Working with O'Neal, I'm definitely stronger than him.

"I'm old now," O'Neal said, putting away his usual playful expression. "I have to be careful to do everything well. When I was young, even if I played for several nights in a row and drank beer, I would still have beautiful 6-pack abs after waking up. But now I will never have such capital again. Every day I have to work hard to take care of my body. And you know, when you get older, your metabolism will slow down, and everything will become difficult. I have to keep fighting with my body, otherwise it will go against me."

Hell Training

After joining the Heat, O'Neal brought his "24-Hour Fitness Clubs" in Los Angeles to Miami. This is a very famous national chain of fitness centers in the United States. The company's CEO Mark Mastrov is a good friend of O'Neal, and since 2001, O'Neal has been one of the company's major shareholders.

After leaving Los Angeles, O'Neal couldn't find a gym he liked. The fitness industry in Miami was not as developed as he had imagined. The size of the fitness equipment here was too small for O'Neal's size, which made it impossible for him to achieve his ideal fitness effect. So he could only confine himself to the training room of the Miami Heat. But O'Neal did not relax his fitness plan. He still came to the Heat's training hall on time every morning to exercise. Then his time belonged to his wife and five children. In the evening, he would come here to exercise again.

During this time, O'Neal had to be among a group of sweaty men and breathe the terrible smell of various body odors in the air. This was really unbearable for our Mr. Shaq, because he had always been accustomed to training in a separate gym with his personal trainer, and the Heat with relatively simple equipment could not provide such conditions. Masterov knew that his good friend was in trouble, and he could use his expertise to help him win the favor of Miami people who are always very picky about their body shape - otherwise, you can't hide the fat on your belly when walking on the beach.

Under Masteroff's full planning, he and O'Neal opened five fitness centers called "24 Hour Fitness Shaq Sport Club" in Miami. One of them was exclusively for O'Neal himself, which was equipped with large-sized fitness equipment, bathrooms, locker rooms and TVs tailor-made for him. O'Neal started his day here every morning with his new personal trainer Ryan Oliver among a pile of fitness equipment.

After finishing breakfast at 9 a.m., O'Neal drove for about half an hour to the "24 Hour Shaq Sports Club" in downtown Miami, where he was greeted on time by his good partner, the expressionless Ryan Oliver and a bunch of cold and silent training equipment. After greeting O'Neal, Oliver began to "torture" O'Neal for 4 hours.

Shaq's Arms

A day's training would begin with arm muscle exercises. O'Neal would use some lighter dumbbells to warm up, and then he would use heavier weights to do 5 sets of barbell double-arm curls to exercise his upper arm biceps. One set would be done 10 times, and the weight of each set was constantly increasing, ranging from 135 pounds (about 62 kilograms) to 165 pounds (about 75 kilograms). In the fifth set, Oliver would put the heaviest weight on O'Neal, a 165-pound barbell. O'Neal would often complete the 50th repetition with a scream of pain, but everything was just beginning.