My friend Jackson Peos just posted a YouTube video from my time training in Bali. Jackson is an Australian sports nutritionist, bodybuilder, and online coach who founded the Undefeated Gym in Bali, and he’s been documenting a lot of the athletes who come through to train there.
In the video, we spend the day talking about prep and training while I’m eight weeks out from the Arnold Classic Ohio. We start with breakfast at Pump Kitchen, where we talk about why Bali has become such a great place for athletes to prepare for big shows. The environment is calm, the food is clean, the gyms are excellent, and the overall mindset can make prep feel much easier than grinding through it in a cold city somewhere.
After that we head into Undefeated Gym for a back workout. We talk through some training philosophy along the way — focusing on making lighter weight feel heavy, chasing the right muscular feeling rather than ego lifting, and making small adjustments to improve lat engagement and avoid overusing the traps.
Later we cool off in the pool outside the gym, where I manage to slip and almost crack my head open on the deck. Fortunately I landed on my back and walked away from it with nothing more than a scare.
Toward the end of the video, Jackson talks about his recovery after nearly dying last year due to medical complications. It’s a reminder that bodybuilding — even the suffering of contest prep — is a privilege when you have your health.
I’ve embedded the full video below.