Written by Ron Harris
09 February 2021

 REDCON-KAI-GREENE-FEATURE-Slider

 

 

Kai Greene Signs With Redcon1! Will He Compete Again?

Interview With Redcon1 Owner Aaron Singerman

 

By Ron Harris

 

 

KAI STAGE 2

 

 

Kai Greene is one of the best bodybuilders of this generation, yet we have not seen him on a contest stage in nearly five years. There is new hope that he might return in 2021, thanks to his recent signing with supplement industry powerhouse Redcon1. I spoke with company founder Aaron Singerman about that exciting possibility.

 

First off, Aaron, how did you get to know Kai?

 

I’ve known Kai for over a decade, back from when I was traveling the world covering contests as a reporter and journalist. I spent time with him in places as far away as India. Initially he didn’t like me because I wrote a gossip type of column and he didn’t always appreciate things I said. Kai is a very private person. People say he’s a mysterious character that nobody really knows about. We know his achievements, but not the man. That’s something that Redcon1 and I plan to rectify, because he’s somebody worth knowing. He’s kind of introverted and shy even though we know him from his onstage persona doing his thing for the fans. He doesn’t want people to know a whole lot about his life. I think that’s changing as he’s getting older.

 

Once he got to know me, we became friends, and about five years ago we started a company together called Dynamik Muscle as 50/50 partners. He had just left another company, and I convinced him it was time to move on in his career beyond being a sponsored athlete. We were also very happy he was going to do the Olympia that year, 2015. Everyone knows that didn’t happen, and we all saw the video he made crying in the Orleans parking lot. I can tell the behind-the-scenes story behind that later. Starting that company cemented our relationship as friends and business partners.

 

The following year I started Redcon1, and it took off like a rocket ship. By 2017 we were already doing several times more revenue than Dynamik Muscle. It was even more dramatic a year after that. I then realized I wasn’t really putting in the marketing work on my end for Dynamik that I’d told him I would, and I felt terrible about it. We had a long talk on a balcony in Dubai where I explained I didn’t feel comfortable taking half the profits, and that I would give him my half of the company plus all the inventory, rather than asking him to buy me out. That brought our friendship to another level, because not many people would do that. I had been very fortunate with Redcon1, and I just felt it was the right thing to do, as I hadn’t been pulling my weight.

 

Kai ran the company after that, but it’s very difficult to do that and anything else. He’s got a much bigger role in season three of “Stranger Things,” he has other acting projects in the works, and he’s gotten back to painting. He had a big art show and everyone wanted to buy his work, but he wouldn’t sell even one. He wouldn’t even sell me one! Now he plans on finally doing that. The comic book has really taken off, and there’s an option to turn it into a show. Kai finally realized he couldn’t focus on Dynamik Muscle any longer as he had too many other things going on.

 

Is that what led to him becoming a Redcon1 athlete?

 

I told him I would love to have him on the team. I thought he’d be a great ambassador and face for the company, and we work together well. Kai is very particular about who he works with, and you also need to know how he works. He has some incredible strengths, and some things he’s just not going to do. It was the right time and the right place. At 45 years old, his timeline for competing is running out. If he wants to come back and have a proper end to an amazing career, there isn’t much time left.

 

We were all hoping Kai would jump into the 2020 Mr. Olympia, especially since Phil was coming back.

 

He could have. Kai was out here at our Florida headquarters at four weeks out. His glutes were in and his quads were cross-striated at 304 pounds at 5-foot-8. Those are the pictures you see here, and they prove he was in condition. Kai only dieted for the photo shoot, but he could have done the Olympia and had a chance of winning.

 

I’ve seen a few contracts between athletes and supplement companies, and often they stipulate that the athlete either needs to compete X amounts of times per year, or else compete in specific big shows. Did you have something like that in his contract?

 

Obviously, our contract is confidential so I can’t disclose specific details, but I’m not paying him to not compete! Obviously, I would love him to compete again. I know in his heart of hearts if you had an honest conversation with him, he doesn’t want to be remembered as a champion bodybuilder who walked away without anybody really knowing he was gone. I was traveling with him in 2016 when he won three Arnold Classic shows in a row. I know when those were over, he didn’t think those would be his last contests. No way. Kai thinks about bodybuilding differently now, as more of his craft and an exhibition. He would look at a contest as an opportunity to give his best performance, instead of simply going into it to win. His mindset is past just wanting to be Mr. Olympia. He doesn’t feel he can mentally get his head around competing in a show only for the purpose of winning. I am hoping he competes sooner rather than later. If it were up to me, I’d love for him to do a smaller show and qualify for the Olympia rather than going on a special invitation. Redcon1 now has seven people on our video team. We could literally follow and document every step of his journey back to the stage.

 

I’d love to see that happen, because from the way he was talking the last time I interviewed him in late 2019, it didn’t seem to me as if he even wanted to ever compete again with everything else he had going on.

 

I wonder if dieting for this photo shoot reignited a fire inside him. The way he looked was the way most Mr. Olympia competitors wish they looked at four weeks out. He had more detail than many guys ever get in their lives. I do think he’s worried about going all in and putting everything into winning the Mr. Olympia. In his mind that’s an unhealthy thing because you have to go to such extremes. But if he looks at it as going there to perform, he wouldn’t feel that way.

 

All of us who follow Kai are amazed at how he always looks just as big as ever, and how lean he stays. I doubt he would need more than eight weeks to reach 100 percent peak condition.

 

True, and if he can do that, how much more would it really take for him to get into contest condition? I know that his main concern from a health standpoint is the drying-out process in the final days where diuretics are used. But there are ways to get rid of the water without harsh pharmaceutical diuretics.

 

Still, I wish he had done this last Mr. Olympia. It was an exciting show and Kai would only have added to that. Those years where he battled Phil three years in a row were epic.

 

Can you imagine if he’d done what Arnold did in 1980, strolled into the competitors’ meeting out of nowhere? That would have been the coolest thing ever.

 

I’ve noticed that Redcon1 doesn’t just sign athletes because they have great physiques or big contest wins. You like to have athletes with larger-than-life personalities like the late Luke Sandoe, and Blessing Awodibu.

 

Correct, I like to have athletes with something special, like being funny and being able to communicate well. Kai is a perfect fit for the company.

 

OK, now can you please tell me what happened at the 2015 Mr. Olympia and why Kai bailed at the last minute?

 

I will give you the short version. Kai had signed with Flex magazine. He’d left MD because he felt that maybe being with Flex would help him in some way since that company owned the Olympia. As he was starting his prep, they cut him with eight months left on his contract. The contract was for $8K per month, and he had his money tied up in Dynamik and other things at the time. He was relying on that money. In the Olympia contract, the athlete signs over rights to use his or her image in all of the contest promotions and marketing. You can see why he didn’t feel comfortable doing that in light of the fact that they owed him $64K on the rest of his contract. I worked out a deal where they would give him a large booth space for free for Dynamik Muscle, which they had done not long before that for Phil Heath. They agreed, but only if Kai signed the Olympia contract first. Kai wouldn’t sign it until they had put the booth space for him in writing. It was a standoff. Kai was ready to compete and was there in Las Vegas to do it, but he would not sign the contract until they signed theirs, and vice versa. That’s why he made that video stating that they wouldn’t allow him to compete. He’d put his heart and soul into preparing for the contest, and he felt he was being taken advantage of, as many others had done to him in his life. It was an unfortunate situation all around, and it did poison Kai against ever competing in the Mr. Olympia again. The Olympia is very different now with Jake Wood as the new owner, a man who truly wants the best for the athletes and the fans. Dan Solomon is the show promoter now, and he also has a very different outlook and attitude. All the issues that Kai was hung up on over the Olympia are gone now.

 

Does Kai still want to be Mr. Olympia?

 

Of course he does! All bodybuilders do. But his goal is bigger than that. Kai wants to reach a larger audience and help people, particularly young men, to better themselves mentally and physically. He wants to be out in the mainstream world doing art and performing. He’s also 45 years old now. It’s astounding that he’s never had a major injury and doesn’t suffer from any chronic pain. His training has evolved quite a bit. If you recall the old Mike Pulcinella videos, he was a maniac; squatting 600 and benching 500, all for reps. He used to talk about having to go to a place of rage and violence to be able to get under the bar and do those things. Now he trains with more volume and at a much faster pace with very little rest. He does hundreds of sets at times. On a push/pull day, he will do 20 minutes of abs, 20 minutes of stretching, and then superset 25-30 different exercises. The weights aren’t crazy heavy anymore, but the pace is relentless. Kai only rests about 30 seconds between sets, and I’ve seen him do at least 200 sets in two and a half hours. He doesn’t lift the weights fast the way Branch or Guy Cisternino does. He goes slow and squeezes. At some workouts he will accentuate the negative, taking two seconds to lift and six seconds to lower on all sets, true time under tension. It’s helped prevent injuries and preserve his joints. At 45, there’s no reason he can’t compete and pick up right where he left off. Even his legs are still enormous, and I’m not sure any man is at thick from front to back as Kai.

 

Well Aaron, I sincerely hope Kai does come back, because the sport isn’t quite the same without him on stage.

 

We shall see!

 

redcon1.com

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Kai Greene’s Redcon1 Stack

 

Total War® RTD - pre-workout

BIG NOISE® - pre-workout

ISOTOPE® - post-workout

Yohimbine HCL - pre-workout

MED+KIT® - upon waking

BREACH® - intra-workout

 

Kai-Greene-Stack

EO0A4739 

 

 

For more information, visit redcon1.com

 

KAI STAGE1

 

Kai’s Pro Record

 

2005 New York Pro                                            14th Place

2006 Iron Man Pro                                             Did not place

2006 New York Pro                                            Did not place

2006 Colorado Pro                                            14th Place

2007 New York Pro                                            Sixth Place

2007 Keystone Classic                          Third Place

2007 Colorado Pro                                            Winner

2008 Arnold Classic                                           Third Place

2008 New York Pro                                            Winner

2009 Arnold Classic                                           Winner

2009 Mr. Olympia                                              Fourth Place

2010 Arnold Classic                                           Winner

2010 Australian Pro                                           Winner

2010 Mr. Olympia                                              Seventh Place

2011 New York Pro                                            Winner

2011 Mr. Olympia                                              Third Place

2011 Sheru Classic                                            Third Place

2012 Mr. Olympia                                              Second Place

2012 Sheru Classic                                            Second Place

2013 Mr. Olympia                                              Second Place

2013 Arnold Classic Europe                   Second Place

2013 Prague Pro                                               Winner

2014 Mr. Olympia                                              Second Place

2016 Arnold Classic                                           Winner

2016 Arnold Classic Australia     Winner

2016 Arnold Classic Brasil                     Winner

 

KAI CHEST

 

Ron Harris got his start in the bodybuilding industry during the eight years he worked in Los Angeles as Associate Producer for ESPN’s “American Muscle Magazine” show in the 1990s. Since 1992 he has published nearly 5,000 articles in bodybuilding and fitness magazines, making him the most prolific bodybuilding writer ever. Ron has been training since the age of 14 and competing as a bodybuilder since 1989. He lives with his wife and two children in the Boston area. Facebook Instagram

 

 

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