Mark Bell's Power Project - Power Bite 2: Ben Pakulski on Modern Day Steroid Use

Episode Date: September 21, 2019

Today's Power Bite comes to you from IFBB professional bodybuilder and winner of the 2008 Mr. Canada, Ben Pakulski. He and Mark Bell discussed what today's steroid use looks like compared to when Ben was competing. Watch and Listen to the entire episode on all platforms here: https://lnk.to/benpakpowerbite Subscribe to the Podcast on all platforms: ➢https://lnk.to/PowerProjectPodcast Visit our sponsors: ➢Piedmontese Beef: https://www.piedmontese.com/ Use Code "POWERPROJECT" at checkout for 25% off your order plus FREE 2-Day Shipping on orders of $99 ➢Perfect Keto: http://perfectketo.com/powerproject Use Code "POWERPROJECT" at checkout for 15% off your order! ➢SHOP NOW: https://markbellslingshot.com/ Enter Discount code, "POWERPROJECT" at checkout and receive 15% off all Sling Shots FOLLOW Mark Bell ➢ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/marksmellybell ➢ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MarkBellSuperTraining ➢ Twitter: https://twitter.com/marksmellybell ➢ Snapchat: marksmellybell Follow The Power Project Podcast ➢ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/MarkBellsPowerProject Follow Nsima Inyang ➢ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nsimainyang/  Podcast Produced by Andrew Zaragoza ➢ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/iamandrewz

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along with free two-day shipping on all orders of $99 and above. A lot of times bodybuilders, and this is a very big generalization, but a lot of times in our dealings with a lot of bodybuilders is if you came into the gym and I said, oh, man, what have you been sick? You lose some weight. You'd be like demoralized. Sure. gym and I said, oh man, you know, what have you been sick? You lose some weight. You'd be like demoralized. So sometimes, uh, the ego of bodybuilders can sometimes be a little, a little fragile and we would just do it messing around just to be dicks. But, um, it can be fragile

because you're so focused in on that. That is everything to you. Building up size, building up mass and, and getting all the details, right? Yeah. For most guys it is. And ideally it shouldn't be, right? It should be attached to the process and attached to like, if you master the process, your body's going to grow. It has to. You leave it no choice, right? But yeah, I think social media is crushing it for a lot of people and we all need the PR today. We all

need to post our abs today rather than like, hey man, I have this 10-year plan or this 5-year plan of going to Mr. Olympia contest or building a world-class body part or building a world-class body. It's definitely taken away from a lot of people. I can feel exactly what you're saying because as a filmmaker, you work on the movie.

That's the big goal, right? Yep. But every day, I feel like I need to report something to everybody. Everybody wants to see the movie now. Yeah, I got to tell everybody something. Where's the fucking movie, by the way? There's a new one coming out, May 29th. Where's the link to see the movie now. Yeah. I got to tell everybody something. And then there's a new one coming out May 29th. What's the, where's the link?

Can I swipe up? Yeah. But so that's, that's a thing. Like you said, the, um, the instant gratification is,

it's very important for people to get it now. Like I need it now. Yeah. And I really think that the greatest bodybuilders are the ones that don't need that. They have this internal focus, this internal locus of control. And they, um,

they just go inside their own little world like talk about dory and back in the day right he just he didn't need anybody else to tell him how great he was yeah he's like fuck you i'm gonna show you when i when i step on stage at olympia you'll know but i don't need you to tell me every day and that's such an important thing um and most people are so insecure in themselves they need that external gratification yeah so a truly great athlete doesn't seek that or they don't need it and i mean i think instagram uh develops that culture of i need this because once you once you get it you want it more right like yeah i need it more i need it more here comes a question

i have to ask so um in bigger stronger faster i had a huge uh moral dilemma with um using anabolics you know um jumping over to what they call the dark side or whatever, you know. And I did it, of course. And then, like, just wondering, as a professional bodybuilder, do you face that or is it just part of the sport? Do you just accept it or? So, man, you know, my perspective now is different than when I was a kid. Obviously, as a kid growing up in Canada, I knew nothing about it.

I knew it was part of the sport and nothing about it. And I was very lucky to have some very good advisors very young that didn't fuck me up. Because I think that's a huge part for young kids is they get these idiots telling them what to do. Or they learn from Get Big. And this is what Kai Green's stack is. And you're like, no, it's not, man. It's just some idiot on there telling you what he thinks it is. It's that gigantic list of drugs.

Oh, it's ridiculous, right? And they're going to kill themselves. And then they're like, oh, this is what I need to do to be a kid as a Mr. Olympia. I'm like, no, you don't. You need to do the smallest incremental dose so you keep moving forward. So obviously it's a part of bodybuilding, man. And the realization now is I try to advise people at least for a long time to not do it. Like, let's learn how to actually train first.

Because most guys go, oh, if you want to be a bodybuilder, you just got to take this so much more than that, man. Like it's in, I think the big difference between the seventies and eighties and now is back then it was a training culture. Like you trained hard, you trained twice a day after done training,

you're done training. What'd you do? You went to the beach, you laid on the beach, which is meditation in itself. You, you recovered, you connected with the earth. Now it's a drug-based culture so people think

rather than having to train harder i just take more drugs and that's what's the difference in the physique now it's like people are so attached to the dose and yeah like well they think the drugs do everything and they don't really do much at all really like when you really look at it um i think the biggest favor the world did to mark and i was just keeping us off of steroids and away from them until we were like in our you know late 20s and early 30s and stuff because um just being that young and diving into it we would have it would have been detrimental to both of us so like looking back on i go like i'm glad i didn't try it when i was young you know yeah because i didn't know enough about it. Yeah, I was very lucky, man, like I said, to be exposed to some bright people who, one,

got me good things that were, you know, not- Real. Yeah, not crap. And I didn't need a lot. As soon as I touched it, I responded. So I didn't attach to, like, oh, I need to take ridiculous amounts of everything. I think that's what a lot of people- that's a big mistake a lot of people make, too, is dumping a bunch of stuff on, you know, into your system and not knowing how much you need.

The amount of toxins are in there, like the heavy metals, people are killing themselves, man. And it's unfortunate. And I think it's killing bodybuilding. And I wish the government would at least legalize it. But a lot of people are like, hey, man, if you're going to do it, go to your doctor, let your doctor control this stuff. Because ultimately, man, the stuff coming from China is just killing people.

And it's really difficult. We talk about this all the time. I wish the process was actually easier to get your stuff prescribed and stuff like that. But it's not as easy as it should be. But there are some people out there trying to make it easier. And your blood work done is kind of an inconvenience. Yeah.

It costs money and it's kind of a pain in the ass. Yeah, completely. And then to try to find somebody that knows how to even read it is a whole nother thing. And I love that you brought that up, man, because most doctors are like,

oh, I just need testosterone. You don't fucking just need testosterone. It's all a cascade, man. It's all the HBXs influencing all these different hormones. You know, your luteinizing hormone, your follicle stimulating hormone, your DHEA, all these things are such massive components that just taking more testosterone is not going to get you the results you're after. You're one of the smarter bodybuilders out there, in my opinion.

You have a lot of information. Where are you pulling a lot of your information from? What are your sort of go-to spots for information man like you guys man i'm blessed to have a podcast where i get to literally call the smartest people in the world and ask them all the questions that i'm thinking about so start you know that that's where i do what i do now yeah um prior to that man like i said i've got a university degree in the area of science and kinesiology how the body moves and a lot of exercise physiology just just being a student of it, man. I take as many courses as I can and read as many books as I can.

I'm always trying to kind of decipher through and find the best information out there because we know there's a lot of bullshit. There's a lot of people out there, especially in the fitness industry. The fitness industry, I always say, is 30 years behind everybody else. So that was maybe the greatest thing I ever did was look outside the fitness industry for advice and looking into professional athletics, professional trainers, Olympic trainers, the best researchers, finding those people

because those are the guys who, if they have a very specific amount of knowledge that you can take and apply to your necessity, what you need, all of a sudden you've maybe made the sport better. Right. And that's kind of where my brain was. It's like, don't, don't listen to other bodybuilders. Don't listen to other people in this industry. Look outside and finally you can deduce some information and apply it to what you're doing. Do you think people can be leaner without drugs versus with

them? I've seen some of the, like, you know, they're drug tested, so I don't, you know, you don't know what the hell people are doing. Right. But sometimes the drug tested athletes have like kind of a harder look. Right. You know, because taking testosterone and things like that can cause some bloating and some things of that nature. Absolutely. You know, for those, for people that are listening that just want to get lean and get in good shape, you can accomplish a lot of these things without.

My opinion on that is a great question, too. I understand your question now. I advise every single person who wants to compete to compete natural first because, as we just spoke about, what do bodybuilders do to get in shape? Most bodybuilders don't want to train. They don't want to diet. They just take more shit. Yeah.

Like, I'm going to take Clombuterol. I'm going to take a FedRing. I'm going to take those other things. They're drug-based culture. Rather than like, hey, man, I'm just going to fucking diet. I'm gonna take clomburon i'm gonna take a fed room i think it's a drug-based culture rather than like hey man i'm just gonna fucking diet i'm just gonna do some hard cardio i'm actually gonna do some hard leg workouts to burn some fat and it's unfortunate but that's the reality you guys you guys know that is it like a lot of times that's why i respect natural athletes so much it's like these guys are putting the work man like it's hard man it's hard to get in shape naturally you're gonna suffer uh so i

suggest everybody do that at least once in their life and like learn how to learn how to die learn how to suffer a couple pounds of muscle fucking brutal yeah it's really it really is takes a lot of dedication that's where the six meals a day and the rest and the sleep and recovery and yeah everything's going to be i mean it's always important but it's going to even be that much more important yeah and the inflammatory factor is obviously very different. And the growth hormones adds just a whole different dimension that people aren't aware of is making people insulin resistant and making them look bigger than they are. So everybody goes, oh man, I screwed up my last week before the contest. You know, I lost 15 pounds in the last three days. Well,

no, you didn't screw up. You just actually lost the water that you're holding. So that's the problem. Most people is not actually dense muscle, right? It's just all this hyperemia from, you know, insulin and growth hormone and stuff. And then I screwed up my last week. You think people put way too much faith in the idea of the drugs? Cause like I'm saying, like a lot of people will look at somebody and they'll say like, Oh, that guy, if I just took steroids all day and did this and that, like, I'd look like that too. But i actually have done that like i've actually had points in my life where um i took a lot of steroids and trained like crazy and and like i didn't look like those guys show you know what i mean so it's like i think that a lot of people

um put well it was like after i did bigger stronger faster and i was like oh it's okay to try to do this and took a bunch of stuff and nothing really great happened i felt that way about growth hormone like i just got injured i didn't do it when i until i was pro and i was i was expecting like oh it's just gonna take me to this next level that's what i was especially about 10 years ago or so people were talking about it like being such a crazy crazy thing and i and i've i've used it before myself and all i got was joint pain right you know my hands got numb and my shit myself and all i got was joint pain right you know my hands got numb and my shit hurt so i got my bench press back up to like uh 455 raw

and then i blew out my shoulder so and my tricep so it wasn't even it wasn't worth it and then not to give like some you know scary tale of like oh don't do it you'll get hurt or anything but it's just the the plain truth of it was it wasn't what it was sold to me as that it was going to be like this awesome, you know, thing. I get on steroids all of a sudden now, like now I'm ripped and now I'm in great shape. It is so hard to get lean and in great shape with the amount of dieting I'm doing that there's no drug in the world that could even match what I'm trying to do right now. You know, I love this conversation too, because people need to realize, one, steroids aren't the solution to everything. But that being said, they are, I think, a massive tool.

A tool. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Especially for a man over 35. On the flip side. Yeah, every man should, I really believe, should be living a great life. Not just living. Like, you should be living a healthy, vigorous, rigorous life where you feel fucking awesome.

Right, where you feel fucking awesome. Right. Where you feel awesome, right? I don't want to live to 100 and feel like shit and have no sex drive. Like I want to live to whatever. And every one of those years is excellent. And I feel like a million bucks. A boner every day. Yeah.

I think it's an awesome tool. But people shouldn't be afraid of it. Nor should they think it's the holy grail that's going to get you everywhere you want to go. At the end of the day, like anything, there's no shortcuts, man. And I think that's true Holy Grail that's going to get you everywhere you want to go. At the end of the day, like anything, there's no shortcuts, man. I think that's true with our diet, too. I'm on this ketogenic diet, and it's working great for me, but that doesn't mean it's going to fit everybody. It doesn't mean it's going to be the answer for everything in my life.

I still have pain and inflammation in my body. We haven't completely gotten rid of everything yet. So we keep going until we find those things. I talk about this all the time. It's people attached to one particular diet. But, man, I'm a vegan, or I do it if it fits your macros. I keto. Man, it may work for you for a short period of time,

and you may have to change it. So you just got to watch. You have to observe. I'm a person that eats food is what I am now. That's what I look at it as. I love keto. You're not doing the same thing forever, right? Dude, I love keto.

It makes my brain feel great. But definitively, my performance goes to shit and I get fat every single time. Maybe my ratios aren't right. You could argue whatever it is. But that's just my observation. I feel mentally on point. I feel amazing. But I can't train.

My performance goes to shit. No matter how, what my keto levels are, if I'm supplementing. Let's talk a little bit about diet. Do you count how many carbs you eat? Do you count how many calories you eat do you count how many calories you eat do you count anything man right now i'm not getting it just did way too much of that i did way too much of that man my i attach now to eating less uh less often uh but i'm not really training that much now so um that's the breakfast i served you this morning yeah exactly he's like fast motherfucker yeah i'm like okay mark i will you're like hey you want'm like okay Mark I will you're like hey

you want to meet for breakfast nope nope you're fasting Mark's writing my diet that's my script no food

and a pat on the back yeah send you on your way smack me in the ass don't worry it'll be better for you