They call him "The Mind": Milos Sarcev reveals how he trained the fastest man in the world, the stars of Hollywood, and he also reveals the secrets of doping in sport (FOTO)

He only had 428 dollars in his pocket and he worked all day long, and he trained in the evening. He has won two years later, in 1989, on the competition of Mister Universe. Everything after that is history,

When you really want something, then do everything you can and you will succeed. I learned that from Milos Sarcev, while listening and reding his lectures, and that is why this interview is special.

Due to the fact that he had a lot of obligations, I waited precisely one year to talk with a man who belongs to the top five world coaches in the field of weight training, nutrition and supplements.

Yes, we have been talking about the interview since the last September, but due to the obligations Mr. Sarcevic has, we have managed to do the interview just now. But, it is never too late.

You will find in front of you perhaps the most controversial interview of this passing 2018. You will find out some things about training, diet, supplements about which you have heard a lot of fairy tales, and what is most important, you will receive an additional dose of motivation to succeed in life.

Milos Sarcev (54) is a synonym for bodybuilding in former Yugoslavia and Serbia. He grew up in Becej, but he left to America at the age of 23 to pursue his bodybuilding career. They all told him that there isn't anything for him there, but he was confident that he will succeed.

He only had 428 dollars in his pocket and he worked all day long, and he trained in the evening. He has won two years later, in 1989, on the competition of Mister Universe. Everything after that is history, he stepped into the professional waters and was a finalist of the competition Mr. Olympia 12 times. He is a coach of many bodybuilding stars, as well as top athletes from NBA, NHL, athletics etc.

He has been in America for over 30 years and after a career of a bodybuilder, he became a well-known trained in the world of fitness, better known as “The Mind”, because he includes pure human logic into his training, but also some research in the field of training and nutrition.

However, he is not just an expert on paper, when you see him how he looks like at the age of 55, you will understand that he knows how to practically apply his knowledge.

• You went to America in the eighties, and many told you that there is nothing for you there, but you succeeded, can you explain how?

First of all, I would like to apologize to you and to your readers for waiting this much for an interview, I had incredible obligations in the past six months, so I didn’t have the time to answer my emails. But, here, it is better in front of the cameras. I want to say to everybody that everybody can reach their goal if they want it hard enough. I had the notes about training and nutrition in the eighties and I wrote there that my goal is to go to the USA to become a professional in the next five years, so I can make a living out of it. I accomplished all of that in four years. I am not superior to the others, everybody can do that, you just need the will and determination. No one supported me, even my father wanted to talk me out of it.

• Perhaps you didn’t have enough mass, but you were considered one of the most symmetrical bodybuilders, you even had the most the most cover pages in bodybuilding magazines.

That’s right, but after Schwarzenegger, haha. Well, there is a little racism. I always asked those people from the magazines, why are they placing me on the covers when there are top athletes like Flex Wheeler, Kevin Levrone, Shawn Ray (all have dark skin), and they told me that if they put me on the cover they will sell a lot more articles, unlike the other guys, when the sales are halved. I was always ready for competitions all those years, that is when I accomplished a record of 72 professional competitions which no one managed to catch up. Only Dexter Jackson managed to beat it recently since he is still competing at the age of 4.

• You have earned the nickname The Mind in the USA, how did it come to that?

They gave me the nickname because I was a bit different and I always had my ideas and I argued with experts around theories. You don’t follow a blind man into the abyss, but you look logically at the things, you don’t follow the paved pathway, but you make your own. A lot of my theories of training and nutrition are different, so they started calling me The Mind, which pleases me of course.

• It is said that you are one of the five best coaches in the world, along with the late Charles Poliquin.

Well, I don’t know, probably. Charles Poliquin is my dear friend and his death struck me very hard. I am not on his level regarding expertise in preparation of athletes, because he has 350 medals from the Olympic Games. But, I taught him the training of hypertrophy, and he hired me for nutrition and supplementation. However, I must say something interesting, I trained Markus Rühl and Mustafa Mohammad, and many other bodybuilders. But, I mentioned these two because our Bodybuilding association brought them to Belgrade for a seminar, And I was three and a half years in Belgrade and no one called me. O course, I don’t want to impose and intrude, but I always had the desire to share my knowledge and experience, because it is different when you make mistakes and experience, and it is different when someone else explains everything to you.

• Very few people know that you participated in the project “world record” where you prepared Tim Montgomery, the American sprinter to break the 100 m record, which he did?

Unfortunately, we will discuss doping in this interview. But, I should say at the start that I didn’t believe in steroids and I was clean. I believed that Schwarzenegger was clean because I saw it on some poster. But more of that later. I was contacted by Victor Conte (owner of BALCO labs), who worked with top athletes, for some of the things, since I am “The Mind”, about nutrition, training, exercises, the timing of eating, supplements, and of course, doping. Everything that I have told him related to the growth hormone, EPO (eritropoetina), Insulin, and other things, he applied to certain athletes in boxing, tennis, athletics, sprinters, jumpers. They all started having fantastic results and they realized that doping control can be avoided. I don’t know if it is good to talk about it now, but I am always honest.

• If I remember correctly, BALCO labs patented the steroid THG, known as The Clear?

Yes, I was the one who basically created it, that is, my friend Patrick Arnold created it for him. I will explain how simple that is since there are doping controls and they can learn from it. There is a book, “Mark Index”, where there are all metabolic agents. And when you look at it, a very few were produced in some countries. And when you see how it goes on the doping test, if they are using something, they will find metabolite of it. If they are using something that nobody knows, they can’t find it because they are not searching for it. At the time, THG was the third version, and we named it “The Clear”. Then they gave ordinary people THG regularly, they sent them to the doping tests in LB in the Olympic laboratory and they all passed, so there were no fears that it will be tracked down.

- Then Conti told me “This is incredible, we can break the record, are you interested”? I said that I was but I want the hardest record that can be broken and with an outsider athlete who doesn’t have any changes of breaking it. Tim Montgomery, because he was close to the end of his career, so we picked him. He was dating with the sprinter Marion Jones who was a great star, and I can say that they both had catastrophic diet, but genetics probably played its part so they were good sprinters. Even if I recorded it and showed it to you, you still wouldn’t believe it. Then you just add someone who has the right technique some training with weight, nutrition, supplements and everything else, and it took only 9 months to break the world record. Now, someone will say, “you used doping”.

• You were always honest and you don’t hide the fact that you used steroids and everything else, but people may have an overwhelming opinion of it?

There, a lot of people condemn me and say “Well, you used doping with those athletes”, and they often said while interviewing me “Oh, you are taking doping as well, that is harmful, you will kill yourself”. How is it harmful? I won’t promote doping or steroids, but I have to say that anabolic steroids are not drugs. Those are medications, very useful medications, for people who have body destruction, when they are seriously sick with AIDS, or some other disease, burns, and other. They are creating constructive metabolism in the body, not destructive. And that is a very important thing, it is something that helps, it increases the protein synthesis, it prevents body degradation. Now, exaggeration is not good. Proper consummation has no consequences.

-I know that pure athletes will judge me for saying this, but they are usually competing against those who use them. I didn’t believe that, but when I competed against them I saw that they are a lot better than me. I said to myself, “I am losing to those who are using it”, then I realized that if you want to be in that circle, you have to do what the big boys are doing. And now, I would recommend testosterone therapy to every man after the age of 40, they will fill 100 times better. Our public will say “Look at this Sarcev, he is promoting steroids”, but I have been using steroids for 30 years and now I am almost 55 and I am prepared to test myself against my peers regarding blood tests, strength, and looks.

• Rarely anyone in Serbia knows that you worked with Demi Moore, Mickey Rourke in some of their preparations for the movies?

Yes, I was in those circles with Poliquin, always when there was losing of fat or building of muscle, I was instructed with a program or directly. I am now working with Martyn Ford, He is the tall English guy with the tattoo who stared in some action movies. He is an action hero on the rise. However, my specialty is bodybuilding and hypertrophy, and it is not so good to have so many muscles on the big screen. About Demi Moor, I just have her some nutrition program, she was on a competition diet with supplements which rise the thyroid output, but now she is in great shape.

Mickey Rourke is different. I met him while I was sitting by the table with Claudia Schiffer, but they looked like a totally normal people. Rourke and Van Damme used to come to Gold Gym and they practiced with my friend, and I practiced with them a few times. I am more focused on bodybuilding. I worked with a man from China who wasn’t able to win a competition for eight years, and now he did it. Then he went to Japan to compete where he was an absolute winner, and he is becoming a professional, so he succeeded.

• How far are we behind with training technology, nutrition, and supplementation?

Expects, doctors and other are still against high protein diet. I always say, put everything logically. The proteins are the builders of the body. Carbon fibers and fats are just energy and nothing more. Alright, energy must be consumed properly but it is taken and it replaces the amount spent. But, red and white muscle fibers should have enough building material from protein while training them. I don’t understand why it is not accepted yet. I took over 500 grams of pure protein a day.

Then the comments started “You will destroy your heart, kidney, liver, this, that…” I am shocked by that nonsense which comes from experts, not just ordinary people. Someone who is working on the computer doesn’t need it. I am no medical expert with a college degree to talk against someone from the university, but following something written in the books does not make sense. Studies are performed where they take samples from 15-20 people. That is really small, plus, each man is different and they react differently. I don’t follow what has been served, perhaps I might take it as a starting point, and then I will follow my logic. In my gym, I personally saw incredible transformations of people. A famous bikini model Monica Brant ate a bit of salad, some chicken, and she trained, taking only 1300 calories, which is less than her basal metabolism. I doubled her calories intake and after a while, she achieved incredible results and she won in Miss Olympia. Less is not better, but adequate is better.

(D. Stojmenović)