At the pinnacle of his career, Phil Heath won several accolades. But even though the bodybuilder had won Mr. Olympia seven times in a row, he still had his demons to face. In a podcast with Brian Davis that can be seen on the YouTube channel True Geordie, Heath discussed how these demons tore apart his mental health.
As soon as Davis saw the documentary about Phil Heath, he was a huge admirer. The YouTuber talked about the bodybuilder’s physical and mental strength while he was at the peak of his game. Even though Heath shattered his opponents in bodybuilding competitions, Davis acknowledged the struggles that Heath was going through.
After the YouTuber acknowledged Phil Heath’s hardships, the bodybuilder stated that these kinds of challenges are universal.
In addition to providing solutions, Heath emphasizes that other responsibilities often necessitate setting aside these challenges:
“I have a job to do. I have to suppress this for right now because I see what’s going on. I have an opportunity to be the best in the world if not the best ever, and it’s going to require me to put some things to the side until I can deal with them.”
But Heath notes how these “demons” he sheltered in his mind finally returned. A lot of other sportspeople deal with the same issues, the bodybuilder claims. He brought attention to the fact that these issues were felt by even Mike Tyson, which he can relate to the most.
Heath wanted to experience many layers of emotions. At that moment, he wished he could have been vulnerable, but circumstances prevented him from doing so.
“I made it such a big deal that I just held it inside, and said you know what now’s not the time. Because, if you allow that out right now you may downward spiral and not be able to pull yourself back up to do this job.”
Phil Heath reveals bodybuilding’s dark secret
Aesthetics have always played a role in bodybuilding. But Phil Heath recently brought attention to how social media has changed the game as a whole. Online criticism is frequent for sportspeople, and these platforms allow individuals to say whatever they want to.
Bodybuilding communities are no exception; yet, these extremely pessimistic thoughts might derail a competitor’s preparation. Heath pointed out that, despite bodybuilders putting everything into making these enormous physiques, because of today’s social media, bodybuilding is arguably the most negative sport.
