What makes modern Bodybuilding so bittersweet?
Most sports need to be progressive in order to remain relevant and exciting, Bodybuilding is no different, everyone wants to break records and be better than previous winners. Not one bodybuilder from the Golden Era could possibly imagine a competitor getting up on stage to compete at 300lbs at a low body fat level and less than six feet of height, it only took a few decades but it finally happened.
Most like to think that modern Bodybuilding has been a size game especially at the Mr. Olympia level ever since Dorian Yates made his way into the spotlight. Even though a lot of fans currently share mixed opinions regarding the “drastic transformation” that the sport took in the 90’s, it’s no secret that the six time Mr. Olympia Champion brought something new and extraordinary to the Olympia stage that had never been seen before. The size game has always been played in Bodybuilding but not many people want to see it that way, just think of the size difference between Arnold Schwarzenegger and Larry Scott, the competitors started becoming bigger since the sport first started, it’s no different than football, baseball or even powerlifting, it’s human nature to break previous records, someone eventually was going to step on a Bodybuilding stage and blow everyone away with a display of sheer size and conditioning that couldn’t be humanly possible, that first someone ended up being the legendary Dorian Yates with a physique that has yet to be matched.
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The bodybuilders that we see today are big and have a “wow factor” that’s totally different from the bodybuilders of the Golden Era, when we look at Big Ramy the first thing that goes through our mind is how big and freaky he is but when we watch an Arnold Schwarzenegger, Frank Zane or Ed Corney posing video we can’t stop thinking about how perfect, artistic and beautiful the sport was back then. Each generation of Bodybuilding was unique in its own way, each of them with their own rivalries; we had Arnold vs. Sergio, Yates vs. Ray, Cutler vs. Coleman and now Greene vs. Heath, as some would say. At the end of the day they are all Bodybuilders but comparing one generation to another is almost like comparing apples to oranges, the sport has evolved and we need to accept it.
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What can we expect from the sport in the future?
We always listen to people talking about the future of the sport and how it’s doomed, the thing is, Bodybuilding has always been a “Cult Sport”, it has a smaller fan base compared to other major sports. Bodybuilding hasn’t gotten better or worse it has just evolved into what the fans wanted to see, let’s admit it, regardless if it’s a Schwarzenegger or Coleman video we become equally as excited to watch it and then motivated to go train and emulate their physiques as much as possible.
Arnold Schwarzenegger recently commented on the way the sport is headed and his arguments were spot on, he made a few comments about how Bodybuilding used to be beautiful and about how the bodybuilders of The Golden Era used to have fine lines with flat stomachs and muscle definition. The sport could change and the judges could start marking down the mass monsters but would it really do any good? We live in a world where quantity is almost always preferred over quality, if they would hypothetically start marking down guys like Big Ramy and Kai Greene but started promoting smaller guys the sport would lose a huge following because that’s what we the fans are used to watching; we want to see huge guys battling it out on stage.
My name is Roderick Collins, I am a teenage bodybuilder and creator of the website www.collegiatemuscle.com created especially for the new generation of bodybuilders and athletes. You can reach out to me by hitting up my Twitter @collegiatemuscl and also by visiting my website here.
