Modern bodybuilders are paying with their health, both mental and physical, to maintain an absurd amount of muscle mass at low body fat levels. But why is size so important? After all, “building” is supposed to be a form of construction – not necessarily an enlargement of something. Modern bodybuilders have forgotten that and only care about getting bigger and bigger. The first men who took the size game to a whole new level were Dorian Yates and Milos Sarcev.

Dorian Yates and The New Size Standards

Dorian Yates is a retired bodybuilder who won Mr. Olympia six times in a row. He was also the first Mr. Olympia weighing 250lbs bodyweight in a super lean condition. This happened in the mid-90s when Yates was at his best.

Dorian Yates in one of his popular black and white gym photos.

Unfortunately, those so-called “new standards” didn’t help bodybuilding. Many believe that the reason for Dorian Yates’ extraterrestrial size were his training methods and nutrition, but nothing could be further from the truth.

The nutrition protocol of Yates was the good old high carb diet – oatmeals, brown rice, sweet potato…etc. In other words, nothing unheard of.

As far as training goes, in the beginning, he followed regular bodybuilding routines similar to the ones you see in the bodybuilding magazines. Later, he switched to the so-called High-Intensity Training (HIT) which was popularized by Mike Mentzer and Arthur Jones. There’s nothing special about that training method. It won’t magically help you break 250lbs while maintaining your shredded abs.

So, what was the secret?

The secret is called human growth hormone (HGH) and insulin. The combination of those two is the reason why pro bodybuilders got so freaky in the mid-90s.

Dorian Yates was one of the first bodybuilders to successfully use insulin. In about 12 months, he gained 30lbs of muscle, which is an absolutely insane amount of mass for someone at his level. Truth be told, most natural bodybuilders won’t gain 30lbs of pure muscle in their whole career, let alone in 12 months.

The rest of the bodybuilders had to meet the new standards. During his career, Arnold Schwarzenegger was about 235lbs at 6’2″. Today, there are bodybuilders like Branch Warren who are 5’7″ and 252lbs. Quite the difference, don’t you think?

What does the governor have to say about it?

Arnold Schwarzenegger criticized modern bodybuilding and Dorian Yates in particular, but nothing has changed. Even the show sponsored by Arnold himself (Arnold Classic) still supports the mass monsters of today.

In the video below, you can hear Dorian Yates talk about his attack exchange with Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Milos Sarcev – The Guy Who Introduced Insulin To Bodybuilding

Milos Sarcev is a retired bodybuilder from Serbia who allegedly introduced insulin to bodybuilding. Many of Sarcev’s family members were medical professionals. During the late 80s and early 90s, Sarcev was already experimenting with insulin for the purposes of gaining muscle mass. Eventually, he came up with his own special protocols. Most of the information that people have on insulin usage in bodybuilding is derived from Sarcev’s principles.

Milos Sarcev – one of the first insulin gurus

In conclusion

The face of modern bodybuilding has been shaped by the abuse of anabolic steroids, HGH, insulin, diuretics and super high-calorie diets. While this phenomenon started with Dorian Yates and Milos Sarcev, they are not the only ones to blame. As they say, “Don’t hate the player, hate the game”.

Everybody in the industry is greedy. The promoters want to attract more and more fans while the crowd applauds the freaks. Honestly, modern bodybuilding is spinning its wheels and is on the verge of moral and physical bankruptcy.