My understanding about nutrition is not what I'd like it to be, so for a long time my dieting strategy was very crude. It's only very recently that I started to accept different ideas like using vegetables and natural seasonings that don't compromise the sodium and caloric value of the food while at the same time giving it some flavor. I'm still evolving; everybody is or at least should be in bodybuilding.

Champions are an example of what happens when you decide to leave the plane of average thinking, where you dare to dream and you dare to go after that dream, and you make these thoughts and ideas become more than something than just a dream. They actually become a vision.

The weight is just a tool. Do you focus on the hammer or the nail? You better focus on the thing you're trying to hit.

I don't really believe in cardio. I train with a very high intensity, which in turn gives it an aerobic effect. I like to use anaerobic resistance type movements or exercises. I don't believe in sitting on a Stairmaster or a bike for hours, that's just not me.

It's like you have to save your own life, nobody is going to be your savior for you, so we have to do what we have to do, no matter what it is

I'd like to get to a point where I am not considered natural by myself. When I say that I mean that I don't want to fit within the guidelines of what other people feel it is to be natural. If people feel that natural bodybuilders usually are the ones who lack legs or have poor body parts or don't train very hard or aren't very strong or aren't very intense, if that's your perception of what a natural bodybuilder is, then that's not what I want to be.

It’s a very interesting thing to try to be your absolute best—not a percent better or a percent worse than that.