Removing personal taste, Aaron Singerman picks the top 5 bodybuilders of all time.
There are a few ways you can make a top 5 list for sports. One would be to focus on what they accomplished in context of their era. The other is to put all athletes on the same playing field and judge them on pure skill and talent. So putting context and history aside – who would be the top 5 bodybuilders in terms of pure physique? In our latest GI Exclusive interview, Aaron Singerman explains why Arnold Schwarzenegger would not be in the top 5 bodybuilders of all time.
Whenever we sit down for an interview with someone from the industry, we always take a moment to ask who are the top 5 greatest bodybuilders of all time? The variety of answers we get is truly insightful and showcases the different perspectives that exist in the sport.
When we spoke with Aaron Singerman, we asked him the same question. Specifically, we didn’t ask him for his personal favorites but instead who he thinks objectively has the best physiques of all time.
Right off the bat Aaron Singerman was able to pick his number one – Ronnie Coleman. Without hesitation he believes that he would win any contest against any era of physiques. But after that first pick – Singerman begins to struggle. He tries to be as analytical as possible. If he were a judge – who else he rank next?
Aaron Singerman ultimately lands on Flex Wheeler at number two followed by Phil Heath, Dorian Yates, and Kevin Levrone. For a moment, Arnold Schwarzenegger’s name comes up. But Singerman quickly dismisses it. While he finds Schwarzenegger to be one of his personal favorite bodybuilders of all time – he thinks there are too many athletes with physique far superior to his.
“If someone was thinking Arnold Schwarzenegger, he’s getting smoked by all these guys,” Aaron Singerman states in our interview. He continues:
“So he’s not… I mean he’d be one of my favorites. Who I would like to look like personally, he’d be up there. But in terms of would Arnold at a stage now compete with Flex Wheeler? No, I mean he’d be demolished.”
Of course, there’s a reason why many would place Arnold Schwarzenegger on the top of their list. It’s due to his contributions to the sport, his presence in pop culture, and his accomplishments for the time. But in the full spectrum of physiques across the years – by today’s standards he would potentially fall short.
Of course, it would be fun to imagine what Arnold Schwarzenegger would look like today had he grown up in this era. With the kind of knowledge, technology, and supplementation of today – would we see some sort of uber Schwarzenegger? Sadly, that’s an idea that can only exist in the imagination.
You can watch Aaron Singerman break down his reasoning for the top 5 bodybuilders of all time in our latest GI Exclusive interview segment above!