Who the Hell is Phil Heath?

Most of you probably know that Phil Heath was one of those rare bodybuilders who was signed to an exclusive publishing contract while he was still an amateur. That deal he inked with Weider/AMI happened shortly after his stunning Overall win at the 2005 NPC Junior Nationals, and a couple months before he turned pro at that year’s USA Championships. So for all these years, I have never been able to interview Phil, who by the time you read this should have five Mr. Olympia titles to his credit. However, there was a brief window of time – a sliver, really – before he signed that contract. In early June of 2005, I had the privilege of interviewing the then unknown Phil for a now defunct magazine. He was made their ‘Star Profile’ of the month even though at that point, the biggest title he held was The NPC Colorado champion and his Junior Nationals victory hadn’t even happened yet. That’s how obvious his potential was. Looking back at the interview over a decade later is interesting, to say the least. Here are some of the highlights.

On his short and long-term goals in bodybuilding:

“I want to win the Overall at the USA or Nationals within the next couple of years, and at the same time learn as much about the business as possible. I want to stay humble and meet as many people in the industry as I can. I would also really like to become a role model and use bodybuilding to inspire people. In college, I used to do community service with inner-city youth, at-risk kids – and I know that a lot of them could use bodybuilding as a positive influence. I want to make a good living, and show the world that you don’t have to be 270 pounds to win shows and be marketable. I want to be a true professional and make a legitimate career out of bodybuilding.”

On bodybuilders he looked up to:

“Back in the day it was Flex and Shawn, mainly because I just couldn’t see myself getting as massive as Dorian or Nasser. But now my favorite bodybuilder is Jay Cutler. I met him a few times, and after the third time he became my mentor in the sport. We talk on the phone almost every day. We actually guest posed together at the Northern Colorado this April Jay is my favorite bodybuilder – not so much for his physique or his titles, but more for his business sense. I was a business major, after all, and he is someone who had an innate sense that a professional athlete is a product, and needs to be marketed as such. Those who understand that are the most successful in the industry. I bought Shawn Ray’s video Inside and Out, and it doesn’t even have any training in it. It’s all about marketing and finding opportunities.”

On the spring 2005 mandate from the IFBB announcing that distended bellies and Synthol use would be marked down:

“The figures on bodybuilding trophies look perfect. They represent the ideal physique; perfectly symmetrical with little waists and round muscle bellies flowing from small joints. They sure don’t have distended bellies and weird lumps. It’s funny, in my first contest I beat a guy who had a bunch of Synthol in his shoulders, but I had no idea until a judge told me about it. Guys tell me about all the steroids they take, and they don’t even look very good. As far as I’m concerned, bodybuilding doesn’t pay enough to risk your health for it. And going crazy with steroids won’t make up for bad genes.”

Earliest memory of a bodybuilder:

“I saw Arnold Schwarzenegger as a guest on Oprah, and started watching his movies. He was so huge and ripped in movies like Predator and Twins. There was a scene in Twins – he flexes his arm and rips the sleeve of his shirt wide open. Once I saw that, I said, “That’s it. I have to do that. I have to look like that.”

On his very early weight training and gains:

“I started weightlifting as part of my basketball conditioning at the University of Denver in 1998. Our training was almost all powerlifting and Olympic lifting, which laid a great foundation for strength. We did a lot of squats, deadlifts. And clean and jerks. In the first two months of freshman year, before we started the season, I was weight training five days a week on top of having three-hour practices on the court. But because I was eating a lot of good cafeteria food, in that time I managed to go from 155 to 175 pounds. I looked like a completely different person.”

How basketball led to bodybuilding:

“That all happened once my basketball career came to an end. It was my last year playing Division I, and I was being scouted by a few NBA teams. I had a tryout with the Phoenix Suns, but it didn’t lead to anything. Around that time I saw the 1998 Mr. Olympia contest and was just blown away by Flex Wheeler. I said, “Wow, that dude is the shit! He’s the man. He looks perfect – healthy and athletic. I used to see him and Shawn Ray on ESPN, and always thought it would be great to have a physique like that. But it wasn’t until basketball was over that I really started thinking about getting serious about bodybuilding. I started working out a couple of guys at my gym, and one of them was competing at the 2002 Colorado State contest. I went to watch him and I was hooked. Looking up at the guys competing, and knowing what I looked like with barely any training, I realized that I could do very well. Claude Groulx (note: now retired IFBB Pro from Canada who won the Masters Mr. Olympia) was the guest poser, and in the lobby some kids saw me in my sleeveless basketball jersey and asked me to compare biceps with Claude. I didn’t want to, but it turned out my arms were as big as his, even though I weighed only 185 pounds. Claude told me that I had loads of potential. So on October 8, 2002, I had my official ‘before’ pictures taken. That was the day I decided to become a bodybuilder.”

On his first contest:

“My training partners worked security at a club, and I also started working there. They were always trying to get me to flex my arms or show my abs for the girls. What they were really doing was trying to help me get used to flexing in front of people so that competing wouldn’t seem so outlandish. They finally talked me into competing in the 2003 Northern Colorado. I was more nervous that day than I had ever been before in my life. The ironic thing was that I had played basketball and thrown free throws in front of 20,000 people, playing teams like Ohio State and BYU, and that had never bothered me. I came out onstage with this big scowl, figuring that looking mean would cover up how scared I was. The only thing that broke my demeanor was that some lady up at the front yelled, “Smile, you’re beautiful!” A few women whistled and hollered, and I couldn’t help but break into a smile.

This bodybuilding thing was tough, because I had always played team sports. This was the first time that I would be up there all by myself, and I was terrified. But at 192 pounds after only four weeks of dieting, I won the Novice, the Open Light-Heavyweight, and the Overall. I got mobbed after the show and I felt like a rock star. I was so overwhelmed that I cried all night. But I also knew that this was something I was meant to do. I had found my true talent.”

And found it he had. Twelve years later, that scared kid is now a seven-time Mr. Olympia champion who appears to be well on his way to tying the record of eight wins jointly held by Lee Haney and Ronnie Coleman. It’s true that he always had astounding genetics that only needed the right stimulus to be revealed, but hopefully these quotes from Phil made a decade ago show that even the absolute greatest at what they do had to start somewhere.

Epilogue: Recently Phil Heath parted ways with AMI/Weider after over 13 years under contract, and I was able to interview him again at last. That interview appeared as a Ronline Report on the MD site as well as the cover feature in our September 2018 issue.

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