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Brandon Curry: Back to the Arnold!
Interview by Ron Harris
Though Brandon Curry’s pro bodybuilding career began in 2010 and he did manage several wins, 2019 would be the year when everything exploded. He won the Arnold Classic and would go on to become the fifteenth Mr. Olympia. Since then the Olympia has been his sole focus, but after two consecutive losses to Big Ramy in 2020 and 2021, he’s making his way back to Columbus to recapture some of that magic from three years ago. I spoke with him while he was in Kuwait preparing to make history – hoping to be the first man to win the Arnold and the Olympia in the same year twice.
The 2021 Mr. Olympia is ancient history now, but I haven’t spoken to you since then. Friday night’s judging saw you just one point behind Big Ramy. Even though he ultimately won his second title, a lot of media and fans had you winning. How did it feel knowing so many were behind you?
For me, this sport is all about the fans. That’s what keeps us active and driven. Without them, we’d be nothing. So hearing that definitely brings some satisfaction for the hard work we put in. The support of the fans means everything to me. Feeling that love and knowing they’re rooting for me has a really positive impact. It’s like winning, in a sense.
Seeing as it was so close, I’m curious to know if you ever got any feedback from the judges as to what they want to see from you next time.
We didn’t discuss any details like that. A lot of the judges are supportive. They know I brought an improved physique to the stage, and it was a close race. I just have to do more of the same. Every time I step on stage, I try to bring an improved physique with something different. That’s my job; it’s what I’m here to do.
We are now just a few weeks away from the 2022 Arnold Classic, a contest you haven’t been part of since you won it in 2019. You went on to win the Mr. Olympia later that year, but many feel that not only did you look better at the Arnold, but it was your best look ever. Do you agree?
The way I looked at that Arnold was a combination of a few variables, including ones I was in control of and others I wasn’t. The stage lighting and camera work were excellent. Those enhanced the appearance of my physique and magnified the look that I brought. Those photos and videos will always be iconic. Was it my best look? I can’t say because the conditions haven’t been the same since. I’ve brought a few looks that were close in condition, and other times I’ve brought a fuller look, which I prefer. It just depends on the match-ups.
Now that you know your main opponent, the man you have to take out, is Big Ramy, a man known not so much for spectacular condition and detail as he is raw mass, do you intentionally bring a bigger and fuller look to the Mr. Olympia?
That’s exactly what we did last year. We brought a fuller package knowing we were going up against Ramy. I was substantially heavier than I had been the previous year on stage. We had to respect the big man and bring a bigger package.
You’re 5-foot-8. What did you weigh, close to 260?
No, I wasn’t that heavy. More like 247.
Let’s move on to current events. You haven’t done the Arnold since 2019. You skipped 2020 to focus on the Olympia then missed it again last year. What made you decide to return to the Arnold this time?
They just had the Arnold in October last fall, two weeks before the Olympia. They had asked me to compete, but I declined. Then once I saw the 2022 Arnold would be at its normal time of year again in early March and the Olympia wouldn’t be until December, that was the deciding factor. Fourteen months would have been a long time to go between competitions. I felt my body was healthy enough to get back into prep here in Kuwait, and after speaking with the Arnold people, it was a go. Why not? Realistically, this is the latter part of my career. If I can start this season off strong by winning the Arnold again, that gives me serious momentum heading into the Olympia later this year. I have an opportunity to set a new record and make history. Dexter and Ronnie both won the Arnold and the Olympia in the same year, but no man has ever done that twice. I want to be the first.
Because the Arnold was so close to the Olympia last year, I was secretly hoping you would have jumped into it. It would have been a better show with you in it, and no offense to Nick Walker, but you were second only to Ramy at the Olympia so it’s a safe bet you would have won the Arnold.
You’re not the first person to say that. We just didn’t know what to expect. The Arnold had been moved to a much later date, and we didn’t want to take any risks with our main focus being the Olympia. Looking back, it would have been a good risk to take. You live and you learn.
The Arnold lineup this year is top-notch, but I still suspect it will come down to you and William Bonac the way it did three years ago. Do you think about your opponents in prep, or do you focus purely on yourself?
I focus on me. With the other guys, I’m just looking forward to seeing them and feeling that camaraderie we have. The competitions are the only times we all come together. Of course we all want to beat each other, but that’s in the back of our minds. You don’t need to focus on that. I’m there to do work, but also to enjoy myself. It’s always good to see the fellas I’ve been doing this with for years, and to meet the new guys too. I don’t look at it like I’m going to war or anything like that. It’s not life or death. It’s a career and you need to have fun with it. We bring our best package and let the judges make their decisions.
It's funny how older pros say there’s no more camaraderie these days. There is, it’s just different in the digital age. You guys don’t all live in LA anymore. I see you commenting on each other’s posts on Instagram and you guys are all friendly at the shows. Pro bodybuilders are still all one big family.
It is a different type of camaraderie even from what they had 20 years ago. I experienced some of that because I crossed over in eras. I know what they’re talking about, traveling together on the tours. But I’ve come up over the years with guys like William. We’ve pushed and motivated each other so much. He’s also supported me in times when I was struggling. We’re all good friends. We are a big family, and I am grateful to share these experiences with them. Sometimes people just take things too seriously. The fans have their favorites, and they put their opinions and drama out there online. Among us pros, at the end of the day it’s all love and respect.
For this prep, based on your Instagram posts it looks like you left home on Christmas Eve to go to Kuwait.
No, that’s when I left New York. I was supposed to go directly from Nashville to New York, to Kuwait, but my PCR test results weren’t back in time and they wouldn’t let me on the plane and I had to stay in New York for a couple of days I hadn’t planned on. Shout-out to Steve Weinberger, Juan Morel, and his wife Karen for making me feel at home while I was delayed. I trained at Bev’s and I was well taken care of. It was just a hiccup. When you travel as much as I do, you get used to these things happening every so often. It put me behind a couple of days, but it wasn’t a big deal.
It must be tough leaving your wife and four kids at home for the holidays. Have you had to do that before?
Prepping here in Kuwait, I’ve had to miss plenty of holidays and birthdays. Of course I miss being with them. But I do what I need to do, and I’m blessed to be able to provide for them through the sport I love. I stay in touch with them, though it’s funny because I often lose track of what day of the week it is over here in prep. I’ll ask Brandy if the kids are home from school, and she’ll say, “It’s Saturday, there’s no school.”
I’m sure you heard about the controversy surrounding Oxygen Gym and the Camel Crew in recent months. Dennis James talked about how Big Ramy was pressured to do things he didn’t want to do, and Regan Grimes also echoed that, adding that he felt he wouldn’t have been allowed to leave. As someone whose career never would have advanced to the point it did if you had never gone to Kuwait, what was your reaction to all that?
YouTube and social media are all about drama, controversy and sensationalism. That’s how they get likes, views, subscribers and followers. They have to come up with juicy stories. Regan was actually my roommate when he was in Kuwait. It’s a big adjustment being there. I know the training was definitely brutal for him. I was as encouraging as I could be, but I had to go back home and he stayed. He left to go visit home in Canada for the holidays and never came back. Honestly, my coach Abdullah had a feeling he wasn’t coming back. He had a lot of issues and influences that were tearing him away. He jumped up to 300 pounds fast and people he knew were concerned for his health. This was just a few months after Dallas McCarver had died, and that scared the people in his camp. Nobody was ever holding him hostage here, but I understand why he left. You have to get used to the different culture here and everyone around you speaking Arabic. Being here is far from terrible. You get your work in and everything is taken care of for you. I don’t follow all the stories and drama. I know Ramy was always taken care of very well when he was here, so I don’t know what that’s about. When things don’t go your way, people often complain and make excuses.
You’ve been over there almost a dozen times now. Do you get a sense, when a new guy shows up, whether he will last or not?
It’s almost always around the two-week mark that some guys start to mentally break down. If they can survive and get past that, they’re usually good. The first two weeks are the hardest psychologically. They’re thousands of miles from everyone they know, they’re being pushed to the limits physically, and they have to question whether or not they really want to do this. Is it worth it to them? It’s a mental battle being pushed so far out of your comfort zone. Oxygen Gym is not the most nurturing place, but you have everything you need to improve as a bodybuilder.
I can imagine the shock. I don’t care who you are; nobody trains as hard on their own as they do with a great trainer at the helm. Then there’s the eating. I know for many guys, eating as much as they are told to in order to make gains can be a level of discomfort that’s overwhelming.
It's your responsibility as the athlete to eat all the food you’re supposed to. You have all day, they provide all the food, and you are expected to get all the meals in. You might still feel full, but you may need to eat again anyway. I can understand the struggle. I find that miserable phase of eating so much food makes the diet phase almost a relief. When you’re pushing so much food, it’s good to be able to eat less. It’s all about psychology and putting things into perspective. The last thing you want to do around here is feel sorry for yourself. Nobody is going to care. It’s a strong, male-dominated society in Kuwait. Nobody is going to cuddle you and comfort you.
Speaking of that, there are no women training in Oxygen Gym. Do you find you can train better with no ladies to distract you, even if it’s out of the corner or your eye?
Oh, of course. Women can be a distraction in the gym even if you’re not paying attention to them. I train with Ahmad alnaqi, who does all my workout programming. It’s just us two, and my mind doesn’t go anywhere else during workouts aside from what we have to do.
The Olympia was in early October, so you didn’t have time for any off-season training before you had to turn around and start prep for this Arnold. At your stage, do you even need an off-season anymore? Are you even trying to get any bigger at this point?
My first prep here five years ago was only 11 weeks. You know the changes we made. I put on 25 pounds of muscle and got in contest condition in that time. When I’m here and zoned in, we make changes fast. Right now I’ve been here almost four weeks and I feel I’m just hitting my stride. I had a guy at the gym come up to me today who had just taken a video of me last week. He was … Man, your body is completely different from last week! You’re so much bigger and leaner! I always put size on and lean out at the same time when I’m here. The preps don’t need to be as long as a standard contest prep might be for others. Being that we’re not looking to put on more size for the Arnold, we didn’t need an extended off-season. We just want to bring a refined, well-conditioned package that can win the show.
I’ve noticed that you don’t blow up and gain a lot of weight in the off-season anyway. Why is that? Is it mainly out of concern for your health?
Since we can do so much while I’m here in terms of gaining, I don’t feel the need to walk around all year being heavy and uncomfortable. I don’t really like it, to be honest. I don’t like breathing heavy and having a hard time putting on my shoes. That’s the worst. I also don’t like having to lose 40 pounds for a show. I don’t think that’s necessary, healthy or productive. Sometimes you do need to put on weight to bring a new look. We will do that this fall to add mass to go up against Ramy. But for health, a better quality of life, dealing with my family, and just not being miserable and having to eat enormous amounts of food all the time, keeping my weight up is not something I want to do this late in my career.
One area you have been trying to gain in is your legs. They have improved in recent years. How have you made that happen?
It’s been a continuation of trying to connect better with the muscles, and understanding what I need to do when I’m training back home rather than here in Kuwait. At home, I will let some areas of my body slack at times, but never my legs. I will train them a bit more often than everything else. I also focus on making sure my knees stay healthy, because obviously that has a huge impact on leg training. I’ve been using a portable electric stimulation machine called the NeuX. I use it for pre-workout muscle activation, during training, and later for recovery. It kind of wakes up dormant muscle fibers so I can activate them and break them down. It definitely leads to more gains over time.
You made an Instagram post today with a photo of you on stage with your family after winning the 2019 Arnold Classic, and mentioned that you have learned a lot since then. What have you learned?
I learned a lot about human nature. When you reach a certain level of success, a lot of attention is geared toward you. That’s closely tied into social media too these days. Then when you don’t do as well, the attention goes away, and people might turn on you. You have to deal with both the expectations others have for you and those you have for yourself. It’s the psychology of bodybuilding. You have to deal with being on top as the champ and everything that comes along with that, as well as how things change when you lose. People ask me how I handle adversity, especially losing when it can be so close at times. Simply, I don’t have expectations that I shouldn’t. At the last Mr. Olympia, I made sure I didn’t have any expectations I shouldn’t have had without the proper evidence. This is bodybuilding. You have to make sure you keep your head in the right space, because you don’t want to have those expectations and then have them crushed. It’s about having the right perspective on competition, the people around you, and being able to enjoy it. In 2019 I learned to embrace competition with myself, that whole mental process and drive to be better. I learned to give the fans something they can appreciate. Over the years I’ve also learned to appreciate “normal” life off the stage. Being here in Kuwait and away from my family for such extended periods of time allows me to truly appreciate all the blessings I have in my life back home.
Well said, sir, and I wish you the very best of luck in Columbus.
Thanks, Ron, I can’t wait.
Instagram @ brandon__curry
YouTube: Brandon Curry All Access
Brandon Curry’s O15 Nutrition Stack
AM: Happy Gutz™
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Intra-workout: Intra-Advantage™
Post-Workout: 2 scoops Big Hydro™
Snack throughout the day: Big-O™ bar
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Brandon Curry’s Pro Record
2010 IFBB Europa Supershow - Eighth Place
2010 IFBB Tampa Pro - Sixth Place
2011 IFBB New York Pro - 10th Place
2011 IFBB Tampa Pro - Eighth Place
2011 IFBB Toronto Pro - Third Place
2011 IFBB Mr. Olympia - Eighth Place
2012 IFBB Arnold Classic - Seventh Place
2012 IFBB Europa Supershow - Seventh Place
2012 IFBB European Pro - Eighth Place
2012 IFBB Tampa Pro - Sixth Place
2013 IFBB Arnold Classic Brasil - Winner
2013 IFBB Arnold Classic Europe - Eighth Place
2013 IFBB Mr. Olympia - Did not place
2014 IFBB Arnold Classic - Eighth Place
2015 IFBB Arnold Classic - Seventh Place
2015 IFBB Arnold Classic Australia - Fifth Place
2015 Arnold Classic Brazil - Fifth Place
2015 IFBB Toronto Pro - Winner
2015 IFBB Arnold Classic Europe - Ninth Place
2015 IFBB Dayana Cadeau Pro - Sixth Place
2015 IFBB Mr. Olympia - Did not place
2015 IFBB Prague Pro - 11th Place
2016 IFBB Arnold Classic Asia - Third Place
2016 IFBB Arnold Classic Europe - 13th Place
2016 IFBB Arnold Classic South Africa - Seventh Place
2016 IFBB Chicago Pro - Third Place
2016 IFBB Golden State Pro - Eighth Place
2016 IFBB Kuwait Pro - 11th Place
2016 IFBB Mr. Olympia - Did not place
2016 IFBB Prague Pro - 12th Place
2016 IFBB Vancouver Pro - Second Place
2017 IFBB New Zealand Pro - Winner
2017 IFBB Arnold Classic Australia - Winner
2017 IFBB Mr. Olympia - Eighth Place
2017 IFBB Ferrigno Legacy - Winner
2018 IFBB Mr. Olympia - Fifth Place
2019 Arnold Classic - Winner
2019 Mr. Olympia - Winner
2020 Mr. Olympia - Second Place
2021 Mr. Olympia - Second Place
Ron Harris got his start in the bodybuilding industry during the eight years he worked in Los Angeles as Associate Producer for ESPN’s “American Muscle Magazine” show in the 1990s. Since 1992 he has published nearly 5,000 articles in bodybuilding and fitness magazines, making him the most prolific bodybuilding writer ever. Ron has been training since the age of 14 and competing as a bodybuilder since 1989. He lives with his wife and two children in the Boston area. Facebook Instagram
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