by Christian Duque
So today I’d like to talk about health and competing and when it’s time to call it quits for a competitive year. The subject of today’s article is none other than Sasan Heirati. Otherwise known simply as Sas. I think nicknames are important, especially for international athletes whose names maybe don’t ring quite as commonly as John Smith or Bob Jones or something like that. I think a nickname is important – although not all competitors have one. For example, look at Derek Lunsford; he’s a past Mr O champion and the current year’s Arnold Classic champion. Lunsford has never had a nickname. That being said, let’s get back to the topic at hand. And that is health and well-being.
Although bodybuilders are supposed to promote a healthy way of eating, coupled with sensible training, and rational supplementation, a lot of that gets lost in the mix. The fact of the matter is as we all know – bodybuilders look their strongest on stage but in reality are their weakest. The woes of caloric manipulation, varying degrees of dehydration, and the implementation of a number of products which may or may not be healthy in the short or long term, can be catastrophic. What little we do know is that the body cannot be subjected to the rigors of contest prep year round. We have seen what happens when an athlete does not come off and continues to beat themselves up in order to look their best on stage. There have been some exceptions to this rule and they are usually genetic freaks. Guys like Darrem Charles and Dexter Jackson are few and far between. Most guys can compete two or three times, at most, per year. And if recent memory does not fail me, there has even been a tradition where the top Olympians only compete once per year.
The Federation has done a pretty good job of weeding out those that get automatic qualifications. Whereas it used to be the top six in the preceding year got automatically qualified for the next year’s O. Now that’s down to previous year’s top 3. Also, past Mr Olympia’s do not have to qualify – though the good ones still find a way to do that because they want to be treated like everyone else.
I also applaud the Federation for not implementing the special invite each year because that further dilutes the value of the title. If someone is up there and is not a past Olympia champion and has not earned the right to be there, chances are they are only there because of who they know or what they know. The least of that, the better. That being said, the Federation also got rid of the point system. It used to be that if an individual amassed enough second, third, fourth, and 5th place finishes, they could add that number and get their Olympia qualification. Now I will be honest with you, as I always am in these articles, I was not a huge fan of the point system. What ended up happening with that is that you had a lot of second and third tier competitors competing for the best title in the world. Sometimes you would have 20 or 30 athletes on the Olympia stage. It made for a very long, some might say boring contest. That being said, by removing the point system it also created a situation where athletes that could not easily win a pro show had to compete over and over again. And here we arrive at today’s subject.
I hate to call a man a subject but he is the subject of the article. It’s not like I’m a king or something and I’m speaking to him on a lower level. He is the topic of today’s article and he is someone that I believe is coming dangerously close to that point where the body may give up. He has not just done one or two shows, he’s up to six shows in just 2025. In other words we are entering the 6th month of the year and this man has competed on six different pro stages. His placings have gone from second down to the lower end of the top six. He has competed against pretty much everybody, but always seems to come up a little bit short. He’s a phenomenal bodybuilder who always comes in condition and somebody that works hard on stage. He is not somebody who reinvents the mandatory poses. He nails them flawlessly and his transitions are also very good. He has a proportionate physique and he also has a lot of muscle for his frame. Could he have more muscle? Well that depends on you, but I think as he stands he has a good amount of dense muscle tissue with a good amount of separation. I don’t know that he needs to, necessarily, do anything to improve his chances of winning, I think at this point he is sort of just playing the waiting game.
Now could politics be a factor? I don’t think so. Sas is not the type of guy that really runs his mouth too much and I don’t believe that he has done many interviews, either. Interviews have a funny way of creating a situation where the website doing the interview can chop it up in a certain kind of way to make it sound more interesting than what it is. Some might call that defamation, others call it simply the sport of bodybuilding. And with AI and various different types of gadgetry, you can easily confuse the public by splicing up interviews and taking things out of context and running with it. The bottom line is that Sas has not even given them much to work with. He has maintained a low profile and is a consistent hard worker in the gym and on stage. For whatever reason, he just cannot seem to win a pro show.
So the question becomes how many more times is he going to prepare for a contest? Like everyone else, he needs to go through a prep where he cuts out carbs, cuts out fats, cuts out water, sodium loads, all that fun stuff. At some point the body is going to give out. And again this guy is not a spring chicken. He’s not in his early twenties and even though I don’t know his exact age, I would put it somewhere in his early thirties. If I’m mistaken, I’m mistaken, but even a guy that’s in his early 20s cannot subject his body to the kind of rigors of contest prep many times in a year. This is an individual that is competing against the best of the best. We don’t know what his lab say, we don’t know if he has any pre-existing conditions, either. We just sort of hope for the best. We sort of hope for the best with every competitor. But how many competitors do you know that have done six shows in less than 6 months? It’s just not a good look and it certainly does not seem healthy in any way, shape, or form.
The last thing I want to do is jinx a great athlete that works hard; however, I have been covering the sport for nearly two decades and I’m concerned for this one particular competitor. I don’t know that he can’t handle it, but what I do know is the normal trajectory of contests for top pros. And I would definitely call him a top pro. So much so that even though he hasn’t won any major contests, the fans really like him because they see him as a workhorse. I would compare him possibly to Maxx Charles in many regards. Neither guy wanted to give up and they wanted to make it to the Olympia stage – no matter what. That being said, for every show besides the Olympia you give it 90 to 95%. you always save that last little extra bit for the biggest show in bodybuilding.
So imagine if Sas has already done six shows and his body is already giving him warning signs but then he goes and he does one more show, two more shows, say three more shows and finally qualifies. Then he goes all out for the Olympia. At what point does his body say enough is enough? At what point does he cramp up, at what point does he need to go to the E.R.? It’s one of those things where I would ask the athlete – is it worth it? Is your health and well-being worth an Olympia qualification? Because it also stands to reason that if he’s competed six times and has failed to win a single time, he’s probably not going to do very well on the biggest stage in bodybuilding either. I’m not saying they don’t want him there, but if they wanted him there, don’t you think he would have already qualified?
it just seems like a thankless endeavor. It seems like even if he has the best labs and the best health, at what point do you start to ask yourself is it all worth it? I understand that competing and being your best is the top priority for a lot of these athletes, but I also think that once they get into that tunnel vision, it’s very hard to rationalize anything besides getting on stage at the Mr O. I just hope that this particular competitor stops short of his body giving up on him. Because the alternative would mean any number of things. And I don’t care how healthy he is, it is not healthy to compete this many times in one year, and then blast even harder for the O.
But what do you say? Am I making a mountain out of a molehill? Is it really not that unhealthy to prep for six, seven or eight shows before finally doing the Olympia – all in one year? As always, I look forward to reading your feedback in the comments. Please be sure to copy and paste a link to this article on all your social media feeds. It may not be the most sensational article, but I think it addresses a very important point. Health in our industry is not something that is a priority, even though bodybuilding purportedly promotes it.