During a recent episode of his podcast, UFC legend Chael Sonnen responded bluntly to a fan question about his past PED use, breaking down what he was taking during his career and how he viewed those protocols.
The fan asked Sonnen to outline his “favorite stack” for both in-competition and out-of-competition periods, and also which match on his record he was “the most sauced up for.”
Sonnen didn’t hesitate in his response, describing what he called the standard elite-level protocol at the time.
“The ultimate stack at that time, the Lance Armstrong diet was testosterone, growth hormone, Epogen, better known as EPO,” he said. “That was the ultimate stack at one time. That was my stack to answer your question,” he added.
When asked whether any specific match stood out in terms of higher or lower usage, Sonnen said there was no variation in his approach across bouts.
“There was no match that was more or less,” he said. “It was the same amount every Monday, every Thursday,” he added.
Sonnen also reflected on how performance-enhancing protocols have evolved since his combat days, pointing to peptides as the newer frontier. He also noted that he has no direct experience with them.
“With the new era we’re in of peptides, and peptides is something that came along just after I left, I don’t know a damn thing about them from firsthand experience,” he said. “I’m told that there are better stacks now than the Lance Armstrong diet of test, EPO, and growth,” he added.
He then shifted to growth hormone specifically, questioning its role as a true performance enhancer.
“Growth, by the way, is one. It’s the most expensive one, it’s probably the hardest to get, and it’s the one that you need the least,” Sonnen said. “There are even doctors that have argued in front of the testing agencies to stop testing for growth because it is not a performance enhancer,” he added.
Sonnen said he partially agreed with that viewpoint based on his own experience, arguing its effects are often overstated. “I believe that to an extent,” he said.
“All growth hormone ever did for me or anyone that I’ve seen is it chews up some body fat. It’s very easy to look at somebody and know that they’re on growth hormone,” he added. “But if it doesn’t make you bigger, stronger, faster, is it helping you in sport? There’s an argument there,” he said. “In my experience, no. But for your question, it was part of my stack,” he added.
