Bodybuilders depending on too much drugs, warn Lee Priest and Rich Gaspari.
Bodybuilding is one of the most controversial sports in the world, with general media claiming that the physiques are built on drugs (PED’s) alone. Bodybuilding veterans, Lee Priest and Rich Gaspari, explain what is wrong, and how it can be fixed.
Practically every bodybuilding article that is published on social media is criticized. The majority of criticism is aimed towards drug use.
If a bodybuilder passes away, regardless of the age, drug (PED’s) use is thrown into the picture. Bodybuilding is not the only sport that is marred by drug use, hundreds of other sport disciplines have been exposed for their use. Cycling, soccer, football, Olympic Sports and many other disciplines have been in the news in the past years, exposing the athletes drug use.
In two recent podcasts, Lee Priest speaks about drugs in the bodybuilding industry with 7X 212 Olympia winner Flex Lewis, while Rich Gaspari expressed his opinion on the same subject with John Romano.
Both Lee Priest and Rich Gaspari have been in the bodybuilding industry for close to 40 years, competing against the best in the world, and achieving great results.
Rich Gaspari is the first Arnold Classic winner in 1989, as well, he has placed second to Lee Haney at the Mr. Olympia, three consecutive times.
Lee Priest competed in what many say, the competitive era in the history of the sport. Lee up against champions such as Dorian Yates, Ronnie Coleman, Flex Wheeler, Kevin Levrone and many more stars.
During both of the podcasts, both Lee and Rich, expressed their opinion on the extreme drug use in the modern era.
While both podcasts had no connection, both Lee and Rich, brought up the subject of drug abuse in the sport of bodybuilding, and what they believe the athletes are doing wrong today.
Lee priest explained that nobody would believe the small dosages he took during the peak of his career.
Lee and Rich revealed that many of the young stars today, believe they need to take a cocktail of drugs to possibly build a world-class physique, which is totally absurd.
The regular high doses of drugs can work against the athlete, stress both Lee Priest and Rich Gaspari.
In fact, pro bodybuilder, Fouad Abiad, who is now retired, confirmed that he is trying everything possible to avoid a kidney transplant, as he is allegedly battling kidney disease. It is not confirmed if Fouad’s condition is related to his previous PED use. Fouad was a guest on Flex Lewis’ podcast when he revealed the news.
Lee Priest
Lee Priest explained, “The guys that were taking large amounts, Fouad Abiad — the big amounts he took, he halved it and got better results. I helped a guy in Australia once. He was competing in NABBA.”
“I said, look I can show you what I’ve done. I can send you the cycle I’ve sort of used. So I emailed him. Within five minutes, I get a reply, ‘are you fuc**ng with me?’ I said, ‘what do you mean?’ He says, ‘that’s not enough.’ I said, ‘what do you mean?’ He says, ‘ you don’t have Growth Hormone and all this stuff.’ I said, you trust me with your diet, you trust me with your training, trust me with this.”
“The thing is, even with Winstrol, I remember at the beginning, it’s like one mill every second day. Every time I took it I’d get that big red mark. I’d get the shits sometimes. And it would just get stuck. I threw it down the sink. I didn’t give a shit. I never had that mentality that I needed drugs,” says Priest. “That stuff is just trial and error,” Lee Priest concluded.
Priest also revealed that once during his career, he doubled his testosterone dosage, he revealed that he felt worse and did not improve at all, proving that more is not always better.
Rich Gaspari
“Nick Walker — I believe he could also be a threat to win the show [2023 Mr. Olympia]. He’s still not to that point of being super super hard. He needs to be super hard.”
“When I was in my twenties training for the Olympia, I trained so hard that I would pop blood vessels in my eyes. I was doing legs. That’s how hard I trained. Again, I don’t want to sit here on this show and bash people and say they’re not training hard because I do believe there are a lot of current champions that do train hard.”
“I’ve seen videos of Nick Walker training — he’s a freaking maniac with really heavy weights that guy is using, it’s tremendous”
“I think there is something to say how guys are training and depending on drugs more than the quality of training. That needs to come back. It seems like training is lost,” Rich Gaspari shared.
Training Intensity
Lee Priest and Rich Gaspari both explain while many of today’s top stars train with great intensity, this type of training is on a decline.
Rich Gaspari explains that the majority of young athletes do not train to failure, compared to the athletes of the 80’s and 90’s.
In regards to maintaining size, Lee Priest explains that its not complicated to maintain size. Lee explained that he eats good food and trains regularly, which in return enables him to keep his muscle size. Emphasizing that there is no need for large amount of drugs.
During his podcast, Gaspari explained that drugs cannot replace hard and intense training, and he believes that type of training is lost.
Lee Priest made a comparison between today’s bodybuilding champions and the stars of the 80’s and 90’s. Lee said that even though today’s champions are bigger, they don’t have that “granite” look in their muscle. Lee believes that the look of the 80’s and 90’s only comes from hard and intense training.
To view Rich Gaspari’s podcast – Click HERE.
