Steve Cook is a 31 years old American bodybuilder and fitness model who is competing in men’s physique category at the Mr Olympia stage (along with other big names in the bodybuilding world such as Jeff Seid, Sadik Hdzovic, Jeremy Buendia and many others).
Thanks to his amazing physique and a lot of fans he managed to get on social media, he ended up being sponsored by supplement company named Optimum Nutrition as well as a sponsorship offered by bodybuilding.com. In addition to that, Steve is also having his own clothing brand which is named Swoldier Nation. This is the term he is using in order to describe his army of fans. And this guys do have an real army of fans since he have nearly one million of likes on his Facebook page alone. This guy, with such a big amount of fans is making people form some pretty lengthy queues in order to see him at different bodybuilding expos.
The reason why Steve is having such a big amount of followers is mostly thanks to 3 main reasons: He is really jacked and swole; he is claiming to look this way all naturally (which we would try to find out if that’s true or not throughout this article) and he is having a really friendly personality which is very easy to be noticed by watching his YouTube videos where he also have a good amount of subscribers on his channel (over one million).
I guess it is obvious that no ordinary person can have such a big amount of fans and since Steve Cook got so many followers thanks to his body it is obvious that he is a real beast. Let’s check his stats and measures:
At the height of 6 ft 1 he is weighing 212 lbs with the approximate body fat of 7% so this gives him the arms measure of 19 inches. That’s really huge. He is the same height as Simeon Panda (who is so big that many think he has same stats as Arnie) and is only 20 lbs lighter at approximately the same body fat percentage. I do think that this is not bad at all.
So, since he’s such a beast and has such stats with a big amount of fans, it is obvious that many people started to speculate either is he natural or not. We would try to find it out using some real evidences. By researching what Steve is saying about steroids I couldn’t find too much information about his talking being all natural or what is his opinion about steroids. nonetheless, he does indirectly claim that he is all natural via his bodyspace account. Will share the link to his account below. there you can find such a message:
“I want the to go down as the best natural physiques ever. I inspire to look like Steve Reeves, Frank Zane and Bob Paris. I want to inspire other to do the same.”
I do agree that maybe this is not the most literate ever written message, nonetheless it is enough to understand that Steve is claiming to be all natural by reading it. Claiming so is good, but there’s one sure that I have learned by doing researches on different bodybuilders – you just can’t have 100% trust in what a person is saying because I found lots of bodybuilders claiming to be 100% natural and yet we discovered it was a lie. There are at least several people that have obviously lied about their steroid use for some maybe selfish or maybe unselfish reasons. Like for example, there are some people who are doing it in order to build up their own brand (such as Lazar), but there are other famous people who think that it is important to be a role model for kids and therefore they just do not want to promote anabolic steroids (which I think is really good) and among them I can mention Von Moger or Dwayne Johnson). So, with all of this being said, is Steve Cook using some steroids in order to achieve to the physique that he has nowadays or he has achieved it all only thanks to great genetics and hours of hard train?
Contents
Gains Timeline
One of the most important thing to check when you want to see if there’s a person juicing or not is to check their gains timeline. So far, this proved to be among the best methods to determine if a person juices or not. Thanks because, natural bodybuilders know very well that you just can’t keep on growing years and years and you can’t put on any lean muscle mass overnight. If a person started working out, put on some weight, then stopped and after a year or so he buffed up once again then that’s a clear sign of steroid use. After the newbie gains, natural guys do not put on more weight. They might do it, but extremely slow and small gains.
I tried to find pictures of Steve Cook when he was younger and luckily I did. Steve doesn’t really look to have gained any much of size ever since he has left the high school. This means that at this point he already plateaued from newbie gains. Here is what Steve was looking like when he was young in his high school:
As much as we can see, back in high school, Steve was already jacked as he has really big arms. In fact, they look as if they were a bit bigger than what they are today. And that’s because, as much as I think, in that pic it looks like Steve has been weighing more than he does today because it looks like he’s 235 lbs (which is around 20 lbs heavier than he is today, but with considerably more body fat %).
With all of this being said, I can say that Steve remained the same in terms of muscle mass, he just seem to have learned on how to diet properly and lose weight which allowed him to get more ripped over the years, rather than to add more muscle mass. While I was analyzing his gains timeline, I found this image of Steve Cook when he was young so it was pretty clear to me from this very first photo that I’ve seen that Steve has not used steroids, or at least he’s gains timeline has no signs of steroids but it is rather a gain timeline of a natural guy.
I do know what you might think: how do I know that he never took something BEFORE that photo in order to look the way he does in that high school pic. If you ask me if that’s possible that Steve took, for example, testosterone, during his high school years in order to look like that? Well, yes, it is possible but chances are extremely low. I think that it is very unlikely that he has ever used anything during his high school years in order to get as jacked and that’s because if he did used something to look like that, then he would almost surely use some more things later on, and that’s especially after he started to be a bodybuilder. What’s the point using something when you don’t have plans to become a bodybuilder and then not use anything after?
If he did used anything more later then he would have put a lot much more size with additional cycles than what he has today. But as much as we can see, he hasn’t.
Symptoms of Steroids
Usually, it is near to impossible for a steroid user to avoid getting side effects by using steroids and with this being said, nearly every person who is taking anabolic steroids have at least some steroid symptoms on their body. There are cases that a person won’t get steroid symptoms by using them, but these are some very unlikely cases. And, if you are going to browse through pics of Steve then you are going to see that his body is going to have a natural look to it. Like for example, he is having a great skin, he is not having any bloating at all, he has no acne and his shoulders and traps are not popped up in comparison to the rest of his body. Usually, the steroid users have AT LEAST a few of these symptoms, but Steve doesn’t have any. In addition to that, using testosterone or anabolic steroids is going to get their face structure changed (more manly face), however Steve is having a bit of a baby face. Lots of those using steroids are getting face structure changed becoming more masculine. If you are interested, I am going to share a photo of how the hormones (anabolic steroids) are able to change your face structure:
In the picture of the left you can see a man with a depiction of a high testosterone level. But in the photo on the right, as much as you can see, it is the same person, however is having a lower levels of the male hormone testosterone. In addition to that, the eye browse are also becoming a bit thicker with some higher testosterone levels.
Like for example, you can see this effect with Jaco De Bruyn’s transformation that he went through from having a very young face in 2010 changed to look like an extremely masculine man and that happened within the space of only one year. That’s what the testosterone is doing to you. That’s what the testosterone do and that’s why men get more testosterone – it is turning you from a boy into a man. This is also the reason why it looks like anabolics are appearing to age you and making you look more mature.
That’s a clear sign that Jaco did used steroids. But now, let’s take a look at Steve’s face. As much as we can see, he hasn’t changed nearly at all as his facial structure is exactly the same. This means a lot. Plus, he has no acne, no bloating, nothing at all. I think it says a lot.
Has Steve Cook Ever Been Drug Tested?
It has been mentioned previously in the beginning of my article, Steve has competed in the Olympia Men’s Physique category. And in addition to that, he has taken part in the NPC competitions. With this being said, the NPC is “proud of themselves in being a natural bodybuilding federation” and that’s despite the fact that they are not having any drug testing protocol on their official website. Well, it does seem legit….
I had to do research on their drug testing protocol and after I have read some information on a few forum sites, I have found there are people who have already competed in the NPC and they have said that the NPC is testing the athletes directly after the competitions via urinalysis (will share the link at the end of this article). At least this happened in the past. Yet, I doubt that this has changed a bit. And the fact that they are testing athletes via urinalysis after the competition that’s not a legit testing and that’s because such kind of tests are extremely easy to pass even if you do take steroids and you know what you are doing. All you need is to know the date of the test. So you just cycle off in time so steroids clear your system. At the date of event you’re going to be clear even though you have used steroids for years.
By learning the detection time for each steroid that you are using (which means that you should understand how much it needs to clear off your system) and therefore you can stop running it in that time. Whatever substance you are using won’t be found in the day of the competition. Then I have changed the Mr Olympia Men’s Physique drug testing policy and I found out that there’s no drug testing policy about this category either on their IFBB website. unfortunately, most of the federations are using such drug testing policies and that’s why I can say that only very few federations out there are credible – that are doing some real drug testing policy which is impossible to pass.
With all of this being said, we can say for sure that Steve has performed some drug tests in his life at some point and during some competitions but we can’t say for sure that the test results were 100% real. That’s because, as I earlier explained, the tests were not credible. All of this doesn’t really provide any real proof that he has been natural or he has been on steroids. So drug testing along with his own words do not really give us any insights about either or not he uses steroids. But his gains timeline and the fact that he has no steroid symptoms tells us a lot.
Verdict – Steve Cook is all Natural
As I earlier mentioned, unfortunately, the drug testing that were performed on Steve Cook can’t help us in determining if he is natural or has taken steroids. plus, he doesn’t really talk too much about steroids, he only claims to be natural. But the gains timeline and body composition are of a natural bodybuilder. Plus, we have not found any evidence at all that can suggest Steve Cook has ever taken steroids.
Like for example, Steve has not ever gained any size in his muscle mass since he left high school. Usually, taking steroids would make you continue growing more and more. And that’s often the situation with those genetically gifted naturals: they are growing a lot of muscle mass when they are young (newbie gains when they just start going to the gym) and after that they are plateaued as their progress stop. And as we can see in Steve Cook’s case, he has been already jacked up in the high school. He then later learned how to lose body fat and that’s it. That’s pretty much the way he achieved the body he has today which doesn’t seem to have any steroid symptoms.
Steve is extremely aesthetic unlike many other steroid users out there. He is having a great skin, he is not extremely shredded/ dry (as those who take cutting steroids) and he is having no bloating whatsoever. All of this indicates he is natural. As much as it seems, he is just having some incredible genetics for building up muscles and has made a name for himself by fulfilling that genetic potential he has while was dieting very much in order to get down and to maintain the 7% body fat all the year round (which is something very possible for any naturals with good knowledge).
Tell us what do you think about Steve Cook. Do you still think that he has ever taken steroids? Provide evidence that I might have missed. Thanks a lot for the following sources:
http://forum.bodybuilding.com/showthread.php?t=5560571
https://www.facebook.com/search/top/?q=Steve%20Cook
https://fitnessonsteroids.com/category/bodybuilders/