"Father Time and injuries are tough adversaries."
"The treatment from the Arnold Classic to the Olympia is, of course, a little bit different, but overall the quality of the shows and the way they are put on... I think they are the same. It's just that the Olympia has been around for so long, and it is considered the Super Bowl of bodybuilding."
"Because the Arnold Classic is such a big show, a guy who hasn't been getting a lot of recognition all of a sudden does that show and arrives in good condition and is able to take out some of the top guys, it then puts him up there in the running for the Olympia title. So he can get more recognition that way."
"I don't know how well-known it is, but I had back surgery in '07, and it took about two years to recover."
"It is a lot of pressure to prepare for the Mr. Olympia."
"I take about 12 weeks to get ready for a show. But I train all year round."
"I quit working in the police force full time only after I won my third Mr. Olympia."
"I've had back problems basically my whole career."
"It's hard to be at your best and to know exactly what is your best at all times because even when you do see yourself, you think you could be better, and you often feel that there is something you could have done differently."
"Mostly, I was into powerlifting when I was in high school. And I just continued to train the same way I was taught - to powerlift. Once I started doing bodybuilding, there were no real differences, just different exercises. A different way of training with more repetitions, but it was still the same lifting of very heavy weights to get stronger."
"I was always trying to stay one to two steps ahead of the game."
"You have to train the best way that is suited to you, a way that will allow you to progress."
"I'm always trying to improve on my overall package. Just try to get a little bit harder and maintain the same muscle quality."
"For the most part, I would say that I have always had a great love for the sport, just doing what I do. I think my success could be greatly attributed to that. I don't look at it like it's a job or anything like that. Its more like a hobby, something I have fun doing."
"What I've always tried to do is pick short term goals."
"I eat healthy year round."
"I learned the ins and outs of the supplements business as a bodybuilder. I'd worked with some of the companies, and I knew a lot about the products. Some of them worked OK, and some of them didn't. I wanted all of them to work, not just for me, but for other people, too."
"As my athletic career was coming to an end in 2007, I asked myself, do I want to work for somebody, or go out and make a difference?"
"Where I'm from, Bastrop, Louisiana, you played football, basketball, and baseball; you ran track - and that was about it."
"When I graduated from college, I tried my hardest to get a job at an accounting firm, and it just wasn't meant to be. I ended up delivering pizzas and newspapers. I knew my life was cracked up to be a little more."
"No dessert. I don't do dessert."
"I eat chicken and rice, steak, and baked potato. That's it."
"I train heavy and hard every workout. That's the only way I knew. I know it was the key to my success."
"I probably get in, like, five meals a day; every now and then, I get six."
"Progress takes time and discipline."
