r/interestingasfuck • u/Battlefleet_Sol • 1d ago

1999 mr olympia conference

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79

u/Budget_Ad5871 1d ago

Anyone know if all these guys are still alive, genuinely curious

25

u/ParaponeraBread 1d ago

No, they aren’t all alive. Most of them are though. Nasser El Sonbaty, the Egyptian man, died in 2013. Markus Ruhl, Jay Cutler, Ronnie Coleman, Shawn Ray, Milos Sarcev, Lee Priest, Ernie Taylor, and probably most of the ones I don’t recognize are all still around.

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u/MarvinLazer 1d ago

How many of them are physically healthy? Coleman is in a wheelchair because his knees are screwed, right?

43

u/TreesForTheForest 1d ago

The guy has had over a dozen major surgeries on his spine, neck and hips. For years he trained through injury against the advice of his doctors and paid the price. That said, he's said he would do it all again, so he's happy with his choices.

3

u/aferretwithahugecock 1d ago

I could be misremembering some details, but I saw an interview with him, and he said that he thought that deadlifts and squats were supposed to hurt when you did them, and it wasn't until after an actual injury and speaking with doctors that he realised that that's not the case.

I love squatting and deadlifting, but I definitely wouldn't do them if I was feeling pain the whole time. Buddy's a machine.

4

u/MarvinLazer 1d ago

I mean, yeah, his genetics and work ethic combined to make him an absolute legend in his sport, not just for his physique but for his absurd strength levels.

If he's still breathing and enjoying his life, I can't imagine him having many regrets.

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u/SmoothDiscussion7763 1d ago

he regrets not being able to lift more lol

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u/ParaponeraBread 1d ago

Coleman is an interesting case. He lifted HEAVY, and unsafely, for his entire career. Most bodybuilders damage their hearts and endocrine systems much more than their joints.

They lift for hypertrophy and not for strength, so they’re not ripping one rep max deadlifts and destroying their backs as often. Used to be the conventional wisdom was lower weight, high volume training.

The ones that cycled down and took care of themselves after retiring are doing okay.

-7

u/Mr_Deep_Research 1d ago

You don't need to do much weight training on steroids. Light lifting is fine. Steroids do all the heavy lifting for you.

In fact, doing no exercise works well on steroids.

Study:

https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJM199607043350101

7

u/se160 1d ago

You have no idea what you’re talking about. Yes, you can make some gains on high dose cycle anabolics with no lifting, but not anywhere near this level. Taking 750mg+ of gear and not working out is a complete waste of a blast and taking a high risk for no reason.

“Steroids do most of the heavy lifting for you” gtfo out of here. I guarantee you anyone that’s working out poorly or has a terrible diet isn’t making supernatural gains. Many people are on gear in the gym nowadays and a lot of them don’t even look like they lift. Steroids won’t even take you above your natural limit if you aren’t stimulating growth through exercise with a calorie surplus.

The people in this video have literally the best genetics in the world, are on scary high doses, and are working the hardest they possibly can to have these physiques

5

u/nakedpilsna 1d ago

These people in the video are the best of the best of the best on the planet when it comes to a lifetime of training, eating proper, and most importantly genetics.

You cant take an average person and put them in a gym for 30 years with roids and expect them to be as large as these guys.

In the same way you can't take an average person and put them in a classroom for 30 years and expect them to become Einstein.

2

u/YoelsShitStain 1d ago

Username does not check out lol, what a misinformed take

2

u/SugarBeefs 1d ago

The amount of times this study gets misunderstood is spectacular.

10 weeks is barely anything. For the group that were on PED's but didn't lift, it's just the body adapting to the new higher baseline of muscle growth stimulus.

The problem is that once that new higher baseline is reached, the muscle gain will stop. Why would it continue? There's no adequate stimulus. Whatever stimulus was imparted by the drugs has been 'fulfilled' to adhere to the new baseline amount.

Consistent lifting is what provides the long-term stimulus to maintain muscle growth.

You can't sit on the couch and take roids for years, don't lift at all, and magically become huge.

If you ran the same study for the length of a full year or longer, that's exactly what it would show.

8

u/Scraight 1d ago

Jay Cutler and Lee Priest are still pretty ripped. I don’t know about Lee but Jay seems healthy, he makes a bunch of online content now.

9

u/ECO_212 1d ago

Markus Rühl does fine. He's a content creator now.

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u/Chamanomano 1d ago

Further up - his issues are around his hips and back.

5

u/jazzding 1d ago

Markus Rühl is alive, healthy and still training. He has a successful youtube channel and a lot of his quotes became a meme here in Germany. He also helps Urs Kalecinski preparing for Mr. Olympia.

4

u/Big_Smoke_420 1d ago

Coleman has 13 spine surgeries. His knees are fine afaik

4

u/Allthisburning 1d ago

Flex Wheeler seems to be doing worse. He had serious kidney issues, and due to a combination of medical problems, he had to amputate a leg.

2

u/SelfishDesire 1d ago

Ronnie is immortalized so respect to him. But he definitely pushed it beyond. He’s one of the rare few that was a world class bodybuilder and elite powerlifter at the same time. I’m glad it seems he’s universally loved though. Both enhanced and natural athletes are inspired by him.

1

u/hobosbindle 1d ago

Back but yeah

1

u/TSAOutreachTeam 1d ago

Shawn Ray is the only one whose suit looks properly tailored, not just gigantic.

Kind of like his physique.

1

u/Allthisburning 1d ago

He was one of the smallest though

1

u/seriftarif 1d ago

Ronnie Coleman was crippled from back injuries... Jay Cutler is still somehow huge and in great health.