“I Would Pop Blood Vessels in My Eyes”: World’s Second Richest Bodybuilder Compares His Mr. Olympia Training to New Age Bodybuilders

Steroid abuse has always been a hot topic in the bodybuilding world. Even though it has been a pertinent discussion since its inception, the insanely massive physiques of current bodybuilders are leading up to a new wave of debate and questions. In the recent podcast of Dragon Slayer Media, former IFBB Pro Rich Gaspari raised his voice concerning the scaling differences between hardcore training and steroids of the current times.

Do current pro bodybuilders not train as hard as the bodybuilders used to train in the 80s or 90s? What change was Gaspari talking about? Let us find out in this article.

Young bodybuilding aspirants do not train as hard as Rich Gaspari

Rich Gaspari was recently targeted by Hadi Choopan’s fans after he commented on Hadi’s back in one of his podcasts. His comments came in a few days after Hadi was announced as Mr. Olympia 2022 champion. Although, he later explained that his comment was not an attempt to undermine Hadi’s rightful spot at the top. The backlash from the fans, however, didn’t stop Gaspari to commit to his bold statements. Next in the line of committing to bold statements, he said that bodybuilders don’t train as hard as they used to during his time.

In an episode of Dragon Slayer Media hosted by Romano, Gaspari said, “When I was in my 20s training for the Olympia, I trained so hard that I would pop blood vessels in my eyes.” 

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He continued, “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 the current champions that do train hard.” While he shared words of encouragement hinting at Nick Walker’s training routines, his overall concern seems to be how young bodybuilders have resorted to drug abuse rather than quality training.

Priorities have shifted for the worse

While shedding light on the differences between the intensity with which he trained to that of what most bodybuilders do now, he also sorted out the reasons behind declining energy. According to Gaspari, as the bodybuilding contenders in the Men’s Open category are looking to get bigger, the priorities have shifted but only for the worse.

He said, “What the Open is doing to get that much more massive — it’s probably a lot more eating. I don’t want to say this on the show, but a lot more drugs and other things to take to get that big.”

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Do you think what Rich Gaspari said has truth in it? Do the bodybuilders don’t put much intensity in their workouts as they used to do in the 80s or 90s? Let us know your opinion in the comment section.