Raymont Edmonds is one of the most talented Men’s Physique competitors currently in the division. In 2019, he became the Olympia champion only to lose that title to Brandon Hendrickson this past year in 2020. Will he be a one time champion? Or is this just a bump in the road towards continued greatness?
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Listen to the full Raymont Edmonds interview here:
Raymont’s Behind The Scenes Reaction To Losing The Olympia Title
When we spoke to him about his loss, he went in detail about his mindset throughout the entire weekend.
Raymont Edmonds believed he was the clear winner during the pre-judging. And as the battle went into the finals, he knew that Hendrickson was giving him a run for his money. Yet still regardless, he thought he scraped his way to the top.
Edmonds describes the moment during the finals that he was standing side by side with only Brandon Hendrickson left. When they announced Hendrickson as the winner – Edmonds went into a stunned state. That’s why onlookers thought that perhaps Edmonds had bad blood with Hendrickson’s victory.
But as Raymont Edmonds tells it now, he was more perplexed and stunned more than anything. After training so hard and battling so intensely on the stage – it was a blur to hear it all over with him losing the title.
Throughout his recollection, Edmonds chuckles and laughs his way through the events. It’s clear that he takes the loss seriously but also sees no point in beating himself up over it. “My prep was awesome. We improved and… we didn’t get the results that we wanted,” Edmonds says at the top of the interview clip.
There’s no point in sadly looking back. Instead, Raymont Edmonds plans to further the improvements he already made, adjust to improve even more, and come back for vengeance in 2021. The Men’s Physique Olympia will be an exciting one this year – you can already feel it.
Watch the full GI Exclusive interview with Raymont Edmonds above!
How Raymont Learned Bodybuilding Discipline In State Prison
Before going into state prison, Raymont Edmonds was a senior in college and only weighed 145 pounds. He was a skinny person being thrown into a scary situation. In part for survival and in part to simply find a way to pass the time – Edmonds started lifting weights.
His goal was to no longer be a skinny kid who can get kicked around (to better protect himself in prison). But mostly, it was also a way to make time go by faster. Edmonds was sentenced to four to eight years. He ultimately got out in three. But at the start, not knowing exactly when he would get out of prison, he focused as much as possible on training.
It was his one constant to accelerating time. On top of that, it was transforming his body. He fell in love with seeing the progress and results of his actions and became addicted to lifting weights.
There has been a lot of discussion over the years about bodybuilding and training in Kuwait. It’s become a new mecca of sorts for bodybuilding due to the fact that there is literally nothing to due in Kuwait for a bodybuilder. They can only train, eat, and sleep. It turns them into a bodybuilding machine.
The same can be said in some respects to prison. With nothing to do, Raymont Edmonds found discipline in training every single day. In trying to make the most of his prison meals to create the right diet for his physique.
After being released from prison into a halfway house. He used that discipline to ensure he stayed on track in his personal life. He hadn’t discovered his desire to compete in bodybuilding – but he made sure to stick to the same training schedule.
Raymont Edmonds was eventually noticed by a coach who suggested he compete in bodybuilding. There was a new division, Men’s Physique, that would allow him to build muscle but not become a mass monster. This interested Edmonds and he gave it a shot.
Upon competing on stage for the first time, he realized that despite his love of training, his physique was way off compared to what wins Men’s Physique competitions. Suddenly everything clicked. Raymont Edmonds wanted to look like the best Men’s Physique bodybuilders. He buckled down further and used his hard learned discipline from prison to further transform his lifestyle.
Fast forward to today and Raymont Edmonds is a star Men’s Physique athlete. He won the Olympia 2019 and landed second this year falling just short to Brandon Hendrickson. Edmonds’ own actions may have placed him in state prison but it was also his own actions after prison that brought him to his new life on the level.
Wrap Up
We discuss many more topics with Raymont Edmonds than what can be written about in this article. The full interview falls just short of an hour – filled with interesting insights into one of today’s most talented Men’s Physique competitors. You can watch the full length GI Exclusive interview above!
