Helmut Strebl is an Australian bodybuilder who has got so ripped he is regularly going viral across the social media… thanks to the fact that he is ripped to shreds.. that is why, he is being regarded by a lot of people as the most shredded guy alive.
Indeed, the guy is looking – well… like he’s a peeled rock. He looks so peeled that he would have given Andreas Munzer a run for his money back in the day. For those who are not aware who Andreas Munzer is – he has been a very famous guy for having some extremely low levels of body fat while has been taking extremely large quantities of diuretics.
Pretty much like a fine wine, Hemut has got even better as he ages. As the time goes on, he has got even more shredded (this is an unusual effect as it is pretty much the opposite to every other human on the planet as with time they gain more water retention). So, it is obvious that with such a vast improvement it has all very well reflected in his competition honors as he became the European as well as World Miami Pro champion 5 times for last years. As a conclusion of saying all of that, Helmut has proven that age it is not a valid excuse and that it is never too late to get in the best shape of your life, that’s something I greatly respect him for, as he has given hope to lots of people who thought “it is too late”.
Helmut is spending his days while personal training, performing motivational speeches and he is also competing in different bodybuilding federations. This guy doesn’t waste his time. In addition to that, he has also appeared in Madonna’s official music video of Sorry. You can check it below. (tell us what do you think of his appearance in this video).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B5OPMI13qng
By checking his photos you can see that Helmut Strebl is literally ripped to the bone which as a result gave him a big fame but also resulted in a lot of gym rats accusing him of taking steroids on social media and other different online forums. So, today we are going to try our best to determine if it’s really possible to be this shredded at the age of 51 without actually using any steroids?
Before continuing and investigating the Australian bodybuilder, you can check below his stats. Helmut Strebl Stats: at the age of 49 years old (as he was in 2018), he had a height of 6 ft 3; weight of 205 to 2015 lbs at the body fat of only 3 %. To my opinion, those are some amazing stats. Before continuing with the investigation, I decided to check what does he says himself about steroids.
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Helmut Strebl is claiming a lifetime natty
Helmut has his own official website and on the about page you can see him stating the following: ”I am a life time natural body builder. I’ve never used steroids or any other banned or illegal physique enhancing drugs”.
From my personal experience while analyzing people if they are taking steroids or not on this website, I have noticed that usually, those who are claiming to be natural, most of them indeed are. And those who do take steroids, are almost always trying and steering clear of the topic. They try to avoid openly talking about this topic and they simply ignore accusations online.
Nonetheless, there are still some cases I found out where bodybuilders are lying about their natural status for whichever the reason and that’s why, this is not a strong evidence for him actually being natural as he could very well be lying as other bodybuilders out there. With this being said, in order to actually determine if he is taking steroids or not, I am going to need to check some substantial evidence which I will share with you in this article.
Body Composition
In terms of body composition and muscle size, Helmut Strebl is really jacked, no doubt. Of course, he doesn’t look anywhere near like Phil Heath or Ronnie Coleman, but he is still looking very big without his shirt on.
What I am trying to say is that even though he’s huge, his muscle mass is nothing to be considered “freaky” or out of this planet. He’s just super shredded, but in terms of muscle mass he’s all good and natural. What I am trying to say is that such a size is very possible to be achieved with some great genetics and years of training fulfilling that genetic factor. There are several other people that I have written about in the past who are having a very similar size and they might be even bigger than that – whilst being all natural. So, I would like to point out that his muscle mass is definitely achievable by a guy with great genetics without steroids.
I would also need to point out here that Helmut (as seen in all his photos or videos you can find) it is not bloated; he doesn’t have gyno; no flushed skin and definitely doesn’t have any overly developed traps and deltoids. These are usually the side effects associated with steroid use. Nonetheless, we can see him that he is extremely vascular which makes him look like a human roadmap. Well, this is another side effect that is associated with steroid use but it also can be down to genetics (which makes him have a thinner skin). Plus to that, it is not that Helmut Strebl is very lean, there are some people saying that he is also extremely (insanely) dry! I must agree with this because there are some pics of him online where he looks like as if he were to spit or piss then he would probably die from dehydration.
But I still think that very often that’s a wrong assumption and that’s because he is not dry, he is just extremely shredded. How do I know it? well, he is looking like that (very similar) all the year round. Questions would arise if he would get like that only for a competition because when you are manipulating tour water levels for a competition or taking steroids that have diuretic properties you are going to get super dry – a lot much more compared to how you look normally. The questions would arise because you are only going to be able to maintain that look for some small periods of time. Helmut looks like that all year round.
After about 24 hours of being dehydrated, your body is starting to retain a ton of water. This is the reason why after you are going to finish the cycles with such steroids as Anavar or Winstrol that are responsible for flushing out some significant amounts of water – you are going to get smooth once again.
It is like when there are those guys who are competing that say: “well, it seems like I am retaining a bit of water here”, but no, in fact they are retaining a bit of fat. Please don’t get my words wrong as indeed, there are some times when you can be retaining some water, however, in most of the cases, that’s just a cause of a person not being lean enough in the first place. Therefore, being extremely lean is giving the illusion of being extremely dry.
Taking in consideration these facts I mentioned above (something that a lot of people do not take in consideration but should before actually saying something) and checking Helmut’s body, I have to say that there’s literally nothing that is jumping out to me and can indicate the use of steroids, except for the fact that he is extremely vascular. That’s because extreme vascularity indeed can make you cause to look much more veiny because of the increase in the red blood cell count and by thinning your skin (thins your skin because it decreases collagen production). But there are other things that should be taken in consideration too. First of all is the genetic factor which can also make you have a thinner skin and second – he is not 20 years old. Being over 50 years old it is obvious that his collagen levels have significantly decreased, therefore it is obvious that he is much more vascular compared to other guys in their 20s. There are many other old bodybuilders which look like human roadmap and because of their age, it can very easily be associated with age and not steroids.
Evidence He is Natural
Well, if there is one thing which could make me think that Helmut is actually natural, it is the way how ripped and how defined he is. I do know very well that there are some people who may argue this. they may say: he is shredded because he is taking steroids, but to this I would argue that BECAUSE he is shredded he has to be natural. And here is why:
The natural guys will nearly ALWAYS retain much less water than those people who are on steroids. it does seems as there is a direct correlation between nature and water retention. With this being said, if you are going to cut out processed and salty foods out of your diet then you are going to lose water! Also, if you are going to be gluten free you are also going to lose water. But in the same time, if you are going to take something that is going to be harmful to your body, like for example steroids, you are going to gain water. The body knows the steroids are harmful so that’s a method to “protect” itself. That’s why nature and water retention have always been in a strong correlation. And it definitely doesn’t matter if you are going to be using some diuretic steroids such as trenbolone, you are still going to be retaining some excess fluids! Even if you are going to lose some more water compared to some other steroids, you are still going to be gaining some water weight.
If you are still having some doubts in my words, well, I can give you a comparison which can help demonstrate the truth in my words. So, let’s take Helmut Strebl and put him near Phil Heath. We can notice Phil is a lot much bigger BUT Phil is also the driest and most shredded guy on the Mr Olympia stage. When Phil Heath has been competing in the photo you can see below, he has had nearly the same levels of body fat that Helmut had (around 3% of body fat). But, I think that comparing these 2 guys which have nearly same body fat %, it is obvious that there’s a huge difference as Phil looks much less dry and more smooth compared to Helmut, despite them being at a very similar body fat percentage.
You might ask why is that? That is because Phil has had a load of different steroids while Helmut Strebl, most likely, hasn’t. As a result of taking those harsh anabolic steroids and diuretics; Phil’s body is going to consequently retain some fluid compared to as if he was 100% natural. If there is still some of you who are in doubts in my words, then again, I can prove this point.
Below, you can see a photo of Phil Heath when he has been a natural compared to what he looks like now competing in the Mr Olympia championship. Take in consideration the fact that Phil would’ve been at a lower body fat percentage currently (the photo on the right) when he was trying to win the Mr Olympia champ title compared to one of his very first amateur shows he had (photo on the left).
As much as you can see comparing these photos, Phil is looking exactly as defined (if not even more) on the left in the time while he was still a natural guy even though he was having a higher body fat percentage compared to the current Phil Heath on the right where he is even learner but he is also juicing up. With this being said, if Phil were to be NATURALLY as lean and muscular as we can see in his older self (photo on the right) then he would look like around 5 times more ripped (pretty much like Helmut) than what he does now on the Olympia stage, especially taking in consideration the aging factor.
This is the reason why there are a lot of gym rats who are taking steroids and are generally looking much less aesthetic compared to those guys out there who are all natural. By taking steroids you are looking much bigger, but if you are not taking them then you are going to have much less subcutaneous water retention which is going to be hiding your muscle definition. In addition to that, you are not going to be bloated and won’t have a distended steroid gut which is not the prettiest side effect.
Competition History
Helmut Strebl did competed in some popular federations like for example Miami Pro and Musclemania. Nonetheless, this can’t help us in determining if he uses steroids or not as it gives no further evidence in finding it out. The reason for that is because none of the organizations that he has competed in is performing rigorous or random drug tests which can actually spot a steroid user. They perform drug testing that can be easily beaten by juicers.
Verdict: Helmut is Natty
Based on the fact that I found no evidence which could suggest that Helmut Strebl is taking steroids I think he is natural. As much as you may have noticed, I haven’t discussed about his gains timeline and that’s even though he is a guy over 50 years old. That’s because I wasn’t able to tinf any photos of him when he was younger in order to be able to track his progress over the years. very often, that’s one of the very best methods to find out if a guy is natural or not. Despite a lot of research, I couldn’t find anything, unfortunately.
Nonetheless, I am still confident that this verdict is correct based on the fact that he is having absolutely no visual steroid symptoms, he is not as big as other steroid users and he does not seem to be retaining fluid like a normal steroid user. As much as it seems, Helmut Strebl just has some first class genetics which helped him in reaching all of it. and that’s not only in the terms of building muscles, but also in terms of the thickness of his skin which seems to be paper thin. First of all because of his genetics as much as I can assume, and secondly because of his age. But this has helped him to display muscles which appear more ripped and displaying crazy vascularity!
In addition to that, Helmut is not overly muscular and this is another sign of not taking steroids, but it also proves the fact that in case you are going to have a low body fat %, then you do not need to have the size of Ronnie Coleman to look really jacked up. I think that it is all thanks to the fact of having a tiny waist, an amazing muscle definition and loooooots of veins/ striations. All of it in combination makes you look a lot much more impressive.
But as I earlier said, I really respect this guy as he is a perfect example of how you can get shredded at any age and there’s no “too late”, that’s if you are willing to diet harder than any other man and train like Batman. This would definitely give you great results, even with average genetics – you are still going to be your best self. A random fact that I read whilst doing research about this guy:
Helmut Strebl is eating chicken and rice 3 times a day, every single day. Someone, please, give this man a cookie, he doesn’t know what real happiness tastes like.
Tell us what do you think about Helmut Strebl in the comments below. Do you still think he is on steroids? Give evidences. A lot of thanks to these sources:
https://www.hellestrebl.co.uk/
https://www.facebook.com/HelmutStrebl/
simplyshredded.com/helmut.html
https://fitnessonsteroids.com/category/bodybuilders/
https://www.greatestphysiques.com/male-physiques/helmut-strebl/