I Am Legend

I Am Legend

By Matthew Felker

I decided to interview Owen McKibbin for a number of reasons... First.... he’s an absolute legend. Gracing the covers of Mens Health more times than any celebrity.  His covers are iconic, images burned in my brain which probably molded me and my own obsession with fitness from a teen to an adult.  When Owen wasn’t gracing Men’s Health covers he was moon lighting as one of the main Ralph Lauren models.  An accidental brilliant career as a model that has ran for decades coming from a professional athlete background. He’s the old school. A real athlete who looks the part, walks the walk and talks the talk.  He’s pre Instagram era where everyone is a poser, that may look good but couldn’t play sport or walk and chew gum if they tried.  Owen is the real deal. The OG. 

What type of advice would you give young and old?  Words of wisdom?

I recommend that anyone who has fitness goals, create a workable system that can be done consistently. Any living organism whether it’s an animal, plant, or a human, thrives on a consistent system. And you don’t need to spend all day working out and you certainly don’t need to isolate body parts. I also recommend doing 80% pulling and lateral movement with only 20% pushing movements. This is designed to stimulate proper posture and the musculature that is necessary for that.Proper posture is so rare and when you see someone who has great posture, it is very powerful. You can take a guy who might only be 5’9” tall but he he walks around with great posture, it exudes strength and confidence. Same thing with the woman

In this weird Instagram era we have all of these “fitness gurus” who Really have no experience or education.  For Someone looking for advice on training what would you suggest?    

Doing something every day is much better than doing nothing. For me personally, I list the five physical activities that would challenge me for that day. 80% of the time I cross off the bottom three and I choose between the two most difficult and challenging. If you do that on a regular basis, you will see phenomenal results. And I do the majority of my working out outside with very little equipment. My mantra is, no gym, no Trainer, no fancy equipment, and no money. Here’s what you can do at home or wherever with minimal equipment for free. Exercise to me is all about movement done in certain sequences. Compound moves are the best and should be practice consistently. When you do a series of exercises one after the other you get the resistance benefits of increase bone density and lean muscleMass but also the cardiovascular benefits as well. All of the workouts I create r hybrids. I work on a scale from 1 to 10 89 and 10 is the area we are where you are going to puke, pass out, or die. I like to Spike my heart rate as many times as I can in a work out from the seven through 10 category and then let myself or a cover and do it again. It is very efficient on many levels  

Do you take or use suppliments? What do you suggest? 

  I think this supplement world is very tricky and deceptive. I like to stick to products that are natural at worst and at best, organic. I’m a big believer that nature can heal most human disease and elements. Two of my staples are ginger and tumeric. Depending on what your health condition is, I believe the ketogenic diet is very effective for fat loss. I work with a company called Wakaya perfection and we have the secret to fat loss. I coach a group of over 13 Thousand people online and or fat loss transformations are jaw-dropping. As a rule, I have never believed in a super high protein diet. I also think the idea of eating 5 to 7 meals a day is overbearing, overkill, and taxes your digestive system. I am actually a huge fan of intermittent fasting and practice that probably five days a week. 90% of the time I follow the keto genic diet and I start every single day with my keto fuel mixed in my morning coffee

 Your son Blaze is 18...6’5” 200lbs quarterback  and getting ready to play college football. Aside from passing on some insane genetics, have you helped train him at all?

  That’s a great question. Believe it or not I did for most of my sons training to other private coaches. I have been both Blaze‘s mom and dad for his entire life so sometimes I just like to be his parent and friend and not always coaching them up on every single thing. And the truth is, there are experts in the quarterback world that know far more about the mechanics of throwing a football and the position in general than I do. Sometimes I just want to drop him off and watch him do his thing. As far as me being a former pro athlete, I think it influences Blaze in a very motivational way t be his own man and Blaze his own path in the sport of his choosing
 

How strict are you with diet ?  

I would say I’m about 80% strict with my diet. I almost always eat natural or organic and I try and follow the keto genic diet as much as possible
 

If you could do any exercise why would it be?

  Hands down my go to exercise that I choose over all others is pull ups utilizing different grips and then holding my arms in a bent 90° position when I am done with the pull-ups and transitioning right into bent arm leg raises. By far the most effective move you can do. Once I drop from the pull-up bar I will usually follow that up with a set of walking lunges then directly to side lateral raises for my shoulders. I will do 3 to 4 sets of that with little to no rest in between

 Being the most ever celebrity or model ever featured on Men’s Health  magazine as well As a starry presence for Ralph Lauren.  What are your thoughts on social media and how it’s transformed or even destroyed advertising?  

Although I have my differences on how social media has influenced the fashion industry and modeling industry, I am also very grateful and fortunate and reflect with fun memories on all of my men’s health work and especially my work with Ralph Lauren. Men’s health is by far the most popular and informative men’s magazine on the planet and Ralph Lauren is America’s greatest designer. I am very fond of those images and truly am grateful to have worked with such amazing people and companies    

What are your thoughts of the steady transition of using celebs and actors on covers rather than models that look and genetically blow actors out of the water?

  I guess celebrity sells is all I can say about what I feel are some of the magazines selling out in order to just have a celebrity on the cover. For the majority of the celebrities, I think they just do specific things for a specific role and therefore to me it is not a lifestyle. I’m about influencing people’s lifestyles through creating permanent positive habits that last a lifetime, not just get you ready for a movie