Steven Cao is a 22 years old bodybuilder with a lot of speculation online whether or not he is on steroids or not, and that’s especially because he’s a social media icon. This guy has got a huge following on Instagram with over 340,000 of fans following him which has helped the guy to land sponsorship deals with big companies such as Gym Shark and BPI Sports supplements. In addition to that, this guy is having a big amount of fans on YouTube as well with more than 85,000 subscribers on his channel. With this being said, it is obvious that there are a lot of people out there who are watching Steven Cao’s aesthetics so it is obvious that there’s much speculation online about his body – is he taking steroids or not?
Cao’s V-shape body is something that many dream of when going to gym, it is what are making people keep pushing during their workouts. It is a type of body that combine huge lats with a tiny waist – something that we surely want to admire. Here’s an example:
This is a photo that have bene posted on his Instagram account and it is the photo that gained a huge amount of likes but made lots of his fans wonder if he’s actually natural or not. Let’s take a look at Steven Cao’s stats: his weight is 179 lbs, with a height of 5 ft 11 and a total body fat of anywhere between 4 to 6 %. We recently discovered that Chul Soon is using steroids (check my other article) and with a body like that, it does looks as if Steven Cao is his younger natural brother. But, are there chances that this “brother from different mother” took the steps of Chul Soon and started to use steroids? or he is all natural? One thing we know for sure: with steroids or not, it requires a lot of hard work to get a body like he has. So let’s put the speculations down to bed.
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Steven Cao doesn’t claim to be natural
Obviously, that’s not a sign that he is juicing, nonetheless, typically those guy who are indeed natural really like to make a big point out of it letting others know that they never used steroids and they achieved it all naturally. Usually, these guys do it by either: writing something like “natural”, “100 natural” or “drug free” or “lifetime drug free sportsman” or whatever else in their about page on the website. Another way is that they try to say it on descriptions boxes – can be on their Instagram account, YouTube channel or anything else. Another way is: they use hashtags such as “natural”, “natty”, “drugfree” etc. on their social media posts (searching for such hashtags you just can’t miss Mike O’Hearn). There might be others as well. Even so, Steven Cao is one of the very few bodybuilders and famous guys that never said it. He doesn’t claim to be natural anywhere on social media or on his website.
I must mention the fact that there are some guys out there that are naturals and are not always making a big point out of it as there are some brahs that do go out in the internet *especially nowadays* and don’t get accused of using steroids every single hour of the day by everybody who’s not lazy enough. In such a case, there’s not going to be too much motivation for these guys to try and convince everyone else that they are drug free. But I doubt that this is the case of Steven Cao because, as I said, he’s an Instagram famous guy and when lots of people are watching you, it is obvious that lots of opinions might appear. With this being said, this guy do get a lot of accusations online that he is on steroids. He either doesn’t care by not pay attention to them and ignoring the accusations, or he simply doesn’t deny it because it is true.
Another strange thing that I noticed is that on pretty much every single picture that he is uploading, he is adding the needle emoji and I’m wondering what that may mean.
Anyway, the fact that he is being so much accused of using steroids and he hasn’t yet come out claiming that he is all natural, it does seem like a bit of a warning sign to my opinion. Don’t get me wrong, as I started this with, the fact that he doesn’t respond back to those accusations does not actually mean that he IS using steroids, as I said, he simply might try to ignore them. Let’s check it all further and see if there is any other evidence that this guy uses steroids.
His Body Composition Check
I have checked many photos online, on Instagram and other sources with Steven Cao’s body and to be honest, I doubt there’s anything that proves him to be having a steroids body.
However, I do think that there is one thing that is a little bit strange to my opinion. He has some insane vascularity at only 22 years old which is not very usual. It is obvious that with lower body fat and continuous workout vascularity is often appearing, nonetheless, he is only 22 years old. As much as we know, usually, younger people are having a thick/ supple skin due to the fact that their collagen production it is at their “best” moment with maximum production. But on the other hand, the steroids, regardless of your age, can make a person much more veiny due to the fact that they are increasing the muscle fullness and are causing thinning of the skin.
This, then again, is still not enough to say that Steven is on steroids because it is possible for a young person to naturally have thinner skin because of their genetics which play an extremely important role.
The vascularity alone isn’t a very good case for Steven Cao speculation whether is he on steroids or not. But that’s not enough evidence to prove this, plus it is worth know that I have never checked somebody with that level of vascularity at such a young age as Steven is who has been natural.
The Gains Timeline
As I always say, gains timeline it is by far one of the most reliable way to spot somebody who has been using steroids. Although Steven Cao is young, we still managed to find several photos of Steven Cao over a period of 6 years (photos at how he looked like at 16 years and photos of him nowadays that we could compare).
Right on his own YouTube channel you can see that Steven has uploaded a video where we can check his epic transformation which to my opinion is indeed epic. Here’s a photo comparison of him.
But if you’re interested you can also check his transformation video at the following link:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GIqcNdHs4dI&t=32s
If we are going to check the notes that he has offered during the transformation video, we found out that the first photo of him that I have shared up there (on the left) is him at 16 years old. In the video you can find information where he is stating that he has started to join the gym to start weight training when he has turned 16. After that, he is posting the photo from above as *before*.
That’s a clear sign that in the photo he would have already experienced the “newbie gains” a period where a person has most of their gains during the first time of hitting the gym, hence how he’s already in really good shape for a teenager.
If he would have stayed pretty much in the same or similar size to what he looked like at 16 years old then that would have been some typical gains of a natural bodybuilder. As I said, that’s due to the fact that they are experiencing nearly all of their muscle gains during their “newbie gains period” and that’s because their muscles are starting to adapt to the new stimulus. But after they fully adapt, the muscle growth stops, that’s the reason why after this, even the most gifted guys, by being natural, fail to get any significant gains – but then again, being natural, as it won’t be a problem for a steroid user.
But as much as we can notice, Steven Cao is looking in a way that he has gained a further of around 40 to 50 lbs of lean muscle mass and in the same time he has clearly managed to reduce his body fat % a lot over the period of 5 – 6 years. It would be near to impossible for a natural to be having that much gains with such a fat % loss. Plus to that, as a coincidence, using steroids does add around 30 to 50 lbs to your muscle mass. All in all, it does not seem to be any logical explanation out there from where that extra 50 lbs of lean muscle mass appeared, there won’t be any logical explanation taking in consideration he would be all natural, but it perfectly fits for a guy who is using steroids.
There may be an explanation of that, as Steven has shared on his YouTube video the following words: “18 years old was when I finally learned how to train. I started to become more serious and efficient with my training”.
Maybe he was indeed not working out and dieting properly so he didn’t maximized his potential? Maybe at that time, he got his workout and nutrition massively improved and that’s how his awesome muscle gains arrived? That may be a point, yet I don’t think that it very logical either. that’s because you might not have any ideas about what you are doing in the gym, however in case you are regularly lifting weights then your body is going to blow up regardless of what you do, and that’s because it is not being used to lifting weights and training overall. Training properly may add a bit of size in exceptional cases, but most often, training properly just buffs you up faster. After all, nobody is expert in the beginning and yet, there are tons of people who get their amazing “newbie gains” and I think there’s a reason for that. I doubt it is because they are all experts… it is simply because they are “newbies” so they get buffed up quicker.
In the end, I doubt that Steven has started using steroids when he was 16 or 17 years old, I can guess that this guy has started to juice up when he was 18 years old, the period when he started to understand how to properly work out, when became more knowledge and dedicated, this is how he has been able to diet down and to get shredded that much.
Conclusion
In the end, I do think that Steven Cao may have waited (which is very good for him) until he has been 18 years old (officially an adult) in order to start taking steroids. I do not encourage steroidal use, but if you’re still thinking to do so, then do it when you’re an adult at best. The reason I think like that is because he has already experienced his newbie gains and then, nearly 2 years later he has blown up once again when he has turned 18 years old. This simply does not fit up in a natural bodybuilder description but it perfectly fits for a bodybuilder that is using steroids.
What Steroids He Used?
Due to the fact that Steven Cao indeed has a somewhat natural looking body and he does not seem to be holding too much water, I believe that he could have taken testosterone in order to get the extra size of around 40 to 50 lbs of lean muscle he got. I think it is logical because other compounds have many different side effects while testosterone does not cause a lot of side effects that can be seen by checking his photos and videos. Except for test being able to help him pack on size, it also has some good fat burning properties which would have really helped him in order to get somewhat more ripped and more veiny that he seem to be nowadays.
Side Note
I am pretty sure that many would say that Steven Cao is looking the way he does thanks to steroids only or mostly. I need to tell you that you are completely wrong. There may be others thinking that you may look like Steven Cao by going through a cycle or 2 of testosterone. That’s another huge mistake. I need to tell you that achieving such a body physique is impossible by taking a specific steroid only and not working your ass off. Such a body requires working like a horse in the gym, it requires huge dedication, workout and dieting plans that should keep on going for several years at least! Only after you go through all of that dedication, workout and dieting and if you throw some of the best type of steroid as testosterone then you might have some chances to get some of that huge and amazing body looks as Steven Cao has.
Special thanks to many sources that have helped me into writing this article:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GIqcNdHs4dI&t=32s
https://www.wikipedia.org/testosterone
https://fitnessonsteroids.com/category/celebrities/
https://www.gymshark.com/
https://bodywhat.com/?1=ab054h1t&2=w2uk0egm