yes, I think I got 'em."

01:32:00 ♪ ♪

01:32:07 ♪ ♪

01:32:14 ♪ ♪

01:32:21 ♪ ♪

01:32:28 ♪ ♪

01:32:35 ♪ ♪

01:32:42 ♪ ♪

01:32:48 - And after years of hard work and struggles,

01:32:53 you know, I was able to, you know,

01:32:55 get the Olympia title.

01:32:58 But, you know, that's not the reason why I got into it.

01:33:01 The reason why I got into it

01:33:02 was 'cause he told me to get me a free membership.

01:33:04 [laughs]

01:33:05 [BLANK_AUDIO]

Ronnie Coleman - The King

Category

Transcription

Recommandations