In the past, Mike Rashid has been known as a professional boxer but nowadays he is mostly known as a bodybuilding celebrity and that’s because of the fact that he became really really big. Mainly due to the fact of how he has changed from a professional boxer to a bodybuilding celebrity – there are a lot of speculation online if Mike is all natural or he is using steroids and in this article I will try, using evidences and facts, putting those speculations to bed. Mike Rashid is also the founder of the pretty famous bodybuilding gym named Iron Addicts that is being based in Florida. In addition to that, he has launched his own clothing/ supplement line which I would call pretty successful and it is happening to be BFFL’s with nobody else other than CT Flether. I would say that Mike Rashid is pretty much looking like Ray J but much swole.
In case you don’t know who Mike Rashid is, I recommend you to take a look at his photos online. You’re going to get that extra strength in gym allowing you to keep on lifting when you’re out of stamina just to try to look like Mike. Especially since there are a lot of people (which I discovered while doing some research about him) that believe Mike’s physique is like the highest altitude of an mountain if comparing to how much muscles a human body is possible of building up naturally (of course, only when that person is a genetic gifted guy). This is the reason why many people are pretty sure that Mike is one in a million if talking about his genetics. They believe Mike Rashid’s genetics are sitting right at the top of the genetic when it is coming down to build muscles. But it is obvious that there are other people who do not actually agree with this saying that he’s “cheating” whereas “cheating” in bodybuilding world is considered analogue to “taking steroids” in order to achieve the physique he has today and be where he is today.
By doing research I saw that Mike Rashid is having a huge amount of fans where he has got more than 1.7 million of fans on Facebook which means that a lot of people follow every single of his steps. It is obvious that having such a big database of fans, Mike is having lots of haters which I would call “jealous haters” over the way he looks.
With all of this being said, we would try to determine using facts – is Mike Rashid indeed “cheating” by taking steroids, or he is a really gifted guy who has got some of the best possible genetics the world has ever seen?
Contents
What Does Mike say about Steroids?
One of the very first thing that I am used to do when researching information about if a person is using steroids or not – searching for their own words. Often I find of those jacked up guys saying that they do not take steroids, but the way they say it means a lot. That’s why I started doing research about Mike’s own words and if he claims to be natural. So, after I have done some research online I have found out that even though there are lots of haters which have called Mike Rashid to be a “fake natty”, there are no sources or videos or anything at all where Mike has ever said he is drug free.
He does have some videos which I found where Mike is talking about how he wouldn’t want his name to be linked with any of the illegal drugs such as steroids but in the same time, he has never actually said flat out that he has never taken any steroids. Not wanting your name to be linked with illegal drugs and not taking them are 2 different things to my opinion. That’s why I found this to be a little bit suspect. I’ve tried to put myself in Mike’s situation and the first thing that came into my mind: if I would have so many fans and so many haters and I would receive a lot of hate online as Mike receives calling him “fake natty” and saying that he is “lying”, then I definitely would want to address this subject myself and I would try to talk about it directly. What I mean is that I would try to go out and say it very clear and loudly – “I have never taken steroids”… or at least I would want to do that if that would be indeed true and I was absolutely all natural. That’s strange as I think that anyone else would do it, including Mike Rashid and that’s suspicious that he hasn’t done it yet. Instead of saying it, he has deflected all these accusations by saying such words as “people should mind their own business” and to be honest, this raises the speculation even more.
In the end, I do thing that the fact that Mike is not being able to say that he is absolutely all 100% natural can be quite a good sign that he does take steroids. or at least this makes us think about it more. But in the same time, only due to the fact that he has never come out and said it all loudly that he is not taking steroids doesn’t mean that he does take them. I just think of it as a sign that he might take steroids. Let’s take a look at other factors
Steroids were found in Mike Rashid’s Gym
A lot of people changed their mind that Mike Rashid is absolutely all natural exactly 2 years ago (February 2017) after Richard Rodriguez, who is the co owner of Mike’s gym (Iron Addicts in Florida) got arrested for trying to sell illegal steroids that were worth
10 million dollars
!!
As much as you can understand, as soon as this news got out, a lot of people didn’t missed the chance to “throw hatred” through Mike, his co worker and their gym based in Florida. A lot of trolls appeared calling out Mike and saying that he is a steroid dealer (and user, of course) and that his gym has been participating in illegal activities saying that steroids is what he lives with, both in terms of money and body. Nonetheless, the fact that his gym participates in illegal activities turned out to be all false. I’ve done my research here and I found out that DEA has publicly confirmed that there were no drugs ever sold or purchased at Iron Addicts gym – at the end of the article you can find the link where DEA proves it. What was Richard Rodriguez doing, as it was later found – he was importing those steroids from China, manufacturing them in a lab that is based in Arizona and was sending them off from a Miami address.
It is obvious Mike has addressed this topic and in his interview he said that even though he has got a bad vibe, he didn’t know that Richard has been selling illegal drugs and he has publicly said that he wouldn’t have gone into business with him if he would have known about this previously. You can listen to what Mike is saying in a YouTube video which I am going to share its link below so you can see yourself.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5woru1aEOAg
The fact that steroids were found in his gym obviously gives us the idea that Mike might use steroids. But he claims he didn’t know steroids were there so this still doesn’t prove that he is on steroids. that’s why we need to check on further.
Body Composition
Checking his body composition by analyzing a lot of his photos online, I wouldn’t call it naturally looking body, to be honest. To my opinion, it just doesn’t look natural and I am going to explain why. He has got some typical symptoms of a steroid user and that’s pretty alarming to my opinion. The reason why I am saying that is because Mike has got some boulder shoulders, he has got a HGH gut and his traps are being jacked up.
I started off with the boulder shoulders due to the fact that it is very hard for an absolutely all natural bodybuilder to have such big shoulder or big traps but it is possible if the bodybuilder is going to genetics that are world class and training those muscle groups any harder comparing to others. Nonetheless, by far not everybody can achieve such a result. What’s a clear giveaway is the HGH gut. A natural guy won’t have a protruding stomach that Mike Rashid seem to have and that’s a big sign. Natural guys are having a tight and narrow waist, something that we cannot see searching for current Mike photos. Mike’s gut can be seen in nearly all of his photos, but it is especially noticed when he is relaxed.
So, I do think that his body composition does have some signs of not being all natural but checking gains timeline is still mandatory.
Mike Rashid Body Transformation (or Gains Timeline)
Gains timeline is one of the absolutely best possible ways to determine if a person is taking steroids or not. I will try to find it out by checking his before/ after photos. A lot of people make huge mistakes pointing out that Mike’s transformation from the photos below is the clear sign that he is on steroids because he has got ripped and that’s a clear evidence.
Those people are making huge mistakes because checking his transformation, even though there are some chances that he may have taken steroids, it is absolutely possible to make all those gains and body transformation while staying drug free. Obviously, the steroids can help you achieve them faster (and more) but I do think that it is absolutely possible and that’s without steroids. it requires a lot of hard work, time and dedication.
What Mike had to do for experiencing that transformation it is to drop around 8% of his body fat and to retain his muscle mass. That’s very hard indeed, nonetheless, that’s perfectly possible for an 100% natural guy if he does know how to do a sensible cut and has enough desire to do so as by far not everyone can do it unless you are patient enough. Being possible to achieve such a body absolutely naturally doesn’t actually mean that Mike has been indeed natural during his transformation and that’s because the steroids can aid in the shredding of body fat, gaining muscle size and increasing vascularity – all symptoms that are noticed on Mike’s body.
Except for this, there’s one more thing that should be mentioned.
Competition History
To my opinion this is super important due to the fact that Mike has said that he does not really want to compete in any natural bodybuilding competitions and as he said, that’s because he does not want to be a “big fish in a small pond”. He has also added that it is easy to win a natural bodybuilding competition and as he said that’s because the athletes competing there are not in a good shape. Doesn’t it sound super suspicious? It is very suspicious to my own opinion. Mike Rashid has made all this comments in a YouTube video which you can find its link shared below.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=328&v=lMzSnSwWIwU
it is obvious I am not very sure about which federations Mike is being referring to while he is saying all of that, nonetheless there are a lot of amazing natural bodybuilders, genetic freaks that look in a way many wouldn’t look even with steroids and those guys compete in genuine natural federations and competitions such as BNBF, INBA and NANBF where I give very little chances that those who are competing are able to use anything at all.
The reason why I have such big doubts any of the competitors are able to use anything at all is because those federations are conducting some of the strictest and the most rigorous tests in order to catch all of the steroid users or any other PED (performance enhancing drugs). I honestly think it would be extremely naïve to think that there’s anyone who is natural that can easily beat those guys and I doubt that Mike is stupid enough to actually think like that. What I do think is that in case you are taking steroids then that’s definitely going to be a very good reason to try to stay away from such federations. By being a genetic freak – absolutely natural, there’s no good reason to stay away from them. The only reason is if you take steroids. It is known that Mike has competed in the WBFF, nonetheless there is no drug testing policies that could have been found on their website so there are chances they have no drug testing at all – that’s how Mike agreed to compete there.
Conclusion
My verdict is that Mike Rashid is not all natural. At least that’s based on the facts and evidences that I have managed to find checking many different things. It seems like Mike has used HGH (human growth hormone) and there are some chances that he has taken some steroids as well. As I earlier mentioned, some of the best way to say if there’s someone who has been taking steroids it is to check their gains timeline. By doing so, you can compare some of the photos of that person in different periods of time and see how much their body has changed since their younger days to present day. That was a bit of problem with Mike Rashid as we failed to find any photos of Mike online in his younger age, in his teen years or going through puberty. That’s why I am mainly comparing his body transformation and checking steroid symptoms on his body.
He seem to take HGH
There are quite enough visual evidences to my opinion (steroid symptoms) by carefully checking Mike’s body suggesting that he has taken human growth hormone. That’s at very least if he hasn’t used something else along with HGH.
The main reason why I think like that is because he is having a HGH gut which is not specific for a natural bodybuilder. In fact, I didn’t see any nattys having this symptoms. However, it is very often seen in people who are using HGH and a really good example is Sylvester Stallone but there are many others. The HGH gut is named this way because the HGH is enlarging a person’s intestines and this is causing the belly to look extremely bloated up and that’s especially noticed when a guy is relaxed. Even Mr Olympia guys such as Phil Heath are also known to have this HGH gut side effect (check my other article).
But, due to the fact that we don’t actually know for sure if Mike Rashid has suddenly blown up and has gained around 50 lbs of lean muscle since he has been in his teen years, we cannot say for sure that he has taken steroids. we can’t say anything as if he did used them or not and that’s because there are some chances he did, but there are chances he didn’t and that’s because of some symptoms he has on his body which could be described for a steroid user, but it is possible to achieve it for a natural as well. What we do know is that he did used HGH (and HGH is not technically classified as a steroid).
In the end, I am not trying to say that Mike should be trolled on social media despite him most likely using HGH. There are a lot of guys known to take this compound (as I earlier mentioned) but if you think you can have such a physique by taking HGH know that you are making a big mistake. Mike is training extremely hard and has an extremely big dedication of what he is doing. Lots of people are spending lots of their time online trolling Mike on social media calling him a steroid user and a cheater. But I give my credits to Mike who is an alpha male, instead of those internet trolls who are beta males. Killing time in gym like Mike, is much more worthy than killing time online trolling people, in my opinion. Mike has got huge respect as he did said he is not for steroids (even if using them, saying this publicly is very important) and he never actually claimed to be natural while taking HGH.
Tell us in the comments below what do you think about Mike Rashid? Are his genetics world class?
Special thanks to the following sources for allowing me writing this article:
https://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/crime/article134261519.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Growth_hormone
https://www.facebook.com/mikerashidking/