Kris Gethin is a Welsh bodybuilder and the CEO of the supplement company called Kaged Supplements and it is also a writer for the well known site bodybuilding.com plus a celebrity personal trainer. This guy has got a lot of fans and famous online because of his amazing body transformations where he managed to go from a chubby guy to lean in only 12 weeks. Even though he managed to gain a lot of fans online thanks to those before and after photos, he have also gained a lot of speculation online whether is Kris natural or he is using anabolic steroids in order to achieve such results and get the physique that he is proud today. In this article I am going to try to use evidences and facts which could give a more precise answer if he used anything to build muscles and pack size or he will maintain his natural status.
A lot of bodybuilders nowadays are getting famous thanks to the fact that they are losing a lot of body fat percentage and therefore they are shredded to the bone, but Kris is a little bit different from all these guys as he is looking more smooth because of his higher body fat percentage compared to many other bodybuilders out there which strive to lose as much fat as possible. Although he’s not having such a low body fat %, due to the fact that he is still not having a freakish look, he is still able to inspire a lot of bodybuilder fans all around the world who are viewing his body composition something that is definitely attainable for a natural guy, even though it is very hard to achieve it.
What I want to mention here beforehand is the fact that if you’re an all natural bodybuilder and you look at Kris Gethin’s body and it inspires you then regardless if would determine that he is taking steroids or not, that’s a very good thing so I give him my respect for trying to make people achieve their dream body naturally. The reason I’m telling that is because regardless if he has taken steroids or not, this doesn’t change the fact that his physique doesn’t look “out of this world” and that’s why it is something attainable for a natural guy and that’s very important. Yes, you might need to have some really good genetics and would need to spend at least several years in order to bulk up for gaining that type of muscle mass, but that is definitely possible so just keep it in mind. Kris is not freakishly big (just Phil Heath if you want to see what’s that to be a mass monster) and most of the time this guy is not insanely shredded. Here are his stats: with a height of 5 ft 8; he weights on contest 185 lbs and 220 lbs on off season.
Now, only thanks to the fact that he has a body that can be achieved naturally, doesn’t mean he achieved it naturally, that’s why we are now going to try to find out if Kris Gethin has used steroids or not.
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What does he claim?
Very often, before checking evidences proving a person is natural or taking steroids I am checking their own words. Very often they can prove something. For example, we can see a bodybuilder saying he is natural but it is very easily seen they are lying, or we can see a very honest guy. But, we can also see something like Kris Gethin’s situation where this guy doesn’t claim to be natural and doesn’t claim to take steroids. He simply doesn’t address this topic. I was digging more and checked his official website krisgethin.com and I couldn’t find any information there that Kris is actually natural. That’s strange because if I would be as famous as Kris is and I would have my own website where a lot of people are following me then I would talk about this and I would try to mention it, making it clear that I’m natural.
The only thing that I found is that on his profile on bodybuilding.com it is said on his bio: “Lifetime natural PRO bodybuilder” but other than that I couldn’t find anything. But I wouldn’t think that this information is too trustworthy. That’s because bodybuilding.com is not a company that’s too trustworthy. The reason I’m saying this is because in 2012 they were sued for 7 million dollars by the FDA and that’s because they were found smuggling anabolic steroids into supplements that were meant to be absolutely all 100% natural. If you’re interested to read it I am going to share the source below at the end of article.
Would Kris need to take Steroids?
What I was thinking is – does Kris Gethin has any motive or reasons to be motivated to take steroids? Here’s what came into my mind:
Except for the fact that any weight lifter is having a temptation to get more jacked, Kris is also the owner of a supplement company. With this being said, the more people out there are his fans the more money he is going to make. And that’s especially taking in consideration the fact that in the modern bodybuilding world, in case you are really swole and you are claiming to be all natural, then it is not going to take too long until you are going to have a fan base of millions people.
So, we do know very well that claiming to be all natural could be a very good selling point for Kris Gethin, however it doesn’t actually mean that he is taking steroids. He could very well be a natty, but in the end – all of this doesn’t answer our question and that’s why I checked the evidences.
Gains Timeline
First of all I decided to check his gains timeline because usually, that’s one of the very best methods to determine if a person used steroids at any point in their live by checking how much they were changing over the year. There are changes that can be classified as natural but there are changes that are way too strange to be though as of natural. For example, if a person plateaued from newbie gains remaining in the same size and then, seemingly out of nowhere he doubled in size – that’s a clear sign of steroid use. So, now, doing my research I have found a couple of photos when he was younger and we could compare to how much he changed over the years. Here’s a couple of transformation photos of Kris Gethin when he was younger vs what he looks like now.
What we can conclude by carefully checking those photos? Well, I can assume that Kris has already been lifting weights for at least a few years in the before photo. First of all, because he is performing those bodybuilding poses so very well, something that someone whose never been lifting can’t do it so well and secondly, because he already has a good amount of muscles.
With all of this being said, what do we know is that as soon as you went through your newbie gains, the potential for the muscle growth is very and very small as we gain around 90% of all the muscles in the newbie gains phase. That’s why naturals are virtually making nearly all of their gains in the first few months of training, thereafter they are making very small and slow gains. Usually, such gains are at around 30 lbs of lean muscles.
However, we can see in those photos that Kris looks like he has gained an approximate amount of 50 to 60 lbs of lean muscle and he managed to gain them after he most likely has already experienced his newbie gains. First of all – so much growth is not normal for a natural bodybuilder (as usually it is less than that), secondly – that’s definitely not normal to gain after the newbie gains and third – that’s a normal muscle gain for a juicer.
With this being said, if Kris never lifted weights before the first picture was taken (which I highly doubt) then there’s a chance that he is all natural, but if he did lifted weights before that photo then there’s nearly no chance he is natural. With all of this being said, his gains timeline doesn’t look too natural.
Steroid Symptoms
Except for the fact that a steroid user doesn’t have normal gains timeline, a steroid user also have some steroid symptoms on their body. That’s why we decided to check if Kris’ body indicates he is taking steroids and, exactly as his gains timeline, there is something that might suggest he actually does uses something. That’s because there are a few things that look a little bit iffy by checking his body.
The first thing to check is his abs. The V taper is something specific for a natural guy but a steroid user is very often going to develop very thick abdominal muscles. For those interested, we can compare the thickness of Kris’s abs with the abs of Rob Riches which is a guy who got the verdict natty and has a naturally looking body – you can see there’s a big difference and that’s because in the picture below Kris Gethin’s abs are a lot much thicker than Rob’s.
In addition to all of that, I need to mention the fact that both of these bodybuilders are pretty much of the same size. Both of them when they are ripped and they are contesting then they both weigh approximately 185 lbs. Kris is 2 inches smaller than Rob and so, he is looking a bit more muscular as he is carrying around the same weight on a smaller frame.
Rob Riches it is a guy that is very well known for his very frequent and very rigorous abs workouts and also he’s known for performing some very big compound lifts which is also going to thicken/ strengthen his core. It is very unlikely to my opinion that Kris will be doing more core than Rob, in fact I think that there’s a good chance that he’s been doing much less.
Bloated and Blocky Midsection
That’s a very common side effect of using steroids and that’s something that I decided to mention here because Kris Gethin can often be seen with the bloated look, especially to his abs, and that’s a very big giveaway that he might very well use something. The sign of steroid use – bloated/ blocky midsection is very similar to the “steroid gut” or “HGH gut” which is being caused by the combination of taking human growth hormone (HGH) with insulin together.
Well, natural guys are very often seen with a very tight midsection and they can very often and very easily vacuum them at their wish. However, the steroid users are going to find it extremely hard to suck in their stomachs because of the steroids which are enlarging their organs and is giving them extra water retention. So, those guys just can’t get a normal midsection regardless of how much they try, but this effect is especially seen when they are relaxed.
For example, here’s Kris Gethin relaxed:
In the photo you can see relaxed Kris Gethin which seems to have a blocky/ bloated midsection alongside 6x Mr Olympia champion Dorian Yates. These guys have been hanging out together as much as we can see and taking in consideration this fact and taking in consideration Kris’ abnormal midsection, abs and gains timeline what we can conclude? Most likely he did used steroids. What does it have to do with the fact that he hangs out with Dorian Yates? Well, this guy has been known to take a cocktail of steroids in the 90’s where we can include such stuff as dianabol; primobolon; anavar; deca durabolin; human growth hormone and testosterone too. The source will be shared later.
As a result of taking such a cocktail, he has grown so much that he won Mr Olympia champion 6 times, however he looked very bloated, pretty similar to what Kris Gethin is looking like in the photo next to him. We can see that Kris’ abs in that photo are seen that’s how we know that he’s at a low body fat percentage, even though he is having that bloated look. So far, those signs indicate he does uses something.
Competition History
I always check the competition history for any bodybuilder because it can give us a bit of more information too. Plus it is pretty interesting to see what type of federations a bodybuilder has competed in, especially taking in consideration that they claim to be natural and ESPECIALLY when we have signs suggesting that they are lying about the natural status. There are federations that can be trustworthy since they perform rigorous drug tests such as polygraphs (lie detectors), urine tests and blood tests and those federations perform those tests at random times through the year.
A competitor won’t know when they are tested so they can’t use anything. If they do – they are caught. That’s the key element – the tests conducted at random times would make it impossible to pass all of them and still be on steroids. But most federations to not perform such rigorous drug tests. Most of them only perform a drug test once and everybody know the date of the test. Therefore, the bodybuilders can be on steroids then cycle off in time for the drug test and pass it.
This is why, any federation that is not performing drug tests at random times, are not legit natural federations since every competitor can very easily take steroids and pass the tests by stopping taking the steroids in the time.
By doing research, I have found out that Kris Gethin has competed in 2 “natural” bodybuilding competitions such as Natural Idaho Championships as well as Natural World Bodybuilding Championships therefore we can assume he did passed those tests. The problem is that on both of those federation’s websites they are stating that it is only required for you to be a steroid free guy for the last 7 years. That’s why, anyone could very easily use steroids for 20 years, then come off them for the last 7 years and then easily win those “natural” shows against guys who never took steroids and never got that big.
I’ve done research and I couldn’t find information suggesting that Kris Gethin has ever competed in some life time drug free bodybuilding shows. Well, that’s pretty strange to my opinion, why wouldn’t he want to compete in some federations that is requiring you to be a lifetime drug free bodybuilder? Like for example the BNBF. To my opinion there’s just one reason why a bodybuilder wouldn’t want to compete in there and since he doesn’t – it surely raises questions.
Verdict: Taking Steroids
Despite the fact that Kris Gethin is inspiring a lot of people out there to achieve their dream bodies naturally, it looks like Kris has been taking steroids. This conclusion is made based on the evidence that I found which suggest that he is most likely have taken steroids at some point in his life.
By analyzing all the information, there’s one likely scenario that I imagine – Kris has taken steroids from quite an easily age which has helped him to gain a lot of muscles, then he most likely has stopped to use them and has trained extremely hard in order to keep most of his steroid gains. After this, 7 years later being drug free, he competed in 2 “natural federations” which he most likely was indeed natural.
Nonetheless, the thing that he took steroids is with a very big precision. His bloated and thick midsection all along with the combined fact that he gained around 50 to 60 lbs of muscles after he already plateaued from newbie gains are 2 essential things of evidences proving him that he took steroids.
Well, I doubt that this would be a big surprise for someone who found out that Kris is Welsh. Why? Well, this is because around 7 out of 10 people who are going to “heavy lifting gyms” in Wales are on steroids. Will share the source too, if you’re interested to read about this. so from geographical perspective it does look like my verdict is right on with Kris nearly for sure taking steroids.
What Possible Steroids he has Taken?
To my opinion, there’s a high chance that Kris Gethin has used the following: testosterone; dianabol and HGH. well, I think like that because if testosterone and dianabol taken in some good doses then it can give that thick waist which it looks like Kris has. In addition to that, I think he used these steroids because they are able to give you the ability to gain large amounts of lean muscle mass (which we can see in Kris) and to bring out the deltoids and traps in particular (which we can see that they stand out on Kris) since these are muscle groups with most androgen receptors. And then later, HGH mixed with the insulin can give you the mild steroids gut, and we can see that Kris does have a mild case of this gut.
In the end, I was only trying to put speculation to bed, but the fact that Kris might have used steroids is not taking away anything from his work rate and his exceptional knowledge. He is still having my full respect for trying to help millions of bodybuilders transform their bodies all around the globe. He did helped a lot of people and that’s amazing. Plus, you just can’t take steroids and look like Kris. Steroids are some little helpers and yet, they won’t make a huge difference without some extremely hard work rate in the gym and a lot of smart nutrition outside the gym.
And for those who are thinking: “I knew it because you can’t transform from an average man to a ripped beast in only 12 weeks” by checking his transformations online which gave him a lot of popularity online – well, I do think that those transformations were actually done without taking steroids. That’s because he only lost fat. Signs indicating you are taking steroids is not by losing fat, is by gaining lean muscles. In those epic transformation he wasn’t gaining muscle, he was burning fat and retaining the muscle mass that he already had. This is what can make you look from average man to a beast because it gives the illusion that you might have gained a lot of muscle mass.
As I promised, here are the sources I said I am going to share, sources which helped me in writing of this article.
https://www.bodybuilding.com/author/kris-gethin
https://www.fda.gov/iceci/criminalinvestigations/ucm305494.htm
https://www.instagram.com/krisgethin/?hl=en
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vGB8Lhfsut8
http://ngaidaho.com/drug-testing/
https://www.facebook.com/krisgethin/
I dont agree with the abs comparison to rob riches. That isnt correct.
If you work your abs out with weight assistance regulary you will build them up and make them larger especially if you are on a bulk.
I have done this for 5 or more years.
Now i only work out abs with no weight assistance and 3 times every 2 weeks, now my stomach doesnt stick out and stomach much flatter.