We sat down with Mr. RPG on location at Fitness Mania in Riverside, California, where he trains and coaches when he’ s not competing.

Before Ron ever stepped on a bodybuilding stage, he was a kid growing up in urban Detroit, a college graduate, and had completed years of military service. Of that Detroit upbringing specifically, he says,“ There’ s some constraints with growing up in that environment, but it also toughens you for the world. I’ m thankful for it now that I’ ve made it through. It’ s like a rite of passage.” That mix, discipline earned early, education layered on top, shows up in the way he talks about his sport now: less about the mirror, more about the mind.

Ron didn’ t set out to become a bodybuilder. He played basketball for a couple of decades and was, in his own words,“ already a meathead,” training every day but with no real concept of dieting or nutrition. A broken wrist changed the trajectory. A doctor suggested weight training to help rebuild bone density,“ not for aesthetics, not to be stronger,” he says.“ I just didn’ t want to get hurt playing basketball anymore, and it kind of just grew on its own.” He competed for years in the NPC with no roadmap to a pro card, just regional shows twice a year, trophies on his desk, then back to work. That changed when a friend, also named Ron, mentioned him to a coach named James. James quietly watched him compete without his knowledge, then spent about a year telling him he had what it took. It took Ron a year to take him up on it. Two months into

24 FlexzoneLifeMagazine. com working together, he placed fifth at his first national show. The next year, he turned pro. A year of persuasion, two months of coaching, and a top-5 finish at his first national show followed. The next year, he turned pro.

On what people get wrong

Ask Ron about the biggest misconceptions surrounding bodybuilding, and two come up immediately: that bodybuilders are unintelligent, and that they’ re self-centered. He doesn’ t deny there are outliers in any space,“ you’ re gonna have your bad apples,” but pushes back on the broader read.“ I literally view my body no different than that chair or this piece of furniture,” he says.“ It’ s something I’ m working on that I don’ t get absorbed with, from the point of‘ I want to present this to the world because it’ s better than yours.’” The real story, he says, is closer to the opposite of vanity:“ Most people wouldn’ t believe how critical bodybuilders are, and have to be. We don’ t have time to stop and smell the roses of how we look.”

As for the intelligence myth, he points to something less visible than the physique: isolation.“ Even when you have people around you, you’ re isolated, because there are walks of life you’ re gonna be doing by yourself, whether it’ s the diet, the training, the cardio, the posing, or maybe all of it.” Most people, he says, aren’ t used to sitting with their own thoughts without reaching for a distraction.“ There’ s value in sitting