People who are involved in the bodybuilding industry hope to be relevant for 10, maybe 20 years. Mike O’Hearn has been a major player in fitness for well over three decades. He’s been on over 500 magazine covers (including “Muscle & Fitness” numerous times including his first), and displays strength in his 50s that many people wish they had in their 20s. He told Dennis James on “The Menace Podcast” that the secret to his success and longevity isn’t really a secret.
“There is one secret, consistency,” O’Hearn said. “That annoying thing that no one out there wants to hear, the one thing that’s left up to the individual (is) consistency. I think that they want to hear the trick, know what the trick is. It’s got to be a pill, or it’s got to be something else.”
Consistency going back to his childhood is what Mike O’Hearn credits for his ability to lift the weights that he were able to lift when he was winning bodybuilding and powerlifting competitions. One thing that the star of Battle Dome also confesses is his love for lifting, which is as strong now as it was when he was younger. Part of the reason is the competition within the workouts, like one he spoke about that took place in Gold’s Gym Venice with a bodybuilding legend.
“I was training with Tom Platz, and we were doing 20, 30, 40 reps on squats, and I was like ‘I love this.’ You couldn’t hold me back. I was like a Pitbull off the leash,” he said with a smile. “That would be the one thing that I would go ‘I want that fight.’”
O’Hearn’s name is well associated with another topic that has been discussed for many years now, is he natural or not? Now that he is 52, he told James that he doesn’t worry about what others believe anymore.
“It doesn’t bother me anymore. As a kid, it did because they would say, ‘Oh, you make money from it.’ It just bugged me that I put in the work, and they said that, but that was when I was a kid. Now at this age, you want to say I’m on drugs? Sure, great, whatever, dudes.”
O’Hearn spoke about his career as an American Gladiator, his transition to husband and father, his love for dogs, and a lot more. Subscribe to the M&F YouTube channel so you can see every episode of TMP when they air on Sundays at 3 p.m. Eastern time.
