“Hard Work Is Being Replaced by…”: 59-Year-Old Bodybuilding Veteran Underlines the Sickening Reality of the Sport Today

Bodybuilding is one of the most grueling and demanding sports. What makes it a tough grind is not the hours of intense training sessions but the rigorous amount of time the fitness enthusiasts have to spend on the aspects such as nutrition, proper supplementation, and most prominently the drug protocols. Though all the above requisites are followed religiously by fitness fanatics, the drug protocols still serve as a main agenda in the sport of bodybuilding. Now, to address the need of the hour, the bodybuilding veteran and the first-ever Arnold Classic champion, Rich Gaspari, shared his counsel on the subject.

Recently, the 3x Mr. Olympia runner-up, Rich Gaspari, expressed his concerns regarding the usage of muscle-enhancing drugs and other steroids that hinder the traditional approaches to building a stringent physique. Not just that, he also opened up about his perspective on modern bodybuilding and other alcoves of the sport. 

Bodybuilding veteran Rich Gaspari worries about the impending effects of drugs on a disciplined workout regimen

In the recent episode of the Generation Iron Fitness and Bodybuilding podcast, Rich Gaspari profoundly chatted about the impact of performance-enhancing drugs with the host Mike O’Hearn. The 59-year-old stated, “hard work is being replaced by drugs”. He further added, “They think that is there a magic pill or there’s a drug to take” that helps build a meticulous persona.

Expressing his concern, Gaspari asserted, “if you ask me today’s regimen of you know of anabolic steroids what they take, I couldn’t even tell you because it’s a totally different world in what they are taking. But they are taking massive doses and they are replacing using steroids to replace the hard work”. Talking about the regimen of the young generation of bodybuilders, the 59-year-old said, “when you look at today’s bodybuilders I don’t want to criticize them to say I mean they’re massive but do they have the quality”.

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Clearly, Gaspari holds a rather intriguing outlook on modern bodybuilding and the ways that are followed by bodybuilders to form an aesthetic physique. He even compared today’s generation of fitness enthusiasts with the bodybuilding legend Ronnie Coleman.

Rich Gaspari epitomizes the unquantifiable passion of Ronnie Coleman 

The 59-year-old illustrated the example of 8x Mr. Olympia champion, Ronnie Coleman, who, through his incredible flair, earned a hoard full of recognition in the reverent arena of bodybuilding. “I was comparing Ronnie Coleman, who worked his a** off and like nobody, worked out as hard as Ronnie Coleman. But you look at his physique. I mean, this guy was 300 pounds and ripped the shreds”, added Gaspari. However, it is not the first time when the 1989 Arnold Classic winner voiced his opinions regarding steroid intake. He once made a startling claim that bodybuilders today use increased doses of muscle-enhancing compounds to gain massive amounts of muscle mass.

Comparing the quality of modern bodybuilding with the fitness industry back in the 80s and 90s, Gaspari conceded, “looking at the guys today, they don’t just have that quality of muscle. They all look like they are two weeks out”. Rich Gaspari indeed shared his unfeigned perspective on the work ethic of modern bodybuilders and other nooks and crannies of drug problems faced by the sport.

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What is your perspective on the drug praxis in modern bodybuilding? Give us your thoughts in the comment section below.