Sam Sulek

About

Sam Sulek, also known as @sam_sulek, is a 21-year-old American bodybuilder on TikTok and YouTube known for his lifting videos and vlogging content. He's known for popularizing the Zyzz adjacent slang term "egolifting." He started uploading content to TikTok in 2022. He amassed a large following going into 2023, earning fan edits and memes on the platform. Along with his eminence, Sulek also gained notoriety, predominantly due to speculation that he was taking performance-enhancing drugs like steroids. The "fake natty" allegations (which also manifested on the site formerly known as Twitter in August 2023) mixed with discourse about his young age, inspiring concern for his health.

Online History

Sam Sulek is 21 years old in August 2023, according to his TikTok^[1] bio. Before he started posting content online, Sulek was a gymnast and diver at Delaware Hayes High School in Deleware, Ohio. ^[2][3]

Sulek started his online history when he posted his first TikTok^[4] video on July 25th, 2022, gaining roughly 14,300 plays and 560 likes in one year (shown below, left). His first video to reach over 100,000 plays was a TikTok^[5] posted on September 6th, 2022. A few months later, on February 3rd, 2023, Sulek posted his first TikTok^[6] to reach over 1 million plays, gaining roughly 1.1 million plays and 194,700 likes in six months (shown below, right).

During the same timeframe, on January 15th, 2023, Sulek posted his first YouTube^[7] video to his channel Sam Sulek.^[8] The video gained roughly 224,600 views and 11,000 likes in seven months (shown below, left). His videos increased in engagement in mid-2023, culminating in a July 6th YouTube^[9] video which gained over 546,500 views in one month (shown below, right).

Sam Sulek also gained a sponsorship from the supplements and bodybuilding brand Hosstile^[10] in 2023.

Online Reactions

Fan Edits / Memes

Starting in mid-2023, Sam Sulek started to amass fan accounts and memes. For instance, on June 19th, 2023, TikToker^[11] @tajeboi posted a Sulek video with a humorous POV caption about smuggling anabolic steroids, gaining roughly 419,000 plays and 83,300 likes in two months (shown below, left). On August 2nd, 2023, TikToker^[12] @invictusvisions posted a fan edit that read like Pinkcore, earning roughly 262,500 plays and 54,100 likes in eight days (shown below, right).

Health Concerns / Natty Or Juice

On March 19th, 2023, Redditor ChipFlavour1 posted a photo of Sulek to /r/nattyorjuice.^[13] In the comment section, Redditors debated as to whether or not Sulek was using performance-enhancing drugs. On July 31st, 2023, fitness YouTuber and bodybuilder Greg Doucette posted a video to YouTube^[14] called "This Isn't Good" that centered on Sulek. Among many points, Doucette speculated that Sulek was taking performance-enhancing drugs and expressed concern over his health in relation to his young age. The video gained roughly 611,000 views and 28,000 likes in eight days (shown below).

On August 7th, 2023, X^[15] user @NotLarrayy_ posted a video of Sulek, captioning it, "This nigga is off the real goop man he can barely breathe," gaining roughly 18.9 million views and 21,700 likes in one day (shown below). The post gained mass viewership due to viral quote retweets, such as one QRT shared by X^[16] user @sushiboyMEXICO on August 7th, 2023, who wrote, "Bro only 21 😭😭😭 he on 90’s steroids. His heart gon blow up like John q son," gaining roughly 112,600 likes in one day.

This nigga is off the real goop man he can barely breathe pic.twitter.com/SnCzpPRCCU

— Larry David (@NotLarrayy_) August 7, 2023

Viral QRTs persisted on X^[17] going into early August 2023.

Following

By August 8th, 2023, Sam Sulek had amassed roughly 698,600 folowers on TikTok^[1] and roughly 474,000 subscribers on YouTube.^[8]

Search Interest

External References