Yes, I did. I had surgery for a double hernia less than a week after the Olympia. I can’t say that I felt anything at the O, but I suspected something was off. I don’t think it affected my prep or my performance, but in hindsight, I have to wonder. I mean, on the one hand, it’s pretty impressive that I was able to do what I did having that going on inside me, and it makes me feel that I’m going to be able to do that much better next year without that kind of stress in my system.
QUESTION
You did a post-Olympia FLEX leg workout photo shoot in that condition?
ANSWER
Yeah, I worked right through it. But I’ve got to say, pre-surgery and post-surgery were a huge difference. It was pretty humbling to go from intense O prep to competing in and winning the O to five days later not being able to pick up and carry my own luggage to three weeks later and I’m at 40 to 50% of my normal strength.
QUESTION
What about guest-posing appearances, like the Phil Heath Yellowstone Classic (which happened mid-October)?
ANSWER
Unfortunately, I was in a post-surgery phase, so guest posing had to be on the back burner. I didn’t do any posing on the Australia tour that followed the Yellowstone Classic, either. I was still only about 50% recovered from the surgery.
QUESTION
When did you start training again?
ANSWER
I was doing what I could, even at 50%, and I’d been seeing my doctor, but man, I knew that going back to full-on training was going to be like starting from square one. Truth is, by the time I got to that point, it was all I was looking forward to.
