I would normally agree with this, but having met the man, done events, etc I believe him.
My 2 cents on all this.
1. He is in shape, but of course there are going to be pics and angles that help accentuate that.
2. He is actually a fat guy who out works his fat-netics. What this means he puts on bulk easily. It would happen by accident if he didn't train like he does. This is why he's able to hold muscle and strength when he gets leaner.
3. He never gets injured. Total freak in this regard. The sheer volumes would/should lead to some nagging stuff, but it doesn't. I think if he was juicing and doing the things he's doing, he'd get hurt.
4. Consistency. I did a 20 hour event with him overnight Fri/Sat. He was back in the gym Monday morning. I was sleeping.
5. Beer. During the course of the event, he probably drank 14 beers - the big cans. Beers before Fri event. Beers Sat morning at 6 am. Breakfast, then more beer before the next event, and of course, beers after. He's just one of those dudes whose built different.
6. Needles - dude is oddly afraid of them. An all oral steroid regiment would lead to problems by now, is my guess.
Where I disagree with him is that while I don't doubt work ethic for a sec, he is lucky to have the genes he does. I could do the same workout he does every single day, but would not look remotely like him. I would also likely break down a bit - tendons, ligament, joints, etc....
I know one other dude up here who is sort of like him in this respect - 5'7" guy who weighs about 190 and lean, family man, no roids, but has a similar structure and look, no roids.
I did say I won't labor the point, and I'm certainly not trying to induce an SC pile on. He's well-liked and I get that. However, I respect your opinions on this stuff so I do want to acknowledge the post and counter a few points.
First one being, if he ballooned up and became a major fatso for a while then it undermines the point about being consistent for 36 years straight, and it (at least to my mind) undermines the point about superior genetics.
With regards to never getting injured, I'd argue that low-dose testosterone would be a very good reason for that. It's one reason why so many military guys now use it in secret to cheat on things like selection courses: it massively aids recovery and it makes you basically superhuman with things like load carrying. Testosterone and HGH are now more widely used for injury rehabilitation, and there's a reason why doping in professional sports is ubiquitous.
Beer: another point that undermines the strict dieting claim. You can slam beers and smash endurance events; that's basically the military lifestyle, but guys doing it don't look like SC. They look like Shrek McPhee.
Needles: the convenient excuse of many doping athletes. Remember Manny Pacquaio claiming this when he was going to be subjected to Mayweather's anti-doping tests? Suddenly he was terrified of needles, despite being tattooed, and despite having to give blood frequently as a professional boxer.
SC looks awesome, but he does not have a natural physique. He's got capped delts and veins all across his body in this most recent one, whereas in others he's stocky but totally smooth. You shouldn't see such a contrast if he's as consistent as he claims.
For years, I'd begin every day with team PT, involving either an early-morning run or a brutal circuit consisting of the sort of weight training he does. In the evening, it was back to the gym for bodybuilding-style workouts in our spare time. Everyone was religious about the fitness, and smashed all the supplements going. Not one person ever looked like him without pro-hormones, orals, or injecting testosterone.
I knew a few guys who used to swear blind they never took anything but would later on admit in private that they'd 'experimented' with Dianabol. Same with two guys I used to know who now have fitness channels and work in the public eye. They claim natural but I remember what they used to take. People just lie all the time and it's especially common in the bodybuilding world. If SC is natural then we have to accept Mike O'Hearn is natural for the same reasons. Both are unnaturally muscled, both have been 'doing it forever', both are 'built different', both are obsessive about being consistent, and both constantly scream about being natural.