Jeremy Buendia: Steroids or Natural?

Jeremy Buendia is a 3x Mr Olympia Men’s Physique champion, who is coached by Hany Rambod, also the trainer of Phil Heath.

Buendia is proving to be as dominant in the men’s physique category as Phil is in the bodybuilding, seeing off strong competition in Sadik Hadzovic and Jeff Seid to win his titles.

He’s got some of the best arms I’ve seen, insane vascularity and a waist that’s virtually non existent from a side view.

…Christian Bale/Machinist springs to mind.

Buendia is jacked and when it comes to a competition and you can bet your BCAAs that he’ll be the most shredded guy on stage.

< 4% body fat crew.

Buendia practically came out of the womb curling dumbbells, with his father being a non-competitive bodybuilder in the 70’s and proving to be an inspiring influence on Jeremy’s passion for weights.

Jeremy first started competing when he was just 17, winning his first bodybuilding competition in 2012 at the NPC Excalibur championships.

Jeremy Buendia’s stats:

Height: 5 ft 8

Competition Weight: 165lbs

Off Season Weight: 195lbs

These stats are pretty modest, especially his competition weight, as Jeremy looks big and full on stage.

So, has the Men’s Physique star simply got phenomenal genetics, or is he eating clen and trening hard?!

Time to investigate!

17 Year Old Buendia

Wow, I wish I looked like Buendia when I was back in high school.

#trapzilla

Looking at him here, he appears to have made 90% of all his muscle gains as a teen…but with 5% or so extra body fat.

(It’s surprising how much bigger you can look when you lose a good amount of fat and retain muscle)

Making almost all your gains when you first start lifting weights is typical of a natty bodybuilder.

It’s the guys who’ve been lifting forever, then suddenly blow up out of the blue…and you’re like,

“Bro, I’ve seen you in this gym for the last 3 years plateau’d to f***, but now you’ve turned into the HULK within the space of 3 months and you expect me to believe you’re natty?!”.

If he’d taken steroids after looking like this at 17, he would’ve got HUGE (a lot bigger than he is now). I’m talking bigger than Chul Soon ‘huge’.

No Trace of Steroids

Jeremy has no signs of steroids…apart from the fact he’s more bloated than Jay Cutler on celltech.

LOL jk, Buendia has the tiniest waist I’ve ever seen.

Seriously though, his shoulders are actually quite small in comparison to his arms. Hence how they don’t pop out… failing to produce that 3D robotic effect that Jaco De Bruyn has.

The shoulders and traps are two muscles to look out for when a guy’s on steroids, especially when using AAS (androgenic anabolic steroids) i.e trenbolone.

These 2 muscles have an increased amount of androgen receptors, making them more susceptible to growth from such compounds.

His head/face hasn’t changed in size or structure and he continues to have great skin. This may sound silly, but having nice-looking skin is hard to achieve when taking steroids.

This is due to the sebaceous glands producing more oil than usual, blocking up pores. HGH is the exception to this and can make you look younger…at the expense of ‘looking pregnant’ when you administer it with insulin.

Buendia does have extremely good vascularity, which is sometimes associated with the use of steroids. But if you follow him on social media, his veins only look freaky when he’s close to competing.

During this time his body fat % is extremely low and so it’s natural for anyone to become more vascular during this time.

Questions have to be asked when a guy’s at 15% body fat, but looks like a human roadmap.

Note: Jeremy’s also competed in bodybuilding federations such as the NPC and the INBF which DO perform drug tests, which he’s never failed. However this particular piece of evidence is weak as these tests are easily beaten, because they’re scheduled on a certain date long in advance; so contestants can plan set dates to stop running certain steroids, enabling them to be cleared from the body.

Verdict

We don’t have enough evidence to conclude that Buendia’s used steroids. 

Jeremy has has no obvious side effects and his ‘gains timeline’ (the rate at which he’s gained muscle) is very believable.

You only need to look at the picture of 17 year old Jeremy to understand that he’s extremely gifted in the genetics department.

In terms of cutting steroids, it’s always difficult to detect if someone’s taking these because they don’t always come with obvious side effects like bulking steroids do.

…The biggest giveaway for somebody using cutting steroids would be extreme dryness (associated with anavar and winstrol use). Buendia is adept at manipulating his water levels under the guidance of Hany Rambod, but he’s not insanely dry to the point where he looks like he’s been photoshopped.