A biography for Phil Heathhasn’t been written yet.
“People in Colorado are resilient.”
“For me, I've always tried to be a stand-up individual.”
“This sport has given me so much. It has taught me to be strong emotionally and physically.”
“I went from 185 lbs to 285 lbs, became a 7X Mr. Olympia, tying Arnold Schwarzenegger, and competed against the most determined and fittest athletes in the world. This took hard work, tremendous dedication, and knowing what, how, and when to train.”
“You can't be around people who appease you all the time.”
“There are days when I don't count sets at all, but then there are some days when I have to realize that I don't want to overwork because I still have an hour of cardio ahead of me or another training session later that day.”
“I would probably lose my mind if I wasn't busy. There's only so many video games I can play.”
“I despised basketball for a long time.”
“I received a lot of criticism early in my career, but people didn't realize that I'd only been training for three years when I turned pro.”
“Prior to stepping on stage, I prefer to continue being myself, whether that is making jokes with others, talking about other non-bodybuilding topics, or just sitting around listening to music.”
“Constant tension should be applied to the last five reps of every working set, meaning, do the first 5-6 reps normal tempo, and the last few reps should be held for at least two seconds at the peak of the contraction. This allows your muscles to have more time under tension, and you work different muscle fibers.”
“It can be 10 people or thousands of people: I want them to see something special. I want them to say, 'I saw the best in the world at something,' and maybe that will inspire them to go do something in their life with the same vigor.”
“There's no way in hell I could have achieved what I have without being a good student and listening to the wisdom of others who have been doing this a lot longer than I have.”
“Dropsets overload the muscle with shorter rest periods and increasing volume, which you need to grow.”
“We all go through things in life, and it's just how you deal with it. Try to stay positive throughout the worst.”
“To keep winning, I have to constantly outdo myself.”
“I think I was one of those kids that, at the age of 13, start filling out a little bit: I was the kid that had the chest, the arms, the calves, especially, with these big legs like an adult.”
“I eat seven, if not eight, times a day. Every two hours, I'm usually eating.”
“If you can get to the gym 4-5 days a week, that would be perfect. You can still do chest/tri's, back/bi's, legs, shoulders, and make the fifth day a cleanup day, meaning focus on body parts you may be weaker in.”
“I've done, on video, 150-pound dumbbells in each hand -I think it was, like, twenty two reps - on an incline.”