Psycho Fitness goes into detail on how he prepared Shawn Rhoden to “bamboozle” Phil Heath at the Olympia 2018.
Shawn Rhoden did what felt like the impossible. He defeated Phil Heath when he was on the verge of matching Ronnie Coleman’s and Lee Haney’s 8x Mr. Olympia world records. He got a little help too from Chris Aceto and a brand new training coach – Psycho Fitness. But shortly after the big win, Shawn Rhoden dropped Psycho as his trainer and they’ve rarely spoken since. In our latest GI exclusive interview, Psycho Fitness details how he helped Shawn Rhoden defeat Phil Heath… and why they had a falling out the Olympia 2018.
Shawn Rhoden is an impressive athlete in his own right. His victory over Phil Heath at the Mr. Olympia 2018 was well deserved and number one credit goes to the man himself. But he had a team that helped him get there. One big shift for 2018 was choosing Psycho Fitness as his trainer during that season. Many fans believe that was the key that tipped things in Rhoden’s favor.
In our conversation with Psycho Fitness, he describes in great detail exactly how he prepared Rhoden to defeat Phil Heath. It wasn’t just training hard. Actually, it wasn’t about beating Phil Heath at all. It was about Rhoden beating himself. While Psycho certainly put Rhoden through the gauntlet when it came to training – he also prepared Rhoden to use psychological warfare against Heath to throw him off his game.
“I told Shawn, when he [Phil Heath] goes into that most muscular, don’t do it,” Psycho Fitness recounts in our interview. “There’s no way you’re going to beat him in a most muscular. When he does that, stand back and look at him like he’s a child. That’s when Phil fell apart. Actually, Phil was bamboozled. He was bamboozled.”
Psycho Fitness tells the story like it was just yesterday. He explains it with such excitement and passion you can almost imagine what it was like in those moments back stage. When Shawn Rhoden had everything on the line and was one inch away from greatness.
Unfortunately, this partnership did not last long after the Olympia. According to Psycho, he thinks that there was a plan brewing to drop him before Rhoden even won. While Psycho doesn’t refer to the situation as a falling out. He claims that there was some delay in Rhoden paying his last bit of cash for the training. After the payment was done, Rhoden disappeared. They stopped talking entirely.
When asked if he would ever take Rhoden back on if he were offered. Psycho Fitness simply says this:
“If he wants to go another route… let him do that. But every day that goes by and I don’t see him beating the conditioning that we put together. I lose more respect for him. So if Shawn came to me today and asked me to train him. I wouldn’t. Because I think that was dumb to even leave in the first place.”
You can watch Psycho Fitness’ full comments on training Shawn Rhoden in our latest GI Exclusive interview segment above!
