George ‘Da Bull’ Peterson Charges Ahead | On Track For The New York Pro and Growing Into the 212 Class for the Mr. Olympia
George ‘Da Bull’ Peterson Charges Ahead
On Track For The New York Pro and Growing Into the 212 Class for the Mr. Olympia
Interview by Ron Harris
The last time I’d spoken to George Peterson III, wheels were in motion. It had been just a couple of months after he’d taken third place at the Classic Physique Olympia for the third year in a row, and George had made a career-changing decision. Even though he had been doing quite well in that division, it was time he stopped fighting his physique. Instead of killing himself to get down to 192 and still get criticized for “looking more like a bodybuilder than a Classic Physique pro,” Peterson was switching to the 212 division that many of us had felt he belonged in all along. His 212 debut would take place near home at the New York Pro. Then the world changed for all of us, and that May IFBB Pro League tradition was postponed. I spoke to George as he explained how he rolled with the punches and kept training and improving to ensure he makes an impact this year in the 212 division. It takes more than a virus and quarantine to stop this raging bull!
First off, you live in New York City, which was the hardest-hit area of the USA in the COVID-19 outbreak. What was that like?
It was crazy. When all of it started around the time of the Arnold, we didn’t know what to expect. We thought maybe it would blow over in a couple weeks, but it just kept escalating. It got to the point where it felt like the movie I Am Legend. I was waiting for planes to come blow up the bridges so nobody could come in or get out.
What affected many bodybuilders directly was that gyms were closed for months. You normally train at Bev and Steve’s Powerhouse, one of the best-equipped gyms in the Western world. What were you doing for training during that time?
In my basement, I have a bench, a bar and some plates, a few dumbbells, and a squat rack. I had to get creative because I didn’t have the heavy weights I’m used to using. I changed up my training style to emphasize more time under tension, slower, more controlled negatives, anything I could think of to burn up the muscle fibers. It worked. I felt just as sore as I would training balls to the wall heavy at Bev’s. Luckily for me even though I didn’t have as much weight as I would have liked, I still had weights. You can’t really stimulate muscles the way we need to as bodybuilders with calisthenics and bands. The experience did show me that there is more than one way to skin a cat. I recalled a couple excellent pros from the past like Vince Taylor and Serge Nubret who never lifted heavy, yet they were among the best of their eras.
In those few years where you were competing in Classic, you had to keep your weight down because ultimately you had to weigh in at 192. What was your off-season weight as a Classic Physique Pro, and what did it get up to at your heaviest before you started prep for the New York Pro?
My coach Justin had me staying around 225-230 in the off-season, even though my body always wanted to grow. I got up to 250 before I started dieting a few months ago. It wasn’t comfortable.
I followed you on your Instagram the whole time, and you never looked fat by any means.
I was in relatively good shape at that weight. It’s not like I was sloppy; it was just a lot of water weight, and there wasn’t much muscle separation or detail. When I’m very lean, a lot of things happen when I pose. At 250, there wasn’t much happening when I flexed the muscles!
Let’s do some basic math. Your previous weight limit for Classic was 192 pounds. In your new division, it’s 212, which gave you 20 pounds to play with. Did you put on 20 pounds of muscle after the 2019 Olympia?
I wouldn’t say that, but I’m sure I gained at least ten pounds of new muscle. My morning weight today was 240, and the way it’s looking, I think I would come right down to the limit of 212. If I do end up having to cut weight to make 212, it wouldn’t be much at all, like a pound or three maybe. The whole time I competed in Classic, I had to lose ten pounds of muscle to make 192. Now I get to keep all my muscle for the first time since I competed in bodybuilding years ago.
You were set to make your debut as a 212 competitor at the New York Pro on May 16. I was so psyched to see you win your 212 debut there. It was your hometown crowd, in the spring, just perfect. Then the quarantine hit, and it got postponed. When did you start prepping for that show?
I started dieting in late January, well before any of us knew about COVID-19. My weight was starting to come down gradually, and then boom! We got the shutdown notice in mid-March. When I got that news, I was like, what now? Let me just go to Dunkin’ Donuts and start inhaling donuts. But I didn’t. The situation with contests was uncertain, and that uncertainty works both ways. I didn’t know at that point if the show would be postponed or not. In case it didn’t, I wanted to be ready. I had already announced that my plan was to do the New York Pro. I stayed on my diet. The only thing I held off on was that normally at a certain point in my prep, I start taking fat burners. Once the new date of August, and then finally moved one last time to September, I knew how I needed to adjust all that. I had been doing cardio 6 days a week on the treadmill in my basement. I took that down to three times in those weeks where the new date wasn’t set yet. I also increased my carbs, though I kept eating clean the whole time.
I know a few people who stayed 100% on prep for shows that were later on in the spring, in hopes that the contests would still happen as originally scheduled. I can’t imagine prepping for a contest when you don’t even know exactly when that contest will be, can you?
When you’re getting ready for a bodybuilding show, you need to know when you will be competing. If your show ends up getting cancelled, you did all that dieting and cardio for nothing. That’s rough. But then again, if the show was scheduled for June or July, what if it still happens? If it does, you might be one of the few who is ready. You would be in a great position.
That makes me wonder about the “haves” and the “have nots” among competitors. Some people lived in places where the gyms were shut down, yet there were also a few states that never closed any businesses at all. Some people I saw on social media had home gyms that were basically a mini Gold’s Venice, while others only had a couple dumbbells and bands. You also had some states that opened up long before others. Did this give some competitors a massive advantage over their rivals?
Absolutely, there is no doubt that people did not all share the same circumstances when it came to training. But if people were smart, even if their equipment situation was limited, they should have stayed on their diets and kept getting leaner. That way, they would just have to put muscle back on once they could train properly again rather than have to try to lose fat and gain muscle at the same time. Muscle memory is powerful. It only takes a few weeks to put back anything you may have lost over a few months. If people still didn’t have enough time to get ready for the contest they had planned on, they might have to just pick a later show. You have to adapt. That’s how the human species made it this far! We were able to adapt to changes and thrive while others couldn’t and went extinct. The pandemic was just one more way the world challenged all of us.
We talk here mostly about bodybuilding, but what do you see happening with all of us after the threat of this pandemic is behind us?
I hope people will just live their lives and not be afraid all the time. You can’t live in fear. Being stressed out and worried can cause you to get sick too! God has a plan for all of us. If you weren’t meant to get the virus, you won’t. I’m not saying you shouldn’t be careful and follow all the guidelines to stay safe from infection. Just don’t live in fear. It accomplishes nothing.
How can we come out of this better?
The saying goes, you never know what you had until it’s gone. I feel that most of us will appreciate what we have in life, and we won’t take as much for granted ever again. We had so much taken away from us for months that we never imagined could ever happen. As a human race, we should be more united. The virus didn’t care if you were rich or poor, black or white, your religion, none of that. It killed anyone who was unfortunate enough to contract it and was unable to fight it off. I truly hope this tragedy brings us together.
Let’s end this on a positive note, what do you say? For you personally, what’s the best thing to come out of the quarantine and your show being postponed?
Sure. The 212 version of me you would have seen in May will be demolished by what you see on stage in September. The delay just gave me more time to improve. Trust me on that!
Training Split
Sunday: Chest
Monday: Calves, forearms, calves
Tuesday: OFF
Wednesday: Back
Thursday: Delts
Friday: Arms
Saturday: Legs
Contest History*
2008 NY Metro Championships
7th, Middleweight
2012 NY Metro Championships
Light-heavyweight and Overall
2013 Eastern USA
3rd, Heavyweight
2013 IFBB North American Championships
Heavyweight, did not place
2013 NPC Nationals
Heavyweight, did not place
2016 Eastern USA
Classic B and Overall
2016 NPC Nationals
Classic B and Overall
2017 NY Pro
Second place
2017 Vancouver Pro
Sixth place
2017 Chicago Pro
Second place
2017 Tampa Pro
Winner
2017 Classic Physique Olympia
Third place
2018 Classic Physique Olympia
Third place
2019 Arnold Classic
Winner
2019 Classic Physique Olympia
Third place
*All contests prior to 2106 were as a bodybuilder, from 2016 on all have been in Classic Physique
George’s Redcon1 Stack
Upon Waking
Double Tap powder, 1 scoop
With Breakfast
GI JUICE, 1 scoop
Pre-workout
Total War, Big Noise and MOAB all together, 1 scoop each
Post-workout
Breach, 2 scoops
Middle of the Day
Double Tap caps, 3 capsules
Evening
Silencer, 3 capsules
Before Bed
Fade Out, 1 scoop
For more information, visit redcon1.com
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