The 1993 Mr Olympia
The 1993 Mr Olympia competition was probably my favourite contest that I had entered, in all my bodybuilding career. I mean in my first ever Mr O contest that I had entered back in 1991 I had placed second, to the great Lee Haney!
So that was some achievement, a few months prior I had won the 1991 Night of Champions which catapulted me to the grandest stage of all!
The beginning
In 1992, I won my first Sandow. Although I was absolutely over the moon with the win and was ready to begin my reign, I still thought that someone could possibly beat me. Plus the contest was held in Helsinki, Finland and not in America. I knew that I had to be certain that no one could beat me, I had to make some adjustments…
So in the run-up to the 1993 Mr Olympia, I actually kept everything pretty much the same, because it worked? If it ain’t broken why try to fix it? However, I did optimise it.
Every single week without fail I would take pictures of myself and see how I looked and compare them against previous weeks. Visual feedback worked best for me, I could see the changes to my physique over the weeks and as usual, it was all coming together. This was because I was en route to perfecting my formula of crafting an Olympia-winning physique.
When I started my prep for the 93 Mr O, I was actually 7-8lbs heavier, due to the amount of muscle I’d built… this was a lot for a top athlete. 1993 was a remarkable year of training too, I had zero injuries and everything was on point. From food, recovery, business and training! I built the foundations in the previous years to ensure my future success!
The Competition
It was the first time in the sport’s history that a competitor would appear at nearly 260lbs and be absolutely diced to the bone. Perhaps competitors nowadays come in at 260lbs but they’re nowhere near at the same level of conditioning. I mean my feet would be in pain, especially on competition day, walking on that hard wooden floor. This was because I even lost the fat padding on the soles of my feet, I remember that my feet were absolutely killing! But this wasn’t entirely new to me as this first happened during the 1990 Night of Champions!
The reaction from people after seeing me was that they concluded amongst themselves that I had taken a massive amount of secret drugs. But in reality, it was simply to do with diet, well I just didn’t over-diet. Remember, I was nicknamed ‘The Shadow’, nobody really saw me year-round until the Mr Olympia, so they had no idea of how I looked before this.
Usually after the competition, I’d head straight out to California to do photoshoots. Flex Magazine and Wieder etc all wanted pictures immediately after the competition so they could capture me in contest shape. I’d typically spend 10-14 days in the Golden State. After that, it was back home to Birmingham where I’d spend the best part of the year in that cold, dark dungeon called Temple Gym. Crafting my physique, preparing to defend my crown, for yet another year…
So that was my favourite Mr Olympia competition, a game-changing win which is still talked about today! Stay tuned for more blogs and check out our premium range of supplements. We’ve got everything you need like pre-workouts, proteins, creatine and much, much more.