March 09, 2001
Issue # 37

INTERVIEW WITH A BODYBUILDER

You’ve seen interviews like this before in other bodybuilding publications, although the veracity of those other interviews is often questionable.  We thought it would be interesting to do a real interview with an up and coming bodybuilder, so we found one that would get us the straight poop on the sport as long as we didn’t reveal his identity.  For the purposes of this interview, we’ll call our mysterious interviewee Mr. X.

AE:  Alright lets get through the basic questions or at least those you can answer. Ok? Lets start with your name.

Mr. X: I can’t tell you my name, I have to remain anonymous

AE: Ok, I can respect that. Can you give me your basic statistics?

Mr. X: Close to 6 feet tall; about 315 off-season. I’ve been competing at around 250-260 but this year I want to come in at around 265.

AE: Ok, now can you tell us anything specific about your bodybuilding career? Contest wins?

Mr. X: For reasons of anonymity, I can’t reveal anything too specific. Lets just say I am a top level NPC amateur competitor and barring any injuries or unforeseen accidents I should have my pro-card in the next 2 to 5 years.

AE: I guess you can’t tell me your age, right?

Mr. X: I can tell you that I am in my late 20s.

AE: Since this interview is anonymous, I am assume you will be cool with talking about the pharmaceutical aspects of your career

Mr X: Sure, you can ask me anything you want.

AE: At what age did you begin taking steroids?

Mr. X: I was 22. I trained naturally for about 5 years, making decent gains for about 4 of those 5 years. I got up to around 225 naturally, fairly lean, I stayed at that weight for almost a year despite all my attempts to break through that plateau. I am ashamed of how much money I spent on various supplements trying to break through. I used to take l-arginine, smilax, dibencozide, everything you can think of. Hotstuff man, I took Hotstuff.

AE: What prompted you to start taking drugs?

Mr. X: My eyes were opened to what was going on in the world of bodybuilding. I had a long talk with an older professional bodybuilder who basically laid it all out for me. Apparently I had made an impression with my natural physique and I wanted to go further. All around me were guys who weren’t giving it half what I was, yet they were twice my size. I was pissed. But then I started training with that older pro and he let me in. I mean, I knew people around me were juicing, but I didn’t think it was essential to success in this sport. I actually thought people that used steroids were just cheating and that I could contend with them naturally if I trained hard enough

AE: Seems like you have a good work ethic unlike a lot of current pros. Ok, so what was your first cycle and what sort of gains did you see.

Mr. X: First cycle was Sustanon redijects (500mgs) from Mexico and Deca redijects (400mgs). I put on about 30 pounds in 10 weeks, which was almost entirely lean muscle mass. So after gaining 30 pounds in 10 weeks, which is more than I had put on in the last few years, I was hooked. How the fuck could I go back to being natural when I had experienced this sort of advanced growth?

AE: What was your diet like when you were putting on this weight?

Mr. X: Well I knew from early on that calorie intake was the key, the older professional would remind me of guys like Strydom who claimed to be eating 10K calories per day. So I was stuffing myself. I would eat maybe 5K calories per day, and at this point I was trying to eat clean but I did let myself eat fast food like hamburgers and pizza. I wasn’t eating ice cream and candy, but I was eating just about any high calorie high protein thing I could find. That was probably my biggest expense, hell, it still is. You wouldn’t want my food bill man.

AE: Fast-forward to today, what does your drug intake look like. Do you run cycles or are you always on?

Mr. X: Before I tell you what I take, everyone reading this should remember that what I take works for me, it probably won’t work for them. There are guys who use a lot less then me and guys who use a lot more. My drug profile is not what is indicative of all bodybuilders at my level, it is just what I have to use to compete.

I use a heavy base of testosterone, anywhere from 1-1.5 grams of testosterone per week. I don’t care what I am using, if I have access to shorter acting testosterone it means I have to take more frequent shots so I do prefer longer acting ones like T-200. With that base I always run either deca or EQ at around 400-600mg per week. I will switch between anadrol, dianabol, and trenbolone acetate doing each one for about 30 days in duration.

Something people should think about is that bodybuilders rarely sit around and discuss what they use, and if they do, its hard to know if you are getting a straight answer or not. Bodybuilders are notoriously insecure people and most guys think that if they reveal their exact stack to you then you have a leg-up on them in competition. Be that as it may, a lot of the people in bodybuilding believe that most athletes use a lot more drugs then they do, with the possible exception of insulin and growth hormone

AE: Glad you brought those 2 drugs up, can you go into more depth on their use? I think those 2 drugs are some of the most misunderstand drugs in the sport.

If you look at bodybuilders in the 80s through the 90s what you see an amazing increase in size and hardness of athletes. I attribute most of this additional size to the use of insulin and these athletes ability to stay hard at that size to incredible amounts of growth hormone. The dosages of steroids didn’t really change that much from the mid-80s to now, but what did really change was the use of insulin and GH. With the exception of my very first cycle of steroids, I have never had anything put muscle on me like insulin did.

AE: Can you be more specific on dosages of insulin and GH?

Mr. X: As far as insulin goes I use at least 40 IU’s per day and I know guys who use a hell of a lot more then I do. With GH, well I use as much as I can afford which means I am running 8-10 IUS per day for 6 days a week. This is obviously very expensive since the best deal you are going to find on GH is 450 bucks for 126 IU’s. Most of the top guys are reported to use about 18 IU’s of GH per day. But again this is something of a guess on my part, I don’t want to spread rumors, but if you look at the difference in the quality of physiques in the pro level and the top amateurs you have to see that something extra is happening on the pro level beyond even the issue of genetics.

AE: Speaking of genetics, how crucial is that to success in this sport.

Mr. X: 100%! If you don’t have the genetics, you can take 5 grams of testosterone per week and 18 fucking IU’s of GH per day and still have the body of Chris Rock.

The lure of bodybuilding is that everyone is going to look like a Dorian Yates, Ronnie Coleman or Lee Priest. And that’s what the whole supplement industry wants you to believe because that is what sells magazines, supplements, protein bars you name it. They are selling you something that you can never have if you are like 99 percent of the people out there. Bodybuilding is just like any other sport, you take the top guys in the NBA like Jordan or O’Neil every young kid who plays basketball probably idolizes these guys and wants to be just like them. The truth is, without the right genetics, all the right eating, supplementation, training, and drugs aren’t going to make you into something you genetically cannot be.

I have to laugh when I read in bodybuilding magazines about these workout routines that the professionals are supposedly writing about. Bottom line, Ronnie Coleman doesn’t train any different then most of the people reading this article. I am sure he trains heavier but that is more a function of his structure and genetics and drugs then anything else. People are always asking me what exercises I do for this body part or that body part and then they seem disappointed when I tell them I do the same things they do. I am genetically gifted, I have a bright future in bodybuilding. That doesn’t make me any better then the next guy in the gym, it just means I got lucky.

AE: How are you supporting yourself in this sport?

Mr. X: Are you asking me if I suck dick for a living? No, I didn’t have to go that route but I know some guys who have. It’s a general misconception about up and coming bodybuilders that they are all sleeping with older wealthy gay guys to get enough money to turn pro. Like I said, I know a few guys who have gone that route, but bodybuilding isn’t like a heroin addiction. You don’t see a whole lot of 290lb guys offering to suck your dick for 5 bucks so they can take their next shot of sustanon. There are plenty of legitimate ways to support a bodybuilding career, I do a lot of personal training. I do have a few guys who sponsor me because they think I may turn pro.

AE: Are they guy?

Mr. X: Probably, I don’t know, I don’t ask them. It’s none of my business and they have always been very professional and never done anything weird. Just like a hot woman can find a lot of rich straight guys who give her lots of gifts and money, you will find a lot of well-built bodybuilders getting the same kind of treatment from wealthy homosexuals. If taking someones money for appreciating my physique without sleeping with him or blowing him makes me a prostitute, I guess I’m a prostitute. Bottom line, I appreciate that there are people out there who are willing to support me in what I am trying to do and their sexual orientation doesn’t make any difference to me.

AE: Lets go back to drugs for a minute, ok? There is obviously a huge difference between your average steroid user and someone at your level. Is there is a difference in what these 2 types of users are doing? Also, is there anything you see on in future of bodybuilding drugs?

AND ON THAT NOTE FRIENDS, WE MUST RETIRE UNTIL NEXT TIME.  STAY TUNED FOR NEXT WEEK’S INSTALLMENT OF INTERVIEW WITH A BODYBUILDER!!

  BACK TO CURRENT ISSUE