 Next question is from Nurse Buckmaster. What are good guidelines for someone who wants to compete in a fitness show? Oh, that's your wheelhouse. Well, I think this is a hard one too, because to be honest with you, I think that a lot of people that get into competing get into it for the wrong reasons. Yeah, I remember you would often talk people out of it. Yeah, a lot of times. Because it's become very popular since Instagram. I mean, it's become the new marathon. How are they doing without, you know, are they still doing shows and everything? I believe competitions are going on. Yeah, I don't know how they're doing it, but I believe they're still happening. You know me, I don't really follow that one very much. You're as close as I am to myself. I know people look to me to ask and then I get questions around people that are like, I don't follow anybody who's competing right now. You know what would be a good question for you, Adam? Because I want to get into what to do, but I think this would be a good question. What was your criteria for someone that you would then say, okay, you can compete? Like what would you look for? Well, I think you have to have one, a really good base knowledge of exercise, right? So training. Like you should have like an idea of like the importance of programming and how you would phase it and things like that. Basic. You don't need to be like a PhD or have a lot of experience there, but you should have some understanding of exercise and form and technique too, right? Because you're going to go into this pushing the body to its limits in a lot of areas and training being one of those areas. And you shouldn't be pushing and stretching it if you're still really learning the mechanics of a lot of fundamental movements. So I think you should have a really good base, solid base of training. And then I think you have to have a really good knowledge and understanding of both nutrition and your metabolism. And that's what I saw. And I'm speaking more, it's both sexes, but I was speaking more to, I told more women's bikini girls know than I did men's physique men. And that's because in the women's competing community, a lot of these girls were very low calorie going into this idea in the first place. I've talked about a good girlfriend of mine who I wouldn't let her compete for over a year of getting coaching from me before I would let her compete. And then she went in and did it without me. And then she was fatter on stage than what she was before. Body fat percentage. She lost muscle. And it just boggled her mind. Even though she looked better to her, right? Because she got smaller and her weight came down. But it was exactly what I was trying to explain to her. The reason why you did this is because you weren't in a healthy place metabolism-wise going into this. Yeah, you need room to go down. Yeah. And most, especially girls that are interested. And by the way, there are guys in this category too, but I did speak to way more girls to have this conversation than guys. If you're in a place already and you exercise and train and try and lose body fat or build muscle and you're only eating 1,300 to 1,800 calories, that's a pretty low place to be already. And then knowing that you're nowhere ready for stage, you know, your stage body fat percentage, you're just not... And unfortunately, we're in this time where these coaches that are hustling online and are trying to make money and they'll take everybody and anybody. Now, I wasn't in that place. We had mine pump. I'm doing other things. I didn't need the money. And so when I saw somebody like this, I said, I would say, no, like I won't coach you for a show at, you know, 1,500 calories right now and you're telling me you want to do a show in 12 weeks and you want me to get you ready. Like I'm telling you right now, I'm going to destroy your metabolism trying to get you there. And I would be doing... Now, what about like their body image and their relationship with food and themselves? Like, second, imagine the pressure of getting judged by your body and how you look and constantly focusing on how you look. If you don't have a... If you're not secure with yourself, ooh, that could do a number on you. Well, the truth is though, that's also... I mean, most of the ones that are the best of the best in that space are extremely insecure about their bodies and that insecurity is what drove them to be competitive and to be consistent. It's because they have deep insecurities of being teased for looking a certain way or being fat or whatever it might have been that drove them into fitness and they just happen to have another level of discipline than the average person and that's what's led them into competing. I mean, I would like to talk all those people out of it but the reality is most of us have some sort of insecurities that we're still battling when it comes to that and I guess before you get in, you need to be very aware of your own insecurities. So I think that I've tackled most of my own but I still am aware of that, right? Like you competed as an adult. Like you were... Yeah, I was 30 for a while. I was already 30 something years old. I'd been already a trainer for over 10 years. So I had a lot of experience already with body image issues and relationship with food and exercise, my own issues that I had that drove me to taking anabolic steroids and trying to be a bigger guy and all that stuff. So I'd already worked through all of that and when I got into competing, I'd never even had a desire to really do it. It was really just to build the business. It was really to gain authority because unfortunately we live in a very superficial world and we're in probably one of the most superficial businesses that people want to see that you can do that yourself and show... So I wanted to do it with no coach and no team and prove that I could do this and I also wanted to show that I could do it as healthy as I could until I had to cross that line. So it was like what, two... I remember the show you did when we were all working together at first, I think it was like a few weeks out and you said, okay, now I'm going to get into the state, the unhealthy part of this. Yeah, the sport of it. I would tell the audience, because I would document and talk to, you know, my Instagram and YouTube as I was going through it and I would let the audience know that, okay, everything I've done up to this point has been pretty healthy, relatively healthy. The way I have slowly reduced body fat and slowly reduced calories, I was still in a very... I mean, I got ready for every show and never dropped calories lower than 2,500 calories. It was a pretty decent place to be, especially for somebody who's trying... And that's at the very end. Yeah, it's very end. Pete goes in the 4,000, right? Yeah, it's pretty manageable. Right, so I would tell him that. And I wasn't doing excessive cardio. I was just stepping to get more movement and changing my programming to see the consistent results. But then they would get to a point when you get to that final two weeks and I'm trying to shred every last ounce. That's when you pull all those crazy things out. That's where I would do two hours of cardio. That's where I would count calories in a dangerously low place to be and manipulating water and sodium. And I'm playing with all these things to achieve this look. That's not health. It's not a representation of health. It's what looks great on stage and tanned up and on the lights and on the covers of magazines. And I would be very transparent with my audience and say, hey, I'm now entering. I'm now crossed this line of, this is no longer healthy. I'm going to push my body to the extreme limits to try and present my physique the craziest I could present. So would you say the first step then is for somebody who wants to compete is, are you, is your metabolism in a good place? Are you eating a good amount of calories and you're already relatively lean? I would imagine that, right? Yeah. I know this. And the reason why I said earlier that they're treating it like marathons, when I, back in the day as a trainer, a lot of times people would sign up for marathons as a way to get in shape. They didn't work out. They didn't do anything. They're like, I want to get in shape. You know what will help me motivate me if I sign up for a marathon? People are doing that with shows now. Yeah, I would get that a lot. I would get a girlfriend that would say, hey, me and my girlfriend want to, you know, we have a competition to see if we're in the best shape and we are going to do this show that's coming up in three or four months, would you help us, you know, get ready for it, die for it. And then I'd like start asking their experience and what they've been currently doing and how many calories, and then there's like no clue. No clue of like how many calories. Like get on stage. Yeah, there's no clue. But they, like you said, it's become so trendy and popular to do these that everyone's like, oh, this is a, what a great way to get myself in the best shape of my life. Worst way. I know. And the truth is, you may do exactly what my friend did, where she went out on her own and she thought she got in the best shape of her life because she was the smallest she'd ever been. She knew she'd dieted harder than she'd ever had in her life and she got up on stage, she did it, was proud of herself. And I had her dunk, but I wouldn't let her see it till after the show because I knew it would have just fucking discouraged her completely. It would have ruined the way she presented herself up on stage. And afterwards, showed her and showed her that her body fat percentage, although she was down, I think she was almost 30 pounds or down 28, 30 pounds, her body fat percentage went up. And even psychologically, she thought she was in better shape. I was like, no, you're in way worse shape. Your metabolism is now slower than it's ever been and you're higher body fat percentage. Even though you have 30 pounds of weight off the scale off you, that is really hard for people to make that right. It was hard for her and she's looking at it. Like, she's looking at me. I don't understand. All the coaching and talking, leading up to that from me, still didn't totally kick. For me personally, I never competed and I worked a little bit with some competitors. I didn't do pre-contests, competition, nutrition and training. I just, I always stayed out of that. But I did know a lot of people that competed and I don't know a single person that made it out of that space without some issues that they developed. Really. I don't know a single person because you're so focused on how you, focusing on just your appearance anyway can cause issues. But when you have a competition and you know you're going to display yourself, and not only that, but you get critiqued on how you look. Oh, you're a little soft here. You love your paint, handle that. Yeah. Oh, your muscles not big enough here. Oh, your glutes don't look. It's not good for you to focus on that so much. It really can develop a very bad relationship with extras. Now that being said, I also think it was one of the greatest times in my life. I also think that it has attributed to some of the greatest knowledge gains as being a coach, the perspective it gave me to take it to that level. I had a blast doing it. It was very, very cool to see what my body was capable to push those limits and those boundaries. So I see there is a lot of positive, but I also think that, and I love this question because I do think there's a lot of prerequisites. I do think that you should be in that place. I know I'm not alone. I'm not the only person that was self-aware by 30 and trained for a while and had a good diet. If you have a healthy metabolism and you know you do, you know you're eating a good amount of calories, right? So you know you have a healthy metabolism. You've been training long enough to understand programming or you're going to hire a coach to do that for you. And you have a good relationship with body knowing that this is not a representation of me and who I am. It's just my physique that I'm manipulating and you can remove yourself from that and you don't get wrapped up in that identity. If you can do those things, fuckin' A, I think it's awesome. I think it's amazing. Those are some big things though. They are. Those are big things to tackle and not a lot of people are aware enough to even know if they are in that place. But yeah, if you are and you do feel confident in that, man, I think competing is a blast and I think you can do it and completely step out of it and remove yourself. I mean, I had no problem. I couldn't wait to walk away from it. I know. I was there when you did. Oh yeah.