Sam Sulek is a name most people who enjoy lifting should know. He is an IFBB pro bodybuilder, getting that title during the Arnold Classic Amateur. Sam is completely self-taught, not having a coach to help him with his posing and things like that. His first show was the NPC Open Legends where he won to qualify for the Arnold Classic Amateur. He is a rare breed being self-taught and looking like some of the best out there.
Bodybuilding is a very historied sport, started in the 1890’s by Eugen Sandow, who is considered the father of bodybuilding. From that moment we have had people like Eugen Sandow and William Murray in what is known as the Bronze Age of bodybuilding. This age focused on more defined muscles while being smaller. Next was the Silver era being led by John Grimek. This era was just the end of completely natural bodybuilding at the highest level. The Golden Era is one of the most famous with the likes of Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sergio Oliva. This era brought in steroids to bodybuilding, completely changing everything. Then we have the modern era with people like Jay Cutler, Ronnie Coleman and Chris Bumsted among many other greats. This era is full of mass monsters. Those are guys who are huge and have lots of lean muscle packed onto them.
Sam Sulek is an influencer on YouTube with 4.06 million subscribers. He makes content directed at people who are serious lifters and people who enjoy things like bodybuilding and weightlifting. Going into his most recent show he weighed in at 217 pounds on stage. His lifting journey started off in his college’s gym at Miami of Ohio. He got popular due to his crazy size and strange diet advice. His size had people talking about the possibility of steroids. While he has come out now and discussed his usage of steroids, at the time it was a huge topic of discussion. He has grown in popularity and has become a huge name in the fitness world.
When he went on stage for the first time, he showed much promise in his upper body with well-developed lats, chest and biceps. His posing certainty left much to desire. His lack of proper posing showed when his quads looked nowhere near as shredded as they should’ve looked. They lacked much separation and that was from a lack of conditioning and not quite knowing how to properly pose the quads. Even with the negatives, he won first place, qualifying for a spot at the Arnold Classic Amature. This show would be a huge step forward in Sam’s bodybuilding career. He would go on to win the Arnold Classic and become an IFBB pro bodybuilder.
