The two best pre-steroid era bodybuilders

Grimek's and Reeve's prime was in the late 40s. Their physiques never noticeably improved in the mid to late 50s, when steroid use filtered into American gyms after John zeigler noticed the soviets were lifting insane amounts of weight at the 1954 world weightlifting championships in Vienna while working as team USA's team doctor.

 
" In 1935, the male hormone testosterone was first synthesized. During World War II, German soldiers were reportedly given testosterone to increase their performance and aggressiveness on the battlefield.

In the 1940s testosterone began to be widely used in competitive sports, but the dangers of loading up on testosterone were not yet clear. In the 1952 Olympics, the Russian weightlifting and wrestling teams dominated those sports, at least in part due to synthetic testosterone.

Steve Reeves won his first major bodybuilding contest, Mr. America, at the age of 21 in 1947. 

This leads us to believe that anabolic steroids were available approximately 10 years prior to Reeves’ debut on a large bodybuilding stage.

Sergio Oliva Believed Reeves Used Anabolic Steroids.

In an interview conducted by Brian D. Johnston the legendary bodybuilder Sergio Oliva stated the following:

BDJ: Could you relay your own experience with drug use?

SO: This is an area of great interest for people. I don’t care who wants to take steroids, because that’s a personal choice… that’s his life. Now, today, everybody has access to them. 

I even saw in one of the big magazines that Arnold denies having used them, but Arnold was one of the first to bring steroids over to America. And everybody in the old days used them: Zane, Columbu, myself, Arnold, Larry Scott, Harold Poole, Dave Draper, and even Steve Reeves. There’s no way to deny it. Conclusion: Steve Reeves most likely experimented with some sort of early testosterone based anabolic steroids. "