Jay Cutler: Classic Physique is a lower version of Men’s Open.
GI VAULT – is an extension of our GI Exclusive interviews. The difference? These interviews come straight out of the Generation Iron vault from the cutting room floor of our feature film documentaries. With over hours of interview footage that doesn’t make it into our final films, we’re now releasing them out into the world.
The Classic Physique division didn’t exist when Jay Culter was competing and reigning as a Mr. Olympia champion. Now since retired, Jay Cutler is looking back at the new division that has sprung up in popularity over the years and giving his honest thoughts on it. In our latest GI Exclusive Vault interview, Jay Cutler explains why he thinks that Classic Physique has very little excitement compared to Men’s Open.
Fans of bodybuilding have been split on the current evolution of bodybuilding. Specifically, there has been vocal outcry that Men’s Open bodybuilders are looking too big and not conditioned enough. A growing group of fans want to see physiques that are closer to the Golden Era of bodybuilding. The NPC and IFBB attempted to please these fans with the introduction of Classic Physique. With weight limits based on height – this division was meant to guarantee that mass monster bloat couldn’t make it onto the stage.
We spoke with Jay Cutler back in 2018 during the filming of Generation Iron 3 and asked his thoughts on the then newly formed division. Could this new aesthetic one day become more popular the Men’s Open? Jay Cutler doesn’t quite think so.
“When a guy gets out there and does aesthetic posing. And he poses to slower things and everything’s kind of in tune… it’s very cool to watch but after a while you see the same routines over and over.” Jay Cutler states about the Classic Physique division. He continues:
“There’s no excitement to it. When a guy is muscle bound and he’s just out there flexing, getting into crazy most muscular, sticking his tongue out, really getting the crowd fired up. They want to see beasts battle. They want to see the lions fight. They don’t want to see the mice fight.”
Jay Cutler goes on to say that he doesn’t mean this as an insult to the Classic Physique athletes. He understands and believes that what they spend their lives training for a is a noble endeavor. But in Cutler’s personal opinion from what he’s seen – he finds the posing routines in Classic Physique to be less exciting.
Perhaps this is just Jay Cutler’s take coming from his perspective as a Men’s Open bodybuilder. Maybe the fans enjoy the slower posing routines that bring the beauty back in posing.
As of the time of this writing, Classic Physique has maintained a big following but has not surpassed the popularity of Men’s Open. In that resect, perhaps Jay Cutler is right. The division is still ultimately young and only time will tell to see what the long term results of this new division will be.
You can watch Jay Cutler’s full comments from our GI Exclusive vault interview segment above! You can also relive the feature documentary Generation Iron 3 on digital today. Click here or the banner below to get your copy!
