Bodybuilding enthusiasts remember Ronnie Coleman as one of the GOATs of the sport. After all, the Texan Hulk swept everyone off the floor with his extraordinary build that no one could compete with. His popularity, stage presence, and impeccable form won him many accolades over the decades. Yet, he found another career path to be more challenging than anything according to his recent YouTube video.
Coleman may have prepared for his bodybuilding career even before professionally competing. However, the former police officer did not find anything else as challenging as one of his older jobs, which was to scrape asbestos off the walls.
In a Q&A-style video, Coleman answered a bunch of questions, both hilarious and insightful. Out of those, one of them inquired about the hardest job he’d ever done.
“Well, the hardest job I ever did was scraping asbestos off some walls that were at a paper mill in Bastrop, Louisiana.”
Asbestos exposure could cause some serious medical problems, including cancer. Not only was the job physically demanding, but it also required Coleman to wear a hazmat suit at all times. He recalled putting in a lot of effort to get that construction material out of the place.
What made the job even more challenging was the tools he had to use to scrape the asbestos off. Coleman used a jackhammer horizontally to drill away at the material. This technique created increased stress on his body since the drilling technique was physically strenuous.
“I had to have on a hazmat suit the whole eight hours and use a jackhammer…you had to have it up in the air and scraping asbestos off the wall. Let me tell you, after about 3 or 4 hours, you are done for.”
However, some of his strength seems to have trickled down to help with his intense workouts later in life. While Coleman has lived through many roles and careers, what never changed was his enthusiasm for the field he picked. He once even admitted that bodybuilding was never on his charts or to-do list. Yet, he became a legend among athletes for his contributions to the sport.
Ronnie Coleman confessed how he never thought of pursuing bodybuilding
With a stable job at the police department in Texas, nothing could deter Coleman from his chosen career path. That was until he met his good friend Brian Dobson, who noticed his love for working out, and offered him a gym membership for free if he trained and won a bodybuilding competition.
The rest of Coleman’s life has been history. He revealed on Bradley Martyn’s podcast how he jumped from one championship to the other, either winning or leaving a stellar impression on the audience. As his participation in the Olympia grew more frequent, his fanbase increased. Eight Mr. Olympia titles went by in a blur, and while he now suffers from a series of medical conditions, his positive attitude gets him through the tough times.
