The history of bodybuilding includes a large number of famous winners and record holders who have gained worldwide fame thanks to their work, will and determination. Recently, a category of athletes has appeared in modern bodybuilding who have received dubious fame through shocking and freak sensations. These guys cannot be denied determination; their task is to become famous at any cost. They are known and discussed by a wide audience, both their fans and opponents. A striking and controversial representative of such freaks is Greg Valentino.
How Valentino became a freak
Essentially, Greg Valentino is a capable guy from the Bronx, New York, with a natural talent for strength training. He was born in 1960. In his early youth he became interested in bodybuilding. By the age of 16, Valentino could boast a biceps volume of 46 cm, having a body weight of 65 kg, and after 10 years his biceps grew to 53 cm. Greg achieved these results through regular training and proper nutrition, without using any chemicals.
He did not intend to become a professional bodybuilder and participate in prestigious competitions. Valentino truly loved training with heavy weights and enjoyed the process itself. In order to improve athletic performance and increase muscle mass, he began taking vitamins, then anabolic steroids. It all ended with drug use. For distributing them, Greg went to prison for a whole year, losing his business and his family, which included two children.
History to learn from
The addiction to chemicals developed into a real drug addiction. Valentino says it often happened that he used second-hand needles. This is not surprising, because due to daily injections there were not enough clean needles, so we had to somehow get out of the situation.
Such negligence and uncontrolled injections of the drug for muscle growth - synthol - led to a terrible abscess on the biceps. Gregg Valentino now talks about the events of the past with regret, because at one time he ignored the advice of doctors to stop using chemical rubbish.
In moments of terrible pain and fever, he mixed Tylenol and Advil, added some dura-cef antibiotics and drank this flammable mixture.
Instead of seeking help from a hospital to have qualified doctors remove the inflammation and infection, he decided to carry out the procedure himself, recording every moment of the “operation” on video so that he could later post the shocking footage on his Instagram.
Self-indulgence led to a muscle rupture. “Foam muscles” literally tore the skin on my arm, and rivers of ichor and pus flowed from the wound, flooding the body and the floor. The “biceps explosion” put the athlete in a hospital bed for a long time. Surgeons were forced to urgently remove infected tissue. After suffering, his hands, covered with a network of scars, look tormented, and he had to forget about his former volumes forever.
Recently, a well-known victim of synthol and steroids has been conducting radio broadcasts and blogs on the Internet, and has appeared in talk shows and videos.
For a long time, Arnold Schwarzenegger and Ronnie Coleman remained Greg Valentino’s idols, but during the period of “synthol fever” Greg was 100% sure that he had left his rivals far behind, and they were incredibly jealous of his results. In 2016 - 2022, he continues to work on an instructive autobiography, in which a man openly talks about the fatal result of chasing the body of an iron monster.
The most powerful hands
The new stage of Valentino's life was marked by manic obsession. He, by all means, decided to grow giant hands. To do this, he injected exorbitant doses of chemicals into the muscles to promote muscle growth. Over time, Greg became the owner of the most powerful arms in the history of bodybuilding, gaining worldwide fame and getting into the pages of the Guinness Book of Records with a record biceps volume of 71 cm with a height of 168 cm and a weight of 120 kg.
The fame of the anti-hero constantly spurred Valentino. Having received what he wanted, he could not stop, and continued his training and his chemical experiments, turning into a disproportionate monster with “foam muscles.”
Denis Tsyplenkov - big champion of Russia
The Russian guy is also a professional arm wrestler, because by nature he is one of the owners of the largest limbs. He is the absolute champion of the World Cup among professionals in 2010. Tsyplenkov is also a member of the extreme power league. This strong man was born in Krivoy Rog, he started going to sports clubs at school, and was involved in weight lifting. While still a schoolboy, he became a candidate for master of sports in kettlebells, but this sport was not in great demand, so he began to engage in arm wrestling. Tsyplenkov’s wrist size is 23.5 cm, biceps - 61 cm.
There are some people who think that athlete's arms are the result of using growth hormone, but this is not true. The man received such limbs by inheritance; on his father’s side, all representatives of the stronger sex had such features. In the country, Tsyplenkov has long been nicknamed the Russian Hulk. With two fingers, Denis easily cracks walnuts.
Greg Valentino now
It is unknown at what moment this kind, sympathetic, promising guy became obsessed and radically changed his life. Perhaps a psychological change occurred to him as a result of being in hot spots and participating in hostilities during his army service. Now 60-year-old Greg Valentino is trying to understand the reasons for the events on the pages of his autobiographical book. There he openly and mercilessly talks about fate and sports, about his ups and downs. He also appears on radio and TV shows, writes a blog, and makes videos. Greg Valentino's life story is a warning to young athletes who want to achieve great results at any cost, despite tragic consequences.
And also read: Rich Piana - a freak bodybuilder and a “steroid monster” → The most unprepossessing bodybuilder - Big Lenny → What is the size of Denis Tsyplenkov’s biceps? Kirill Sarychev's biceps volume → Biceps volume - what size should it be?
Working on biceps
When you are told that someone has the biggest biceps in the world, you most likely imagine a bodybuilder with huge muscles all over his body. But, most likely, you imagine a proportional person, although in reality this is not the case. The fact is that record holders for the size of biceps do not have the most pleasant appearance, because these are the muscles that are most developed. Accordingly, they stand out disproportionately against the background of the rest of the body. Therefore, you should not think about breaking any record, since it is simply impossible to do this while remaining a normal person in terms of appearance. It is better to work on all muscles evenly - this is what all the instructors you can contact advise you to do. But who has the biggest biceps in the world?
Gregg Plitt
As a graduate of the US Military Academy, Plitt used a special type of training, thanks to which he managed to gain “star” fame. After serving in the army for 5 years, he soon became the owner of a personal training certificate and began working as an instructor in Los Angeles. He was a fitness enthusiast and used the MFT 28 training program in his work as a personal trainer. He could be seen on the covers of fashion magazines every now and then. His appearance and proportions allowed him to appear in advertising, and in 2008 he became one of the participants in the BravoTV community reality show called “Train Up.” He had nothing to do with drugs and steroids (well, he wasn't noticed, anyway) and guarded his heart (well, one way or another). And he didn’t seem to be an idiot... but his life was cut short on January 17, 2015. Plitt was hit by a train in the town of Burbank, California. According to media reports, the bodybuilder ran along the railroad tracks in an attempt to outrun a moving train to prove the effectiveness of the energy drink he had taken. Plitt was only 37 years old.
Mustafa Ismail
You have already learned about the size of the unnatural largest biceps in the world. The natural one, naturally, did not reach such dimensions. Its size is 64 centimeters, which is not even ten centimeters less than Greg's record, and it belongs to Mustafa Ismail. However, if Greg developed all his muscles due to steroids, that is, although his biceps do not look very beautiful and aesthetically pleasing, they at least slightly retain their proportions, then Mustafa’s muscles look simply terrible. They are about three times thicker than the widest part of his remaining arm, leading his friends to call him Mr. Popeye, after his resemblance to the famous animated character. However, Mustafa himself says that he likes his arms, so he does not strive to achieve a different result, but continues to work on his biceps. As a matter of fact, he is the record holder among bodybuilders, because he achieved his result without the use of prohibited substances.
Results in women
Naturally, not only men engage in bodybuilding - some women also try to achieve incredible results and turn their bodies into real rocks. Some are better at it than others, and they also become record holders. For example, in the matter of biceps size, there is a woman who managed to achieve simply incredible results and show the whole world that not only men can achieve great heights in bodybuilding. But who owns the largest biceps in the world in women? And it’s also extremely interesting how much girth it is, and how much does this result differ from the records of men?
Renee Tony
Many women achieve great success in bodybuilding, they show off incredible bodies that simply amaze everyone in the world. But among them there are those who achieve maximum success and go down in history as the best. These include Brazilian bodybuilder Renee Toni, who set a record in 2006 - she had the largest biceps in the world among women. Its size was 51 centimeters - as far as you remember, Greg Valentino was able to achieve approximately this figure naturally until he started using steroids. Thus, Renee was able to prove that women are no worse than men in bodybuilding, and they can also achieve simply amazing results.
