This is a reupload, the original received a Copyright Strike so had to be adjusted. If you made a comment on the previous video please repeat them here, I saw some excellent points brought up that I and others are now not able to see or respond to. Thanks!

Gasparini went from being in his 20s to looking in his 40s in 2 or 3 years.

Thank you for pointing this out. In recent years PED use in armwrestling has been out of control.

In related news Ryan Espey tested positive for estrogen 🤣💪🇨🇦

I abuse PEDs and refuse to lift a single weight or play any sport

Alway natty people!! Its not worth it to risk your health. You'll be thankful in your later years.

Salute to you for pursuing real journalism. It's nice to see someone significantly involved in AW spend time analyzing the power structures and unspoken truths.

The problem is that we are entertained by the freak show. The answer is to respect weight classes and test. The question is whether we would still be sufficiently entertained to pay.

180-200kg Levan doesn't exist without extreme PED use, etc. Is the sport better with a 135-155kg Levan instead? What if Ermes never blasted to his current form? What if Denis had never mutated into who he was at his peak? Et Cetera...

Unfortunately, the apex of most professional sports is determined by people's ability and willingness to take advantage of and endure the good and bad consequences of PEDs.

There have been a lot of injuries in the training room with the top armwrestlers lately. I think they are so strong on PEDs that their muscles are tearing.

I do fear that the rampant PED use is going to lead to the unnecessarily early deaths of many of the top arm wrestlers.

Nice video. It's complicated because in many ways the extreme PED use is a huge contributor to the growth armwrestling has seen over the last several years. So you could almost say drugs are what are making the sport. Eventually they'll be killing the athletes though, and it means the floor for newcomers is raised to a level where drugs aren't a choice but a requirement to even compete. It's no different to almost all other sports though, the overwhelming majority of top level athletes, even in "tested" leagues, are not natural. Society as a whole rewards steroid use way too much for it to be worthwhile staying natty.

Genetics are an element in sports for potential, but I think the biggest element at elite levels is sacrifice. What lengths are you willing to go to so you can be #1? I wish it was ALL legal and ALL open. l wish there was good, professional management of the PED use from real doctors. It would keep people from dying to doing massive permanent damage. Keeping it secret and illegal benefits nobody.

Good summary. I'd like to see tested matches happen at the same events as the untested in order not to ostracise clean athletes. Men in arm-wrestling will not stop till they drop and seriously, that is not what I came to arm-wrestling for. The injuries among pros seem to be increasing, possibly due to PED use's tendency to strengthen different body components at different rates. Ie. Muscle growth first, with tendons and bones lagging behind.

Thank you for bringing this out. I would say 95% of eastern arm wrestler are on steroids and probably 75% of westerners are on them except they are not useing it as much as the easterners are. Armwrestling should test for steroids and hgh. Cause its a strength sport i want to see who is naturally stronger. Just use weights and pulling to see whos the best

Just look at Ermes Levan and Dennis. Prime examples of too many drugs

This video is necessary but it forgets about the physiological aspect of armwrestling. Armwrestling is mostly isometric excercise with high pressures being put on forearm muscles, which naturally recover very quickly. Isometric excercises don't gain much muscle, but they strengthen your bones, ligaments and tendons quite a lot over time. Most of PEDs and steroids largely help with muscle growth and recovery, but not really strengthening the tendons and ligaments. On top of that some impair the recovery of latter two, which coupled with often higher workout volume due to faster muscle recovery, might actually lower your longevity as an armwrestler. Recently there have been many injuries in the circle of top level heavyweights, who obviously use some kinds of PEDs, which honestly shouldn't happen if they gained strength naturally. Probably the best example against PEDs would be Brzenk, who stayed on top throughout ~22 years of his career without drug usage, and only retired due to his problematic shoulder surgery. What I think will happen, is we'll see extreme amounts of injuries in steroid users which will put them out of the sport very quickly. Even Levan torn his wrist tendon (not sure which ones), which is completely unheard of. Armwrestling can be _healthy_ sport if it's coupled with *Brzenklike* high intensity training routine - you train for maybe 1-2h a week, with very high pressures, allowing your tendons and muscles to recover fully before next training. Any serious workout above that is probably waste of time gimmick that will pump up your muscles and weaken your tendons.

Why Ermes Gasparini on the cover and no Devon, or Levan, or Chafee, or Morozov or everyone on armwrestling? This is not professional in my opionion and is misleading

Most excellent coverage - Cheers!

Nice video, very articulate. Imo genetic remains the biggest decider tho

Well presented thoughts.

Well if we are honest it seems that drugs are saving arm wrestling. It doesn't really create a fair playing field but it has clearly created an exciting one.

Steroids are the only thing making armwrestling even somewhat relevant. If the only option was to watch guys who were between 160lbs-225lbs, and weren’t that strong, nobody would take interest in the sport. Just like nobody would watch bodybuilding if the only class was Mens Physique. They want to see Classic and Men’s Open.

Absolutely. I almost quit when I found out the truth. Now it's just a hobby. Nothing more.

Thx for the open words 👍👍👍

Arm wrestling does not have enough money involved to include drug testing to clean up the playing field. In time, things mag very well change.

I would never ever let my child train armwresling or bodybuilding.. i know ther is high useg of steroida and other drugs..

Steroids generally increase the weight of a player, resulting in the fact that they self-escalate their weight class. I am opposed to steroid use in general. But, until it is banned and tested for, I don't see that it will change.

It depends on how large the sport continues to grow. Since internet influencers are a major contributor to growing the sport, with insane physiques as you said, it's going to be difficult to get doping out of armwrestling. Especially for the super match format. Gambling is also involved, which is another reason why armwrestling will continue to grow. I am not personally against gambling but its apart of why armwrestling is gaining popularity.

Interesting Video, I agree up to a degree The Problem is mostly present in heavyweight armwrestling and bodybuilding. Classic or Mens Physique with their respevtive weight limits have other challenges like proportion and quality rather than size. In Armwrestlin it is difficult to tell what role PED actually plays. Of course you have guys Like Levan who abuse it like crazy. But John Brzenk only hopped on TRT pretty late on as far as I am aware. I am not sure if many Top Heavyweight Armwrestlers are heavily abusing PEDs at the moment or if it happens more in a "moderate" way.

Awesome coverage man i wish more people subscribe to you

- Did you do it? Yes. - What did it cost? Everything.

Sometimes i feel guilty. I love to watch those gigant guys armwresle , deadlift and fight. In some way i support the PED usage of those guys. But i dont want those guys to die early cuz of PED use.

We need all natty tournaments and more testing.

Hey i got a few questions im newer to the sport. When your arm wrestlin trainin for over all strength how far or what percentage from your 1 rep max to you wanna be, and should you go to failure if not how far from failure do you wanna be at the end of your reps and set? And whats a good rep and sets for buildin strength over time also when should you increase weight your liftin?

They should allow doping in every sporting event and let athletes use whatever substance they want to enhance their abilities im a special type of Olympic event, just to see what the human body is capable of at its peak.

Devon Larratt is a walking chemistry lab but he is the top promoter of the sport. Arm wrestling is already niche, by incorporating testing, they would lose all their top pullers. Drugs in sports is expected, where drugs are really causing damage is in the workforce, amongst average people. EVERYONE is on PEDs. Lawyers, doctors, nurses, police, etc. These people are functioning in a public service capacity while displaying full on steroid rage. That's were testing needs to become mandatory.

Early in his career Brzenk never used steroids and was still the best armwrestler in the world, thats why John is so good, obviously as he aged he did start using but its minimal compared to all the monster's.

It's up to each guy how hard they want to go. I think that the Georgians are currently living and learning the hard way though. Genadi just had yet another injury, Zurab had a devastating injury which is a result of adding too much muscle to his frame imo and Levan just showed up at EvW looking way smaller which tells me that he might be starting to understand how he's putting his body and life in too much danger by being 400+lb. He looks like he's about 340-350lb/160kg right now.

I always remember that scientist's comment.. a person can't run 100 m under 10 sec?!

Weight limit for superheavyweight class? Maybe make it a sliding scale with height.

you know something is wrong when those elite armwrestlers are starting to look like strongmen or bodybuilders on offseason (gasparini, saginashvili, Morozov) funny to say that these are also probably the current top 3

Suprised you never had Dennis Chernobyl as a reference lol 😆

Steroids ruin this sport. This sport has everything to be olympic and awesome, the drug usage, the lack and the corruption of the PED inspections ruin this sport.

They should drug test armwresters .levan ,denis,devan drug test them all

fantastic video brother

they all should compete without drugs, that would be realy interesting, because than you realy can say who is in which level; making rankings would make more pleasure and fun; its also fair and not cheating

3:53 WTF is going on with Jerry the Clown Cadorette belly 💀 Also I absolutely love that you show a footage of Ongerbaev while talking about mastery of the sport of Armwrestling. He’s in my book the most technically sound Armwrestler on the planet and like John Brzenk in his time punch waaaayyy above his weight.

I wonder what is the thought process behind deciding to use unnatural means to improve yourself. Do you just think at some point that "I'm not capable of improving myself enough without drugs" or "I must achieve the beef cattle look"?

It'll never grow into an Olympic sport without testing. It'll never be taken seriously by major sponsors or Sporting networks until the sport is a unified front, not a few large factions with a million small ones. Lastly, it's just not exciting to watch unless it's presented well or explained well to people that dont know.

Great video.

I mean, this is the reason why Levan is not currently pulling, the "#1" armwrestler. My guess is that Ermes started using later (Judging by photo comparison)

alright so i have been doing armwrestling for like 6-7 months my trainer is a europian champion and he told me that basically levan, ermis, devon, denis all those people he never seen in europian tournaments because europe drug tests them

Which compounds/cycles are the top arm wrestlers doing?

Speaking facts, love it 👏🇺🇸

"Levan what drugs do you take?" Levan: "Yes"

Just a side note, that guy smoked CBum in the front double bi, better conditioning, forearms, peaks, core, glutes, calves.

denis cyplenkov was one of the first to experiment with steroids, his obsession almost killed him, he gained 40 kg and a lot of muscles, now he looks like a melted candle

Simple solution, 2 categories...natural and open.

When Oprah interview Lance Armstrong..... he never said everyone is on it so its a level playin field lol

I'm pretty new to Armwrestling sport but absolutely hooked now. I have one very naive QUESTION. I know Devon and John Brzenk started using PEDs only recently, they built their entire AW careers natural, I hear people talking about Ermes getting on PEDs recently, is this true?? I can see the size difference in him compared to what he used to be in his early 20s, but he kinda looks natural but idk really. Did he confirm that he has started using PEDs and that he wasn't using before? someone please educate this arm wrestling newbie, thanks bros!

I think it's just an arms race (no pun intended) most of them must realise now that if they don't, there's much less likelihood they'll be competitive/reach the upper echelons without using tackle...

It is sad to see people killing themselves on PEDs to escape poverty and garner attention within sport for a chance at a short run of success.

They're grown ass men, they know the risk, who are we as another person to judge what they want to do with the sport they built? I now watch arm wrestling religiously because it's gotten extreme.

Quality my friend…

Peds should be banned in armwrestling, It is discouraging the new people who don't want to risk their health. Hope engin and other organization focuses on this.

I wouldn't say killing the sport, but the stigma of blatant drug use will certainly stunt it's potential mainstream growth. As a result, AW will remain a small niche in the strength-sport fraternity. Honestly, I think those who closely follow it now are mostly hardcore fans who have pushed the obvious aside, and merely enjoy the entertainment. They don't focus on how the athlete made those incredible gains and ability to toss around big weights on the interwebs. They just want to see the strongest do battle on stage. Kind of like a baseball fan saying who cares about PEDs; I just wanna see 500 ft homeruns. I personally enjoy watching all the divisions go at it in these state tournaments. There is no big arena and the video coverage often comes via cellphone. However, nearly every competitor is somebody the average Joe can relate too. When trying to carve a larger niche for AW that appeals to the demographics dominating today's sports fan landscape, I do think a shift to healthy, drug-free competition would have a better chance of breaking through -- and ending up on ESPN3 or something. That said, I don't think the current trend in AW supports a form of accountability or such a drastic paradigm shift to natty competitors. Kinda is wha it is, and the PPVs will roll on. Just my 2 pennies worth.

Isn't it odd there was no footage of the biggest giants of armwrestling peds use, Levan and Denis? Haha

Short sited but a good point. As always anyone that really cares will do it well, per say.

After seeing them on steroids i kinda don’t want to see them in a weaker form. It suits them to be huge. Maybe just make a natural only subcategory.

Halotestin before a match makes you pissed off like tren but no anxiety just pure rage (Mike tyson liked halo too bofere a match)

no drugs are not killing armwrestling. I never saw the issue with steroids in sports especially armwrestling, I don't see the issue. If anything it makes it fun and more exciting to watch as a spectator

It has been ages since the usage of peds in armwrestling

Thanks

I myself watch and enjoy the "pro circus"... But even if using PED´s only damages the athletes body it also affects/sends a message to the younger/newer armwrestlers that look up to their idols... My guess is that the use of PEDS will increase if it is commonly more accepted and ok in the pro circus.

PED usage isn’t killing armwrestling, but it’s killing the armwrestler’s careers and longevity.

aww thanks man! and yeah sadly drugs are killing armwrestling. like any other sport...everyone wants to be better

You did a great job on this post! Yes, armwrestling would be better if drugs use would be banned.

I agree that steroid use needs to be removed from arm wrestling but their is 20x as much skill involved in arm wrestling compared to body building...

Armwrestling has little to no money already. The organisations are too small to afford doping control. This can only happen when it becomes more mainstream and profitable

Oxygenashwili was silent since this dropped

Anomaly in todays armwrestling is Rino Masic, who is basically at the top ( under 24rs) while natural. So while hard, it is possible. :)

Whenever a superheavyweight from the East beats a superheavyweight from the West we can always count on people to release videos talking about drugs. 😂

just look at the dead bodybuilder numbers in recent years...should speak for itself...armwrestling can never die, armwrestlers can tho

It's up to the athletes because it will be life after arm wrestling if u use peds Long term affects could be devastating heart problems body can't produce natural testosterone anymore liver kidney damage list on and on is it worth that the question

I think steroids are probably way more prevalent in superheavyweight armwrestling. I dont believe most weight class armwrestlers use PED's.

Who is the short-statured arm wrestler who has gone the farthest in his career?

Simple fix there needs to be 2 categories, enhanced and not enhanced, so then we would see the standard of both. So that when cheating occurs it clearly stands out as obvious.

That last clip - that guys forearm...WTF 😮

there should be two different divisions in all sports those who are natural and those taking PEDs natural athletes must be very very heavily tested to prevent cheating

Depends what you want from the sport. If you want it to be a hobby where any normal guy can take it up and advance drug free to the TOP10 then drugs have absolutely killed it. If you want the sport to be entertaining and grow big, then it's helping to have the drugs. People want to see Supermen, not a bingo hall full of normal looking guys.

Ok the choice of drugs, but if you aren't genetically gifted for this sport, you can take as much drugs as you want and you still a mediocre puller.

This sport is rife with “drug abuse.” and as a discerning fan I feel it is harming the athletes at the highest level. This might exasperate a poorly informed or “delusional” portion of the fan base but it has merit. Instead of looking at the abnormal and unnatural transformation of the current number #1 AW (Levan) in the world with skepticism and concern, many naively only consider his present immense stature and not the consequences of abusing a body like that for years with anabolic steroids. Some might retort well “he has never failed a test” and my rejoinder to that is those “tests” are easily defeated, especially if they are not randomized and besides that point of fact Levan and his compound chemist made a 40 minute video on all of the PED’s he is using. We need to decide if we are going to be a fringe sport like bodybuilding who only placates a select crowd or if we do away with the unrestricted PED rampancy maybe we can really grow the sport over time.

Everyone wants an edge. For me. If your on the juice. You've already admitted defeat. If not. You wouldn't need them. It's sad..

Some drug testing in the sport will reduce excessive usage of steroids/hgh/etc to more moderate (still unhealthy) levels and it will be better for everyone in the long term. As far as supermatches, I think its here to stay, theres big money in it, fans and casuals who don't follow the sport want it.

All kind of professional sportsmen use drugs even amateurs. This madness must be stopped right now.

Have a problem with peds? I have a solution: don’t do them…

I dont give a rip what any athlete says, they all use or are intrigued with the thought of using gear.

Yes they are. Same way they killed bodybuilding and every other sport. Look, I don’t give a damn what guys like John Brzenk say… That steroids don’t do that much and it doesn’t make a difference. That’s 180% bull$h1t. I did roids 20 years ago to just gain weight, since I could eat 4000 calories a day and lift and never gain a pound. Not only did I gain 18 pounds in 1 month, but I went from doing barbell curls of 10 to 15 reps with 90 pound barbells, to easily doing 20 to 25 reps with 120 pound barbells…. And then when I started to get tired, I would get pissed and aggressive and knock out about another 10 to 15 reps without putting the barbell down. The advantage that this crap gives a competitor is unfair. It’s taking away natural ability and skill and giving it all to whomever doesn’t mind destroying their body the most.