Beefcake Valdir Segato’s huge biceps measure a staggering 23 inches as a result of painful synthol injections. The 48-year-old’s arms have doubled in size from 12 inches after he began injecting the potentially lethal oil substance five years ago and now he wants to get even bigger. Segato, from Sao Paulo, Brazil, is inspired by the physiques of Arnold Schwarzenegger and fictional characters like The Hulk and is proud to be known locally as ‘the monster’ in
Segato, a construction worker, said: ‘They call me Hulk, Schwarzenegger and He-Man all the time and I like that.
‘I’ve doubled my biceps but I still want to be bigger.’
As a youth he was an emaciated skinny drug addict and lost so much weight he was known as ‘Skinny Dog’. He said:
‘I got involved with drugs and I started losing weight because you don’t eat, you lead a wrong life.’
Segato quit drugs and joined a gym but he wanted more extreme effects than he could achieve from exercise alone. He was offered synthol by someone in the gym and, having an addictive personality, soon became hooked on the muscle-enhancing substance, which he injects into his biceps, chest and shoulders.
He has bulked up from 55kg (eight stone, six pounds) to 80kg (12 stone, five pounds) but says the oil does not make him any stronger.
‘The Hulk’ has been warned he faces serious problems – including amputation – if he continues to use synthol.
His friend Fernando Carvalho da Silva, said: ‘The oil thing is stupidity. He thinks it’s good and I’m a friend so I stay quiet, but deep down I want to tell him to stop but he doesn’t want to. He’s happy like that.
‘It’s the risk he takes – he wants to look good and wants to be famous.’
Segato said:
‘The doctors tell me to stop it, the advice they give me is to stop using. But it’s my decision to use it because I want to, because I like to.’
Ironically, far from his inflated muscles making him a magnet for women, he has actually had great difficulty attracting ladies. He said:
‘I do get attention, but people seem to be scared to approach me, I think that’s the problem.’
Obviously he gets odd looks in the street and he also gets mocked by children.
‘The worst thing is when people stop you and call you an ugly thing. But I don’t care what people say, if I like myself, that’s enough,’ he said.
He plans pump up his biceps to a whopping 27 inches and his confident he will become a star.
‘My dream is that with my musculature I try can achieve something – make a career from my body,’ he said.
But he still has some way to go if he is going to catch Moustafa ‘Big Mo’ Ismail from Egypt who has record-breaking 31 inch biceps.