Chris Bumstead (5x Mr. Olympia): “I Started to CRY”! How Your SHAME is Tied to Your CHILDHOOD!

I want to be better Mr Olympia I want to enjoy it more I want to enjoy the journey be more present and it always almost brings you back to your childhood I pulled up a picture of me as a kid but I remember looking at it backstage like before getting on and just starting to cry a little bit and me like if that kid could have imagined being me right now you know he is your re defending five time Olympia Champion hear the crow go wild bster when I won my first Olympia all I felt

was was relief that it was over I didn't really feel joy and happiness and all these things because there was a lot of stress around the Olympia that I was just suppressing wow all these fears are in my brain right now and I never even let them come up to think about them I would just put them down never never spoke about it and just letting that out I just like immediately felt better but what people don't realize is that like when you feel that pain that shame and insecurity that is that little boy it's

the same person there's no separation there you know wow man this is powerful I'm so happy that you're having this conversation right now welcome back everyone to the school of greatness very excited about our guest the inspiring Chris Bumstead in the house my man what's going on good to see you man happy to be here very excited about this and the thing that I'm excited the most to talk about is the first thing you said when we embraced and hugged each other within a few moments you said that you just got off a therapy call

yeah with your wife and I was just like this I love this 7 a.m. therapy call I was like what 7:00 a.m. therapy call we're here in Vegas and and um and I was just like I was so happy to hear this one because I've been doing therapy for years yeah and when I talk about therapy with people I really look at it as emotional coaching MH it's really a coach that supports me in understanding and navigating my emotions my feelings my thoughts and helps me improve who I am yeah and so when you said

this I just thought to myself this is awesome because you to most people are kind of the epitome of what a masculine man should look like or that a lot of men are striving to yeah Mr Olympia five-time Champion you know jacked chiseled strong bearded you're like you're a man right bald now but you talk the first thing you said is you're going to therapy which I'm just such a big fan of so can you tell me when did you first start going to therapy did you go alone ever or did you do it with

your uh wife originally when you were dating or how did this start for you I mean I have a bit of a cheat Cod when the younger because my mom was a social worker not exactly a therapist but she was very like encouraging of getting help like that and therapy and all that stuff if you needed it and I never really entertained it when I was younger but it was more so when I started getting into the competitive bodybuilding world and going through a lot of like pressure and stress and managing things and then in

2018 I got kind of sick and then in 2019 I was just kind of scared about being sick and I was trying to like balance competing should I should I not I like my brain was just pulling me in all these different directions where I didn't know where to go and I would just like my mom always told me that like a therapy session can just be like a sounding board sometimes to organize your own thoughts whether or not the therapist is there to actually give you Insight it helps you find your own insight as

well it's almost like a cheat Cod of journaling you know especially the crazier life you live I imagine yourself traveling around doing podcasts me bodybuilding everything it's sometimes it's hard to actually sit down and reflect inward about how you're feeling what's going on and what's not making you happy was making you sad vice versa on how to manage your life in the best way and therapy is a great way to just put all that on the table organize your thoughts and create a game plan for life to put yourself in the direction you actually want

to be going rather than just running around aimlessly so that's really kind of how it started my wife now Courtney was thinking of therapist when we were first dating and she reached out to me and she was like you know I can help you with some almost like performance coaching stuff like you said got into the right angle so like I can help you enjoy your Olympia more and be better at handling that pressure in ja I'm like all right that's got me you know that's got me hooked I'll try it and it was funny

because and I mean I can give a lot of example of this and other people I've spoken to too but you often go into therapy because of a problem in front of you or a stress about this or you know I want to be better Mr Olympia I want to enjoy it more I want to enjoy the journey be more present and not be so stressed out about it and it always almost brings you back to your childhood and I'm sure you you've done therapy I know you've experienced that everybody who's done real therapy with

a good therapist you know it all goes back to your childhood and I did a really cool podcast with some Navy Seals like you talk about masculine like the biggest gangsters on the planet like these were like tier one Navy Navy Seals and they were talking about how they've done some work as well and almost all the Navy Seals they spoke to when they're going through their stuff they expect it to be all their Trauma from the war and losing their brothers and all these things like that which obviously hurt them greatly but a lot

of their wounds come from their childhood too and that be able to heal those allow them to move forward through all the other stuff they lived through in their life too so I started to notice that as well and it plays into every aspect of your life your relationship your relationship with yourself everything so we started Performance Based trying to be better Olympia and it slowly went back to my childhood and I was like I had the perfect childhood my parents were still together I was happy I was good I was good I was great

and they were like all right sure let's try and unravel some things the more I unraveled I was like you know I still didn't have anything like horrible happen to me which I think a lot of people think you didn't have a big tea traa exctly just because you didn't get hit in the face with a bat doesn't mean your head doesn't hurt you know like it's hard to kind of tell people that because they think nothing ever happened to me which is exactly how I felt yeah you had loving parents and you know a

good home and a safe environment and encouragement and all those things right yeah but what was the big wound or little wound that became big over time that you never addressed a big one for me was feeling feeling I guess not seen and not truly like not fully like important and valued and I kind of felt like a little bit on the back burner because my parents tried their best and they did amazing but there was a lot going on in life sometimes and you know my sister was going through a lot who was older

than me and then I was a kid who was like good at sports doing this and that so I was all K like don't worry about Chris he's got it all together he's got it figured out he's good you know let's put our attention on on your sister yeah on our sister on this on that on everything else because he's got it together and I saw that so I was like okay well I'm good at all this stuff and I don't want to add stress to my family so I'm just going to hold it in

handle it all myself and kind of bottle it all down compartmentalize and do my own thing and you know I wasn't thinking that clearly like that when I was younger but it's just naturally how you cope you know you build defense mechanisms depending on your environment when you're young so that was one of the ones I kind of did when I was younger and to me it was just normal you know I handle myself on my own I don't really need a lot of connection I don't really need a lot of intimacy I'm just very

independent and I can do things by myself and then older and older I got I started to realize partly in the Olympia I bring a lot of stuff back cu the Olympia taught me so many things but I when I won my first Olympia all I felt was relief that it was over I didn't really feel joy and happiness and all these things because there was a lot of stress around the Olympia that I was just suppressing and then my big story or lesson that I tried to share with people this year that if you

numb the bad you numb the good so as you numb your emotions everything kind of gets dulled down wow so I tried to process all that move through it and i' realize that as I compartmentalize everything in my life I compartmentalize all the good too I kind of just suppressing all these feelings and then you get older and stuff just starts to feel dim and like sad and alone and all these things and you don't understand why and it's because You' I've created this environment where I don't let people help me or I don't ask

for anything I need I'm just like I'll help everyone before myself and then I'm good on the side it leaves you kind of alone because everybody needs connection so what was life like for you in your teens early 20s and mid 20s until you started to dive into therapy mhm was it always lonely and sad and depressing or were there good moments too there were definitely good moments and it's almost hard for me to like communicate this sometimes but I really try to because I know I'm not the only one who didn't have like this

depressing childhood but I also expect a lot of like myself I don't want to just be like well I'm good you know I want to be great I want to feel love and connection I closeness and everything I don't want to like drift apart from my wife in difficult times and all these things I want to like understand and grasp and be the best relational person that I can be wow so while I didn't really feel depressed or anything when I was young I also didn't really feel like I had anyone that I could go

out to and reach out to in hard times and if I was scared or sad about something there was someone who I could lean on or talk to you I just felt like it was normal for me to hold that in myself and the reason it was tricky for me is because I knew that my parents did love me so much and I did have people who loved me and if I were to share with them they would be there for me but I just felt like it'd be better just hold it on myself CU

that's just the way that's just the way I operate isn't that interesting so you knew your parents loved you you knew they would show up for you if you needed something yeah but you didn't want to be a burden you didn't want to stress them out so you didn't want to show them that you needed support or help right yeah exactly isn't that interesting you know it's funny cuz we have about a 12 year age Gap I think and so I grew up in 80s and 990s and I was never allowed to show emotion cry

say that I was having a hard day without being made fun of or picked on or bullied or you know what are other guys kind of just like picking on you and making fun of you I was never really allowed to do that so it took me until I was 30 years old until I started to do more emotional healing and reflecting on kind of these traumas little traumas big traumas everything and started to really release my emotions and heal them and it's been a journey but I love that you openly cry you openly talk

about your feelings your emotions and conversations like therapy because we just didn't have that you know you know 10 12 years before you that wasn't available now it's becoming more available and I'm just so happy that guys like you are using your platform to express this yes you're showing that you're like the most jacked human in the world but you're also saying Hey listen I'm willing to continue to improve on all areas of my life and I really think of the ultimate man being someone who is emotionally evolved not just holding their feelings in constantly

and saying I've got it figure it out mentally constantly growing spiritually growing and relationally growing and it sounds to me like you're making it importance to Value all of those things and and financially as well you're building your business but you're telling me like I want to make my my wife and my relationship a high priority yeah so I'm going to go to coaching you know once a month or whatever and work on this I'm going to take care of my health my nutrition my mindset my business all these different things to become the most

well-rounded man that I can be not just strong yeah physically but emotionally and spiritually as well and I just think that's beautiful man yeah for sure and I mean as you grew up you know obviously it's it's so easy to have empathy for our past generations of why they had to be like that you know like going through a lot harder times than we have right now you know we're lucky we're even out an opportunity to like be able to like search for our emotions and relationships cuz there was a lot of going on when

our parents were coming up where they didn't they didn't have that opportunity they had to kind of like get through some hard times so obviously they were like that and now for each generation to kind of like move through those like pains and kind of beat the previous generation trauma it's difficult yeah you know but my parents I think they still did a great job their parents were I'm sure a lot more shut off than they ever were and then my parents that really really good job at trying to do the best that they could

with me and while I still left with a little bit of irks and pains I also came with a strength and the knowledge to work on them myself and enough belief in myself to do the work and understanding that I was worth doing that kind of work so it was that you were worth doing the work M did you not think you were valuable or worthy of doing that work beforehand I don't think I ever really processed it that much you know I think there were times where I didn't think I was worth a of

worth putting stress on others by sharing how I was feeling buring your bur with them exactly yeah but obviously as you start to unravel relationships especially you learn it's not only is it not a burden but it's actually a privilege for the other person to receive that and it's very like hypocritical sometimes especially as a man you know you're like you want your wife to come to you and hard times and lean on you because you can support them but you don't want to do the same to them it makes you feel special when they

come when they need something and they're sad and they come to you for protection but you don't go to them so they're not going to feel as important either so it's a very much a give and take thing and like you said it's I think it's very difficult in the masc masculine in the way things are now and I've always not always I've recently been trying to incorporate a lot better the masculine and The Feminine energy with myself and just be better at that because it's it's really easy for a man to just like Focus

like I have a lot of I have bodybuilding going on I have a lot of travel I have business I have all these things going on a lot of things that's required of me sometimes it's easier just shove everything down and go into work mode and be like I'm going to provide for my family you let's dominate yeah let's everything up everyone up on stage money my family's never going to need to work again let's take care of them but like if they're not if they're missing me at home emotionally and through connection then what's

the point of doing all this work on the other side you have to be able to balance Both Worlds together yeah and this idea of balance you know I think I even heard you talk about balance at one point where I I look balance more as alignment I think people try to balance and navigate everything or it's more aligning your values your vision and your lifestyle in harmony with the people in your life your health your businesses and sometimes you'll be out of balance of what the rest of the world looks like is balance but

you'll be in harmony because you're communicating and you're working on those things sure in seasonal times yeah and so man it's so cool now did you did Courtney and your wife did she inspire you to open up more about your feelings kind of tap into the feminine side when you met her or was that before you met her I think I've always been a little bit of a softer male yeah you know I've always been a little bit more emotional I've never been like the intense like gritty like everyone up kind of thing you know

I'm like I'm at the Olympia I'm making friends with people I'm chill I'm like here to win but like I'm not going to like step on your throat to you know and I think well also cool with her and she definitely inspired me way more and a lot of men don't think women even want that they think they want like that tough man on a horse who doesn't cry kind of thing but what actually attracted Courtney to me which was really cool talk about Law of Attraction and people trying to find the right woman trying

to find some someone who loves them for who they are all this you have to actually show yourself to be Lov for who you are and I put out a video in 2018 just being like I was expected to win the Olympia that year you know I was a young guy coming up all this stuff going on and that's when I got sick didn't win came second still did really good but I went through I was in the hospital at 4 weeks out I was really scared I didn't think I'd be able to compete again

and I just had a lot of emotions going through me and I put out a video talking about all that and I cried in the video and I was super vulnerable and I just shared how I was feeling what I went through in that journey and that was the video that she saw she kind of heard of me didn't know what but then she saw this video and she's like okay this is that guy who's like like you said the big strong bodybuilding guy and now he's on YouTube crying like there's a mismatch there something's

different about him and then she watched it and she's like this guy's this guy's got be different and she actually slided my DMs way messaged me hit me up and I already had a crush on her from before cuz she was Miss Olympia in 2016 I was going after in 2018 and I already had a crush on her I'm like damn this girl in my my DM this crazy and then we just kind of hit it off but I if I hadn't put that video up and decided to be vulnerable you wouldn't have attracted her

I wouldn't have attracted her you know we wouldn't be together we wouldn't have our baby girl on the way now it would it's everything would be different so one piece of content changed your life yeah isn't that interesting crazy but it was you being willing and Having the courage to say this is who I am and being willing to share and reveal this with others exactly why do you think most people hold back their emotions and their true authentic self in life that's a good question I definitely don't have all the answers to that but

I think part of it is it hurts a lot more to be rejected for who you really are because then it's a real Rejection it means if you put your real self out there and it gets rejected it means you're really not good enough oh but if you put a fake self out there and people are like I don't like that you're like it's not really me anyway so like it's a layer of protection you're kind of protecting yourself from like a real stab in the heart you know how have you learned to trust yourself

by revealing who you are and being fully authentic both privately and and publicly and also be okay if people don't like you leave nasty comments think you're a failure and reject you how have you been able to handle those emotions and still be you I mean it's been a long journey and I think I owe the beginning part to my parents you know they really just they always just told me just to be myself and since then it's kind of hard for me to that's why I couldn't put a camera on after the Olympia and

just give some hardcore thing it was like I'm sad and I'm gonna cry because I can't really put on a fake show right now and I just I'm not a good I'm not a good liar so I think I just did it and I got why were you sad from that one time yeah why were you sad afterwards I was scared you know I was in the I was in the hospital truly and they didn't know what was wrong with me I didn't know if I was a going to be able to compete if I

was going to be sick for the rest of my life if I was going to have to be on meds for the rest of my life I didn't know what was wrong with me it was I'd put on like 20 pounds of water weight overnight I was just shins were inflamed I was super inflamed them like in the hospital alone just like scared not knowing what's happening and I just again I didn't know how to process all that so I just bottled it all down compartmentalized they let me out the hospital like 3 weeks out

the Olympia I'm like I don't know what to do right now so I'm going to go back into prep and I'm going to do the Olympia I probably should have dropped out but as my way of numbing my emotion I'm like if I put all my folks over here I don't have to think about that wow and then afterwards all that emotion just started pouring out of me and all that fear and un the unknown of what the future held and what was going on with me and just all that kind of anything around your

health can be really scary so hit me what has been your biggest fear most of your life my biggest fear that's a good one like what was it personally for you that was either the insecurity or the fear that you think was underneath everything you were doing because it sounds like you have a better handle now on those fears and you're process it a lot more but before you started processing you know before you won and started to figure it out what was that big weight and fear you were carrying MH I think there was

a a fear that if I if I like tried to lean on someone and rely on someone to like hold me while I was falling or whatever or when I needed someone to lean on that they might not be there for me so instead of ever leaning on anyone I just didn't and it was easier to protect myself like that and just like create this facade that I can handle all all on my own because it's a lot scarier like I said the same concept of putting your true self out there to be rejected if

I try and lean on someone who I need and they're not there for me that's really going to hurt so I was just like no I'm not going to do that you know is the greatest rejection you ever had the greatest rejection I ever had the one that like really hurt you and maybe it was like a you know maybe it was a small thing but it really hurt you in a big way for whatever reason I don't know if I can pinpoint one honestly is that like a girlfriend that rejected you or was it

like you went after something you cared about and you didn't get the part or you didn't win the competition was there something you were like I feel like a loser and rejected I'm sure there was some more Mo there's a lot of my child that I don't really remember I don't have the block it out I I don't I don't didn't block it out cu bad I just I think maybe as I was kind of pushing aside some emotions I pushed theide some memories too but I do have like some memories of after there's already

been some of this pain in me when I was really young giving like talks and speeches and stuff or like something in class where I had to get up in front of people and like make getting made fun of for my list something like that and just feeling like really small and like embarrassed and just like I don't want to ever talk in front of people again oh man like that created some stage fright in me and like public speaking anxiety and all that stuff which I think most people have but it was pretty extreme

for me but I can't remember an exact giant rejection at any point really but I mean I have a similar you know my childhood was very similar in the fact that I would get made fun of when I would they would ask the teacher would ask us to read aloud you know open up chapter one and read loud and each kid would go around and I couldn't read the words I had dyslexia and I had a second grade reading level and eighth grade M I just couldn't comprehend and understand what I was reading so it

was very intimidating for me to stand in front of my peers and read or speak at all yeah and I think I channeled a lot of that anger into sports to say let me prove people wrong who are making fun of me let me find somewhere where I do have abilities and skills so I don't feel like a loser and rejected is that what you started to do with with bodybuilding and lifting to kind of like make yourself be seen and bigger and stronger so that no one could hurt you that way I think in

a way it was never I was never anger for me or anything like that but I did I did start to see when I started working out at a young age put on muscle very easily obviously have good genetics started to get some attention for that it felt good and there was a way to be like seen and important in some way so I was like let's keep doing this and then in forms of when it's hard to like feel a lot like you see people like the crazy free climbers who like climb whatever yosity

with no ropes or anything those guys are probably numb as hell just trying to feel some kind of feel something just to get that rush out of it you know and when I would compete it was something that really scared me to be on stage in front of all those people and it was a lot of like it was a lot of suppression and pushing things aside and just working really hard and focusing on one thing and then at the end it's this big feeling at the end so like all right if I work really

hard for this one day there's a big feeling at the end if I work for a year exactly every day and bust my butt I'll have like 2 minutes of release exactly isn't that crazy it's insane yeah it's kind of like Olympians they train for 10 12 15 years for one minute yeah for a minute race or a minute swim or one game or whatever it might be for the chance of gold every four years isn't that crazy yeah at least I get it every year that's true have you seen the documentary weight of gold

no it's incredible documentary where it's interviewing a lot of Olympic gold medalists or Olympic medalists talking about the depression the anxiety the stress the overwhelm uh the the loss of identity after winning the Olympic gold medal yeah because they go for their whole lives for something and they think it's supposed to feel like euphoric life changing and like they're going to have joy and happiness now yeah but they still have to face the stuff within them so the the the documentary covers a lot of athletes that committed suicide and their friends and family members that

within a year who committed suicide or just who never returned back to themselves because of the weight and the pressure so you were training for years for these for this one moment on stage and when you got it it wasn't what you wanted right the feeling it was what was the feeling you thought you were to get and what was the feeling you received I mean I guess the first year I won like I kind of mentioned before I thought I was going to just have like this over overwhelming sense of Pride and accomplishment and

joy just like I did it you know I I'm accomplished I've got it all like I did it I'm the man I'm the man yeah and what I felt I just remember feeling relief like just relieved it was over relieved I didn't have to do it anymore relev it was done relieved I made it there like it was just like thank God like on stage you're thinking that yeah literally it was like you kind of relax your CH like [ __ ] you know which is which is crazy and I remember going at and you

have this 10 layers of spray tank just like brown pain all over you you're sweating you're just like and I remember you always love going to take a shower to get that off you I remember going in the shower and like crying because I was expecting to feel all that joy and I didn't get it and it was almost like this disappointment afterwards where I was like what am I missing right now like why why am I feeling all this and that was a huge pivotal moment in my life where I was like this isn't

right there's no way I'm gonna dedicate this much of my life sacrifice this much to feel like this there should be there a payoff at the end yeah there should be something better than this yeah and I and I believed I didn't think that the journey I was on was wrong I just think of the way I was approaching it was wrong so I was like there's got to be a way where I can change other aspects of my life and manage my mind and other things better so that when I get to there next

year and I do this again I'm able to enjoy it and have a lot more fun so the the journey you were on wasn't wrong but it was the process that you were implementing which was off yeah so the process before it sounds like I'm going to work work as hard and do whatever it takes to to win to prove myself that I can do it or whatever it might be get this monkey off my back whatever it is and at the end you didn't get the feeling you wanted which was I guess a better

sense of peace or Freedom or love or self-acceptance or whatever you wanted yeah so how did the process change mentally spiritually and emotionally to enjoy life every single day as opposed to wait for the result to feel better yeah good question so a lot of what translated and again I relate almost everything to the Olympic that's been such a bulk of my life but a lot of what translated into that feeling was the fact that I got so sick in 2018 that I spent 2019 afraid I was going to get sick again and instead of

really processing the amount of fear I had in the past and like truly at one point thought I was going to die in the hospital it wasn't that bad I would just I was creating that kind of fear and anxiety in my mind and I never really accepted that I felt that and allowed myself to process through that and move on from I just was kind of like don't feel like that push it down so it was still in there so all of 2019 I'm like I don't want to be back in the hospital I

don't want to back in I was just living like that instead of being like in the moment and I wasn't allow myself to really like allow those emotions to come up so in 20120 the next year I remember and my life always goes in like this depending on prep so after Olympia it's like this kind of low I didn't really feel great and I'm kind of working myself back up started doing a little bit of therapy then I didn't have the therapist I had now which I wish I had cuz she's the beast but but

2020 is when you kind of started therapy a little bit 2019 2019 okay and so started doing that and then I felt a little bit better because I wasn't in prep wasn't Olympia mode you get a little bit busy with business starts picking up travel for sponsors all this stuff and I'm like ah push that stuff aside I feel okay right now and then all of a sudden prep starts again and I'm like there's that fear again there's that feeling that pressure that fear of getting sick again this expectation now you know I won last

year but people were like did you really deserve to win it was pretty close you shouldn't have won and I'm like have to dominate this year so they don't question me this time and all these things going on and I remember sitting on my stairs with Courtney and her and just like kind of sitting there I think we were going to the gym or something and she just noticed something was up with me and she's like what's going on I'm like nothing I'm fine and then she's like what's going on she just kind of Pride

me enough and this is like she's helped me so much with this because if you were ask me how I feel I'm like I'm fine and I would believe it and then you ask me 10 more times and I'm crying on the stairs and I'm like damn like what's in this right now and she's like what's what are you feeling I'm like I'm scared I'm scared I'm going to I'm going to like lose again and then they're going to prove that I shouldn't have won last year I'm scared I'm going to get sick and I'm

not even going to make it on stage I'm scared I shouldn't be competing and I'm putting my health at risk and this is so stupid like bodybuilding is not healthy I have an autoimmune disease why am I doing this this is dumb I'm going to hurt myself like all these fears are in my brain right now and I never even let them come up to think about them I was just put them down you never spoke about it never spoke about it and just letting that out and like crying with her and like talking about

it I just like immediately felt better it's a release it was just releas and she was just like she just listened she just heard me and with like a sounding board and I just felt this pressure off of me and I was like wow like that I feel better now like let's go to the gym like I actually feel better now it's not like it's pushed down and I can go perform it's like no I'm really here right now and I feel better and I think that's a huge thing that a lesson that I I

love to share especially to men is that you know cuz we there's always that joke with your wife she tells you a problem you're like all right how do I fix it what's the solution and it's like no she's just trying to release it and if men were better at understanding that there doesn't need to be a solution sometimes you just need to let that energy out to speak about it to allow it to exist to accept it's there sit with it for a minute and then just see how you feel and usually you feel

a little bit better and then you move forward in it and then by embracing those things and allowing those kind of fears to come up in me to talk about it it allowed me to be a lot more present because I wasn't fighting those down ah so I allowed that fear to come up I had a moment of it and and then I went to the gym and I was like I feel really good here you know I'm excited like I can do this you got more energy I had more energy I just had it

pouring out of me just a larger sense of belief some more Pride just more emotion period more feeling that I had because I hadn't been suppressing all of it and then that whole Olympia prep was kind of a back and forth of that I wasn't perfect but I was learning how to bring things up and it was also covid so I mean horrible things happen during Co but it was a blessing and disguise for me because I had no distractions I couldn't travel I couldn't do anything things else I was at home all day just

bodybuilding sleeping connecting with my wife chilling therapy just cycling that in and that was it and then that Year on stage was completely different the whole peak week I was like present I was enjoying it I was having fun you know I won that Olympia and people were shocked at how much better I looked my whole body looked younger bigger leaner healthier like everything was just more vibrant my confidence on stage was different like everything about me was like a different bodybuilder on there and I got a perfect score won and there was no question

if I deserve to win that one or not they were like forget about the last guy Chris is the champ wow it wasn't even like close it was undeniable year people like that that transformation is one of my most like proudest physical Transformations one 19 to2 because it was such a big change now what I'm hearing you say correct me if I'm wrong that you did a lot of the same things physically you ate a lot of the same food you trained in a similar way you slept in the same bed yeah you know there

wasn't you in the same relationship you didn't change anything really maybe minor tweaks except your thoughts and your emotions yeah that's all that changed yeah and what I'm hearing you say is by changing your thoughts and emotions within a year period consistently healing processing improving and growing and transforming them you looked and became a completely different human being on stage in one year to the point your success was undeniable is that what I'm hearing you say yeah correct me if I'm wrong I just want to make sure we got this right no yeah you're putting

in nice words but yeah wow okay so thoughts and emotions started to shift and transform mhm and physically you became and looked different yeah isn't that interesting it's crazy yeah I wish I wait there was no like different supplements you took or like you didn't eat like some steroid chicken or you know something different honestly probably last supplements that year because I was like I'm caring more about my health now I'm going to like see what I can get away with and it was was that whether and I think it's a combination of like you

said I the the energy I released and brought into my body and allowing to circulate allowed me to also probably sleep better therefore recover better therefore train harder and all these things but also I think it just there's something I don't know how to explain I'm sure people are better than me but I think there's some like misunderstood thing within ourselves of how much our emotion affects our physical body and the biggest translation and I hear a lot of stuff about this now cuz I've done a lot of kind of research into autoimmune stuff which

is based off stress inflammation kind of like disorder within the body and you know in 2019 I won and I got through it but I still had like some physical inflammation I was holding some water in my shins you know I wasn't fully healthy and in 2020 it was like I was like reversing my autoimmune disease like I was getting healthier through prep which was like inexplicable you know like I I re I really don't think I should be able to s and given what happened to me in the past but my body's gotten healthier

every year what did you do besides the you know the the emotional and mental release and healing what did you do physically that allowed for that you think was there a different style of eating supplements nutrition that you Incorporated not since the year before no because in 2018 I changed a lot I got a lot healthier started eating like organic foods and eat fast food I started to treat my body more like the Fel that went in matter rather than just like get protein in even if it's from McDonald's you know I gave that up

is that what you're doing before when I was young yeah for sure a lot of fast food just as much you can if I need to get calories in I'd go get a burger right but I changed all that years before but in 202020 with all that I didn't really change much I'm maybe was allowed to rest more because of covid like I said and stuff but there wasn't a lot of change and since then I've added more physical things like I do a lot of stem cells and peptides and a lot of different type

of therapies now but back then I didn't have the the knowledge or the means to be a to afford that stuff anyways so what would you say is kind of the optimal diet for you right now to keep you healthy but also building mass and and allowing you to compete what is that ultimate diet for you I mean really just Whole Foods I keep it super simple I think if when I'm done competing and it's not about that I'll eat a lot less a lot less carbs higher fat because I just personally feel better and

I think everyone has to experiment of what feels best for them but the number one diet that I anyone ask me like what's the best diet I just say whole food like what does that look like for you what do you eat on on a typical day when you're training to stay healthy M but also to build mass and stay lean it's usually five or six meals a day it's been five recently because I've been traveling so much but I I try and like lighten it up and make it a little bit more fun but

I'll have like bison eggs and avocado in the morning with some ghee butter and coffee with MCT so really high fat and then I have some basic chicken and rice chicken and turkey after that maybe like a a wrap at night some kind of homemade burrito you know Courtney's super into like organic healthy food so she gets all these like organic minimal ingredient like almond flour wraps and all this stuff and she makes stuff for me and just super simple stuff are you trying to do mostly protein and some Fiber and vegetables or what's kind

of like the and fats what's the ratio would you say is there I've never done the whole macro thing I don't have a concrete ratio honestly are you weighing your Foods daily or are you just I haven't been recently but when I'm like seriously into stuff I do and I I mainly in my offseason I I just I'm very like knowing of my body and my body weight right now and I eat so similar all the time I'll just like start with something eat at the same I'm like oh I need to put on way

more weight I'll add more to it interesting and I because I'm just very consistent with it but I really just try and hit like about 300 grams of protein 300 a day 300 a day yeah that's a lot of food it is a lot of food yeah 300 g of protein yeah so give me a a calculation what is 300 gr of protein in the foods that you're eating what does that look like approximately yeah what is that is like five chicken breasts and 20 eggs like what is that I mean I don't know based

off chicken breast size but it's probably like in the morning the 180 grams of Bison with three whole eggs what is 180 grams is like a half a pound of meat or something or like 425 grams I think is a pound okay so a little under half a pound I guess okay a quar pound or something yeah about that and then I'll have like 220 gram of chicken probably two times and like 220 grams of turkey ones and then I'll have like a protein shake with like 50 grams of protein in it oh my gosh

yeah they're it's a good amount now what is the key to burning fat and building muscle at the same time is that even possible I always hear people say you've got to put on like the bulk first the bulk phase then you can slim down is it possible to burn fat and build muscle and stay lean at the same time it's it's very dependent on where your body is you know if you're someone who never worked out and you're like 300 lbs overweight then of course it is you know you can your body can change

with very minimal work but if you're like me in prep already then it's very hard you know I'm just trying to maintain as much muscle as possible because I'm already at a very elite level of muscle and a low level of body fat so it's harder to make those changes so I really can't answer it's very dependent on the person the least trained you are the easier it is to put on muscle and lose fat and then the more like regimented and strict you are the harder it is really MH man but you're really intentional

about your nutrition right now what you consume right mhm yeah how important is it to take like you know over-the-counter supplements like protein powders protein bars you know vitamins like is that important or do you put more the importance on getting it within the Whole Foods I'm all about Whole Foods whole and I always say that I own a supplement company and I still tell people people like what's the best supplement I'm like Whole Food you know if you can get it from food it's always it's always better and obviously there's like this kind of

Crisis going on right now of a lack of nutrients in our Foods based off farming and pesticides and mass produce everything and all that stuff so it's kind of hard to manage and I think a lot of people therefore need to supplement a lot and I take some supplements but I think the healthier you eat the less you need and if I wasn't trying to get 300 grams of protein in a day I probably would only have a shake when I like feel like when I want one I wouldn't need to add that extra protein

really but you need to get a certain amount so you're going to supplement it with you know water protein exactly it's a lot easier than eating another 300 of chicken breast you know after a while it gets hard to put that down gosh man and you can't really put sauces or anything on it you've got to like really keep it as long as I'm not in prep I can okay but when I'm like deep into prep then I'm allowed like some hot sauces kind of but then they mess up my digestion so my coach tells

me I'm not and then I'm just allowed like yellow mustard that's it yeah now when you're getting into prep mode what is that three months out where you're like I'm really dialing it in and taking this serious or it's about 16 weeks 16 weeks four months out can you walk me through your mindset four months out when you're about to get started where you're like okay this is day one we're four months away from Olympia what are you thinking day one of prep after obviously six months of maintaining and training but not okay we're in

Camp yeah what is that mindset during that moment is there a switch or is it just elevated emotions and energy a little bit and how does that build all the way up to the moment before on stage at Olympia where does a mindset evolve before that moment of on stage yeah so it's been different every year and it's been this past year was the hardest to it's never like a switches on for me it's I probably need a 12we prep but I do 16 because it takes a rolling start for me you know I gotta

warm up got to push the car first to get that clutch going you know but in the past when I didn't have anything else going on into bodybuilding it was a little a little bit easier but now like for example since December I've been home for like seven days I think for the last two and a half months because it's just go go go travel there's lots going on with business and work and I'm pulled in a lot more different directions right now because I have a lot more going on so me being able to

manage that a little bit harder and I learned quickly this year that while I thought I could manage it all together I can't yeah and my therapist had a great line to me she's like Chris you love being the 1% of everything he's like you want to be you want to have the biggest best business you want to have be the biggest best bodybuilder you want to have the most beautiful love and connected relationship but you can't you can't have it all she's like I hate to tell you but the more you perfor pour into

Perfection into one you're pulling energy away from another wow and you can't do it all and I was like really I was like are you sure I think I can and I tried for a while and it it started to beat me down you know I was I was traveling all weekends coming back trying to connect with Courtney trying to get to the gym at the right time trying to get all my meals in trying to manage it all and my body start to get like just tired my mind was stressed I wasn't taking those

times to really reflect in myself and check in where I was at and I wasn't even really enjoying it either because it was just there was just too much that I wasn't allowing myself to slow down and like enjoy and be in the process so in August I think I was about 10 weeks out all this is going on boom I find out Courtney's pregnant now I'm like oh here we go I was so excited we weren't planning it but I was so excited I was like I didn't you know bodybuilders don't even think that's

possible during prep so I was like all right this is a miracle like what's wrong with it you mean not possible to get pregnant with like when you're taking PS and stuff yeah it's harder it's harder to get pregnant wow because you're less fertile but super excited but still a huge shift in my mind you know there's a lot more responsibilties a lot more changing my life right now you know like this is a lot more coming so even more on my mind now and stopping me from slowing down and then I remember I went

on one trip and I was doing some work in Canada I went back to see my family and then I was just feeling kind of Str out or something I didn't know what was going on I didn't really realize I wasn't in tune with myself and one day I woke up I weighed myself and I was just feeling like and I had lost like 12 PBS and it wasn't good weight I wasn't leaner I just like lost a bunch of water weight because my body was stressed something like that wasn't feeling good went to the

gym I'm working out feeling tired but I'm like whatever like normally I'll do like 485 or something on rdl's I'll do 405 this time because I'm feeling tired on like rep nine or something just pop and my lat just like kind of pulls and I tore my lat and I was just I was like like what just happened I just tear my lat and I like couldn't move my arm I'm like processing like all this like overwhelming stuff that I've been feeling and I just hit was to the roadblock I'm like you haven't even been

focusing on prep you haven't been prizing and now you might have just gotten taken away from you because of all that and I remember I was like devastated I I was in the middle of the gym I didn't want to tell anyone I just done it because I didn't want anyone to know so I like walk out arm like this and I start crying behind the gym I'm like really I'm just crying I'm like what are you doing man like I feel like I just lost the Olympia you know this is going in for my

fifth title and now I'm not going to be able to compete all this going on I call Courtney and I'm like freaking out she's like she wasn't with me at the time either so she's like oh I'm so sorry do you me to come out there like what's going on I'm like no like just let me handle this you know and then let me take it back on myself I got this I go back in the gym and I'm like looking around like okay I can't tell anyone I just hurt myself so and I didn't

want to be an [ __ ] so I started taking the weights off the off the B trying to take four plates off just with one arm move it put it away and then I leave and I drive home and there was this huge just like mental like what's going on and I got back home and I'm talking with Courtney and she's like remember what Jordan told you about being able to manage everything at once you're therapist she's like this is life literally slapping you in the face and being like I told you so and

I'm like ah yeah you're right you're right and she I didn't even read the book yet but I listened to a little Cliff Notes version but she told me to listen to the book called The one thing and just talking about if you want to be the the best at something good at something you need to focus on the one thing and I was like all right you know I didn't get into the book but I get the concept just from the title I'm like let's start focusing on one thing you know I'm like I'm

not going to go to work from 9: to 5: anymore I'm G to leave at 12:00 and I'm G to go to the gym at 1 because that's when I feel the best and I couldn't even train my upper body for a while I could just do legs and little cardio and stuff so I'm like let me just focus on one thing at a time and get through this I'm going to St off my phone at night I'm not going to do an emails nothing so I can actually sleep because I was stay I was

up all night thinking cuz my brain was on other things so I allowed myself to to sleep better allow myself to rest more allow myself to connect with Courtney more which helped me feel more grounded rather than more all over the place I cut out all travel I'm like I'm not doing any more trips not getting on a plane until the Olympia like don't even ask me so I started actually prioritizing what I needed and saying no to all these things and it was all those things essentially that this year made me turn on that

switch and then I think it was about six weeks out the Olympia where I had my first it was about four weeks after that incident I had my first back workout and it was okay workout but I did it and I got through it I remember being like holy you recovered enough like I recovered enough I'm like all right if I can just lock it in right now I can get through this you know you've been stressed worried traveling all these things everything you've learned about being present and enjoying this journey you just forgot about

it for the last couple months this is your wake up call to get back together and come back into it and that was like my like hey lock it in be here be grateful that you even have the opportunity now to heal from something so fast that you can actually at least try and compete again and have the opportunity to push through it and then just enjoy this you know and that's when I was like like this could also be my last Olympia you know you never know when it's your last one and I'm not

going to allow all this stress to ruin that me look back and be like I didn't even enjoy the last one because I was so worried about all this stuff so I I pushed through kind of all that I allowed my mind to come back to Center focused on the one thing the Olympia training myself rest all that stuff that I could do and I got through it and I enjoyed that Olympia and it was cool because I've documented all my Olympia preps I have a videographer who follows me around does all the stuff great

videos Man close friend of mine great and he got a photographer who's now a close friend of mine too and then she started taking pictures and video at the Olympia and you compare a lot of my years and I used to come in super like Michael Jordan and be like you know sit at the press conference just locked in like hardcore this year I'm just I'm just chilling this year I'm laughing I'm smiling and you could just tell there's this lighter energy about me because I allowed myself to truly be like as present as possible

in The Last 5 Years been working towards allowing myself to really just like have fun with it and not knowing if it's going to be my last one and just being there and being present and it was really cool to see the physical evidence and pictures of like that stoic Faith to just like a goofy Chris smileing kind of having fun with it all so kind of going back to the beginning of the conversation of being authentically who you are exactly because that's kind of who you are you know it's not about like being this

Stern like stoic you know focused man it's about being focused knowing that you've done all the prep yeah you've done all the prep so you have the focus to be able to be kind of like you saying bolt and just like be relaxed and loose and like have fun and then go out and dominate yeah which he what he did I don't know if you ever watched his stuff in the Olympics where he was just like playing with the camera he's high five of people right before the you know the Olympic gold race yeah he's

he's relaxed and loose and then just dominating his competition and I think there's something to that you know we are talking about there's a different type of mentality I'm not saying one is better than the other but the Michael Jordan or Kobe that was just like focused and didn't show really a lot of that Joy let's say that joyful or relaxed energy maybe it was a different type of relax but it was more of like we're here to work MH and it worked for them I mean they dominated it did but there's also something when

it shifted and you started to be more relaxed you felt emotionally different as well it's like you can have fun with it and dominate yeah yeah so what were you thinking about the moment you walk from Backstage on stage for the most important part of the Olympia what are you thinking of knowing that you spent a year of training and PR preparation knowing you've documented daily your lifting your nutrition your sleep knowing that you ripped your your lat you healed you came back from it knowing that your fiance is pregnant at the time like what

is going through your mind right before you go on for that main performance on Olympia MH this year was an interesting year for that and it was I think I've heard you speak about this too but some of the work I've done in therapy has been in healing my like younger self and like giving that kid what he needed when because he didn't get it when he was younger he didn't know what he needed and now I'm smart enough I can give it to him because I don't need anyone else to do that let's go

and so I was backstage and I actually remember my therapist told me to do this a while ago and I didn't really do it enough but I pulled up a picture of me as a kid come on and I looked at him right before I might even cry right now thinking about this but I remember looking at it backstage like before getting on and looking at it and just looking at that picture and get starting to cry a little bit I mean like if that kid could have imagined being me right now you know wow

like how hard I've worked since being that kid to now to be where I am and like how proud he would be of who I am and how proud I am of him and back and forth and just kind of allowing myself to feel proud of myself and all the work I've put in and like what would I if that kid was the one getting stage right now what would I tell him what would I want him to feel what would I want him to experience you know I wouldn't want him to have any pressure

or expectation to feel like he has to win or he needs anything to enjoy it I would just want him to go out there understanding he's already done all the work he can to have fun with it to relax just to make the best of it and to not be too hard on himself and I really like embodied that and I stepped on stage with a light open heart and I remember like standing on there looking up at the lights B my CRA my family in the crowd the picture of me like giving my and

pointing at them and I just had fun with it and I was up there super present and really enjoyed it and it was a it was a pretty like beautiful ending to what was a hell of a journey that year oh my goodness man I'm so happy you're talking about this and I can imagine my 16-year-old self if I was watching this video at 16 being like what a bunch of wusses wouldn't what what are these guys talking about man just toughing up and just like but also I could have been like wow if this

you know guy who is one at the highest level if he is able to enjoy his life in this process and this is what he did maybe I would have been able to shift him and be like okay how can I reflect on my life and not worry about all the material things to like impress people or chasing girls or looking flashy so that people like me but actually fig figuring out a way to like myself yeah the the younger parts of me that felt neglected or not seen and I'm just so happy for you

that this was the moment before you went on stage I had no clue you were going to say that yeah but I'm so happy for you because I used to have on my my phone I used to have a a photo of my younger self at five now I got me and my fiance but I used to have a photo of my little Lewis you know and I would spent for like a year reconnecting with the younger part of me that felt neglected not seen abused abandoned all these different things and created that intimacy and

relationship with my younger self and I'm so happy for you that you started this and you did it right before you went on the biggest moment for yourself yeah what a beautiful moment man I'm just I'm so happy for you and I'm so happy in this moment that this is something you're talking about because there are billions of men in the world who will never reconnect with the parts of themselves where they feel the most ashamed most insecure yeah least amount of Love within themselves MH and so I'm so happy that you just said this

right now and that we're having this conversation because I know the pain that men are going through yes women are going through pain as well but I know men in general don't like to talk about these things and I'm so happy that you have are using your platform I watch your Vlogs your videos I see you talking about this in interviews and I just want women watching or listening to send this to the men in their life even just this clip you don't have to listen to the whole thing just send them a few minutes

of this and really take this in because the man I'm sitting in front of right now is a beautiful man with a big heart and to watch you pursue your life not perfect but pursuing it in progress pursuing it with reflection in yourself healing the parts of yourself in a journey of healing while pursuing your external goals as well is so beautiful man yeah and I really acknowledge you for this incredible gift that you're giving people right now with this conversation I just wanted to put that out there because I'm just so happy that we

are speaking about this yeah because there's so many men that will never take the time to heal and I hope they do I hope they realize you speaking about this sure you were successful before externally but internally you still didn't feel like you loved yourself fully or you weren't able to enjoy the wins yeah so what's the point of winning if you still don't feel enough MH I heard you talk about a quote with Jim Carrey one time which I love this quote as well I'm we're going to paraphrase this but Jim Carry said at

one point I wish everyone could become rich and famous and achieve all their dreams and realize it's not the key to happiness yeah like being rich and famous and successful is not the key I'm paraphrasing the quote but it's learning how to be at peace with yourself and the parts of you that you do not love that is an incredible life yeah and you're doing it mean I wish 28 29 I was able to be where you are it's inspiring man I want to ask you about is there anything you wanted to add to that

right there just what we've been talking about here is there anything that came up for you during that no I mean I like you said it's it's a message that you know I try and share hoping a lot of people can understand that because what I'm a lot of what I'm working on right now is I think a lot of people feel ex about thems and they're like well like if I have my own family or my own kid I'll treat them differently than myself I'll I'll do it for them but but like what my

therapist has always told me she's like it's too late then you know there the reason that this stuff kind of repeats through generations is because a lot of the love that you give to others does reflect on the love that you give yourself all the time and if you don't learn how to if I don't learn how to do this now to give myself I'm going to struggle to give it to my daughter and if the way you were talking about the way men talk to themselves if they were to really walk through and see

their younger self and be like what would you tell that little boy versus how what would you tell yourself they would it would be two different things you would never say these negative things to a little boy no no definitely even if you were saying it to you as a little boy they wouldn't they would never treat yourself that way as a little boy sitting in front of you yeah but what people don't realize is that like when you feel that pain that shame and insecurity that is that little boy it's the same person there's

no separation there you know so wow man this is freaking powerful I'm so happy that you're having this conversation right now um I heard you talk about your dad one time where you you know you have a great relationship with him and he loves you but you never saw him model kind of the self-love with himself I guess in this way he would just kind of take everything on but he wouldn't Express like hey can you give me a hand can I get support like he would just take it on which is not a bad

thing or wrong thing it's inspiring yeah but it's also empowering to allow others to support you right it is and so maybe he wasn't able to he didn't have the tools to model this type of relationship you have with yourself right now right yeah defin like I mean like I was talking about previous generations had no idea of this stuff they didn't have these podcasts or therapists or education or studies or anything that would allow them to kind of work through this nor did they really have probably maybe it would have been honestly a disadvantage

for them to feel some of this because they did have to get through a lot of harder so you know he wasn't modeled that and he was like the greatest father I could have ever imagined but he he wasn't able to model that like requesting of help and showing a vulnerability and he almost created almost like a false expectation of what I was looking for I mean thinking that's what I wanted I wanted to be the rock that always held the family together that wasn't stressed out that could you know just take everything on by

himself and like have it together and I was like I'm not that person like I can't do that you know you're like I need help yeah it was hard for me to kind of realize that cuz I was like I want to become the man who can handle that and then I was like I don't think there was a version of me at least not a happy one that exists like that interesting so did you feel like a failure as you were growing up cuz you didn't think you could be like your father there were

times where I felt like I was more Angry more sad more upset unable to handle as much stress where I was like like my dad could do this you know and I was like a little kind of hard on myself and it did exist but I I I'm sure there's a version of my dad who maybe like wishes at times he didn't he was going through it and he didn't feel like he could handle it but that's all he knew he didn't know how to talk about it it's all he knew so it's a lot

but he what's what I love about is he's so like open to this and like I talk to him now and we're trying to like work on it now and he's like he's so open to like learning and being there for me and he's so proud of me for like doing this work myself he's always like encouraged me to like to to be this best version of myself so I think that's beautiful because some parents if they didn't have the tools to do these things themselves they may say why are you doing this why you

going to coach or therapist like just suck it up man like I'm able to do this your grandfather was able to do this we went through Wars went through we we didn't have time to express our emotions we were surviving we were trying to survive we didn't have the time or the privilege to talk about the pressures that we have we just had to step up yeah so I'm glad that your dad is empowering and encouraging you to be able to process the pressures in the past in a beautiful way and not just saying H

what are you doing that shows that he's got a growth mindset as well oh yeah absolutely what is the when did you know that you were in love with Courtney was there a moment that that you were like okay obviously I like this girl and you know we're hanging out or we're dating but like was there a moment where you're like this is the one that I want to be with the one that I want to choose I don't know if there was like a concrete moment you know we we went through a rocky start

to our relationship really she we were long distance and she had had some like kind of Health stuff that was going on with her in the past also something that we were able to relate on and we kind of like long distance is hard and we were kind of struggling and I remember there being some times where we were like we weren't doing hot and we were on the edge we weren't super connected and I just like I remember thinking like no matter all the we're going through right now I just never want to like

lose her really no matter what I felt like I just I was like I always want we weren I didn't see the perfect version of oursel now but I believed in like a better version of oursel and I just I don't know I just remember all that and then we actually took a break at one point really it was during Co she got stuck in America I was stuck in Canada borders were closed we were kind of going through our stuff and we were like stuff wasn't really working out we took a short break kind

of took a step back and we're focusing on ourselves and then after a few months I was like I felt nothing for a while it's done whatever you know Rel it's over and then all of a sudden I just like I got hit by this overwhelming like fear that like she would be gone forever and I like started to really like process that and I was like I don't know if I can live without this girl like I don't know I don't know if I can like if we bring this back together it's going to

be hard we're going to have to not only build what we didn't have but repair what we've now lost and work forward and go through a lot of the stuff that we've now created more pain but I was like I feel like I need to do it because this girl is so special you know really and she really is like a great like yin and yang to me you know like she's very emotional and relational and connected and whereas for me sometimes I can go into like that performance mode and it's hard for me to

like come back and connect she's always like ready for an Embrace and a hug and to be there and to be present like just get off me I need to focus right now yeah she she's just always there you know and I'm not I wasn't always the best at that so she was a great model at me for being able to express your emotions and kind of like be more relational wow okay so you guys got back together and was that the time where you said let's do therapy together too yeah I think I guess

we had only done solo therapy up until then but we did start doing therapy together after that yeah what was the what has been the greatest lesson that you've learned through coup's therapy I can't remember the the exact quote that my it's my therapist quote Jordan through n i stealing it from her but it's like compa compatibility isn't a precursor it's earned you know like people we're not just going to like meet and be compatible and her her aches work with my like positives and all this it's not going to be like that we're going

to actually have to like work at understanding each other and giving and taking and being there for each other because it's not always perfect and I think understanding how much really like work goes into a relationship working you don't just I don't think you find your soulmate you build your soulmate you know you have to earn it and I think really like understanding that first of all a victim is someone who has no control over anything so if something's out there and you need to find it you have no control if you find the wrong

one you can't fix it so I find that gives you a lot more control to be able to in empowerment to be able to make your relationship what you want it to be rather than to try and find a relationship that you want so I think that was a huge thing for me and also obviously like we've spoken about women have a lot more like emotional needs that they're vocal about at least and men aren't I think one of the biggest things I've learned is that her needs that she requests aren't just for her but

they're actually for me too so when she's like missing connection and I'm like I don't need that but I'll do it for you it's like no that I need it just as much as her so I'm not I'm not doing it for her I'm doing it for us and understanding that the relationship is an us thing not a you and me thing is like a a huge thing that's a huge mindset shift because in a relationship if you feel like you're doing someone something for someone else sure you love them you'll do it but it's

not the same as if you're truly believing it's making both of you better wow what's missing for you right now in your life or in the relationship that you feel like you don't have yet besides a daughter on the way that we don't have yet um is there something missing Within you that you feel like you still get to develop to have the best relationship possible yeah I mean I think a less of a drastic dial in life that makes sense so let's say last couple months I've been traveling a lot right so I'm dialed

into work and then I come home and I'm trying to dial back into relationship and if I'm all the way 100 to negative 100 back and forth that's a big change to go so it's I need to learn better at not when I'm gone not disconnecting too much so that when I come home it's not too hard to continue to connect again but I feel a lot more at peace and and just joyful and happy when I'm really connected with her so that's more important to me so I need to put more energy into prioritizing

that dial to be over there more often that's interesting so not be 100 at one thing only be like okay I want to be on the road for three weeks I'm at 80% but I'm going to give 20% over here as well so it's not completely limited exactly yeah interesting what is the thing you love about your wife the most another tough one not tough to find anything but to pick one uhuh this isn't what I love the most but something we were kind of joking about is and I kind of touched on this there

is I'm I've been obsessed with efficiency in my life sometimes and efficiency means that you're also missing out a lot of like things that are just joyful to be present you know things that don't really matter you know like if I'm like trying to get up and go go go go go then I'm like I got to wake up get in the shower eat my food get out the house like everything's got to be on like a thing where she can just kind of like Get Up and be like hm just kind of sit there

for a bit drink her coffee want to just sit with me and just like be there with me and just like and be super present with that and she's I used to be like we got to go we got to move we got to move and she's just like why you know so I think that is something that I really admire about her that it really helps me kind of slow down too and she's also just the most selfless person I've ever met like she almost had a fault puts everyone else's needs before hers and

so I'm needing to learn when she said no like I don't need this it's like no I know you need it so I'm going to give it to you but I still love that she's always trying to like look out for me and no matter what we're going through she really tries to see my side of it she just she's able to empathize with how I feel and a lot of men I know are afraid to show all the emotion to cry and all these things because they're afraid that they're going to be like they're

wife's going to be like oh you're weak why are you crying I need a tough man she's never made me feel like that she's truly made me feel like the more of my like insecure parts of myself that I show that she loves me more that she accepts me more for who I am not less not the same but actually like it's we have more love she has more love for me when I show her more things that I'm afraid to show wow man that's beautiful I think every man wants to be able to reveal

themselves in front of the woman they're with and feel seen and safe at the same time and secure of all their insecurities shame and past guilt they want to feel seen safe and secure to reveal themselves and I remember many relationships I was in I remember a girl was I was crying one time because I was bringing up something that was really emotional for me yeah and I would say I'm a sensitive human being but it's not like I'm crying every week or something right it's like when something feels something I'll feel it yeah but

then I'll move through it and I'm back to my self it's not like every day right you're human but when I I was going through like something was challenging and I started to tear up and cry and she started to laugh at me she was like I know I'm supposed to not think this is funny but you look weak wow and I remember just feeling like what are you talking about any man any woman would want their man to be able to show their emotions but some women aren't able to handle those emotions some women

just don't have the skills or the tools for whatever reason from their parents yeah I'm not making her wrong or bad it's just it didn't make me feel safe or secure to want to reveal myself like that ever again and I think all women watching or listening if you want to have a a man that is in his masculine and driven and on his purpose allow him to be all the parts of himself even the insecure scared little boy parts that he has inside of him embrace it because that'll make him feel safe to go

bigger on his purpose moving forward yeah so I'm so happy to hear that that Courtney is that for you and she Embraces all the parts of you and that is a beautiful thing it sounds like she's still got to do a little work with her and her Courtney her little Courtney as well but um she started it before me but did that's good we're both working on it that's beautiful man um I got a few a few more questions for you if that's okay I want to ask you about Health and Longevity I want to

ask you about a little bit about your business and your social media Empire and then I'm want to wrap things up shortly after that yeah you know five-time world champion Olympia right uh you've mentioned every year you're not sure if you're going to do it again or if you're if you're done or you're thinking about it and you're still in that season how do you think as you're you know we were talking about this beforehand how do you approach your health let alone like pursuing more olympias and championships but how do you how do you

think about your health with bodybuilding with training this hard with the amount of intention you have on building the body when you've seen you know Giants of the past go through now heart attacks and surgeries and back replace you know surgeries and all these different things knee Replacements when you see kind of like the the Giants before you start to not only fall stumble but have health challenges how do you think about your approach to health and the world of bodybuilding to live long healthy life of Harmony not of I was a champion for you

know 5 10 years and then suffered the rest of Life yeah how do you think about that and is that a fear of yours it's definitely a fear of mine and I've always said if you're a bodybuilder you don't have that fear then you're just ignorant because it's a reality of what I do for sure and I do the best that I can within the realm that I'm in to manage it but I know what I'm doing isn't healthy for my body really you know right now it's not healthy for you yeah for sure you

know the bodybuilding are making me healthier absolutely not I know that I know there's a lot of steps I can take to mitigate that as best as possible but it's not healthy and that's why I've always I've never been like I'm one of the younger competitors a lot of the open bodybuilders at least are like 35 years old when they Peak a lot of them win around then so I'm like I could go all the way for another six seven years but I've always been like if I'm ever bodybuilding past 30 like you guys have

to just cancel my gym membership and like just don't let me you know I'm done and I would I would never go past 30 so I'm coming to the end of my career and I'm I always had the goal of if I start and I'm successful young and I end young then I'm at least better off than pushing past because obviously the younger we are the better our bodies at recover and heal yeah yeah and I also just had the goal of winning olympias that was my only goal so I didn't want to do the

Arnold which is in March I didn't want to do any other show throughout the year I was always going to do one show so it allowed myself after the Olympia to take some time off the gym completely give my body my organs my digestion everything a break and then a lot of other people I compete they want to go get other titles and I'm like well you're actually all falling behind because I'm already preparing for the next Olympia and you're preparing for a show in between and then the Olympia so it always kind of gives

me an opportunity to stay ahead yeah there's no offseason for them there's no time to recover they get like a week off and then they're back at it oh man that's tough and that's that's mentally exhausting it's physically exhausting on your body it it's a lot so I think that's a huge benefit that I've tried to give myself is a lot of bodybuilder throughout their career they'll do like 30 to 50 shows and I've only done like 12 wow you know and I've won five olympias already so it only goes up one a year so

that it's a good batting percentage yeah exactly yeah not too bad that definitely helps me this year I've been like I was talking to you about I got with a new trainer Justin King and he's more of an athletic trainer but he's doing a lot of prehab I guess you could call it like injury prevention style stuff doing more like mobility and stretching isometric holds all these kind of things like holding like concentric negatives and all these different things so help my tissues and ligaments and everything get stronger so I don't hurt myself in the

future smart you know I used to squat 6 700 lb all the time now I'll like do leg press squat extension all these things first and then squat like 300 lb really because it's a lot lighter it's a lot easier on my you're not compressing your back also then that 600 lb a bar your back man jeez that compression I was like why do I get headaches every week I wonder I used to tell I used to go to my phys my uh massage therapist I'd be like why do I have such bad like headaches

and neck pain and he's like bro you Squat and deadlift 600 pounds twice a week what do you expect your body's going to do I'm like it's a good point yeah you're lifting a small car your shoulders man I mean that's crazy yeah so I pulled away from that you know I do a lot of blood work throughout the year good I have a good my business partner in the supplements actually owns the health clinic called relive so I can like walk in there just do blood work whenever I want I can get IVs glutathione

all these things that I need and keep on track of that so I know my blood markers especially the specific ones that bodybuilders monitor like liver egfr inflammation all these different things that you can monitor that at least are a good show they don't show everything obviously but it's a good test at least to see where you're at so that's helped me a lot my diet has been focused on just Health rather than purely like getting calories in it's actually caring what kind of foods I'm putting in my body quality of calories too exactly yeah

you know I don't I don't drink I don't party as much anymore I really emphasize sleep because I think that's the biggest thing um I've been doing the more Progressive stuff I've been doing that's not really in reach of everyone I've been doing a lot of stem cells yeah and pepti how has that how has that worked for you peptides and stem cells I think they've helped me a lot you know I've gotten some stem cells and some injuries which have healed faster than an injury should heal right I tore my bicep two years ago

before the Olympia got stem cells in that and it healed in like six weeks or something so it was pretty crazy but overall what I've noticed is especially for autoimmune it reduces inflammation and one of the biggest things they've studied around is mitigating autoimmune diseases so I haven't had any flare-ups or inflammation or anything like that since I started doing that consistently so that's helped a lot and just kind of balancing all these things together to make the best lifestyle I can within what I'm doing because every time I try and talk about doing something

healthier people like you're take steroids you're killing yourself I'm like I understand they're not healthy but I'm also everything I'm doing you can do without steroids and be even healthier than me or if you are going to decide to do it you can follow along like this too and at least if you're gonna do it you're making the best of what you got with sure sure so you know it's not it's like the person who people are like you go to McDonald's and you get a Diet Coke what's the point of that I was like

well you don't need to add all the sugar on top of McDonald's if you're going to have it you can do a little bit better you know there's ways to do the best you can within what you're doing so yeah the few things I'm trying that's great man uh we're here in Vegas at U our friend Omar's Studio he's a he's a video master and he's been building his social media and really talented as well in this world of social media but you have built a social media Empire I mean millions of followers on YouTube

millions of views every video 20 plus million I think on Instagram and it just exploded around the world what is your thought around content media and and building this social media Empire are you intentional with it or is it just I'm going to throw up a photo of myself jacked and it's going to go viral because there's tons of Jack dudes that that don't get this big on social media what is your business philosophy and creative mind around building the brand of youh I mean obviously winning five olympi is a bit of a cheat code

you know you get a good amount of media attention for that so that's helped a lot but I also think there's a lot of successful people out there in different fields who haven't been able to grow a social media for whatever which reason and there's there's NFL champions there's NBA champions there's you know tennis champions that don't have fraction of the audience that you have and they're at a bigger platform yeah like Tom Brady I think has less followers than me but you go you did a poll in America of how many people know him

he would beat me a million times over the amount of people know his name but his social media isn't really authentic and vulnerable and like genuine it doesn't look like he's on there thinking how can I put myself out there on social media and get people to know me it looks like he has a PR agent being like you know check this out check that out and all these things kind of like a more of like a highlight re more professionalism so with that being said my only philosophy I've ever had is just no one

logs in on to my Instagram no one makes any captions for me no one tells me what to post on my Instagram I'm just going to put out what feels authentic to me and what feels like I'm really showing myself and that's all I'm ever going to do really and I've never really chased like the the trends the algorithm they're all these things like that and I've just tried to my captions often sometimes are either like philosophical thought I was thinking one night and I tried to write it out in the caption like a journal

and I post it or there's some stupid joke where I'm making like a light-hearted joke about myself trying to be funny and just I never take myself too seriously I try and just be my like authentic self on there and I think especially in a world with a lot of right now and you know people mistrusting politicians and all the fake news out there people appreciate authenticity and I got in at a good time I got lucky I've won some Olympia you know and I just tried to stay true to myself and I think people

appreciated seeing that authenticity and they also really appreciated that yes I got the immediate attention from winning olympias and all this stuff but through all that anyone who's followed me since the beginning and everyone who knows me personally all these people number one thing they say that I'm most like proud to hear that I haven't changed really like I'm still the same kid I'm still the same person I've grown a lot I'm a lot smarter but to my core I'm the same person beautiful man so I think really people have just appreciated seeing someone make

a lot of external growth and internally remain true to themselves when did you start to make the transition of like okay this is actually a business where I can make money and build a business rather than I'm assuming a lot of guys are just more sponsored athletes and they're getting paid by sponsors or winning competitions when did you make that shift of like oh I'm going to make money as a business not just as a an athlete or a sponsor influencer uh and get endorsement deals when did that shift um I think 2019 or so

was the first year I ever was like trying to make some merch you know I'm like screw it I'll make a T-shirt and see how it goes and I was in my sister's living room printing stuff on a piece of paper because I didn't have labels taping it to a bag and I shipped at like 250 t-shirts and I was like that was pretty good money you know that was easy like and I made it all I did some work it was satisfying it was like that was easy I could do that so she posted

on social media hey there's a shirt buy it you sold I was literally like DM me your address and and PayPal or zeli or something you know I did each single interact in whatever one at a time wow that's how you all start that's typed out the address on on uh Microsoft Word printed it out cut it like it was it took me probably like a week to do 250 I know man that's how we all start though you have no clue what you're doing you're like ah who wants this just give me some cash

and I'll you know deliver it to you yeah so that's how that all started and I met a a good friend of mine now who's still my business partner who was my a aete manager and he quit his job cuz he didn't like it came over to be help me on that backend business out of things and we're still doing stuff now and then as I started to gain a lot more popularity one of my sponsors was like how about we make your own product and I was like yeah let's do it let's see how

it goes like we'll try it so I got to make the label I got to make the product but it was still under their marketing but it was still their brand it was in your business it's like you get more commission exactly but it's not yours I got a royalty off of it but I didn't own anything so I did that and it exploded it did Super well it was probably one of their bestselling products definely the best drop the company had ever had I made like $80,000 over a weekend and I was like that

was 10xy money I've ever made I was like you're like I'm rich I was like wait this much money is out there and I'm other company their companies making this much money and I'm only getting the salary you're getting like 2% of what they're making Lally yeah I'm like all right something's not adding up here so that was when I started to be like all right I need to do this for myself and then I had a bunch of people reach out to me and try to do it with me and then some people tell

me I should do it all by myself because I can do it all these things and then I ended up going down to Florida to meet with Matt Jansen and Dom my two partners now just to talk about some things and they had a supplement company for vitamins called revive and they were starting a different one and they wanted me to come on as a partner and be a we were all going to be equal Partners in it and I was like you know some people are telling me I should own my whole thing and

do it all myself but I went down there and I spent some time with them and I really connected with them they were good people they had a great great operation for the previous company I could tell they were smart and they were genuine like good people like that I could be friends with and I was like this just feels right you know I got I was like this feels right so I ended up moving down to Florida we started a company called raw made another product with my name on the side of it by

this time I own the company and it's it's just been exploding ever since and what's cool is I'm good at some marketing stuff I'm good at ideas and pushing the brand in Direction I want but I don't really want to run operations and sales calls and manufact shipping all the buying raw materials like all that you I don't want to do that you got to build your body man you don't have time for that I got to check out Olympia I got to do all these things so having those Partners was the best thing I

ever could have done and they're amazing and obviously the company wouldn't be as big as it was without all of us being the system that we are so we've created something really cool and really big now and what the risk that I took within all that is I was making being fully transparent I was making probably $10,000 month salary and then I had gotten that like $80,000 commission and then I was offered to stay with them a small piece of that company and I think $60,000 a month so you're like okay this is and I

was like holy it's a lot of money that's like 700 Grand I like are you serious like this is know my whole thing with money in my life was that if I made a hundred grand a year I was rich I made it that the only thing I ever thought about so I'm like that's like 60 Grand mon yeah yeah and then with raw it was like there's no salary there's no Commission you're not going to be making any money right now you know I'm like and they're like but we'll front the money to start

the business we'll all be equal partners and it will be like a longterm play I was like yeah it just felt right you know I'm like I'm I'm going to take the risk I'm going to bet on myself you know I might be cutting the salary right now like I could go buy these cool like a nice house and a nice car and all these things right now but how about I wait a little bit and I mean I only had to wait like two years and I was able to make good money from it

and now I still not making that big of a salary but the equity that I own the company is infinitely times more than that What did the what did the total first year what did you guys do total sales in the new business do you know in the new business I think it was just under 10 mil 10 million yeah so you building you know 10 million of equity which something like that you could potentially sell for you know 30 50 80 million after one year of sales ah not that company no it's the company

that the company you just built the first year at that that first year the way the multiplier works and supplements is more of like a 10 10x off eida so if we were really only making like one to two M profit off 10 15 million yeah yeah okay but if you build it you know over time then it's it's getting that was year one and it was way more fun like that I was way more passionate about it it felt way more authentic to promote something that I owned and that I got to decide all

the products that were coming out how we marketed it how it looked everything I got to be a part of it so it made me a lot more involved in it and people also felt that authenticity of how much I cared about it it's not like buy this brand and a year later someone offers me more money so I'm like wait no buy this brand now buy this one it's like no this is it forever this is like I'm gonna make this as best possible man that's exciting um this this is a question I ask

everyone towards the end of the interviews so I've got three final questions for you but before I ask them i g to send people to your Instagram I want them to follow you my I don't think my audience probably follows you yet maybe there's some of them but I don't think my audience fully most of your audience is men I'm assuming right yeah it's like 90% men yeah we're I'm more like 5050 men and women really um but I think the women are really going to love this so much to see someone like you speak

in this way uh and have a beautiful relationship with your wife and you know building yourself to be a father and all the work you're doing I think they're going to love this so I think they're going to share this with all the men in their life and say you need to watch this um but I want people to check out like your Vlogs are awesome I just love how real you are and content I just want people to see it you know watch it to be entertained and inspired but also to study the way

you do things on social media I just think you do a great job so I want to congratulate to you there where can people check out the uh the supplement business where can they go for that uh it's called raw nutrition so getra nutrition.com is the website get raw nutrition and your favorite is what the Pre-Workout the protein what do you like the most I mean cookies and cream protein is my favorite right now should have brought me some man let's go I'll send you some your address I'll send you and more energy and then

yeah the Pre-Workout too those are our bestselling skews everyone loves those when you go to the gym nice pre-workout protein get in there get raw nutrition or the website get raw nutrition.com to check that out um your YouTube is awesome what's the uh the name on the YouTube you can just search Chris bum set on social a c bum though on the on the Instagram c buum yeah yeah U so check that out watch the Journey of you with your you know your daughter coming in a couple of months man I'm excited you manh what

is the thing that you would tell your younger self your 12 13-year-old self about what is about to happen in your life to become a father what's that thing that you would say to your younger self if you could go back and tell him something in regards to becoming a father yeah I would probably just say take it a little easy on yourself you know to to understand that it's not as easy nor is it maybe even possible just to to give the kind of love you want to others without giving it to yourself so

if you want to show your baby girl and for her to feel the love that you want her to feel then understand that you deserve that same love oh my goodness man you give me the chills the way you're talking this is beautiful man uh this is a question I ask everyone at the end it's called the three truths so imagine a hypothetical scenario you get to live as long as you want you've taken care of your health so you're living long beautiful um but it's the last day on Earth for you many years away

MH and you get to create everything you want the family the relationship the business the adventures everything at all happens the way you Invision From This Moment until the last day of you for your life but for whatever reason you've got to take all of your content your work your products your businesses with you so no one has access to your information this interview is gone anything you ever shared is gone yeah hypothetically but you get to leave behind one final message and this is all we would have to remember Chris by yeah and I

call it the three truths so what would be the top truths that you would leave behind or the biggest lessons you would leave behind to the world to your younger self to your friends and family what would those truths be oh man um this is tough you're going to have to go home and think about this one deeper come back with you another answer but I would say understanding utmost importance the value of connection connection with people around you connection with yourself and how important relationships are you know I think people really they think they

understand that but when you look at their life they're pouring more energy into work and then coming home too tired to focus on it or they're harder on thems rather than like showings a little bit more grace and I think truly being able to prioritize that you know and I also think even my I'm I'm guilty of this too I'm like well I'm busy right now so in the future I'll focus on that I'm this is going on right now you know I want to be able to retire young so I can do all that

I'll do it later you know and I think it's often too late when you keep saying that and something will always come up so I guess lesson number two is whatever you want to do do it now because tomorrow never comes you know just get after it connection the most important thing don't wait to focus on that focus on it now [Music] and something a little bit more performative I always say this little say called set the standard and it started off very external like be the best set the standard of the classic physique that

I was in but it became more so of set your own standards to to rely on the standards that you hold true and you hold important to yourself rather than the standards that other people think are important so figure out what you truly feel is important and focus on those and prioritize your life to to set those standards for yourself and maybe your family as well because usually that all ties in but not caring what other people's standards are but focusing on what matters most to you those are great truths man you don't need to

reflect on this you got those right there uh before I ask the final question Chris I want to acknowledge you for man the journey man not only the journey physically and performance- wise and athletically in terms of your goals and dreams in the external world but the journey and your relationships with your wife your friends your family and with yourself now and little Chris I think the fact that you have gone on a journey and an adventure to heal the parts of you that were hurting is I think the greatest thing you've the greatest accomplishment

you've ever created for yourself more than any Olympia and so I want to acknowledge you for that journey man it's a beautiful thing that you're doing and and a beautiful standard that you're setting for the rest of a young men's generation coming up right now so thank you for setting that standard for yourself for your wife for your daughter and your family and for the millions of people that that watch you man it's really beautiful thank you of course my final question what is your definition of greatness my definition of greatness oh man yeah are

tough questions you're throwing I mean I should have you didn't let me prep on these um I would say that greatness to me is truly living in alignment with like your authentic self and being the best version of yourself in all aspects of life so like I was saying not just in like the physical but emotional and relationally and being the best version of yourself and in my concept what comes with that greatness of the best version of yourself is also a version that elevates the people around you and makes everyone around you a better

version and is caring and loving enough to yourself and to others that as you become better you're making other people around you better so that your family your community your friends are all kind of being elevated alongside you because if you're only up there by up there by yourself then you're by yourself and you feels lonely so yeah I guess something along those lines see bum my man thank you brother you great man apprciate the number one skill everyone listening and watching right now needs for self to defense is the ability to set boundaries it's

so critical and this isn't true with just strangers it's also true in our personal relationships in our intimate relationships right so important