The years of Rich Pian's life and his sporting achievements

died
last year in Florida . Despite his young age - only 46 years old, he managed to build a business, love and earn decent money. Although the athlete failed to reach sporting heights, his name appeared in the media more often than other star athletes.

The athlete became famous for his artistic painting on his body, participation in scandalous stories and huge bazooka hands .

With a height of 183 cm, Pian’s parameters were:

weight at the competition was almost 127 kg;
between seasons the athlete gained 143 kg;
biceps diameter was 61 cm;
wrist circumference was almost 23 cm;
forearms – 49 cm.

It was not possible to achieve such anthropometric data without the use of stimulants. The athlete himself never denied that at one time he pumped synthol into his muscles. According to the bodybuilder:

“Synthol is bullshit. Anyone who has tried it knows what I'm talking about."

What really happened

On August 25, 2022, the first message appeared on Instagram that Rich Piana had died . Information about Pian’s death and funeral was confirmed by Soviet Sport and official foreign sources. There are several versions about the cause of the bodybuilder’s death. According to his girlfriend, Chanel Jansen, the athlete fell in the bathroom on August 10 while getting a haircut, broke his head and lost consciousness. According to the hospital staff, the bodybuilder was in a coma for the last few days and died without regaining consciousness.

Compromising facts

After searching the house, police found a package of steroids, a lot of alcohol and opiates. As it turned out, the bodybuilder was taking “organic glass” - polymethyl methacrylate-methacrylate. It is used:

In aesthetic medicine as lip fillers and scar correction.
In shockproof windows.
In outdoor advertising signs.
For industrial purposes.

also versions of insulin overdose and improper use of hormones. According to his ex-wife, “he simply could not get out of the coma.”

Natural training

The death of Rich Piana and other famous bodybuilders should teach that when training with iron it is important to monitor your health . The desire for sports results in the presence of serious illnesses can play a cruel joke and lead to dire consequences. At the same time, the use of doping only aggravates the situation and harms even a completely healthy person.

To achieve significant heights in sports and not harm your body, it is enough to optimize your training, adjust your nutrition, recover properly and take natural supplements . Leveton Forte has proven itself well for athletes working with weights . This remedy naturally increases your own testosterone levels and quickly grows muscles.

The action of the dietary supplement Leveton Forte is associated with its unique components:

Leuzea increases endurance and performance; contains 65 ecdysterones - phytohormones involved in muscle hypertrophy;
drone homogenate is a beekeeping product containing entomological hormones and prohormones for muscle growth. These substances are completely safe and have an anabolic effect;
bee pollen includes vitamins, minerals and amino acids necessary for muscle recovery and hypertrophy;
Vitamins C and E are needed to maintain muscle volume during stressful situations, such as hunger, nervous tension, etc.

How the story began

The bodybuilder’s date of birth is September 1971, USA. Little is known about what Rich's childhood was like. Good genetics and his mother’s passion for bodybuilding even during puberty determined the boy’s type of activity. He came into contact with the world of weightlifting at the age of 11, when he watched adults train. Already at that time, the tall teenager stood out from his peers with his athletic build, strength and stubbornness. When his classmates began to develop mustaches, he was already bench-pressing 140 kg.

Death

At 1:30 pm on August 7, 2022, Piana collapsed while receiving a haircut from Jansen at his home. He was standing at the time and hit his head when he collapsed. Jansen called the emergency operator, and followed their instructions to try to perform cardiopulmonary resuscitation until paramedics arrived about 10 minutes into her call. The paramedics confirmed that his heart was not beating properly. His heartbeat was eventually restored, but only after so much time had passed that brain damage had set in from lack of oxygen. After the discovery of crushed white powder along with a straw and a cr card on the table in his home, paramedics administered Narcan, a medication used to counteract a possible opiate overdose. There was later speculation about possible recreational drug use, foul play, or other unknown factors involved in his death. However, Jansen denied that cocaine, heroin, or other drugs were involved – saying he had sometimes snorted a high-caffeine pre-workout supplement and that he did not use recreational drugs. Twenty bottles of testosterone were reportedly found in his home.

Jansen later said his brain had been deprived of oxygen for over 30 minutes. She also said that in the last few days before his collapse, Piana had exhibited some unusual symptoms including shortness of breath and nausea, and said she was later told these may have been warning signs of an impending cardiac arrest.

After spending two weeks in an induced coma to try and reduce swelling to the brain, Piana died on August 25, 2022, at the age of 46. An autopsy revealed “significant heart disease” and that his heart and liver weighed over twice the average amount for an adult male. Jansen said Piana was well aware that his organs were enlarged, and that this was a known side effect of the steroids and hormones he had been taking, but said he was not aware that this put him at risk for a sudden cardiac arrest.

The autopsy was ultimately inclusive on the cause and manner of death. No toxicology analysis was performed for the autopsy, and no access to any toxicology analysis from the period of his hospital treatment was made available to the medical examiner for study. The hospital had discarded the specimens needed for a toxicology analysis to be later performed, despite specific requests to preserve them for analysis. This led to conspiracy theories about a possible cover-up of the true circumstances and cause of his death. The autopsy report said there was no evidence of recent injury, appearing to rule out physical trauma as a significant factor in his death.

He was buried at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Hollywood Hills, California.

Victory at any cost!"

This motivating motto helped strengthen the bodybuilder's will. Already in his youth, he planned his future and looked for unconventional paths to his goal. This prompted him to accelerate muscle progression and inject metestosterone and decadurobolin. He administered the drugs one cube at a time once a week and observed the results. In 2 months I managed to gain 10 kg of muscle mass and 2.5 kg of fat.

For his 18th birthday, the guy gave himself a gift - he won a clear victory at the junior competition. He was incredibly inspired by the success, and he realized what could be achieved with pharmaceuticals. Rich Piana later talks about steroids:

“If the goal is to build a huge body, naturally, you can’t do without them.”

At his peak at 34:

from a lying position I pressed 225 kg 3 times;
trained my arms with barbell lifts of 125 kg x 3;
squatted with a weight of 265 kg x 2;
in the deadlift I lifted 265 kg once.

Death

At 1:30 pm on August 7, 2022, Piana collapsed while receiving a haircut from Jansen at his home.
He was standing at the time and hit his head when he collapsed. Jansen called the emergency operator, and followed their instructions to try to perform cardiopulmonary resuscitation until paramedics arrived about 10 minutes into her call. The paramedics confirmed that his heart was not beating properly. His heartbeat was eventually restored, but only after so much time had passed that brain damage had set in from lack of oxygen. After the discovery of crushed white powder along with a straw and a credit card on the table in his home, paramedics administered Narcan, a medication used to counteract a possible opiate overdose. There was later speculation about possible recreational drug use, foul play, or other unknown factors involved in his death. However, Jansen denied that cocaine, heroin, or other drugs were involved – saying he had sometimes snorted a high-caffeine pre-workout supplement and that he did not use recreational drugs. Twenty bottles of testosterone were reportedly found in his home. Jansen later said his brain had been deprived of oxygen for over 30 minutes. She also said that in the last few days before his collapse, Piana had exhibited some unusual symptoms including shortness of breath and nausea, and said she was later told these may have been warning signs of an impending cardiac arrest.

He was buried at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Hollywood Hills, California.

Piana's workouts

The athlete's program was built on the principle of from least to greatest. He started with light weights and a few reps, then steadily increased volume, doubles, and tempo.

If on Monday you worked on your torso and biceps;
on Tuesday I combined back with triceps;
the environment was allocated for pumping the shoulders and calves, forearms and trapezius.

The athlete constantly monitored local hypertrophy and to correct lagging areas . In addition, during the day I performed the “vacuum” exercise 3 times for a narrow waist. Each training session began with cardio. The program also included training in the evening with light weights for 100 repetitions. Usually this is how he pumped up his arms, doing dumbbell lateral raises and pumping up his biceps with repeated curls.

Career

Piana won the IFBB Mr. Teen California competition in 1989 at age 18, and in 1998 he was named IFBB Mr. California. He continued to compete on and off for about 25 years, winning NPC competitions in the 2003 Los Angeles Super-Heavyweight division, 2009 Sacramento Super-Heavyweight division, and the 2009 Border States Classic Super-Heavyweight division and overall championship. He was featured on the cover of the November 1998 issue of Ironman

magazine and the Summer 2015 issue of
Muscle Sport
magazine.

He had a cameo appearance as The Incredible Hulk in an episode of the television series Scrubs

, and played an oiled-up muscle man named Marcus in an episode of “Malcolm in the Middle” (without any spoken lines).
He was one of the main focuses of the 2022 bodybuilding documentary Generation Iron 2
.

In a 2014 YouTube video, he said that he had used anabolic steroids over the course of 25 years – since he was 18 years old – and specifically stated that everyone should be aware that using steroids will do damage to their body, but also said that he was willing to take the chance. He said he had experienced some side effects, such as hair loss, gynecomastia (enlarged breasts, which he had treated with medication), and signs of liver toxicity, but said he had not had acne or major problems thus far. However, he said: “I am totally 100% aware that damage is being done to my body by the choices I am making”, that “I know for a fact that doing what I am doing is going to cause damage”, but also said: “I have made a choice and I am willing to deal with that – I am willing to take those chances.”

In another video in 2016, he backed up his decision but advised viewers not to use the drugs, stating, “If you have the choice to do steroids or stay natural, stay natural. There's no reason to do steroids. You're only hurting your body and hurting yourself." He then said that professional bodybuilders have no such choice, since they cannot win at that level without using the drugs. He said, “I was competing on stage and I was getting to the point where I was going to keep getting blown off the stage if I didn’t do them.” So I took that step and that's the road I chose, and here I am."

He offered advice on how to use the drugs “properly” for those he said were going to use them anyway. He said that when he was competing at the national level, he was taking 20 international units per day of Serostim, a synthetic form of human growth hormone, which would cost about $8,000 per month at ordinary prescription prices (although he was sometimes getting it for free or for about $2,000 through connections with people who had prescriptions for it to fight HIV infection). He said that during his bodybuilding career he “lived and died for bodybuilding.”

Piana quit bodybuilding competitions in his last few years and spent his time as a social media personality and promoting his business, called Rich Piana: 5% Nutrition. The meaning of “5%” in the name of the brand is that “5% represents the percentage of people that are out there actually doing whatever it takes to fulfill their dreams, to accomplish their goals, and to live the type of life they want to live."

In his post-competition life, he promoted his brand and frequently spoke about the use of steroids and hormones and the associated consequences. He made appearances at fitness expos, and in videos posted on YouTube, he gave advice about diet and fitness routines. He had 1.2 million followers on Instagram and hundreds of thousands of subscribers on YouTube.

"Bomb" for the body

After each course, the big man Rich grew in size even more. The most interesting thing is that in order to pierce polymethyl methacrylate he had to travel to Mexico. This drug was banned in America. The athlete did not talk much about this topic in the interview. However, his 16-week course was published in the press, and anyone can familiarize themselves with it in detail.

In a nutshell, it included 13 drugs, 11 of which were anabolic-androgenic steroids. Only a person with a hardened immune system can use chemicals in large quantities. The growth hormone alone cost $2,500 per month. If you add the cost of steroids to the amount, then preparing for the competition was not cheap.

Personal life

Piana was married twice. His first marriage ended in divorce after he had an affair. He then had a long standing on-again, off-again relationship with fitness model Chanel Jansen. He then married Icelandic bodybuilder Sara Heimisdóttir in 2015. They separated in 2016 and he later accused her of using him to qualify for US residence and stealing money from him. His second marriage was anNULLed as having occurred under false pretenses, and he resumed his relationship with Jansen, who was his partner at the time of his death.

Piana reportedly also had a struggle with opiate addiction at some point, according to Jansen.

Sports pike of syntholist Rich Pian

Despite strong medical support, his sports career was unsuccessful . The bodybuilder took part in amateur competitions, tried his hand at national tournaments several times, but sometimes did not even make it into the top ten.

In 1999 the USA Bodybuilding Fitness super heavyweight champion
In 2003, he repeated his success in Los Angeles and took the first Super Heavyweight prize.
Next he performed at the National Bodybuilding Championship and dropped to 16th position .
Showed 11th result at the US Championship.
In 2004 he rose to 4th place in the National Championship.
In 2009, he competed at the Championships in Sacramento and took a prize .
In the same year he became the absolute winner at a classic bodybuilding competition.
In 2010, he performed unsuccessfully at the National Championship.

Early life edit

Piana was born in Glendale, California, on September 26, 1970. His ancestry was Armenian (through his mother) and Italian (through his father). Raised in Sacramento, California, his enthrallment with bodybuilding began when he was six. He would go to the gym to watch his mother train for her bodybuilding contests. Alongside her, Piana was also heavily influenced by Bill Cambra, an “old-school” bodybuilder. At age 11, Piana began weightlifting. Four years later, he started competing in bodybuilding contests. For his senior year in high school, he lived with his father in La Crescenta, California. By the age of 18, Piana already had several titles under his belt, including IFBB Mr. Teen California in 1989, and had started on a common steroid cycle practice known as “test and deca” that combines testosterone (an anabolic steroid that is the primary male sex hormone) and Deca-Durabolin (known generically as Nandrolone).

Success in business and life

Rich Piana in his youth, more precisely at the age of 22, decided to get rich .
The desire was so strong that the guy saved literally on everything in order to save an extra dollar. One day he presented a video on his blog where he talked about nutrition. The young muscleman spent $8-10 a day on food. To restore the energy lost during training, I ate 6 times a day, eating half a package of ravioli and 4 eggs in one sitting. On carbohydrate loading days I added rolled oats or rice. Once a week, Piana allowed himself to have lunch for $10. After 1.5 years, the guy saved a certain amount and started a business. His brainchild , Rich Piana 5% Nutrition, is one of the leaders in the sports nutrition segment. At the same time, businessman:

sold sports accessories;
real estate in Texas;
offered services as a personal trainer.

The bodybuilder became the owner of a luxurious house and an exclusive collection of expensive cars.

Although Rich no longer participated in tournaments, he did not give himself any concessions and did his best to maintain the image of a huge muscleman. The athlete continued to train hard and popularize strength sports through social networks. The friendly guy was always willing to communicate with fans and communicated with them on equal terms, which earned him the respect and love of the fans. On his YouTube channel, he constantly posted a large number of workouts with recommendations on his video blog and made good money from it.

Misuse of prohibited substances

Probably the biggest reason Rich Pian had over a million followers on Facebook and over 292 million views on Youtube was his sincerity , which took his audience to the roots of the bodybuilding and fitness industry . A known user of steroids, growth hormone, insulin or even synthol has never escaped the fact that he had a close connection with these substances.

In his videos, he says that he started taking steroids at the age of 18. It was a very dark time in his life and he openly admitted that he needed help. His experience with growth hormone caused his legs to enlarge by three whole numbers and his head and fists to enlarge. He used synthol on race day, just before the competition, to improve muscle areas that were lagging or that he needed to make visible. He applied it to his biceps and triceps to make them visible. He has regularly expressed his views and preferences on various steroids, but many think he went too far by sharing his 4-month steroid cycle on Instagram.

In one video, which you can watch below, Rich explains his cycle and choice of steroids , but never defends him or advises anyone to follow him. Encourages natural bodybuilders to try his 4-month program, which he documents on his YouTube channel, but insists they stay true to themselves and don't use illegal substances. .[8]

“Every night before bed, I want you to do 100 reps to pump yourself up, and then go straight to bed. If you have a girlfriend or wife, I don't recommend having sex after this."

Rich Piana retired from professional bodybuilding in 2011. Since then, he has focused on helping people break stereotypes and put them on the right path to fitness, whether without or using steroids. However, he warned that these substances can quickly deteriorate health. Through his business activities and YouTube videos, his goal is to spread this message - to train responsibly, based on the expectations and individual requirements of each person. [2]

Personal life

Piana reportedly also had a struggle with opiate addiction at some point, according to Jansen.

Deathedit

At 1:30 pm on August 7, 2022, Piana collapsed while receiving a haircut from Jansen at his home. He was standing at the time and hit his head when he collapsed. Jansen called the emergency operator, and followed their instructions to try to perform cardiopulmonary resuscitation until paramedics arrived about 10 minutes into her call. The paramedics confirmed that his heart was not beating properly. His heartbeat was eventually restored, but only after so much time had passed that brain damage had set in from lack of oxygen. After the discovery of crushed white powder along with a straw and a credit card on the table in his home, paramedics administered Narcan, a medication used to counteract a possible opiate overdose. There was later speculation about possible recreational drug use, foul play, or other unknown factors involved in his death. However, Jansen denied that cocaine, heroin, or other drugs were involved – saying he had sometimes snorted a high-caffeine pre-workout supplement and that he did not use recreational drugs. Twenty bottles of testosterone were reportedly found in his home.

He was buried at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Hollywood Hills, California.