The greatest generation of posing.

Every sport has a definitive age, a time in which many competitors, athletes, and observers agree is the time when the sport was at the height of it’s power. For bodybuilding many people have different opinions on when that time period was. Some believe that the 90’s featured some of the most impressive bodybuilders and events of all time. Many others believe that bodybuilding has never been better than it is in it’s present state. But for most people the consensus is that the 70’s and 80’s was the time that bodybuilding was at it’s greatest. They don’t call it the Golden Era for nothing.

The Golden Era was a time when focus was centered more on building great aesthetics rather than just building massive muscle. Sure, building up you body is the whole point of the sport, but the idea was to attain a physique that was at once strong and graceful. Back in those days many bodybuilders wanted to have tiny waists, broad shoulders, and a very symmetrical form. Men like Arnold Schwarzenegger, Franco Columbu, Frank Zane, Sergio Oliva, Lee Haney and a ton of other talented bodybuilders were concerned with not only building a power physique, but ensuring that the sport they held dear was treated as an art form as well.

One of those artful elements of the Golden Era is no doubt the competitors posing routines. Many of the athletes would spend hours perfected their poses until they got it just right. You couldn’t go into a competition looking shredded but bring with that physique a piss poor posing routine. You’d never win a Mr. Olympia without having the total package and posing was essential to ensuring victory. Just look at how different the posing routines were back in the day compared to the current landscape.

Only Kai Greene and a handful of others these days really put as much concern into posing as the competitors from the Golden Era. So what’s your opinion? Has posing only gotten worse since the Golden Era of bodybuilding? Let us know what you think in the comments and forums. Also, be sure to follow Generation Iron on Facebook and Twitter.