IFBB pro bodybuilder and two-time Mr. Olympia Jay Cutler talks about anabolic steroid use in the sport of bodybuilding and the necessity of steroids to be the best in bodybuilding in a deleted scene from the highly acclaimed steroid documentary “Bigger Stronger Faster.”
… [E]veryone is looking for that edge. You know there are steroids involved in the sport - in bodybuilding – obviously. And that’s the problem with the sport and why it has to get accepted by a lot of society. They look at bodybuilding and they say, ‘oh steroids.’ But they don’t actually understand what goes into the sport. You do what you do to be the best at what you do. You do what you do to win. If you want to call that cheating, fine. But I have the edge. And that’s why I’m the best.
Certainly, there will be debate as to whether this is a tacit admission of steroid use. And certainly, people are going to ask why Muscletech did not fire Jay Cutler for talking about steroids when fitness model and former Muscletech spokesperson Christian Boeving was fired for talking about steroid use.
Muscletech probably thought they succeeded in managing damage control when they fired Christian Boeving for talking about his steroid use in what was (at the time) a little known, low budget, independent documentary about steroids that just appeared at the Sundance Film Festival.
They probably didn’t expect that the movie would be a critically acclaimed hit. They probably didn’t expect bodybuilding websites to hear about Christian Boeving’s firing months ago and start blogging about it. They didn’t expected director Chris Bell to be asked about Muscletech’s hypocrisy and Christian Boeving in interviews. They probably didn’t expect Magnolia Pictures to buy the film and distribute it nationwide. They probably didn’t expect Christian Boeving to speak so proudly about telling the truth and vocally about Muscletech’s hypocrisy regarding anabolic steroids.
Muscletech certainly didn’t expect their hypocrisy about anabolic steroids to be exposed nationally by the New York Times (”A Self-Described Steroid User Loses Job as Fitness Model,” June 9)!
“But I didn’t think I would get into that much trouble, because I thought it was pretty apparent that the top people in the industry use steroids to look like we do.”
A company whose products he endorsed, Iovate Health Sciences, apparently did not think so, and promptly severed Mr. Boeving’s contract. Iovate Health Sciences did not return calls for comment last week.
Mr. Boeving had represented over-the-counter dietary supplements in Iovate’s MuscleTech division, including Hydroxycut, which is meant to burn fat, and Nitro-Tech, which is meant to build muscle. But the type of performance-enhancing steroids Mr. Boeving referred to in the movie are legal only with a doctor’s prescription; he said in an interview that he had a prescription for testosterone.
While he may not been breaking the law, Mr. Boeving was apparently breaking a taboo in the bodybuilding world, one that Mr. Bell’s documentary was aiming to expose. “Ever since I was a kid, I’ve been looking at muscle magazines,” Mr. Bell said in an interview. “I would see these guys that are huge, and they’d say, take this pill and you’ll look like this. We know that’s not the case.”
Percy Crawford interviewed Christopher Bell, director of the steroid documentary “Bigger Stronger Faster“, in a good piece appearing on Fight Hype. Chris Bell criticizes the hypocrisy and dishonesty of bodybuilding supplement companies like Muscletech in their approach to anabolic steroids (”Christopher Bell: What’s Really the Big Deal About Steroids?,” May 12).
I talked to a fitness model named Christian Boeving, who was probably the top fitness model in the past 10 years for the company MuscleTech. Christian was basically…his contract ended and they would not redo his contract, and he was their top guy, because he was in this movie. They saw a little clip on CNN and were like, “You know what Christian, that’s it!” They’re not allowed to tell the truth. It’s like they know they’re taking all of these supplements and steroids, but they’re not allowed to say that. There is a big hypocrisy going on when a company like MuscleTech says they do not support the use of anabolic steroids and then they also sponsor the Mr. Olympia contest, which is not drug tested and we also know that Mr. Olympia is definitely on steroids. It’s a big hypocrisy going on that we can’t tell the truth in this country. You see an ad with a guy who is juiced out of his mind, but he’s selling supplements. Who are you kidding?
Filmmaker Christopher Bell interviewed his good friend Muscletech spokesperson Christian Boeving about anabolic steroids for the critically acclaimed documentary “Bigger Stronger Faster*”. Boeving spoke honestly about his use of anabolic steroids. When CNN aired excerpts from the documentary shortly after its screening at the Sundance Film Festival, Muscletech fired released the bodybuilding and fitness model from his contract.
Muscletech apparently has a zero-tolerance policy when it comes to steroids. You certainly can’t talk about steroids if you are sponsored by Muscletech. Muscletech allows you to publicly talk about quite a few things (like masturbating to Christina Lindley’s Maxim photo spread, making multiple references to Lindley’s ample breasts or alluding to Lindlay and microphone fellatio while interviewing Christina Lindley) without consequence but talking about steroids publicly crosses the line. Such a public admission of steroid use might indicate to consumers that the muscular physique of a sponsored bodybuilding athlete is not solely the result of Muscletech supplementation.
