for those interested, here are some clarifications concerning bill pearl’s past steroid use and vegetarianism. the first quote is taken from a site called “vegetarian bodybuilders”:
~ He won the professional Mr. Universe title in 1971, at the age of 41, without the use of steroids and as a vegetarian, and is recognized as one of the all-time greats of bodybuilding. Bill’s diet is lacto-ovo vegetarian, which means he eats eggs and dairy products.
He describes his experiences with the conversion to vegetarianism. “With each succeeding year the diet (lacto-ovo vegetarian), I’ve felt better. I’m more healthy, I can train with more energy, and I’m not as much of a “hard guy” as I used to be. I’ve become more concerned with my fellow man and the other inhabitants I share the planet with. I have now been vegetarian for almost 20 years. We have no fish, fowl, or red meat in our diet. Yet I can still carry the same amount of muscle as I did in winning my four Mr. Universe titles. People can’t believe it. They think that to have big muscles you have to eat meat - it’s a persistent and recurring myth. But take it from me, there’s nothing magic about eating meat that’s going to make you a champion bodybuilder. Anything you can find in a piece of meat, you can find in other foods as well.” ~
these two Q&A’s are taken from the dennis weis interview:
~ Have any of the top physique men you know to have taken anabolic steroids had any serious side effects?
BP: Yes! There was a former Mr. America who passed away from the effects of anabolic steroid use. There have been numerous other physique stars who have quit the sport of bodybuilding because of it. I think if anabolic steroids were taken under a doctor's supervision and taken as they were prescribed, then there may be a place in the sport for the drug itself.
I'm opposed to the abuse of it. I was in Portland, Oregon, a few years ago on a lecture tour, and I was shocked to learn that many of the younger physique contestants were taking more steroids for the amateur Mr. Oregon than many of the top physique stars take prior to entering a national show. The sad fact was that 99% of these younger guys had absolutely no potential in the sport at all.
Did you ever take them for a contest, or have you taken them all along?
BP: Oh, no! I've only taken them for a short period of time back in 1967, for a 6-8 week period under a doctor's supervision like I'm telling you. I got off of it after that, and I have never touched them since, because I could see that it was just something that didn't make me feel good about myself, and I said I'll get out of the sport and I'll quit training all together if that's what I've got to subject myself to, to stay in it. ~
he apparently didn’t feel there was enough competition from roid users after quitting them, which explains why he continued to enter pro contests and win.
he sells supplements on his website, but he also has an article on basic nutrition that points out that everything a person needs can be derived from a lacto-ovo-vegetarian diet, and that although steroids can help some people in conjunction with a proper diet and exercise program, steroids do not enhance athletic performance in and of themselves. in other articles, he stresses the importance of taking a multivitamin supplement to make up for the lack of nutrients in modern produce.
he doesn’t endorse any of the supplements he sells in any of the training programs he has on-site; however i don’t know what view he expresses in his training books. he does however point out that meat is unnecessary to build mass, and that everything found in meat can be found in veggies, eggs and dairy products. he also says that meat contains over 250 different chemicals, many of which are known carcinogens.
this is why i quit eating meat myself. since my disease makes me chemically sensitive, i figured it would be a good way to cut down on toxins that can exacerbate my condition; it worked, and i don’t get sick as much or for as long. however, i found another added benefit: i am no longer inhibiting my hormone production to the degree that i did while eating meat. meat also contains hormones fed to the animals to make them grow faster–hormones which are detrimental to human hormone production. i also drink out of glass beverage containers as much as possible now, due to the fact that toxins in plastic containers can also lower hormone levels.
that may explain why i’m putting on lean mass relatively quickly now (20 lbs since august), in spite of the muscle-weakening effects of my illness. i feel much more aggressive and energetic than i did when i was eating meat, no doubt because my testosterone and GH levels are higher.
so in essence, slow gains are more easily remedied by excluding hormone-diminishing substances from one’s life, and by finding a program that optimizes one’s natural potential for muscular hypertrophy.
another point to consider: according to various sources–both on T-Nation and offsite–arnold only took 2-3 years of bulking preparation to achieve his competition size, while others (some on steroids) took anywhere from 5-15 years. by some accounts, others were getting similar results in 2-3 years without steroids, by modifying popular training programs by increasing volume and frequency. despite allegations that arnold himself used steroids to bulk up, others made similar gains to arnold without them. in other words, those guys already had the hormone levels needed to optimize mass-building efforts–the programs they devised helped them to achieve their potential in record time.
the meat may have been bad, but it had not yet taken its health toll on the entire population. that explains why steroids only gave some men of arnold’s era a 5% advantage (those mildly effected by the tainted meat), while today, they give many an advantage closer to 20% (modern folks with a serious hormone deficiency due to generational effects of eating tainted meat). (somewhere on this site there is an article giving examples of how much testosterone levels have decreased in the last half-century; i’ll find it and reference it when i edit this post.)
in reality, the quick gains of past “natural” bodybuilders are a hallmark of a time before our species began to hormonally decline into the pathetic creatures we are today, due to our inferior diets of hormone-fed animals and our use of plastics. steroids aren’t the answer to keeping up with the “genetically gifted”; abstaining from meat or eating untainted meat products is the answer. we still have the potential to grow fast; we just have to bust out of the commercial and propaganda cages that impede that potential. bill pearl himself is a prime example of how long that potential lasts when toxins are removed from the diet: to this day, in his late 70’s, he still has 20 inch arms.
people will do what they want, but dietary modification to naturally restore one’s hormonal balance seems more healthy and viable than using steroids, creatine, BCAA, etc., all of which only mask the deeper problem by remedying the symptom. as i and many others have found out, they provide no significant bulking advantage when a person has optimized their diet and training. any man of normal health has the potential to build 20" arms in 1-3 years; the key is to first attain that baseline state of prerequisite health, and properly utilize volume and frequency principles in training.
i’m not saying everyone should run out and jump on the vegetarian bandwagon, or even try my style of training; however, it is all very good food for thought.
^…^