Ronnie Coleman Only Started Bodybuilding to Get a Free Gym Membership | Joe Rogan

I always said that you look like a dude who they invented in a Marvel comic book to kill the Hulk. Like that's what you looked like when you were in your prime, man. Yeah, I felt like I probably could too back in those days. I mean, God damn, you were freakishly huge. It was crazy to see. It was like, you know, I remember paying attention to bodybuilding from the beginning, like the Franco Colombo and Schwarzenegger days, to what you guys had become, you know, when you were in your prime. You just redefined everything. Everything was just so extreme. Yeah, we were pretty tough back in those days. Everything was hard, you know. The guys I was competing against were real good. You know, I just came out of nowhere, you know, because I got in bodybuilding real late, you know, where I'm from. We didn't have it. And I didn't find out about it until I graduated college, went out to Texas and started working for the police department. How old were you at the time? I was about 24. So that's when you started bodybuilding? That's when I started. But I had been working out, you know, since I was 12, 13. For sports? Yeah, well, now I had, I was on the powerlifting team. Oh, okay. I did powerlifting in high school. So I was on the powerlifting team and, you know, I'm from Louisiana, a real small town. Most of the, a lot of the guys are kind of big like me, kind of strong like me. You know, a lot of people don't understand, but strength is something like a natural gift, you know. You can work on it and get better at it, but you also have to be gifted a little bit. Have to have a nice base. Yeah, you have to have a nice base and you have to have a little talent. Yeah. You know, like this guy, I think I can't remember his name, but he did lift the 1100 pounds. Oh, that Game of Thrones guy? Yeah, yeah. The Mountain? That's a gift, you know, that's talent. Yeah, he's gifted. Everybody can't do that. I did 800, you know, for a couple of reps, but I don't think I can do 1100. That's a lot of weight. That's a lot of weight. He's an enormous human being though. That guy, that's a Viking right there. You have to have a lot of weight to be able to pull a lot of weight like that too. Yeah. You, in your career, you were known for lifting large amounts of weight too. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Like I was saying, you know, I started powerlifting when I was in high school, you know, I had to like the gift of strength, you know, I was pretty strong in high school, you know, all throughout my college days. And, you know, it was just something that I, I think I was kind of born with it a little bit, you know, because you don't just start lifting heavy weights like that all of a sudden, you know, you have to have a, like I said, you have to have some kind of natural talent for it. Well, there are some crazy photos of you during the Mr. Olympia days when you were a police officer. Is that you? Look at that. Yeah, that's me in the ninth grade on the left. And that's me winning the... What happened to your arm on the left? You got a cast on. Yeah, I broke up. You fucked somebody up. Yeah, no. I was fucking with him. I was playing football and I think I fell on my wrist or something and cracked it or something. And that's me winning the, the, uh, Mr. Universe turning pro in the middle. And that's me winning the 99 Mr. Olympia for right there. Wow. Damn, you were big. Yeah, I was kind of big a little bit there. A little big? Well, you know, I got a lot bigger than that. That was my second Olympia. I only weighed about 255 there. What's the biggest you ever got? I was 295, my seventh one. So I put on a little bit more weight as I got on up there. But is it one of those things where you just kind of have to keep up with everybody else and everybody just keeps getting bigger and bigger? No, it was that thing. For me, I was trying to distance myself from everybody else. So I kept getting bigger and bigger so nobody would catch up with me. And what a lot of people don't understand is you see me big up there like that, but, you know, it took a long time for me to get there. You know, that didn't happen overnight. I put on about five pounds of muscle between five and 10 pounds of muscle a year. And that came from all that, you know, that heavy lifting, a lot of eating, a lot of eating. What was a standard meal for you? I mean, it wasn't a lot to me, you know, but if somebody, you know, normal try to eat, it'd probably be a lot. So I'd eat probably like a pound of chicken, grilled breast, you know, with half a cup of rice. That was a normal meal. Yeah, that was normal. And how many of those would you have a day? I had about six meals a day, you know. It's kind of hard to eat like that, you know. So I would have to wake up in the middle of the night to eat and go back to sleep. Really? Yeah. Was that annoying? No, no. I would think that would be annoying. You're tired and sleeping and got to wake up to eat? No, you kind of get used to it. When you eat like that, you're hungry every three hours. Oh, really? Yeah, every two or three hours you're hungry because I'm not eating a lot of fat, you know. Right. It's lean, you know, I'm not eating a lot of carbs. So it's a little bit of food at a time. For me, it was. And you would get down to how much, what percent body fat? I was .33. .33. What does that mean? Is that less than 3%? That's less than half a percent. Oh, .33, like what? .33. How does a human get that low? I got attributed to my genetics. But was it also like a trickle down system? Off season. Say if you like how many weeks would it take for you to get ready for Mr. Olympia? .10 to 12. .10 to 12. So at 12 weeks out, how much body fat do you think you were carrying around then? About 3%. So three was a high? That's the highest, yeah. Jesus. I'm 330 pounds at that though. Oh my God. But you get tired all the time with that body fat? I'm real good and fat. That's good and fat. 3% body fat is good and fat. That's hilarious. Jamie, see if you can pull up a picture of him winning the seventh Mr. Olympia title when he was at his heaviest. I want to see what that looks like. I was pretty big at that one. Yeah, you were big, man. I remember looking at the magazines and shaking my head. Today, I would say, oh, that's photoshopped. They didn't have photoshopped back then. No, they didn't have it back then. But then, you know, I was a little bit too big for that one. They had me to come down a little bit for the next one. Oh, really? So I came down to like 275. So when you said they coaches, your... Some of the judges... The judges? Yeah. The judges were telling you you're too big? Yeah. That's when you know you fucked up. That's when you got me getting crazy. When the judges at Mr. Olympia are telling you, the guy who's won it multiple years in a row. Yeah, seven years in a row, yeah. Yeah, getting too big. Ronnie, take it down a notch. Yeah, because, you know, the guy next to me is only like 250, you know? But why were they saying... You still looked amazing. Like why were they saying you were too big? Because I was at the time. It really was too big? Yeah, for standards back then, you know. I don't think they defined that, though. It's really just taste, right? Like it's... They look at it and they decide. Subjective, yeah, in a way. It's kind of subjective in a way. Is that... What year was the seventh one? I think it was 05. Was it 05, Ryan? Yes. No, that's the eighth one. 04 is number seven. Yeah, there we go. Yeah, that's it right there. Wow. Yeah. God, you were huge. That does look like a guy who comes out of a lab to kill the Hulk. You know, like some evil genius. Like the Hulk is working for the Avengers. Yeah. Yeah. So, how do they make that conversation with you when they say, Ronnie, you're too big? Well, just talking to my nutritionist. You know, I have a nutritionist that did all my diets and all that kind of stuff for me. So, they probably just, you know, told him real nicely. Yeah. Break it down a notch. I remember there's a photo of you when you were still on the police force and you were also, I don't know if you were Mr. Olympia when you were on the police force, were you? Yeah, three times, yeah. And then you eventually left the force. Yeah, uh-huh. You were so big, you're sitting there with the uniform on them, like there is no way that's a regular uniform. No, it's not. No, it's not a uniform. Did you wear those shorts? That can't be real. Did you arrest people with those shorts on? No, I made those shorts myself. But we did wear shorts though. We did have shorts on. Yeah. Police reports. Yeah, I got on shorts in the briefing room, but they're not showing my legs right there. Right there? Yeah, right there. I have on shorts if you... That picture is actually bigger than that, but you just can't see it. Did that inspire other guys you worked with to start lifting too? Yeah, yeah, pretty much. I may well imagine. I did start lifting, yeah. We had a gym at the station. Oh, really? We had about four or five stations. Every station has a gym. We have a training center with a huge gym. Really? Yeah, I started working out there when I first hired on. I worked out with me and the chief and some other guys. We all worked out together there for a while. And this is in the beginning before you were gigantic. When I first hired on. Yeah, before I got real big. You know, I've had to start small. Of course. Everybody's a baby at one point in time. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So I was 215 when I first started. Now, when you first started, did you have this idea that one day... Was this a dream? No, no. I did it because the guy gave me a free membership to the gym. I never had a dream. I just wanted a free membership because I was poor back then. I couldn't afford to pay for a gym membership because I just hired on there. Coming from Domino's Pizza, where I had to eat pizza every day to survive because I didn't make that much money. By the time I got to the police department, I was still struggling and trying to get back on my feet. I didn't afford membership still. And this is when you were 24? Yeah, I was 24. So you were just a big guy? Yeah, I've been big and muscular my whole entire life. But regular big, not like Mr. Olympia Big? Well, I would say put a picture up there that somebody took not too long ago. When I first got into a sport of bodybuilding, I was doing security at a Mr. Olympia event. And most of the people in the audience thought that I should be on stage back then. Really? I didn't think so, you know, what they thought that. I had 22, 23 inch arms back then. I had that was 21, 22 inch arms in college. How big were they when you were at your biggest? 24. 24. That's the biggest they got. That's like a waist. Yeah, some girl. Yeah, but like a runner. Yeah. Like Zack Bitter? I bet Zack Bitter got a 24 inch waist. Actually my waist was like 29 when I first started. Wow. I remember Holyfield when he was the heavyweight champion of the world, he had a 28 inch waist. Yeah. That's crazy. That's a V right there. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, crazy. So you start, so you do this security for the Mr. Olympia event. 91, yeah. Did that get like the bug in your head? No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. I never started thinking that. How did it happen? One of the first one in 98. So how do you enter it? What makes you want to enter something like that? Well, like I said, the guy said if you compete, I give your free membership to the gym. Okay. So I was just competing for free membership to the gym because I worked full time in the police department. I had that job, had like a couple of security jobs on the side. So I didn't really need money from Bodybuilding. I had benefits and everything. So you were just doing it for a free membership? I was just doing it for a free membership. So you do it and obviously people go, this guy's got real potential. I guess they were saying that to themselves. I never was about to say that. So what did you do? Like you just decided to keep going and... I just kept going for the free membership. Yeah. I'm not going to give it up. So competing just was about free memberships at one point in time. When did it become serious? When I won my first Olympia in 98. That's when it became... When you first Olympia? Yeah. Do you know how many Bodybuilders right now want to jump out of a building? Yeah, but you... I'm not... They're going to go right to the top floor and fucking leap out a window. They're like... Yeah, but see, my dream was always to be a professional football player. Oh. I played football, junior high, high school, college and all that kind of stuff. When I didn't draft it, I'm like, okay, I got a degree so I can get a good job with accounting degree and I graduated with honors and all that kind of stuff. I figured I'd just be in an accountant and make good money there. So I never had no dreams of aspirations being Bodybuilder. But you never were an accountant? No, I never made it. You never did. I never got a job. So you just got a job in the police department instead? Uh-huh. Yeah, exactly. I tried for about two years. To get an accountant job? Yeah. I tried real hard. I did a million interviews to some of the biggest accounting firms in the world, in the United States anyway. And nobody never hired me. So I like two years later, okay, I'm done. This ain't meant to be... Ain't nothing happening here, you know. That's two years. And I always saw an ad for police officers. And when I got the newspaper every weekend, and it was always a big ad, you know, so it stood out. So I'm like, hmm, they hiring and you don't need experience. Because all the jobs I went on, you know, the interviews I went on, they always want you to have experience. I'm like, well, if you don't hire me, you know, you have no experience. So I'm like, I might just give up on this, you know, just go give me a job where you don't have to have experience. And like I said, a police officer's ad was the thing that stood out the most. And I'm like, that's not like a job where I can have a lot of fun, you know. I can't believe that you didn't really get serious until after you won Mr. Olympia. That's hard to believe. Yeah, yeah. Well, you gotta understand, you know, I never had any dreams of being a Mr. Olympia. I never had any dreams of being a bodybuilder. I only did it because the guy gave me a free membership to the gym. Once you started getting going and you won Mr. Olympia and you realized, wow, I'm the best, I gotta throw myself into this. Exactly. Because the way you worked out, man, I watched a video of you working out once and like just the intensity and thinking like this guy's not just doing this guy's doing this for 12 weeks straight. The intensity that you had in the gym, like you were there's a certain level, no matter what the sport is, champions have a certain level of focus and dedication. Exactly. And I remember watching that video, that's what a champion looks like. That's what a champion looks like. Well, you gotta also think, realize that, you know, I started working out when I was 12. I kind of fell in love with it when I was 13. It just kind of became a hobby once I joined the powerlifting team. So I enjoyed working out. When you won the first Mr. Olympia, how old were you then? Thirty-four. Okay, so you had a solid eight years of lifting, you know, this is after you were on the force for a while. Yeah, exactly. And now I already had the base too, you know, being in high school on the powerlifting team.