Force Feeding

I first heard of this protocol when I met with a guy that I coached for a while. He stuffed himself twice a day with Brinta, to the point of vomiting. He ignored the gagging and just continued. But it seemed to work since he was Dutch champion.

Countless threads, articles and discussions are about the good old days of bodybuilding versus today. It is obvious for every spectater that today’s bodybuilders are much larger and have much more muscle mass than during the seventies, eighties and into the 21^st century. And the trend isn’t stopped, every year we see bigger guys. Apart from the discussion if it is beautiful or aesthetic, it is obvious that it demands a whole different drug cycle, for those cycling. But also todays bodybuilders will have to eat and eat biiig, to gain that much bodyweight.

What we know is that many steroids makes us loose appetite, but beside that we can only eat a certain amount of food. So what changed?

For decades bodybuilders where bulking and cutting when a contest or photo-shoot was ahead. The Old School bodybuilders were trying to gain mass with “clean food”, mostly just a few pound. If they wanted some broader shoulders it was just a matter of inches since they wanted to stay in proportion. When the first mass monsters appeared also “dirty bulking” appeared. Guys eating lots and lots of “junk food.” Not only on their “cheat days” but just to gain raw muscle mass. Everyone that read a bodybuilding magazine or browses the net knows how Lee Priest was notorious on getting very fat, eating like a pig, and then dieted down to reveal an incredible ripped physique.

Greg Kovacs

Considered by many to be the first bodybuilder over 400 lbs, Kovacs gained exposure through his MuscleTech ads. At 6'3, he reportedly had 26 inch arms, a 70 inch chest and 35 inch quads. He not only achieved immense size, but his strength was through the roof. For a flex photo shoot he used specially made 225lbs dumbbells for incline presses. Dorian Yates claimed to see him bench 6 plates for 10 reps and this video shows him doing about 675 lbs for smith rack incline. As seen on this picture comparison, it seemed like almost all the excess fat was visceral fat and the rest was bellyfat, sitting behind a table his upper body looks great.

 “I saw Greg Kovacs for the first time at the Mississippi State Bodybuilding Championships in Jackson in 1996 or 1997 (not exactly sure). I went to Mississippi to meet up with Dan Duchaine and Laura Moore. Watching Kovacs struggle to breath anytime he moved more than 10 feet made it clear to me that pro bodybuilding was anything but healthy. Of course, Dan's perspective on the extremes of the competitive bodybuilding influenced me as well. At the time, I worried that Kovacs could be one of the bodybuilders to experience an early death. Although, I'm sure the bodybuilding lifestyle did not help. He was 420 lbs in his offseasons. People that large just can't keep ticking into their 70s and 80s. It's a lot of work for the heart and other organs to keep ticking properly at that weight.”

Mike Mattarazzo in particular used to force feed himself 5lbs of red meat per day. He also had a genetic heart condition. Every male in his family died young. So you take a guy with bad genetics in terms of health, you add in the lifestyle of pro bodybuilding and all the drugs that go along with that and you have a recipe for disaster.

At an amazing reported 415 lbs at 6'1, Trevor Smith seemed the new evolution of Kovacs. Claiming to be less than 10% body fat, he allegedly gained his enormous bulk from lifting like a fiend and eating like a family of 6. " One day I was really hungry and ate like 50 pieces of sushi at my favorite sushi place and after that night and the 2 gallons of Gatorade I consumed (no bullshit, just ask my wife... my appetite for solid food is very small most of the time, but in terms of liquids I am like a camel), between the hours of 10:00pm and 4:00am my weight the next morning was around 420 lbs. from all the water retention that I got from eating gobs and gobs of sushi and the Gatorade"

More and more bodybuilders came to the conclusion that bodybuilding contests are no sport, we can call the bodybuilders athletes when referring to them in articles, video’s and blogs, but that changed also. Beside that bodybuilding is no sport. In sport the best man wins. Bodybuilding is a pageant, like a beauty contest, and even there it’s all about politics etc. In bodybuilding it is all about contracts, who you know and who owes you. Weider died, but it all stayed the same, making money at the expense of the ignorant fans. What did change is the multi media, where Weider controlled the magazines and thus the general consensus of bodybuilding, now the fans can get their information on the internet and esp on YouTube.

Rich Piana

Is a 310lbs bodybuilder, his world is one of complete excess - from his sprawling houses, to his ten gut-busting meals per day and of course his utterly insane body. But that excess comes with a price-tag in the form of decades of steroid use in doses so extreme other bodybuilders have filmed hours of YouTube footage to begging him to stop.

While the risks of steroid use are not lost on Piana, who frequently discusses them on his own YouTube channel, he insists he's happy with his life and the path he chose. ' I was competing on stage and I was getting to the point where I was getting blown off stage if I wasn't going to do steroids, so I took that step.

'But you know what? I'm happy with everything I chose and happy with the way that everything went in my life and I would not have done anything different.

'I'm completely happy with the choice that I made to start taking steroids at an early age of 18.'

Since then Piana has placed 7th and 11th in national bodybuilding championships, and has collected several interstate titles, including being named Mr California.

At his peak, Piana estimates that he was spending $2,500 on growth hormone per month, without even taking steroids into account. 

While Piana no longer competes at bodybuilding, he continues to drive himself and his body to greater and greater feats, making money along the way via endorsements, merchandise, supplements, and his popular social media channels.

He is was recently engaged on a four-month 'bigger by the day' challenge in which he has promised viewers they would be able to gain 30lbs of pure muscle - provided they followed his insane workout and eating regime.

In the videos, which are often more than an hour long, Piana complained about how exhausting it was weighing as much as he does, and suffering while downing protein shakes 'you could drown a toddler in.'

And yet he completed the challenge anyway, just to prove a point. His next mission is now to lose 70lbs because he has gained 'too much muscle.'

But it is precisely that kind of no-holds-barred exposure when it comes to his lifestyle, whether he is discussing nutrition, exercise or drugs, that has seen Piana become such a big deal in the bodybuilding world. Speaking about the key to his success, he said: “Coming out, talking about steroids, just being straight up with people. I think people trust me.”

David Reid on M&M, Bodybuilding Has Lost Its Way: “ I can tell you that something is very different even in the last 10 years. Not to mention, there has been a wave of deaths over the past decade at unusually young ages. Guys dropping dead like flies in their 40-50’s. That isn’t normal. Not to mention the amount of guys retiring with kidney disease and a myriad of health issues. This will happen when you create bodies that weigh upwards of 270 lbs in the off season. That amount of fluid and pressure on the vascular system for months on end is just damaging. Combine that with the force feeding, insulin use and you have a recipe for disaster. By rewarding less crazy looking physiques, you will reduce the amount of drugs needed to win. It may even make the sport more marketable to the mainstream.”

By rewarding less crazy looking physiques, you will reduce the amount of drugs needed to win. It may even make the sport more marketable to the mainstream. I think that is why MPD(men’s physique division) is so popular. It takes less work and drugs to be able to compete at that level. That physique is much more appealing to the average person and they see it as attainable. Hopefully the move to the new Classic Physique Division will pull the sport more toward the middle. Only time will tell….

Seeing Roelly Winklaar, be honest inhumane big and round, do I like it? Yes.. Do I think it is healthy? No.. It’s the dose that makes the poison, being drugs, roids or food..