Interesting to hear his thoughts on the topic. I will listen to the interview linked in the article later. Many of the recent deaths in bodybuilding (especially among women) seem to be tied to use of these.
“THE ONE THAT STANDS OUT THE MOST TO ME IS ’01, WHERE I WAS TOTALLY DEHYDRATED THE DAY OF THE SHOW, AND I WAS THINKING I WAS GOING TO DIE. THAT STANDS OUT TO ME MORE THAN ANY OTHER SHOW BECAUSE I WAS ON MY WAY TO THE HOSPITAL AND CHAD (NICHOLLS) CALLED ME AND SAID ‘DON’T DO THAT,” COLEMAN SAID.
“I WASN’T CRAMPING OR NOTHING, I WAS JUST EXHAUSTED, TIRED. I DIDN’T HAVE NO ENERGY. WHEN I WENT TO GET OUT OF BED, I COULDN’T HARDLY GET OUT OF BED BECAUSE I WAS SO EXHAUSTED AND TIRED. I WENT TO TRY TO WALK AROUND A LITTLE BIT, AND I DIDN’T HAVE NO ENERGY TO WALK AROUND. I WAS LIKE ‘MAN, I’M OUT OF IT. AIN’T NO WAY I CAN COMPETE LIKE THIS.’”
“THOSE DIURETICS ARE DANGEROUS. THEY WILL KILL YOU, AS WE’VE SEEN IN THE PAST. I THINK IT’S MOSTLY ALL ABOUT THE DIURETICS, SO I THINK IF THEY BROUGHT DIURETIC TESTING BACK, THAT WOULD SOLVE THE PROBLEM.”
“IT’S GOING TO BE REAL HARD (TO BEAT RAMY), ESPECIALLY AFTER YOU DONE WON ONE AND YOU NOW HAVE THE FORMULA. I THINK IT’S GOING TO BE REAL HARD. PLUS HE’S A BIG GUY AND NINE TIMES OUT OF TEN THEY’RE LOOKING FOR THE BIGGEST GUY TO BE MR. OLYMPIA,” COLEMAN SAID.
“HE FIGURED OUT HOW TO MANIPULATE THE WATER, THAT’S WHAT IT’S ALL ABOUT… I THINK RAMY’S A SHOE-IN.”
Not too shocking. Steroids have been around for a long time, and were used quite prodigiously without horrific side effects/short lifespans, and the bodies they produced were amazing, but things became other worldly when other drugs were introduced. We start lumping everything together as “PEDs” and we lose nuance.
Agreed, I remember reading an article here on T Nation from “Shadow Pro” on his typical cycle for pre-show. The sheer number of compounds blew my mind. Can’t imagine what the guys at the top are running now.
Is it just ignorance with the dangers to some of these things now that they are more in the open or is it truly that those using (at the lower levels - amateurs or low ranked pros) believe the juice is worth the squeeze? (pun definitely intended)
People still smoke, text and drive, not wear seatbelts, etc etc. Education of dangers can only go so far. Some folks are just immortal until they aren’t.
That real super dehydrated state doesn’t come until the actual day or two I think. I think up until then they are fine, if not chugging extra water to prep for it.
I can’t speak to how bodybuilders manage hydration leading up to shows, but I assume it’s not too different from what we do in weight-class based sports to cut water weight, aside from some details at the end, specifically after the water has been lost initially.
Yes, he should have been well hydrated when he was hitting those huge numbers a week or 2 out of the Olympia. But that being said, he was also probably on crazy low carbs, on a TON of drugs, and most likely felt like absolute shit. So, still not a great situation, but at least he wasn’t dehydrated.
I mean honestly, we’re all probably dehydrated all the time here, haha. I’ve trained over at the original Metroflex. It gets hot as fuck. The metroflex gym I used to train at regularly, maybe 30 minutes from the original, didn’t even have air conditioning. Summers are brutal.
So it’s not the toxic combination of anabolic steroids, GH, beta 2 agonists, amphetamines, thyroid hormone AND dieuretics causing cardiomyopathy and/or inducing electrolyte imbalances or excess sympathetic stimuli thus causing conduction abnormalities and subsequently inducing fatal arrhythmia?
I hear some bodybuilders also take cocaine… That ought to be a fun combo when you’re on a truckload of shit that can theoretically already cause arrhythmia.
AAS alone in high enough dosages (for prolonged durations or in those predisposed) can induce cardiomegaly, mediate conduction abnormalities… Excess sympathetic nervous system stimulation alone (mediated by AAS) could be enough to trigger an arrhythmia in an unlucky individual. It’s rare, though quite a few case reports exist
Want to live longer? Have good genetics, live an otherwise healthy lifestyle… Or roll the dice. Each to their own
Not sure what BB’rs use for contest prep, but I can vouch for the fact that injectable Lasix or what ever that form of it is called will have you piss the life force straight out of your body. I’ve had that a couple of times for water retention related to heart failure, and one time over the course of about 12 hours peed myself down from 190 lbs. to about 175 (under medical supervision).
I take a regular 40 mg. tablet daily which is also harsh, but manageable, and definitely requires caution. Last year in the process of finding out I can’t do that anymore, on a warm sunny day due to heat and exertion I almost fell into a wood chipper while feeding it. I realized what was happening and made sure to fall away from the chute instead of into it, but there was no stopping the complete failure and lack of control over your body once you cross that critical threshold.
So I can see how when combined with other conditions like depletion, drugs, etc. it can contribute to a sudden fatal outcome.
I really don’t think testing for them would make any difference though. Nobody at the pro levels have any misconceptions about the drugs they use or the risks involved.
Dehydration + glycogen filled muscles +. androgens = dick skin, you’ll look like a living representation of an anatomy chart if you’re lean enough.
Such dehydration can cause kidney damage, severe electrolyte imbalance and thus induce fatal arrhythmia. If you have heart failure you have a therapeutic need to counteract that water retention… you’re just resetting fluid balance back to relative normalcy
If you’re a big, jacked… already dehydrated living Gi Joe action figure you don’t need Lasix.
Probably not… if anything new, novel designer diuretics would probably surface if they were to enforce testing for them… perhaps leading to even more death/injury
We’ve seen this arise time and time again with drug prohibition and doping controls (designer steroids, PH’s, novel peptides, cobalt doping, designer stimulants etc)
Diuretic misuse can kill as an independent variable… as can most things if abused. There is a spectrum of danger though. Diuretics are dangerous in an acute setting, whereas steroids kill over decades and decades
Also, people in the back seat turn into projectiles during a car crash when they’re not wearing seat belts and can further injure people who ARE wearing them. You can get fined for not following a hundred different traffic rules - I don’t see why wearing a seat belt is any different.
