Lee Priest – What 40 Years of Bodybuilding Taught Me About Training and Steroids

Muscle Intelligence

Ben Pakulski

Alternative Health, Health & Fitness, Fitness

4.7 • 761 Ratings

🗓️ 19 January 2026

⏱️ 61 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

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What happens when you combine a legendary physique with total honesty? In this episode, I sit down with the one and only Lee Priest at the iconic Gold's Gym in Venice California, to unpack the real foundations of bodybuilding: hard training, simple nutrition, and ruthless consistency. Lee shares what his actual contest prep looked like (including the cycles people still argue about), why modern bodybuilding often looks "softer," and the intensity mindset most lifters have lost. We also go deeper on focus, distraction, and why phones are quietly destroying training quality, and even life quality. If you're serious about building muscle, staying powerful as you age, and cutting through the noise, this one delivers.

5 Bullet Points:

Lee's real contest-prep cycle, explained simply
Why "more gear" often makes you worse
Old school training principles that still win
The intensity mindset most lifters avoid
Phones, distraction, and lost training quality

About Ben

Ben Pakulski is the Chief Performance Officer to elite executives, successful entrepreneurs, and top athletes.With over 25 years of experience, he coaches high achievers to build the physical, psychological, and metabolic resilience required to lead at the highest level. As the creator of the Muscle Intelligence framework, Ben specializes in aligning biology and behavior to drive sustained peak performance. His mission is to redefine what's possible for people in their prime and push the boundaries of human potential.

Guest Bio

Lee Priest is a legendary Australian IFBB professional bodybuilder known for world-class proportions, freaky density, and a brutally honest voice in the sport. Rising through the ranks as a teenage standout, Lee earned his pro card in the early 1990s and became one of bodybuilding's most iconic physiques through the late-90s and 2000s. He's respected not just for how he looked on stage, but for how he trained: hard, simple, consistent, and focused on execution over ego. Today, Lee remains a fan-favorite for his unfiltered opinions on modern bodybuilding culture, drugs, training intensity, and what it actually takes to build an elite body.

Time Stamps:

00:00 - Meeting Lee Priest: A Bodybuilding Legend

01:45 - Lee Priest's Early Career and Challenges

03:28 - Training at Gold's Gym: Memories and Changes

07:53 - Competing and Training Philosophy

11:18 - Reflections on Bodybuilding and Life

32:58 - Commonwealth Connections and Prime Ministers

33:13 - First Exposure to Olympia

33:35 - Comparing Bodybuilders: Then and Now

34:18 - Training Techniques and Intensity

42:06 - The Role of Technology in Training

46:23 - The Importance of Family Values

47:06 - The Influence of Social Media

48:15 - Longevity and Health Concerns

53:37 - The Impact of Modern Lifestyle on Kids

56:02 - Concluding Thoughts and Future Plans

57:31 - Personal Reflections on Training and Health

01:00:16 - The Evolution of Training Methods

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Imagine a young 17-year-old boy,
0:02.0	nicknamed the young screamer boy
0:04.0	standing outside this very location
0:06.0	and observing all of his young heroes,
0:09.0	fulfilling their dreams.
0:11.0	Today's interview is with someone who's near and dear to my heart,
0:14.0	someone who's one of the earliest inspirations
0:16.0	in my bodybuilding journey.
0:18.0	Lee Priest joins me today to share some stories of his unbelievable career.
0:23.6	Lee has one of the most incredible physiques and most incredible careers in the history of bodybuilding.
0:28.6	If you don't know who Lee is, take a look through some of the photos attached here
0:32.6	and acknowledge that he's literally one of the most incredible physiques that's ever walked the face of the planet.
0:38.3	To get some insights into his simple yet effective, disciplined approach was truly an honor for me.
0:46.3	Lee is one of the very first athletes that I was inspired to emulate, that I was inspired to train hard to be like. And it's truly an honor to call Lee a friend and to sit down with him today to discuss
0:59.0	everything from how we train to the steroids that he took and how we think culture has changed
1:04.0	in the world and how the world is ultimately shifting the culture and how bodybuilding is different,
1:08.0	yet still an incredible sport.
1:10.0	Whether you want to be a professional bodybuilder or just want to be the best version of yourself
1:14.1	at any age, this conversation should inspire you, and there will be many, many golden nuggets of wisdom
1:20.0	that Lee Priest and I impart on you today. I really appreciate you being here,
1:24.7	and I look forward to hearing what you have to say about my amazing conversation with the one, the only, the legend, Lee Priest.
1:31.3	So I threw on a gold...
	...

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