Is Steve Cook on Steroids? We Found Out!

DOES STEVEN COOK USE STEROIDS OR IS HE NATURAL?

If you are a follower of the health and fitness pages on social media, you won’t take long before you run into Steve Cook. His name is one that has become instantly recognizable to anyone familiar with Mr. Olympia contests.

But Steve Cook made his name on the physique division of Mt Olympia, which until recent times has not attracted a lot of interest. The new-grown popularity of the division is thanks to social media, which many players can use to popularize themselves to audiences based on any division they want in Olympia. So what does this have to do with Steve Cook?

Well, he, too, has created a marketing sensation through his brand called Swoldier Nation. It’s a clothing brand, and the name stands for the fans that idolize him. He is a top sponsored athlete with big sponsoring companies like Optimum Nutrition and Bodybuilding.com behind him. This is no casual situation as the two companies rake huge sums in revenue dollars.

Steve Cook has gone on to attract more than 2 million fans on social media with his irresistibly aesthetic figure and a nice and winning personality. There are long queues of excited fans lining up to meet him whenever he is at a bodybuilding expo. But it’s the insistence that he is natural that draws the interest of this article. So we will attempt to explore this topic carefully. Is he natty as he claims, or does he run on steroids?

Steve Cook’s background 

Coming from an athletic family with a father who was an athletic director, British born Steve Cook took a liking to physical education in school. He threw himself into it with a passion and soon dabbled into lifting weights. His burning ambition was to get into American football and play in the NFL.

So it was a shock when failure came knocking on his door. He didn’t get anywhere near to get into the NFL. He also didn’t graduate.

From here, he stumbled along seemingly with no direction. He got married, and before long, the marriage hit the rocks. He was a jobless husband, and it was his wife who brought the food home. Their relationship descended into quarrels and frequent fallout with each other. Steve sank deep into depression. Eventually, the marriage broke up, and Steve was forced to get back and stay with his parents.

Fortunately, they proved to be a positive force during these bleak times, encouraging him to get motivated again. That is when he got back to training. It was the one thing that made him feel positive again and ridden him of stress. Steve embarked on a rigorous regimen of exercise, weight lifting, and diet. The results were explosive as his body went through a tremendous transformation.

It was then that he got the idea to compete. It proved to be a smashing success. Just 8 weeks after starting to read up on everything he could find on online forums and seeking advice, he won his very first show. This win was a tremendous morale booster, and he felt like a man reborn.

From here, the wins came fast and furious. First came his dominance of the amateur circuit. Then he earned his pro card and settled for fitness modeling as his option. Things got better when he relocated to the US. The graduation which had been elusive to him was now made possible when he studied and got a degree. His career skyrocketed when he clinched the Mr. Olympia title of Muscle and Fitness for male fitness models.

With a pro card under his belt, Steve was able to pursue his interest in bigger shows. From NPC, he went on to debut in the IFBB with the first show in Houston Pro in 2012. This also saw him go on to compete in the Olympia physique division for men.

Here are some more scoops by Steve.

• 1st in IFBB Dallas Pro 2014
• 5th in IFBB Olympia Weekend 2014
• 8th in IFBB Olympia Weekend 2013

Here is how his stats look like.

• Height: 6 ft 1
• Weight: 212 Ibs
• Body fat: 7%
• Arms: 18 inches

Is he natty or on steroids? 

We have delved enough into Steve Cook’s history, and it’s time to find out if all these impressive accomplishments could have anything to do with steroids.

Bodybuilders typically get savagely trolled for using steroids. However, this isn’t the case much with Steve Cook. His image as a nice and likable guy probably has something to do with that. However, he will still get the occasional accusation of steroid use from his millions of followers, so let’s look into it.

• Timeline of Gains

Steve got started in his journey in high school and college while weighing 235 Ibs and standing at 6 ft 1. If we wanted evidence of possible steroid use, then we would have to trace things from here and pick out any massive increases for which there is no explanation. Oddly enough, Steve’s trajectory from this beginning has swung their other way round. He shed 20 Ibs from this onset, which is unlike what we would expect from someone doing steroids. So every indication is that he is natty thus far. We need to point out that Steve owns up to what he calls dirty bulk at the very start. Does this mean steroids? Even if so, we don’t see the quick massive gains to make us conclude that his success comes mainly from steroids.

• How his size rates

What’s more, is that Steve’s size isn’t especially big. He comes in at 210 to 215 Ibs and stands at 6 ft 1. That is on stage, but off-stage, he is 220 pounds. This makes him fall somewhere average. So are these stats attainable by natural means? The answer, which would be uncontroversial to most people, is obvious. These numbers are possible naturally, so it adds one more piece of evidence that Steve is natty.

• Skin condition

Steroid users typically show a lot more age on their skin compared to non-users. The hair also tends to vanish, especially if your genetics lean more towards baldness. The overall picture is that of older looking persons. So how does Steve Cook look in relation to this? Looking at all his pictures, you can see that he doesn’t even show his right age. He appears far younger than his actual age. A bonus here is that his skin also doesn’t look flushed, which is something else steroid users show. This is a red appearance to the skin which comes from the high pressure and temperature produced in the body by steroids.

• What does he say himself?

This would be a good indicator of a person’s use of steroids, although by no means conclusive. Steve generally steers away from extensive discussion of steroids. However, he has voiced the opinion that he takes pride in succeeding naturally as a bodybuilder and would like to be remembered for that.

• Didn’t he get drug tested?

Steve has taken part in NPC, which is a natural organization. But the joke is on you if you think that competing and winning at an NPC competition means you are not on steroids. NPC does its tests on competitors only after the competition is over. No random or unannounced tests. So if you are a smart contestant who doesn’t want to get caught on steroids or some other drug, you simply time your steroids well before the competition. You will get plenty of help from NPC itself since they will alert you about the date of the competition! Not only that, they may not even do any testing. So if the steroids are still in your body, it won’t matter as there is a chance they won’t test. That means that you might attain the ultimate irony of winning in a natural competition while you are actually on steroids. Steve has competed and won in several NPC contests, but this doesn’t tell us if he does or doesn’t do steroids. So this one evidence which we have to give the pass.

So here is the sum of everything. Steve has no Gyno, flushed skin, or acne. He has also reduced in size since the time he started training 10 years ago.

Verdict 

Considering all the evidence we have brought together, one is left with little choice but to conclude that Steve Cook is natty. If he ever used steroids, this must have been at a very early stage when he was a mere amateur.

So how do we account for Steve Cook’s great physique? That must come from a combination of hard work, a lucky set of the right genes, plus some help. Perhaps legal steroids. The family’s sporting avidness and a guiding father who was an athletic director are additional circumstances that aided Steve Cook’s path to bodybuilding greatness.