drtbear1967
Musclechemistry Board Certified Member
Time for a change.
In the last week we have lost both Dallas McCarver and Rich Piana. Both for very different reason, but as a community we need to come together to support their family and friends. We also need to take this time to reflect on the direction of our industry and the current status of the judging criteria.
In the last few years we have seen the explosion of the men physique division and now the Classic division. Why is that? When you have one of the best bodybuilders of all time Flex Wheeler come out of retirement to compete in the Classic division and not the Mr. Olympia, that should have sent shock waves across the bodybuilding world, but it didn’t. When you have champions that just quit competing like Dana Lynn Bailey and KaiGreene, it should mean something. Peopleshould be asking themselves what is going on and why are these people that are at the top of their game calling it quits. They may not actually come out and say that they are done, they may continue to pay for their pro cards year after year but what are they not doing? Hitting the stages and competing at the Olympia or the Arnold.
I took a look back to just a few years ago at the people that competed and except for the winner of the Arnold and Mr. Olympia none ofthe top five would even place today. Dexter Jackson is the only contestant that has been consisted over the last decade and it has always been his condition that has made him a champion. Toney Freeman always had the tiny waist and nice shoulders and legs, but because he wasn’t a mass monster he never got therewards that he should have gotten. So he left the IFBB. Lee Priest due to him being out spoken and a rebel was banned by the IFBB. He would have been an awesome champion and the people would have loved him, but they never got that chance. But I digress.
Just like the T-Rex that use to be the top of the food chain, the days of the Mass Monster need to come to an end. Have the IFBB hold these athletes to a higher standard, start deduction points for the GH / Insulin gut. Make them hold the poses for longer that a few seconds, make sure that they are checked out by a medical doctor that is independent from the IFBB and make sure that everyone is healthy enough to compete. Now I don’t expect that the NPC /IFBB to become a fully tested natural show, but come on when you have a 300 plus pounder with abs that is so far from being natural that it is not funny.
Now I am all for people doing what they want to do. If you want to do grams of gear and unit upon units of GH and Insulin that is your business. I just don’t think that if you are competing on the biggest stage in the world, you should have very stringent guidelines that you have stay within so as not to danger yourself orothers. If you’re going to set back and let people do everything under the sun to just get bigger and bigger then we need to have an Outlaw Division where everything goes. But that should not be the Mr. Olympia or Arnold Champion.
Who will be that agent for Change?
In my opinion, there is only one person that can bring about this change and it is not the NPC/IFBB. The only person is Arnold himself. Arnold is the only one that has the ability to say enough is enough and the powers that run the NPC/IFBB would be forced to listen. Let me be the devil’s advocate for a minute, with his Arnold Classic series across the world, Arnold currently pays out more money than the entire IFBB. What would keep Arnold from forming his own Federation? He has the money and he has everything already in place. He has the supplement companies that would follow him; he has the athletes that would follow him due to the money and the prestige. The only thing that would stop Arnold would be Arnold and his loyalty to the IFBB. But Arnold could put enough pressure on the judges to see major changes to the judging criteria and the health and safety of anyone that competes on a NPC/IFBB stages.
I love this crazy world of Bodybuilding, but not enough to die for it.
In the last week we have lost both Dallas McCarver and Rich Piana. Both for very different reason, but as a community we need to come together to support their family and friends. We also need to take this time to reflect on the direction of our industry and the current status of the judging criteria.
In the last few years we have seen the explosion of the men physique division and now the Classic division. Why is that? When you have one of the best bodybuilders of all time Flex Wheeler come out of retirement to compete in the Classic division and not the Mr. Olympia, that should have sent shock waves across the bodybuilding world, but it didn’t. When you have champions that just quit competing like Dana Lynn Bailey and KaiGreene, it should mean something. Peopleshould be asking themselves what is going on and why are these people that are at the top of their game calling it quits. They may not actually come out and say that they are done, they may continue to pay for their pro cards year after year but what are they not doing? Hitting the stages and competing at the Olympia or the Arnold.
I took a look back to just a few years ago at the people that competed and except for the winner of the Arnold and Mr. Olympia none ofthe top five would even place today. Dexter Jackson is the only contestant that has been consisted over the last decade and it has always been his condition that has made him a champion. Toney Freeman always had the tiny waist and nice shoulders and legs, but because he wasn’t a mass monster he never got therewards that he should have gotten. So he left the IFBB. Lee Priest due to him being out spoken and a rebel was banned by the IFBB. He would have been an awesome champion and the people would have loved him, but they never got that chance. But I digress.
Just like the T-Rex that use to be the top of the food chain, the days of the Mass Monster need to come to an end. Have the IFBB hold these athletes to a higher standard, start deduction points for the GH / Insulin gut. Make them hold the poses for longer that a few seconds, make sure that they are checked out by a medical doctor that is independent from the IFBB and make sure that everyone is healthy enough to compete. Now I don’t expect that the NPC /IFBB to become a fully tested natural show, but come on when you have a 300 plus pounder with abs that is so far from being natural that it is not funny.
Now I am all for people doing what they want to do. If you want to do grams of gear and unit upon units of GH and Insulin that is your business. I just don’t think that if you are competing on the biggest stage in the world, you should have very stringent guidelines that you have stay within so as not to danger yourself orothers. If you’re going to set back and let people do everything under the sun to just get bigger and bigger then we need to have an Outlaw Division where everything goes. But that should not be the Mr. Olympia or Arnold Champion.
Who will be that agent for Change?
In my opinion, there is only one person that can bring about this change and it is not the NPC/IFBB. The only person is Arnold himself. Arnold is the only one that has the ability to say enough is enough and the powers that run the NPC/IFBB would be forced to listen. Let me be the devil’s advocate for a minute, with his Arnold Classic series across the world, Arnold currently pays out more money than the entire IFBB. What would keep Arnold from forming his own Federation? He has the money and he has everything already in place. He has the supplement companies that would follow him; he has the athletes that would follow him due to the money and the prestige. The only thing that would stop Arnold would be Arnold and his loyalty to the IFBB. But Arnold could put enough pressure on the judges to see major changes to the judging criteria and the health and safety of anyone that competes on a NPC/IFBB stages.
I love this crazy world of Bodybuilding, but not enough to die for it.
