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Does Jujimufu Use Steroids? What Do We Think?
Jujimufu is a 32-year-old fitness personality from North Carolina who goes by the handle the Anabolic Acrobat.
He rose to fame in 2016 when he successfully auditioned for America’s Got Talent, though he has been active on YouTube for ages.
Jujimufu (real name Jon Call) is pretty unique, not just in his off the wall personality, but in his particular fitness niche.
He deadlifts huge weights, benches like a powerlifter, trains like a bodybuilder but is as flexible as any gymnast.
He’s the closest thing to an American Ninja that you’re going to find (they are like regular Ninjas, but about twice the size).
Jujimufu has the kind of physique most men would dream of owning, but he also has monster strength and incredible athleticism. But has he achieved this naturally? In this article, we are going to try and find out.[toc]
Who Is Jujimufu?
Jon Call was born in North Carolina and first became internet-famous thanks to his acrobatic video tutorials.
The website he used was called Trickstutorials.com and it ran from 2002 to 2014, before he started his new website Acrobolix.com which has since changed its name to Jujimufu.
According to his website, the name Jujimufu came about after he was frustrated trying to find a name for his AOL messenger account, which is the sort of story that could only have happened within the first few years of the millennium.
Why he has stuck to such an annoying name is a mystery, but also part of his charm.
Jon has written fitness books, taught tricking (jumping around being acrobatic), and is heavily into his social media.
His website sells a lot of fitness apparel that ties into his niche. His Instagram content is incredible, seriously check it out.
While Insta is full of fitness people trying to show off and get attention, Jujimufu has that rare talent of doing lots of attention-grabbing stunts without coming across as annoying or vain. It’s got to be something about having super long hair that allows guys to get away with this!
Tricking is what got him famous, and it is a little hard to explain.
It comes from martial arts (Jon has a blackbelt in Taekwondo) and is very similar to Capoeira crossed with Parkour. You’ll see a lot of flips, splits, and leaping.
Taekwondo got him into Tricking and weightlifting, but it took him a while to start combining Tricking and lifting together.
He started training like a bodybuilder, while also looking to get as strong as possible in the big lifts. So, you could say that his training is part bodybuilding, part gymnastics, and part powerlifting.
Usually, combining three very different forms of training would lead to a person becoming equally mediocre at all three. But Jon has managed to become successful within all three.
No, he won’t be walking on to the stage at Mr Olympia any time soon, nor will he be on World’s Strongest Man. But he has a kick-ass physique, is super strong, and is ridiculously flexible.
What Are Steroids?
A lot of the time, people talk about steroids without really knowing anything about them. This is not helpful as it can lead to a lot of confusion.
Accusing someone of taking steroids is a big deal, and it is very difficult for someone to prove it either way (unless someone is obviously taking them like Ronnie Coleman).
Many athletes have been found to be taking anabolic steroids, while not looking much different from the other athletes in their field who did not take them.
Anabolic steroids are synthetic drugs that are made to mimic the effects of testosterone.
They have been around since the beginning of the 20th century but rose to prominence during the 60s and 70s as professional bodybuilders began to experiment with how far steroids could take them.
Anabolic steroids are not just used to build muscle, they can also be used to burn fat, and to improve performance.
Some steroids will help you burn fat and build muscle, some steroids will help you to build muscle and improve performance, and some steroids will provide all three (injectable testosterone appears to improve all three).
Steroids that help you build muscle are often called bulking steroids.
Some of the most well-known steroids for bulking are Trenbolone (called Tren), Deca Durabolin, Dianabol, and testosterone.
Then you have steroids that are effective for improving your performance. Winstrol and testosterone are good examples of this.
Finally, there are steroids that are effective for fat burning. These are often used by fitness models, and bodybuilders during a cut. Clenbuterol and Anavar are the most well known for fat burning.
But anabolic steroids are not the only performance-enhancing drugs that are used illegally.
Human Growth Hormone (HGH), Insulin, ephedrine, and many other drugs are all often used to improve performance and build a superior body.
How Can You Tell If Someone Is Taking Steroids?
If you look at a professional bodybuilder, it is incredibly easy to see that they are taking steroids. Their physique is much bigger than anything a non-steroid user could achieve. But surprisingly, the majority of steroid users are not obvious. There are many reasons for that.
Firstly, you need to understand just how hard it is to build an amazing physique. If you think about it you need to lift a dumbbell to build large muscles, but most people who lift dumbbells do not have large muscles.
They may not be performing the exercises properly, they may not be using a heavy enough weight, or they may not be consistent enough. It’s the same thing with steroids.
If you don’t take steroids properly, or you don’t diet and exercise properly, you won’t see much difference in your physique.
Also, many steroid users don’t have massive muscles as their main goal. Some just want to recover better from their workouts, some want to perform better at their chosen sport, and some do want bigger muscles, but not to the extent that their steroid use is obvious.
With a hoodie on, Jujimufu does not necessarily look like a steroid user. Not in the way that Jay Cutler would, nor the way that Ronnie Coleman did.
Still, there are certain signs that, if you pay attention, can help you discover whether someone is taking steroids or not.
One of the best ways to assess whether someone is just naturally huge, or they have got there through steroid use is to follow their progress.
According to Lyle McDonald a natural lifter could put on 40-50lbs of lean muscle over a lifetime [1]. Alan Aragon states that 2-3lbs of muscle per year is a realistic target for a natural lifter.
If the person you suspect of taking steroids has gained more than 2-3lbs of muscle within a few months, then they are probably using.
With Jujimufu we have progress photos from when he started until right now. He easily looks about twice the size as he did in 2002.
Other ways to find out if someone is taking steroids is to look at their training schedule. For a normal, un-assisted lifter you would expect them to train 4-5 times per week.
Elite athletes may be able to train more than that, but rest and recovery are crucial.
If the person you suspect of taking steroids is training more than 8 times per week, then they are probably taking steroids. If they are training 8 times per week and they AREN’T taking steroids, then expect them to become injured soon!
Does Jujimufu Use Steroids?
Short Answer: Probably
Unlike professional bodybuilders, Jujimufu is not a clear cut case.
If you’re going to start throwing out accusations of steroid abuse, you want to be 100% certain.
At best we’re looking at 90% certainty. It’s not so much that is physique is unattainable without steroids. It’s more about his training schedule, his lack of injury, and his transformation over the last 20 years.
Now don’t get us wrong, in 20 years you would be expecting quite a bit of change. Particularly in someone who trains as hard as Jon has. But the biggest change in muscle size has occurred over the last five years or so.
In fact, if you compare his muscle mass in 2016 when he competed on America’s Got Talent to his muscle mass just 2 years later, he has clearly built up a lot more mass.
In 2016 he was a big guy, and if you’d asked us then if he was on steroids you’d have received a “yeah he could be, or he could be a genetic hero”. His physique at the time was similar to an Olympic Gymnast. Very muscular, low body fat, but the muscles were attainable.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sbUeD6PEN-U
Take a look at his physique on his Instagram page and his arms are about twice as big. The amount of muscle mass he now boasts has clearly increased rapidly. Is he increasing mass at 2-3lbs per year? Doubtful.
But it is his training schedule that seems to defy the natural limitations of the human body.
During summer he resistance trains six days per week, sometimes twice per day [2].
Let’s say, for argument’s sake that he only trains twice per day on Mondays and Fridays (though he could be doing it more often than that). This means that he is resistance training for eight sessions in a week.
But that’s not all he does, he also performs his “Tricking” around three times per week.
While this is not going to be as intense as resistance training, it is still going to take a lot of energy and effort.
Tricking is basically a form of plyometrics, bodyweight training that is so intense that it is recommended that you don’t even start until you can squat your own body weight.
This means he is training around 11 times per week. As you can imagine, this is one of the most gruelling training programs imaginable.
How would he be able to recover from one session to the next when the sessions might just be 12 hours apart without steroids? He wouldn’t.
In Conclusion
It’s interesting to think about the role that social media plays in this. Without 900k Instagram fans following his every workout would Jujimufu consider taking steroids? Possibly, but he certainly wasn’t taking steroids when he was performing his Tricking videos in the early 2000s.
But as an audience grows, so does the pressure to succeed. To keep growing your reach, to keep impressing. America’s Got Talent would have exacerbated the issue.
Not that we’re saying that it was a bad idea for him to take steroids. He’s not competing in any competition. He is not promoting steroids to kids, and he is not endorsing huge supplement companies while claiming to be steroid-free.
The idea that steroids are a terrible drug that will kill you is an exaggeration. Or rather, it is something that can happen if you abuse steroids in the way that a professional bodybuilder would.
But used sparingly to allow you to recover from workouts it isn’t necessarily going to adversely affect you in the future.
It shouldn’t affect how you feel about Jujimufu. The guy has still worked harder than just about anyone in your local gym.
He’s achieved more than any of the lifters in your gym too. He is leading a (mostly) healthy life, and is more flexible than most women, let alone men. He is also strong enough to perform the splits whilst overhead pressing a grown woman!
It doesn’t matter how many performance-enhancing drugs you are taking. That’s still impressive, still admirable. It still requires a massive amount of hard work and dedication.
If steroids are the only way that he can train at this intensity without injuring himself, and it is this training schedule that has got him where he is today, then his calculated risk has paid off.
The guy is an American hero!
How To Gain Muscle And Strength Without Steroids?
It is certainly possible to build muscle and strength without the use of steroids, although you may not see the same level of gains, unfortunately.
For a start, you should try to eat more and to train with more intensity.
Your choice of supplements is also important, and while legal alternatives are not as effective as anabolic steroids they do offer certain benefits.
Crazy Bulk is one company who sell a range of legal supplements that are safe alternatives to popular anabolic steroids.
D-Bal, for example, is a safe and legal alternative to the banned anabolic steroid Dianabol.
It is made using proven ingredients, which include numerous BCAAs, Whey Protein Concentrate and Tribulus Terrestris.
When these ingredients are combined you will see an increase in nitrogen retention, which will lead to an increase in protein synthesis.
Other benefits you will experience include:
- Strength and muscle gains
- Increased endurance
- More nitrogen retained
- An increase in blood flow due to the additional oxygen sent to muscles
If you are wondering whether D-Bal is as effective as claimed, then you only need to visit the Crazy Bulk website. They have numerous testimonials available to prove the claims.
Of course, he is using steroids. Most of these guys are. No one gets that big without using steroids.
I’m that size and that flexible. I don’t take steroids. He’s probably just pretty huge naturally. Very lucky mesomorph genes. But 98% of people out there probably need steroids to get that big and strong. He’s and exception, an anomaly but the real deal. But everybody has their own strengths an weaknesses (genetically).
Jujimufu is pretty open about using steroids. His nickname is the Anabolic Acrobat. C’mon now.
Injury free? He has had knee and elbow problems due to lifting, fuck off. Anyways, he’s been increasing in weight since he was a teen, a bit more rapidly these few years, but that could also be because he quit his job and started taking his own thing more seriously. And that 2-3lbs per year is also a shot in the dark, probably true for some people, but not me. Probably not him either. I’d question steroid usage, but wouldn’t give it a certainty of 90%. Too much hear-say bullshit here. (Also, Anabolic Acrobat doesn’t necessarily mean PEDs, most likely it’s just a slang for “Built” or “Buff”. Google “anabolic”, learn something new.
I Find this whole page laughable. I mean what the f*** seriously! Alan aragon says you can only put on 2-3lbs of muscle per year. No wonder he still doesn’t look very big. I would say you can easily put on 15 lbs every year maybe more. Makes me wonder how these so called pro’s and nutritionists train. I’ve never touched PED and never would. Instead i push myself most days and always lift heavy (Except for warmups) If you can do more that 8 reps 10 absolute max then increase the weight, eat your calories, make sure you have plenty of protein and push yourselves. Go’s to show even so called pro’s and nutritionist speak out there A**