Jay Cutler shares his thoughts on Women’s Bodybuilding, why it declined, and what the division can do to get more eyeballs.
During the filming of Generation Iron 3, the Women’s Bodybuilding division was essentially dead. While there were occasional competitions at some shows, it was removed completely from the Olympia weekend – making for no Ms. Olympia to showcase the best in the world. Many athletes and experts have shares their opinion as to why the division declined – including Jay Cutler during our interview while filming GI 3. In our latest GI Exclusive Vault interview, Jay Cutler shares his thoughts on Women’s Bodybuilding and what the division could do to bring in more spectators.
Women’s Bodybuilding is poised to make a comeback this year with the return of the Ms. Olympia. While that is fantastic news for the division, the future is still uncertain depending on how many other promoters decide to bring Women’s Bodybuilding into their competitions.
Due to lack of shows, there is a limited number of women who are actually competing at the Women’s Bodybuilding size. Without a mass influx of competitors fighting for the Ms. Olympia trophy, it will be hard to generate excitement. Regardless, the Ms. Olympia returning is a step in the right direction.
But what can it do to ensure that this return brings in more attention and avoids a second decline? That’s what we asked Jay Cutler during our Generation Iron 3 interview. Most of his answer was cut from the final film – but we are now happy to unearth it from our GI Vault and release in full to the world.
At first, Jay Cutler falls in line with the same mentality that we’ve heard before. He states that Women’s Bodybuilding might just be too extreme to find an audience. For whatever reason, the fans who enjoy mass monsters on the Men’s Open stage don’t crossover to watching the women. Jay actually feels like this is an issue in many of the other female devisions. He finds Women’s Physique to be too lean and muscular and believes that perhaps Figure would be the best representation of “Women’s Bodybuilding” in terms of physique.
So are these sorts of divisions just doomed? Or is there a way to bring attention, change mindsets, and get a bigger audience for Women’s Bodybuilding? Jay Cutler points to the Fitness division, specifically Oksana Grishina, who injected life into the division with her incredible routines. She inspired other competitors to step up and do the same – making the whole division rise up in entertainment value.
That’s the same kind of entertainment that needs to make its way to other divisions. Jay Cutler doesn’t just stop with Women’s Bodybuilding but other divisions such as Classic Physique and Men’s Physique. No, he doesn’t want them to do Fitness routines – but to bring more entertainment to the posing.
There is certainly an art to each division’s physique that fans enjoy analyzing when traditional poses are done on stage. But they also want a wow factor. After the 20th bodybuilder comes on stage and stands there in standard poses, it’s easy to zone out. This puts Jay Cutler in line with the likes of Arnold Schwarzenegger, who has wanted more importance in scoring put on actual posing routines.
You can watch Jay Cutler’s full comments in our latest GI Exclusive Vault interview segment above. You can also watch Generation Iron 3 on digital today. Click here or the banner below to get your own digital copy.
