Helmut Strebl Steroids or Natural
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Did Helmut Strebl take steroids to get to 3% body fat, or is it possible to build a physique as shredded as his naturally? We’ve got the answer
Many think that Helmut Strebl, the Austrian bodybuilder is the most ripped man alive. He’s regularly going viral on social media – just because of his insanely shredded body. But, did he use steroids to get to this point, or did he go full natty?
If you look at this guy you will understand why many are wondering if he looks like this only thanks to anabolics. In the entire bodybuilding history, there was only one guy who could possibly be more shredded than Strebl, and that was Andreas Munzer. Munzer was famous for his incredibly low body fat levels, and according to his claims, it was thanks to large amounts of diuretics.
Anyhow, to us, Strebl is living proof that age isn’t an excuse to let yourself go. When you look at his newest photos, you will notice that he only got better with age, you could even say that he ages like a fine wine, getting better with every passing year. In that respect, he’s completely unlike every other person alive, and right now, he’s in the best shape of his life.
His incredible improvement isn’t just visual, whenever Strebl competes this fact becomes blatantly obvious. He became World Miami Pro and the European champion 5 times in 6 years.
This bodybuilder who had once shown up in Madonna’s music video for the song “Sorry”, now splits his time between his three passions – bodybuilding competitions, personal training, and motivational speaking.
This kind of success attracts attention, so Helmut Strebl is now all over social media and online forums where gym rats accuse him en masse of taking steroids. It simply seems unbelievable that a man can be 49 years old and this ripped, without any anabolics whatsoever.
So, without further ado, let’s take a look at this famous Austrian. He turned 49 in 2017, he’s 6t 3 tall, he weighs between 205 and 215 pounds, and he has a mere 3% of body fat.
Strebl Claims No Steroid Use
On his official website, on the About page, Strebl stated that he is a lifetime natural bodybuilder. He claims that he never used any illegal physique enhancing drugs like steroids, or anything of the sort.
From what we have seen so far, people who claim that they aren’t taking anabolics – usually really are natty. Those who are on steroids try as hard as possible to steer clear of this subject, they ignore the question or give vague answers.
Sure, it doesn’t mean that he isn’t capable of lying, but if we should believe that he’s using anabolics, we will need more than unsubstantial claims, we will need to see some proof.
Helmut Strebl’s Body Composition
When you look at this guy with his top off, he looks huge. Sure, he certainly isn’t Ronnie Coleman, but when it comes to muscle hypertrophy, anyone can see that he’s a real beast.
Interestingly, many experts claim that it’s completely possible to achieve these results without any chemical enhancement. All you need are great genes and a whole lot of effort. We’ve seen many natty who got this big, or even bigger, so his muscle mass isn’t so extraordinary as to implicitly prove anabolic use.
On the other hand, when you pay attention to other aspects of his appearance, you will notice that Helmut isn’t bloated, he doesn’t have gynecomastia (a common side effect of anabolic steroids), his skin isn’t flushed, and his deltoids and traps aren’t overly developed. So he lacks a whole bunch of signs that he’s using steroids. But, there’s one suspicious thing about his appearance – he is incredibly vascular, he almost looks like a human roadmap. This could be because of genetics, or due to steroid use.
Some assume that he looks the way he does because he manipulates his body’s water levels, and they point out to the fact that he looks extremely dry. So dry in fact, that it seems like he will die of dehydration if he tries to shed a tear.
When you try to use a shortcut, and manipulate H2O levels for a competition, or use diuretic anabolic steroids, you get super dry for a short period of time, but that is not the case with Strebl.
How Do We Know?
Well, when someone does that, the effects are short-term, and Helmut Strebl looks more or less the same all the time. If he used one of these methods, it would be easily visible.
When you dehydrate yourself for 24 hours, your body starts to retain a whole load of water. After you finish dehydrating yourself, you’ll use steroids like Anavar or Winstrol to flush out the excess liquid, and then you will flatten out once more.
Maybe you heard some of those bodybuilders who compete saying that they’re retaining some water? Well, that isn’t true. They are simply not lean enough to start with. So, when you’re incredibly lean, it might appear as if you’re actually dry.
All in all, after a thorough look at this man’s body, there’s nothing to substantiate the steroid theory, except his almost unbelievable vascularity. But, when you look into it, that also makes sense.
People who use steroids tend to be very veiny because anabolics increase red blood cell count, and make your skin thinner. The reason why we believe that this not the case here, lies in the fact that Helmut Strebl is 49 years old, and at this age skin collagen levels decrease, so it’s completely normal for him to be more vascular than he was back when he was 20 years old.
Competitions
Strebl competed with famous federations like Musclemania and Miami Pro, but we can’t extrapolate any proof from that. Neither one of these conduct random, rigorous drug tests, so his involvement can’t sway our opinion one way or the other.
Proof That Helmut Strebl Is Natty
His physique is actually the main reason for us to believe that he is natural. Some people say that he’s ripped because he took steroids, but we believe that since he’s this ripped, he must be natural.
Confusing? Not so much if you read on.
When you observe natural guys, you will notice that they universally retain less water than those who are on anabolics. If you observe who retains water and who doesn’t, you can tell with ease. There’s an irrefutable connection between being natty and retaining water.
For instance, when you go gluten-free, you lose water, when you stop ingesting salty and processed foods, you lose water. But, when you do something that isn’t good for your health, like taking steroids, you will gain water. Even if you take a diuretic like trenbolone, you will still retain water. Sure, with diuretics you lose more water than with other steroids, but you will still gain more water than you would if you went natty.
This still seems too hard to believe? Then just look up Phil Heath, the most ripped guy on the Mr. Olympia stage, and compare him to our Austrian. When Heath is in a competition, his body fat levels will be almost the same as Helmut’s (3% approximately), but if you look at them together, you will notice an incredible difference. In spite of similar body fat levels, these two guys are very different, and Helmut seems drier, while Phil looks more smooth, and a lot less dry.
But Why?
It’s simple, Phil Heath is on a whole bunch of different steroids, and Helmut Strebl is not. You can see that Phil is taking steroids pretty easily. Just find photos of this guy from back when he was natural, and compare them to his most recent Mr. Olympia photos. You will see that he seemed just as defined then as he is now, except that he wasn’t as lean as he is now. If he were still natural, he would look 3x more shredded than he does in his most recent photos.
This goes for everyone, and it explains why those who juice in the gym look a lot less aesthetic than those who are natural. It’s simple, if you don’t take steroids, you will have less water in your body, less water means that your muscles will be more visible.
The Verdict Is In
We firmly believe that Helmut Strebl is completely natty. Unfortunately, we weren’t able to find photos of him when he was younger, to observe his progress (that can often prove if someone’s natural or not), but we firmly believe that our verdict is right. Helmut Strebl simply has no steroid tells whatsoever, so we have no real reasons to doubt that he’s natural.
