Oliver George has transformed from a self-described “135-pound weakling” into a powerlifting world champion and accomplished bodybuilder over his four-decade fitness journey. A West Point graduate who competed on the Army Powerlifting and Strength Teams, George has won championships across multiple disciplines – from bodybuilding in the National Physique Committee to recent world titles in strict curl and deadlift competitions at prestigious events like the Arnold Sports Fitness Weekend and Mr. Olympia Fitness Expo.
Now in his masters years, George continues to dominate strength competitions while sharing wisdom gained from his military career and lifelong fitness passion. In this exclusive interview, he offers practical advice for beginners and seasoned athletes alike on building muscle, overcoming gym anxiety, and maintaining strength at any age.
Can you tell us about your competition history?
I competed in powerlifting at the United States Military Academy at West Point in the late 80s, 85 to 89, 165-pound class. I was your typical 135 pound weakling when I started, and due to my weight training, I went up in powerlifting, and I was New York State champion at one time, won a couple of regional shows and won some events at the Academy. Just continued weight training through life, and then in the early nineties I lived in Florida, and I said I wanted to be a bodybuilder, and I started out in the lightweight class, and the lightweight class is about 130 something on stage that’s after bulking up and dieting down. And eventually I grew into the heavyweight class.
And that’s all from eating, training and just living a pretty clean lifestyle competing in the MPC. I won a State show, won some regional shows, and the best I ever did nationally was at the MPC Team Universe, which is a national contest for natural athletes to turn pro, and the best I did there was top 10. So happy with that took a long break away from competition. And then, 2 years ago, I came back on the powerlifting side, doing the deadlift and the strict curl, and since that time 3 time world champ in strict curl with 365 powerlifting organization, 365 strong.
And then also there’s one called the Extreme Powerlifting Coalition, and I did well at the Arnold Schwarzenegger Fitness Festival last year at their world game. So coming up, I’ll be competing there again. I also competed in a strict curl at the Mr. Olympia. So I’ll do that again this year, and I’ll be back in a couple of world competitions with varying organizations.
What advice would you give to someone who might feel intimidated just going into a gym for the first time?
We all started somewhere, and we’re all working on something. When I first walked into the gym, I weighed 130 something pounds. Your why or you want has to be stronger than your internal fear or the intimidation you feel about walking in and seeing everybody else who seems to be in the flow of things. Eventually you’ll get into the flow of things if you step in the gym, you have the courage to step in the gym and at least get some advice. Maybe get a one-on-one trainer, or just read everything and pay attention to what people are doing.
As you start to work out, your confidence is going to grow, but you have to take action. You got to take the first step. So that’s the first thing I would say. You have to do some. You have to take action. Take that first step into the gym, and just put your intimidation or your fears behind you, because what you want to achieve with your body, and your health is greater than that initial intimidation. You have to realize that and take that step.
The gym is where you put in your hard work and your sweat equity, so go in there on a mission. I go in gym so many times a day, and I see people on their phones and doing other things and acting like it’s a social bar. When I’m tracking stuff on my phone, I’m usually finding some motivational, inspirational music or someone to listen to, feeding positive things into my mind. That’s when I’m flipping into the phone, and that only takes a few seconds. The rest of the time I’m on a mission. You should be on a mission because you set your goals. You have to set your goals and you have to have that vision. You have the vision where you want to be.
I’m going to digress real quick because I had that. I’m going to step back all the way back to the 8th grade and back. Then people used to get these T-shirts, and they used to get like slogans iron on to them. But I was in the 8th grade. So if I weighed a buck 30, something went up to a buck 40 maybe in high school in the 8th grade. I must have weighed maybe 120 something. I had the vision of where I wanted to be, and even then I was doing some push-ups. I was getting some little muscles, tiny muscles, and on the back of my shirt I had muscles put on there because that’s what I was seeing me turn into in my head, and I’ll never forget.
An adult saw my shirt and said, where? This is an educator that’s supposed to be helping students and stuff. I never wore that shirt again. But in my mind I said, Okay, you say that. Now wait till you see me 10 years from now. Cause in the 8th grade, what are you? 14? I was thinking, you know what, you don’t know who I am, what you see me when I’m 24, and if I had bumped into that teacher when I was 24 she would have been trying to ask me out seriously, and I would have been like, no, that’s all right. But we all start somewhere. We all have to have a vision, and we just have to set our goals and keep going.
When you don’t feel like going to the gym, it’s so easy to get into a habit of procrastination. I tell you, if you force yourself to go and do something, the endorphins your body releases will make you feel better. See? That’s the thing. It takes courage to step in the gym and get started. But once you start working out the way your body is built, it will release endorphins, hormones that make you feel better and after a while, that’s how you get hooked into the gym, or some type of physical activity, because your body wants to release those endorphins, so you can feel good.
Your body wants to make you feel good. You’re not supposed to be dragging around in the state. I’ve sat in the office all day I’ve been in this chair, and I’m dragging around the house. I’m so tired and I’m eating the wrong. No, you gotta do something, get in there, get physical, and then your body is going to reward you with how it shapes itself. How your strength increases, and then the hormonal release. I get high in the gym. When I leave the gym, I’m high as a kite.
How much protein do you really need to grow muscle?
To maintain is one gram for body weight per pound. To grow is like 1.5 or more depending on the workload that you’re doing in the gym, and how much rest you’re getting. That’s what the rule used to be. Right now, a lot of what I do is instinctive. I base my amount of protein that I take in just on how I’m feeling and what I’m craving. I know that’s not the scientific answer you wanted, but with my diet, I just make sure I eat tons of fish, tons of chicken. They’re all lean sources of protein, and then when I want to bulk up more, I make sure I get steak in, lamb, because the way your body is made.
You talk to some of those old school bodybuilders, and what you’ll find is the source of protein that you eat helps transform your body. If I want a more lean physique, then I take in lean sources of protein in large amounts, and that’s the type of physique that I’ll develop with the fish, the chicken, even though I’m taking in large quantities. It can be 1.5 grams per pound, it can be 2 grams, can be 3 grams, it’s how much food I can shove in here every 2 to 3 hours.
The physique you see start to form will have the round muscle bellies and grow, but you’ll have a leaner physique. When I want that thick quality type of muscle develop, eat a lot of steak. Still eat your fish and stuff, but eat more steak, eat more lamb. I can’t explain it, but I can tell you I can see the body transformation when I look in the mirror.
What are your thoughts on when to eat carbs to sculpt your body?
It depends on what I’m doing in the portions. If I were getting ready for a bodybuilding contest, I would have some type of complex carb with every meal. My fist is what I use as a measurement. So my portions are different now, because I’m trying to lean out. The amount of protein I take in is about this size. I can take the same circle, and that’s how much rice should be on my plate. A handful, whatever my complex carb is, and then as far as my fibrous carbs, it doesn’t matter, I could eat as much greenery as I want. If I eat that type of meal every 2 to 3 hours, and I get in 4 meals, 5 meals, then I’m going to have a lean, muscular body.
You also need to be incorporating cardio in there somewhere, because you want to burn more calories than your body is actually consuming, and everything is going to work synergistically in order to build the physique that you want, as far as putting on quality muscle while reducing your body fat. Then you have to get some quality sleep so your body can recover and use all the nutrients that it’s taken in.
During your sleep is when your body’s recovering and growing. If you’re only getting 2 hours of sleep or 4 hours of sleep, that’s not working. You need to get in at least 6 minimum. At least. That’s my train of thought. If you get in 8, man you got a great life. Usually I’m running 6. I don’t get 8 in until we get closer to the weekend, and that’s why I love weekends.
What are five beginner-friendly strength training exercises that are staples to get people comfortable and consistent in the gym?
I think the leg press is a great compound movement to do for your legs, and that will, as you start to handle more weight on the leg press, that gives you more confidence to get under the squat rack. The squat rack is an excellent exercise for building your legs and your total body. When you’re under the pressure of the weight on your shoulders, and you’re going down, and your form is correct and coming back up, it helps your entire body grow.
Also with the deadlift. If you’re doing the deadlift, lifting heavy weight off the ground, using your whole body to pick it up and do it in a stable manner, and putting it back down, your whole body is working in order to do that. Yes, your legs are working, your back is working, your stabilizer muscle groups around your major muscle groups are working to keep the body stable, and that’s going to force your body to grow. So any compound exercises.
Then, start off on the machines too, because those are easy. Everybody can’t do compound movements, and I know there have been points in my life when I’ve taken a long break, and then I go back into the gym. I’m always gonna start out with the exercise equipment, so it may be the press on a machine or the pec deck, the flies for the chest or leg extensions, or leg curls, or a leg press that’s on the machine, because then you’re not worried about collapsing under weight or that sort of thing. So any of those pieces of equipment in the gym that’s a machine I would recommend just trying it out because they’re all friendly. They’re all friendly for you, trying to isolate muscle groups and increase the size and shape of your muscles.
How much water are you supposed to drink a day?
Eight glasses a day is kind of like a minimum. I mean, water is my favorite drink at this point. Nothing tastes better than water. When you’re growing up as a kid, you want sodas and all that type of crap. But if you can just make yourself drink 8 glasses, 6 to 8, just start out slow if you’re one of these people caught up into alcohol, sodas, anything with sugars and flavoring.
Those are all your main drinks, and sometimes you have to work yourself into it. So, cut your consumption of all those drinks in half and drink half water, so that may be 4 glasses of water, and the rest is whatever you drink, and eventually increase your water so that you’re getting at least 8 glasses a day.
What you’ll find out is that you start to crave water. You’ll start to crave water instead of anything with sugar in it. The only thing that may – water is still my favorite drink. The second thing you may crave is, if you do a lot of caffeine, caffeine is addictive, so you may crave caffeine, but as far as pure taste, your taste buds will change, and you will love water. And 8 glasses is nothing, as long as you keep the water flowing, because your body’s 70% water, so your body wants more water, and what you don’t use is coming out anyway. So just keep the water flowing. Just keep the water flowing.
How often do you think seniors should work out in the gym to take advantage of living longer?
A minimum of 3 days a week. Because skeletal density is a proponent of longevity. These studies are coming out now, but those of us who started bodybuilding way back when – and way back, this is all old school information. You look at the oldest guy in the gym who’s hobbling around, and how long has he been working out? As your muscles grow and get denser, your skeletal structure has to become denser in order to support what you’re doing, just like any other sport. You got to do stuff that’s going to increase your skeletal density.
I would say at least 3 days a week. Get yourself in the gym, and what you’ll find is if you get in there 3 days a week, that’s not going to be enough. Whatever age you start, I tell people right now, 65 and older, just get in there. And you’re gonna want to keep coming back. When I had a personal training business in Dallas, I had a client that was 85 years old, 85, and I would run that guy through his paces, and we worked out together at least 4 days a week. Harvey loved the gym. These habits will last you a lifetime.
How do you know the difference between feeling the burn and getting hurt?
I’m gonna reverse that a little bit. And I’m gonna say your body will tell you when you get hurt. You know what pain feels like. We all grew up – unless you have that condition where you don’t feel pain – we all know what pain feels like to a joint, to a muscle, a muscle tear, a muscle sprain. We all know what that feels like, and that little voice in our head will tell us when we’re getting close to that.
Your goal is to have the mind-muscle connection. Even if you don’t have it initially, you’ll develop it. And how you start doing this is when you’re working a muscle, you think about what’s happening to that muscle as it’s moving. And you focus on trying to feel what’s going on inside the muscle. Then eventually you’ll start developing that connection between your brain and what your body is doing. So you know when your muscles are tiring out and it’s a good pain versus on the verge of tearing.
It’s just like when you ran track. If you ever ran track, I ran track in Junior high and part of high school. When your legs get so tired and they have just gassed out, and you’re wobbling around and you can barely walk, it’s a different type of tire, but it’s the same type of muscle exhaustion tire. One is working short fiber muscles, short fibers in the muscles. One is working, I think, long fibers, but it’s the same type of tiredness. It’s just you’re using 2 different types of apparatus to type the different types of muscle groups.
How do you recover after a workout, and what would you suggest for beginners?
I think you need this. You all need to start. The beginner needs to stretch. You got to have some type of pre-workouts warm up because you want to get the muscles warm, and then, once you finish, you want to try to lengthen your muscles, because the longer your muscles are the more room you have to grow.
And you don’t want to stiffen up, because if you keep in the gym you break down muscle tissue and muscle, and with the breakdown of muscle tissue you’re releasing toxins into the body, toxins into the muscle, and they will continue to get tighter and tighter, and you’ve got to have some way to break up that build up, or whatever toxins you’ve released into your muscles, and you also need to stretch them out. So I would say, stretch, basic stretches.
And then, it helps to apply heat, whether it’s in the hot tub, whether it’s in the sauna. Sometimes I’ll break out the Epsom salt. I make myself a bath, and I get my legs in there and everything, and it’s relaxing, and I’ll stretch in the tub, too, while I’m in the tub. I’m touching my toes, and I’m leaning over.
I’m feeling my hamstring stretch, it’s a great thing. You feel your glutes stretch, and even in the gym, sometimes between sets I’ll stretch a body part. And with the mind muscle connection I love feeling my muscles stretch on the back of my legs, from my hamstrings up into my glutes. When you develop that awareness, and if you focus on it, everybody can develop this awareness. It’s a wonderful thing when you feel those muscles stretching, and the more you stretch the more flexible they get, so you can have a strong, fit, muscular body that’s very flexible.
You see some bodybuilders that are doing splits. They can still do flips, back flips. They can do splits and all that sort of thing, especially some of the female athletes. Like guys, we started to let it go a little bit. I’m not as flexible as I used to be, but some of these women in the gym. Hey, check out if you look at my Instagram page. I just had a post with an IFBB bikini pro. My Instagram is Oliver C. George.
I just posted with the bikini pro, and we’re gonna do some workouts together. But I was watching her in the gym the other day. I’m like, man I need to stretch more and start getting myself back together.-She’s over 30, and what she can do with her body, that comes from never stopping doing that sort of thing.
I used to be able to do splits. I used to be able to do a split. I would not try to do this right now, because I’m not that flexible anymore, and I may pull something and totally be out of the gym. So I’m just saying, anybody can get back in the habit of stretching again, because your body remembers. If you’ve ever worked out before in your youth, your body remembers you working out from your youth.
Our bodies are so smart, and even though it may take some gumption, it may take some drive to get back in the gym and be working out as an older individual, your body will reach back in its physical memory banks to when you were doing it as a teen or in college, or whenever you last stopped, and it’ll remember how it’s supposed to produce again. It’ll remember.
And I’ve seen that I’ve had to stop and start during my career, just due to a military deployment here, something I was doing, and I had to change my workouts where I was only using body weight and all that kind of stuff, or due to injury, whatever it was. Your body always stores that information on how it’s responded in the past, and how it can respond again in that same manner. Your body is so much smarter than you think it is.
