back when MD was natural.
STEVE "HERCULES" REEVES
Bodybuilding Legend Joins Muscular Development
"For over 30 years I've remained silent and just watched the transition that bodybuilding has made. And in my opinion, and in the opinions of many who have talked to me, bodybuilding, as it's practiced and promoted today, is dying--and dying fast.
Well, it's a good thing! Never in my life would I have imagined that such a terrific sport would be filled with so-called "champions" who are held up as heroes and adulated for physiques that are built with drugs. What kind of "real" bodybuilding champion is that?
Since when did a distinction need to be made between a "natural" bodybuilder and "chemical bodybuilder"? When I built my body, you were a bodybuilder--period! And you did it without drugs, by training hard, eating right and getting the right amount of rest.
It disturbs me to no end that today's muscle magazines are filled with stories on this-and-that champion's routine, when all the while the average man and woman are misled because these same magazines won't dare print the truth! And the truth is that these "champions" built their physiques after spending tens of thousands of dollars on steroids, growth hormone, insulin and whatever else happens to be the latest rage.
The public has been deceived for too long and it's time someone takes a stand. I will!
I want you to go to any newsstand during any given month and you'll find these same muscle magazines with cover blurbs and articles about the latest drugs. Open them up and you'll find page after page about drugs, how to take them and what to avoid. All this is the lie of supposedly giving their readers the information they say they want to know!
Recently, someone showed me a magazine put out by a young man in Colorado, and I was shocked. Unbelievably, bodybuilding is the only "sport" that has a magazine devoted to drugs! And this magazine promotes this character they call "the guru," who answers your most-asked drug-related questions.
After seeing photos of this fella, it makes you wonder; if drugs were so good, why didn't they work for him? Hey, and he's supposedly the "expert," whom people who want to know turn to! Wake up, friends! When and where will all this nonsense end? The other magazines won't stop it--and the bodybuilders sure as hell won't because they're stuck; either you keep taking drugs and getting bigger and more cut, or you won't win contests or get an endorsement contract.
Never in my life have I used any drug to build my body. Never! I wasn't born with the physique I built; I worked hard for it. Yet, I did it naturally. Sure, I didn't build it up to the size of today's drug-enhanced physiques, but I was after symmetry and proportion, and I achieved it in a package that allowed me to win the Mr. America and Mr. Universe titles, along with giving me a successful film career. Even today, at 71 years of age, I work on my ranch, work out and would be willing to bet that I could out-power walk many of those bloated muscle druggies 40 years my junior!
To me, a bodybuilder is someone who not only builds his body naturally, but has functional, real-world muscle that can be used at any time, and will help the person perform any activity better.
When it came to my body--the body you saw--and the condition I had, that was the body I had 24 hours a day, 365 days a year! I was not some bloated, out-of-shape, easily winded giant whose razor-sharp physique could only stay that way for a few weeks before or after a contest. (I can just hear the directive from the magazine editor to the photographers, "Hurry and snap those pictures before we lose him!")
When Steve Blechman, Publisher and Editor-In-Chief of NATURAL MD, spoke to me about his vision for taking the sport back to its natural roots, I applauded him. For others in the industry have had the opportunity and have "talked the talk," but no one has had the guts to take a stand for what's right. Blechman has. And that is why, after all these years, I've decided to help the sport I love get back to its proper place. One of the ways I intend to do that is by writing a monthly column for NATURAL MD magazine.
Something needs to be done now; we have no choice. For where there is no vision the people perish; and where there is no vision for the future of bodybuilding, bodybuilding will perish.
Many people may ask if there is another reason for me coming out of retirement to help save the sport. The answer is no, and I want to make one thing crystal clear: My passion for what I do has never been driven by money. I retired at the peak of my movie career, so that I could live life on my own terms.
All my life, I have never answered to anyone and I'm not about to do it now. The only thing I can give you in the coming months--through the pages of this magazine--is honesty and the truth about building your body without drugs.
I will teach you everything you will need to know to build the body you truly want. That is, to build it naturally and without any drugs. If you want to look like the other bodybuilders and want the latest drug information, then go to the other magazines. I'm only interested in talking about one thing: real bodybuilding. If that's what you want, then my friend, welcome home!"
