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What you are about to read is the actual drug cycle used by an IFBB male professional bodybuilder preparing for Joe Weider’s 1995 Mr. Olympia contest, the most illustrious and coveted title in bodybuilding. It’s the first time this information has ever been published. This IFBB professional bodybuilder entrusted me with bringing the information public upon my assurance of his anonymity. I’ll describe him as follows:

 This bodybuilder is one of the largest individuals ever to compete. He keeps copious records and what you’ll read below was taken directly from his competition notebook. The only word I can use to describe him is enormous. He ranges from 280 to 300 pounds in the off-season and approximately 275 pounds at contest (his exact contest weight cannot be published). Without a doubt he is one of the largest bodybuilders of the modern era. This man is one the few bodybuilders who makes a living from the sport and has appeared thousands of times in the pages of both FLEX Magazine and Muscle & Fitness.

 To date, as a result of his drug use, this individual has suffered no major drug-related health problems (i.e. any condition that would place him in the hospital). But, he has suffered side effects, which in the future could contribute to serious illnesses or an untimely death. These side effects were reported to me by the athlete and with permission I verified the information with his personal physician. The following is the verified list of side effects that this IFBB professional has suffered directly due to his use of physique altering drugs: altered HDL/LDL ratio (several times he’s had a level of zero HDL cholesterol), temporary disturbance of normal liver function, severe hypogonadism, low sperm count, and mild depression. What does the future hold in regards to his health? No one can tell for sure.

Brian in Ireland

Irish authorities convicted Brian  Wainstein of distributing steroids in 2003. Canadian authorities issued an arrest warrant for Wainstein on steroid distribution and conspiracy charges based on involvement with GenXXL in 2006. Wainstein has since been publicly linked to another underground lab Axio labs in 2008 and 2009. Wainstein is clearly on the steroid most wanted list. Law enforcement is most likely aggressively pursuing any and all identifiable co-conspirators of Brian Wainstein as well.

The Godfather of Dianabol

Once upon a time, elite athletes who took extreme doses of anabolic steroids were sure that the drugs helped them jump higher, run faster, grow stronger. But these notions had never been verified in a lab. So in 1975 a British physiology professor at the University of Leeds, G. Romaine Hervey, set up an experiment to determine whether high doses of steroids truly boosted athletic performance or just gave users a psychological edge. "We knew young men who lifted weights felt that anabolic steroids helped them lift more, but we really didn't know [if they did]," says Hervey, now 83. "And since steroids did seem to make them bigger, we wanted to see whether that was normal muscle or water or something else."

It was a worthy inquiry, but Hervey was undone by one monumental oversight: He allowed 25-year-old Tony Fitton to observe the study. An industrial chemist and a top British powerlifter, Fitton watched with delight as the 11 subjects, gathered in a hotel room near campus, received boxes of the anabolic steroid Dianabol -- a drug he had been regularly using for three years. The instant Hervey left the room, Fitton took over. "Lads, the dosages are a bit high," he said of Hervey's regimen of 20 five-milligram tablets a day for six weeks. "If you feel more inclined to taking just two tablets a day, I'll buy [the rest] off you." As Fitton recalls, almost everyone in the room accepted his offer. Naturally, the subjects did not show appreciable strength gains at the end of the study. Fitton, meanwhile, had procured a cache of Dbol that he could deal or dole out to his lifting buddies.

 Not only is stretching important for flexibility, it is CRITICAL for massive, rapid muscle growth.

When you think about gaining muscle, stretching is probably not the first thing that pops into your head. But did you know that stretching plays a critical role in building muscle?

Every muscle in your body is enclosed in a bag of tough connective tissue known as fascia. Fascia is important for holding your muscles in their proper place in your body.

But your fascia may also be holding back your muscle growth. Think for a moment about your muscles. You train them and feed them properly. They want to grow and will grow but something is holding them back. They have no room to grow!

Giant legs

If you have been around the Iron Game for a while, there is one name that comes instantly to mind when people discuss leg training. That name is Tom Platz. “The Golden Eagle” is widely regarded as having the most massively muscular legs in the history of bodybuilding. His thighs measured a whopping 35 inches and were shredded to the bone. Tom’s muscle building program that created those unforgettable wheels revolved around one exercise and one exercise only; the barbell squat. If you want to add some serious mass to your legs you had better familiarize yourself with this exercise in a hurry.

Since the quads typically have a very wide variance of muscle fiber types you can use a great range of reps in your quest to build pillar sized legs. Often times, Tom and other lifters with notoriously huge legs, would go as high as fifty reps per set on squats. When I was young and painfully skinny, high rep squats were one of the most effective discoveries I ever made and helped me and my brother pack on size faster than anything we had ever tried to date. The old 20 rep squat programs from the golden era of the Iron Game made a massive man of many a skinny boy.

Although high rep squatting leads to massive and rapid gains, I usually recommend starting with a few heavy sets in the 4-8 range first. Sometimes I even add in a set of 10-15 after the heavy sets, and finally finish with one all out set of 20 (and sometimes 30-50). When you use this rep scheme you ensure that you hit all fiber types and stimulate the greatest amount of muscle growth possible.