Tag: Diuretics
Frank Zane Talks Low-Carb Diet, Using Sunbathing Instead of Diuretics, & Max Weight During Off-Seasons
Bodybuilding icon Frank Zane understood the need for discipline en route to earning his three Mr. Olympia titles. In a recent The Menace podcast, Zane discussed the low-carbohydrate diet he consumed almost year-round and explained how he used sunbathing as a drying-out process for contests.
While competing actively, Frank Zane sought to master all aspects of bodybuilding, from building muscle, tanning, posing, and training routines, his methods saw him reach the top of the sport, where he pushed the pace against legends such as Arnold Schwarzenegger, Robby Robinson, and Franco Columbo.
Zane, a living encyclopedia of bodybuilding knowledge, is 80 years old, but his passion and experience shine during workout demonstrations. The three-time Mr. Olympia joined Mike O’Hearn for an unusual training session comprising of exercises he implemented at the peak of his career.
Having made a name for himself with a low body weight and exceptional aesthetics, Zane cautioned against modern competitors adding size too quickly. He stressed that extra weight could ruin symmetry and proportions. Instead, Zane suggested that athletes improve extremities like calves and forearms to achieve a more balanced physique overall.
Frank Zane Talks Low-Carb Diet, Using Sunbathing Instead of Diuretics, & Max Weight During Off-Seasons
During his career, Zane used a low-carbohydrate diet consisting of 50 grams per day. He added that he consumed 200 grams of protein as well (equivalent to 1 gram per pound of body weight).
“I followed a low carbohydrate diet. I would get less than 50 grams of carbs a day and one gram of protein per pound of body weight, so I’d be getting over 200 grams of protein in a day and under 50 grams of carbs a day. That’s what I did the last few months before a competition,” Frank Zane said. “Fats… you know I really didn’t go overboard on fats, but I didn’t deliberately restrict my fats, I just didn’t eat a lot of fat. Now, I ate red meat but I always had lean cuts. I ate fish, you know which has good oils. I ate poultry, I really didn’t eat a high-fat diet either.”
Zane said his cardio demands were walking fast on a treadmill for 15-20 minutes a day.
“No [extra fats were added] right, it was a low-carbohydrate diet. I did some [cardio] but I didn’t do a lot. I generally did something at the end of my weight training workout. I’d take about 15-20 minutes on the treadmill walking fast.”
While he admits his diet was strict, Zane shared that he did what was necessary to be contest-ready. According to the bodybuilding legend, his max weight in the off-season was 200 pounds.
“I was strict and my metabolism wasn’t slow, but it wasn’t really fast either. I did what was necessary and got in shape,” added Zane. “I generally competed – my best weight for competition was 190. I never went over 200 pounds in the off-season. I stayed in that 190-200-pound range all the time. I didn’t look upon it as a diet, it was the way I ate normally.”
Zane revealed his protein sources were steak, fish, and chicken. He added that he now eats eggs for breakfast and fish for dinner regularly.
“I would not eat way more carbs, I never did that,” Zane shared. “I had red meat almost every day. That was steak, fish, and chicken, and in more recent times, I don’t eat much red meat now, I eat mainly fish. Eggs for breakfast, fish for dinner.”
The most carbohydrates Zane would consume was 150 grams in a day. He underlined that he maintained a rigid diet, especially in the eight weeks leading up to a show.
“No never [200-300 carbs] in off-season,” shared Zane. 150 grams of carbs as a high-carb day [is the max]. No that’s something I did all the time, pretty much, I just did it more strictly before a competition and it wasn’t just a few days before it was months before. At least eight weeks before. I did [carb up on stage] not a lot but a little bit, one day usually, if the contest was Saturday, I would carb up on Friday and Saturday morning.”
Zane explained that diuretics would make him lose excess water so he dried out by sunbathing in Santa Monica or Palm Springs.
“No [diuretics]. No, basically, if I did, I would lose too much water if I did that. The other thing, I sunbathed a lot, I would go out lay and the sun and sweat, and that was sort of a diuretic for me. Both, I had a place in Palm Springs, I lived in Santa Monica, I’d go there on the weekends for two or three days and get sun and come back.”
In light of the growing number of bodybuilders dying, Zane opened up about some of the dangers present in the sport today. Zane worries that competitors are taking bad advice. Moreover, he implied athletes are now using shortcuts with drugs and/or synthol implants instead of achieving a physique steadily over time.
The sport has certainly changed since Zane’s time on top, but his methods and practices still hold value today as aesthetic bodybuilders in the Open class continue to gain momentum.
RELATED: Samir Bannout Tells Nick Walker to Hire Frank Zane as Posing Coach for 2023 Mr. Olympia Win: ‘Fix Front Lat Spread’
Watch the full video below from the Muscle and Fitness YouTube channel:
Published: 22 May, 2023 | 11:56 AM EDT
Jerry Ward Warns Of Extreme Dangers From Diuretics In Bodybuilding
Jerry Ward: “There is no right way to use diuretics in bodybuilding.”
UPDATE 7/23/22: In light of the passing of Jerry Ward, Generation Iron is republishing a GI Exclusive interview segment with Ward first aired in 2020.
On the day of a bodybuilding competition, one of the most important things is to have pitch perfect conditioning. A large part of this comes down to how dry you can make your body so it looks as sharp as possible on stage. This kind of timing, to retain no water weight on the exact day and time of the show, is a true challenge. This is why many bodybuilders have turned to diuretics as a solution to being grainy and dry as possible on the day of a show. In our latest GI Exclusive interview, bodybuilder and fitness guru Jerry Ward discusses the extreme dangers of using diuretics for bodybuilding.
While many bodybuilders have turned to diuretics in order to bring the best and driest possible physique to the stage, Jerry Ward makes a clear point to remind us that there is “no right way” to use diuretics in this capacity. Diuretics have a medical use, and that’s the only way they should be used, to use them for athletic competition, the way bodybuilders often do, is to misuse them in a way that can be extremely dangerous.
The key issue to using diuretics for bodybuilding are two-fold. Athletes can end up taking too much diuretics leading to dangerous health issues. The second issue is how much other dietary decisions affect the way diuretics will work inside your body. Jerry Ward goes on to explain multiple times in his life as a bodybuilder that he witness athletes literally freeze and crumple on stage. He’s even seen one athlete freeze up on stage, go to the hospital, and try to come back and finish competing. She was disqualified.
Jerry Ward then goes on to describe a time when he started locking up due to diuretics use. He describes a moment where he literally couldn’t open his arms out wide due to his chest locking up. He also describes anther time he couldn’t get himself out of bed because of his legs locking up.
While these scenarios all ended with Jerry and the other athletes in these stories ultimately being okay – these kinds of health problems could lead to a more serious and dangerous outcome. Jerry Ward makes it very clear that many bodybuilders don’t take this seriously enough.
You can watch him explain in more detail about the dangers of diuretic use in bodybuilding in our latest GI Exclusive clip above.
The Use Of Diuretics In Bodybuilding: The Good and The Ugly Side Of Them
Diuretics In Bodybuilding have become one of the most popular ways to get that shredded, dried look at the last minute, before entering a competition or any other important event. It’s seen by many individuals as magic pills that help you remove last traces of excess water, helping to sculpt a […]
The post The Use Of Diuretics In Bodybuilding: The Good and The Ugly Side Of Them appeared first on What Steroids.
Dr. Testosterone: “Diuretics Are An Instant Danger And Can Kill You Right Away”
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Dr. Testosterone details why diuretics and insulin are the two most dangerous drugs used in bodybuilding.
Dr. George Touliatos, aka Dr. Testosterone, has often been outspoken about his support for steroid use in the sport of bodybuilding. In fact, he believes that steroids, while causing long term health issues, are no where near the biggest threat to a bodybuilder’s health. According to Dr. T, diuretics and insulin are the two riskiest drugs commonly taken by competitive bodybuilders. In our latest GI Exclusive interview, Dr. Testosterone focuses on diuretics and how quickly that can turn dangerous.
Over this past summer, there was a sudden series of bodybuilder deaths that made headlines in the industry. Many of the deaths were competitors under the age of 50. It was a sad stretch of time in bodybuilding. While there were no direct links between the various deaths – the news reignited a conversation about health in bodybuilding. Jake Wood, owner of the Mr. Olympia, even made a comment lobbying for healthier standards in the sport.
We recently had a chance to reconnect with Dr. George Touliatos, also known as Dr. Testosterone. We decided to take this opportunity to ask him about the health dangers in bodybuilding. Most specifically, if diuretics were a real danger in the sport – and just how necessary they are for success as a pro bodybuilder.
There are many experts and athletes who have begun to speak out about the use of diuretics in bodybuilding. Legendary bodybuilder Ronnie Coleman went on the record to say that he thinks they should be completely banned from the sport. So just how dangerous are these drugs really?
Dr. Testosterone makes it clear that diuretics are one of the riskiest drugs a bodybuilder can take. When used correctly, they are harmless. But the consequences for misusing diuretics are fast and have a high change of being fatal. Misuse of diuretics can lead to a bodybuilder to pass out quickly after use – and if not treated fast enough can lead to death.
Dr. Testosterone stresses that this is only the case when misused. But compared to other drugs used in the sport – the cost for accidentally overdosing can be swift and deadly.
“Diuretics are an instant danger and can kill you right away,” Dr. Testosterone states in his interview. Other PEDs can have long term health effects but very few can lead to sudden major health consequences like diuretics. The only other drug with that kind of sudden danger is insulin.
So how prevalent is diuretic use in the sport. Is it a “mandatory” aspect for athletes to achieve the quality of physique we are familiar with on stage? Dr. Testosterone flip flops on this question for a moment – then seems to ultimately say that, as it stands right now, they seem to be a required aspect of bodybuilding contest prep.
“When you want to have ripped glutes, you know, this is the final touch. The ripped glutes. To be shredded,” Dr. Testosterone states in our interview. He continues:
“Because the Christmas tree, the hams, and the pecs are striated even four weeks out. But the glutes, which is what they see from the rear, you know? And they judge the conditioning out of this. I guess, they [diuretics] are mandatory. It depends on how you use them.”
You can watch Dr. Tesosterone go into full detail about diuretics in bodybuilding by watching our latest GI Exclusive interview segment above!
Ronnie Coleman Believes Diuretics Should Be Banned: ‘They Will Kill You’
Ronnie Coleman spoke out about the issue in a recent interview.
Ronnie Coleman is a legendary name in the spot of bodybuilding. He is considered to be one of the best to ever step on stage so he draws much attention when he speaks on certain topics. In a recent interview, Coleman took a stand on the issue of diuretics in bodybuilding.
The use of diuretics is common in bodybuilding. This is a tactic used to dehydrate the body and allow muscles to pop more on stage. However, it could have some serious side effects and that is what Coleman explain in his interview. He highlighted his process prior to the 2001 Olympia, where he thought he was going to die.
“The one that stands out the most to me is ’01, where I was totally dehydrated the day of the show, and I was thinking I was going to die. That stands out to me more than any other show because I was on my way to the hospital and Chad (Nicholls) called me and said ‘Don’t do that,” Coleman said.
“I wasn’t cramping or nothing, I was just exhausted, tired. I didn’t have no energy. When I went to get out of bed, I couldn’t hardly get out of bed because I was so exhausted and tired. I went to try to walk around a little bit, and I didn’t have no energy to walk around. I was like ‘Man, I’m out of it. Ain’t no way I can compete like this.’”
Ronnie Coleman won eight-straight Olympia’s from 1998-2005. He was dethroned in 2006 when he finished second to Jay Cutler. The 2001 competition sticks out the most because of how he felt physically before. Coleman was told to hydrate before the competition — even if it would impact his performance on stage.
This helped Coleman feel better physically. Because of this experience, Coleman believes that competitors should be tested for different diuretics and they should be banned from the sport all together.
“Those diuretics are dangerous. They will kill you, as we’ve seen in the past. I think it’s mostly all about the diuretics, so I think if they brought diuretic testing back, that would solve the problem.”
Coleman knows a thing or two about Olympia’s so he gave some insight on the upcoming event. Big Ramy took home the title in the 2020 Olympia and will look to make it two in a row this year. Coleman is one of the believers that says Big Ramy will be difficult to defeat.
“It’s going to be real hard (to beat Ramy), especially after you done won one and you now have the formula. I think it’s going to be real hard. Plus he’s a big guy and nine times out of ten they’re looking for the biggest guy to be Mr. Olympia,” Coleman said.
“He figured out how to manipulate the water, that’s what it’s all about… I think Ramy’s a shoe-in.”
Ronnie Coleman is the latest to speak out on the controversial issue of diuretics in bodybuilding. There has been a string of recent deaths in the bodybuilding world and while there have not been many causes revealed, diuretics has been a discussion. Coleman believes that the sport can benefit from getting rid of them all together.
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