# Flex Wheeler 2012



## flecks (Dec 1, 2011)

Well reading a few articles this morning on the famous bodybuilder Flex wheeler, about his time at the top and unfortunately for him at the bottom..

I didnt really know much about this guy before reading these articles really, but from what I gather winning many different shows and only missing out on winning Mr Olympia to Ronnie coleman then finding out he had a kidney disease, was quite a sad story. I know theres probably a lot more than this to this star, I have nothing but respect for what he achieved, and for his commitment to the sport.

Ive cut and pasted an article from 2004, which is below, I thought it gives an insight on how more isnt always better, it turns out definetely wasnt for Flex.

''For 18 years, Flex Wheeler pumped anabolic steroids into a body that became so rippled with muscle that even he described himself as a comic-book character -- a guy with ridiculous round biceps, tiny waist and bulging legs.

To achieve that unworldly physique, he swallowed pills and he gave himself injections. He rarely thought twice about taking steroids because he was a bodybuilder and, well, this is just what they do. At least if they want to make the covers of magazines.

Today, at 38, Wheeler no longer is a champion bodybuilder. But he still takes steroids. Only now, as he recovers from a kidney transplant in September, the catabolic steroids he takes reduce his muscle size.

``It's really sad and ironic,'' said Wheeler, who lives in East San Jose with his wife and their two children. ``I've come to a point in my life where I don't want to take steroids anymore, yet I have to just to live.''

Wheeler said his kidney disease is hereditary. But he also believes his prolonged steroid use probably accelerated its onset. He also thinks the mind-altering effects of steroids -- mood swings with fits of aggression -- were far greater than any physical toll.

And he acknowledges the damage he inflicted upon his body with other ``sports technology drugs,'' including almost dying from overdoses of diuretics.

``Everybody talks about steroids because that's in the news now, but the reality is there are lots of dangerous things that athletes take,'' he said.

Wheeler hopes his story will serve as a cautionary tale for any athlete who seeks better performance through pharmacology, at a time when a federal investigation of Balco Laboratories in Burlingame has resulted in dozens of top athletes being questioned about performance-enhancing drugs. Taking such drugs, Wheeler said, is tantamount to playing Russian roulette.

But ask him what he took and how much, and Wheeler becomes purposely vague.

``I won't discuss that because I'm aware of the power of what I say,'' he said. ``I know kids will go out and try it anyway. I turned a lot of kids on to steroids because they wanted to be just like Flex. I'm not going to be responsible for that now.''

At his peak

In his recently published autobiography, ``Flex Ability,'' Wheeler writes uncompromisingly of a poor kid from Fresno with low self-esteem who was molested as a child, attempted suicide, fathered a daughter at 15 and was heading for a troubled life. Bodybuilding may not have saved Kenny ``Flex'' Wheeler, but the sport gave him direction.

He became, in the words of California's new governor, Arnold Schwarzenegger, ``one of the best bodybuilders of all time.'' When Wheeler was at his peak, only one competitor -- reigning king Ronnie Coleman -- was better.

But Wheeler wouldn't have developed his larger-than-life body without the help of steroids. He started at 18.

In his book, he discusses the transformation that left him feeling like a magician had waved a wand to give him the body of his dreams. He would stare at himself in the mirror, worried that those muscles in the reflection were someone else's.

Wheeler never felt as if he was doing anything wrong by taking steroids even though they are illegal except with a doctor's prescription. They simply were a necessity.

He even had a nickname at his job as a Fresno jail cop: Officer Steroids.

``Everyone I knew was doing steroids, and no one considered it a big deal,'' he wrote. ``I wasn't taking coke or crank or heroin; I wasn't hanging out in a dark alley doing drug deals.''

Taking a toll

Although he estimates that the cost of enough steroids to prepare for one show is $10,000, he rarely had to pay because he was a star. But there was a different cost -- although Wheeler didn't fully understand that until he stopped taking them.

``You're super aggressive,'' he said. ``You've got a game face for training all day. Unfortunately there's not a switch that you can turn on and off. So if somebody gets in your face, you're going to attack them the way you attack your training. You don't have that much control over it. You get irritated and agitated very easily.''

Competitors in the sport knew, and usually accepted, the physical risks as well.

``One cat told me, `Man, if I was to win a national show and then die right there in the middle of a pose, that would be the happiest day of my life,' '' Wheeler said. ``And he wasn't joking. That was whack. Yet I was a hypocrite because I was willing to cut a few years off my life. That wouldn't have bothered me, which is sad.''

`Caught up in a game'

On several occasions, he ended up in a hospital in excruciating pain after taking too much diuretics, which drain fluid from the body and make bodybuilder's muscles look more pronounced during competition.

Doctors warned him that he was putting his life in jeopardy. By 1997, as his problems with diuretics continued, he wanted to quit taking all drugs. But he didn't.

``I was caught between a rock and a hard place,'' Wheeler said. ``When you stop taking drugs, you can't be competitive and you can't make any money and you're finished. I got caught up in a game.''

But the clock was ticking. In 2000, he was diagnosed with a kidney disease called focal segmental glomerulosclerosis, or FSGS -- a condition that occurs more frequently in African-American males.

He decided to compete as a clean, or drug-free, athlete.

Help from Conte

Wheeler said he was helped by a friend -- Victor Conte Jr., the Burlingame nutritionist who is currently a target of a federal grand jury probe. Conte also has been accused by the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency as the source of a new designer steroid, THG. But Wheeler said Conte helped him to compete without steroids by providing him mineral supplements.

Still, Wheeler became the incredible shrinking bodybuilder. At the Mr. Olympia competition -- perhaps the best-known bodybuilding show -- Wheeler had finished second in 1998 and '99 and third in 2000. But in 2002, after training without steroids, he finished seventh. He weighed 212 pounds, down from 240 at previous competitions.

``When I was on drugs, I was completely energized when I'd train,'' Wheeler said. ``But when I was natural, I'd train for two hours, be exhausted and then still have no results. I would think, `I don't believe. How do people do this?' ''

Facing financial problems that would lead to filing for bankruptcy, Wheeler went back on steroids. He hoped for a big payday that would solve his money woes and then he could walk away for good.

But he regretted going back on the juice and quit after just one more show.

Kidney problems

Meanwhile, his kidney condition worsened, requiring a transplant. He feels blessed that a donor from his church was a match.

Kidney failure and tumors are one of the potential side effects of performance-enhancing drug use, said Dr. Linn Goldberg, a steroids expert at the Oregon Health and Science University in Portland.

``But no one has ever studied steroid use at the level these guys take,'' Goldberg added. ``Bodybuilders are changing their hormonal level to points that cannot occur naturally, so you're going to profoundly affect every organ in the body. More than likely, his case is probably related in some way to substances he was taking.''

Risks, dangers

Wheeler agrees only that steroids made his kidneys more susceptible to a disease that probably would have taken hold in his 40s. Wheeler said his high-protein diet and ingestion of large doses of potassium may have played just as large a role as steroid use. Yet he also knows that some will think he's kidding himself that steroids aren't a more direct cause.

``A lot of people think it's due to sports technology drugs,'' he said. ``But people are going to believe what they want to believe.''

However, he also talks about the dangers of those drugs. Users, he said, are deluding themselves if they think there's no risk.

``There's no way you could be at my level and not have bad things happen to you,'' Wheeler said. ``It only takes one time that you make a mistake. There's plenty of technology drugs where all you have to do is mess up just once, and it's over.''

Five more operations

Although the kidney transplant has been a success, other complications have led to five more operations -- the latest coming two weeks ago to relieve fluid in his leg. He claims to be ``on nine different drugs now that are more deadly than any steroid I ever took.''

He declined to be photographed for this story because the operations and medications have, temporarily, altered his physical appearance. People, though, still recognize him. Well, sort of.

``Some will look at me and say, `Hey, that's Flex's little brother,' '' he said with a chuckle.

Wheeler said he's at peace even though the days of a six-figure income are gone and he's still struggling to get back on his feet financially. He has a supplement store in Venice and is eager to do public speaking when he gets healthy.

``I'm happier now not having to live that life and live that lie by using the drugs,'' he said. ``It's bittersweet. But I'm in a better place and happier with the smaller things I have in life.''



Flex Wheeler (oct 2012 using synthol)



Flex Wheeler & Phil Heath


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## crazypaver1 (Nov 23, 2008)

fook me the body on flex wheeler next to heath!


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## C.Hill (Nov 21, 2010)

Interesting read. Was a beast in his prime.


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## TG123 (Apr 10, 2012)

where does it say he's using synthol?

he slags off gear so much but even now won't say what his cycle was in the run up to a comp, why are all the top pros so guarded about what their cycles are, even after they've retired?


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## griffo13 (Dec 7, 2009)

i watched a few clips of him recently training and talking about how things went... he said he was on hrt but apart from that training natural.... he looked good to tbh.


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## C.Hill (Nov 21, 2010)

TG123 said:


> where does it say he's using synthol?


At the bottom mate


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## TG123 (Apr 10, 2012)

C.Hill said:


> At the bottom mate


yeah cheers :whistling:

i mean where is it coming from, is that from the article, did flex say it or did the Op add it?


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## Guest (Sep 19, 2012)

I guess they don't reveal their cycles because people will just copy it to the letter and then if someone gets sick or dies, then they'll blame them.

Flex was someone I always thought would win Mr O tbh, I actually rated him higher than Yates at times.


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## Guest (Sep 19, 2012)

Flex looked better in that Olympia than Ronnie and should have won IMO.

Fantastic physique, defo one of my favourite all time BBers


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## griffo13 (Dec 7, 2009)

TG123 said:


> where does it say he's using synthol?
> 
> he slags off gear so much but even now won't say what his cycle was in the run up to a comp, why are all the top pros so guarded about what their cycles are, even after they've retired?


i think from a business end of things... top pros dont want to be associated with saying anything about steroids due to the fact that alot of there money may come in for advertising.. selling a prduct as a natural healthy muscle builder. im nearly sure there is a clip of him saying that he used easily 3 g a week of "sports performance agents" constantly from his early 20's till the year 2000....


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## Raptor (Feb 16, 2010)

His physique is hard to match even now


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## 3752 (Jan 7, 2005)

TG123 said:


> where does it say he's using synthol?
> 
> he slags off gear so much but even now won't say what his cycle was in the run up to a comp, why are all the top pros so guarded about what their cycles are, even after they've retired?


because it illegal in the states to even admit you have used steroids, plus what good would the info be to you? people would just try and follow the cycles this could give un needed health issues so he is right not to give out his cycles


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## flecks (Dec 1, 2011)

TG123 said:


> yeah cheers :whistling:
> 
> i mean where is it coming from, is that from the article, did flex say it or did the Op add it?


Yeah I heard it was rumored he used/uses mate and was on that photo...If you google it maybe see more.


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## TG123 (Apr 10, 2012)

Pscarb said:


> because it illegal in the states to even admit you have used steroids, plus what good would the info be to you? people would just try and follow the cycles this could give un needed health issues so he is right not to give out his cycles


dorian yates is the same over here though, even after he's retired, it's all very secretive.

i understand the point of veiw that they have supp deals etc as griffo said but no one would look at flex in his prime holding a tub of protien and think they could get like him just from the protien

as for what good is the info to me it's of interest, if you have an interest in any subject it's natural to want to obtain as much info as possible about all aspects of it, and i've always found it fascinating that with how high profile a lot of these guys are how little is known about their cycles and why it's such a big mystery


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## 3752 (Jan 7, 2005)

well Dorian has a lot of business in the states and does alot of visiting there so that would be a good enough reason.....

Lee Priest once put up his cycles and they where so low and did not use alot of exotic gear no one believed him, i know some Pro's and there cycles are not really different from many others in fact more guys on this site who are 200lbs soaking wet use more a lot more gear.....


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## rocky666 (Jul 9, 2009)

he only got to be so good because of his genetic structure. He was into Karate before bodybuilding where he got his nickmane flex his first name was Ken. he got injured and did weights for rehabilitation. he tried d-bol and could not believe how much he grew and thats why he swapped sports. He was known in the 80s and 90s as a lazy trainer and a moody fecker. he used synthol in his calves as he never had any. Hes pro debut was 93 pro ironman. If you get a chance to watch it was in phenominal shape. His back double bicep will blow you away. His next best showing was 99 arnold classic. Unfortunately for him was in same era as dorian and never had the same hunger as dorian.


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## Andy Dee (Jun 1, 2008)

i dont think its all gear theres no way, its the difference between someone who eats 300g protein and cannot push past 200lbs and people like wheeler and heath who can gain 20lbs of muscle a year from eating a piece of toast lol.

even if these pros hadnt ever touched any gear or peps etc, i still believe they would been very sucessful and still looked like they worked up from a mile away.


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## Incredible Bulk (Sep 19, 2007)

i read his book 'flex-ability' and it was intriguing... he got caught up in the bling lifestyle.

fast cars, parties... on one trip to a dr dre party he crashed his sports car at a nutty speed and he was told if it wasnt for his size he would of died.

he never saved for the future so when he had to go eau-natural, the placings and sponsorship went.

A sad tale of many a sports star, all bling, no savings.

He had to sell up his dream house and move into a condo apartment IIRC.

regarding the synthol, he was well known for rear delts and biceps.

To this day you can still see him sporting massive biceps dispite a small overall appearance.


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## rocky666 (Jul 9, 2009)

When your young and you here the pros say its genetics. You think ye right its loads of gear more like. Well when youve trained for 20+ years and see people come and go you soon realise it is genetics. Yes of course hardwork dedication and consistency is vital. Look at the Olympia why isit the same guys year in year out at the top. Its not about how much you take. ive seen people take next to nothing make fantastic gains and other take bootloads and not make that much progress. Its the same with food its what ur bodies actually assimilates that counts not what u put in. Same thing with gear. The guys at the top react best to food and gear so make great gains on little gear so then go on to make greater gains on more gear. Saying that you still need a very strong will and consistency as genetics alone wont give you feckall if ur a lazy git.


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## biglbs (Jan 26, 2012)

Without gear a champ will always be a champ,with gear the overall bar is raised for everyone.

I think we all like to think there is a big secret to drug use for size/condition,but realy there there is no major secret,just the best being the best in all situations.Of course there are the little things to 'shine up'a true champion,but no 'big give away' to be had.

It is basic good test/insulin(used correctly and safely)/peps/Gh,all your body needs apart from the most important thing----diet.


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## Trevor McDonald (Mar 30, 2010)

Flex, Shawn ray,levrone my top 3 bbers!

Thanks for posting btw. Very good read.


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## Wheyman (Sep 6, 2011)

i do hope he gets better


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## rocky666 (Jul 9, 2009)

Mey said:


> Flex, Shawn ray,levrone my top 3 bbers!
> 
> Thanks for posting btw. Very good read.


Google NPC Nationals 1991 and watch the greatest amateur lineup ever in my opinion. Flex wheeler. kevin levrone. Paul demayo. Ronnie coleman and the best amateur ever never to get his pro-card Matt mendanhall.


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## xpower (Jul 28, 2009)

Wasn't Flex Wheeler aware of his kidney condition well before he started bodybuilding?


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## eezy1 (Dec 14, 2010)

flex looks incredible and better than heath in that comparison. F knows how he didnt win the olympia once with that bod


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## 3752 (Jan 7, 2005)

biglbs said:


> Without gear a champ will always be a champ,with gear the overall bar is raised for everyone.
> 
> I think we all like to think there is a big secret to drug use for size/condition,but realy there there is no major secret,just the best being the best in all situations.Of course there are the little things to 'shine up'a true champion,but no 'big give away' to be had.
> 
> It is basic good test/insulin(used correctly and safely)/peps/Gh,all your body needs apart from the most important thing----diet.


well said guys tend to blame the amount of drugs someone else uses because they cannot make the same progress so have something to blame....



xpower said:


> Wasn't Flex Wheeler aware of his kidney condition well before he started bodybuilding?


the kidney condition was hereditary i am sure the massive use of diuretics had more to do with the issue getting worse than steroids did


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## Vastus Med' (Sep 7, 2012)

OldManRiver said:


> Flex was someone I always thought would win Mr O tbh, I actually rated him higher than Yates at times.


me too


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## chris88 (Oct 21, 2007)

Pscarb said:


> well Dorian has a lot of business in the states and does alot of visiting there so that would be a good enough reason.....
> 
> Lee Priest once put up his cycles and they where so low and did not use alot of exotic gear no one believed him, i know some Pro's and there cycles are not really different from many others in fact more guys on this site who are 200lbs soaking wet use more a lot more gear.....


this is very true...a mate of mine won the jr mr worlds back in the early 90's and his cycle added up to just shy of 1g PW...nowadays it seems the norm for a beginner is 500mg of test+40mg dbol...but you look at the difference in body composition...the gear helps yes but only if everything else is bang on also..


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## Fantom (Aug 28, 2007)

Ive just spent a week in LA and Vegas with Flex Wheeler making his new DVD he is one of the most genuine nicest people in our sport today.

Wait to the DVD come out and you will get a real insight to the real Flex Wheeler!!!


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