IFBB Pro Steve Davis tells Ric Draisin that a "certain Austrian bodybuilder" was using "four Dianabol and a shot a week" of steroids (7m36s):
MESO-Rx
Anabolic Steroids
Arnold Schwarzenegger steroid cycle: 4 Dianabol + 1 Shot?
- Thread starter Millard
- Start date
Pericles
New Member
It is true that bodybuilders back then did not take nearly the amounts that they take today.
However, I seriously doubt that Arnold only took 4 d balls a day and one shot a week.
However, I seriously doubt that Arnold only took 4 d balls a day and one shot a week.
I'm sure there was a range. But back then (before the days of SERMs and AIs), steroid use was self-limiting unless you didn't mind showing off a nice case of gyno on stage or on the beach. Which makes me believe bodybuilders used as much as they could tolerate before such side effects manifested. What is this amount? And how much does it differ from person to person?
regular
New Member
I've had guys who compete tell me that once they have their glands removed completely their gyno never returns. It's been described to me more or less as rite of passage. Is possible to get gyno once someones glands have been removed completely?
Also, I remember reading the claim that one of the competitive edges Arnold had was that he had access to AAS from Europe that guys in the states didn't have access to. I was under the impression that there were steroids which aren't susceptible to aromatase during the time he was competing.
Also, I remember reading the claim that one of the competitive edges Arnold had was that he had access to AAS from Europe that guys in the states didn't have access to. I was under the impression that there were steroids which aren't susceptible to aromatase during the time he was competing.
Last edited:
Primobolan was one such European drugs that wasn't widely available in the US at the time.
A lot of information about steroid use among top pro bodybuilding during that era comes courtesy of Ric Drasin:
We did have nolvadex back then and used it to fight gyno. We knew nothing about PCT other than HCG would stimulate Test production,and did not know to use nolvadex for PCT.The doses back then were not nearly as high as what is used today. The power lifters used some pretty high does of test for contest training with anavar and deca and dianabol.We had pretty much the same drugs as today,primobolin was used for contest prep but was very expensive,deca was the most widely used AAS for bulking.
What years are you referring to? As far as I remember, Nolvadex wasn't even available in the U.S. until the late 1970s. And it wasn't used in bodybuilding until 1981. (Arnold retired from bodybuilding in 1980.)
This ^^^ according to Dan Duchaine in "Underground Steroid Handbook":
Are you suggesting tamoxifen was being used in bodybuilding before its commercial introduction and/or Duchaine is falsely taking credit for its introduction to bodybuilders?
I started body building in 1978,i started using ASS in 1980 so we used Nolvadex around 1981 or 82 best i can remember.
Cool! What a great time to be in bodybuilding! Were you on the West Coast?
I live in florida.We had a pharmacist that lived in Georgia that was a friend of ours that was into bodybuilding,although we didnt get stuff from him we did get a lot of information. At the time steroids werent illegal,we even had some police officers that trained at our gym that used them. It was a hard core bodybuilding and power lifting gym,lucky for me i had a lot of experienced guys with a lot of knowledge that helped me along. My first cycle was anavar and HCG pretty low dose but i still got good results from it and i gradually increased my dosages and used different compounds. nobody did PCT because it was unknown,we just stopped and let our system normalize on their own
PS LABS FOUNDER
Subscriber
i live in florida.we had a pharmacist that lived in georgia that was a friend of ours that was into bodybuilding,although we didnt get stuff from him we did get a lot of information. At the time steroids werent illegal,we even had some police officers that trained at our gym that used them. It was a hard core bodybuilding and power lifting gym,lucky for me i had a lot of experienced guys with a lot of knowledge that helped me along. My first cycle was anavar and hcg pretty low dose but i still got good results from it and i gradually increased my dosages and used different compounds. Nobody did pct because it was unknown,we just stopped and let our system normalize on their own
plus with ur anavar you would not need much of a pct
PS LABS FOUNDER
Subscriber
THATS IT FROM WHAT I HEARD - DBOL/PRIMO AND TEST WERE FRANCO AND ARNOLDS DRUGS THEY ALWAYS USED / I JUST DONT UNDERSTAND HOW THEY NEVER ALL HAD ACNE!!!???
shamrockbear1
New Member
I remember Sergio Olivia quoted as saying that back in the day he would take a hand full of aas and just toss them into the blender with his shakes and watch the colors swirl around so yea they used tons of gear.. I agree there was more an emphasis on training but it's come a long way since then...
The thing is if they were real ASS pills, they were low dose like 2-5 mg per pill nothing like todays UG stuff thats 20-30mg per pill.....I cant remember ever seeing UG stuff being sold,a little bit of legit generic stuff but that was good quality...
Last edited:
PS LABS FOUNDER
Subscriber
most popular steroid in the world is probably 5mg pink dbols still - so yea im sure all the orals were like 5mg
Arnold and his contemporaries probably had "genetics" for steroid "responsiveness". All the bodybuilders who couldn't grow on relatively small amounts of AAS were weeded out. Nowadays, those who would have been weeded out are able to take more and more AAS (thanks to AIs, etc) to compete with the genetically elite steroid-responders competing on stage.
Bill Roberts touches on this in his latest article:
What Type of Steroid Cycles Did Bodybuilders Use During Arnold Schwarzenegger's Time?
Bill Roberts touches on this in his latest article:
What Type of Steroid Cycles Did Bodybuilders Use During Arnold Schwarzenegger's Time?
I used AAS starting in 1980,when Arnold and the rest were active in the olympia contest. We used test usually 200 to 400 a week an other stuff like deca,Eq,anavar,dianbol,winstrol,finaject,primabolin with the test.We didnt use the doses of test like is being used now,we used more deca,winstrol,anavar and dbol than test.No one i know of did test only cycles. Now the power lifters were different they used a lot of test and deca and anavar,they were more interested in strength than bodybuilding.We had Nolvadex and used it fot gyno,we also used HCG but we didnt know anything about PCT so we just stopped taking steroids and let our system recover. I have done over 30 cycles and never done PCT untill recently when i did a 12 week cycle which was longer than i normally do.We had no way of really knowing what the pros did but i am willing to bet it was nothing like they are using now,and there was no HGH back then,and nobody used insulin either. I think what a lot of people dont realize is that arnold,Frank Zane and the other pros had trained for a long time before using any steroids,and had better than 5 years of training before they even used anything.
Last edited:
I have often given credit to Dan Duchaine for coming up with the idea of using Nolvadex for gyno when he published the Underground Steroid Handbook around 1980. But this book only helped popularized Nolvadex's use among the bodybuilding community at large. Was its use relatively common when and where you trained back then?
Patrick Arnold told me that Jeff Feliciano was actually the person who first proposed the use of Nolvadex for bodybuilders back in the late 70s. I contact Jeff and he confirmed he was likely the first person who suggested that bodybuilders use Nolvadex as an alternative to Clomid.
This obviously made me wonder when bodybuilders first started using Clomid. I asked Jeff and he said it was already the "go to" drug for gyno in the mid-70s at the Pacific Street Gold's Gym when he arrived on the scene.
So when did Clomid first appear in gyms as a gyno-buster for bodybuilders?
Similar threads
