Hello hello!

Long time no speak…BUT, I have exciting news so that just about makes up for it!

Introducing a new segment I have been wanting to do for a long time on ze blog…

You ready?

FRIDAY FIVE!

*crickets*

Yes, I know you don’t know what that means because I essentially made it up, SO, let me clear things up! Each fortnight on the Friday, I will be online ‘interviewing’ all sorts of people in the health and fitness world with five questions. Not just competitors, not just powerlifters, not just nutritionists, not just personal trainers, not just life coaches… Think of anyone who has potential to impact your mental, physical or emotional health and those are the people I’m going to be talking to. I’ll be discussing life, business, training, health and most importantly, #foodporn… (joking, not joking, who knows).

---

I know it’s not Friday and this is also way more than five questions… But I got super excited about the first person who agreed to do this for me so I decided I would send him a few extra questions and post it a little early. So, without further a do…

Please welcome Mr Ryan Doris to the bloggie! Also known as @thenattypro or the muscly guy with the killer hair/beard combo.

Ryan is the Chief Executive Officer of De Novo Nutrition, a Pro Natural Bodybuilder, a competitive doughnut eater and is just about to step into the Raw Powerlifting game officially. He made his debut on the bodybuilding stage in 2012 and ever since then has really been a name hard to ignore, not only for his impressive physique, but also his knowledgeable posts, YouTube videos and humble attitude.

In the interview I go over his thoughts on training, mental ‘strength’, future plans and also ask him to share some advice for future competitors and entrepreneurs. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did! And again, thank you Ryan… I owe you a giant doughnut (or seven) when I head your way.

Quick side note: For those who don’t know, I worked with Ryan online for my first competition prep for both of the shows I competed in and he is currently doing my programming as I look to enter my first Powerlifting comp come September. As he is located in sunny ol’ Florida and I’m situated in the 2nd Antarctica (Canberra), check in’s are all online and occur on a weekly basis so we can adjust things for the coming week. If you are interested in getting in touch with him for coaching you can contact him here > thenattypro@gmail.com 🙂

---

Schae: My first question for you is in regards to your recent announcement that you have decided to focus on Raw Powerlifting for the next few years as opposed to bodybuilding which was ultimately the platform that got your name out there. How hard was that decision to make and what fueled your choice?

Ryan: I don’t think it was much of a hard decision at all. I got into bodybuilding because it really interested me. No different than a book you read or a hobby. I did it at the time I really wanted to discover it and do it out of curiosity and challenge. I didn’t realize that bodybuilding would give me a platform but it did. I enjoy the platform and obviously I have made my career off of it but I don’t care much for it. To be honest I have never really tried hard to maintain it or grow it. I get interested in things and do what I feel like regardless of who may be a fan. I want to powerlift so I will do that if I have 1 fan or 1 million fans. I simply want to spend my life doing what I feel like regardless of the popularity effect.

Raw Powerlifting is in the same place that natural bodybuilding was in the states about 6 years ago. It was small and no one really cared.  I got into bodybuilding the same way and didn’t care much to ever “blow up”.  So I shall do the same again in a whole other sport. In essence I just imagine myself in a casket looking objectively at my funeral. It sounds cryptic but if you could see your dead self what would you say? “Hey Ryan, really glad you lived your life for those fans and other people” lol, no.  I would hope that I pursued every interest I had regardless of what my peers thought of it.  And I do. Just so happens I get rewarded positively in this.

---

S: A lot of people follow you on social media for your training videos and informative posts.  How did you get to this point in regards to your training/nutrition/routine and how it has evolved over time?

R: Again, I think its people in the fitness industry see something in me that they really value. I never really purposely went out of my way to get this but it just kind of happened naturally. I would see things from popular athletes and think, “mmmmm that sounds like bullshit”. Then I would just say the real version how I felt in my head and an insane amount of people related to the crazy person in my head haha. At the honest root I just want to learn for me and myself. I end up helping inadvertently actually. As I learn something I do a weird mental dump. I make a video or a post and literally just dump it out a thought as soon as I have mastered it. So, I am not helping people as much as it is just a live documentation of the things I have been working on.

I have spent the bulk of my 20’s doing what most people won’t. Not because I have some crazy dedication but it legitimately just never interested me to do basic youthful things. I am not really interested in sports outside of my own, I don’t have cable television, I don’t go out. I just keep high-level people around me in terms of conversation and intellect. I just have a high level of non-tolerance for wasting my time. I only like to engage in things that add value to my life or for those that are close to me. Inadvertently, I spend more time learning about ideas, things, concepts etc. more than I do on small things.  I literally feel sick if I don’t learn something new every day. So again, I am like this with all things. People for some odd reason just happen to care about training and nutrition. I am this way with lots of other things no one cares about.

---

S: People perceive you to be extremely mentally strong, perhaps due to your popular YouTube series. In regards to training, how do you differentiate between pushing yourself and listening to your body?

R: Lol I have the weakest mind when it comes to pushing myself. I had to come up with all these awesome motivational sayings to convince myself. My subconscious isn’t very dumb either. So I really really had to kick it up to convince myself to really push through. The stuff I would come up with I use for myself and repeat to the fitness community.  All the mentally strong things I come up with are simply because I am so ridiculously weak. All the stuff that sounds so strong is literally because that’s how contrastingly weak I am.

And my body just knows when something is not safe. Everyone knows when something is not safe but we don’t listen to it because of what the fitness industry tells you to do with pain. Fitness industry has this weird peer pressure thing to never quit when something feels wrong or painful. That’s a terrible Idea.  When in life do you feel physical pain and just keep going 100% of the time. I am not one of those people who believe in the push at all cost type of training. I will push at about 95% of the cause. I rather give up 5% of my workouts in the year when they feel borderline instead of the guy who believes to never quit 100% of the time.There is a 100% chance you will hurt yourself. I rather stick with the sustainable 95% never quit. Gets me through just fine and its just a much more sustainable model…. Imagine if they did that in hospitals or something right? NEVER QUIT. PUSH THAT BABY 100% haha. Yea, not good.

---

S: There is a lot of controversy in the fitness industry when the topic of bringing up weak body parts comes into question. In your opinion, what training style would you recommend/has worked for you and what is your idea of ‘optimal hypertrophy’?

R: Without a doubt having a combination of strength training for actual strength combined with hypertrophy rep ranges. Periodization is tried and true and it simply works. Doesn’t matter who you are you cannot argue that if you can make the muscle stronger. The carry over to lift heavier in the hypertrophy range will make it grow. People debate, “what works for me” all the time. But that’s irrelevant. That’s like saying, “Oh bro I don’t drink water I only drink soda. It works for me”. Well of course it works for you it would work for anyone its liquid. Little do you know that all human physiology would run better off of water. It’s the same case for building weak points. People refuse to make the part stronger as well as use hypertrophy range simultaneously

---

S: Where do you see yourself in 5/10 years? What is the next step for yourself and also De Novo as a brand and team?

R: I don’t really care as much as it is being honest with myself and doing whatever I want.  More free hopefully. I prize freedom higher than anything else in my life. I don’t get too caught up in what I actually want more so than what state of feeling I would like to be in predominantly for that period. The more self-sufficient I become the more free I become.

For those that don’t know I am the CEO of De Novo Nutrition LLC, you can check out more about what we do at www.denovonutrition.com . But I would like De Novo to be in good health for the sake of my partners and employees. I need them and their loved ones to have a solid future as they trust and count on me to make it happen in the company.

We have built our company from a few kids in graduate school now to a legitimate international corporation. We will keep growing and innovating as much as we feel like. De Novo is super fun. I see things in the industry that piss me off and De Novo is my platform to do something about it. Same way I started in the industry as I said above. I just always like to try out my version of things and my opinion. De Novo is just a large scale version of that with people I love working with.

---

S: Most important piece of advice you can offer for someone who is A: looking to compete and B: trying to start their own business

R: A – Just go in 100%. If you feel like you are losing it and going crazy, that’s good. To be really successful at anything in life you have to identify with something that close it makes you borderline crazy. You and this thing have an umbilical cord connection, a full dedication to one another. Sort of like passionate love in a human relationship it’s the same idea. That feeling will teach you to get that committed in anything you do in life. Competing is the ultimate lesson in how to be successful if more people realized you can transcend the dedication of prep to anything and literally be successful with that same effort. I mean anything. You don’t have to compete again if you don’t want to. But please remember the lessons it taught you and transcend them in your life.

B – Just fucking do it. There is no right time. You will never know what you’re doing ever. You just have to dive in when you aren’t ready and feel like. In reality, no one knows what they are doing. People may think they know what they are doing but they don’t. People have beliefs and that’s cool. But in reality no one knows anything. May as well jump in just like everyone else who has no idea what’s going on.

---

S: Do you think men and women should train differently? Why or why not?

R: Well yes and no.  The three most important aspects of programming are Volume, Frequency, and Specificity.  Specificity is huge in how you train. You train specific for your goal. There is no men’s bikini or men’s figure. Therefore specificity in training is naturally different. Specificity in programming is catered to the individual. And I think this question gets dumped easily into “yes” because we are literally training for different sports.

---

S: What truth do you hold true that not many would agree with you on? (In regards to anything you like)

R: People have no idea what their true want/satisfaction is in life. Everything is relative. Everything. That’s why its best to keep a child life interest. Growing up is just some made up concept that compares you to other people. You only know what you want in life because society imposed upon you what you have compared to other people. That is what you base your goals off. I show my interest the same way a child shows their interest unique to what they want. Not to what someone else tells you what is to be desired in life.

---

S: Favourite doughnut flavour?

R: Boston cream pie. CLASSIC.

---

Current 1RMS:

Deadlift: 306 kg

Squat: 292.5 kg

Bench: 180 kg

---

& that right there concludes my first ever interview for the blog! Let me know your thoughts on this new segment and feel free to throw around some names that you would love to hear from and I will do my best to get in touch with some freakin’ awesome people (unfortunately Beyonce has already kindly declined my invitation… and by kindly I mean not replying, you still ma girl though Bey).

Have a happy mid-week ya’ll.

AND don’t forgot to check out De Novo’s new product, Utopia(n).

Lurve Schae X