13-time Mr. Olympia veteran Shawn Ray sits down with the Stripped Podcast for an unfiltered conversation about competing in the land of the giants, the realities behind social media fitness culture, and the lessons learned from a 25-year career and beyond.
Competing in the Land of the Giants
At 5'6", Shawn Ray spent his career standing next to bodybuilders who outweighed him by 60 pounds and stood five to six inches taller. From Lee Haney to Dorian Yates to Ronnie Coleman, Shawn never had a comparable competitor at his height after Samir Bannout's 1983 Olympia win — the next smaller Olympia champion wouldn't arrive until Dexter Jackson in 2008.
Yet Shawn placed in the Olympia top five 12 consecutive years — a record that still stands. "I was accomplishing history at a time I wasn't knowing what I was doing," he reflects in the interview.
"I Don't Train Anymore — I Exercise"
One of the most powerful moments of the conversation comes when Shawn, now 60, explains how his relationship with the gym has fundamentally changed:
"I changed my mentality from training to look a certain way to exercising in order to feel a certain way. When you get older, you realize that everything you do is going to be based on how you feel."
It's a message every former athlete — and every aging lifter — needs to hear. Shawn talks candidly about watching legends like Ronnie Coleman pay the price for never taking their foot off the gas, and why functionality, flexibility, and longevity now matter more than the size of his arms.
The Truth About Today's Fitness Industry
Shawn doesn't pull punches on where the sport — and the wider fitness world — has gone. Among the topics he tackles:
- Information overload: Too many coaches, too many philosophies, and athletes "trying to reinvent a wheel that was never broken."
- The chemical wild west: Peptides sold online, products labeled "not for human consumption," and coaches who go missing when athletes die.
- Social media stars vs. stage champions: Why fitness influencers now have a bigger cultural footprint than top-five Olympia competitors — and what gets lost in the process.
- The death of exclusivity: Pro cards earned in a single show, 12 divisions, and a sport that has become "participatory" rather than elite.
His message to anyone starting out is clear: be your own artist. "I was the artist of my physique," Shawn says. "If you ask too many people for too much advice, it's sensory overload. You're never going to figure it out because they don't know what you want to look like."
Heavenly Heroes and Where Are They Now
The conversation also touches on Shawn's new podcast, Where Are They Now, where he sits down with the bodybuilders who shaped the sport — including a tribute series he calls the Heavenly Heroes for those who didn't make it through. "If I'm not going to do it, who's doing it?" he asks.
Watch the Full Conversation
From competing against Lee Haney, Dorian Yates, and Ronnie Coleman, to building a global business as his own manager, to promoting the Shawn Ray Hawaiian Classic each November in Honolulu — this is one of the most candid Shawn Ray interviews in recent memory.
Watch the full episode above on the Stripped Podcast channel, and follow Shawn's own podcast Where Are They Now for more conversations with the greatest bodybuilders of all time.