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Ronnie Coleman: The King (2018)

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RonnieCole
1/22: Ronnie Coleman: The King?

A broken-down king is more like it. If you worked out at the gym during the late 90's and onward, chances are you knew who Ronnie Coleman was, having seen him on the magazine covers of Muscle & Fitness and Flex. He was plain massive and therefore unreachable, winning eight straight Mr. Olympia contests.

For a while, everybody thought Flex Wheeler was heir apparent to the throne that was vacated by Dorian Yates who was simply unbeatable due to his rock-solid lean mass. Flex had the symmetry and perfect physique to go along with it. Out of the blue, Ronnie Coleman just blew him away. It was the beginning of the monster-sized bodybuilding era which isn't a positive thing.

A lot of people have said Ronnie Coleman is the best bodybuilder of all time, not Arnold Schwarzenegger. That may be true if you have them side-by-side for comparison, but the more Ronnie Coleman aged, the worse he looked because of his pregnant gut which is the result of HGH, insulin, steroids, and high-calorie diet. In short, aesthetics does matter. Arnold Schwarzenegger wins on that count although many will point to Frank Zane.

Ronnie Coleman: The King is interesting for several reasons. It's a great documentary to dissuade anyone from going into bodybuilding because the long-term risks aren't worth it. In fact, he's probably going to die prematurely. There have been countless bodybuilders dying of either a heart attack or organ failure of some sort in their 20's, 30's, and 40's.

It has everything to do with steroids, HGH, and junk supplements they've put in their bodies for so long. When these bodybuilders start having health problems, they either ignore them or give up working out for good. Once the latter happens, they lose the physique and shrink so much to the point of looking normal with some body parts out of proportion. Paul Dillett, Tom Prince (2/6/22 Author Note: he died the following month), Chris Cormier, and Mustafa Mohammad come to mind. Imagine the amount of time and money they've wasted on their bodies.

All have said Ronnie Coleman paid the price to be the greatest. Well, I rather have my body intact into old age. I'm probably a lot healthier than most, if not all, bodybuilders despite not having worked out much, and I don't feel any pain. Ronnie was 53 or so in the documentary; already he had two hip replacements, at least eight back surgeries, and a whole lot of procedures everywhere else on his body and lives in chronic pain. Currently, he's nearly paralyzed yet still works out at the gym if that matters to anyone.

Back to the '98 Mr. Olympia, the top three were Ronnie Coleman, Flex Wheeler, and Nasser El Sonbaty, respectively. We know what happened to the winner. Having lost the physique, Flex Wheeler received a kidney transplant and had his right leg amputated. For the third place winner, he died in 2013 due to heart failure and kidney damage. Recently, the 2018 Mr. Olympia Shawn Rhoden passed away of a heart attack, and he was only 46.

All in all, failing to touch the white elephant in the room, Ronnie Coleman: The King confirms everything that's wrong with bodybuilding.