In conjunction with the launch of his new supplement line, Ronnie Coleman Signature Series, Ronnie is now touring across South East Asia and other parts of the world promoting and educating consumers about RCSS. In Singapore, Fitlion has partnered with Ronnie so you guys could learn more about RCSS and most of all, meet and greet the living bodybuilding legend himself! And thanks to Fitlion and F1 Recreation, I was able to interview Ronnie Coleman and ask him some of the questions which you guys have forwarded to me. So check out how the interview went.

Me: Hey Ronnie, great to see you again. Remember me?

Ronnie: From 2010?

Me: Yea. I was that kid who was following you around the entire trip with my camera.

Ronnie: Oohhh yeahh!! Now I remember.

Me: So how’s the wife and kids doing nowadays?

Ronnie: Everybody’s doing great. No problems and just having a nice time. Haha.

Me: How many daughters do you have?

Ronnie: Six.

Me: Wow. How old are they?

Ronnie: The oldest is 27. The youngest is 7 months. Her name is Lola.

Me: How’s your health now, after so many years of bodybuilding?

Ronnie: My health is 100% good but I’m recovering from my last surgery back in December. I had a double neck fusion. It’s going pretty good though. So far I’ve gotten back to say, 75%. The doctor says that I will take about 2 years for me to fully recover cause my nerves have been compressed for a good while. But as long as I’m seeing progress, I’m happy. Awhile back, it was pretty bad.

Me: Was it so bad that you couldn’t walk once?

Ronnie: No no no. What happen was my right lat, biceps and delt had lost about 3 inches. But now it’s getting back to where it was. I took some pictures the other day and my right biceps actually looked bigger than my left.

Me: So when you’re back to 100 percent, you’ll be going back on stage again?

Ronnie: Yea I will. I’m going to compete in the Masters Mr Olympia cause I can’t compete with the regular big guys no more. But with the older guys, we all had our glory days, so we’re going to just have fun.

Me: Can’t wait to see you onstage man. Good luck. Speaking of the big guys, one of my readers want to know, what do you think about this guy called Kai Greene?

Ronnie: I think Kai is a great bodybuilder. He can be Mr Olympia if he puts on just a little bit more size in his delts and arms. His legs are already huge, so a little more on the delts and arms will give him the appearance of being more complete in every shot. Some people said that he actually deserved the win this year but the champion will always have the advantage and be the favourite so it’s hard to overtake that.

Me: How about Jay Cutler? Do you think he can come back and reclaim his title?

Ronnie: No. One thing you can’t beat in this world is time. I learnt that the hard way. You can’t play basketball forever. You can’t play football forever. You can’t bodybuild forever. I mean you CAN do it, but not at a high level against younger guys who have more time and have not reached their peaks yet. There’s only so much the body can do and once you’re done, you can’t go back in time. He’s past his prime now. Especially with Phil Heath getting into his prime, Jay can’t compete against him anymore.

Me: Alright, let’s move on to your supplements. Again from one of my readers, he wants to know, what makes Ronnie Coleman Signature Series different or better than other brands?

Ronnie: What we always try to do is to put in more quality ingredients into our supplements. We don’t necessarily want to make the most profits out of our supplements. Instead, we’re trying to make the best supplements. I’ve been in the industry for a long time and I know that many companies put in cheap ingredients into their stuff. Many companies, especially when they have made it to the top, they just want to make money. They are more like marketing geniuses than anything else.

Me: So which is your favourite supplement and tell us why.

Ronnie: I must say my favourite is definitely the protein, Pro-Antium. It’s the only supplement I take twice per day, whether I’m training or not. I still live the bodybuilder’s lifestyle and have a protein shake with grits every morning and another shake at night. So, my favourite supplement is protein, by far.

Me: I heard that after every Mr Olympia, you take a 3-months break before resuming training. If you could do it all again, will you still take that break? And do you recommend that we smaller guys take that break too?

Ronnie: Yup. It allowed my body to recover. If you take a hammer and hit something over and over again, it’s gonna be destroyed. I don’t wanna destroy my body cause I want my body to last me as long as it possible can. If you train hard and push it everyday, your body is going to wear out. I wanted to keep on winning Mr Olympias, so I gave my body time to recover. I didn’t like it because working out is what I love, but it’s something I have to do. And I would recommend it to other bodybuilders too.

Me: When you train, what goes through your mind?

Ronnie: Umm… I’m always thinking about how many reps I’m gonna do and the amount of weight. When it’s time, I get really focused, reminding myself to breathe and only go up so high cause’ I don’t wanna put too much tension on my joints. And lastly I’m focusing on strength cause you need strength to do the number of reps you need to do. My goal is to get a certain number of reps.

Me: Some people say they focus more on contraction and mind in the muscle. Do you believe in that?

Ronnie: You can believe in that if you want to. For me, I focus on lifting the weight because contraction is automatic when you lift. I never focus on contraction. Some people have said, “Hey man, you’re doing half reps!” but I don’t really do half reps. I’m focusing on my muscle. I’m not focusing on a certain style of lifting or contracting. I’m just trying to get the weight up. I’m trying to build muscle.

Me: Alright, let’s get away from the serious stuff and to something more fun. What is the most insane thing a fan has done for you or to you?

Ronnie: Mannnn… I just don’t know where to begin. I must say the craziest thing is the mass of people trying to get to me. I remember once I was in China for a seminar or something and there were maybe a thousand people there. As soon as I was leaving the place, all of them rushed to me, just trying to touch me or something. I had many bodyguards trying to protect me but that was one of the craziest things that I have ever seen cause it was A LOT of people. I mean, I wasn’t scared or anything, haha, with my strength and all but I was just shocked and amazed at how people were inspired by me or whatever.

Me: Hahaha. Yup, there certainly were. Alright, so… Shawn Rhoden.

Ronnie: Yup, we just signed him up. I think Shawn is like me in a way when I just came into the sport. I didn’t know a lot about bodybuilding so I started to learn from people who do. I started learning from Brian Dobson (owner of MetroFlex Gym) and when Brian’s knowledge was maxed out I had to go on to the next level. I worked with Chad Nicholls and that took me to the next level. Shawn is probably experiencing the same thing. There’s only so few people who can get him to where he wants to be and I think I can help him get there with my knowledge and expertise.

Me: So you’re gonna train him or help him with his diet or something?

Ronnie: Yeap, I’m gonna help him with his training, diet and everything else, including of course, supplements.

Me: One reader wants to know where did “Yeah buddy!”, “Ain’t nothing but a peanut!” and “Light weight!” came from.

Ronnie: One day I was in the gym alone and it was hot and quiet and I just got tired of being in there by myself. I needed some motivation so I just started yelling out stuff and it became what I yell out all the time. I was just trying to spice it up and make things different. Hahaha.

Me: Haha. Ok, here’s an interesting one. You know this guy named Justin Bieber? What do you think about him?

Ronnie: Yup, heard of him. But I like rap music. I don’t really know what he does and what the fans think about him, but if he’s not rapping then it’s not my concern. I just know a lot of girls like him so more power to him. I don’t wish to be him, but I’m glad for him and I wish him as much success as he can have.

Me: Alright. Let’s find a way for him to see this. Hahaha.

Ronnie: Hahaha.

Me: *clears throat* Back to the interview, will you ever write an autobiography about yourself and what you’ve done?

Ronnie: You know, I actually thought about it but Ronnie Coleman Signature Series is keeping me busy right now. We’re coming out with more products, including a fat burner, Phenbuterol, and amino acid supplement, Amino Tone and a whey protein isolate supplement.

Me: So you said you have six daughters?

Ronnie: Yup six daughters. Maybe the next one will be a son.

Me: Wow, if you had a son, everyone will be like, “Whoah! That’s the next big thing! That’s Ronnie Coleman Jr!”

Ronnie: Hahaha. I would like that to happen. I mean, it’s not in my control, but that would be cool.

Me: Yup, imagine he’ll get nine Mr Olympias so both father and son combined will have seventeen Mr Olympias!

Ronnie: Yea, that would be the ULTIMATE for me!

Me: That would be cool. Do you think that people should train heavy when preparing for a competition?

Ronnie: Yup, I always train heavy and it worked well for me. I always train heavy and put on size for a competition. Most people would be worried about an injury but if you’re gonna worry about it so much, it’s gonna happen anyway. For me, I was doing 800lbs deadlifts 5 weeks out from a show. I was going heavy all the way up to 2 weeks from a show. By then, I couldn’t lift heavy because I was weaker, not because I didn’t want to.

Me: Last question, during your last Mr Olympia, you had a lat injury, right?

Ronnie: Yup, at the last Mr Olympia, I was in so much pain I could barely flex my abs. What happened was I had a herniated disc back in 1996. It has progressed to the point where I can’t stand for 5 minutes without being in excruciating pain. It was really pressing against my nerves and I guess it had affected my lats too, making hard for it to come out. I had a surgery 2 months after the Olympia.

Me: Alright, that was the last question but do you mind doing me a favour? Could you look at the camera and read this for my girlfriend? 🙂

Ronnie:

And that was it, folks! Like Fabodylous on Facebook for more exclusive interviews, event updates and more videos!

Special thanks to Fitlion.com for this exclusive interview!