When I was 16 I thought all pros were natural :)

[IrishMuscle84]

Remember Chick started training when he was fairly young, like 14 or 15. So he had around 5yrs before he would have hopped on gear when he turned twenty.
You'll also notice he did not say that he took his first shot @ 20yrs old, just that was the age he decided that he could consider taking something.
Far cry from these days, when someone is looking at Cutler in a magazine, trains for 7 months while eating everything in sight, and when they're aren't big (but fat) they load up on gear. Having never learned to properly train, eat or diet, they get big, bloated, acne and eventually burn out. I've seen it countless times over the years.

YUP EXACTLY. or they watch someones dvd before they go train and try to do the same weights they seen ruhl cutler or coleman etc...do, then get frustrated why they cant lift the same weights the pros do. Or alot of people want to look like a "bodybuilder" and after a year or so of training all thier doing is "strongman or powerlifting" training and basically get frustrated about why thier not getting the results or "physiques" they want.

[nycbull]

Natural bodybuilding is a failure. When is anyone going to get that. It has failed time and time again for countless people. If it was a business the plug would have been pulled long ago.

It is amazing Bob Hoffman's marketing ploy has led to the longest running myth in American consumer culture. He was some genius. He message transcended to generations that werent even born yet. Probably using quantum physics of some sort.

[Alexander D]

so... Chick has been on and off drugs for 20+ years...

-Capt'n Obvious

[jtsunami]

Pretty much..they had forums in BB mags discussing steroids openly. Even though I knew that was the route, I made a decision to be natural until I turned 20.  Building a base without the gear was smart and what the guys at the gym I looked up to suggested.  

Safe to say, I was given the right advices

Bob Chic the voice for bodybuilding.com admitting to using STEROIDS!!!!!!!   

[Parker]

Awesome..and when I was 4 , I thought there really was a big fat man in a red suit who brought presents to all the good little children of the world in a sleigh pulled by flying reindeer...

Common sense told me at the same age that a fat man in a red suit with flying reindeer, who gave all the food children of the world presents, in one night, on one trip, was a lie. Also, because I told my aunts what I wanted, and I got it, with the gift saying from them---not Santa

Chick I too thought I could get close to pro size, but we learn the hard way. By the time you were a gladiator, I didn't know what bodybuilding was. By the time you got your pro car, I didn't know what G4P was, I knew that there was some areas of gayness, but what bodybuilders did to make ends meet, shocked me.

[Chick]

Remember Chick started training when he was fairly young, like 14 or 15. So he had around 5yrs before he would have hopped on gear when he turned twenty.
You'll also notice he did not say that he took his first shot @ 20yrs old, just that was the age he decided that he could consider taking something.
Far cry from these days, when someone is looking at Cutler in a magazine, trains for 7 months while eating everything in sight, and when they're aren't big (but fat) they load up on gear. Having never learned to properly train, eat or diet, they get big, bloated, acne and eventually burn out. I've seen it countless times over the years.

I enterted my first show in 1979 at 13 years old, and you're right...I didnt take anything until I was about 21.

[Chick]

Common sense told me at the same age that a fat man in a red suit with flying reindeer, who gave all the food children of the world presents, in one night, on one trip, was a lie. Also, because I told my aunts what I wanted, and I got it, with the gift saying from them---not Santa

Chick I too thought I could get close to pro size, but we learn the hard way. By the time you were a gladiator, I didn't know what bodybuilding was. By the time you got your pro car, I didn't know what G4P was, I knew that there was some areas of gayness, but what bodybuilders did to make ends meet, shocked me.

Yup...there are things that shocked me in life as well...amazing what we learn through maturation and experience

[Method101]

I bought a few copies of Flex when i was like 12 and was first starting to mess around with weights, i seriously thought that with 10 years training and diet you could look like Arnold Lmao...

I remember showing a friend the magazine and saying "wouldn't it be cool to have muscles like that" then he looked at cover picture of Ronnie and said "that's the gayest thing ever". lmfao, i remember when king kamali was advertising Nitro Tech Night-time in the magazine, i still remember the add where he was pretending to be asleep with the tub beside him lmao, i bought Joe Weider protein supplement once then lol.


Then i stopped weightlifting about 6 months later and didn't start again till January 2008, now im in it for life as natural.

[EL Mariachi]

Pretty much..they had forums in BB mags discussing steroids openly. Even though I knew that was the route, I made a decision to be natural until I turned 20.  Building a base without the gear was smart and what the guys at the gym I looked up to suggested.  

Safe to say, I was given the right advices

do you have a pic when you were 20, and in your absolute peak as a natural?

[tom joad]

Common sense told me at the same age that a fat man in a red suit with flying reindeer, who gave all the food children of the world presents, in one night, on one trip, was a lie. Also, because I told my aunts what I wanted, and I got it, with the gift saying from them---not Santa

don't overestimate the role that your aunts played, your aunts were just "the finishing touch" in you getting your gift at Christmas.

[Chick]

do you have a pic when you were 20, and in your absolute peak as a natural?

Not on hand...but here I am after just winning the Jr. Nationals in 87 at 21...

[jtsunami]

Not on hand...but here I am after just winning the Jr. Nationals in 87 at 21...

Bob can you blow that image up a little if you scanned it, looks like a very small picture to me.

jt

[spinnis]

Not on hand...but here I am after just winning the Jr. Nationals in 87 at 21...

Bigger version? you look like a turk with a unibrow when it small like that (no offoence ironneck)

[Stavios]

Not on hand...but here I am after just winning the Jr. Nationals in 87 at 21...

Looking great there Bob !!!!!

[Royalty]

Bob did your legs grow the fastest on you during your teens? Or did everything grow equally? Which bodyparts responded best to the stuff at age 21?

[jaejonna]

supplements=steroids.     selfemployed= g4p.

Trained Harder this year than previous years = did alot more g4p to up tha dosage

[Figo]

Bob was/is a genetic freak.

[Chick]

Bob did your legs grow the fastest on you during your teens? Or did everything grow equally? Which bodyparts responded best to the stuff at age 21?

My legs were way ahead of my upper body during my teen years to my early 20's...it took me a long time to fill out as I have a wide shoulder structure

[NaturalWonder83]

bob the pic u post is way way too small
plz post bigger pic asap

[Croatch]

Pretty much..they had forums in BB mags discussing steroids openly. Even though I knew that was the route, I made a decision to be natural until I turned 20.  Building a base without the gear was smart and what the guys at the gym I looked up to suggested.  

Safe to say, I was given the right advices

I'd say that's pointless.  Look at Phil Heath.  What "base" did he come from?
Good to at least make some real gains though, before diving into the disgusting world of bb drugs.  At least you can say, you put on X amount on your own, unlike someone like Branch Warren or Dave Henry.  These guys couldn't eclipse 180 naturally.

[Stavios]

My legs were way ahead of my upper body during my teen years to my early 20's...it took me a long time to fill out as I have a wide shoulder structure

Bob, do you feel that if you pushed your conditionning harder you could have won a few shows (in the open not masters)

I feel so

[regmac]

I did also......but I also thought wrestling (wwf and nwa) were real fights.  No one could tell me the opposite.  What about the vitamins, the prayers, the training?

[regmac]

I got a bit confused when Ashley was bragging to be "drug free".

[jtsunami]

I got a bit confused when Ashley was bragging to be "drug free".

lol maybe he only see's the rec drugs are real drugs, like cocaine free, not weed, not pcp stuff like that he means probably in his own mind that is how he explains it.

[Earl1972]

i think most kids know they aren't natural, at least the smart ones do

i remember being in a waldon's bookstore back in 95 or so, and some middle school aged kids saw a flex magazine and one said "he's on steroids"

E