SYLVESTER Stallone has opened up about his intense focus on physique during the height of his career, revealing that he struggled with bulimia and used steroids while preparing for Rocky III. Stallone said his pursuit of a highly defined, athletic physique became an“obsession” as he sought to shape his body for his action roles. “I started to think: Design your body like a jaguar, a cat. Not big like Arnold Schwarzenegger, but more feral and aggressive and very limber and athletic,” Stallone said, adding,“It became an obsession. Really bad. It got to the point where I became bulimic.” Stallone, who played boxer Rocky Balboa in the 1982 film Rocky III, said he reached 2.6 per cent body fat while working on the movie. “I got down to 2.6 per cent body fat when I was doing Rocky III,” he said, adding, “I couldn’t hold anything down.

 

Or I didn’t want to keep it down because I became so obsessed with staying at that point of fitness, literally an obsessive bodyworship kind of thing.” The actor also spoke openly about his use of steroids during his career. Stallone said that, in his view, achieving his desired level of fitness without “additives and drugs” was not possible. “Nobody” achieves their fitness goals “without additives and drugs, period,” Stallone said, adding, “I don’t care what they say.” Asked directly whether he had used steroids, Stallone responded, “Oh, my God, you have to.” He added that he approached their use in cycles, saying, “six weeks on, six weeks off.” Stallone acknowledged that the practice had lasting consequences. He said steroid use “took a terrible toll” on his body and described his approach to fitness during that period as “very masochistic.”