Articles

Dorian Yates, Shawn Ray, Kevin Levrone Finally Admit EVERYTHING About Steroids

Articles



Show us a sport without steroids and we’ll show you a boring sport, it’s just a fact. 

Three champion bodybuilders have recently decided to finally spill ALL of the beans about exactly what they were taking.

Dorian-Yates-main

  • Dorian Yates, who won Mr. Olympia 6 consecutive times in the ’90s.
  • Shawn Ray, who took home the Arnold Classic in 1991 and has 12 top 5 finishes at Mr. Olympia.
  • Kevin Levrone, 4-time Mr. Olympia runner-up and 2-time Arnold Classic winner.

It’s not like these guys haven’t spoken about roids plenty of times in the past before, but in a recent feature in Muscular Development, they got really specific about their cycles and  held nothing back.

One by one, we’ll go over the best confessions from each guy. Let’s start with Shawn Ray on the next page…

Shawn Ray was born in California in 1965. His best career win is at the Arnold in 1991, and in 1994 he took home 2nd place at the Olympia. Compared to the next two guys we’ll be featuring on the upcoming pages, Shawn is a bit more candid because he says he never loved the steroids, but he didn’t really have a choice if he wanted to pursuit his first love of having massive muscles.

shawnray

“I had a personal disdain for all forms of drugs in our sport, as I saw them as a necessary evil that coexisted with my first love.” – Shawn Ray

In other words, don’t hate the player – hate the game.

shawn-ray

Thoughts on lifters in the present-date…

“I personally think there is a lot of fake gear on the market, and the athletes fail to exercise their due diligence to test what they take to ensure the quality is accurate. However, I also know that the vast majority of bodybuilders today, both pro and amateur, start their careers using anabolic steroids without ever building a foundation or a firm base from which to build upon.”

hqdefault

So were bodybuilders using more gear back in the day, or in modern times…?

“There is no question the old adage of “more is better” is applicable in today’s bodybuilding mentality, based on the size of the athletes. But make no mistake— in my era of the ‘90s, the bodybuilders were at an average all-time high as it relates to size and mass! There was no bigger era in the sport than the ‘90s, and I can honestly say I bet they were using a fraction of what today’s athletes are using overall.”

shawn_ray4

Here’s how he responded when asked about his typical approach…

“There was never anything “typical” about my approach to competition. It was different every year, as I like change and variety. There was never a specific time or drug that interested me to the point where I had to watch the calendar as if it were a guide for contest training and preparation.”

ray25

Kids these days.

“The sad thing is that so few of the upcoming generation even want to discuss or read about training and nutrition. They are obsessed with drugs, probably because that meshes with the “instant gratification” mentality of the world today.”

Next up is Kevin Levrone. After that, we’ll take a look at EXACTLY what Dorian Yates would take, down to the milligram.

Kevin Levrone was born in 1964 and earned a spot in the IFBB Hall of Fame. He’s competed in nearly 70 contests and won 23 professional shows. Two of his nickanes are “Maryland Muscle Machine” and “The Uncrowned King of Mr. Olympia” refering to the fact that he was the runner-up on four separate occasions.

Kevin_Levrone_photo31

Ever wondered at what age the pros get started on their first cycle?

“I did my first cycle of steroids when I was 24 years old, almost 25, at six weeks out from my first contest. By then, I was a grown man and making all my own decisions in all aspects of life, since both of my parents had passed away. My cousin Chico came over to my house with a bottle of testosterone cypionate and a syringe, and said, “Here you go.”

vlcsnap-00187

“About halfway through my pro career, I had become famous for how much time I took off gear. It would be a full six months out of the year that I didn’t use anything. People thought I was crazy or lazy for doing it that way, and not trying to be huge all the time. But once I saw how well I responded to the juice, I realized I didn’t need much of it, and I sure didn’t need to be on it all the time.”

maxresdefault

Growth hormone was a game-changer.

“GH was still fairly new on the scene when I started competing as a pro. People made a big deal about it, and there was a lot of hype surrounding it… When I won the Arnold Classic in 1996 at 257 pounds, I used it twice a day every day for the last four weeks right up to the show.”

kevin_levrone_1

“My very first cycle was just test cyp, one shot a week. I am guessing I was doing 400 milligrams per week. After I won my state show and decided I wanted to turn pro, which I did the following year, I bumped things up a bit. I took the test up to 600 milligrams a week, and added in 400 milligrams of Deca and two Anadrols a day, which is 100 milligrams per day or 700 milligrams per week.”

levrone3

“Test cyp, Deca and Anadrol always worked well for me. Those were the basics, just like basic lifts— you couldn’t really go wrong with them. I can’t say I ever tried anything that I didn’t respond to or reacted badly to, for the simple fact that I didn’t try a whole lot of things.”

Kevin-Levrone-w3525

“One thing I never agreed with was the idea that as you went on, you needed to continue increasing your doses to keep seeing the same results. I never increased my amounts, though I did make small changes. My cycles went from six weeks to eight, and I added in Nolvadex as an anti-estrogen. Putting on size was never that hard for me.”

Finally, the moment you’ve been waiting for… Dorian Yates is up next.

Dorian Yates likes to talk about steroids almost as much as he loved the feeling of fresh gear coursing through his veins. He gets VERY specific.
dorian3

Yates talks about his first times ever taking steroids, with almost a sentimental twinkle in his eye.

“I used GH during my contest phases. The first times I used it were for the 1991 Night of Champions and Mr. Olympia shows. I used four IU a day while I was dieting, and I can’t say I noticed much difference adding it in. For my off-season in 1992, I doubled that to eight IU per day consistently, and saw better results.”

Dorian_Yates

Which was Yates’ favorite performance enhancing drug to take…? 

“Good old D-bol was the first drug I ever used, and it’s still my sentimental favorite.”

“All the guys in the USA loved Winstrol. I thought it sucked! The injection sites were always very painful for a while, and I just didn’t think it was anything special.”

How much would he take?

“Speaking for myself, I took as little as possible to get the desired effects. If results were not satisfactory, I would increase only as needed, which is the logical way to go about it. If you can get good results on 1,000 milligrams, for example, why take 2,000?”

Dorian-Yates

Won’t out any of his peeps, classy guy.

“We would stack a moderate amount of test with either EQ [Equipoise] or Deca, and use orals with that. Now, with all the access to underground gear, it’s very common apparently for guys to use three to five grams of test alone before adding in other compounds. I really can’t tell you a whole lot about what my peers used, because I was isolated in Birmingham and not privy to what the boys over in the States were doing.”

dorianyates9

“I did things my own way and could care less what others did.”

“It was 1985. I was 23 years old and had decided to enter my first competition after a year and a half of training, in which I had made excellent progress. I knew the others who would be competing would be using gear, and I wanted to even the playing field.”

dorian_yates_diary

“Even though I hadn’t been training terribly long, I had already managed to develop my physique to a decent level. Looking back, I may have been able to win that contest without using anything.”

 

Here’s what Dorian used for the 3 months leading up to Mr. Olympia…

WEEKLY
test propionate – 300 milligrams
Parabolan (French trenbolone, came in 76 mg/ml ampoules) – 152 milligrams
Primobolan – 500 milligrams
DAILY
anavar – 50 milligrams
growth hormone – 8 IU

Here’s Dorian’s stack during the off season…

WEEKLY
testosterone – 750 milligrams
Deca – 500 milligrams
DAILY
Dianabol – 50 milligrams

dorian_yates-invincible

“Let me stress this is not a recommendation to anyone, only what I used.” – Dorian Yates

Before mixed martial arts was overrun with PEDs with fighters getting busted every couple of weeks, there were massive guys in dank, sweaty gyms lifting incredible amounts of weight and taking incredible amounts of steroids. Instead of stepping into a cage and trying to murder their opponents, they’d step on stage and try to out flex them.

Many mixed martial artists have spoken out about how upwards of 90% of pro fighters are taking some form of PED, but in professional bodybuilding, you can bet that number is a lot higher.



Page 1 of 1: