Is Bodybuilding Crazy

[Guest guest]

With regards to Matt's questions, I don't deny that bodybuilders of certain

ilks use tremendous amounts of drugs, but so do lots of other athletes. The

point I wanted to make is that bodybuilders are singled out more often, and I

feel the reason for this is because there is nothing between them and the eyes

of the audience. There are, however, certain drugs used and abused by some

bodybuilders that are exclusive to them because their purpose is different.

As far as drugs bodybuilders use being more useful to them than drugs used by

other athletes, I'd have to disagree. A wrestler or powerlifter trying to

make weight on meet day is going to find a dieuretic very useful if they are

so inclined to use them. An endurance athlete or contact-sport athlete who

needs to participate in an event with an existing minor (or not so minor)

injury is going to find a pain killer extremely useful.

It appears that a lot of confusion takes place about pro bodybuilders and AAS.

If you look at many of these people, they are usually not the ones abusing

AAS. They use them, but not to the extent that a lot of wannabees do. It's

not very difficult to pick up telltale signs of AAS abuse and many pros simply

don't exhibit those signs. Pros tend to abuse drugs such as insulin (when

they don't need it) and other stuff that's actually a great deal more

dangerous.

As far as the Figure Competitions, these women are not muscular enough to

compete in bodybuilding contests. They have bodies similar to fitness women,

but do not have enough athletic ability to put on a " routine. " There have

been a lot of complaints that to succeed in fitness you must have been a

gymnast. Having watched many competitions, I would agree this is the case

since the women who win most of the time are those who always do a variety of

flips and planches. I believe there is now a certain number of moves, such as

one arm push-ups, that must be included in the routines.

The Miss Galaxy (conceived by Snyder, the same man who initially

promoted the Miss Olympia before Weider helped himself to the title) gets

around this by requiring contestants to run an obstacle course for time. It

is set up by the Marines (I believe), but at least the playing field is even.

There are still the requisite swimsuit competitions. So why don't these

Figure Contest women compete in one of the Galaxy competitions? If you are

physically fit, you should be able to run, jump and climb a rope net, not just

look good.

What bugs me about the Figure Competition is that it appears nothing is

required of these ladies other than to stand on stage in a swimsuit. One

could argue that bodybuilders do likewise, but bodybuilders are required to

pose (not easy) and present an evening routine, some of which are very

innovative and entertaining. If all these ladies are going to do is walk on

and off stage, then what does this have to do with athletics? I would call it

a beauty contest. There's nothing wrong with that, but call a spade a spade.

I will see my first Figure Competition on April 21 at the Orange County Muscle

Classic in Anaheim and will reserve further comment until that time.

Rosemary Wedderburn-Vernon

Venice, CA

[Guest guest]

Hi Rosemary,

I agree with some of your points about bodybuilding and the

difficulty in posing. I've never tried flexing my muscles for

minutes on end, so I don't have the experience to comment on the

difficulty in doing it (not that I want to anyway :-).

My biggest decline in my personal interest in bodybuilding came after

I met Levrone in person at a bodybuilding show back in

college. He outweighed me by about 40 pounds at the time, even

though I'm about 8 or 9 inches taller than he is. He couldn't even

walk without his legs rubbing together! That to me was not my idea

of what I wanted out of lifting weights. I realized then that I

enjoy playing different sports and I guess I prefer to use weight

lifting as a means to an end, not the end itself.

And I guess I'm also a little biased, since I'm 6'4 " and the majority

of bodybuilders are quite a bit shorter than I am. Maybe there's a

little " Napolean complex " going on there, but I won't dive into

psychoanalysis!!

Anyway, I've enjoyed reading your posts on the other websites over

the past years. Best of luck with your training and with your new

husband.

Best in health,

Nate Mosher

I think that most bodybuilding competitions are

not very

> athletic at

> all either. What skill is required to pose your muscles . . . but

it's still

> not athletic. . . . It's a case of " but what else can you do with

those

> muscles besides lift a weight and flex it? "

>

> ***Preparing for a bodybuilding show requires a great deal of

training and

> discipline in the gym. We think this type of training is

athletic. It is a

> popular misconception that bodybuilders are not themselves

athletes, i.e. they

> lack strength, they are uncoordinated, they lack flexibility, and

they cannot

> perform dynamic compound movements required by most other sports.

>

> Using muscles to lift weight is a matter of choice and adaptation.

If you

> were to move a bodybuilder into another sport, very likely he/she

would adapt

> very quickly. In fact, many bodybuilders become so after

participating in

> other sports, and often they bodybuild vs. powerlift (although many

do both)

> or some other strength activity after injury makes the latter

impossible.

>

> Contrary to rumor, most bodybuilders are immensely powerful. What

can be said

> is that their large muscles are, in many cases, proportionately less

> functional than an olympic or powerlifter because the latter two

endeavors

> involve learning a skill in addition to having a great deal of

strength. Just

> last week we saw one of the top bodybuilders leg pressing with

1,800 pounds

> for multiple sets and reps. This is not exactly a weenie workout!

>

> As far as posing, if you've ever tried it, you know it's not nearly

as easy as

> good posers make it look. It's tough physically, i.e. contracting

the muscles

> requires endurance, but that's only part of it. To learn to pose

so your body

> looks good to an audience and a judge, takes hours of practice and

might

> better be compared to formal dance or figure skating, which are

certainly

> athletic endeavors, the difference being static vs. dynamic. The

top posing

> teacher in the U.S., Russ Testo, an ex-professional dancer. Some

people are

> much more talented when it comes to learning this type of movement

than

> others. Also, like dancers, the person posing does not have a

mirror on

> stage, and therefore must internalize his/her movements based on

training.

>

> It is not at all unusual to see a top bodybuilder do the splits on

stage.

> Last Saturday at the Max Muscle Classic, Tito , did a

standing back

> flip on stage as part of a guest posting routine. The height of

this flip

> left the entire audience aghast. Tito is a big guy (although not

particularly

> tall). We would guess his entire body was a minimum of three feet

off the

> ground as he flipped and he landed doing a split. From his

abilities, we

> would guess Tito probably started life as a gymnast. One person in

the

> audience remarked that he had been a top cheerleader in college.

>

> Other things notable about good posers are their ability to move to

the rhythm

> of the music with very graceful transitions from one pose to

another. You

> will also see some do various dance movements as well as being able

to isolate

> and dynamically move various muscles while others remain static.

Not everyone

> can do this so this obviously takes muscle control and training.

>

> <And I believe that's why bodybuilding will never, in it's current

> state, be an Olympic event. And it shouldn't be.>

>

> *** We agree. Bodybuilding in the Olympics is Ben Weider's pipe

dream. In

> our opinion bodybuilding is poorly suited for the Olympic format,

the primary

> reason being because it is much too subjective. What we'd like to

see added

> is powerlifting. It is a no-brainer to pick the winner. He/she

who lifts

> the most weight within the rules, takes home the Gold.

>

> Jim and Rosemary Vernon

> Venice, CA