Internet fame is a curious beast, especially with algorithms geared towards the most outrageous stuff on this side of legality. Unconventional diets and brutal workout regimens are hot property in this arena, and in combination they can yield the kind of multi-million-dollar fame that Liver King has achieved.
Liver King, or Brian Johnson, is a 47-year-old proponent of the ‘ancestral lifestyle’: eat tonnes of raw meat, spend lots of time outside, put yourself through ridiculous physical trials, and forgo modern creature comforts.
Sadly, our hunter-gatherer ancestors weren’t taking performance-enhancing drugs, so they ought to be off the table.
This is the great sticking point in the Liver King story: in 2022 it was revealed that he was taking $11,000 (£8,200) of steroids each month, including synthetic IGF1 and testosterone. The cocktail significantly enhanced his ability to grow and maintain muscle, as well as to recover quickly from his various physical exertions.
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Netflix’s new documentary, Untold: The Liver King, follows Johnson’s life along with wife Barbara and sons Stryker and Rad. Along with covering his reputational downfall following the revelations of his steroid use, it shows Johnson and family living out the raw meat, testicle-rich, and physically-demanding lifestyle that Liver King adheres to.
While the steroids certainly helped Johnson to develop his massive, lean physique, some credit is due: steroids don’t make you big on their own. You still need to work out practically every day, often multiple times per day, and consume an outrageous amount of protein to attain that kind of size.
You also need to structure workouts with religious precision and dedication to make sure you’re working each group effectively whilst leaving the right recovery windows to prevent injury and maximise size gains.
Unfortunately, that hard work and commitment is overshadowed by Johnson’s repeated lies over the years regarding steroid use. Until 2022, when the emails revealing his steroid use were leaked, he had staunchly claimed that he was entirely clean.
Nevertheless, the guy walks the walk when it comes to the insane diet and workout routines, and he’s got his family in on the testicle-munching action.
‘Bollocks!’ I hear you cry, but it’s true.
Demonstrating the family-wide commitment to the raw meat, liver and testicle-heavy diet, wife Barbara chows down on some in the documentary whilst showing the balls’ batch preparation.
Barbara – whose birth name is Bozena – emigrated to the States from Poland aged 15. She became engaged to Liver King just two months after they first met, eventually leaving her dentistry career behind to join him in the influencer world. She runs her own animal-based beauty brand, Krowa Beauty, along with husband Brian.
“How much testicle do you eat a day?” asks one of Netflix’s documentary makers.
“I just make sure it’s beef testicle, and I eat… one ounce?” says Barbara.
“One ounce, three times a day, so three ounces,” interjects Lionel Flores Jr, the Liver King family’s chef.
“And I just put some hot sauce in it,” she continues. “That’s my breakfast, dinner, and then snack before bed. That’s it, because women also need testosterone.
“I don’t need crazy testosterone ‘cause I’m not an athlete, but to keep me healthy and balanced, between oestrogen, testosterone? That’s why.
“There’s people out there that say they do this, but they don’t really do it. It’s just for the social media. But this is our life.”
Sadly, these guys might be wolfing down bullock bollocks with little to no benefit to their testosterone levels. Bull testicles contain so little testosterone that even eating them three times a day is unlikely to move the needle on your testosterone levels.
Featured Image Credit: NetflixTopics: Celebrity, Social Media, TV and Film, YouTube
Rachael Davis