Most people who go to prison come out trying to leave it behind. NDO Champ came out running toward something. He found his gift inside a cell, leading inmates through brutal workouts and watching broken men rebuild themselves rep by rep. That discovery became a career, a platform, and a purpose that has now reached over a million people. At 42, he is still going.
Where did your fitness journey begin and why did you become NDO Champ?
I had a crazy path. I was born and raised in Liberia, and when I was born in 1984, the war started in 1990. As a child, you see the schools being burned down, you see hospitals being burned down, you see kids being separated from their family. Mothers having 9 kids could only pick up one. Fathers being killed during the war. Kids was dying for lack of medication, lack of food.
You survive it. A single mother trying hard to provide, and my grandfather was in the United States, in Brooklyn. He saw what was going on in Liberia and said, “I gotta get my grandkids out of there.” So in 2000, we came to Brooklyn in January. I settled there at 16, coming from Africa.
Everybody in Liberia thinks America is like money falling off trees. I got on the plane with a tank top, thinking people were just going to give me money. When I got to Brooklyn, I asked my grandfather, “When are we going to America?” He said, “You in America.” I looked across the street. You see a record store, a church, a liquor store, a bodega. I’m like, all these promises I made to my friends, I’m gonna buy them a house, I’m gonna build a school. How am I gonna do it in this environment?
I got caught up with bad friends and went to jail. I did 3 years, facing deportation. When I came home, I said, “God, let me know my passion. I know I was born for a purpose. Show me my gift.” When I stepped into prison, everybody was looking at me like, “Yo, what are we working out?” That’s when I knew fitness was a gift, because people doing 10, 15-year sentences were asking me for advice and asking me to lead them.
I came up with this crazy number. We’re doing 1,000 pull-ups, 1,000 dips, 1,000 burpees, we ain’t stopping until we done. For 3 years, it was like that every day.
When I came home, I started working at the park with kids, then at Iron Bombshell Fitness. I had to humble myself. I started working with kids that were being bullied in school and I started training them. When they started doing 20 burpees, they started believing in themselves. The bully stopped bullying because they saw the transformation.
You are celebrating your 42nd birthday with Strength Wars. What made you decide to turn your birthday into a competition?
Every year I try to give back. Instead of receiving gifts, I’m giving out gifts. This year, I had a dream. I was cutting the ribbon for a school in Africa. It was December 19th. There was a second-floor building, kids playing in the background, weights, an auditorium. I called people together and said, “This is my vision, help me raise funds to give back to kids who don’t have what we have.”
We came into this world with nothing, we’re gonna die with nothing. 100 years from now, 70 billion people are not gonna be here, including me and you. What are we going to leave behind? Somebody in this village right now has the same mindset I got, but they don’t have the help, the proper structure.
Education was a big thing for me. My school was burned down when I was in 5th grade. When I left 5th grade and came to America, they threw me in 9th grade. I didn’t know what the teacher was talking about. I was lost.
The first competition is in Liberia on my birthday, a Saturday. It’s called Strength Wars. Girls compete in deadlifts, squats and pull-ups. For the guys, bench press, deadlift, squat, pull-ups. It’s about endurance, speed, stamina, style, technique, and form. That runs from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. at Sculpt Fitness in Kenilworth, New Jersey. Then at 7:30, we go to the Robert Treat Hotel in North New Jersey, carpet style. We’re going to be showing a documentary I created about my life.
Tell us about the documentary and your comeback
In 2019, I became a professional bodybuilder, then COVID came. I went to boxing, dropped from 260 pounds to 210. I started doing commercials and traveling, and I fell back from the sport for 6 years. When I went to the expo, fans were like, “You ain’t coming back? It’s been 6 years, man.” I said, “Watch the rebirth.”
I isolated myself. I went to that dark place. A place that stretches you and makes you feel uncomfortable. I hired a camera guy and told him, “Every week, bring your camera and follow me for 20 weeks, we’re gonna win that show.” We came number one in 20 weeks, coming back after 6 years off.
If you ever got knocked down, don’t get knocked down on your back, because if you can look up, you can get up. A lot of people left their gift. They got married, got sloppy, got soft, got weak. Come back then. Can you come back and be number one in what you used to do?
Bodybuilding is one of the toughest sports. You train 6 hours. Strength training, cardio, abs, kinesthetics, posing, nutrition. It’s one of the most expensive sports. But you gotta fall in love with the process before the result. I got the trophy at the end, but I became somebody different through the process, through the pain.
Where can people watch the documentary?
I’m doing a documentary tour. I’m going to put it on Amazon so people out of the country can watch it with their family and kids.
What is next for you?
The rebirth got me to the Olympia. We are the first Liberian to go to the Olympia. The next documentary is the road to the Olympia. I am qualified for 2027 August. It is supposed to be in Tokyo. That is the Master Olympia, the best in the world, 40 and over. Right now, I am 12th in the rankings. The next documentary is the preparation, training with everyone who has been on that stage before, gaining the knowledge, the wisdom, the technique.
Where can people follow you?
Every platform, NDO Champ. @ndo_champ on Instagram, NDO CHAMP on YouTube, we are about to hit 3 million subscribers. @ndochampofficial on TikTok and NDO CHAMP on Facebook.