Interview By Julianne Van Valkenburg
Get To Know Phil Stevens
Women in this industry want to be
me. They envy the fact that I am surrounded by so many brilliant
men, that I have access to access. You think I am kidding? When
women who are interested in all of this find out who I am the questions
UNLOAD. It is enough to make a girl feel like the kid sister of
a TIGERBEAT teen idol . But I digress.
I have been working in this industry
with Charles long enough to have met many coaches, athletes and
regular Joe's to know who is or who may not be the real deal. And
to me Phil Stevens is the real deal.
When I first met Phil it was his warm
heart and generous spirit that drew me to him. Not many in the industry
are like him and I have yet to meet anyone that can capture what
he has. He was in DC back in 2002 and was giving away some of his
weights to any kid who was not fortunate enough to have his own-he
was even offering to pay shipping and here he was in a struggle
himself. That made me like him enough to write him and he continued
to prove himself time and again always the same. Finally I met up
with him in Vegas at one of our Boot Camps and everyone there thought
he was KID ROCK. Many years and transformations later he is here
and if anyone could say "I have been there and back" it
is Phil Stevens.
Much like his art (www.philstevens.com
and I am lucky enough to have a personal piece hanging in my office)
-he is a wild and turbulent, but always gentle, work in progress.
You know those women I told you about-
well, most want to know if Phil is single. I am still waiting for
my application of him for "The Bachelor" to make him a
contestant. I am like a momma/sister/coworker and you will have
to go through me first to see if you are good enough....email=Julianne@staleytraining.com
Ladies,
and Gentlemen I give you my own interview with Phil Stevens:
Phil- Hey thanks Jules's, man that's
a heck of an intro.-and thanks for all the great times of past and
to come ; ) I still remember how we met I was giving my power rack
away in a contest to the most needy teen I could find. Someone who
deserved it and would put it to work:
CLICK
HERE to read more about that...
Jules-
Ok Phil- spill, what's with the Bears?:
Phil-
I cant take credit for bringing that one to our site and I am not
nearly acquainted enough with their ways as our resident power bear,
and Grand Poo Baa of the Northern Virginia Power Bears Society,
Christopher Drummond. I will have to pass this on to him for a later
answer as I have only viewed their activity at an extreme distance
while Chris has first hand experience.
Jules-
Lets talk about your past. When you were out there getting your
degree in Art did you see yourself doing this -and I mean living
and breathing all of this, for a living?:
Phil-
Jules, at first honestly, no I didn't. I was full on preparing myself
to make a living doing what I love. I had worked for several years
in various occupations mainly labor and management and was making
some good coin but I wanted more so I went back to school, fell
right back into art. At this time I also made the decision to get
in shape. Well I was a shape (ROUND) I decided to get in a new shape.
My love from training and nutrition grew from there. I was ever
changing my own body loving that and kickin ass in the art world
as well.
Then I went to grad school. I still
did great, out performed even most of my instructors. I was showing
and selling art. Graduated with my masters Suma Cum Laude and most
importantly had real working artist behind me telling me to keep
doing what I am.
Anyway, the whole problem was I was
doing art, I had lost the enjoyment for it and it had turned to
work. I didn't lose hours in it any more. I looked and what I was
losing hours on was learning training and nutrition putting it to
practical application. Then thanks to TC, Chris Shugart, Laurie
and the gang at T-Nation I got the opportunity to put what I learned
to use. Helping others, which is what I really love. It's great
to change myself but I find the most joy out of helping others and
learning through that help, I give.
Jules-
Did your weight loss and injuries have anything to do with the drive
that led you toward this?:
Phil-
Yeah, for sure. First off the injures starting at a young age being
told you wont wake up the next day, then oh you woke up but your
going to lose your leg at the hip. OH wait you'll keep the leg but
never walk again. Just learning to not take no for an answer. My
mother right next to me and me just hard headed as ever KNOWING,
Ill beat this shit and prove the doctors wrong. Never content, Id
beat one hurdle just to have them set another one for me. I just
learned not to take what ANYONE said to me as a limiter and if you
want something bad enough YOU, make it happen. You just have to
want it bad enough truly want it and go get it do what it takes.
I brought that same intensity into
my weight loss. Once I wanted it, it was easy I shed 85lbs in 3
months and got pretty damn shredded and it was easy. I learned to
feed off of people telling me I cant do something, and then as well
surrounded myself with people who were the same way..
Jules-
and I want to talk about Phyllis for a moment because I see that-what
you did with her, always pushing and keeping her on track. Did that
also give you an "ahha"moment of clarity, that you could
do this seriously and offer something to this industry? (to learn
more about Phyllis and Phil's warrior spirit please follow this
link:
CLICK
HERE to read more about that...
Phil-
Oh man. Hand's down Jules, I learned more from my mother than anyone
on the planet, even my father ,who I learned a ton from . But, nowhere
near what she taught me. We had a relationship from the start, well
from when I got ran over, that was just, hell I don't know, special.
She was there every minute pushing me to keep going when I needed
it, not coddling me every second but making me get up to do more.
She taught and instilled a LOT of what I have in me during that
2 year battle from ICU, to months of bed rest, then wheel chair
crutches, etc.
Then she came down sick and it was
not a question in my head. I was there. Dropped anything I had to
in life and took her with me. Last thing she wanted was to be treated
with Kid gloves and I was the one that would do that for her and
knew what she wanted and was best for her as she taught me. Man
she'd get Pissed off at times LOL and we'd fight but she would thank
me after it was said and done. We had a LOT of fun and had some
great time and put up a hell of a fight. We turned what was supposed
to be 3 months into 4 years, and had her at times in the best shape
of her life and that's not a small feat, she was a fire cracker.
I think one of the big things was
when the doctors told us, "you shouldn't have lived "after
maybe the third surgery. They said the only reason she had was because
of the proactive approach we had taken. I took my training and nutrition
knowledge and she was like a sponge, we got her squatting ,pressing
dead lifting and eating right. I also kept researching as much as
I could on supplementation to help her. We kicked some ass.
So yeah, for sure. She and what we
went through was a Major "Ah Ha" Moment in my turning
to this industry. She knew how much I loved, that I was good at
it, and just got real joy out of helping people. Which again I learned
from her. Boy, and she was always busting my balls pushing me to
compete. "You've done the fat thing" "you've done
the ripped thing" You're a big guy and proven you can do that
other stuff, take that, but now go lift heavy things & prove
those doctors wrong even more. Everyone else always told me to be
careful - she'd give me congrats and tell me to go do more. Which
led me to go into strength sports. Hell, she led me to meeting you,
and you to Charles, and going to the bootcamps and meeting all those
people. Directly it was her influence that led me to Thailand after
she passed where I met and trained with some real athletes, and
huge influences, namely Calvin Neff who I learned a Mint from and
what TRAINING is for the first time, as opposed to exercising. Everything
snow balled from there, and she was the root- the tremor that started
that avalanche.
Jules-
Let's talk a little about your art. The latest project I believe
is Landfill art, care to share a picture?:
Phil-
Yeah, I'm getting back into art after a little hiatus. I was getting
rolling before I moved here, showing and working again. Took some
time off to just take a break, then again when I relocated here.
I'm now working getting two pieces done for shows, one an alumni
show and the other for an art project. www.landfillart.org It's
a project where they have reclaimed 1051 hubcaps from, a junk yard
and they are choosing one artist from each county in Pennsylvania
and then one artist from each state In the US and an artist from
every country. They chose me as the Arizona representative. So I
am working on a piece that I am painting on an old VW bug hubcap.
What I'm doing is a bit away from my usual but still in line a bit
with my works of late. Its been fun getting back to it. Just taking
it slow and enjoying the process. Not quite done but that’s
it so far.
Jules- B&B aside. A typical great
day in the life of Phil Stevens includes what?
Phil-
Everyday is great when I get to see you smiling face walk in the
door sweet heart. Honestly, I don't think I have a typical day and
haven't in a few years. I usually don't know what I'll be doing
tell that day or possibly the day prior. But its always an adventure.
Jules-
And a typically great work out consists of?:
Phil-
Man that's tough I guess a typical great workout would be simply
giving everything I got to one basic BIG move and knowing I gave
everything I had that day. Anything after that is icing on the cake
as long as I walk away knowing I gave everything I had at that time
to something I think is worth while. That and doing something crazy
like putting a person and a barbell on my shoulder and squatting
them. You got to have fun and enjoy it.
Jules-
Obviously we are going to talk about food with you, how you are
eating means one thing around here. Competition. What stands on
the horizon for you
Phil-
Right now I'm eating like a horse. If I had to guess 10,000 + calories.
When your eating that much it cant all be clean. I made a last minute
decision to not make the short 18 lb drop to 242 class for this
meet and to instead take a stab at my first 700DL in the 275 class
so I'm eating everything that wont run away, just because In don't
want to waste the energy chasing it.
After the meet I'm going to hold that
weight around 275 and use tow weeks to do some more hypertrophy
based work before doing a cut. Charles, Troy and I are having a
nice little competition to see who can get the leanest and preserve
the most strength in one month. No doubt I'll win. Should be fun
been a few years since I did a cut, I'm plan on being a fairly shredded
240-235 lbs, then I'll start to eat my way back up and slowly increase
my intensity. Heal up some aching tendons and joints, injuries I
have been dodging for a while, and then back to competing in power
lifting and take some jumps back into strongman and more so Highlander
events which I am now the AZ. state chair.
Jules-
And how exciting that you are now really getting into the Strongman
Category of all of this. Please let everyone know what you have
been up to:
Phil-
Mainly Powerlifting of late since I blew my biceps tendon doing
atlas stones. I've competed three times in strongman since then,
only once with stones in the comp. But I think I'm back to where
I can start to push some on those things again and mainly beat some
mental demons. Like I said above, I took the state chair position
with the North American Highlander Association, which mixes 50%
strongman events with 50% traditional Scottish games events. I'm
really looking into putting this in the mix and keeping up with
my power lifting.
Jules-
One time were all out to eat at a buffet and my daughter Jazzy kept
whispering to me about how much food you were getting to eat, and
no fair that you were eating dessert first. It was pretty funny-
so during a bulking phase I want you to let on what a typical days
worth of food consists of :
Phil-
Oh man, I can say really that I get my protein in but when I need
to get the weight on and its down to crunch time, or a cheat day
like it was that day ( I was bulking up using the Anabolic diet)
things can get real ugly or interesting. I honestly eat pretty clean
a lot of the time but of late I have been eating for my goals and
for me to get to 275 it means taking a LOT of good food and then
putting cheeseburger, doughnuts, chocolate etc on top of that. Like
the other day, hell I had breakfast and then in the next hour I
ate a 1 pound bag of pistachios, over 1800 calories for a snack
Ha ; )
Jules-
And kids, don't try this at home, but how to take it all off really
fast?:
Phil-
That's a trade secret and something I wouldn't suggest to the faint
of heart. No I've taken off as much as 28lbs in 15 hours and then
put 36 back on in the next 24 to lift. If people are interested
you can read one of my first articles her and watch the video of
the process. That was a BIT extreme but 18 lbs or so for a guy my
size is perfectly reasonable if needed.
As far as actually losing it. That
takes a bit more time but its not to damn crazy if one just adopts
solid habits, sticks to them, is consistent. There are little trick
and such here and there of course but the first thing needs to be
the basics. I am sure Ill be logging my little competition with
Charles and Troy where I look to shed as much actual blubber as
I can in 4 weeks. People can drop in there and check it out ask
questions
Jules-
We are moving in so many directions now but by far what has been
the greatest thing about moving your life here and becoming a part
of Staley Training Systems? (and don't say Troy-(sorry Troy) )
Phil-
What are you jealous of my man relationship with Troy. No need,
he’s a great friend but what we have is more then that. Again,
it has to be that I get to see your beautiful face so often. Share,
smiles, laughs, chocolate bars and pancakes with you (when the goals
allow it)
That and getting more hands on with
people. Its an awesome thing to work side by side with Charles.
I never thought something like that would happen. It's a blast every
day and I think we compliment each other well. Not a day goes by
were not having a blast, giving clients an Ah HA moment. Its just
a blessing to have that hands on work and doing it with Charles
and with the clients we have.
Jules-
five years down the road what are you looking at ?:
Phil-
You baby, Nothing but you ; )
That remains to be seen and I don't
want to let any cats out of the bag but you know as well as I do
we have big plans around here and I think the passion, drive, enthusiasm,
team, and a great message to take us there.
Jules- and finally my friend, "Moleste",
or "No Moleste"?? :
Phil-
Like you had to ask "MOLESTE" baby
Thanks a lot Jules, it was my pleasure
and I'm glad to see you start this series again.
---
To read more of Julianne VanValkenburgs
interviews with members,and others in the industry please visit
the interview section of Team
Staley forum.
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