HEATH
20062006
AGE
26
PRO WINS
2
YEARS
AS PRO
1
PRO
CONTESTS
2
WEIGHT
95
HEIGHT
175HEATH HEATH
20162016
AGE
36
PRO WINS
12
YEARS
AS PRO
11
PRO
CONTESTS
18
WEIGHT
112
HEIGHT
175HEATH 2006
VS. H E AT H 2 0 16
HOW MUCH DID
PHIL HEATH CHANGE
OVER HIS FIRST 10
YEARS AS A PRO?
“How does he look?”
FLEX’s editor-in-chief
asked me after I
journeyed backstage
before the 2006
Colorado Pro. “Small,” I
answered. “But at least
he’s peeled.” You got
the sense that success
was coming too fast
for Phil Heath. Sure, he
had those round muscle
bellies and that pleasing
shape. But he was a
puppy. When he made
his pro debut in Denver
on May 13, 2006, and
followed up a week later
with the New York Pro,
the 26-year-old was
still merely three years
past his first contest.
He wasn’t going to
outsize any decent pro.
So he and nutritionist
Hany Rambod wisely
maximized his
conditioning, coming in
at a weight fit for the 212
division, had there been
one then. Luckily for
Heath, the two shows
were void of mass
monsters. He won both,
though some monster-
seeking New Yorkers
booed their displeasure.
A year later, when he
was a humbling fifth in
the Arnold Classic, the
future six-time Mr. O
learned the limits of
shape and striations.
Thereafter, the Gift
went about growing.
LAST SET
KEVIN HORTON; PER BERNAL138 FLEX| JUNE 2017
POSEDOWN