In the days following Piana's untimely passing at age 46, seemingly every human who has ever set foot in a Planet Fitness and picked up a dumbbell posted a video to give their hot take on what happened and why. But the true importance of Piana—and his loss—can only be ascertained in the weeks and months afterward, as we begin to realize what we're missing. To be clear, I never met Rich Piana. I reached out to him through industry connections, but was never able to get him to agree to do an interview or allow me to follow him around for a day to profile him.
But I'll still miss him, and here's why I think the world of bodybuilding will and should , too. My introduction to Piana came when I was sprawled out on the floor on the living room floor. I was trying to work out the seemingly permanent knots in my hip flexors on top of a Rumble Roller, while simultaneously tormenting some other knot in a different region of my body with a pair of lacrosse balls stuffed inside an old sock. My wife was sitting at the kitchen table a few feet away doing work on her computer, and I was Chromecasting YouTube videos from my phone.
I finished watching something, and there in the "recommended videos" feed, I saw some guy who looked like an actual monster, covered in tattoos, with a flat brim hat. I'd seen him in my feed before and had gawked at the outsized number of views he'd garnered in the hundreds of thousands for many of the videos, some in the millions and had just kept scrolling.
I couldn't imagine what could possibly be so entertaining about this guy and whatever it was he was saying or doing. But on that night, I clicked on a video—Rich Piana's Wedding, now deleted from Piana's channel but living on elsewhere—and it was unlike anything I had ever seen before or have ever seen since.
The sight of truly monstrous creatures covered head to toe in tattoos, hoisting Piana high in a throne and carrying him into what looks like the ballroom at a Holiday Inn convention center clad in knee-length tux pants and a tux jacket with the arms cut off was truly…something else.
Now, years later, I still recall a surprising amount of this four-minute video. The obscenities that spewed from his mouth like a nervous, machine gun tick even during a life event as serious as his own wedding. The "King" tattoo he got on his hand immediately before being married.
The sheen of the spray tan over muscles so swollen they verged on a physical deformity. The delts that looked like someone had implanted red rubber kickballs next to his collarbones.
The veins that looked like baby rattlesnakes slithering around just beneath his paper-thin skin. I took the red pill, and over an hour later, was still clicking on the next video…and the next. I listened to Piana describe his early life, his success as a high school football player, his rise as a bodybuilder, and, of course, the arsenal of performance-enhancing drugs he took in quantities that suggested he might have cement mixer-sized tanks of the stuff stashed in the McMansions he claimed were part of his burgeoning real estate empire.
It must have been hours later when I got up off the floor and stumbled into bed in a Piana haze, my wife long since having gone to bed without me. I'd gone down the rabbit hole, the same one that millions of fans around the world have gone down. Ever since, he has been lodged squarely in the fitness-focused part of my consciousness.
I've heard Piana called many things before and since his death, but he always struck me as an accidental genius. I saw in him a man who was to bodybuilding what Chris Farley was to comedy: gifted, driven, reckless, totally committed to entertaining, and clearly walking a dangerous line between going far beyond what anyone else would do to entertain his fans and death itself.
He was entertaining, but I didn't and still don't understand why. Every part of my rational being tells me I shouldn't be interested in watching an inflated human of truly freakish proportions do things like cut his hair, go to drive-thrus, and talk about his steroid cycles ad infinitum.
He had fabricated an entire alternate reality centered around what he called the "5-percent lifestyle," but which is more like the monster truck-body lifestyle. Piana didn't just have an arms day—he had a hour arms workout. He didn't just put on lean muscle mass—he put on 35 pounds of lean muscle mass in a month, and probably spent more time talking in videos about it than actually lifting weights.
After I watched my first Piana video, I shared the link with my brother and a few friends. None of us have ever been competitive bodybuilders, or would ever want to look like Piana or do any of the things that he did to become the freakish superhero he was.
But part of Piana's genius was that he tapped into a small, but dedicated, fan base of truly hardcore bodybuilders, and a huge group of people like us, who have spent time in the weight room, occasionally read muscle mags and websites, and at some point dreamed of looking like Arnold in Terminator or Stallone in the later Rambo films.
Fantasy, drama, and contradiction permeated every aspect of Piana's life. He lived in a world where the highest aspiration was to get as huge and defined as possible, health be damned. He had his own supplement company and meal service, but he also had a gift for shoveling down gallons of ice cream, burgers, and other junk food.
His appetites knew no limits, whether it be for cars, food, houses, training volume, or performance-enhancing drugs. Piana pissed off the entire bodybuilding establishment, but they should thank him. Bodybuilding has long tried to present itself as a healthy lifestyle. But it has a dark side—and not just when it comes to drugs.
I've spent time with some of the world's most elite athletes across sporting disciplines ranging from the UFC and NFL to pro cycling, and all points in between. Meaning, he would do something like MMA or weight training with short rest periods, instead of walking on a treadmill for one hour.
Rich Piana was a big advocate of cables and machines. He used them more than free weights on his bodybuilding journey. Besides giving him the best pump and contraction, Rich also believed they would give him better overall results, than lifting heavy compound movements.
Rich said that doing high reps usually gave him better results than training at rep ranges such as He often based his entire workouts on doing 16 or more reps per set. In one of his videos, Rich showed his entire arm workout which lasted full 8 hours; shocking his viewers. Two hours before the workout, Rich would have a huge breakfast.
During the workout, he would drink 16 protein shakes which consisted of simple sugars, protein, and slow-acting carbs. After he was finished he would eat eat a large meal and take two days off from working out. Rich would alternate between these two workouts non-stop, doing them for 30 minutes. He then repeated the cycle until he completed roughly 16 mini workouts over an eight-hour period. I obsessed over my arms for 32 years! I did everything to bring them up, for 2 years I did mini arm workouts every night before bed!
This was on top of training them twice a week at the gym and getting arm massages for recovery 3 times a week! I actually stopped training back and legs for 3 years cause I hated the way I looked with a huge back and legs, and weak arms and chest!
Instead he enjoyed eating whatever his body desired. Throughout this mindset, he kept a mindful approach to his food choice; meaning, he would eat healthy and nutritious foods most of the time, while having a full-on cheat meal here and there. I am a machine that can eat! I usually can fit in a tub of ice cream most days! He used this shake for post-workout. Seems like nowadays working out goes along with taking steroids! Everyone has their own choice, but it is crazy how many people are doing it these days!
Rich would observe her train in the gym every day, inspired to become a competitive bodybuilder like her one day. Bill Cambra was the biggest influence and we are still in touch this very day! If you love it, you will get to where you want to be. Rich Piana was someone who achieved a lot of success over the years — he became a professional bodybuilder, actor, entrepreneur, and social media star.
He achieved all of this despite some people trying to bring him down with their comments, and criticism towards his honesty and openness. Your email address will not be published. Heads off to him…. RIP Big dog!!! Will still continue to watch your videos and use your supplements. See you on the other side brotha!!! I will miss his guidance. Thankful for videos left behind. He is in Muscle Heaven now and I am certain he will answer any questions you have while training.
Just listen. Proud to know him! We will miss you great Hero. Rest in Peace my Hero. RIP your my google map in life you aways will be my idol. Your intense training has ended, yet your motivation and inspiration shall live forever. May you rest in peace Rich.??? I did put on the 30 pounds in three months n not talking water. Feeder sets baby! Love ya Bro.
Respect et repose en paix Rich!! Nunca te olvidaremos …. I love how many people say it was such a tragedy and how he has gone too soon and all that warm cushie feeling for a guy who was a walking steroid factory!!! Not some self obsessed wanna be viral twat who stuffed so many chemicals into his body, that he was a walking pharmaceutical brochure which in turn did irreversible heart damage.
Tragedy he has died …? Not, a god send to the young impressionable youth who idolise they knuckle dragging neanderthal morons that give kids the wrong idea of what is right and wrong when it comes to body building.
It sets an unhealthy and unrealistic expectation.
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