"AE: We've seen a lot of huge competitors coming out of England, yourself, Dorian, Eddie Ellwood. I know Dorian's often said he feels American bodybuilders are lazy and don't train properly. Do you share his opinion and think the massive size seen on some English bodybuilders is a result of a stronger work ethic in the gym?

IAN: I think it's a combination of a few things. I don't ever think you can categorize a whole country, a whole nation and say that they're all lazy. You can't do that. You're upbringing comes into that, where you were brought up, how you were brought up. So, I don't think you can say all American bodybuilders are lazy. A lot of American bodybuilders do train in a lazy fashion. But I think a lot of that depends on how they were brought into the sport, and I think a lot of them have such ridiculously good genetics that they maybe don't have to train as hard. But I also think a lot of it comes down to the diet aspect. I mean, I know for a fact that most European bodybuilders, and Australian bodybuilders seem to have the same sort of mental attitude towards bodybuilding. They train very, very hard. But they also eat enormous amounts of food. They don't care what they look like in the off season. Whereas in my opinion, American bodybuilders want to have abs and look good year round. Now European bodybuilders don't give a shit. European bodybuilders just get as freaky as they possibly can. And as long as they get it right for the day of the show, they don't care.

AE: So you guys are all just running around like Lee Priest in the off season?

IAN: Yeah, exactly. Exactly. You know in the off season, I'll eat like 3 liters of ice cream a day. I just eat everything. If I can eat it without spewing it back up, I'll eat it. The more food I can eat, the bigger I can get.

AE: (Me laughing) I had to laugh when you told that story in that seminar video, eating those things, then you threw them up, dusted them off, and ate them again.

I'm referring to Ian's videotape with Paul Borreson where he related a story from his younger days as a bodybuilder. Having eaten about 30 desiccated liver tablets, he suddenly got sick and projectile vomited them across the room. He proceeded to wash them off and swallowed them again since he had no more in the house.

IAN: That's the sort of mentality I think you've got to have in order to be successful, you've got to be able to take things to the extreme.

AE: At the level your trying to aspire to, you definitely have to. It's all or nothing. You can't half-ass it and hope that you're going to place well.

IAN: Exactly. If you want to compete in the Olympia, and compete against the sort of guys that are around now, you can't just say I'll eat when I'm hungry, I'll just eat this, or I'm full, I can't eat that. You've got to just eat it. You're not eating cause you like it, you're eating to grow. I just think it's a different mentality. American bodybuilders are constantly worried about how they look, are constantly wanting to be in shape or in reasonable shape. But European bodybuilders just want to get as big as possible. I think that's the difference. The American magazines like Flex and Muscle and Fitness, they tell everybody so much��bullshit really. All these years people have said top competitive bodybuilders stay within 10 lbs of contest weight. Well that's a load of shit. You know, I mean I believed it until the first time I came over to Gold's Gym in California. I saw Gary Strydom the day after the Olympia in 1988, I came out about again four months later and he was about 100 lbs heavier. It was like, these guys don't stay within 10 lbs of contest weight. I think the magazines mislead a lot of people.