Oliver George has been a force in the fitness world for over four decades. From his early days as a West Point powerlifter to his current status as a multiple-time world champion, the 365 STRONG and XPC competitor has maintained an unwavering commitment to physical excellence. In this exclusive interview with Rolling Out Health IQ, George shares insights from his remarkable journey through bodybuilding, powerlifting, and beyond, revealing how fitness has shaped not just his physique but his entire approach to life, health and identity as a Black man in America.
Tell us about your fitness journey and accomplishments.
I started out working out back in the early eighties because I got accepted the United States Military Academy, and I was maybe a buck 35. I started by doing push-ups and that sort of thing to prepare for West Point. Once I got to the Academy. I joined the West Point powerlifting team, and that’s where I got my powerlifting base.
And while I was there, I was a three-time champion there for my class. My weight went up to 165 from all the lifting and eating. And so a three-time champ there, New York State Champ and an East Coast champ at one time. I left there had that military life going on, and I knew in the early 90s I wanted to be a bodybuilder, too. That’s when I got into the bodybuilding lifestyle. So I was an amateur bodybuilder during the heyday, the early 90s to the late 90s, and where the competition was really tough living in Florida.
All natural athlete. The best I did was I won a State show, won a regional show, and then top 10 at the MPC Team universe. Barely top 10. I came in 10th and then life came, took over, careers and that sort of thing. And most recently, two years ago, I came back to powerlifting. I never stopped lifting, but now, as an older masters athlete, I compete in two specific events.
One is called the Strength Curl, and that’s a very strict curl against the wall. Certain parameters, so there’s no momentum getting the weight up. It’s a very strict lift, and also the deadlift which was my favorite lift when I powerlifted, and so far I live with the organization 365 strong powerlifting out of North Carolina. They have organizations in various states and overseas, and three-time world champ in the strict curl with them. Twice in the deadlift, and then XPC extreme powerlifting coalition.
I’ve done well at their world championship last year at the Arnold Schwarzenegger classic. And well, that’s 1 of the world championships there in the Deadlift, and next Friday I’ll be back at the Arnold Schwarzenegger, classic in Columbus, Ohio, lifting again with XPC. And on the big rogue stage on Friday, so second time at the Arnold, 1st time on like the big stage for the lifting event. So I’m pretty excited about that.
What inspired your interest in bodybuilding and powerlifting?
Even before West Point. Let me even go back further. There’s a picture of me in New York at my aunt’s house. Her name is Aura Texas Davis, and she lived in White Plains. Picture me at eight, and I’m on her steps, and I’m doing one of these. Skinny me with nothing, just the bone and a little piece of meat hanging on top. It’s making a muscle on her steps at her place.
And early on my mom used to read to me about Samson. I loved Hercules. I love all those stories. I had a Cousin, Bill Noble, who played football for the United States Military Academy, who was in the fitness. I had another cousin on my mom’s side who’s in the military, and he had one of those, bills, too, and then, as I got older, I read about Arnold Schwarzenegger, Lee Haney all that type stuff, and I knew that eventually that was where I wanted to be.
That type of lifestyle. And then all the Academy did was give me kind of like a plan to push me that way because some of the older season guys in the gym when I was a buck nothing, they said, if you follow your strength, get stronger first, and then the muscle will come, and even though I was so skinny my strength, my body loves working out.
I know this is going to sound odd now, because people see me now and they go, big Guy, and all that kind of stuff. But I’m usually stronger than I look. Isn’t that weird? Even when I was just a whatever, my body loves what the weight room does, and my body loves when I have a certain diet, and I’m eating right and trying to stay healthy.
My parents were some good genetics there. But yeah, that’s how the journey started developing. And it’s been a a snowball building throughout my life to just keep it up.
What challenges have you faced and how did you overcome them?
It’s hard to compete and maintain that lifestyle and have a normal life too. I mean a regular 9 to 5, But you have to set goals and follow your heart’s desire. But early in my career, after the army, I was in sales. You know what sales is like, calling on customers. All the extra things you do after hours to make sure you meet your sales goals, but at that time was when I was doing really well in bodybuilding.
So it’s commitment in any area of life. You have to set your goals, and you have to have a commitment, because just living life in general, all your emergencies, your regular work, family issues, all that stuff is going to come up and interfere, and you have to to be able to say, No, I have to take some me time. This is my outlet, and this is how I stay healthy and function in order to keep everything going.
Some people are fortunate enough to turn pro and various sports early on, and then they get paid just to pursue. What they love to do and they have the means, in order to to cope with all those other facets of life, and make it easy, and hire people and all that kind of stuff. But when you’re an amateur, all those costs are on your own supplementation, eating the right foods, taking the right vitamins getting massage therapy, getting a chiropractor, getting all that extra stuff that comes out of your pocket. It’s funny I don’t want to digress.
Maybe we’ll have a second conversation, but we can talk about how when you’re at the amateur level, you gotta put the bill yourself until you get, some viable sponsors hopefully. But once you turn pro, or once you get close to turning pro, that’s when people start giving you stuff and offering you stuff. And I’m like man. You should have been there when I was struggling. So that’s just the normal struggles of life.
How do you balance strength training with aesthetics and performance?
So I call myself a power bodybuilder. Okay? And with that I combine. I have a hybrid workout, so I will do certain power lifts, certain compound movements, help build you strength like the squat, or the deadlift or bench press for some people, or you can get on the leg sled anything that’s working various muscle groups and are working your connective muscle tissue.
Those are compound movements, and then and they build you strength for the body building. You want to do isolation movements like when you see people just doing bicep curls or just working on the triceps. They’re isolating those muscle groups. And that helps you get your show muscles or your legs. If you’re when you’re working just your quads, doing leg extensions or just your hamstrings, doing hamstring curls. Those are like your your extra exercises to help shape.
Now, you can also modify those in order to build. You know, big muscles, too, because what I do I just I love heavy weight as I’ve gotten older some exercises I can’t, lift as much, but when I’m working my my quads, I still do a pyramid. If I’m doing leg extensions, and I steadily increase the weight on the quads, and I have something called the you have to do a mind muscle connection where you focus your mind and feeling the muscles work. So when I’m doing extensions, I’m going up in weight, and I’m feeling how those muscles are working deep in my inner thighs.
And when it’s starting to hurt, and when I’m starting to tire out I love it. It’s a good thing it’s a good. I know I’m making changes to my body. I’m doing some sculpting here, and that’s what you want for me. I have a hybrid, and you don’t have to lift the heaviest weight in the world, you know. If that’s not your goal, you got to have goals, so everybody don’t want to be a powerlifter.
Everybody don’t want to be a bodybuilder. If you just want to look good on the beach. Well, hey, that’s your goal. I’m going to look good on the beach. I’m gonna make sure I have ripped ass. My dad’s going to be right, and I’m going to have a certain type of shape, and I’m going to do the exercises to get that shape. That’s a great goal.
How has training affected your health?
Once you start getting into lifting, you’ll realize that the gym is just one component of sculpting your body. I’ve always been an artist, too. So when I looked at bodybuilding and powerlifting, I had to figure out how to use those as tools to sculpt my body, just like an artist, tries to do a sculpture, and what you’ll find out. The sweat equity you put in the gym will build a muscle. But there are other components.
You need to sleep because that’s when your body grows when you’re sleeping and recovering, and you have to eat a certain way in order to strip off the body fat to show the muscle that you’ve been working so hard on.
And then there’s a 4th component, the cardio component, which is, which has great health benefits internally for your total body. So I always. I always tell people you got to be doing some type of cardio, whether it’s walking, jogging, running, swimming, just something to get your heart going. And that helps us, as a people, with some of the conditions we have with you know, cardiovascular issues.
So the cardio portion, plus the eating. You got to cut out some of these fats. I grew up in the South. Some of the best cooking in the world comes out of the South, but you have to modify your diet like even now somebody that grew up on, you know, baking every other day, and all that type stuff. When I had that high metabolism, baking sausage. What else? Any type of high fat breakfast food you can stuff in there, and some fried chicken and everything else as an adult, and at this stage in life and in my career over time.
I may have bacon, maybe once a month, maybe twice a month. I have to get a taste for it, and that’s because I’ve changed the types of food that are more pleasing to me, and I eat more for the health benefits to my body. Because the gate, the plan here is longevity. You want to live a long, healthy lifestyle and have a physical presence to endure the test of time. So I claim 120.
That’s what I’m claiming and I’m not at the halfway point yet, but by the time I hit 120, you know, I still should be able to move on the track a little bit. I may be the oldest person out there running, but I should still be able to, you know. Take a couple of steps there.
Those are some of the things that that we have to think about as a race is eating healthier drinking. More water. Water is the best. Water is the best tasting drink for me. That’s how my taste buds have changed over time. Leave the sodas alone the sweet tea, I mean. I have sweet tea. Maybe when I visit Georgia in the summertime, that’s when I have sweet tea that’s about it. Leave all the you know, all the sugary snacks, all the extra fat foods that has to go and what you’ll find is.
They’re great tasting alternatives, and you learn how to cook in a manner. That’s healthier, too. When I cook here I eat fish every week. I eat fish every week. Lamb, every week on the weekends is usually when I have my beef maybe some pork. What else? Tons of vegetables? I still eat a lot of vegetables. I eat my fruits. I eat from all the major food groups.
If I want to reduce the amount of body fat, then that’s when I will tighten up the diet more and say, okay, I’m going to have more of a carnivore diet with lean meats, and, eat green roughage to Keep my body healthy low on the carbs, you know, but rice is, I mean, carbs are good, just in moderation.
So, you have to figure out how you want to sculpt your body and then do research. You have to read just like your your background there without, with all your your nice book display we as a people. If if it’s something that interests you then you need to do the research yourself. Don’t listen to every guru on the street. Every person that’s coming out with the latest fad, the latest diet. I’ve had people that, you know. Did the cabbage diet did the lemon diet? I mean, there were so many different diets, and you go on them, and you lose, lose weight after struggling for a month.
Then, as soon as you go back to your normal eating habits, or whatever. Then you put the weight back on. No, there’s a way you can eat consistently and still enjoy the foods that you like, if you eat healthy most of the time when I go out. I splurge, and have something extra sweet or whatever, it’s gonna have little impact on my routine and your taste buds are going to change anyway. So, if I get a craving for cake or something. I take two bites. I’m good.
Somebody else can finish that for me. It’s like that when I want cookies or something. When I get one. That craving, I take a couple of bites out of cookie. And I’m like, Okay, I just wasted X amount of money buying this big thing of cookies that I had to give away or stick in the trash. So I mean, that’s me that happens over time, though.
How has bodybuilding helped your mental health as a Black man in America?
It makes you stand a little taller. I noticed when I talk to something to certain people. They tell me I have a a powerful presence when I walk into a room or in certain arenas, and that helps in business, that helps in the social settings. That just helps in general, because you build more confidence in yourself. I wasn’t always as confident as I am today, and a leader I still serve in the military, so I’m still a reservist. I was an army officer. I’m still an Air Force officer, but I didn’t necessarily have the presence that I have when I started out, and I have to say that, having a fit body to some degree.
Has helped me with that because my normal modus apparatus just to be a well, at least to be a quiet, shy guy, a bookworm type academic type that love to run track. But, as you, see what your body can do. And you start exceeding goals. And hitting everyone, there’s a certain level of confidence that starts to develop because your outside apparatus, what we’re carrying all this stuff.
It’s just a reflection was dwelling on the inside. So it’s that inner strength, too, that builds with what you do in the weight room on the track in the pool. Whatever your sport is, or activity, what’s that new thing? Whatever ball. It’s not tennis, it’s not.
You know, I know people that love that game, and you know the the performance they have out there in the court when they’re out there smashing it back and forth and playing that game when they when they finish for a couple of hours. You see that confidence level, you know if they want, or whatever, and they then they go have that beer, whatever they’re going to do their salad. But whatever you’re doing, you just have to take action.
Anything you do to take action that’s physical is going to help. But their presence and how you feel about yourself. And we were made to be physical beings. That’s who we’re supposed to. We’re supposed to be doing something physical.
Yeah? And and let me, I’m gonna double back a little bit and and address our our people. That’s one of the misconceptions we have with aging coming from a Southern background. Sometimes people have a certain idea of how aging is supposed to go for you, especially if you’re on a Southern diet, or have a certain lifestyle.
And so they just assume by the time I hit sixty something, forty something or fifty something. I’m going to have this gut. And you know, that’s just the way it is. I’m just gonna have a go. I’m gonna be a little slower. I’m not going to be as athletic as I was, and part of that is true. You slow down as you as you age with each every ten years. Your body’s telling you what’s changed with the injuries and recovery and all that kind of stuff. But you don’t have to have a sedentary lifestyle.
You should be active your entire life, if possible, unless they’re injuries or things you inherit due to DNA, and things that are out of your control. But yeah, as a people, we don’t have to settle for putting on those extra pounds to saying, well, when I hit a certain age, I’m gonna get diabetes because I’m black or whatever not. Necessarily. If you’re living a healthy lifestyle or doing the right things that you should be, on your part, you can negate a lot of that just lifestyle changes.
Instagram: @olivercgeorge
