Ronnie Coleman Details His 13 Post Bodybuilding Sugeries | Joe Rogan

You've also, since then, you've had a bunch of surgeries. Thirteen so far. And what started that off? Well, I kind of hurt my back in high school when I was powerless. And then I hurt it again in college when I was playing football. I hurt my back and neck. And I did chiropractic for a long time. And then one day in the gym, I hurt it like in 96. I kind of herniated the disc. And I guess it just got worse over time. So when you herniated that disc, what did you do to treat it? Nothing. Nothing. I'm with the chiropractor. Chiropractor. Yeah. I've been doing chiropractic all my life. Yeah. So I didn't have a surgery or nothing like that when I herniated that disc. They offered me the half surgery. I told Noah. So the surgery they wanted to do was probably trim the disc down because it was pushing against the nerve. Yeah. And I'm anectomy, whatever they call it. Yeah. And so 13 of those, huh? Now 13 surgeries. Eight back, like two or three hip, two or three neck. And did this all happen all at once? Whereas like it felt like everything was falling apart. Or was it like you get a surgery and then you're better for a little while and then you hurt something else? Yeah, something like that. Yeah. Because the first one was back. The second one was back. And then I think the third one was neck. And then back, back and hip, back, back, back, hip. And what did you get done to your hips? Did you get your hips replaced? Yeah, yeah, both of them. And like what was that? What do you get? 14? I think, yeah, 14. And how were those now? I just had hip surgery in January. It's holding up a little bit better now. One kind of went bad, sockets broke. And they had to replace both of them. They say they only last a certain amount of years, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Every night, I had the titanium ones. The titanium was the hardest ones because they rough, and they titanium, and they kind of hold on to the body. Oh, yeah. And because of that, and me working out and all this kind of stuff, and it kind of just broke the sockets. Well, I follow you on Instagram, and I watch your workouts, and it's inspiring that after all this, you still love working out. Yeah. You can really tell. I mean, you enjoy it. Still a hobby. Look forward to it every day. Does it give you any pause at all, knowing that you've been through all these surgeries? No. You know, when you're doing something that you truly love and enjoy doing, that's what you look forward to doing all the time. So really the- Regardless of, you know, how you feel, you know. Of course, I'm still in pain and all that kind of stuff, but- Are you in pain all the time? Yeah, but as long as I'm doing what I love doing, I'm okay. You take that away, then it probably won't be okay. But so let's just even sit in here right now, you're in pain. Just a minimum amount. It's nothing major, you know. If you're an athlete, you're in pain all your life. Yeah. I mean, I can remember in high school and college, you know. I was in pain some days. All the time. All the time, yeah. So after a while, you kind of get used to it, and it doesn't really bother you. That's why, you know, I'm imagining that you have a spectacular tolerance for pain. Yeah, I have a high tolerance. I remember when I- 28 of my death, I finished my workout. I was squatting 600. I remember like it was yesterday. I was coming up on rep number eight, and all of a sudden, pah-yah! It was a loud gunshot sound. You know, I do 600 for like 12, 13 reps all the time. This time, I took a couple weeks off, and I thought I was still as strong as I was, you know, when I took the time off, but I wasn't. I lost a little strength, and that's why that death snapped on me like that. I heard it, and I felt it. But, you know, the athlete didn't use like, you know, let's go on, let's finish this up. So I finished up, you know, I did like leg press and some other exercises. Every time after I finished working out doing legs, I always had a real bad pain in my back. Every single time. But it would always go away in like an hour. This day it didn't. And I was- I just went home, ate, put on my uniform, was headed to work. And I'm like, wait a minute, my back is still hurting. This is two hours, almost two hours later, something's wrong. I ain't going to work today. I'm going to the emergency room. Oh, wow. It's not bad. Yeah, it was that bad. Yeah. And so he went to the emergency room. They're probably like, what the fuck are you doing the size of this guy? Yeah, like, we don't see nothing wrong with your back. They probably couldn't get to it. Well, they did x-ray. They did x-ray and they like, we don't see anything. So that's when I had an MRI a couple days later and found out it was herniated. So I stayed at home for a couple weeks and sat on the couch and didn't do anything. And two weeks later, I went back to the gym. First exercise was squats. Oh my God. Did it hurt again? No, no, no, I'll get ready for a show. So it was okay? Yeah, it was okay. Two weeks after you herniated your disc, you're doing squats again? Yeah. But how much weight? I only did 300. Oh, only 300. Yeah. That's the most I could do for 10 reps, you know? Wow. 10 to 12 reps. So I'm like, okay, this is good enough. But you knew that something was wrong. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I couldn't do 600 no more, you know, so. So after that, how long before you got your first surgery? 10 years later. 10 years? 10 years later. So it was just intolerable pain, like what was going on? I couldn't walk like no more than like 25 feet without my leg being on fire. Oh, wow. My feet being on fire. And now, in my law, a whole lot of pain. Wow. So I knew it's time to get some serious done here now. So what was the first, did they fuse it? Lemon neck, lemon neck, man. They shaved it off. Okay, so that was the first one. Yeah. And I was good for a while. You know, I went back to squatting and everything. This is while you're still Mr. Olympia? No, you know, I retired. I retired in 07. So I had my first surgery in 07. Okay, so this is after you retired. Yeah. You're not doing too bad. Just in a little bit of pain. Yeah. So how does it all go downhill from there? I think maybe the second, about a year or so later, I started having problems again, being in pain again. Same area? Same area. So there's like- Are you squatting heavy still? Yeah. 600 pounds still, that kind of stuff? No, because I wasn't competing. So I was probably doing about 400 or 500 somewhere in there. But then, you know, it's still kind of heavy. Yeah. And I didn't have the weight I used to have either. You know, I wasn't 300 and something pounds no more. So it was a little bit more difficult. So it just kind of went bad on me again. And I had to have another surgery. Same kind of surgery? They trimmed more off of it? Actually, they did what you call like- I forgot actually what they did. It's been so long ago. That was back in like 2008, 2009, somewhere in there. They kind of like did a refresher. I think they did trim a little bit more off it though. But, you know, it was all pretty much kind of like down here from there. And so after that injury and that surgery, then how do you wind up with the other 11 surgeries? Well, I think like the first time you- Honey ate a dish, it's like you get you stack a bunch of cans on top of each other and you snap one out. Well, after a while the other ones are going to start falling out of place too. And that's kind of what happened. You know, the other did start just honey eating on their own. Of course, I was working out too. Yeah. And I still have one now. You got a herniated disc now? Mm-hmm. Yeah. How many discs have you had operated on? All of them. All of them. Every single disc? Every single one. So this one that you have a herniated disc on now, have you already had it operated on before? No, this will be the first time. This is the last one. Yeah. Wow. And so what do they do with your back? They basically fuse everything together now? Yeah. So the whole spine is fused? Yeah. Wow. Neck and back. How much mobility do you have? I mean, I still, you know, bend over in time of shoe and do all that kind of stuff. But your back is one solid piece. Yeah. Mm-hmm. So there's no like articulation of your discs and your spine. No. Your spinal column. Nothing. Wow. Nothing like that. What does that feel like? I mean, I guess it just feels kind of normal after a while. You know, you get used to it. It happens over time. So it's like a gradual thing. So it's not all of a sudden. Mm-hmm. So it's just like one day, you know, you know, I used to be able to just bend over and do all these stretches, these crazy stretches. Well, I can't do all that no more. Yeah. I just bend over a little bit, you know, do a minor stretch. Now, are the doctors, are they confident that this is the last one? I mean, you've got them all fused. Yeah, it's always something though, you know. Yeah. Yeah, when you're an athlete and you're always working out and always in the gym, it's always be something. You just accept that. Yeah, exactly. That's a, you're used to it after a while. For a lot of people, that's a hard thing to accept this idea that you're just going to keep smashing your body. But that's just you. Yeah, exactly. I've got used to it now. It's been so, it's been like 07, 13 years now. Wow. Now, are you in this wheelchair all the time? No, no, I don't have crutches. It's just that, I left them at home. I can walk, maybe about from here to that wall unassisted. But you know, after, after, so, so, after being up for so long, my legs get real weak. And is it because of your back? Yeah, closing my back. Is it something that's like cutting off the nerves or something? Yeah, exactly. Wow. Cutting off the nerves. Yeah. And is there anything they can do about that? Oh, I mean, you know, maybe one day they'll come out with something that'll help get it stronger. I was thinking about trying the stem cell thing. Yeah. They said that should help a lot too, right there. Well, there's a bunch of places that they do it where they could do it with a lot stronger stem cells than they could do in America. Yeah. The place in Columbia does it and there's a place in Panama that I actually sent my mom. Yeah. My mom, they wanted to give her a knee replacement. And doctors just didn't want to operate right away. And I was like, I want to let me let me see if we can send you down to Panama. Let me see if Dr. Reardon, he'd been in here before with Mel Gibson and he was talking about Mel Gibson's dad and Mel Gibson's dad was in real bad shape when he was 92. And then now he's a hundred and he's fine. I mean, just gone back there a bunch of times keeps going back for stem cells. Yeah. Long story short, my mom was scheduled to get a knee replacement. I sent her down to Panama and six months later, it started to feel good. Eight months later, no pain at all. Yeah, it really did a great and then I sent her down a second time. It's pretty amazing stuff what they can do. Yeah. So that's my thing to do next. Yeah. And people I've talked to, they think it will do me a lot of good. So is it there's scar tissue around the nerves that's pushing its nerves now? Because if all the discs are gone and everything's fused, what's irritating the nerves? Scar tissue, all that hardware. I got 14 screws, two cages. I got two rods, but this long in there too. So it's a lot of hardware, a lot of cages and what are the cages look like? So it's a cage around your spine. Yeah. Yeah. What's the purpose of that? I hold this together, keep them in place. Yeah. You know, after a while they don't want them to come loose. So they put cages around, keep them together. So you're like RoboCop in there. Yeah, pretty much. So I got that in my neck and back. You have a cage in your neck? Yeah. You got an x-ray of any of this shit? Yeah, where is it at? Is it online? I posted a couple times online. Yeah on your Instagram page. Yeah. See if you can find it out. Jamie, that's crazy. Yeah, you'll is laughing about it. Like you're fine with it. Well, you get used to it after all. But is it also that you look at like you're a legitimate legend. And so do you look at it like hey, this is the price that I paid to be a legend? Yeah, I'm looking at like hey, I'm still alive and I can still work out every day. I'm still normal. So I'm good. Wow. That's a great healthy attitude. Yeah, you're obviously still huge. You're still very strong. Well, I'm not as strong as I used to be. I'm not as big as I used to be either. I'm only like 250 now, you know, when you say that you're judging it on you being a multiple time. Mr. Olympia. That's not a regular person. Say, I'm not as big as I used to be like you can't stay that big. It's not possible. No, no, no way. No way. Yeah. How many years you think like that no more? Right? I bet it's nice to eat when you want to eat half the food. I used to eat. I can only imagine. Yeah. Yeah. I only see six. I only eat three now. That's a normal person. Yeah. You got anything Jamie? That's gonna be hard to find. There it is. Oh my god. That's crazy. That's what a cage looks like. Yeah. Wow. All that stuff's heavy duty the size of those screws in that picture on the left. Yeah, they're about three inches long. Two to three inches long. Yeah, and they got screws on the end of them. Boats on the end of you. You can see on the end right here on that one. On the last of those are boats right there. So no the big screws in between that too. Wow. Yeah, that goes all the way up. All the way up your whole back. Yeah. So there's no neck to my neck. My neck is the same way. Wow. Four, three, four, five, and six. And so in doing this they've saved your back but they've all the hardware is what's fucking with your nerves. Yeah, yeah, all the hardware. Yeah, it's pinching on the nerves causing pain and stuff. And what does the doctor say about that stuff? I ain't nothing to do about that. Just gonna be like that. They say they can take your screws out maybe one day, but it's a major surgery to do that. Yeah, you know, they got to cut me from all the way top to bottom and you know, take all those out. There's 14 of them. That started from the top all the way down to the bottom. Would that be possible that if they did that it would alleviate some of the pinching on your nerves? Yeah, yeah, sure. Have you thought about it? Yeah, I just went to the doctor and talked to him about it last week. Oh, yeah, what does he say? Say I got another herniated disc. Oh, boy. And they need to fix that for a thing about taking it. Where's the one that's hernia, the new one is hernia? It's up top. Say all the ones, the lower ones are already fused just the one on the top is the one that's herniated now. Now, is it bulging or is it herniated? He said herniated. So, pushing out. I had a bulging disc that I had fixed with something called Regennequin. Have you ever heard of Regennequin? Yeah, they invented it down in Germany and a lot of athletes like Kobe Bryant and Peyton Manning. Oh, yeah, they all went to Germany. It's like this blood-spinning procedure. Have you heard of it? Yeah, I've heard of it. Yeah, they do it in America now. They have an office in Dallas. They have an office in Santa Monica and I went to the one in Santa Monica and they take your blood out. They spin it and they apply some medication to it and then it becomes this yellow serum and then they inject the year the yellow serum directly into the area where the disc is and it alleviates all the inflammation and the disc slowly goes back into place. For me, within two weeks, I had extreme relief within two weeks and then now there's no bulging disc at all. I went back after I did the full round of treatments, which I think was, if I remember correctly, five or six different treatments. I went back. I got a new MRI and there's no bulge anymore. Yeah, that's sort of like what they do when they do PRP. Yes, it is like PRP. It's just more advanced. It's just another level of PRP. They do the injection thing. Did you do the PRP? Yeah, I did all that. Did that help your neck at all? No, that didn't do anything for me. That did my neck and back actually. Well, I would I would wonder what would help you like stem cells and and then that's going to be the screws out to the most. The only thing going to help me I think. So all this stuff with your legs though, that wasn't the case before the screws and before all those. No, no, no. Yeah, I would imagine that's what's going on man. Yeah, it's all fused up, right? It doesn't have to be screwed in, right? No, no, no. That's why I went to the doctor because they said after a couple of years everything would be fused up. Yeah, fused up and I can take the screws out. So does the doctor want to operate on your neck as well? No, he just fixed my neck a year ago, but the new bulge. Yeah, this is the new bulge in my back now. Oh, it's in your back. Yes, this is my back. Yeah. That's why that was the result of a casket and I had done last week. Damn, dude, you you're at a hospital like every couple weeks. It's not seem like it though, but I was just wanting to get screws out because I'm, you know, it's been a long time and still in pain and like I said, it's still pinching me and she got, you know, nerves being pinched and I think, you know, my legs are numb too. My foot's totally numb. Yeah. And I was thinking maybe if I took the screws out, I get some of this numbness to go away. Yeah. And I get some strength back also. Do you think you're going to wind up doing that? If possible, one day I would like to man. I'm hoping someone hears this. That's a specialist that has a solution for you. How many different doctors have you seen? Right now just one. Just the one doctor. Just the one. Is that a local guy near you? Yeah. Yeah, local guy. And for word Texas. Also my first surgery, my, no, no, probably like my fourth or fifth one. They operated on me for about 13 hours. They cut me in the front, turn me on the side, cut me on the side. And then they put me on my back and cut me on my back. Jesus. And that gave me a lot of problems. That started the immobility thing right there. And what was this surgery? I was good until I did that surgery. What kind of surgery was that? It was another fusion? Yeah. Why did they have to cut you in so many places? Because they had to fuse so many deaths. Put in so many screws. And that was in 15 I think. Wow. At 16. December 15. I remember getting off the plane in Russia. And Russia. Yeah. You got that done in Russia? No, no. I remember getting off the plane in Russia. And I'm like, man, my back is hurting. And I was walking fine to the hotel. The next day. My mobility got worse. And the day after, I was on crushes. And I've been on on me ever since. Just so out of nowhere. Out of nowhere. And how far out from the surgery was this? The surgery was like the next month. Oh, so this is before the surgery? Yeah, this is before. Yeah. Okay. So then they cut you open the front and the side the back and then everything's downhill from there. Yeah. Yeah. Everything went down here from there. Man. I'm really hoping that somebody listens to this and some doctor hears about this. But one thing is you're in Fort Worth. Dr. Reardon is actually his office is in Dallas. That's pretty close to you. Yeah, that's real close to me. I'd love to connect you to him and see if there's anything that he could do. Yeah, that would be nice. I'm always looking to get better because this these crutches are getting on my nerves. I can only imagine. I have to five years now. And a guy who is a level of athlete that you were when you were in your prime. That's got to be very and how old do you know? I just turned 56 two weeks ago. You look great. Well, I'm still working out every day and eating good. Yeah, it would be nice if they could do something to. Yeah, I like to get this back around. I like to get my strength back. Yeah, I guarantee Dr. Reardon could probably help. Yeah, I don't want to guarantee but he's a real expert in you know, stem cells and the benefits of stem cells. Well, maybe I give him a call. Yeah, I'll connect you to for sure.