Video summary
Ryan Terry, Britain's number one bodybuilder, details his highly regimented morning routine which begins at 5:00 AM with a black coffee followed immediately by supplements including EAA and L-carnitine in both oral liquid form and injected versions. His workout session follows fifteen minutes later and consists of an hour of low-intensity cardio split between thirty minutes on a cross-trainer and thirty minutes incline walking, without monitoring heart rate. This is succeeded by another half-hour dedicated to core work or stretching mobility exercises before he spends the final thirty minutes posing at 7:00 AM. By this time, Terry has consumed his first meal of the day around 8:30 AM alongside his son, having already changed diapers twice during that period. Terry's breakfast is a meticulously prepared dish containing bioavailable protein sources like whey isolate or powder, complex carbohydrates such as oatmeal, essential fats from almond butter or flakes, and antioxidants provided by blueberries. He emphasizes cooking the ingredients first to avoid degrading the proteins before adding them in, ensuring precise nutritional control without relying on external chefs despite his wife's attempts to streamline the process using a microwave. This strict adherence to nutrition extends throughout his day as he eats every two hours, consuming approximately four chicken breasts, two salmon fillets, and steak daily alongside rice, potatoes, eggs, oats, and vegetables. Terry insists on preparing these meals himself for three months before accepting help because knowing exactly what goes into his body is crucial for stage preparation, a discipline that has governed him for twenty years without compromising social life or the ability to eat at restaurants by requesting plain options like steak jackets or mixed salads. Beyond physical training and nutrition management, Terry manages five distinct businesses including property development, a clothing company, a coaching firm, Blood Lab healthcare clinic, and RJT Limited which handles sponsor obligations. He addresses common misconceptions regarding bodybuilding culture, noting that while the physique world often appears monotonous on video compared to high-intensity sports like CrossFit or football, it requires immense volume of work that is rarely visible to outsiders. Terry expresses a lack of reverence for athletes in popular sports like football despite their hard work and global fame, arguing that society underestimates the sheer difficulty involved in maintaining elite performance levels across any discipline. He also highlights how he navigates social events by discreetly eating his meals from his car every two hours during nights out or celebrations, allowing him to remain fully immersed in normal society while adhering strictly to his dietary requirements without making a scene about it.
Read the full video transcript
what's your morning routine take me
through it from waking up what time what
do you do what are you eating what are
you drinking what movements are you
going through yeah so typically around
five o'clock we get up
um I do a black coffee I'll go down I'll
have uh eaas and El carnitine and that's
like 15 minutes before I go and do my
oral L-Carnitine are injected oral yeah
oral through liquid liquid form and then
15 minutes after that I'll go and do an
hour faster cardio so 30 minute cross
trainer 30 minute incline walk what sort
of heart rate is on to
again I don't look at that now that's
I'm very basic enough it's a low
intensity it's nothing to do something
that way I'll do 30 minute core work or
um let's have a 30 minute call work or
30 minute stretch Mobility work after
that hour
um and then it's 30 minutes posing so
you do it what time is it now so that is
seven o'clock ish half seven wow okay so
it's a very regimented morning yeah yeah
okay seven o'clock yeah so then half
seven I'll go in I'll have
yeah massive breakfast but uh to most
most people it's massive but for me it's
it's nothing but what does that
typically consist of so I'll always make
sure uh my first meal has every
source of approach so we've got a good
um source of protein bioavailable
protein we've got so like a whey protein
or whey isolate we've got complex carbs
so oatmeal
um we've got essential fats through
almond butter or almond flakes we've got
blueberries antioxidants are you
blending all this together you're eating
it separately no I eat it all together
in I don't blend it we cook it yep I put
the protein in I let the I cook it all
first let it cool down then put the
protein in not to degenerate it too much
yep okay and then yeah I'll take my
Multiverse
um so we've got Multiverse CLA Amigas
all that kind of stuff
um around yeah my meal we're now at what
eight thirty eight o'clock yeah around
eight o'clock okay day's about to begin
yeah and then obviously my son's ready
to he has his breakfast with me so I
make his breakfast at the same time and
I've changed his nappy twice by then
okay does that get added into the
workout as well yeah it's horrendous
fantastic and then yeah we get him ready
and then yeah I start my working day so
dude I mean
just that morning you mentioned before
we got started I trained three times a
day you know I I'm good friends with a
bunch of CrossFit athletes and they're
known for training slash over training
yeah
I think from the outside especially the
world of physique yeah but also
bodybuilding
the volume of training is something that
people don't really get to see and part
of that is it doesn't translate very
well on video yeah you know like
understand because no one's going to
show
five or six sets of twelve on one
exercise then five or six sets of twelve
on another exercise whereas everybody
knows what a 20 minute Imam of 30
minutes of money structural work is
think CrossFit particularly is a sport
or a training methodology that is
designed
to look good yeah on video you know it's
quite compelling it's varied it's high
intensity uh bodybuilding is a bit more
monotonous which makes it less exciting
um I think the same thing's true of
footballers as well then
the difficulty of training that
footballers go through specifically
is something that nobody thinks about
like you think about boxes uh you know
even it's a tennis players golfers you
think about the amount of time they
spend
so to me when you think about football
it's given that it's the most popular
sport on the planet I just don't hold
them in the same reverence you know I
don't think that the hard work is I'm
sure that the tons and tons and tons of
hard workers look at Ronaldo with his
top off insane yeah
but I still don't hold them in that same
way do you know what I mean no 100 but
then obviously when we talk about just
to give you insight about my working day
as well so I eat every two hours so I
have to cook at least six meals a day so
in that time I have three chicken
breasts or
no four chicken breasts in about four
chicken breasts two salmon fillets two
fillet steaks a day four eggs a day all
with rice white potato eggs uh oats uh
so much veg so I have to prep all that
that's straight after my morning you're
doing that you haven't got somebody that
comes in you're not just paying a chef
to come and do this for you so I did
that for about three months and I just
couldn't get my head around someone else
doing my work for me and I just because
I need to know when I step on stage
every part of my prep and every part of
my 365 days
of the Year going into that show I know
exactly what I've put into being under
your control yes and that even my wife
bless her we had this conversation last
week she tried to shorten my day black
so whilst I was she was working out
right he's must be nearly 15 minutes
from this she started to make my
breakfast and she put it in the
microwave ready so all I had to do was
press it on but I couldn't get my head
around it because I was like are you
sure there's only 120 grams in that you
sure there's only 20 grams of almonds
and it's ridiculous but I just feel
comfortable yeah I don't make a scene or
anything it's just what I've always
quietly chug on yeah get it done and
when people talk about um like if you
see a body and they get you get this
misconception and it's it's horrible
where people like oh you're living out
your Tupperware and you make a big scene
of it and yeah you've got your Fish and
Rice I've managed to do that for for 20
years now and I've never made it like I
can still socialize my friends still go
out at night we go to restaurants if I
can't eat what nine times out of ten I
can eat in every restaurant you just ask
for a plane steak or a plain chicken
breast jacket potato some mixed casual
mixed salad it's easy so when they say I
can't have that I can't eat any of this
because it's not on prep you can of
course you can you just have to adapt
and it's it's how much you want to live
in normal society and be a bodybuilder
which don't typically go hand in hand
but I go on nights out I'll nip out to
my car quickly eat my meal come back in
the time it takes to go to the toilet so
people don't even know like my son's
birthday really sad two two weeks out
from the Olympia everyone's celebrating
in this Pub
um
yeah the garden pool and yeah just kept
nipping off every two hours into my car
to eat my meals back in no one even knew
look like I'm going to get a drink it's
like being uh it's like being a closet
drug addict yeah but yours is protein
instead of heroin or something went to
watch Cree three three last week with my
brother-in-law and that's sniffing the
toilet straight out the fire exit leave
a meal of the car parked straight back
in didn't even no one even knew you
don't have to make a scene of it it's
just part and parcel of what I do and
it's just became the norm now but but
yeah just to follow on from the Working
Day and then I get into my emails like I
say I've got five businesses to run so
I've got property developing got
clothing company uh got a coaching
company
um blood lab which is
um a healthcare clinic company and then
rjt limited which is all my sponsors and
obligations there so what's happening
people
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