Tim Martin’s BodyBlog

I can’t think of another endeavor other than natural bodybuilding where the better you get at your discipline, the less respect you are given.  Several times over the past year people have notified me of internet forum threads accusing me of lying about being a drug-free bodybuilder, and attacking my character in the process.  I’ve gotten better at accepting that these cowards blindly write post after post about subjects they know nothing about, but it still stings every time I read one of these statements.

When I was starting out in bodybuilding, I competed in ANBC events, and although there was little acclaim, no one ever questioned my honesty, and I’d even say competing naturally was looked at as a noble and positive hobby.  Climbing the ranks of the INBF, WNBF, and finally the NPC now brings with it constant accusations both on the internet and in the gym.  What probably frustrates me the most is that I’ve spent a career choosing contests that had the strictest testing and proving that I have remained clean, but that seems to get ignored.  As I’ve gotten better in bodybuilding I made the choice to also compete in non-tested events to see how competitive I could be.  With that choice comes the acceptance that most of the competition may have an advantage from using performance enhancing drugs.  That’s fine, as I’ve never belittled any athlete who beat me by calling him out about steroid use, because first I knew the situation going into a show, and second it’s just not my place to publicly accuse anyone of anything when I don’t know the truth for certain.  

For me the NPC Team Universe has always been the pinnacle of drug-free bodybuilding.  I’m not naive enough to believe that even most of the competitors are clean, but I do know that I have done the show three times successfully, so that proves that a natural bodybuilder does have a chance at winning there.