It is pretty hard to avoid the name Josef Rakich when you’re in the bodybuilding world because this guy has a huge amount of fans with over 3 million of fans on his Facebook profile alone. He is an ISSA certified personal trainer and a bodybuilder who originates from New Zealand. Since he’s such a famous bodybuilder, it is obvious he is currently working with many companies and being sponsored by the supplement company named EHP labs.
If you’re following Josef like I do on either Facebook or/ and Instagram then you’re going to see that his profile is full of: promotions of his PT services; pictures of his abs (which will most likely make you never want to bulk ever again); photos of his clients with before and after they started to get help from him and lastly; there are a lot of photos of him with his seemingly super loved orange Lamborghini. With such a huge amount of fans, of course, he’s rich. So he has a lot of money, an orange Lambo and a bodybuilder body. Both the facts he has a bodybuilder body and he is rich are actual facts. First you can see on his accounts and second I found a source sharing that his business made 476k dollars in 2013 (and I imagine what he made in 2018).
First of all, I need to mention the fact that I respect this guy a lot. As seen on his account, he has indeed helped a lot of people and that’s great while inspiring millions of people all around the world because of his incredible transformation. That’s amazing. He went from the ‘skinniest kid at school’ to that jacked up dude that is being followed by millions on social media. Although he’s a millionaire with millions of followers on social media, there are a lot of people who are wondering if this guy has taken steroids or if he’s really natural. Today, I am going to try to answer this question. Here are the stats Josef Rakich has – he’s estimated height is 5 ft 9 (but he is claiming to be 5 ft 10, it is just the thing that many thing he is smaller than this as that’s what it looks like in the photos. His weight is 191 lbs (which is around 87 kg) and a body fat of 5 %. Take a look at the transformation video he shared on his youtube channel.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FQ6ulDwjeQo
Josef is pretty known to do a lot of small bulk, nonetheless, he still manages to stay very lean all the year round. Another sure thing is the fact that Josef does have a good knowledge on how to build up muscle and how to burn fat. This is easily seen by checking his body and by checking the content that you can find on the “learn” section of his own website (other evidences are the successful transformations of his clients that achieved those results thanks to him which he really loves to show off on his social media profiles).
Josef is also one of the very first fitness icons to push the IIFYM philosophy which he explains that you are able to eat whatever foods you desire and you are still able to make the same gains (as long as those foods that you eat are going to hit your macros). This is also known as the flexible dieting too. This is pretty much the answer how you are going to see him eating pizza, sushi and even such foods as chocolate cake.
In fact, he has once started one thread on the forum of bodybuilding.com where he has revealed a period where he has been eating McDonalds food every single day and that’s in the time he has been shredded to the bone.
Contents
2 Years Transformation
According to the information/ photos that are shared on the Josef’s bodyspace profile, here are the Josef Rakich’s transformation in only 2 years:
Checking those photos (of before and after), the muscle gains that Josef has experienced from 2008 to 2010, to my opinion, is nothing short of spectacular. Such kind of gains are leaving us with 2 possible ways of how it happens: first one, of course, he has been juicing, and he has been doing it very hard. But that’s not 100%. The second scenario is that he is a genetic freak with the world class genetics very few people have got. Such genetics are something that literally only one in a million got as there are very few people out there who simply start to lift off weights and they are getting really jacked up. Nonetheless, I think that this scenario is pretty very unlikely and that’s by checking his body in the before photo which he seem to be an ectomorph body type without world class genetics. This might be a good evidence that he used steroids, but let’s check it further and see if there’s anything else suggesting he’s actually taking steroids.
Body Composition / Steroid Symptoms
Josef Rakich has often been noticed to have an unusual red/ flushed look to his skin and the flushed red skin is a very common steroid symptom. Lots of people using steroids are known to have this symptom and that’s because the steroids are elevating your body temperature which is causing an elevated blood pressure. The steroids increase the LDL cholesterol levels (bad ones) and this increases the blood pressure. Trying to cool it down, the body is pushing the vessels closer to the skin – hence the flushed red skin. Usually, the bulking steroids are known to cause this spike in bad cholesterol and higher blood pressure such as testosterone and dianabol.
Nonetheless, there is a cutting steroid such as clenbuterol (one of the most famous cutting steroid) which can give you this effect too. That’s because this steroid is arousing your nervous system, it makes your blood pressure spike by the stimulant properties it has and therefore it all results in more adrenaline production. As we all know – more adrenaline results in higher blood pressure. Josef does seem to be mostly flushed when he is very low in body fat and that’s a sign that he is using some cutting steroids, that’s what makes me think he is using clen to make him get super shredded the way he is.
Bloated Face
We all know that Josef Rakich is very shredded all the year round, nonetheless, he is often seen with a bloated face. How that is possible? It is not, not if you’re all natural. But it is very possible if you are using steroids as it is a sign of water retention – something very common for steroids. some of the worst steroids for this side effect are testosterone; anadrol and dianabol – these are the steroids which will most likely cause water retention.
Nonetheless, it is still possible to avoid this side effect by taking anabolic steroids – you need to use them in low dosages and this won’t result in obvious bloating. Arnold Schwarzenegger in his prime is the best example. The fact that he got so huge (unusually huge for a guy with such a body type) and the bloating are both evidences that he’s most likely running some pretty high doses of steroids.
Extreme Vascularity
Josef is also known to have some prominent veins as well and the extreme vascularity is another steroid side effect. His veins are spiraling all over his body and while this can happen to a natural guy, it mostly happens to juicers, plus there are very little chances for this to happen for a young guy. The steroids are lowering collagen and that’s why they enhance vascularity. As soon as you start taking steroids, you get lower collagen and without collagen you get a thinner skin, hence les skin is covering the veins. That’s why steroid users get extremely vascularity.
As said, there are chances that natural guys are getting vascularity, but there are very few chances for a natural and young guy like Josef to get SUCH a vascularity as seen in his case (obviously, without taking anabolic steroids).
Gains Timeline
As much as we saw in both photos of his transformation I shared in this article, Josef has blown up extremely much in only 2 years, something that’s extremely rare for naturals but something that indicates he’s indeed on steroids is the fact that he didn’t stopped gaining after blowing up that much in 2 years – he continued growing and gaining size. In 2013 December he has uploaded his stats being: body fat 5% with weight of 170 lbs. But in February 2015 (which means a bit more than a year only) he had an interview with Fit Over Fat where his stats already were 191 lbs and that’s while he managed to keep his body fat the same as it used to be the previous year – 5%.
Josef managed to gain an approximately of 20 lbs of lean muscle mass in a bit over a year and that’s although he has already went through his newbie gains and PLUS despite the fact that he seem to have average genetics WITHOUT his body fat percentage to change. That’s something unheard of for natural guys.
Natural guys that are jacked up are getting huge size when they first start to lift weights off. This effect is known as the “newbie gains” but after they plateau from it, then they are going to experience some really small gains over big periods of time. There are a lot of examples but one of the most prominent is Jeff Seid or Brandon Carter. But Josef Rakich is completely different from those 2. He has experience huge gains (unusually huge) when he firstly started to lift weights and he continued to experience a lot of gains even years later (that’s impossible). That’s a very big giveaway of steroid cycling.
Drugs Incident Josef Had
In 2013, Josef Rakich is known to have been arrested for dealing mephedrone, that’s a drug that is pretty similar to ecstasy. He pleated guilty, but has escaped a conviction because of the offence being committed a couple of years previous. During that time, he would built a lucrative business, which would be destroyed should he be convicted.
I do know what many might think right now – what does it have to do with steroids because dealing ecstasy definitely doesn’t mean that he has taken steroids. But, what I am trying to say is that if you are a person who is willing to take or to deal that type of drug, then you’re a person who’s not very scared of drugs as of general. That’s why I think that you are more prone to have a personality of somebody who would be ready to take anabolic steroids.
What’s the Verdict?
So, based on all the evidence that I have earlier mentioned, the answer to question – Is Josef Rakich on Steroids? is yes. Josef Rakich Does seem as if he has taken steroids.
The biggest giveaway that made me think that Josef is actually using steroids is the fact that he has gained a huge amount of size in only 2 years, something that is very unusual for a natural and that’s especially taking in consideration that he seems to have average genetics (guys with world class genetics are already jacked even before working out, but as we can see in Josef case, he used to be one really really skinny guy) and plus to that, he has kept on growing more ever since. He has been caught selling drugs making him more prone to take them and lastly, he also has several steroid symptoms as well including flushed skin; bloating as well as enhanced vascularity.
All of these factors taken together is what actually makes me think that he did have used steroids and maybe is still taking them.
What are the potential steroids he has taken?
I already mentioned a few steroids through my article of what Josef might have taken and to based on his symptoms and gains as well as all other evidences, it does seem to me that he uses 3 compounds: clenbuterol when he is cutting; dianabol and testosterone when he is bulking.
In the end, even though that I do believe the steroids are playing a very important part in what Josef Rakich has got in terms of the physique he has today, I still think that people shouldn’t try blaming or discrediting what he has achieved. In the end, he definitely couldn’t achieve all of this without working his ass of hard in the gym. Plus, there are millions of people all around the world who are taking steroids daily and by far not everybody looks like Josef Rakich, plus, they don’t help other people with body transformation and they don’t inspire millions to healthy lifestyle. This guy was the skinniest and he’s now among the strongest. That’s worth admiring.
Steroids played an important role in his transformation, yet his transformation still has a lot to do with his profound knowledge on nutrition and training. I’m pretty sure that all his clients are going through amazing transformation without them taking steroids or receiving advices from him that they should. He knows very well how to eat and how to train and he helps and shares this knowledge with others. That’s very good.
Has anyone who is reading this comment got helped by Josef Rakich? What do you think about him? Tell us in comments below. That’s a lot to these sources:
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/64051700/null
https://fitnessonsteroids.com/category/bodybuilders/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FQ6ulDwjeQo
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Testosterone
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clenbuterol
https://bodyspace.bodybuilding.com/Josef_Rakich/