Tag Archives: Synthol

Rich Piana Has Died

Its a sad day for body building fans and the fitness industry as a whole. Its been reported and confirmed that Rich Piana of 5% Nutrition has died after a recent medical emergency. There are rumours of drug overdose and taking his own life but all are rumours and nothing is confirmed. 

Rich Piana at Body Power 2017

Rich Piana at Body Power 2017

In my previous post about Rich in a Chemically Induced Coma, I detailed how the man was absolutely dedicated to his fans. I witnessed this all first hand. Rich shone a light on the fitness industry be it good or bad. If you are not familiar with Rich Piana from 5% Nutrition, he’s the man who basically “enhanced” his already well built physique using Synthol, PMMA and various other local enhancing oils which are injected to the muscles to inflate them like a water balloon and produce his massive size.

There has long been questions of safety surrounding the vast majority of these oils being injected into the body. Others have accused users of these enhancing oils as being cheats and not real body builders so Rich has always been somewhat controversial.

This is why I’m not a big fan of Rich Piana’s methods and process, but that aside its a sad day for the health industry and his millions or 5%’ers around the globe.

I will certainly miss him at future events and hope his legacy is a good one, rest well Rich. 

Rich Piana In Chemically Induced Coma

Body Builder and 5% Nutrition founder Rich Piana has been placed into a chemically induced coma following a medical emergency. The 46 year old star were found unresponsive by medical staff after being called out to a potential overdose at his Florida home on Monday afternoon. 

Rich Piana at Body Power 2017

Rich Piana at Body Power 2017

Its not clear what the current situation is, or how Rich is but I do sincerely hope he makes a full recovery. While I’m not a huge fan of Rich Piana’s whole synthol and whatever-the-hell he injects or his persona but the man is a sound guy.

You can’t put a guy down who values his fans so much. I have seen the guy at multiple different shows, and he  always takes his time with each and every fan, talks to them, advises them, guides them and inspires them to be more. I have never seen him rush a fan, cut one off and lose his patience. Well apart from the slapbox incident, which was massively overplayed imo. 

What I have observed is many other stars give fans 30 seconds before rushing them off, many spend a few hours with the fans then they go hide in the green room. Anyone not in the queue at the time time just misses out. With Rich Piana, I have consistently seen him take 5-10 minutes with just 1 fan laughing and joking, taking his time. Rich has spent 10 hour days for 2-3 days in a row on his stand with a never ending queue of fans, only popping off his stand for short periods. 

When I took the above picture, Rich actually asked the next fan in the queue if he minded waiting for a few minutes while he did a quick press picture, then apologised to fan, then apologised to me for the wait. You can’t fault the guy, so hopefully he’ll recover and it will turn out to be a mistake or accident.