This week I'm excited to welcome Cody Watkins to the podcast. Dubbed the King of Transformation. Cody is a renowned online fitness coach. In 2018, he underwent emergency open heart surgery that was required to escape death. He made an astonishing comeback, winning a bodybuilding competition, just 11 months post-surgery. In this episode, we discussed the subtle art of building lean muscle while losing body fat, the importance of cardio when wanting to lean up and so much more. Over to Cody.
Stu:
This week, I'm excited to welcome Cody Watkins to the podcast. Dubbed the King of Transformation. Cody is a renowned online fitness coach. In 2018, he underwent emergency open heart surgery that was required to escape death. He made an astonishing comeback, winning a bodybuilding competition, just 11 months post-surgery. In this episode, we discussed the subtle art of building lean muscle while losing body fat, the importance of cardio when wanting to lean up and so much more. Over to Cody.
(01:20)
Hey guys, this is Stu from 180 Nutrition and I am delighted to welcome Cody Watkins to the podcast. Cody, good morning, good afternoon for you. How are you mate?
Cody
(01:30)
I'm doing well. Thanks for having me.
Stu
(01:32)
No, I really appreciate your time. Well, looking at your socials and all of your online activities, I know that you're a very busy man, so we'll get into the questions in a second. But first up, for all of our listeners that may not be familiar with you or your work, I'd love it if you could just tell us a little bit about yourself, please.
Cody
(01:48)
Yeah, so I got into fitness pretty early, 15, 16 years old. I think very typical for any male, you're a little bit softer than you like to be, right? You got to get those abs, get it checked, and I just started, I guess, chasing the dragon, so to speak. So, I just kept pushing the size of limit. I got into powerlifting, got into bodybuilding. I did that obviously along the way. It's really easy to get into training since that's all you're doing. So that's where I kind of fell into that with my love for that, and then got into coaching, competed for 12 years in bodybuilding. Ended up having a few setbacks along the way that I had to learn to overcome, the biggest being open heart surgery. That was kind of a side blast, I didn't see that one coming. And yeah, I had a birth effect that I didn't know about.
(02:31)
I ended up being in stage four heart failure. My heart was like three times the size it should be, and then I got that all patched up. I ended up competing in a bodybuilding show one year later just to see if I could. I wanted to push the limit, but I like to take the reasons or excuses out for when it comes to clients because we'll build hurdles over things that maybe aren't. So, I figured if I could push the envelope, it would help me as a coach overall, because it kind of takes that excuse barrier now when it comes to working with people.
Stu
(02:57)
Oh, my word. So, tell me, when you had that surgery. And I'm guessing with a character like yourself. You live and breathe for working out, feeling good, moving your body. Were you ever told that you've got to take this super, super easy? I wouldn't recommend that you pick up heavy weights or stretch your heart in any way? Was that on the board of the recommendations?
Cody
(03:24)
Absolutely. So, going into it, I didn't know I had it. I had symptoms of heart failure the whole time, but I thought it was just bodybuilding. It was rough, right? I'm pushing through it, grueling along, probably maybe TMI. But man, I was throwing up probably one to two workouts a month, just thought I was lifting hard, but that was my heart not keeping up, right?
Stu
(03:41)
Yeah.
Cody
(03:42)
But anyways, when I found out, my heart valve actually ripped. I had birth defect in it. So, they were like, if this would've happened while you're training, you'd be dead. And the day before I was blasting out legs, just crushed. I was six weeks out from a bodybuilding show. So, I had just DEXA scan at like 6% body fat. I'm like, "Easiest contest prep yet. I'm so far ahead of the game. This is great." And then the next day I was in the hospital dying and had no idea, just side cast.
For full interview and transcript:
https://180nutrition.com.au/180-tv/cody-watkins-interview/