Sherrie Kapach: Welcome to Beyond The Prep. I'm your host, Sherrie Kapach. Welcome today, Chris Baldwin. I know it's been a busy day, a long day, so I appreciate you taking the time out and coming. So let's start with, how long have you been in bodybuilding?
Chris Baldwin: Since I was 17 years old.
Sherrie Kapach: So what got you into it at that age?
Chris Baldwin: Honestly, I got a mentor in the gym. He basically came up to me and said, Hey, listen. Have you ever thought about venturing down this route? And I was like, okay, cool. Let's see what happens. So I started training. After about a year, I was like, okay, let's give it a shot. So I'm 18 years old. I did my first show. I won the Juniors.
Sherrie Kapach: Wow. So what do you think at such a young age, the commitment and all of that was involved in it?
Chris Baldwin: I think the thing for me is once you get me hooked and give me a plan, I'm like, (inaudible). You tell me to eat 100 grams, 200 grams, that's just how I've always been. You're either in or you're out. So somebody that's constantly cheating on their diet and continuously just sabotaging focus in the environment, doesn't make sense to me.
Sherrie Kapach: It's a costly sport, for sure. So when you create sabotage, that's a lot. So in doing this now, because you've been doing it for a long time, what do you know now that you wish you might have known then?
Chris Baldwin: Honestly, I think that you need to find a coach that works for you. Using your loyalty and using your feelings when it comes to things that you know are great, but you continue to do the same thing over and over. It's like being bitten at the same time. So for me, finding a coach that actually fed me the amount of food that I need to be able to grow was super hard for a long period of time. And I finally hit that stride where I'm like, okay, I found the guy that I need to follow, because he actually feeds me. Luckily, like five weeks out from the show, I finally found somebody that was like, let me give it a shot. And I've never done this much in my life. But I also need this much food, like we said, like 3000 grams of carbs the last 60 days. My body just kept using it.
Sherrie Kapach: Wow. That's incredible. It's amazing what the body is capable of. Yeah, for sure. So with that, what's been the struggles? Even from your younger days of starting out, what was the hard part for you? But you've been doing it throughout the years, has it gotten easier?
Chris Baldwin: Like I said, it comes down to like, I'm always a creature of habit. I will eat whatever you make and tell me. If I know I need to eat more food and my coaches are eager to do that, I'm gonna listen to them because I put trust in them. But I think the problem was I never listened to myself. I knew the answer and I was like, listen, I need to do something to feed me more. Because there's no fighting the same thing coming year after year. And like, first loyalty to many, many people and it's just like nobody understood the fact that like, I'm telling you, I need more food and you're not feeding me. So it's kind of my own fault because I've kind of held myself back. I think that if I would have found the books I have now five years ago, I know what I'm capable of. I have this disease in the shade to be at the pro level, I think. I just need to put the size on.
Sherrie Kapach: So that's your goal?
Chris Baldwin: That's my ultimate goal. I've been doing this the whole time and I've always wanted to be that way since I was a kid.
Sherrie Kapach: Wow. Yeah. So when they came and approached you and said, hey, you should do this. Did you know what was involved?
Chris Baldwin: Honestly, I was always a fan. I love the era of Ronnie Coleman and Kevin Levrone, Flex Wheeler, Nasser and all these big guys. It's always been just a fascination. It's like, hey, listen, these guys got to this point. What is it going to take me to get to that point, and if I may be actually able to get them? Great, but my thing is, if you don't put time into something, you'll never understand or know whether you're capable of actually doing it or getting to that point. So I have always been that with everything that I do in my life. I'm either in or I'm out. It's like a light switch. You turn it on or turn it off. I ever had a middle ground which is kind of good and kind of bad. Sometimes, people see me unbalanced. But I think that at the level of where the pros are, you either are 100%. It's just what it is. People say it's an obsession with like, you're not obsessed with something, how do you get through them to be elite?
Sherrie Kapach: Yeah. A whole other level. You're going into this even at this level, it's full of commitment, understanding. So take that up another level.
Chris Baldwin: You reach the pro level and it's like, okay, now you have a contract, you're getting paid X number amount of dollars at the top level. That's your job. You go to the gym, you eat your meals, you go to sleep, you train, you do everything to the absolute maximum, and you get the salary that balances out to represent their company because they put in their time and energy. So if you don't set value out for somebody, how are you going to ever reach out to where they're actually going. And I think there's a lot of money in the industry if you know how to get the money. You need to be able to market yourself and be able to say, hey, listen, I'm willing to do this to get to this point where most people are like, I'm not doing it. I expect this much money, but they're not just gonna come knocking on your door if you're--
Sherrie Kapach: Yeah, you have to show up, for sure. So with saying that then someone came to you and they're thinking of starting out, what's the best advice you could give them?
Chris Baldwin: Find the coach that you want and listen to them. Invest the time and energy into that, developing the proper habits, eating your sleep habits, training as hard as possible. Not buying into social media where they're like, oh, you need to do all this with the brain, all these fancy exercises and stuff. You have to master the basics to become a master.
Sherrie Kapach: Yeah, yes.
Chris Baldwin: So that's my logic. I think we've all fallen into that category. At some point we're like, oh, I'm gonna try this new fad and see what happens. But you always go back to the basics. You build your back with barbells. You're not going to say back even like cables, you need to do basic things to do everything. A combination of it. All right. You looked at the (inaudible) of the 90's, I think there were way less machines. And way more iron moved me. Yeah, okay, there's four months, some things might have been sloppy, but I've gotten some heavy stuff to put in and build the foundation. So I think that the people coming up, they need to stop dealing with the whole, Chris Bumstead does this. He built himself up with all the basics, and got good at deadlifts, squats and all the basics before he decided, okay, you know what? They got these machines out there. I'm gonna start doing it because it's less strenuous on my joints, because I'm getting older. But he's still to this day great. I mean, he's the best in the world.
Sherrie Kapach: Yeah, that's a good point. So support.
Chris Baldwin: Yeah, support. Surround yourself, my biggest thing is you're always going to have people that are (inaudible). I don't have a huge friend group because I only have five, six people that I actually want in my support system. Because those people will literally go above and beyond to help me, and they will call me. I don't want somebody that's like, oh, you look great, and I know I don't look great. So how am I gonna take your word on it? Your mom is never going to tell you that you've looked at. I didn't look great. No, I didn't look great. Thanks for what it is. So that's what I would surround myself with, like, key people that are going to influence you in both ways, push you to be better when you're not pushing yourself. Be there to say, hey, listen, you're overthinking the process. You need to just let it be, just chill and let it happen. So that's what I had to learn. It took me years, like literally. I had all this kind of stuff and I was just like, I had the key people in my life where they would look at me and they're talking about if you need to (inaudible). Don't overthink the process. Don't listen to this person or what this person thinks to you. Because at the end of the day, they're not there 24/7, and they're not the ones that are benefiting off of what your advice is. So I think the biggest flaw with mankind right now is I think that we care more about what social media and everybody else does.
Sherrie Kapach: Strong social media.
Chris Baldwin: The key. So I think if you continue down the path of just focusing, everything will fall into place at some point.
Sherrie Kapach: Yeah. Yeah. And it's hard to hit because it's everywhere. You're up against yourself.
Chris Baldwin: This sport, everybody says, okay, you have a team behind you. Okay, well, I have a coach, I have an opposing coach, and that's cool. But at the end of the day, if you've applied in front of you that says, this is what you need to do, and you don't follow it? That's on you. You can't blame your coach, you shouldn't be. It's on you. It's your due diligence to go do it.
Sherrie Kapach: Yeah. Right.
Chris Baldwin: My coach told me, so you need to do cardio in the morning, but he's not there. I need to do it. I just got to do it.
Sherrie Kapach: They're your coach.
Chris Baldwin: I think even at the elite level, you look at the top Olympians insane mode. They know what they're doing. They know how to get to where they are. But the thing is, they have a coach for a reason because they don't have to take the reins. You take it, you will tell me what I need to do, and I'll follow it exactly.
Sherrie Kapach: And accountability is huge. I've slipped up on somebody and I'm right there messaging my coach. You don't have to reply, this is what I just ate. And if I don't do it right then and there, I'm not gonna do it. And they know. So own it because it's all on you. Okay, this past week, how was your peak week?
Chris Baldwin: I think that two week mark, I was kind of like, oh, man, it's getting harder. But we are kind of always trying to be ahead of the game. So two weeks. I'm pretty much ready. Peak week? I don't really have a peak week. We just decreased. This past week, I took like 3400 grams of carbs. I'm one of these people where once you start eating the carbs, my body gets (inaudible). Like I ate 1000 grams last night and I literally lost nine pounds overnight. From the time I went to bed to the time I woke up, it was already a desire to refill anything. So I'm one of these people, you have to find that combination where you have a ton of carbs, but you also have the fastest (inaudible). You just keep burning.
Sherrie Kapach: That amazed me because I never understood. Before I got into the sport and you'd see someone just eaten that pile, like that huge steak and they're just sweating and (inaudible). And then I got into the sport and then it was like, okay, go re-feed and I wouldn't have competed. And I'd be like, oh, my God. Better metabolism.
Chris Baldwin: So I think that's one of the reasons why I think that when people don't implement your meals, and I mean, not cheating. If your coach doesn't give you a carb cycling report where you're like, okay, listen, I need a carbohydrate after so many days, your body starts to get a segment and it sets off to that, okay, I'm used to eating healthy food, and then it just doesn't want to lose anymore. Right. So throughout the process, like the last five weeks, we really did like (inaudible) and I progressively got harder, and harder, and harder. Visually and looks completely different. But I held everything. We want to make as much size as possible without sacrificing. Obviously there's gonna be initial weight loss, but it's part of the process.
Sherrie Kapach: And every year is different. It's your body.
Chris Baldwin: One year I can digest even the next minute. I'm like, my body doesn't, I gotta stick to lean meats. This whole prep, I never ate. I literally lived on super lean ground beef. Basically mountain steer. It's like three grams of fat for every 100 grams. I'm like, super lean the whole time. I'm still getting the red meat, but I'm not getting perfect in theory. So for me, I've just become so accustomed to eating meat. I guess it's kind of like, you'd become so used to eating.
Sherrie Kapach: Your body just as if you use it. And sometimes, it's just pitching negatively. I don't feel right.
Chris Baldwin: My senses are heightened. I want everything, and then you're like, you can have it.
Sherrie Kapach: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, it's such an amazing tool, your body. And you never know what you're headed into for the next one.
Chris Baldwin: No. And that'd be that's the thing. This is why I like this game because it's like you're an artist of your own money. You kind of sculpt what you want. I've always been the guy that I'm gonna build the physique that I want. The judges continue to listen, you need to do this, this and this. But at the end of the day, it's kind of down to me and what I want. If I like having big legs, I'm gonna have big legs. I'm gonna try and balance my physique as much as possible. But at the end of the day, I have to be happy with what I see in the mirror also. Obviously, we all want balance. We will always go with that symmetry, which I've always had. I'm one of these people that just has a very hard time. They have very low bodies. Okay, my upper body is behind my legs, but it's not super behind my legs. It's just always been. That's just how it is. You all have those body parts so I'm just like, I could do legs. But it's usually the body parts that you train the most. And the ones that are training are the ones that are most--
Sherrie Kapach: Yeah. That's amazing. I do love that. You're an artist of your own body.
Chris Baldwin: I mean, it's the same as life. If you design your life the way you want it to be, it's going to work. If you're living the life of somebody else, then you're not living your life. You're living for someone else.
Sherrie Kapach: It's great. Yeah. Yeah. Do what you love. This is it. It'll be an easy ride.
Chris Baldwin: That's the name of the game.
Sherrie Kapach: Yeah, yeah. Okay, on that note, that's perfect. Thank you. Oh, how did it go today?
Chris Baldwin: I took 2nd in both classes. As I said, they came out of wholeness. Oh my, just kind of missed that. I had been a little fuller like 30 minutes earlier, I would have been as full as I needed to be, and I probably remember one of my favorites.
Sherrie Kapach: Yeah, well, congratulations.
Chris Baldwin: Thank you so much.
