True legends are people who never gave up on their dreams. Phil Heath, the seven consecutive times Mr. Olympia winner, is one such legend. After competing in Mr. Olympia starting from 2008, he finally won it for the first time in 2011 after he beat Jay Cutler. But he would never fathom that his wins could be the reason for his nightmares.

Phil Heath had an insane streak going with consecutive Mr. Olympia titles from 2011 till 2017 until it finally broke in 2018. For Heath, who had been riding the high for 7 years straight, letting go was not easy.

Phil Heath has nightmares all the time

Heath had been in the bodybuilding industry for 15 years when he first lost in 2018. That was when he realized that the win could go to someone else besides him and the reality check was jarring, to say the least. In a conversation with Jay Cutler and Manager Matt on an episode of Cutler Cast, Phil Heath revealed that he had nightmares and he even had a discussion about the same with Tim Grover. Heath revealed, “I talked to Tim about this and I go, “Did Kobe or did MJ, did they have nightmares? All the time.” 

Heath went on to talk about his personal experience with nightmares, “Cause I have nightmares… I have nightmares all the time about 2020 and 2018. I have nightmares about it, and, you know… it is a dark place. It is a very dark place that I have recently come out of.” He talked about what made the whole experience painful for him. “You go through this life of saying I wanna be pro I wanna be something I wanna be great and then you get a taste of it, and then you don’t wanna let it go.”, Health added.

Read more: “I Didn’t Give A F***”: 7x Mr.Olympia Phil Heath Opens Up On Arnold Classic

Heath moved forward and never looked back

Even though losing in 2018 was a blow to Heath’s confidence, he threw himself into his entrepreneurial ventures. Even though his mind deviated toward bodybuilding, at the time he realized that running his ventures was more important to him than a comeback that might not even turn out to be successful.

Heath realized that he could not do everything at once, so he streamlined his vision. He realized that it was not the right time to keep obsessing over bodybuilding, so he decided to keep training and try his hand at it again when he was ready to. He believes his genetics would help him bounce back as quickly as possible. He is called Phil ‘The Gift’ Heath after all.

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Even though he struggled for a while, Heath was able to move forward in life without much regret. Have you ever had to make such a decision in life? Tell us in the comments.