It’s not easy getting WWE Hall of Famer Ric Flair to slow down after all those years of “limousine riding and jet flying." But that’s exactly what the 68-year-old was forced to do following a serious health scare last summer. After feeling strong pain in his abdomen, Flair was hospitalized and admitted to the intensive care unit. His organs failed, and he was placed in a medically-induced coma and put on life support for 10 days.

As Flair recounts in his upcoming ESPN 30 for 30: Nature Boy documentary, which airs November 7, 10 p.m. ET, decades of hardcore drinking helped push him to his deathbed. He was diagnosed with kidney failure and respiratory heart failure, and he ended up having part of his bowel removed and a pacemaker installed. Although Flair says doctors gave him a 20 percent chance to live, he somehow survived to belt out another “Wooo” (albeit a noticeably fainter one than we’re accustomed to). Since then, the wrestling legend formerly known as the “Dirtiest Player in The Game” is living an alcohol-free lifestyle, and he’s waiting on medical clearance to start lifting weights again.

In an interview with Men’s Health, Flair opened up about his frightening health ordeal, his years of building up stamina in the squared circle, and what it’s like to stop drinking after decades of having 10 beers and five cocktails per day. Here are some of the changes he has made.

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How would you describe the unbelievable medical ordeal that you went through?

I don’t remember anything. Ten days on life support is a long time to be down. I woke up and I had to learn how to walk again. I was so weak I couldn’t twist the top off a Gatorade bottle or even open a Diet Coke. I went to a physical rehab center. I could stand, I just couldn’t walk or keep my balance. I lost 43 pounds in a month. I just had to learn everything over again. I’m getting more confident now, but man, when I first got out, I anticipated that I could die at any time.

Part of the documentary highlighted your renowned stamina and ability to wrestle 60-minute matches nightly. Do you think those years of top conditioning helped you survive?

For sure. One year, I did 286 hours of wrestling matches and I did 10 years of at least 250 [hours]. That, plus my workouts in the morning, which were 500 free squats, 200 pushups or 500 step-ups, or the StairMaster for 30 minutes. I was very keen on conditioning. At hotels, I would do the fire escapes — 35 floors up and down three times. I used to go through a deck of cards — counting the jokers as [No.] 20. Every time you turn a card, I’d do that number of exercises. So, I would do that many squats, crunches, pushups. It would be 440 of each. The best I ever did that was 38 minutes. Try doing 440 pushups in 38 minutes. I’ve only lost a pushup contest to one guy and it was Kurt Angle. And I didn’t take that as an insult.

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What are the main health and fitness adjustments that you have made since surviving this ordeal?

Just riding a bike or walking the treadmill. I’ll do 30 minutes. Nothing too strenuous. Not that I couldn’t do it, but they don’t want me to. I’m taking their word this time. I’m not forming my own opinion [laughs]. I’ve gained back 14 lbs., which makes a big difference, but I’m still not able to work out the way I normally would, so that will be in another month or so. If you need me for the cover of Men’s Health, let me know. Give me a month to get ready [laughs]. By June, I could pull it off in a tank top.

How has your diet changed?

I eat a lot more carbs than I ever have. Lot of pasta and rice. Right now, [Thursday, November 2] is the first day I weighed over 220 pounds [since his health scare]. My normal weight is 230, although I lost 43 pounds down to 206 from probably about 248. I had gained some weight before. I’ve been basically my whole life a chicken and fish kind of guy.

How hard has it been to stop drinking?

Right now, you couldn’t give me $1 million to drink a beer. I don’t even think about [drinking] and nobody else would either if they were where I was. If I had just been in the hospital for a couple of days and they told me don’t drink, I wouldn’t have paid attention to it. But you come back from a 20 percent chance to live and I have a whole different perspective and outlook on it. My doctor made it really clear for me saying, "I can’t literally perform this miracle again. So, if you drink, you’re on your own. You won’t be in a position to be where we could bring you back." I only had to hear that once.

What’s one fitness do and don’t for each decade, beginning with your 20s to the present?

The only tip I could give people is don’t procrastinate and that goes through every decade. If you put [working out] off, you’re not going to get to it. I think the most important thing is to knock [a morning workout] out.

What do you want people to take away from watching your documentary?

I hope that they come away realizing that after 40-something years, I’m finally dealing with reality and the mistakes that I made over the course of my career.

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