After quitting the bizarre injections that puffed up his muscles, a Russian bodybuilder has become the latest in a long and unfortunate line of pro weightlifters to meet untimely demises.<\/p>\n
As\u00a0The Sun reports<\/a>, 35-year-old Nikita Tkachuk hadn’t injected synthol \u2014 a so-called “site enhancement oil<\/a>” primarily made up of oils like paraffin or sesame alongside a local anesthetic and benzoyl alcohol that makes muscles appear bulkier without actually causing any strength or fitness benefits \u2014 before he died of a heart attack in a St. Petersburg hospital last week.<\/p>\n The story of how he got there is tragic, even for the morbid world of weightlifting<\/a>.<\/p>\n After winning “Master of Sports” in Russia at 21, Tkachuk began injecting synthol to appear beefier. That practice is known as “fluffing<\/a>,” and it produces muscles that appear, as Iron Man magazine put it back in 2013, “comically inflated<\/a>.”<\/p>\n Eventually, Tkachuk signed a deal with a pharmaceutical company that contractually obligated him to keep taking the shots \u2014 a deal that turned out to be deadly.<\/p>\n After initially being diagnosed with sarcoidosis, a disorder involving tiny granules of immune cells forming on his organs, the strain from all that “fluffing” ultimately led to kidney and lung failure, and then a heart attack, his widow, Maria Tkachuk, said, per\u00a0The Sun.<\/p>\n “There were many trials over the years,” said the widow Tkachuk, who is also a bodybuilder. “[His] resources ran out.”<\/p>\n Though a lot remains unclear about the man’s death, including why he finally succumbed years after quitting the injections, his regret over the use of synthol \u2014 which in a 2022 video he called his “biggest mistake<\/a>” \u2014 is plain as day.<\/p>\n “If your arm is 18 inches or 20 inches, what will it change in your life?” Tkachuk said ahead of his death, per\u00a0The Sun. “You’re going to lose a lot of health. It’s not worth it.”<\/p>\n “If I could back to 2015-2016, I would not do it,” he continued. “I basically ruined my whole sporting career.”<\/p>\n