Shadowing Practice: This Morning Routine Won Me 6 Olympias - Learn English Speaking with Video
Creating lesson...
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What is up YouTube?
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Today I'm gonna be taking you guys through my exact morning routine that won me six Olympias.
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It varied a little bit of course over the years, but this was like the consistent things that I did
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that really helped me just lock in and focus for the day and for prep.
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Back then, it was about achieving the Olympia.
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Now it's about trying to become who I am.
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Currently 5.30 in the morning.
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Wake up before the children are awake, when the birds are chirping, before the things are turning.
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Your mind just feels a little bit calmer.
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I always started with a little morning walk in the light and then did a little cardio.
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So I'm going to take a walk down the treadmill and update you over there.
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What's motivating you to bring the morning routine back?
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I feel like when I retired from competing, I stopped doing a lot of things that made me better, not because they weren't working, but just because I didn't have the Olympia.
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And it just became so clear to me
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that it was a lot easier to have discipline when you had a huge goal and when you had a deadline,
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but actually choosing to have discipline just for the sake of building self-respect
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and self-trust and just feeling more organized and centered and aligned in your life is so important to everyone.
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That moment of alignment at the beginning of the day, I think, just sets you up for success.
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And it's so easy to, for me, without the deadline for the Olympia, to just be like, I don't need to do it.
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But then I don't feel as good within myself.
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And I'm like, why?
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And it's a slow drift away from, like, I feel good because I'm doing all these things.
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Oh, well, I don't need to set an alarm anymore.
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I don't need to take a cold shower.
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I don't need to go for a walk outside.
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I don't need to do these things.
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And one little thing at a time, slowly just, like, drift away from, like, that confident, self-trusted man
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that I used to be into like this kind of like lesser version I guess
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and it happens so slowly that's what people don't realize happens to fucking anybody
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so you gotta choose every day to lock back in and the morning is like the vehicle for that yes
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One of the coolest things I feel like I used to do
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that I didn't talk about a whole lot was when I would do my cardio.
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The first, I'd do like a 20-minute walk, and then the first 20-25 minutes, I wouldn't allow myself to look at my phone,
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minus the specific 24-7 meditation music that was on YouTube, just the first thing that would come up.
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I'd put my headphones in, I would cheat, I'd put my hands here, close my eyes, and I'd walk, and I would visualize the point where I was at in prep all the way to stepping on stage
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and giving my speech.
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and I would just sit there and I would like walk through what each prep would look like.
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I would watch myself waking up every week, looking better, looking on point, getting to the Olympia, training with my coach, whether it was Ian or Hani down there,
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going to the check-ins, going to the weigh-ins, going to the press conference, being backstage, getting tamed, like all the things I would just visualize it
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and it would get to the point where I'd be on stage
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and I would like hear Bob Chagallo's name calling my name like, and still you're two, three,
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four, five, six times Mr. Olympia and I would like get chills on the treadmill.
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And then I would like see myself going up there and like giving a speech.
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And I'd have tears coming down my eyes some days.
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Just like sitting here like this by myself at 5 a.m doing cardio, just like not just visualizing, but literally feeling what it would feel like to win the Olympia that year.
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So then a therapist would like walk me through doing it to try to like ease my like anxiety
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and nerves that I had about going on stage.
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And it works so well.
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Like when I tell you like when your body feels like it's experienced something emotionally, even before it's actually happened, you just feel more confident doing it,
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and you're just more likely to achieve it.
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It feels, it's hard to explain into words how strong that felt, and it's something I never really took to apply to other areas of my life,
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even when I had like a big talk or a seminar or a Q and A or something, sometimes I would do that, but it's something I'm like realizing that you can apply to the small things in life,
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where like, why can't I change this?
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Like, why am I reactive in these situations?
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Why am I anxious in these situations?
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If you really can like access that part of yourself, that is confident in the situation, to show them how you want, and feel what it feels like, and walk yourself through that.
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It's kind of like you've already done it when you got there.
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So that was a huge way that helped me.
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Also get through 25 minutes of cardio.
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I'd open my eyes and be like, oh shit, it's been 25 minutes?
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Cool.
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Then I throw in some anime, I watched Naruto or Demon Slayer, something cool, and that was my reward for getting to that point.
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And then I'd go off to breakfast.
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So it was a really cool part of my morning routine, which I felt like was very helpful.
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And the best time of day with stepping off that thing, being done an hour, usually only got to an hour at once of cardio, and then go and eat breakfast.
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We're just like, finally food.
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Just like stomach grumbling on there.
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These were before the time for bodybuilders were taking GLPs and we just had to suffer in our hunger.
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What's the morning smoothie looking like these days?
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Morning smoothie, I dimmed it a little bit because I'm gonna have my prep breakfast, But it used to be I would make a smoothie I cheated here.
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I wouldn't have had peanut butter in prep, but like
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But I have a scoop of protein I would either do I did dark chocolate probably
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95% of the days in my prep that I had Other than that I would like cookies and cream or something,
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but dark chocolate with my coat Some green team some fiber a banana ice.
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Later on prep the banana, I'll take it away, but I'm not prepped so I put the banana in there.
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And then I would make this and then I would make a little bit of oats and eggs.
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Is there like a macro that you prioritize in the morning?
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Not really, honestly.
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In prep specifically, by the end of it, it was just low carb, low fat.
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It was making sure I got like 50 grams of protein in like six times a day at least.
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I would try and I just put my carbs around when I was training.
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So I didn't always train right after in the morning.
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Sometimes I would train like three meals later in the day so I had a little bit more food in me.
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And like peak prep when I was like exhausted, it would be like breakfast, nap, meal, drink.
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Just crazy to wake up, eat breakfast, and then take a nap.
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But I was so tired.
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I would lie on my couch in the sunlight and just like feet up on the edge and you're just like, for like an hour of sleep.
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That was a glory days.
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No more naps.
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Alright babe, no more naps anymore, eh?
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He probably gets a nap, but no less.
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And what I did forget to show is I used to wake up every morning before all my cardio.
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I would sit there and meditate because it was like that peaceful time of day.
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But we're not going to film that
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because it's fucking stupid to pretend like you're meditating with a camera in front of you.
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Would you say this morning routine is applicable to anyone?
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I feel like it definitely could be.
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I feel like if you're doing 45 minutes of cardio, walking in the morning and a workout, probably not.
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That's like two hours plus of like exercise for an average person is not really feasible.
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But the idea of like waking up, having some time alone, for a walk, moving your body, get some sunlight, get your water and a quick meditation,
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having like intentional things to do and eating the same thing every day.
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I think one of the most important aspects of it is the fact
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that it's a routine so that you're doing the same thing all the time
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that would be the easiest thing to prep when you're tired and like get fatigued.
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Taking the thinking out of things made it easier.
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Life, everyone's busy.
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Chaos every day, things change.
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If you have something that never change, you have a routine.
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You don't have to think about it.
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You just go through the motions and it like builds you in momentum for the day.
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I think that's what's available to everyone in the way.
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This is exactly how I used to set it up.
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I have my oatmeal.
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I'm gonna shake my eggs.
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like I said to make it feel like I was eating more.
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I've had the same phone case on different phones for, I don't know, a long time, like six years.
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I'd put my phone case like this, and I'd turn my anime on, and I would just sit and eat breakfast like this.
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Everything in the morning.
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My whole morning would be like not on my phone until that point in cardio where I would flip it on, and then it would rip through the rest of that episode of breakfast,
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and that was the morning, essentially.
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Sometimes I'd go take a nap.
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Sometimes I'd go shower again.
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Sometimes I'd go train.
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Egg whites, eggs, protein shake, oatmeal, a little bit of fruit.
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Typically what we get pulled at first would be like, egg yolk, fruit, banana, less oats, until you're down to like just eggs,
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like one egg and some egg whites, in the last like week or two.
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There's like a famous quote about like, starting your day off with a weight like making your bed in the morning
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and that being your first one of the day.
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Do you feel like that's the most meaningful thing to you about your morning routine
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or some more about structure or something else?
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I mean, subjective words, I guess, but for me, it feels more like structure and as well as that, just that concept of when you tell yourself you're going to do something and then you're like, Oh, I don't really want to do it.
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Then you do it anyway through like strengthening that muscle in your mind to be like, Oh, I do the things I tell myself I was going to do for long term, delayed gratification, not for immediate comfort.
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I think just starting your day with
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that like message to yourself like I do the thing
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that aligns with my values that is going to get me to the goal
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that I want rather than the thing that is immediately comfortable
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and easy right now that's like the cold shower the cardio
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you don't want to do getting up from your alarm
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when it's like oh I just want to snooze this
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so you can see that as a win as well 100% I guess how you define it
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but that's the big thing for me and I feel like For me now, it's like understanding that I don't need an Olympia to live like that.
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Whereas before, I feel like achievement was my big value that I was chasing.
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Like I want to achieve, I want to win the Olympia.
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So I'm aligning my actions with that.
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And now the goal is general alignment, which means I have a set of standards that I live by.
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And I align myself with them because it's who I am.
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So I feel like that transition of like I'm doing something for achievement versus I'm doing something because it's who I am.
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It's part of my identity.
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I feel like that's lasting.
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And maybe it might not be as dramatic, but that's something that's actually sustainable to like fill you up
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and drive you and you build things that you realize make you feel good.
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You sit back and you actually define what are the standards that are important to me?
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What values do I want to uphold and I might actually actually are my actions actually aligning with them?
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Or am I leaning too much into the comfortable easy thing like sleeping in eating whatever I want skipping cardio warm showers?
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We should
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But yeah, that's that's like that's the season that's the culmination of what the season is so
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That's where the challenge I want to do
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that I want to set coming into everything too so so
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that you would probably be hearing a lot of these similar style rants to me in the future
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but this is just a small the morning routine is just a small piece it's like
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when people say showing up with half the battle no it's
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not morning routine is not half the battle it's just a little message
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to get the day started the right way now we're gonna
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go work out today is a general upper body day still
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in my little fixing my body phase right now a little bit
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so little shoulders little biceps little triceps with a little bit of a pump in there
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but in like huge stretched positions just to really like strengthen them in the right ways
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and they got one more week of this they were moving into the fun shit getting strong
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so excited for
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that all right here we are at the gym upper body
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day all my workouts right now start with a triple superset where it starts with the pails
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and rails stretch kind of thing
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and then we move on to some other stuff i'm doing abs three times a week right now
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so i'm doing a stretch over there a row with the prisoner handle
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which is like like a handcuff essentially
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so you're pulling your arm out as you're doing the pull down
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and then uh oblique style crunch i do a bunch of obliques right now in this training phase
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so i'll run you guys through what
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that looks like tricep honestly gets in this too but it's very like lat focused I guess.
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Super deep grip.
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Get into an extreme shoulder flexion so you feel that deep stretch here.
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And then I'm pulling down as hard as I can like this.
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And then I'm pushing up for five seconds.
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So five seconds down and then five seconds up.
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And I'm not actually moving, I'm just trying.
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And often times the antagonist muscle will feel like so weak.
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Like I'm up in that position and I'm like, I don't even know if I'm flexing it, but you're almost just thinking that you are even just thinking you are,
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well at least relax the lat that you're stretching and it'll still help.
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Not very entertaining to watch, looks like you're not moving but trying.
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Trying to move the whole rack.
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So again that band is there trying to make my arms externally rotate as I'm rowing it
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and I'm stopping in that mid position
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and I'm really trying to take my scapula
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and like rotate it down my back
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and like let it just like tuck down and you feel your scapula just like ripped up
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forcing it down into that position, holding for 5 seconds, finish the rep.
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The most important part of this movement is that 5 second hold, more so than the actual full rep.
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Yeah.
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Whoo.
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They've been
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doing abs for four weeks and they don't cramp as much.
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Imagine that.
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You actually train them to make up cramping.
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I think they're called the Czech press.
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I don't know if it's from Czechoslovakia or what, but the main goal in these is them bringing my arms back as far as they can
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and I'm trying to press the whole way and then I'm letting them fall forward down and then back up.
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So really try to keep your trap rhomboids tucked down, shoulders, elbows flared backwards.
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Alright, so we're setting that with a little Cuban press.
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Pull it up, rotate, press.
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All these things are like not the craziest deltoid developers, but it's still hitting them in different ranges of motion than you're used to.
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And like the stabilizer rotator cuff, all the little parts that you normally don't use in my body are just like burning right now.
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So when I do progress into heavy dumbbells, my body's just like a machine, locked in, no injuries.
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When does taking it easy become laziness?
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I feel like it becomes lazy when you lose control of it, when things aren't intentional.
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Like when people are like, oh, you know what?
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I worked really hard today.
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If I go home
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and I'm on my phone for 10 minutes like cool like I'll just enjoy being on my phone
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but if they're like oh I'm on my phone way too much like I scroll Instagram too much
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and then an hour later they're on their phone scrolling Instagram doing it
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and they're like you know what I worked hard today it's fine it's
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when the justifications don't match what your values are so
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when you're in like a state of like feeling good everyone has states of being motivated versus not when you're motivated, easy to make good decisions and do the right thing.
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When you're not, your actions require more discipline.
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And if your actions in the moments of lower motivation don't align with your desires of higher motivation,
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to me that's when it becomes laziness.
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So it's a matter of intention rather than what you do.
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Like if someone runs a fucking ultra marathon, they do 150 miles and then they sit in bed for a week.
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They're not being lazy, that was their thing, but if you have a fucking just a lazy piece of shit and you sit in bed for a week, it is.
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Obviously extreme versions, but like I said, it's just about sitting down with yourself in moments of motivation and feeling good, understanding what your values are,
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aligning your actions with those, and then in the moments that are really hard, the days where you've lost sleep, the days where everything goes wrong, fucking chaos just breaks out,
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you're late for everything, there's fucking traffic, like the sky's falling, still aligning your actions with your values is not laziness, in my opinion.
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So at the end of the day, you know yourself if you're in it.
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And there's no cheating.
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There's no posting on Instagram like, I worked hard today, I wasn't lazy.
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And then you go home and feel like shit about yourself and you're lying.
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It doesn't matter.
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It matters how you feel inside.
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Like I said at the beginning of this, it's not about the achievement, it's about who you are.
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Alright, last
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part of this work is to get a little bit of a little bit of a little bit Alright, last part of this workout.
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Some deep stretch in the tricep and bicep.
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I'm doing a 35 degree incline bicep curl.
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This is like as low as you can get doing this.
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I need to slide up the bench a bit because my hands will hit the ground.
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We're getting that crazy stretch, curling up.
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And then we're gonna do a tricep extension I'll set up over there, but again, we set my elbow up on a pad and extension.
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Crazy stretch, and we're done.
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um the
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goal with this i'm trying to use that pad to get my lat tricep into a stretch position,
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like pushing down against it while getting that tricep extension.
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And you can like feel like you rarely are in that position trying to move a load, but it feels like, almost like crampy when you're on the edge of that stretch and then you contract it.
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Feels good, very good.
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So peaceful with this and turn it off.
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To wrap on today's video, I feel like this was a reflection of what my morning routine was like that I used to win Olympias.
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And as you can see, there were bits I sprinkled it in every now and then, like sauna, cold plunge, I would do some other things.
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But the actual staple of what I did were just these really simple things that you can do in a hotel, in an apartment, in whatever.
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Like you can just get it done wherever.
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It's just really about choosing to do that thing in the morning, choosing to wake up maybe 30 minutes early to start your day properly rather than just like jumping into chaos
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when you roll out of bed being late jumping in the
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shower grab some food around the door go to work
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and then your day is just like repeated and over giving yourself just
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that moment of stillness in the morning to slow down gather yourself
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and your thoughts because honestly there's so many things wrong with our world right now
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but just the ability to slow down it's like no one
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has it even me i've had to delete social media off my phone i'd re-download it post it
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and delete it
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because like it's not about oh what more discipline you have You have to create environments that you can actually thrive in.
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Give yourself the opportunity to wake up early, delete the apps off your phone, force schedule in time to do nothing.
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You have to choose, intentionally choose to do these things.
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It's not just like, I'm going to try harder and have more discipline.
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You truly need a system to set yourself up for success, or you're not going to.
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And I have not been doing that since retiring from the Olympia.
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I've slowly drifted away from the system that I had that allowed me to win Olympias, and now I'm rebuilding a system so that I can become who I want to be.
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to achieve something so that's a wrap on this video thank you guys for watching see you next time
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How a Champion's Morning Routine Can Boost Your English Speaking
The video shares a legendary athlete's morning routine that fueled six Olympia wins, blending discipline, visualization, and self-growth. Beyond fitness, it’s a goldmine for english speaking practice—with natural, conversational language perfect for shadowing. Let’s break down how to learn from it!
Top 5 Phrases for Daily Communication
- "lock in and focus" – To commit fully to a task (e.g., "I need to lock in and focus on my presentation").
- "slow drift away from" – Gradually lose a habit or trait (e.g., "I’m drifting away from my morning runs").
- "set you up for success" – Prepare for positive results (e.g., "A good breakfast sets you up for success").
- "visualize the point" – Imagine a goal in detail (e.g., "Visualize the point where you finish the race").
- "ease my anxiety" – Reduce stress (e.g., "Music eases my anxiety before tests").
Step-by-Step Shadowing Guide for This Video
This video’s conversational tone and storytelling make it ideal for shadow speak. Here’s how to practice:
- Listen & Repeat: Pause after short phrases (e.g., "What is up YouTube? Today I'm gonna be taking you guys through...") and mimic the rhythm and intonation. Focus on natural pauses like "of course over the years" or "but actually choosing to have discipline."
- Emphasize Emotion: The speaker uses passion ("I'd get chills on the treadmill!") and reflection ("it happens so slowly"). Copy these feelings to improve your expressive speaking—key for real conversations.
- Chunk Visualization Lines: Phrases like "I would watch myself waking up every week, looking better..." are long but structured. Break them into chunks and repeat to master flow. This works for shadow speech practice with longer sentences.
- Record & Compare: Film yourself shadowing, then compare to the video. Notice differences in pace (he speaks quickly but clearly) and adjust. This is how to learn english with youtube effectively—by mirroring real speakers.
With consistent practice, you’ll not only boost your English but also adopt the discipline of a champion. Use this video as your shadowing site for daily wins—your future self will thank you!
Grammar in this video
The structures the speaker uses most, with the exact words from the video:
| Structure | In the video |
|---|---|
| “Used to” used to + verb — a past habit or state that is no longer true | used to be · used to do · used to wake |
| Present perfect have/has + past participle — a past action that still matters now | you've already done · They've been · you've lost |
| Passive voice be + past participle — the focus is on what happens, not who does it | being done · being motivated |
What is the Shadowing Technique?
Shadowing is a science-backed language learning technique originally developed for professional interpreter training and popularized by polyglot Dr. Alexander Arguelles. The method is simple but powerful: you listen to native English audio and immediately repeat it out loud — like a shadow following the speaker with just a 1–2 second delay. Unlike passive listening or grammar drills, shadowing forces your brain and mouth muscles to simultaneously process and reproduce real speech patterns. Research shows it significantly improves pronunciation accuracy, intonation, rhythm, connected speech, listening comprehension, and speaking fluency — making it one of the most effective methods for IELTS Speaking preparation and real-world English communication.