He is 55 and he just did his first bodybuilding show

Nat Cooper started working out at 12 or 13 on a little bench and curling bar his parents bought from Sears. At 14 or 15 he talked his way into Ferrigno's Gym in Queens because they told him he was too young. He read the magazines with his friends and said to himself, one day I will compete.

Then life. College, I am too busy, I have to finish this degree. Work. Married, a son, divorced. Next year, next year, next year. About 18 months ago he was 54 and he asked himself what he was doing with a dream he had carried since he was a teenager.

16:04

“But I have a tremendous fear of regretting not doing it.”

Nobody knows me in Buffalo

He picked the first show of the season, in Buffalo, for two reasons. One, he wanted the road trip alone, seven and a half hours, time to gather his thoughts. Two, nobody knows him in Buffalo. So even if he finished last, he was not doing it in front of friends and family.

He registered, booked the tanning, built himself a sheet with the drive up, the athletes meeting and the weigh in. He was not nervous to step on stage. He placed second in his first show.

The judges said his body was not the problem

In the judges meeting after the show they told him the physique was fine. The posing was not. His flaws were popping in the transitions between poses, and he learned that from the moment you step on stage to the moment you step off, you are being judged.

So he went back to the drawing board. He reviewed his own film footage from the show. He recorded himself posing every day. He watched YouTube videos of the champions who win in his categories and noticed what they were doing, without copying them.

He rebuilt the routine from the bottom up. Two weeks later he entered two categories, physique and classic physique, because the judges told him he was more muscular than most physique competitors. Second in both. Third show, third in classic, second in physique, against much stronger fields.

People are watching without liking anything

He came back from Buffalo, posted a couple of times on Instagram, and about 25 or 30 people he did not think he had ever seen in his life came up to him at the gym to say congratulations. He posted again to thank them. There are people cheering for you in the background just because they see you every day.

He also noticed a couple hundred views and three or four likes and wondered what happened to everyone else. Nothing happened. They were scrolling, the same way he scrolls. You like the first thing at the top of your feed, then the fatigue sets in and you stop tapping. That is not a signal that nobody saw it.

My agents post for me on my account now. At this point in my life I genuinely do not care about the number. The 30 people walking up to you in the gym are the proof.

Seven years, same body

This is the part that hurts him. He has seen people at Hollywood for five years, some at Synergy for ten. They show up every day. They work hard. They do not work out properly, the form is off, the food is probably off.

45:38

“They look exactly the same today as seven years ago.”

That is not what they came for. Nobody's goal is to stop time. So he says recognise yourself in one of two ways. Either you are a student of the game who works out fast what your body responds to and pivots toward it, or you need a trainer or a coach. Not forever. Just long enough to be educated enough to teach yourself.

51:02

“They can effectively compress time.”

It is priorities, not time

When he trained clients at Gold's Gym in college, the excuse was I have no time. He started coaching again a couple of months ago and got the same answer. Meanwhile he spent ten years at Citibank bringing his own food in, traveled 200,000 Delta miles a year, spent 150 nights in hotels, and still made it work every day.

36:30

“They'll tell me about the new series on Netflix.”

His system is simple. On the heaviest days he structures the whole day in five or ten minute increments. Every morning he buckets the list into what has to happen, what should happen, and what he would like to happen. Training is not on the list because it is not in question. He blocks 1 to 2:30 and nothing gets calendared in it. When that was not possible, he was at the gym at 3:30 in the morning.

This isn't a gym for your thumbs

His one ask for members. Stop scrolling. He sees people spend most of their time on the phone, do a half set, and get straight back on it. The phone comes out of his pocket to change a song and that is it. It does not matter who is calling. Unless it is an emergency, it can wait an hour.

1:00:30

“And this isn't a gym for your thumbs.”

There is a mind muscle connection and you break it every time you jump on social between sets. You cannot connect your head to your body while you are in a feed. There are people who have no access to a gym like this. An hour to work on yourself is a blessing, so do not dilute it.

That was his closing line to the camera. We all slip up, we all fall off. With every sunrise there is a fresh start. Go kill it.