Lee Haney gives his honest opinion on the hardcore training of Ronnie Coleman and whether it was worth the aftermath that followed.
There are only two bodybuilders who maintain the most Mr. Olympia wins in the history of the sport. Lee Haney and Ronnie Coleman both sport eight Olympia wins. But what is most fascinating about these two bodybuilding legends is just how different their champion physiques are from one another. Ronnie Coleman is the near-perfection of the mass monster era. Lee Haney holds more of what we would now call a classic physique. In our latest GI Exclusive interview, Lee Haney shares his thoughts on whether or not Ronnie Coleman trained too hard to obtain his 8x Mr. Olympia mass monster physique.
There is no doubt that Ronnie Coleman is one of the biggest legends in the sport of bodybuilding. His massive physique and eight Olympia wins place him in the running for the greatest bodybuilder of all time. But his hardcore training and limit-pushing workouts ultimately led to long term problems. Since retiring, Ronnie Coleman has had over a dozen surgeries and is in constant pain from spine and hip problems. Yet to this day he still trains as hard as he can. He can’t help it. It’s in his blood.
We’ve chronicled the career and fallout of Ronnie Coleman in our documentary feature Ronnie Coleman: The King. Since then, many athletes, fans, and experts have expressed their opinion on whether or not the sacrifice Ronnie made was worth it. To be clear, Ronnie has stated clearly that his only regret is that he didn’t lift even more. But could Ronnie have obtained the same mass monster champion physique without the long term damage?
During our video conversation with Lee Haney, we decided to ask what his thoughts were on the situation. Being the only other man to have eight Mr. Olympia wins, perhaps he can understand why Ronnie Coleman made such a heavy sacrifice. Alternatively, Haney is a bodybuilder who aways valued aesthetics over mass. So could he get behind such shocking mass monster sizes like Ronnie’s?
Lee Haney thinks that Ronnie Coleman is a gladiator on a whole other level. And he simply was willing to push his limits against the types of physiques that existed around him at the time. Haney admits that he never had to push his physique to those sizes because no other competitor was bringing in mass monster size at all. At the end of the day, the best bodybuilder needs to try and beat the competition. If the competition goes to mass monster size, then everyone is going to try and top that.
Haney believes it’s that mentality that went into Ronnie Coleman’s training. In addition to that fact, Ronnie Coleman had the X factor that pushed him to levels unseen in bodybuilding. He is a one of a kind athlete. Perhaps he wouldn’t have been a mass monster had he lived in Lee Haney’s era of competition – but he certainly would have pushed the limits in a shocking way.
“Ronnie took it to a whole other level. A level that was somewhat dangerous. Unheard of. But that’s who Ronnie is and he’s a gladiator, Lee Haney states in our interview.
“So if there was another level to reach, Ronnie would have reached it. You’ve heard him ay it many times. The only thing that he regrets that he didn’t do, was more of what he did. That’s the mindset of a gladiator. So he’s different. I have the utmost respect for Ronnie. Ronnie is different. He’s in a league of his own. And he don’t apologize for what he did, nor do I think he needs to.”
You can watch Lee Haney’s full comments on Ronnie Coleman’s hardcore training in our latest GI Exclusive interview above!
