Look at this fellow’s frame and take his genetics into account. He would be able to look similar to what he currently looks like even if he never used steroids. You will probably never look like him even if you use steroids.
Look at his delt insertions and length. I can give all those nitwits talking about androgen receptors all the steroids in the world and a shitload of synthol and they will never have delts like his.
The biggest mistake the internet generation makes is thinking these guys are their peers, as if they will look the same if everything were made even, i,e, access to or willingness to use drugs. This is simply not true. If someone has the genetics to make a lucrative career out of his physique and he has to use drugs to do so(which may be arguable), I wouldn’t encourage it but I wouldn’t stop him as long as he understands the risks vs rewards.
For others, forget about it. I don’t care how many participation trophies you have. You’re not special.
If you can tell someone is on steroids by looking at them, sell your super powers to WADA, because they have been doing it the hard way for a LONG time.
This is pretty much it. I am forever seeing guys who have made some very respectable gains but are by no means monsters, only to see an army of skinny guys going off about “mexican supplements” and the like. It’s ridiculous.
Understand what you’re getting at but some of us are really just interested, I will train my ass off regardless but its nice to have role models and its also nice to know if the people you are aspiring to are getting a little help.
As was I, and still am to a degree. It’s nice to have realistic depictions of what a natural trainee can look like with proper training and nutrition, but…
The point is that there really is no way to tell (the question that originally started this thread) unless the person admits to using them. Maybe they are, maybe they arent… But either way you cant know definitively (unless they are Mr. O or something equally obvious) and knowing wont change your results.
Its kind of like knowing your body fat percentage… In theory it would be nice to know, but practically speaking you just need to lose fat if you arent where you want to be.
No, I don’t agree with people on reddit regarding this assertion that there are literally no natural bodybuilders. I’d like to know just how many of them, those with decent genetics, have actually tried and done what was necessary to look like a competitive natural bodybuilder. And I don’t mean try to be a pro natural bodybuilder, but in the necessary work to be a bodybuilder. This might change some of their outlooks on the subject. And I also wonder just how many bodybuilders they hang out with. Have they ever gotten to know what’s going on from the inside? Likely not.
As said, most of the top natural bodybuilders do not compete above 200 pounds at average heights, which many of them are. But according to damn near everyone on forums, anything below 200 pounds is small. People simply do not recognize what is possible naturally. Some even think they themselves can compete at above 200 pounds with stage ready leanness if they just simply get around to competing one day.
Then there are other fools who believe people who are clearly assisted are natural. There’s one less-active, but well-known guru who several times on message boards that Ronnie Coleman was natural while competing in the IFBB with an offseason weight of a somewhat lean 260 pounds (about as believable as Ronnie still working the streets full time while prepping for the Olympia) and that some others at 220 or above are natural (all because of their great genetics and time put in, lol). Let’s just ignore that this guru never competed at least once, even while generously assisted.
I can go further, but my point is that there are indeed, so-called “fake natties”, great real natural bodybuilders, and bullshit artists claiming people are natural when clearly they’re not.
Do you hang with natural competitive and/or assisted bodybuilders? Do you know any closely? That would help in coming to a conclusion on the subject.
