I think sports and bodybuilding were the only things that saved me from getting beat up. People are not pleased, for whatever reason, when you can answer all the questions in class. If not for the respect I got from track, cross-country, wrestling and bodybuilding, it would have been a disaster.
Bodybuilding gave me a healthy way to gain weight and learn to balance my life. Earning my pro card within a year, I got to do something I enjoyed and be healthy at the same time.
My dad is the biggest Lexie fan - ever since I was in gymnastics, he went to ever gymnastics meet, every cheer competition, every bodybuilding show.
Bodybuilding helped me to realize that I don't have to look like the girls in the magazines and that it's OK to feel good about my curves.
My coach would push us off the balance beam and teach us how to fall. That helps with your body awareness, your air awareness, but even the training I had in cheerleading, gymnastics, bodybuilding, nothing prepares you for what you go through in the ring.
When I was 7 or 8, I'd go to bodybuilding shows with my family because they had friends who were into it, and it became something I wanted to do one day. I wanted to look big and strong.
Bodybuilding is much like any other sport. To be successful, you must dedicate yourself 100% to your training, diet and mental approach.
I didn't leave bodybuilding until I felt that I had gone as far as I could go. It will be the same with my film career. When I feel the time is right, I will then consider public service. I feel that the highest honor comes from serving people and your country.
The success I have achieved in bodybuilding, motion pictures, and business would not have been possible without the generosity of the American people and the freedom here to pursue your dreams.
Modern bodybuilding is ritual, religion, sport, art, and science, awash in Western chemistry and mathematics. Defying nature, it surpasses it.
