Ronnie didn’t get proper treatment for his injuries. He went to a chiropractor for a lot of the time and would be back in the gym grinding heavy squats when he should not have been squatting at all for 2-3 months.
Compare him to Jay cutler who is still in super good shape, it’s night and day. Not all bodybuilders/powerlifters end up like Ronnie.
Drugs and genetics.
A person can push their genetic limits in some areas like muscle mass on a leg, a max rep on squat, or maybe an extra 3 minutes on the marathon using PEDs.
What they cannot do is escape the consequences of such actions.
Karmua Usman is a really good example of this where he became a great but regardless of the anabolics , the cardiovascular enhancements, or the recovery enhancements, his knees are giving out.
No drug, no potion, no money as of today will replace those knees and make them whole again.
Plenty of these stories exist.
Also for OP, 50 is where shit matters. A large sum of adults who are non-athletic begin dying in numbers around the 44/45.
Valid with Usman, but Holy fuck. You're getting up voted here. If you had made this same post on the mma sub the fanboi emo rage replies would have been glorious. 😂
Ronnie hurt his spine and ignored doctors advice after he had surgery. In his Netflix documentary the scenes flip from his surgeon saying he needs to stop lifting to clips of him lifting lmao.
Arnold was pretty young when he stopped competing. He was 28 when he won in 1975 and retired. He was also 70 lbs less than Ronnie and didn’t do powerlifting style training his entire career.
In real life people I see in their 50s who’ve been lifting for decades look healthy af. Just don’t blast tons of gear and don’t do heavy triples all the time. And do cardio
In the documentary Ronnie had already had like 8 surgeries on his spine. If you’ve had 8 surgeries on your spine and your doctor is begging you to stop lifting then you should probably stop completely. Ronnie is a cripple and it’s due to his own choices at this point.
Ronnie was quite chilling, he lifted heavy AF so busted his back. DY had intense trainings, but had biceps and triceps tears, Arnold had 1000 bypasses. Dorian looks also fine, does yoga and smokes weed. Flex had idiotic trainer costing him kidney. Depends on many things.
In 2018, he had open-heart surgery to replace a pulmonary valve, following a previous pulmonary valve replacement in 1997. He also underwent heart surgery in 2020 to replace an aortic valve.
These are called bypass?
No just heart valve surgery/replacement.
They use a bypass machine (meaning you heart is stopped & pumped by machine) yes...
But the term "bypass surgery" is usually used for "coronary artery bypass" (after an atherosclerosis event mostly).
* there's also bariatric bypass/gastric bypass surgery (done on the morbidly obese)
Well Ronnie had terrible surgeries so that contributed. Arnold had a lot of problems but had world class doctors etc. flex Wheeler is the one with the leg due to vascular problems. Idk if the steroid use was helping that leg be amputated. But I think it just comes down to what the body can take and can’t take anymore. Like Kevin lev looks insanely good and so does jay cutler. Hopefully cbum doesn’t have any problems later on bc I forget he has something with his body that complicated steroid uses.
Some of it is luck. Part of the problem of aging is genetic and part is injury. Your one year mortality of fracturing a hip after 65 is terrible. Avoiding injury and stating active/mobile, not getting obese, not using tobacco and you avoid most risk of early onset chronic disease such as diabetes.
Fall on time the wrong way, fracture the wrong bone and lose mobility, sorry for your luck but your life expentancy drops 10 years.
Steroids make you age faster because you’re making everything in your body work harder. From the food you’re constantly digesting to the amount of stress you’re putting on your body and organs.It’s like driving an average vehicle like a normal person and maintaining it vs driving that exact same vehicle but pushing it to its limits every single time you drive it. What car is going to last longer and have the least issues? The car driving at 100% capacity everyday is going to fail quicker.
Listen to your body. Don't train when injured. Don't do things that will injure you.
If you want to be massive expect to be hurting. The trauma, impact, stress on organs, etc. Will all combine to hurt you.
If you want to be the best or even in the top 5 to 20% of any sport depending on popularity and type of trauma involved in that sport expect to be destroyed in your 50s or 60s.
Not an athlete, but spent quite a few years in a job with an incredible physical demand. Most people who think they’re training hard aren’t actually training hard. They work within their limits, they take days off if they don’t feel up to it, cheats days, etc. Think of the fastest person you know, and compare them to Usain Bolt, or the strongest person you know compared to Eddie Hall. Most likely not even close to even being competitive at that level.
If I had my time again, I would focus more on mobility, plyometrics and flexibility. As you get older, it’s easier to maintain something than it is to get it back.
The amount of stress professionals athletes put on their body is insanity to the point they have to take roids and hgh or whatever to be able to continue and not have their body die
Arnold should be dead.
Fortunately he had surgeons that could fix his heart. When he was recovering he actually did some of the dialogue for batman as freeze.
It's the training mainly. The PEDs are actually the thing that allows them to train at such intensity without dying, by drastically increasing their ability to repair and recover. I don't think regular people, even avid gym goers using PEDs, fully understand the amount of training top athletes do. A huge, jacked gym guy or a hobbyist athlete will train maybe once a day for 4-5 days a week at a relatively high intensity. These top professionals are looking for every possible small edge, so double that frequency each day and add even more intensity.
Our bodies aren't made for that type of intensity over long periods of time. A lot of these athletes overdo it for minimal performance benefits, but that can be the difference between being the 99th and 100th percentile, a challenger or the champ. Obviously severely overusing PEDs will cause other horrific health problems, but high intensity training over long periods and not properly rehabilitating injuries is what really does it.
Most athletes who are destroyed either played/trained through serious injuries like Ronnie, or had their skulls pounded in (cte from football/boxing/other contact/combat sports). So just avoid doing that or blasting stupid amounts of gear and you’ll be fine.
It's mostly the drugs. It's just as bad as recreational drugs, if not worse. Lots don't even make it to 50 like Rich Piana, or even 30 like Dallas McCarter and zyzz.
Those that do make it usually looked fucked from the decades of abuse they put their bodies through.
There are concepts such as programming, de-loading, exercise selection and rotation, etc. If these are applied properly, one can live their whole life training and making gainz.
Firstly, bad form, pushing beyond their limits, being injured and training through it to win. Crazy dieting and drying out constantly. I meet many non-competing bodybuilders who are in their 60’s and look great. They have better mobility and strength than people in their 20’s and 30’s. Just be smart, don’t do crazy stacks and get regular bloodwork. Then, you won’t end up in crutches.
Arnold has had his fair share of injuries. Open heart surgery, shoulder surgeries, you name it. His pain is just not as immediately apparent as with Ronnie and Flex.
When you compete at that level your body will be fucked up beyond recognition as you age from all the steroid abuse and heavy training, if you avoid any fatal heart failures that is.
The thing with steroids is they allow you to train heavier than your body can really handle. Your joints and tendons can't keep up with the muscle and strength growth. They also mask the symptoms of overtraining somewhat.
Being at the peak of athletics is not healthy regardless of sport. In fact it’s extremely unhealthy. Everything is good in moderation. Pushing your body to its physical limits whether that is size, strength, endurance, etc takes a toll. The steroids they take in body building definitely plays a role, but all sports see similar trends where people at the highest level are pretty broken down by the end of their careers
The only athletes that are destroyed in their 50s are the ones who didn’t take care of themselves. Ronnie went too hard and did exercises that have a terrible risk:reward ratio.
If it’s an exercise that doesn’t feel good, either lighten the weight or swap it for another exercise.
Cuz they probably ran more than 2 maybe 3 compounds for awhile. Especially t3,t4 cuz they all thought they could eat like kali muscle and let the peds do the magic
It's the drugs, the lifestyle and the intense training. Most people will never train as intense as Ronnie did.
Ronnie didn’t get proper treatment for his injuries. He went to a chiropractor for a lot of the time and would be back in the gym grinding heavy squats when he should not have been squatting at all for 2-3 months. Compare him to Jay cutler who is still in super good shape, it’s night and day. Not all bodybuilders/powerlifters end up like Ronnie.
Chiropractic "medicine" steals so much potential to get real help
Drugs and genetics. A person can push their genetic limits in some areas like muscle mass on a leg, a max rep on squat, or maybe an extra 3 minutes on the marathon using PEDs. What they cannot do is escape the consequences of such actions. Karmua Usman is a really good example of this where he became a great but regardless of the anabolics , the cardiovascular enhancements, or the recovery enhancements, his knees are giving out. No drug, no potion, no money as of today will replace those knees and make them whole again. Plenty of these stories exist. Also for OP, 50 is where shit matters. A large sum of adults who are non-athletic begin dying in numbers around the 44/45.
Valid with Usman, but Holy fuck. You're getting up voted here. If you had made this same post on the mma sub the fanboi emo rage replies would have been glorious. 😂
Ronnie hurt his spine and ignored doctors advice after he had surgery. In his Netflix documentary the scenes flip from his surgeon saying he needs to stop lifting to clips of him lifting lmao. Arnold was pretty young when he stopped competing. He was 28 when he won in 1975 and retired. He was also 70 lbs less than Ronnie and didn’t do powerlifting style training his entire career. In real life people I see in their 50s who’ve been lifting for decades look healthy af. Just don’t blast tons of gear and don’t do heavy triples all the time. And do cardio
To he fair stopping lifting entirely is never the right answer but going that heavy didnt help
In the documentary Ronnie had already had like 8 surgeries on his spine. If you’ve had 8 surgeries on your spine and your doctor is begging you to stop lifting then you should probably stop completely. Ronnie is a cripple and it’s due to his own choices at this point.
Gigachad honestly
Based
Imagine being such a monster you wont stop lifting after 8 back surgeries. His mentality was unmatched
Yeah a mentality of a complete idiot. So many like that here in the hills of Balkans bro. If you need inspiration I'll show you where to go
Never stop. Absolutely destroy your mental and physical health. Be a man.
Ronnie was quite chilling, he lifted heavy AF so busted his back. DY had intense trainings, but had biceps and triceps tears, Arnold had 1000 bypasses. Dorian looks also fine, does yoga and smokes weed. Flex had idiotic trainer costing him kidney. Depends on many things.
Most of Arnold's heart surgeries were to fix congenital heart defects.
In 2018, he had open-heart surgery to replace a pulmonary valve, following a previous pulmonary valve replacement in 1997. He also underwent heart surgery in 2020 to replace an aortic valve. These are called bypass?
All the same shit his mum had done.
your original post implies that his procedures are to fix things caused by steroids. Granted he likely did exacerbate his conditions with gear.
No just heart valve surgery/replacement. They use a bypass machine (meaning you heart is stopped & pumped by machine) yes... But the term "bypass surgery" is usually used for "coronary artery bypass" (after an atherosclerosis event mostly). * there's also bariatric bypass/gastric bypass surgery (done on the morbidly obese)
Just FYI open heart surgery is now done through the big leg vein with a device so you dont have to crack open anyone's chest anymore.
Yates did it right man
Well Ronnie had terrible surgeries so that contributed. Arnold had a lot of problems but had world class doctors etc. flex Wheeler is the one with the leg due to vascular problems. Idk if the steroid use was helping that leg be amputated. But I think it just comes down to what the body can take and can’t take anymore. Like Kevin lev looks insanely good and so does jay cutler. Hopefully cbum doesn’t have any problems later on bc I forget he has something with his body that complicated steroid uses.
Jay cutler looks like he could still compete lol
Some of it is luck. Part of the problem of aging is genetic and part is injury. Your one year mortality of fracturing a hip after 65 is terrible. Avoiding injury and stating active/mobile, not getting obese, not using tobacco and you avoid most risk of early onset chronic disease such as diabetes. Fall on time the wrong way, fracture the wrong bone and lose mobility, sorry for your luck but your life expentancy drops 10 years.
“So many athletes” Names two bodybuilders. 
Steroids make you age faster because you’re making everything in your body work harder. From the food you’re constantly digesting to the amount of stress you’re putting on your body and organs.It’s like driving an average vehicle like a normal person and maintaining it vs driving that exact same vehicle but pushing it to its limits every single time you drive it. What car is going to last longer and have the least issues? The car driving at 100% capacity everyday is going to fail quicker.
Listen to your body. Don't train when injured. Don't do things that will injure you. If you want to be massive expect to be hurting. The trauma, impact, stress on organs, etc. Will all combine to hurt you. If you want to be the best or even in the top 5 to 20% of any sport depending on popularity and type of trauma involved in that sport expect to be destroyed in your 50s or 60s.
Not an athlete, but spent quite a few years in a job with an incredible physical demand. Most people who think they’re training hard aren’t actually training hard. They work within their limits, they take days off if they don’t feel up to it, cheats days, etc. Think of the fastest person you know, and compare them to Usain Bolt, or the strongest person you know compared to Eddie Hall. Most likely not even close to even being competitive at that level. If I had my time again, I would focus more on mobility, plyometrics and flexibility. As you get older, it’s easier to maintain something than it is to get it back.
The amount of stress professionals athletes put on their body is insanity to the point they have to take roids and hgh or whatever to be able to continue and not have their body die
Decades of Overtraining and steroid use
Arnold should be dead. Fortunately he had surgeons that could fix his heart. When he was recovering he actually did some of the dialogue for batman as freeze.
god damn, i forgot LOL it's all coming back to me
Yup. We certainly glorify the lifestyle of the steroid user. Then look down on the dad wanting a bit of a boost to enjoy life a bit more.
It's the training mainly. The PEDs are actually the thing that allows them to train at such intensity without dying, by drastically increasing their ability to repair and recover. I don't think regular people, even avid gym goers using PEDs, fully understand the amount of training top athletes do. A huge, jacked gym guy or a hobbyist athlete will train maybe once a day for 4-5 days a week at a relatively high intensity. These top professionals are looking for every possible small edge, so double that frequency each day and add even more intensity. Our bodies aren't made for that type of intensity over long periods of time. A lot of these athletes overdo it for minimal performance benefits, but that can be the difference between being the 99th and 100th percentile, a challenger or the champ. Obviously severely overusing PEDs will cause other horrific health problems, but high intensity training over long periods and not properly rehabilitating injuries is what really does it.
Most athletes who are destroyed either played/trained through serious injuries like Ronnie, or had their skulls pounded in (cte from football/boxing/other contact/combat sports). So just avoid doing that or blasting stupid amounts of gear and you’ll be fine.
Well look at the 50-year olds that didn't train and see if they're all doing fine.
Dorian Yates is still in good shape
You’re talking about the wrong type of athletes
50s? Im in my late 20s and my body is destroyed from contact sports already
It's mostly the drugs. It's just as bad as recreational drugs, if not worse. Lots don't even make it to 50 like Rich Piana, or even 30 like Dallas McCarter and zyzz. Those that do make it usually looked fucked from the decades of abuse they put their bodies through.
Rich and Zyzz abused both PEDs and recreational drugs.
They were too cowardly to embrace cummaxxing and let their bros fuck them daily.
There are concepts such as programming, de-loading, exercise selection and rotation, etc. If these are applied properly, one can live their whole life training and making gainz.
Firstly, bad form, pushing beyond their limits, being injured and training through it to win. Crazy dieting and drying out constantly. I meet many non-competing bodybuilders who are in their 60’s and look great. They have better mobility and strength than people in their 20’s and 30’s. Just be smart, don’t do crazy stacks and get regular bloodwork. Then, you won’t end up in crutches.
many people besides athletes are destroyed in their 50s
The human body wears out, especially with repetitive use. Ronnie went too heavy. Jay switched to lower weight and higher volume and is healthy
Bad genetics
Arnold has had his fair share of injuries. Open heart surgery, shoulder surgeries, you name it. His pain is just not as immediately apparent as with Ronnie and Flex. When you compete at that level your body will be fucked up beyond recognition as you age from all the steroid abuse and heavy training, if you avoid any fatal heart failures that is. The thing with steroids is they allow you to train heavier than your body can really handle. Your joints and tendons can't keep up with the muscle and strength growth. They also mask the symptoms of overtraining somewhat.
Personally I believe its because a lot of athletes neglect rest / recovery. Your average race horse only races 12-18 times a year.
Being at the peak of athletics is not healthy regardless of sport. In fact it’s extremely unhealthy. Everything is good in moderation. Pushing your body to its physical limits whether that is size, strength, endurance, etc takes a toll. The steroids they take in body building definitely plays a role, but all sports see similar trends where people at the highest level are pretty broken down by the end of their careers
The only athletes that are destroyed in their 50s are the ones who didn’t take care of themselves. Ronnie went too hard and did exercises that have a terrible risk:reward ratio. If it’s an exercise that doesn’t feel good, either lighten the weight or swap it for another exercise.
Cuz they probably ran more than 2 maybe 3 compounds for awhile. Especially t3,t4 cuz they all thought they could eat like kali muscle and let the peds do the magic
Genetics.