On a recent episode of Trensparent with Nyle Nayga, guest Tanner Tattered found himself in the middle of a conversation about cardiac health and a story that led directly to one of bodybuilding’s most repeated myths about Arnold Schwarzenegger.
Tanner had been recounting a frightening personal episode. While running a heavy cycle that included two grams of gear alongside a late addition of Menotropin, he experienced what he described as a cardiac event during a shopping trip in Chicago.
“I look over at my girlfriend and then I look at a shop and then I feel the weight of an elephant on my chest,” he said. “It feels like there’s an anvil pressing into my heart and immediately my brain runs the diagnostic and I’m like, I’m having a heart attack.”
He never sought medical attention that day, choosing instead to stay quiet and ride it out. “I completely hid the fact that I was definitely like mid-cardiac event during this shopping outing,” he admitted. “I just kept breathing and saying nothing and it went away.”
What followed was a discussion about why he gets regular EKGs, and that explanation opened the door to the Schwarzenegger topic directly. “My dad had bicuspid aortic valve,” Tanner said. “That was actually the same condition that Arnold Schwarzenegger had. He had to get his heart surgery for that.”
From there, Tanner addressed the popular claim head-on. “People always cite the surgery like Arnold abused st**oids and needed surgery,” he said. “It’s a genetic condition. His heart has two valves instead of three. Got the surgery. Fix it up. He’s good.”
The bicuspid aortic valve is a congenital heart defect, meaning a person is born with it. It has no causal relationship to anabolic roid use and cannot be induced by any d**g protocol.
Tanner returned to his own situation to put the risk in perspective. After the incident in Chicago, he said his systolic blood pressure had reached 150, which he acknowledged was unsustainable.
“A lot of guys would be very happy with that number, as weird as it sounds,” he said. “Although, it should be 120 or lower.”
Subsequent EKGs, he noted, showed no lasting damage. “Every single time they’re like, there’s nothing wrong with your heart. It’s completely healthy. Nothing wrong with it.”
