BuildWithPros publishes bodybuilding education built on the competitive career of IFBB Hall of Famer Shawn Ray, written for lifters who already train seriously and want the reasoning behind each decision rather than a plan to follow.
This page sets out the standard the catalog is written to: who it is for, who it is not for, what is inside it, what it deliberately does not contain, and on what basis it is written. It is published so the material can be judged before it is bought.
Who the material is for
The catalog assumes the basics are already in place. It is written for the lifter with roughly five or more years of consistent training, who knows how to squat and how to track a meal, and whose remaining problem is judgment rather than information.
That means the questions the material answers are the ones that arrive after the beginner phase: when a stall needs a change and when it needs patience, when a diet needs adjusting instead of abandoning, when to push and when to hold back, and which decisions compound across a career rather than a season.
It is equally written for the lifter without a coach. Nothing in the catalog assumes access to a top-tier prep coach, a training partner who competes, or a gym where anyone else knows what a callout is. The material is built to be worked through alone, because that is how most people train.
Who the material is not for
Someone in their first year of training will get more from a structured beginner program than from this catalog. The material spends its time on the judgment layer, and judgment is only useful once there is something to judge.
Anyone looking for a finished plan will be disappointed on purpose. There are no meal plans with exact grams, no printable twelve-week routines, and no macro calculator. The catalog explains why each decision is made so the reader can make it for their own body, schedule and training history. A plan answers this week. A principle answers every week after it.
And anyone looking for a shortcut is in the wrong place. Nothing published here promises a timeline, a placing, or a physique outcome, and none of the material is written as though results are guaranteed.
What is inside the catalog
Thirty-seven digital titles, in four formats, each covering one part of the same method so that training, nutrition, recovery and the mental side reference each other instead of contradicting each other.
| Format | Count | What the format is for |
|---|---|---|
| Audiobooks | 16 titles | Long-form subjects that need chapters: cutting, competing, sleep, stress, injury, training after 40 |
| Videos | 7 titles plus a bundle | Shawn Ray talking through how he thinks about one decision, from program design to the mental side |
| PDF guides | 7 titles | Reference material with numbers and thresholds, written to be returned to rather than read once |
| Systems | 5 bundles | Connected sets for one objective, in the order the components are meant to be used |
| Coaching | 1 | Two thirty-minute sessions with Shawn Ray via WhatsApp or FaceTime, for competitive bodybuilders |
The full catalog runs in a defined order through the Five Tracks on the BuildWithPros Education page: training, nutrition, recovery, mindset, and competing. That order is the method. Each track assumes the one before it.
On what basis it is written
The source is a competitive career, not a certification. Shawn Ray is a 13-time Mr. Olympia competitor with 12 consecutive top-five finishes from 1990 to 2001, Mr. Olympia runner-up in 1994 and 1996, and the 1991 Arnold Classic champion, across a career spanning nearly two decades. He was inducted into the IFBB Hall of Fame in 2007 and received the Ben Weider Lifetime Achievement Award in 2020.
He remains active in the sport as master of ceremonies for IFBB and NPC events, as a bodybuilding contest promoter and host of the Shawn Ray Pro Am Hawaiian Classic, the annual NPC and IFBB Pro League sanctioned championship in Honolulu, and as a consultant to the Mr. Olympia.
That matters for one specific reason. Twelve consecutive top-five finishes across eleven years is a record of consistency rather than a single peak, and consistency is what the material is about. A method that produced one good year is a different thing from a method that held up for eleven.
BuildWithPros is the publisher. Shawn Ray is the source the methods are drawn from. Where an article states a rule, it links to the organization that publishes it. Where a title states a number, that number comes from the source material rather than from an estimate.
What honesty means in practice here
Three rules are applied to every page in the catalog, and they can be checked rather than taken on faith.
No results are promised. No title guarantees a physique outcome, a timeline, or a placing. Where a subject is genuinely uncertain, the material says so. The audiobook on the mind muscle connection spends a chapter arguing for slower repetitions and then states plainly that research puts the useful range at roughly two to eight seconds per rep, and that going slower can work against you. That limit is published rather than left out.
Nothing is dressed up as more than it is. The audiobooks are professionally narrated rather than read by Shawn Ray, and every product page says so. Shawn Ray does not demonstrate exercises on screen in any video, and the video pages say so. Neither fact makes the material better, and neither is hidden to make it look better.
Nothing is sold that does not exist. No transformation photos are used as proof, and no claim is made about a product covering a subject it does not cover. Where a topic was found to be absent from a source file, the claim was removed from the product page rather than kept.
How it is bought and kept
Every digital title is a one-time purchase with lifetime access. There is no subscription, no membership tier, and no recurring charge. What is bought stays available, and it can be re-downloaded whenever it is needed.
Digital products are delivered immediately after checkout. Audiobooks arrive as one full-length MP3 plus all chapters as separate MP3 files in a ZIP folder. Videos arrive as a streaming and download link.
Coaching is the one exception to the self-directed model, and it is deliberately narrow. Two thirty-minute sessions with Shawn Ray, held over WhatsApp or FaceTime, scheduled by his team after purchase, and intended for competitive bodybuilders rather than for beginners or general fitness goals. It is never discounted.
Where the material is weakest
Two limits are worth stating, because a page like this is worth nothing if it only lists strengths.
The catalog cannot see the reader. A coach with eyes on a physique can spot what a written method cannot, and the material says as much: the final week before a competition is the one point where experienced supervision is recommended rather than optional.
And the material is one athlete's method, held up against published research where research exists. It is not a survey of every school of thought in the sport, and it does not claim to be. What it offers is a complete, internally consistent approach that produced eleven consecutive years at the top of professional bodybuilding, with the reasoning attached so it can be adapted rather than copied.
Frequently asked questions about the BuildWithPros method
Who is BuildWithPros for?
Lifters with roughly five or more years of consistent training who want the reasoning behind training, nutrition, recovery and competing decisions rather than a plan to follow. It assumes no access to a coach and is built to be worked through alone.
Is it worth paying for if I already know the basics?
The basics are not what the catalog covers. It covers the judgment layer: when a stall needs a change and when it needs patience, when a diet needs adjusting instead of abandoning, and which decisions compound across a career. That is what a coach charges for monthly, and it is bought here once and kept.
Who wrote the material?
BuildWithPros is the publisher and Shawn Ray is the source the methods are drawn from. He is a 13-time Mr. Olympia competitor with 12 consecutive top-five finishes from 1990 to 2001 and the 1991 Arnold Classic champion, and he remains active in the sport as a contest promoter and as master of ceremonies at IFBB and NPC events.
Are the audiobooks read by Shawn Ray?
No. They are professionally narrated, and every audiobook page states this before purchase. The content is his, the voice is not.
Is there a subscription?
No. Every digital title is a one-time purchase with lifetime access, delivered immediately after checkout and available to re-download whenever it is needed.
Does the catalog promise results?
No title guarantees a physique outcome, a timeline, or a placing, and no transformation photos are used as proof. Where the evidence on a subject has a limit, the limit is published rather than left out.
Where to start
The full catalog runs in order through the Five Tracks on the BuildWithPros Education page: training first, then nutrition, recovery, mindset, and competing last. Each track assumes the one before it, and the order is the shortest route through the material.
Background articles, method explanations and answers to specific questions are published in the BuildWithPros articles, which are free to read and reference the same catalog.
About the source
This page is published by BuildWithPros and describes the standard applied across the catalog, built on the competitive experience of IFBB Hall of Famer Shawn Ray: 13-time Mr. Olympia competitor with 12 consecutive top-five finishes from 1990 to 2001, Mr. Olympia runner-up in 1994 and 1996, and 1991 Arnold Classic champion, across a career spanning nearly two decades. It follows the standard applied across the catalog: every method explained, nothing left to guesswork.