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Episode 6: Mike O’Hearn interviews powerlifter Chris Duffin – “Challenge And Stress Is The Essence Of Life.”
Chris Duffin is a man passionate about all aspects of strength and fitness. He’s made it his entire life. Duffin is an engineer, powerlifter, and fitness entrepreneur who released a part-memoir, part motivational book titled The Eagle And The Dragon: A Story of Strength and Reinvention. The book explores Duffin’s self actualization from being a homeless teenager in poverty and transforming into a successful engineer and record-setting powerlifter. In Generation Iron and Barbend‘s latest episode of The Mike O’Hearn Show, Mike sits down with Chris Duffin to discuss his life story, his book, and also talk shop on high level training and motivation tactics.
Mike O’Hearn is a firm believer in working hard to overcome any obstacle. He doesn’t believe in handouts. And he doesn’t believe that a bad situation is an excuse to repeatedly fail. This is why O’Hearn was so excited to sit down with Chris Duffin and discuss his life journey into fitness and powerlifting.
How Chris Duffin Discovered Engineering, Weightlifting, & Escaped Poverty
Chris Duffin was born into poverty, had to raise his two siblings at a young age, and was surrounded by death and drug addiction in backwater rural America. He had every “excuse” to be another statistic that fell victim to drug addiction, abuse, and a cyclical life of poverty, pain, and suffering. But instead, with nothing to lose, he dedicated his life to escaping poverty and becoming the best most successful version of himself. Ultimately, fitness and weightlifting was his lifeline into happiness and success.
But Chris Duffin had other passions. His early obsession with reading led to him being exceptional in the realm of engineering. It was his initial lifeline that got him a full scholarship into college and a deeper education. It gave him his initial career and a stable financial foundation to provide himself more opportunities.
But throughout it all, weightlifting and fitness were lighting up his soul. He eventually realized that powerlifting was the kind of strength sport that fit him best. This provided an even bigger outlet to explore his passion with more focus and a specific goal. He soon built and fabricated his own private gym (using his engineering knowledge). This later evolved into a gym business.
The Nature Of Sacrifice: The Importance Of Paring Away The Filler In Life
Chris Duffin found himself at a crossroads. There was simply not enough time in the day for him to continue to succeed and improve with powerlifting and his gym – while also maintaining his career in engineering. Both were important to him. But deep down he knew that fitness as the core of his life.
This started a new phase in Duffin’s life. One that changed his perception and became a key tenet in his book. Duffin realized that he need to “cut the fat” from his life. There is only so much time in a day. And only so many years we live on this earth. Duffin realized he could not be fully happy with certain aspects of his life due to limited human capacity. He already tested his limits, pushed past them, and faced a real wall that needed to be scaled.
“So what I’m thinking is how do I pare away the non-essential. The more I pare away of the things taht are taking up my capacity in life. So not just my training capacity, how do I pare away the non-essential. The things I fill my life with or that I fill my training with. All of the stuff that isn’t adding value that I’m just doing.”
– Chris Duffin
So Chris Duffin started making hard decisions. He quit his job, sold his second house, and used the money and freedom to discover a career that fit in directly with his passion of fitness. He also divorced his wife. While Duffin does not divulge private details, he explains that his ex-wife was a wonderful person but not right or aligned with what he needed to be happy.
These were challenging decisions. But ultimately ones that allowed him to have more capacity for the things that truly fulfilled him in life. He went on to become a record-setting powerlifter, owner of multiple gyms, and now most recently, become the author of a book read by the world over.
Chris Duffin On The Importance Of Adversity In Life
Towards the end of Mike O’Hearn and Chris Duffin’s conversation. They touch upon the parallels between weightlifting and life in general. Weightlifting is about putting resistance on your body and pushing through to become a stronger person. Duffin believes this mentality applies to all of life. It’s challenge and stress that force us to reassess ourselves and become stronger people.
That strength might not always be physical. It can be mental and emotional strength. All things that add up towards being more capable and having more capacity to make yourself feel fulfilled and happy.

“Challenge and stress is the essence of life.”
– Chris Duffin
And just like weightlifting, it takes time before you really start to notice the results. The biggest challenge the average person has with fitness is the same challenge our society at large seems to have with seeking happiness and success. After the first few months you may not see obvious improvements. It’s frustrating and can make you want to quit. But stick with it and look back years later and you’ll be shocked how much you’ve changed without realizing it.
Chris Duffin realized this through extreme circumstances. But he wants to use his knowledge and experiences to inspire others to find the same end solution.
Wrap Up
Chris Duffin has had an extremely fascinating life and holds a depth of knowledge valuable to anyone interested in not only fitness but achieving self actualization. Mike O’Hearn and Duffin discuss far more than can be fully recapped in this article.
You can watch the full interview in our latest episode of The Mike O’Hearn Show above. Make sure to catch new episodes every Friday. Only on the Generation Iron Fitness Network and wherever podcasts are downloaded.