Classic Shawn

10 Questions With Shawn Ray

1. Can you share with us your arm workouts? I’m having a hard time building my peak and my horseshoe on my triceps.

I train my arms twice a week, bi’s and tri’s together. I alternate from one workout to the next as far as which area I train first. That said, basic arm training for me is picking three exercises for four sets each.

Biceps: barbell curls, one-arm curls and concentration curls for my biceps are standard.

Triceps: Triceps press-down, skull-crushers and one-arm dumbbell presses.

2. Seems like everyone who has a podcast is a bodybuilding expert when it comes down to predictions and reviews of bodybuilding shows and athletes. What’s your position on random guys talking like they’re experts but never go to bodybuilding shows yet feel the need to chime in with their opinions on what the sport needs to make it better?

I’m all for everyone having an opinion and expressing themselves through freedom of speech, and social media provides that platform to reach a wider audience. That said, consider your source of information as an important component for factual, reliable information. Guys sitting at home, in their mom’s basement, being keyboard warriors, breaking down world-class physiques and analyzing professional contests that they never see in person while critiquing promoters, analysts and athletes they know nothing about are not always the best source of reliable information.

3. Why is it that you’re one of the few pros that never counted calories, took measurements of your body parts or used the scale as a guide as you prepared for the sport’s biggest contest, the Mr. Olympia, for well over a decade?

Well, there are a number of reasons for that. I’ve always considered myself an artist and an artist constructs things using their intuition most of the time. I didn’t have a blueprint, I never used a guru and I relied heavily on workout partners to monitor my progress. The mirror was my number one source of affirmation in terms of watching my body change throughout the weeks and months of competition training. My diet would adjust based on my energy and strength or lack thereof. I learned what my body needed to use as fuel to build muscle and break down fat by trial and error. Once I learned to take command of my body I was able to adjust and adapt through manipulation of training and certain foods to change my appearance from one show to the next.

4. Over the years we’ve seen a lot of great photographs of you during your bodybuilding career. Who is the best photographer that you worked with and why?

That’s a very good question that has multiple layers to it for me to try and answer. I guess the photographer could also be asked who is the best bodybuilder that they ever worked with. I’ll do my best to answer your question.

I’ve worked with some of the best physique photographers in the world during my career, including Chris Lund, John Balik, Mike Neveux, Robert Reif, Bill Dobbins, Ralph DeHaan, Paula Crane, Jim Amentler, Irv Gelb, Per Bernal, Harry Langdon, Gary Phillips and Herb Ritts, to name a few. All very different in terms of “assignments.” Gym shoots are different than studio shoots. Physique photo shoots are different from stage pics.

My personal favorite is and always has been Chris Lund from England. He captured mostly physique shots in the gym and training shots in the gym but it was fun, it was never work and the quality was some of the best! Not only was Chris Lund a great photographer, but he also became a great friend over the years. I came to know his wife and his daughter as I was making my way through the pro industry during the ‘90s, and both were important parts of those photo shoots and were supporting the work that Chris did working at Flex magazine through the years.

5. Are we are point in our bodybuilding industry that there are too many contests and too many qualifiers?

It’s kind of a crazy question because I was there when we didn’t have enough shows and we didn’t have enough qualifiers in the sport coming up as a youngster. Now we have shows all over the planet thanks to the IFBB Pro League and NPC worldwide federations. With all the new divisions, it’s created a saturation effect giving lots of individuals the opportunity to qualify and participate in the sport’s next-level competitions. However, growth comes from participation and sometimes you have to be careful what you ask for because now we are at a point where we got exactly what we were missing – so now we have to figure out a way to slow it down, so we don’t continue to qualify average athletes nor do we want to have marathon finals at basic competitions.

6. Can you tell us about your tanning process for the Mr. Olympic contests? It seemed like your color was always picture-perfect on stage and it really set you apart from others.

Early in my career I met 1982 Mr. Olympia Chris Dickerson in Santa Monica. He shared with me that living at the beach, a lot of times it would be overcast and cloudy when he prepared for competitions. So he’d get in his car and drive two hours to Palm Springs in the desert just to lie out in the sun and get a good base tan for four weeks prior to competition. He would lie out in the sun for up to one to two hours at a time. Chris was ready to be photographed as early as two weeks out from competition and two weeks after competition because his tanning would help tighten and dry his skin while his body would have an even, deep, dark color to it. I followed his advice and in 1987 I met the CEO of Pro Tan USA, Stacy Kaufman, as he was in the first year of launching his new tanning business when I won the NPC National Championships in Atlantic City, New Jersey. He added a couple of coats of Pro Tan to my already “tanned” body and together with my base natural tan, we created magic throughout my career, ending in retirement in 2001.

7. We know bodybuilding is a global sport. Can you share with me your favorite visit to a foreign country?

It’s hard to narrow down a favorite place that I’ve visited in the world, as a result of my bodybuilding career and subsequent travels. I can tell you a few places in the world that my bodybuilding career took me to that I would love to go back and visit as just a regular tourist. Italy, South Africa, Greece, Turkey, Dubai, New Zealand, Austria, Peru, Aruba, Mexico and Brazil to name a few, but my happy place as of late is Hawaii for many reasons that are not related to bodybuilding, but beauty.

8. Mutant has been blowing up the industry the past year, sponsoring shows and athletes while releasing new products like Madness All-In and FLEX FOOD™ MRP! What’s next?

Thank you and good question! The past year we’ve been making a lot of noise with our Mutant athletes like Jamie “The Giant” Christian, two-time Ms. Olympia Andrea Shaw, Dusty Hanshaw, Shelby Guillaume and Ron Partlow, who are the driving forces behind our athlete ambassadors – but our company CEO, Jim McMahon, has been really aggressive in making products our consumers need, want and desire to help them reach their fitness goals! Rumor has it that we are bringing on a HUGE asset to the MutantNation Team and we can’t wait!

9. Very exciting that the Giant Killer, Shaun Clarida, has joined the MUTANT team. His physique is a real throwback similar to the symmetry you made so famous. What are Shaun’s chances heading into the 2022 Olympia in December?

Shaun has all the tools to recapture his Olympia 212 title from a year ago. Last year, Shaun had everything to actually retain his title however, his rival and nemesis, Derek Lunsford, was a little bit bigger than Shaun and actually nailed his peak at the finals to narrowly eke out the victory! All that being said, I don’t see anyone who’s gonna be able to stop the Giant Killer come this December from capturing his second 212 title! With a full year of training under his belt, we would have to expect there’s gonna be a whole lot more improvement to an already championship physique!

10. Where can we see the MUTANT team next in terms of shows globally?

At the Comic Con Fan Expo Canada (Toronto), believe it or not, at the end of August! Some pretty cool new exposure to an emerging consumer – especially of our clothing and MADNESS energy/pre-workout. We’ll also be out in full force at the Arnold Sports Festival UK, on September 23-25 in Birmingham. Finally, of course, we will be sponsors at the 58th annual Joe Weider’s Mr. Olympia Weekend in Las Vegas, supporting two-time Ms. Olympia and Mutant athlete Andrea Shaw as she defends her titles, while of course supporting our newest champion athlete, Shaun Clarida, trying to recapture his 212 Olympia title again in December! Please drop by our Mutant Booth at the Olympia Expo at the all-new Venetian Convention Center!

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