• Keep up to date with Ausbb via Twitter and Facebook. Please add us!
  • Join the Ausbb - Australian BodyBuilding forum

    If you have any problems with the registration process or your account login, please contact contact us.

    The Ausbb - Australian BodyBuilding forum is dedicated to no nonsense muscle and strength building. If you need advice that works, you have come to the right place. This forum focuses on building strength and muscle using the basics. You will also find that the Ausbb- Australian Bodybuilding Forum stresses encouragement and respect. Trolls and name calling are not allowed here. No matter what your personal goals are, you will be given effective advice that produces results.

    Please consider registering. It takes 30 seconds, and will allow you to get the most out of the forum.

How do you define 'natural'?

OldManMuscle

New member
After I got over the shock today of learning that the mighty Luke Wood passed away in Sept 2011, just days after discussing my fave topic, calves, with me at his Bankstown gym (in defence of my ignorance, I went to live in Thailand just before his death, I didn't read the Australian papers for months and we weren't actually besties, although, like most people, I thought he was a top bloke, as was/is his betrothed), I got to thinking about the context in which his name had come up in this forum.
Basically someone here listed all the bodybuilders they'd assumed had died early deaths from steroid abuse.
So it's a Saturday night, my Alcoholics Anonymous meeting finished early (yes, I'm a complicated man), and I thought I'd put out a few questions re the meaning of 'natural".
Now Luke apparently died of kidney failure, which could have been the result of many different things.
But most importantly, Luke never failed a drug test (as far as I know). So any suggestion he was not natural is not supportable by evidence. Unless the evidence of your own eyes is sufficient for you to ignore the allegations you are cowardly slandering a dead man and you decide to brand him 'non-natural' anyway ...
There are some very grey areas ... Do you accept that anyone who competes in the INBA and passes the drug test despite having used drugs 5 or more years ago is a bona fide 'natural'? This is perfectly acceptable according to the INBA guidelines, and as long as any ban had been served, someone who had even failed the drug test 5 or more years previous would still be eligible to win and hold the title of Natural Mr Australia.
And do you accept that someone who took substances like peptides before they were banned is 'natural', because they weren't banned at the time of use? It looks like ASADA is not going to accept that defence and may even try to prosecute footballers who ASADA can prove took peptides a coupla years ago.
Or what if they took them this year, not knowing what they were actually ingesting? Footballers do what their sports scientists and doctors tell them to. They're not paid to study pharmacology or law, you know.
Personally, I'm prepared to buy shares in the first company that runs a pro-drug use Olympics, NRL, AFL or Mr Olympia. Because as I said in another thread, we're most of us 'cheats' and few of us truly 'natural'.
Anyway, apologies for the long-windednesss of this thread. I know some of you guys hate to read. I hope your brains don't start hurting. I hope you can also tell when I'm being a smart arse for the sake of some fun on a Saturday night ... ;)
 
This is a very simple one to answer.

If you have used illegal steroids, or banned substances you are not natural.....simple I would have thought.

Don't care how many drug tests you passed or how many years ago the drugs were taken.
 
This is a very simple one to answer.

If you have used illegal steroids, or banned substances you are not natural.....simple I would have thought.

Don't care how many drug tests you passed or how many years ago the drugs were taken.

And what if you use something that's legal today but banned next year?
 
ASADA can't ban people for taking stuff that wasn't banned at the time. That is ridiculous. They have already made fools of themselves as it is.

You're not natural in my book if you have been juicing at any time.

Passing drug tests doesn't make you natural or drug free all it means is you passed a drug test.
 
Come on OldMan you've been around the traps long enough not to be naive enough to think that Luke Wood was a natural bodybuilder, regardless of how many drug tests he may have passed.
 
Come on OldMan you've been around the traps long enough not to be naive enough to think that Luke Wood was a natural bodybuilder, regardless of how many drug tests he may have passed.

I don't 'know' anything. I certainly never witnessed him taking drugs. And even if I suspected him, I don't have the right (nor desire) to slander a dead man. Even if I am just an anonymous poster on an online bodybuilding forum.
 
I don't 'know' anything. I certainly never witnessed him taking drugs. And even if I suspected him, I don't have the right (nor desire) to slander a dead man. Even if I am just an anonymous poster on an online bodybuilding forum.

There is no intent to slander, I'm simply pointing out the obvious.
You're viewpoint though may be a bit bias.
 
Its the diuretics that kill all these blokes not the steroids.

The kidney failures anyway, the heart attacks are probably the result of slack monitoring coupled with high doses of hormones.

No slander about it you choose that path you have to deal with the consequences. Lets not lose sight of the fact pro-doses are a little different to the average gym rat. IMHO most pros look like shit anyway, insulin & hgh have ruined bodybuilding.
 
Last edited:
Its the diuretics that kill all these blokes not the steroids.

Given that Luke died from kidney failure, your point is certainly relevant. But the problem is that there are numerous legal herbal diuretics that can kill and biochemists are tweaking new synthetic diuretics everyday that are not yet banned. As I said, there are too many grey areas for me to agree with Big Mick. It ain't simple, my friends.
 
Its the diuretics that kill all these blokes not the steroids.

IMHO most pros look like shit anyway, insulin & hgh have ruined bodybuilding.

We're possibly on the same wavelength here. My favourite physique of all time belonged to Frank Zane. But he wasn't called "The Chemist" for nothing.
 
We're possibly on the same wavelength here. My favourite physique of all time belonged to Frank Zane. But he wasn't called "The Chemist" for nothing.

I've heard this urban myth many times

"He was given the nickname "The Chemist" due to his Bachelor of Science degree and, as he puts it: "Back in the day I took a lot of supplements and tons of amino acids. Still do. But back then it was pretty unusual. That's how I got the nickname The Chemist." There was also a perception that his nickname was given because he was very scientific in reaching his peak on the exact day of competition, year after year."
 
I've heard this urban myth many times

"He was given the nickname "The Chemist" due to his Bachelor of Science degree and, as he puts it: "Back in the day I took a lot of supplements and tons of amino acids. Still do. But back then it was pretty unusual. That's how I got the nickname The Chemist." There was also a perception that his nickname was given because he was very scientific in reaching his peak on the exact day of competition, year after year."

Thiese are all Frank Zane's words taken from that great vehicle of self-promotion and propaganda: wikipedia. No Bachelor of Science degree before 1990 ever touched upon amino acid therapy and GH stimulation: it's a relatively new discipline. BTW, my BSc was awarded in 1986.
 
Zane received a B.Sc (Bachelor of Science degree) in Education from Wilkes University in Wilkes Barre, Pennsylvania in 1964. For 13 years, he taught mathematics and chemistry while living in Florida and California. Later he earned a B.A. (Bachelor of Arts degree) in psychology from Cal State LA in 1977. Finally, he was awarded a Master's degree in Experimental Psychology from Cal State SB, California in 1990.
 
Zane received a B.Sc (Bachelor of Science degree) in Education from Wilkes University in Wilkes Barre, Pennsylvania in 1964. For 13 years, he taught mathematics and chemistry while living in Florida and California. Later he earned a B.A. (Bachelor of Arts degree) in psychology from Cal State LA in 1977. Finally, he was awarded a Master's degree in Experimental Psychology from Cal State SB, California in 1990.

Frank Zane was certainly well educated (although at minor institutions) but psychology has nothing to do with amino acids or chemistry. In fact, his postgraduate specialisation in psychology and his teaching expertise in maths indicates that at best, chemistry was a minor in his BSc studies.
 
Last edited:
To suggest Luke woods was natural?

Let me summarize for those who came in late. Someone posted a list of bodybuilders who they assumed had died young from steroid abuse. Luke Woods was one of them. He never failed a drug test. Does anyone have the right to say he was not a natural, just because he was freaky big?
 
Let me summarize for those who came in late. Someone posted a list of bodybuilders who they assumed had died young from steroid abuse. Luke Woods was one of them. He never failed a drug test. Does anyone have the right to say he was not a natural, just because he was freaky big?

Yeah he never failed a drug test, that doesn't mean anything apart from he didn't fail a drug test. Neither did lance armstrong. While you cant know 100% it doesn't take a genius to know you don't get pro bodybuilder big without drugs. It's an extremely safe bet he was on the juice.
 
Let me summarize for those who came in late. Someone posted a list of bodybuilders who they assumed had died young from steroid abuse. Luke Woods was one of them. He never failed a drug test. Does anyone have the right to say he was not a natural, just because he was freaky big?


Freaky big??? He made it to the Arnold... And badly over dosed on Tren cause the gear he picked up in Thailand was concentrated... Couldn't hit any of his poses from memory...

Got nothing bad to say about the guy though... It's all quite sad..
RIP Luke...
 
Top