Rich Piana, a professional bodybuilder from Florida who was a hit on the social media site Instagram for his muscular selfies, has reportedly died after being in a coma for several days. The coma and death have been attributed to a massive steroid overdose which was found in his house after he collapsed. After being brought to the hospital unconscious, he was placed in a medically induced coma from which he never seemed to have recovered. His estranged wife Sarah Piana was the one to confirm for the public that he had passed away after swirling rumors grew to a head. The former Mr.California was 46.
Piana was introduced to body building at a young age – he watched his mother train for a competition at 11 which is when he started to train and entered his first competition at 15. At one point, Piana was placed 7th and 11th in national bodybuilding championships but was thrust into the limelight when he admitted in 2016 that he had been injecting himself with anabolic steroids for about 30 years. In his last years, he had quit participating in professional competitions and had focussed on catering to his massive online following on Instagram and business.
He had popularised body building routines that consisted of a massive steroid cycle, nine meals in a day, a series of workouts not fit for the average human being and, according to one profile, “protein shakes big enough to drown a toddler in”. Ironically, the muscular giant always advised young body builders to not use steroids – according to him, you could still take part in competitive body building without having to fall back to steroids and sans the risk of hurting yourself.
