Written by Team MD
26 October 2016

16improvebodybuilding

How to Improve Bodybuilding

Top Luminaries Speak Out

 

 

We did a round robin of major bodybuilding figures and asked them, “What changes do you feel would need to be made in the sport, the industry or even the general attitudes of the fans and athletes to improve bodybuilding?” Here’s how they responded.

 improve-lee

Lee Haney

One thing that I question in this era is the criteria that says what we want bodybuilding to look like. You can’t put a Cedric McMillan, a Shawn Rhoden, a Phil Heath or Dexter Jackson onstage with physiques like those of Kai Greene, Big Ramy, Branch Warren, Ronnie or Jay. These are totally different kinds of physiques. Both are great. I’m not saying one is better than the other. But they are definitely very different. In the past, you had clear criteria that everyone tried to model themselves after. It’s not fair to these two different types of physiques to say, “We’re not going to accept this type of physique anymore … we will only accept that type.” That’s why I like the introduction of the Classic Bodybuilding division for the men with emphasis on shape and symmetry, and not so much extreme mass and thickness. Will this class take over from the current open division? I don’t know. But I strongly believe it needs to.

 improve-rich

Rich Gaspari

Bodybuilding used to be an art. It was not just about being big, but to have quality muscle while keeping the waist streamlined. The vacuum should come back. Posing should also be scored so that the current crop of guys take their posing seriously and not pose like it is an exhibition.

 improve-labrada

Lee Labrada

Bodybuilding has always been great, and will continue to be as long as there are those who are engaged in the pursuit of excellence in building their physiques. What needs changing are judging standards that reward less desirable qualities in physiques. 

 improve-ronnie

Ronnie Coleman

A couple of things come to mind. The guys need to compete more often, for one. These guys now will do two shows a year, maybe three. I don’t know what they’re afraid of. Back in the day, most of us would average six to seven shows a year, and we were able to look good at all of them. In 1997, the year before I won my first Mr. Olympia, I did 11 shows! Competing more often gives more fans a chance to see you. Another thing that would help is if some of these top guys like Phil and Kai would make more of an effort to get on national TV and raise awareness about our sport and what it is we do. I am sure they have press agents or publicists who could make it happen. I did a bunch of shows when I was Mr. Olympia. Jay Leno had me on “The Tonight Show” twice, plus I was on a few other talk shows like “The Montel Williams Show.” Maybe it’s because they have so many followers on social media that they don’t think it would make a difference. I do believe it would.

 improve-shawn

Shawn Ray

Sadly, the state of professional bodybuilding will never be what it was in the ‘90s, basically because the “quality in numbers” will never be able to match up. This is evidenced in the extinction of teenage categories from most events, effectively killing the gene pool from which our future comes from. I believe to reenergize the sport and boost the quality of pro competitions, we need to eliminate some pro shows. Having too many results in a “watering down” effect on the cream rising to the top. Some pro shows have only six or eight competitors, which is embarrassing. With so many shows, the pros can sit back and pick or choose when they want to compete at the last minute. The athletes use their own social media to post the everyday goings on in their lives, leaving nothing to the imagination for the fans. In the past, fans had to wait up to two or three months to hear from their favorite pros in the magazines. Or, they might write them a personal fan letter for quicker response.

 

I say the pro athletes must register in January of every year for the pro shows they want to compete in, and sign a contract. Then, the contest promoters can properly advertise which pros are competing in their shows, and actively seek sponsorships to help offset costs of promotion. Next, eliminate some pro events that have not had good turnouts, and place shows close together so the athletes can compete in multiple shows. It could be structured similarly to how it is now: spring shows in March, April and May; summer in July and August; and fall shows from September to November. In this way, all the pro shows fall into this timeline, and the athletes can experience little breaks in between shows to recover. 

 improve-kevin

Kevin Levrone

I know that Classic Physique is what many seem to think is the answer to streamlining the physiques of pro bodybuilding and bringing back the aesthetics, but we need to see that in pro bodybuilding. Mass is always important, but you need to have great shape and condition, too. Another thing I would like to see is the guys working harder onstage, and I mean every second they are out there. You should never relax or slump. You see guys bending over or letting their guts hang out in the lineup. Think back to someone like Lee Labrada. He stayed tight, with his abs flexed, looking ready for battle even if he was off to the side or way in back of the stage. You need to be hungry if you want to be one of the top men in the Mr. Olympia contest. Respect that stage, the judges and the audience. I plan on showing these new guys how we did just that back in the day.

 improve-flex

Flex Wheeler

Bodybuilding was great back in the old days, and it’s still great today. Why crap on the current champions? Sure, things are different now, but nothing ever stays the same forever. If you say you want to revert back to the way the sport was in the ‘80s or ‘90s, you’re saying we’ve made no progress since then. I will say that the competition was deeper when I was competing in the Mr. Olympia. Many times, you could have flipped the second-place through fifth-place guys around any which way, because we were so close. But we do have some young guns coming up now who will no doubt make bodybuilding more exciting and competitive in the next few years. Things have a way of repeating themselves. You have long periods where one man dominates, such as in the eras of Arnold, Lee Haney, Dorian and Ronnie. Then you have phases like the late ‘70s through the early ‘80s, or the late 2000s, where the Olympia title changes hands several times in a few years. Phil is dominating now, but I don’t see him doing that for much longer. I just don’t like to see the guys today being disrespected or dismissed. I love all the athletes who put their hearts and souls into this sport. The older I get and the longer I’ve been retired, the more I appreciate the newer guys.

 improve-jose

Jose Raymond

Obviously it’s not really feasible, but I would cut way back on the social media presence and activity of the pros. If the athletes weren’t forced to be on social media constantly by their sponsors, the fans would be more excited to go see them at contests and expos. I honestly feel that social media has hurt the sport more than it’s helped it. It has helped create a whole other group of “stars” who don’t compete, and who often don’t even have exceptional physiques. They’re just really good at posting selfies, showing their abs or their asses.

 

As far as the changes I would like to see in the sport itself, we need to have contests that are bodybuilding only. There are so many divisions in most pro shows now that the bodybuilding judging is badly rushed. We are still supposed to be the main event, but you have instances where the judging is done in 10 minutes because they still have six other pro divisions to get through. That’s not fair to the athletes, or to the fans who paid and traveled to see their favorite pros. Take the time and give the guys a really good look. Mix and match-up the comparisons. If not, good guys get overlooked. A good example was the new man from the UK, Nathan De Asha. He was good enough to be second or third at the last New York Pro, but he didn’t get a good look from the panel.

 

I also agree with some things Shawn Ray has been saying for years. Rotate the judges more often. Let’s see how each judge scored the contest on the score sheets. And no one who is coaching or in any other way directly involved with a competitor should be judging that competitor at a contest. And let’s not let the reigning champion win if he doesn’t really deserve it. Personally, I thought Dexter smoked Phil at the 2015 Mr. Olympia. The only thing Phil had on him was bigger quads. Those are the changes I would like to see made that would help make bodybuilding better.

 

Peter McGough

I feel bodybuilding could have started to be great again if the criteria for the new Classic Physique division had been applied to the open class. I don’t mean the height and weight restrictions, but a return to rewarding shape, balanced proportions and streamlined waists ahead of condition and mass. I think pro bodybuilding is being marginalized because the emphasis is now on freaky condition and freaky mass— although the latter isn’t the case with the current Mr. Olympia champion, Phil Heath. In my opinion, condition is overrated and should always be judged second to the classic properties stated previously. Granted, the winner still has to be hard and separated, but a guy with a classic physique and good condition should beat a competitor who doesn’t have as good a shape but is ripped. To be honest, I sort of despair that bodybuilding will be great again, as the introduction of the Classic Physique seems to be a signal that, “OK, we have the arena for the shape guys … now in the open class, anything goes.” Of course, I could just be an old fart. Did I say that already?

 improve-ronharris

Ron Harris

I think several recent changes are leading us in the right direction. Two things that were a blight on the sport, big guts and clumsy posing, are now hot points thanks to Arnold, and there is a movement to bring back smaller waistlines and better posing. Classic Physique is breathing new life into the sport— drawing in competitors who were uncomfortable with the current standards of bodybuilding development, and unwilling to sacrifice their beliefs and health to meet them. It is already drawing large numbers at amateur events in its first year. Will the Classic Physique division ever phase out and replace men’s bodybuilding, as Women’s Physique did with women’s bodybuilding? No, that I don’t see happening. It would be nice if bodybuilding could be the main event at all contests like it used to be, but we need to be content with sharing the glory with all the newer divisions.

 

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