Professional bodybuilder Iain Valliere recently made a surprising revelation about an unconventional method that may have prevented him from developing gynecomastia during his competitive career.
In a discussion on the Trensparent podcast with host Nyle Nayga, the six-time IFBB Pro champion shared details about his extensive history with nipple piercings and their unexpected impact on his physiology.
Valliere disclosed that he had his nipples pierced approximately 12 times throughout his life, primarily during his younger years. “I’ve had combined probably 12 times I’ve had my nipples pierced,” he explained. The piercings were not a one-time decision but rather a recurring modification, often necessitated by his football activities.
“I would get them pierced, I’d wear them all year, the football season would come, I’d take my nipple rings out, they’d heal up, I’d get them done again. And I did that like year after year,” Valliere recounted. His left nipple was pierced approximately six to seven times, while his right nipple was pierced four to five times.
The bodybuilder’s first nipple piercing occurred when he was remarkably young, around grade seven, facilitated by a cousin on the West Coast. Despite his young age and initial hesitation, he went through with the procedure and maintained the piercings throughout various periods of his adolescence and early adulthood.
Valliere’s theorizes that these repeated piercings may have affected his susceptibility to gynecomastia. During the podcast, he made a striking statement: “I f**king killed the gland with all those nipple piercings.”
This revelation is noteworthy given Valliere’s PED protocol during his competitive years. “Even at my biggest when I was doing 1,500 to 2,000 milligrams of s**t in the offseason, I still would never use AIs, which sounds crazy,” he admitted. Despite running high doses of aromatizing PEDs, including 1,000 milligrams of testosterone during his offseason phases, Valliere maintained that he rarely experienced estrogenic side effects.
“I’ve never had even like a hint of like a nodule of gyno, like nothing in my life,” Valliere stated emphatically. He attributed this fortunate circumstance partly to genetics but suggested that the repeated trauma from nipple piercings may have played a role in destroying or damaging the glandular tissue that typically responds to elevated estrogen levels.
Interestingly, Valliere noted that the repeated piercings may have actually improved the aesthetic appearance of his nipples from a competitive bodybuilding standpoint. “They got smaller. Actually, they look nicer now. It’s like it made them almost like they’re like more pointy and small and like it gave me some like nipple aesthetics,” he described.
This outcome contradicts what many might expect from repeated tissue trauma. Rather than causing enlargement or distortion, the piercings appeared to create a more compact, defined appearance that complemented his physique on stage.
