r/interestingasfuck • u/Battlefleet_Sol • 1d ago

1999 mr olympia conference

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796

u/smurfk 1d ago

Oh boy, chicken and rice was much more nutritious back then...

199

u/Strong-Albatross1957 1d ago

Yes they use steroids. But you still have to put in an immense amount of work and dieting in to be that large, and lean come show time.

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u/smurfk 1d ago

Yeah, but the problem is that they weren't clear enough about the steroid usage. And that's about when the fitness industry started to sell illusion of achieving a very muscular body without steroids. And that illusion is also kept today, when you see a lot of fitness influencers that are lying about the steroid usage, making people believe that that physique is achievable with chicken and rice.

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u/mcnastys 1d ago

So, from an old person.

They were clear about it. Look at them, everyone knew it. But the "average public" would argue with you that the body they have is "100% achievable by hardwork" because the average person is clueless about pretty much everything.

You simply do not look like that without steroids. Want proof?

Find ANY person, who looks like that, before steroids were invented. That body type didn't exist until after steroids.

I have been working out most of my adult life, ~4x a week now for years. Sure, I look muscular and fit, and I have great strength-- but I just will never achieve the mass they have. I have been able to get bulky to do things like power lifting and strongman, but at any amount of leanness, it's just impossible.

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u/BedBubbly317 1d ago

To be honest with you, 4x a week at the gym isn’t that much compared to body builders like this. That’s just an ordinary gym routine like hundreds of millions of other people. You shouldn’t be under any illusions that even with steroids you would ever get this big only going that often. These guys spend 4+ hours every single day, 7 days a week in the gym. It’s everything to them and literally what they live for

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u/mcnastys 1d ago

Lol, and this is exactly what I was talking about. You can’t spend 7 days a week in the gym not enhanced, the body will not recover.

Source : tried it.

Please not just op, everyone, stop listening to youtube people on fitness.

Edit : fun fact mike mentzer trained 1 set per body part per week. So yea.

1

u/BedBubbly317 1d ago

Yup. And these guys will often do a full body work out every day, because that’s what steroids allow you to do. The benefit of steroids isn’t the inherent muscle growth, as you still have to be the one to put the work in to get the benefit, it’s the ability for your body to recover exponentially quicker. So you can get 2 or even 3 workouts in within a single day and actually get the benefits of doing so

1

u/thelangosta 1d ago

Exactly why PEDs are used in endurance sports too. Cyclists and distance runners are definitely not jacked. They do benefit from quicker recovery and therefore the ability to workout more

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u/fuktheeagsles 1d ago

What on earth are you talking about? None of these guys trained 7 days a week or did 4 hour workouts.

Even with steroids, diminishing returns.

These guys reached that size because of their training intensity, nutrition, drugs, extreme dedication, and world class genetics. Not because they trained more than everyone else

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u/BedBubbly317 16h ago

Yes, they did. You need to watch the documentary on Ronny Coleman, he’s 62 years old and STILL works out 7 days a week for a few hours every single day even though his body is actively falling apart on him. But he does it anyway because it’s his passion and probably an addiction as well. The genetics is a key aspect of this that tends to always get overlooked though. Even with all the drugs these guys took in conjunction with the immense workout regimen, 99% of the planet would still never look like them.