Natural Bodybuilding Isn’t A Joke- A Look At Top Natural Bodybuilders
See the video here- Natural Bodybuilding Doesn’t Suck – What Top Natural Bodybuilders Really Look Like
So, with the recent deaths
of 2018 Mr. Olympia Shawn Rhoden,
which itself is a tragedy and the passing of someone
who I also knew from my time back at Fifth Avenue Gym,
George Peterson, who was also another
top IFBB professional bodybuilder,
in addition to the number of professional
and amateur IFBB and NPC competitors
who have died sadly over the past year and in recent times,
and the increased rate of deaths
from the massive amounts of drugs
that these athletes use to create the look
that today seems to be what’s required to win competitions
in those particular organizations,
some have called for drug testing.
And the reason why I’m making this video
is in response to what I consistently see
and what I’ve consistently seen
over the past 27 years
of my being here in the US
and working with the natural organizations
and really seeing the policies
that the non-drug tested shows and competitors tend to use.
And I think it’s important that we talk about these things,
because I’m not sure
that the general public is really aware.
And part of that problem is
whenever there’s talk of the NPC or IFBB
or any competition, that’s not drug tested
bringing in drug testing, real drug testing
and promoting athletes who are not just drug tested,
but who any rational, sane looking individual,
could say this person is most likely not on drugs.
The common thread is that the general public
doesn’t want to see people who aren’t using steroids.
The common thread is, the general public
wants to see the freak show.
They want to see someone,
who is, you know, almost 300 lbs ripped to shreds.
They want to see someone who has an unreal degree
of conditioning.
They want to see women who are, you know,
at [low] body fat levels without a hint of cellulite whatsoever.
They want to see ridiculousness.
They want to see things that aren’t real.
Natural Bodybuilders Are Not Unimpressive
And for all this time,
the public has always kind of known
that drugs are part of competing in bodybuilding.
And the public tends to not know
that natural bodybuilding even exists.
And as a real natural bodybuilder,
I when I say real natural bodybuilder.
I’m saying someone who doesn’t take drugs,
didn’t take drugs.
And to be honest with you, if I took drugs
and looked like this, I’d want my money back.
As someone who’s been a lifetime natural bodybuilder
who’s promoted natural bodybuilding competitions,
and who’s judged natural bodybuilding competitions.
I’m always astounded by the fact
that whenever the conversation of drug testing comes up
with the non drug tested organizations,
the competitors, the ones who profit the most from them,
from the competitions, tend to all say the same thing,
which is no one wants to see natural, unenhanced athletes.
Always being said, no one wants to see it.
And then they give examples of what a natural bodybuilder
would look like.
And those examples don’t look anything,
like any of the competitors that I know personally,
that I grew up seeing, who I can put my head
on a chopping block myself and say,
these people are natural.
They’re not using drugs.
They didn’t use drugs.
They really are men and women who,
some of them I’ve seen from the time they started
to the time they got on stage.
People who worked their behinds off,
to achieve a level of physical excellence without anything,
without SARMs, testosterone, or any of that.
And they look fantastic, but here’s the problem,
no one knows about natural bodybuilding.
When I say no one, relatively no one.
The fan base for natural bodybuilding is ridiculously small
and disproportionately so compared to drug bodybuilding.
And one of the reasons why that is,
is because whenever there is an example
of what a natural bodybuilder looks like,
they always choose pictures of people
who look very much to me, like first time competitors
or novice class competitors.
I’ve never seen at any point in time,
anyone talking about what a natural bodybuilder looks like,
who put an example of a true natural bodybuilder.
And to make matters worse, what they tend to say as well is,
well, `there are all these fake natties,
fake natural bodybuilders.
People who say they don’t take drugs,
but we all know that they do.
People who take testosterone
replacement therapy and claim somehow or the other
that because it’s a doctor prescribing it to them,
that somehow that their natural.
And there are really and truly
a ridiculous number of really popular fitness personalities
who say that they are natural,
who, I can tell you for a fact, aren’t.
I’m not saying it because of, you know, hearsay.
I’m not saying it because of anything else, I’m saying it
because I’m from the industry.
I know a lot of drug dealers,
I know who sell drugs and some of them sell the drugs
to people who claim to be natural.
I also know as a competitor that I’ve competed
in natural competitions against men
who later went on to fail the drug tests.
The Problem with “Fake Natties”
So, there are people in natural bodybuilding competitions
who do take drugs and who do pretend to be natural,
it is a real phenomenon.
But I’ve been in natural bodybuilding for,
and aware of it since I’ve been in this country
for 27, 28 years.
And the number of individuals
who I can point fingers to,
who I know for a fact,
say they are natural or said they were natural
and were competing in natural competitions,
but really and truly weren’t, was a handful.
And to be honest, they almost always went on
to keep on competing in other organizations
where they were able to use drugs openly.
That’s usually what I’ve seen,
but their examples and the popularity
of the fake natural bodybuilders on social media,
has cast a huge shadow on what natural bodybuilding is,
what it looks like and what it can be.
In all of my years,
I have never heard of the passing of any currently competing
natural bodybuilder, it never happened, no one’s ever died.
I’ve also, and I can attest as a former competitor
because I stopped competing in 2004,
that was my last competition,
and you can take a pic look,
you can take a look at what I look like now.
And this is what 47 years old looks like
with being a lifetime natural bodybuilder
following the bodybuilding lifestyle.
And I may not compete anymore,
but I try to be an example of what you can look like
without using drugs.
When I was competing,
I was one of the first natural bodybuilders
to bring a DVD out to try to show,
hey, this is what natural bodybuilding really looks like.
And to try to help upcoming generations,
see that you could be strong,
you could be impressive without having to stick a needle
in your body,
without having to go to any such extremes.
The Public Is Largely Unaware of Natural Bodybuilding Because The Non Tested Organizations Keep It In the Shadows
And I think from my years
on the promoting side
of natural bodybuilding and my years
of being behind the scenes,
what I’ve seen is whenever a truly natural bodybuilder
makes it to the IFBB Pro Leagues and Pro ranks,
there is, and there was,
from the officials
straight out talk that you cannot say
that you are natural.
Because by saying that you are competing naturally,
you’re drawing public attention to the fact
that the [other] athletes are on drugs.
Now, we can look at the Mr. Olympia competitors today
from the ’90s, from the ’80s,
from the ’70s and the ’60s,
and you would be completely, completely wrong
if you thought that they were natural,
but most people do think that they’re natural
because people assume, well, you know,
of course there must be some drug testing in bodybuilding.
And these guys are just, genetic freaks who look fantastic,
that’s not what it is.
The other thing that’s important to note
and to talk about and to say is that every single person
who I know, who used drugs,
who I had a conversation with,
this particular conversation was,
where I said,
“Do you think as someone who’s pretty much used drugs,
your entire career, that you could look the way you look,
if you never used drugs?”
And every single one of them,
every single one of them said, that they could.
And the fallacy exists as well,
and constantly comes up as well.
This idea that,
well, if the guys who are at the top
of professional bodybuilding now,
and the women who are at the top
of professional bodybuilding right now,
if they were natural, they’d still be at the top
because there’re so many genetic freaks out there,
who went so far without,
you know, even touching a drug.
And that’s completely nonsense.
it’s completely nonsense.
And it helps perpetuate the idea that natural bodybuilding
somehow or the other is a bit of a joke,
that natural bodybuilders are
the “also ran”- the guys and girls
who weren’t good enough genetically,
or didn’t work hard enough,
you know, they didn’t go to the gym seven days a week
and do cardio twice a day, the way everybody else did,
so, there’s no way you can expect them to look fantastic.
Well, you know, interestingly enough,
I think that in the modern age,
given the fact that there’s so much of a constant
among those who are in the drug tested field,
always talked down about those who are not using drugs,
that it’s really fear based.
And it’s a strategy that’s been in place
literally since I have been involved in bodybuilding
and seeing how it works behind the scenes.
I know, I had meet professional bodybuilders
who were natural, when they were competing.
I know the pressure they went through to keep quiet
about the fact that they were natural,
I know as well about what happened,
and I was part of an organization,
trying to do its best to create a credible alternative,
a credible drug tested
professional bodybuilding alternative.
And I think that the IFBB and NPC and those that profit
from those competitions,
And we’re talking about the supplement companies,
we’re talking about the, they go on social media,
who, you know, use those competitions as well
to try and enhance their careers.
I think what, we’re seeing is that,
because natural bodybuilding doesn’t really have
the backing of the supplement companies,
the money coming in to promote it.
And because there’s always this constant refrain
from those who are at the top,
as far as social media is concerned today.
And back then it was the magazines, same thing.
That, you know, this is bodybuilding at the highest level,
and there’s nothing else,
everything else is a joke.
Because of that, there aren’t any natural bodybuilders
I know, who have millions of followers on social media,
none, none, zero.
Top Natural Bodybuilders Do Not Have Massive Social Media Followings Compared to Bodybuilders on Steroids
The athletes who have won the World Championships
in different federations.
And these are people competing against the best of the best
internationally in the different organizations
that are drug tested.
And when I say drug tested, you get a polygraph test,
you get a urine test and one can argue as to,
whether you can beat those tests or not.
Some people I know for a fact have,
But a lot of people, I know for a fact,
a lot of people I know for a fact, didn’t have to.
They look fantastic, they look truly impressive.
The degree of muscularity, the degree of conditioning,
the degree of development that they’re able to attain,
both the men and the woman without drugs, is remarkable.
There are repeat champions,
people who have won these competitions several times over,
and no one knows about them.
They have barely a couple thousand followers
on social media, barely.
using drugs in, let’s say the NPC, with millions.
using drugs and let’s say the NPC, with millions.
with millions of followers,
hundreds of thousands of followers, all the endorsements.
Think about how much money goes into keeping that hierarchy,
where it is, and part of keeping that hierarchy
the way it is, is also convincing the fans
that natural bodybuilding is a joke
that natural bodybuilding is a joke,
and that natural bodybuilding isn’t legitimate,
and that nobody really looks like anything worth seeing,
and anybody who does look good, who is natural,
is actually on drugs.
Well, we can always say that,
you know, anyone can say they’re not on drugs,
you know, how can you ever really know?
Well, I really know for a fact that the lot of them,
and I really know about myself as well.
And I think it’s time that we look at the deaths
of all these men and women
and some of them over the years, are my friends.
People who I know, people I actually know,
people I care about,
and you know, you hear about the Shawn Rhoden dying,
and you hear about George Peterson passing away,
and that was horrible, and it’s horrible.
But you don’t hear about all the amateurs,
people who are trying to become professional bodybuilders
who die in the process.
They don’t have any big names.
They don’t have a big following on Instagram.
You don’t know who they are, they’re dying,
they’ve been dying for a long time
and I’m tired of, they’re not being acknowledged,
but that there’s another way to do this,
that you can look fantastic.
Young people need to have the opportunity
to choose and not be told the way I was told
throughout my entire career.
That I’m not serious about my bodybuilding career
because I’m not taking steroids.
Kevin, when are you going to get serious
and start taking a little bit of drugs?
Kevin, you know that if you want to be at the top level,
you have to use some drugs.
When’s that going to stop?
When is it going to be that people have the right
to make an informed decision
by seeing people in front of them who look fantastic
and who are truly natural.
And to everybody out there who is using drugs and saying,
you don’t use drugs, I’m going to tell you,
I was a kid who grew up reading all those
bodybuilding magazines and believing that nonsense
that it was genetics and that somehow or the other,
those at the top were just so much genetically better
than everybody else,
that’s why it looked the way they did.
And then becoming a bodybuilder, meeting them,
talking to them, being around them as a teenager
and having that gut wrenching blast of cold water on my face
that no Kevin, they use drugs.
The reason why they’re bigger than you
is ’cause they use drugs.
The reason why their arm’s at 21 inches plus
is ’cause they use drugs.
Here’s what they use, here’s what they do.
What about you?
You going to use drugs to look like them?
And it was really hard to say no,
because there wasn’t much of anything out there saying
that you could look fantastic without using drugs.
My career as a natural bodybuilder,
which isn’t big much of a big career to begin with,
was really a stab in the dark,
it was really, I wanted to look like a comic book character,
and I thought for a fact that I might never get there,
but I wanted to do my best.
I didn’t know how far I could go
because I didn’t have any examples.
Kids need to have examples,
people need to have examples,
people need to see that you can look fantastic.
I grew up without those examples and came to New York
in the mid ’90s.
I was blessed to go to a gym, Fifth Avenue Gym,
which was literally one of the meccas
of natural bodybuilding here in United States.
We don’t have that anymore.
We don’t have people with tons of followers on Instagram.
And there’s always that refrain
that no one wants to see a natural bodybuilding competition.
Natural Bodybuilders Are More Appealing To the Public Than Those On Steroids
And here’s my challenge to you,
go look up every single natural bodybuilding federation
that there is, and look at the top champions,
go look up some of the past champions,
you’ll be impressed,
you’ll be really, really, really impressed.
And it’s important that we do not let
those who use drugs and those who profit
from the use of drugs.
Competitions that promote the use of drugs,
competitions where, I want to tell you for a fact,
based on people who I know, if you don’t use drugs,
the judges will come to you and tell you,
when are you going to get serious?
And that you’re not going to go any further
unless you do this, unless you do that, unless you do this,
unless you do that, that’s what they say,
that’s where it comes from.
The blood of anyone who passes away
in these competitions, is on their hands.
And it doesn’t have to be that way
because I believe wholeheartedly that general public
had a choice between looking like
any of the professional bodybuilders,
male and female that use drugs
and the ones who don’t use drugs comparatively.
I think they’d probably choose the ones who don’t use drugs.
I think they’d look at those physiques
and say, hey, that looks more like
what I would want to look like.
Frank Zane, by no stretch of the imagination,
former Mr. Olympia was not drug-free.
And I think it’s really important that we say that,
but more people want to look like him
than let’s say Arnold Schwarzenegger,
who also wasn’t drug-free,
because Frank Zane had what people call,
it looked like an attainable physique,
which I’m going to say straight out, it isn’t,
it wasn’t, it can’t be.
Once you use drugs, you are not on the same level
as somebody who is not using drugs.
The difference is remarkable and ridiculous.
And again, the genetically gifted aren’t the ones
at the top levels of bodybuilding.
It’s the ones who are genetically predisposed
to respond the best to using those drugs.
I know for a fact,
in some of the gyms I’ve been in,
that more than half the people in the gym are using drugs.
And in the entire gym,
maybe 10 of them look,
you know, decent, 10,
maybe 10 of them look like, they could probably,
you know, do well, you know, maybe on a professional level.
But you know, you’d probably, you know,
do something in the sport of bodybuilding.
But the other 90 of ’em,
they use more drugs than the ones who look good,
usually, that’s usually what it is
and they don’t work any less,
it’s not that they’re working less,
it’s just that their bodies don’t respond to drugs
the way that we some will do.
And a lot of the bodybuilders that are at the top,
simply are those who,
number one, are genetically predisposed
to having fantastic results from using drugs
and also mentally inclined to put their lives at risk
and do things that medically go and come
with some serious risks.
And that’s their choice.
It doesn’t mean that you take drugs away
that it would be an even playing field
that somehow it’d still be on top.
That’s a myth, that’s not true,
never was, never will be.
And there’re also lots of natural bodybuilders
who I knew personally, who started using drugs,
and some of them, yes, did end up being top level,
a lot of them didn’t.
I know one who had fantastic natural physiques,
start using drugs and didn’t really look, they got bigger,
but they didn’t go all the way
because they simply didn’t respond.
That’s the reality.
You can talk about the realities of drug use
and talk would you rather of natural bodybuilding,
and talk about the fact that,
if you’re a natural bodybuilder like me,
you’re more focused on your job
trying to make ends meet by what you do on a regular basis
than you are being a bodybuilder,
being a bodybuilder is, kind of like,
something you do on the side.
It’s not your life.
It’s not the be-all and end-all
because there’s no real money in it,
we have to really work,
we have to really, you know, have regular job.
I remember when Ronnie Coleman was a police officer
and people were thinking how strange it was to have someone
who was a real working man, preparing for,
you know, high levels of competition,
how ironic it was because I didn’t know anybody
who was competing at the time in the natural field
who didn’t have a job or two.
We’re regular people but we’re here,
and by saying that we don’t exist,
doesn’t make it such that we don’t exist.
And that’s, what’s been perpetuated for decades.
I want you to please take the time,
go look up the natural drug tested by the federations.
If you’re really a bodybuilding fan,
go see some of those contests.
When I was competing, seats were filled back in the days.
Now, partly because there’s so many competitions
and so many different organizations,
which is also part of the problem.
As natural bodybuilding federations
don’t have a united front that come together.
And so the public never really gets the opportunity
to know what’s going on because there’s not enough
of a concentration in terms of promotion for one contest.
And of course, everyone has their shows on the same day.
And of course that there aren’t that many young people
out there who are going
into natural bodybuilding competitions.
You are in a natural bodybuilding competition
and the teenage category,
which back in my time would be filled with competitors.
Now, you know, there’s huge applause
for, if one person shows up, that has to stop.
It can’t stop unless we do our best.
Now, I maybe just be a voice crying out
in the wilderness about this.
But it’s important that that voice is there.
I encourage you to please support natural bodybuilders.
Support the ones who take the time to compete
in the natural competitions,
support the ones who may not have a million followers
on Instagram, go follow them, go follow them
See what they do, because what they do,
what we do is what you can do.
The difference between me, them,
everybody else, is just work, time, consistency, genetics,
yes, it plays a role, but I’ll be honest with you.
You could have poor genetics.
If you spend two decades working out, eating properly,
you’ll look pretty decent.
That’s the other thing too.
Don’t let anybody tell you that you need a drug
to be physically impressive or to achieve
any kind of excellence.
It’s high time that we start being kind to ourselves.
There’s so much nonsense on the issue of body image
with women to begin with.
This doesn’t help.
It doesn’t help as well, that it’s so prevalent
with young males.
It’s kind of, it’s everywhere.
And it’s time that it stopped,
But please believe in yourself,
think about what you can achieve.
And if you yourself, haven’t been successful
at natural bodybuilding and you’ve been training.
You haven’t been training for years on years.
You haven’t had really good coaching.
You haven’t given 1,000%.
Don’t give up, keep going, keep trying
and give those who have a chance and see them.
Make sure that they’re seen.
Thanks for tuning in and Excelsior.**
Do take the time to look up the athletes featured above and do go see a natural bodybuilding contest!
Related videos:
Why I Chose To Not Use Steroids- Natural Bodybuilding Motivation
How Long Does It Take To Build Muscle Naturally
Kevin’s Natural Bodybuilding DVD on Amazon
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