Synthol Use among professionals?

builtolast

New Member
Just curious as I was watching some bodybuilding videos the other day, and thought to myself "How much of this muscle is just pure oil? Gross...!" I thought. So....how prevelant is it? Is synthol a standard IFBB, NPC tool of the trade? Comments, concerns type here. I wanna hear it all.

PS> this topic scares me. Also makes me feel ashamed if it turns out to be that big of a scam!
 
Bryan wrote a nice article in MH Muscle about synthol and explained it. He talks about a bodybuilder named Milos Sarcev who admitted to using the stuff and then had to go into the hospital for a lump of Synthol that migrated from his triceps to his lungs. He said there are also risks of severe nerve damage and permanent scarring.

There is a product called Pump 'N Pose that goes for $400.00 a bottle.

As far as what % of body builders use it...I have no clue.

I can only recite the facts that Bryan had written in his article.
 
I heard more than a few people naming Marcus Ruhl as a big user, apparently based on his appearance during this year's Olympia. Still, if he were going to use it I'd think he'd use it on his triceps as that's a major weak point of his. No one claimed seeing signs of its use there.

As for BBing being a scam, they're all on some kind of substance or another, not really hidden either. Judges these days seem to want mass more than anything, with symmetry and proportion coming in a distant second and third, at least it seems to me.

Ronnie Coleman was pretty dang impressive, and after talking to a few people here I went back and looked at some of his pics and videos, and he did have an amazingly complete physique. Lately though he seems to have gotten a bad case of GH gut which I read somewhere he had surgery to reduce. True or not, I think he's pushing himself way too hard and hitting the hormones way too much. And I further think this is the result of having to please judges who don't seem to care about the overall look of the builder, just how much he weighs and whether or not he's got a fairly decent cut.
 
not sure if there is a link...I read it in MH Muscle...I looked on their site and couldn't find anything on it...best I can say is look at the magazine in the store...it was rather short...but informative.
 
Take a look at Ernie Taylors triceps. Classic example. How the hell can you keep your tricep flexed when your elbow is bent at 90 degrees!?
 
[b said:
Quote[/b] (Pauly @ Nov. 28 2004,9:35)]Take a look at Ernie Taylors triceps. Classic example. How the hell can you keep your tricep flexed when your elbow is bent at 90 degrees!?
I dunno about Taylor to be honest. In his off season pics his triceps are still bulging like crazy no matter what he does. Plus I don't see any lumps. If he is using synthol he's good with a needle.
 
[b said:
Quote[/b] (xahrx @ Nov. 28 2004,7:01)]
[b said:
Quote[/b] (Pauly @ Nov. 28 2004,9:35)]Take a look at Ernie Taylors triceps. Classic example. How the hell can you keep your tricep flexed when your elbow is bent at 90 degrees!?
I dunno about Taylor to be honest. In his off season pics his triceps are still bulging like crazy no matter what he does. Plus I don't see any lumps. If he is using synthol he's good with a needle.
I dont think you could find a more blatant example of synthol use than Taylors triceps (apart from maybe Greg Valentino :) ), Take a look at these pics - his arms are bent yet his triceps still bulge like theyre flexed!
 
Is it possible that Ernie may be using some kind of a site specific anabolic, maybe IGF-1. Bryan has mentioned that this could cause localized growth. I believe Ernie's triceps were inspected by others and the verdict was that it didnt appear to be synthol. Kris Dim has been rumored to be using something in his triceps as well.
 
[b said:
Quote[/b] (Pauly @ Nov. 28 2004,2:25)]I dont think you could find a more blatant example of synthol use than Taylors triceps (apart from maybe Greg Valentino :) ), Take a look at these pics - his arms are bent yet his triceps still bulge like theyre flexed!
No, I do see what you're saying. I just don't think the pics are conclusive. His triceps are always like that it seems. It's possible he's just one of those freaks that has some serious advantage in one or a couple of areas. Remember Nubret's chest? Might be a similar thing. Could be synthol, but other than looking pumped all the time I don't see any lumps or anything.
 
xahrx--- that's about as obviously synthol as you can get. In fact, that could be a standard for which to compare other suspected synthol bodyparts
 
It amazes me how much Ernie's triceps are out of proportion. Either he has an incredible ability to grow large triceps or something's being put in them, but they still look weird. I saw a couple pics of him when he was in a contest(I think) with a more symmentrical physique and smaller triceps. He looked so much better.
 
[b said:
Quote[/b] (Pauly @ Nov. 28 2004,2:25)]I dont think you could find a more blatant example of synthol use than Taylors triceps (apart from maybe Greg Valentino :) ),
heh for anyone that doesnt know what Gregg looks like:
 
Some excerpts from another site about Synthrol and it names some names.
[b said:
Quote[/b] ]Site Enhancement: The Final Word
Part I of II
by Jason Meuller and Trevor Smith

Site enhancement oil is bodybuilding's dirty little secret. ....... However, I've yet to see one bodybuilder admit to using a site enhancement product. The signs are obvious, at this years Olympia it appeared that more top bodybuilders are partaking of site enhancement products than ever. .......The original name of Synthol was actually Synthrol 877 and Synthrol 873. One version contained anabolic steroids, while the other simply contained his "secret" mixture of oils. Mr. Clark was a mid-level steroid dealer who became obsessed with the idea of developing a site enhancement product. .......Chris was injecting himself with a variety of different oil that had been sterilized in a pressure cooker. He did this so much that he almost died on numerous occasions from pulmonary embolisms, and very nearly lost one of his legs below the knee due to a horrible infection. ........Trevor Smith is the only person I know that can be considered somewhat of a guru on the topic of site enhancement who's willing to even broach the subject. ......... What follows is the interview I did with Trevor Smith from Nuclear Nutrition.

DISCLAIMER- All of the products referred to in the article and interview are meant for topical use only. Using them in a fashion inconsistent with their labeling probably violates half a dozen local, state, and federal laws. What's discussed in this article is not meant to be used as course of action, and is purely for entertainment purposes only.

AE: What is the mechanism of action that allows these products to increase the size of various body parts?

Trevor: Well, basically the process is really simple….Think of the muscle as a dry sponge for hypothetical purposes. What happens when you drop it in water? It expands tremendously often quadrupling its previous size, correct? Well it is kind of that way when "Pump and Pose" products are injected into the belly of a muscle. Except instead of being absorbed by the muscle so much, they "spread" the muscle tissue and "lift" the muscle tissues (when done correctly mind you). Now most people do not understand the mechanism by which these products work and that is partly the reason why their arms, calves or delts look so fudged up and so stupid. If they understood the basic biomechanics of the body part in questions and how their muscle genetically looks (i.e. long insertion, short insertion, no peak, high peak) they would go a long way to maximizing the effects of these products. I always tell people that they must think of these products as car jacks. If you put the car jack on top of the car and started pumping it up, the height of the car wouldn’t increase. But if you place the jack under the car, and pump away, the car lifts up and its height increases. This, in essence is what you want to have happen. Look at "Pump and Pose" products as the jack and your muscle as the car. I know it sounds simple, but how many people have you seen that look like they have a half-gallon of oil sitting on top of their biceps. To me this is a stupid as trying to lift a car up with the jack on top of the car.

AE: Many bodybuilders are under the belief that localized injections of steroids will produce the same affect as a site enhancement oil. What are your feelings on this?

Trevor: This is absolutely true. Obviously only with oil based products though. I mean, it isn’t going to be bad to site inject say winstrol, in fact there is some indication as it might actually have localized effects on muscle growth along with systemic effects. But you are not going to get the tissue spreading and lifting effect that you will get with the oils. To me, the smart bodybuilder uses only the calves, biceps, triceps, or delts when injecting their gear. Why bother shooting into your @$$, unless you are looking to have an @$$ the size of a freakin Rhino, which without naming names one freaky east coast amateur’s @$$ actually looks like….a freakin Rhino’s! I was watching the 1998 USA’s and couldn’t believe what I was looking at when this guy turned around. Sure it was shredded to the bone, but his @$$ looked like Ronnie Coleman’s and Marcus Ruhl’s put together. What good is weighing 270-280lbs. on stage if 20 of it is in your @$$, right? The only thing one needs to understand is that you cannot and should not be injecting 5ml of gear into various body parts every day. You will get the same lifting action from putting 3ml of oil-based cypionate as you would putting 3ml of Site Enhancement Oil Plus. However, the sesame seed oil in the cypionate will get metabolized faster than the Site Enhancement Oil Plus, which contains more than just oil.

AE: What is the main ingredient in most of the site enhancement oils on the market?

Trevor: Well, contrary to what these other companies tell you, it usually isn’t anything but the same freakin M.C.T. oil you get in your local G.N.C. And if you are lucky, they throw in some benzyl alcohol for half-assed sterilization purposes. Of course, everyone knows this does not make a sterile product. It has to be produced in a clean, air filtered environment, and produced by actual lab coat and rubber glove wearing chemists in a temperature controlled room, which my product is and it is the only one out there that is, in fact, produced this way. The other guys produce their products by pouring a vat of cheap, low grade M.C.T. oil into some 100ml vials in their kitchen. Interestingly enough, a mutual friend of ours brought me a bottle of a pump and pose product from South Africa called Esik-Kleen or something like that. Both of us agreed that it was nothing but vegetable oil with some floating plant collagen in it. Now that is real sterile. I didn’t know whether to throw it out or fry up a freakin chicken with it. I know I am being a smart-@$$ here, but it really isn’t funny. People are injecting themselves with unsterile #### like this every day, and best of all they are paying $400.00 for a 100ml bottle of crap like this.

AE: How extensive do you think use of site enhancement oil (SEO) is in the pro ranks? I know there are some pretty obvious abusers, but I also know there's a lot of pros that use the stuff who never have the finger pointed at them. Without naming names, how bad do you think it's gotten?

Trevor: Well first we need to make a distinction here. Site Enhancement Oil is the name of my product, not the general name for all these other "Pump and Pose" products. I don’t want people getting confused or confusing the other garbage out there with my product. So how extensive do I think these types of products are in the pro ranks? Very!

It would be easier for me to name the people who don’t use these types of products, then to name the ones that do. And #### this "without naming names" ####. Let’s name some of the ones that do use.

Flex Wheeler: Probably the biggest user out there. Except Flex has someone applying the shots (a plastic surgeon I heard) that knows what they are doing, because he still looks good. Although if you look at pics of him from 1992 to now, he has completely lost the deltoid/arm tie ins which he used to have. The use of site injections has made his arms a good 2-3 inches bigger and cost him some definition. Now his delts he has gone over board in my opinion, as they are actually bigger than his pecs. Of course, his calves were probably the first thing he did. They don’t look good because they just do not flex and they have no definition.

Ronnie Coleman: uses it strictly in his calves because he has very high calves like a number of the black athletes

Marcus Ruhl: you can usually see the bruises on his biceps from the injection….his look good and he has a wicked peak.

Nasser: again you can see where he applies it in his arms

J.P. Fux: in the battle for the Olympia tape, you clearly see the telltale biceps bruise from where he injects.

Dexter Jackson: uses a lot in his calves

I could go on and on. A lot of the black athletes use it in their calves to over-come their genetically high calves, and most of the pros will use it to fill out the shoulders. Like I said, it would be easier to name guys that don’t use the stuff: Shawn Ray, Lee Priest, Kevin Levrone….

At the end of the day, the guys who understand how to do the injections correctly will not get noticed. The guys who go ape #### with the stuff and don’t know how to use it correctly, they are going to stand out. The smart ones will use smaller amounts over the long haul so it won’t be such a dramatic difference from the last time they competed. I mean if you do the N.O.C. and have weak biceps and then show up at the Olympia with huge footballs, it is going to raise some eyelids.
 
I showed Greg's pic to someone at work and the guy goes "wow, he's so strong". I had to explain to him that its actually oil not muscle. As grotesque as it appears to us, I dont think most ppl outside of bodybuilding can tell that its not real muscle.
 
[b said:
Quote[/b] (kid largo @ Nov. 28 2004,10:11)]
[b said:
Quote[/b] (Pauly @ Nov. 28 2004,2:25)]I dont think you could find a more blatant example of synthol use than Taylors triceps (apart from maybe Greg Valentino :) ),
heh for anyone that doesnt know what Gregg looks like:
No, Frickin way. Who on earth would want this, it's hideous.
 
I prefer Castrol SAE 40# myself.
laugh.gif
 
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