Shawn Rhoden Steroids – Building Mr. Olympia

Shawn Rhoden Steroids

Hey, there fellow gym junkies, and thanks for stopping by.

Today we’re going to be addressing recent Shawn Rhoden steroids allegations.

So get comfy, as it’s a good one.

If given the choice between a pasty, skinny-fat physique, or a ripped, muscular, bronzed Adonis-like physique, we’re pretty sure that we know which body you’d choose.

Building even a couple of pounds of muscle requires heaps of dedication and hard work.

Both in the gym and in the kitchen.

If you choose to compete as a competitive bodybuilder.

However, the stakes are raised even higher and you really need to make some serious changes.

In fact, to compete as a bodybuilder at any level.

Your sport of choice has to become a lifestyle.

As a competitive bodybuilder, the ultimate goal is to turn pro, win your pro card, and compete at an elite level amongst the very best.

Only a select few human beings will ever be fortunate to turn pro.

Let alone grace the Mr. Olympia stage. One such individual is a certain Shawn Rhoden.

Who has had one heck of 2018 thus far!

He is getting a lot of headlines lately because of his amazing physique.

With many people accusing him of using steroids.

That’s why today, we are going to be looking at the Shawn Rhoden allegations.

That refuses to go away.

Shawn Rhoden seems like a really cool dude, and while we’d love to chill with him, unfortunately, we don’t know him.

Therefore, the content you are about to read is based purely on opinion, rather than fact.

We don’t know whether Shawn is on steroids, or whether he has used steroids in the past to build his awesome physique.

Steroids are dangerous, we don’t condone their usage, but we don’t persecute those that choose to use them either.

Whether Shawn has ever used them.

However, it remains to be seen, and as mentioned.

We will probably never know for certain.  

Who Is Shawn Rhoden?

Shawn Rhoden is an IFBB pro bodybuilder, and as of this writing.

He is the best bodybuilder in the world.

No, seriously, Shawn is literally the greatest on the planet at this moment.

As he is the current Mr. Olympia for 2018.

Shawn is Jamaican-American and is actually already a record-breaker as, aged 43.

He is the oldest man to ever win an Olympia.

That’s right, at 43, Shawn was able to peak and upset Phil Heath to claim his first Mr. Olympia title.

Shawn may be better known to some of you as ‘Flexatron’ as he is considered by many to be an icon within the fitness industry.

Shawn has always been consistently good for the last several years.

But many out there never expected him to ever win an Olympia.

Especially when you consider how awesome Phil Heath has looked for so long.

He stands at 5ft 10-inches in height and weighs between 260 pounds off-season, and 240-pounds when he competes on stage.

He turned pro back in 2010, and since making his debut.

He has simply gotten better and better.

Early Life And Career

Shawn Rhoden was born in Kingston, Jamaica, back in 1975.

As he was growing up, he showed great athletic prowess and proved.

Right from the get-go, that he was born to compete.

Shawn showed an interest in virtually every sport out there and found that he particularly enjoyed playing cricket and soccer, or football, for our European friends.

Considering he walks around weighing in at 260 pounds.

Despite being under 6-feet in height, you may expect that Shawn was a big and powerful kid growing up, but he wasn’t.

Shawn was actually small and weak for his size.

And he became obsessed with trying to bulk up and get bigger.

He would read fitness and bodybuilding magazines and of course used to enjoy watching Pumping Iron when he was really looking for inspiration.

In 1990, Shawn moved to the United States with his family.

As a teen, he was thrown into an unknown part of the world.

With no friends, and nothing to really occupy his time.

He needed to find something to keep him busy.

So he decided to take up training with weights.

He really trained hard and found that he built muscle relatively easily.

Two years later, after dieting incredibly hard and training intensely.

He was now a real physical specimen.

He trained for the next 7 years, with the ultimate goal of entering, and winning, a bodybuilding contest.

Shawn was ready to compete, yet one day, disaster struck.

While training in the gym.

Shawn suffered a freak injury which resulted in him ripping 9 tendons in his hand.

He was unable to compete and needed to wait several months for the injury to heal.

Shawn however, continued to train using his legs and his good hand as he was determined not to fail.

He entered his first show as an amateur in 1999 aged just 24.

Where he placed 3rd in the NPC Team Universe Championships.

A year later he placed 4th, and after regressing he really knew he had to train and diet seriously.

He came back in 2001 and placed 2nd before taking some time off to really focus on getting himself in shape.

In 2009 he placed 1st twice and won his pro card at the IFBB North American Championships.

He made his pro debut in 2010, won numerous Arnold classics, and racked up a 3rd place finish at the Olympia in 2012, and a 2nd place finishes at the Olympia in 2016.

That was initially his best-ever performance, until 2018…

Mr. Olympia

For the last seven years, Phil ‘The Gift’ Heath had dominated the pro world of bodybuilding.

Since beating Jay Cutler, Phil Heath looked virtually unstoppable.

Many thought Kai Greene had a shot, but Kai didn’t quite have the tools needed.

And backstage politics resulted in Kai turning his back on the IFBB.

Since then, nobody really looked like a worthy opponent to Phil.

Big Ramy was billed as the next big thing.

But he never seemed to nail his conditioning and Dexter Jackson.

A former Olympia winner himself was considered to be past his prime.

Nobody really considered Shawn to be a threat, despite him placing 2nd back in 2016.

In 2017 he placed 5th, so people naturally wrote him off.

A few weeks back in Nevada, back in September however, Shawn shocked the bodybuilding world.

Many predicted an easy win for Phil.

After all, Phil had the size and the condition.

Phil showed up in pretty awesome shape.

He was big and full, and his condition wasn’t too shabby either.

The previous year he apparently suffered a hernia, and this was slightly evident in his mid-section.

Phil’s normally tight waist looked a little off, and on stage.

There looked to be very little in it between Phil and Shawn.

In fact, many thought Shawn looked better.

But predicted a Phil win, again due to politics.

Phil was also chasing history as he needed one more win to tie the most Olympia wins in history, meaning that he was two wins away from making history.

Phil was hungrier than ever and did not want to lose.

When the winners were named, however, Phil placed 2nd, and Shawn Rhoden won his very first Olympia title, aged 43.

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Shawn Rhoden Steroids

Okay, now the time has come for us to address the elephant in the room, as we look at the alleged use of steroids by Shawn.

Remember, the Shawn Rhoden allegations often thrown around have no real merit, as nobody knows for certain whether Shawn used or uses steroids.

Other than Shawn, and maybe a few others.

What we are going to do, however, is look at a few potential pieces of evidence, both for, and against steroid use on Shawn’s part.

His size

Right, first things first, and to begin with.

We’d like to start by taking a look at Shawn’s freakishly big size.

Shawn is 5ft 10-inches tall, yet off-season he can weigh as much as 265.

In fact, after a cheat meal, he’s probably closer to 270, if not more.

To be quite honest, there’s virtually no way that an individual could weigh that much naturally.

Such as low body fat.

There are plenty of 5ft 10 men that weigh 270 pounds, but most of them are unfortunately obese.

Shawn however, is ripped to shreds as he barely has any fat on him.

His 240 – 270-pound frame is.

Therefore, all muscle, which raises suspicions.

If he is using steroids, we’d think that some form of testosterone would be utilized.

Along with HGH, and a few others, which we’ll look at below.

Condition

Not only is Shawn massive, but when he competes on stage he is also absolutely shredded.

His body fat drops to around 4%, if not lower, yet he still looks full, vascular, and muscular.

To maintain that kind of condition naturally would be unheard of in most circles ( not like Jeremy Buendia size).

So that again could be an indication that Shawn is using steroids, or that he has used them in the past.

As he is so shredded, fat-burning steroids such as Equipoise may have been utilized.

Many Pros Are Open About Steroid Use

If you look at Shawn’s physique.

Although he is the best of the best at the moment when you compare him with other pro bodybuilders, they all look very similar.

There’re no bodybuilders out there that are enormously bigger than the others.

Besides Big Ramy perhaps.

Many pros in the past, including former Olympia winners Dorian Yates.

And Arnold Schwarzenegger, have been open about steroid use in the world of pro bodybuilding.

If they got to the size they were with steroids.

Shawn, who is very similar, is almost certainly also on gear, as he is a very similar size.

If he really is natural, he is a genetic freak of nature to get as big as he is with no use of steroids.

And we just aren’t buying that.

Shawn Rhoden Steroids

Growth Gut

If you look at some of Shawn’s previous contests, when he competed on stage, there were certain poses that really brought out what people call a ‘growth gut’.

A growth gut is the result of HGH, which causes the major organs to grow and expand in size.

They expand in the body and push against the stomach and mid-section, resulting in the bodybuilder looking pregnant or as if they have an enormous beer belly, despite being ripped to shreds.

His waist is tight nowadays, but in the past, he has had what fans call a growth gut, and as HGH is often stacked with steroids, this is another tell-tale sign of steroid use.

Shawn Rhoden Steroids Cycle

Okay, assuming Shawn is indeed on steroids (still to be proven) we’ll now look at what we think his steroid cycle COULD look like:

  • HGH
  • Testosterone Cypionate
  • Equipoise
  • Arimidex or Aromasin
  • Cardarine or Ostarine
  • N2Guard
Shawn Rhoden Steroids

Is Shawn Rhoden On steroids?

So, are the Shawn Rhoden steroid accusations true?

Well, as you might expect, you don’t win a Mr. Olympia contest naturally.

Even Frank Zane, the first man under 200 pounds to win the title, had admitted to using steroids, yet Shawn out-weighs him by a good 50 pounds or so.

Based on what we know about steroids, Shawn Rhoden, pro bodybuilding, and steroid signs and symptoms, we believe that Shawn is using steroids.

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Contributors

Reda Elmardi

Reda Elmardi | Writer

Reda Elmardi is a BJJ, fitness and bodybuilding fanatic. He's been writing about his experiences for over eight years and started his own publications on topics such as BJJ, Steroids, and Fitness.

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Wayne
Wayne
1 year ago

He’s dead now. What a waste of a life! Greatness can be achieved in many ways, and definitely not through the vain world of bodybuilding — which makes zero contribution to society. All it does is enrich the supplement industry and the global steroid market. Nothing laudable about that — nothing!

Jake Hill
Jake Hill
2 months ago
Reply to  Wayne

Why are you on this website then?

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