Lee Priest, the veteran bodybuilder, explained that early-20s and teenage bodybuilders with extreme freak physiques have heavily taken over.

On May 27, the Instagram account of IFBB Pro AMA posted a short clip featuring Priest and Xavier Wills, in which the 2 talked about the rise of young bodybuilders, with the caption,

“Lee Priest and Xavier Wills discuss the rise of freaky young bodybuilding phenoms, why more gear is not always better, contest prep discipline, old school supplements, health priorities for bodybuilders, wild fan questions, and plenty of classic Bodybuilding & Banter chaos.”

In the video, when Wills asked Priest for his opinion on the emergence of muscular young phenoms, pointing out a 21-year-old competitor, Priest said,

“You can't speculate, maybe he's just got good genetics, you know, a lot of people can be like, oh, he's taken this, taken that. Well, we can all say that people have been saying that about me since I was 13 or 14. I'm sure people speculate; he must be just ramming it in. I'm healthy, he's going to die. So, you know.”

At this point, Priest is trying to say that people often think young bodybuilders are taking performance-enhancing d****. However, according to the bodybuilder, genetics also matters.

Later, Priest also revealed that during his teenage years, he had to face similar criticism.

Priest also discussed such situations a few years ago during his appearance on the Fouad Abiad Media YouTube channel.

In the October 1, 2023, podcast, Priest said, “Well, I took s******* at 19, you know.” From ages 13 to 19, he competed in his natural physique. However, people did not believe him then and made fun of him.

In the podcast with Wills, Priest does not deny that some young bodybuilders use such d****, but outsiders criticize without knowing the full facts.

Later in the interview, Priest also talked about how, during his era, the majority of people used to turn Pro in their early 20s, but that fact is missing in the current time.

Priest said, “It was only like the last few years we've been saying, where are all the young guys? Because when I turned pro, I was young. Sean Ray was young, flexed. The majority of people did turn pro in their early 20s back in the 90s, and stuff, and then it was more the 2000s and from 2010 on, most people turning pro were late 20s in their 30s.”

While Priest talked about how the general public sometimes misunderstands young bodybuilders without knowing all the facts, Arnold Schwarzenegger believes young bodybuilders' approach to the sport is toxic.

Arnold Schwarzenegger on young bodybuilders using d****

Schwarzenegger once highlighted the distinction between the bodybuilders of his time and young bodybuilders.

During his July August cover story for Men's Health, the 7-time Mr. Olympia said, “Bodybuilding always, always was considered a safe sport. But now it’s not. Now people are dying — they’re dying because of overdoses of d****, and they don’t know what the f— they’re doing…. They’re listening to charlatans.”

He also added, “I have seen people getting kidney transplants and suffering tremendously from it”.

So, the Austrian Oak suggested that the young bodybuilders not go that way without proper guidance.

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Written by

Supradeep Dutta

Edited by

Ashvinkumar Patil