The Clowning of a Self-Proclaimed Fitness King

Shocked, I tell you. Shocked, I stared at my screen in utter disbelief as the news broke. I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. There is no way that an online influencer could be lying. All those times he was asked to his face, live and on camera, he insisted that his physique was all natural and that he never used steroids or PEDs. I just cannot believe it. I’m just so shocked that he’s been deceiving the world all this time.

I am of course talking about the one and only Liver king or is it Liver Clown at this point.

From time to time, I have seen his clips pop up on my social media feeds. The algorithms seem to think that I like to watch or care much about these over the top, heavy laden, physique toting individuals because I’m interested in health, wellness, and fitness. Personally, I don’t actually view most of these individuals as really being in these categories. However, the algorithm does. And so every now and again they grace my screen and enter into my eye line and thereby my little universe.

It is important, however, that I know what’s going on in the wider universe, so I do see the headlines and conversation that tend to surround these individuals. From one news outlet to the other, it gets picked up. Bold headlines of a surprised scandalous exposé appear everywhere. Finally, the truth is out. An apology or more like an admittance with what mostly consists of a justification is issued and the next set of videos are now out in front of us. The man is on steroids and in my utter and complete indifferent phony outrage and shock, I simply ask myself, how did we get here?

My first thoughts are why we even have such prominence and regard for this individual. The physique seemingly plays a huge role in this, I believe. It would be rare to find him fully clothed in any of his posts. Then comes the wild workouts and exercises that he attaches to it adding as well products and a lifestyle with a long forgone century diet that may have some basis of truth at its core, but is being overblown to the extreme without any scientific references or evidence provided alongside it.

The societal fascination with the ‘perfect’ body and physique intertwined with our own individual insecurities prompts the attention and draws the people in. His explanation of how to get where he is or what he has is now in the heads of those who start to follow and hang on closely to everything he shows them. Key words here are what he shows them and not necessarily what he does. He takes a bite of these massive raw livers sitting in front of him for the viewer to see, convincing his audience that this is how he does it.

And just like that his carefully choreographed imagery has done its job. His audience are led to believe that if they do what he does, act like him, eat the same way and exercise like him, they will get what he has. They will get to where he is. They will grasp the world by its metaphorical balls and, well, pretty much be him because that is what he shows them surrounding his revered body and physique. Add some roaring, inspirational sentences, intense workouts and some questionable and strange eating habits, and behold the new testament of how to be him is created.

It’s slightly irrational to believe that just because an individual has ‘the’ physique that this generation deems kingworthy means that they have it all figured out or the expertise of how to get there or more importantly for how you can get there. If your underlying goal is to achieve a muscular physique, you may require a different methodology based on your circumstances and life which are probably different than those of the performing individual. Even athletes, such as Olympic athletes, who I do have a bit more time for, have the information they need pertaining mostly to achieving results in their sport. Their concentration is to do well in their sport. The requirements of your journey, life and goals may be very different and not align at all with theirs.

The issue in this case is even deeper though. Even if he did have the map to not only his success, but your success, he certainly wasn’t sharing the real one with you. He undermined his entire presentation. Here is an individual putting it in front of you and exclaiming that this is the way to do it, building a whole presentation of how you can do the same while he does the complete opposite. He is presenting to you what for many is unattainable especially if done naturally, claiming that you can also do it naturally like him when all the while he himself isn’t doing it naturally.

If anything, his story not only disproves his lifestyle thesis, it proves the exact opposite. It proves that one can’t obtain such a physique naturally and that in order to achieve it, it has to be done, like he actually does, with steroids and PEDs. Proving that It’s the only way to achieve the unachievable. The bigger issue here is not necessarily that this individual was taking PEDs, it was the deceit and dishonesty. It was the fact that he was claiming something, selling you something, while doing the complete opposite. And this complete opposite is the testament to anyone who wants to go there. Therefore, guaranteeing that people will either give up, knowing that they can’t get there or that they will have to take PEDs to get there, thereby promoting its use because it has only fueled their obsession and existing fascination.

It is a strange fascination that exists with the physique and more so the obsession shown towards those who have achieved it. While we give less attention to our lives and our own individual journey to just try copy and paste that which we see presented in front of us. I wouldn’t necessarily tell anyone what to do when it comes to the use of PEDs, unhealthy or unproven supplements for the sake of the physique. However, I wouldn’t promote it and would rather strongly advise against it as they are proven to be unhealthy and dangerous to our health especially in the long run.

In my own journey, I entertained the thoughts, very fleetingly, of taking something that would help me achieve the physique quicker and better. I had lost all my excess weight, had lose skin and wanted to build my body into it. I’m so thankful that it never really manifested itself into more than a thought. I was able to consider my health and remember why I was doing it all in the first place. In fact, I even went further and questioned the use of common supplements such as protein powder. For me, protein powder made me feel worse physically, so I stopped drinking it. It’s up to the individual to discover what works for them and best if done so under the advisement of a professional. However, it’s this obsession and desire for a quick result that often drives people to go to the extreme especially with such imagery presented to them.

Some people have responded to this whole situation saying that he’s done the work, trains really hard, and that others wouldn’t get anywhere close, wouldn’t put the same work in and would be lazy even if they took steroids. However, this argument is a bit flat because this is his entire premise of what he is selling. It’s the physique and his intense workouts and exercises that have purchased the attention. He has to continue to look this way. It doesn’t work if he doesn’t put the work in. He has to continue to put the work in and the unnatural supplements and steroids are definitely helpful when it comes to doing these crazy workouts. I’m no scientist, but I do know that Energy levels are higher, strength levels become elevated, endurance and stamina all get a boost and recovery is quicker.

All these things help the activity. Simply put, it would have been a lot more difficult for him to put in that amount of work if he wasn’t taking the PEDs. In essence, why would someone take all that amount of steroids and PEDs and not put the work in if the entire premise and attraction is the wild workouts and that physique? If he doesn’t need the ‘crazy’ physique, he doesn’t take all those PEDs. If he doesn’t take all those PEDs, he doesn’t put that amount of work in.

What we need to consider is not just how far people are willing to go for this obsession or even what people are willing to do to appeal to individuals with this fascination, but the dangers of what is being shown, promoted and preached. Rarely is any scientific evidence provided alongside the ideologies and methodology with the only ‘proof’ that it works really is the physique that is on show. How can we know if there is any validity at all in what is being promoted, and furthermore how do we know that it is not in fact damaging or indeed actually dangerous to our health?