George Spellwin's Blog

It seems like I’m always seeing news stories of some baseball player or MMA fighter claiming they tested positive for steroids because their over-the-counter supplements contained roids. Of course, in the vast majority of cases, I think this is just a convenient excuse for the pros to look good in the general public’s eye, but it got me to thinking about just how common steroids really are in OTC supplements.

The reality is that the vast majority of supplements found in stores aren’t going to contain anything close to a steroid. After all, supplement manufacturers have to spend a lot more money creating products that contain actual steroids, which lead to overall higher prices. Furthermore, the legal trouble that a supplement company can endure for selling products with roids in them just isn’t worth the headache.

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Even still, some rogue companies are willing to juice their supplements in order to improve product performance, and keep people coming back for more. But even in these instances, rarely are you going to find anything more than trace amounts of steroids, or just enough to fail a drug test.

As for my two cents on the subject, about the only people who need to worry about OTC supplements with steroids are athletes who could be tested. In these cases, there are at-home steroid testing kits people can use to determine if they’ve unknowingly used steroids; they run around $80-$100.

Now in some rare instances, people can develop side effects if there’s enough of a steroid in a supplement. And I think this is a concern because anybody who’s juicing needs to be knowledgeable on the subject so they can take the proper drugs to combat side effects. But again, something to this degree doesn’t happen often with OTC supplement users.

While he may have been raised in Austria and spent most of his life in California, Arnold Schwarzenegger has been embraced by the people of Ohio. That said, the state’s capitol is going to resurrect an 8-foot statue of the bodybuilding legend in downtown Columbus.

The statue shows Arnold doing a muscle pose during his bodybuilding heyday of the 1970’s. And it is the Veterans Memorial group that has commissioned the statue to be built in Columbus.

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John P. Raphael, who heads Veterans Memorial, talked about what the Arnold Schwarzenegger statue meant by telling the Columbus Dispatch, “Veterans Memorial has been doing the Arnold festival since its inception, and we did bodybuilding shows before that.” He added, “It’s been a very long, positive partnership here. With a permanent statue like that, we’ll probably have that event here for a long, long time. We feel it’s the right thing to do.”

The idea of building this colossal statue is certainly a good one since this is the home of the Arnold Classic. And now, all of the bodybuilders that come to Columbus for the Arnold Classic can look to the statue for inspiration.

Scott Peacock, who heads the Columbus visitors bureau, discussed this aspect of the statue by saying, “Could be our Rocky statue, who knows? You would see people come to Columbus to check it out.” It might be a stretch to say people would come to Columbus just for the statue, but it’s definitely going to be a nice sight to see.

Like so many other countries in and around the Middle East, Libya is another place that’s experiencing a surge in bodybuilding amid a new day in their land. Since the death of dictator Muammar Gaddafi, both men and women are finding themselves with more freedoms. This being the case, many are choosing to visit the gym and do some bodybuilding.

This is especially key for the men because women are more liberated now than under Gaddafi’s rule, which subsequently gives them more options when it comes to men. And guys now see bodybuilding as a great way to build their muscles to impress the ladies.

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Aside from the increased interest in Libyan bodybuilding, martial arts are starting to take off in the country again. With Gaddafi in power, sports like mixed martial arts and boxing were outlawed because they were too “babaric”…..and never mind the fact that Gaddafi had countless people executed in barbaric fashion. Back to the point, numerous boxing and MMA clubs are springing up across the North African nation.

Of course, what I’m most interested here is the bodybuilding, and I can’t wait to see if the future years bring us some great bodybuilders from this former oppressed country.

2011 Mr. Olympia Phil Heath signed a very interesting deal today when he joined forces with martial arts clothing retailer Respect Your Universe. After signing the deal with RYU, Heath told the press, “As being Mr. Olympia, my life consists of hard work, dedication, being innovative and efficient with my daily routines, but most importantly, willing to give back to others.”

The bodybuilding champion continued by adding the following cheesy statement, “As I get ready to defend my Mr. Olympia title, I know that RYU will not only make me look like the best, but also perform better than all the rest in the gym!”

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I guess what interests me the most about this story is how a bodybuilder like Heath signed on with a mixed martial arts brand. After all, RYU will sponsor several Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) events in the coming year, and champion fighter Jon Fitch is also a part of their sponsored team.

Maybe the company is preparing to market their brand to bodybuilders and strength athletes too? Whatever the case may be, I think it’s pretty cool that Heath has the universal appeal to be signed by an MMA company, and it will be interesting to see if he appears in any major ads.

Brazilian mixed martial artist Cristiane Santos recently tested positive for steroids, which wipes out her huge knockout of Hiroko Yamanaka on December 17th. Furthermore, this will cost Santos the Strikeforce Women’s Featherweight title.

Apparently, Santos was taking Winstrol during her training, which isn’t a big deal to me and other bodybuilders. Unfortunately, this is always a big no-no in professional sports.

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A stiff from the Californian State Athletic Commission, George Dodd, reiterated this thought by saying, “Our primary concern is for the health and safety of fighters.” He added, “Anabolic agents and other banned substances put not only the users of those agents at risk, but their opponents as well. The commission simply will not tolerate their use.”

Santos is widely considered the best pound-for-pound female fighter in the world. However, it will be interesting to see what people think of “Cyborg” now that she’s been busted for using steroids. After all, critics tend to harshly judge athletes after they’ve tested positive for roids.

One of the more interesting bodybuilding stories I know of belongs to David Prowse, who not only was a successful strength athlete, but also an unsung movie legend as well.

Prowse’s biggest claim to fame is that he played the physical form of Darth Vader in the first Star Wars trilogy. At a well-built 6′6″, the UK native gave Vader a truly imposing physical appearance under the costume. Interestingly enough though, Prowse was never given any speaking parts in the films (James Earl Jones did voice overs), and was replaced during lightsaber battles because he wasn’t good with a sword.

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Prowse would go on to play a number of other parts in both TV and movies. The vast majority of his roles had no speaking parts, and instead called on the bodybuilder to show off his build or play another costumed figure. For example, he played Frankenstein’s Monster in three different movies. The Brit also trained Christopher Reeve for his Superman TV role, and helped Cary Elwes get fit for The Princess Bride movie.

As for his strength sports career, Prowse’s most impressive accomplishment includes winning the British weightlifting championship from 1962 to 1964. He also competed in various bodybuilding competitions as well, and has definitely cemented his legacy as a successful bodybuilder/actor.

We’ve just started 2012, so I thought that I’d discuss some tips for keeping bodybuilding New Year’s resolutions. After all, it’s pretty damn tough to keep a resolution for the full 365 days. Speaking of which, this leads me into my first tip…..

Break your Bodybuilding Resolutions in Parts – Now matter how fired up you are about a resolution after a couple of shots on New Year’s Eve, it’s pretty hard to maintain this same fire throughout a whole year. So a better idea is to break your resolution down into parts such as wanting to get from Point A to Point B by February; next, you want to get from Point B to C by March. In short, don’t think of your goal as one big marathon for 12 months, but rather a series of short goals.

Plan Out your Goal – Expanding on my first tip about bodybuilding resolutions, you need to plan out your goal in order to have any shot at success. The problem most bodybuilders run into is vowing to do something on New Year’s Eve, but having no clear path towards getting there. Instead, you should be sitting down on January 1st, and mapping out how you’re going to achieve the goal you’ve set forth.

Limit Yourself to One Resolution – While it would be great to get massive arms, achieve 6% body fat, and spend more time in the gym all in the same year, it’s tough to stay focused when you make so many resolutions at once. The smarter idea is to focus heavily on one resolution, while shooting for gradual improvement in other areas. This way, you don’t get burn out by March under the weight of unrealistic goals.

I hope these tips help you get closer to reaching your bodybuilding New Year’s resolutions, and getting the babe of your dreams!

The Arnold Classic (Arnold Fitness Weekend) is no doubt one of the premier bodybuilding events in the world. Unfortunately, a couple of the world’s top bodybuilders won’t be making the trip to Columbus, Ohio in 2012.

Kai Greene, who won the Arnold Classic in 2009 and 2010, has already announced that he’s pulling out of the event because he wants to focus on the Mr. Olympia competition. Basically, Green thinks that his time would be better spent resting and training for the Mr. Olympia, rather than trying to compete in three or four different competitions throughout the year.

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Victor Martinez is the other notable athlete that won’t be attending the 2012 Arnold Classic. Unlike Greene, this is not a choice because Martinez has been detained by US authorities in New York over an immigration dilemma. And this is very unfortunate since Martinez is one of the most recent Arnold Classic champions, having won in 2007.

Despite the fact that Greene and Martinez won’t be involved in this event, you can still expect plenty of other elite bodybuilders to be competing for the $130,000, Hummer vehicle and Audemars Piguet watch that goes to the first place finisher.

I was messing around on the internet during a break in the Christmas festivities today, and came upon a story about Eugen Sandow (Friedrich Wilhelm Müller). If you’re unfamiliar with Sandow, he is often referred to as the father of modern bodybuilding, and he captivated British audiences with his feats of strength during the late 1800’s and early 1900’s.

Born in Prussia, the future legend fled his native land to England in order to avoid five years of mandatory military service. While in London, Sandow’s feats of strength became widely noticed, and people started paying to see him lift various heavy objects.

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Interestingly enough, Britons soon became more interested in Sandow’s muscles than his feats of strength. This led to a revolution of sorts where the general population took up bodybuilding, which was something that was previously ignored.

After inspiring a bodybuilding movement in Britain, Sandow became even more well-known for his muscles. On Sandow’s visits to the United States, women were paying him hundreds of dollars just to feel his muscles. He would go on to become a very rich man due to women paying for private muscle-feeling sessions, selling dumbbells and weight lifting equipment, and coming out with his own fitness magazine.

As World War I neared, Sandow’s German heritage would diminish his popularity considerably, but he had already gotten the wheels turning in the right direction for bodybuilders across the world.

A few days ago, I’d thought I had seen the last of the Barry Bonds steroid case when he was convicted of obstructing a US federal investigation into steroids in professional sports. Bonds received 30 days of home confinement, a $4,000 fine, and 250 hours of community service.

However, it doesn’t look like the matter is over with yet because Barry Bonds will appeal his original conviction in belief that he’s innocent. This certainly surprises me because I expected worse for Bonds since the prosecution was pushing so hard for at least 15 months in prison for the former San Francisco Giants slugger; in short, I thought he’d accept the decision.

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Plus I know how much the federal government likes to make an example out of people like Bonds. Fortunately for him though, the judge saw it fit to only give Bonds a 30-day home confinement sentence where he’ll have to wear a monitoring device.

In any case, I could care less about Bonds lying to the federal government about steroids in sports, and I think it’s ridiculous that people can’t juice for recreational purposes. However, what really pisses me off about the whole situation is how much money federal prosecutors spent to confine somebody to 30 days at home.

I don’t have any concrete numbers, but I’m willing to guess that several million dollars were spent trying to bring Barry Bonds down, and for what!? Lying about himself and others juicing to play better baseball? This whole case just goes to further show how messed up the government’s priorities are when it comes to steroids.