History UsefulNotes / Bodybuilding

** Shawn Rhoden came out of left field to dethrone the extremely dominant and long-reigning Phil Heath. He had only placed fifth at the 2017 Olympia, when he had been in some of his least impressive shape, and by the 2018 Olympia he was 43, older than any Mr. Olympia before him. Furthermore he had health issues earlier in the year which had caused him to miss the Arnold Classic. But in spite of all this he came at his best to the 2018 Mr. O., with highly aesthetic shape, killer midsection, conditioning at least as good as Phil’s, and plenty of cocky stage presence. In contrast, despite having his usual level of completeness and conditioning, Phil came in with a bloated stomach for the second year in a row; it got out of hand during the finals, when he seemed out of breath and unable to keep it sucked in as the night wore on. The judges could no longer ignore this fault after the amount of criticism from fans on social media the year before, and granted first place to Shawn while putting Phil in second. In the process of winning, Shawn also beat the more muscular bodybuilders Roelly Winklaar, William Bonac, and Big Ramy by out-conditioning them. The world would never find out if Shawn could defend his title, as

The Bodybuilding Lifestyle

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Actors or wrestlers with a background in bodybuilding:

** Shawn Rhoden came out of left field to dethrone the extremely dominant and long-reigning Phil Heath. He had only placed fifth at the 2017 Olympia, when he had been in some of his least impressive shape, and by the 2018 Olympia he was 43, older than any Mr. Olympia before him. Furthermore he had health issues earlier in the year which had caused him to miss the Arnold Classic. But in spite of all this he came at his best to the 2018 Mr. O., with highly aesthetic shape, killer midsection, conditioning at least as good as Phil’s, and plenty of cocky stage presence. In contrast, despite having his usual level of completeness and conditioning, Phil came in with a bloated stomach for the second year in a row; it got out of hand during the finals, when he seemed out of breath and unable to keep it sucked in as the night wore on. The judges could no longer ignore this fault after the amount of criticism from fans on social media the year before, and granted first place to Shawn while putting Phil in second. In the process of winning, Shawn also beat the more muscular bodybuilders Roelly Winklaar, William Bonac, and Big Ramy by out-conditioning them.

** Ronnie Coleman really messed up his spine and hips as a result of all the extreme lifting he did as a champion bodybuilder (for what it’s worth, he had back injuries as far back as high school and college). Since his retirement he’s gone through multiple surgeries, needs to use crutches or a wheelchair, and lives with chronic pain.

'''Judging criteria'''

These are the definitions of some of the main criteria by which contestants are judged and compared, with explanatory notes that go into more depth. Although they can be looked at separately to some extent, there is also considerable overlap and interaction between these factors.

[[folder:Mass]]
'''Definition:''' How big the muscles are, and the degree to which the bodybuilder has "maxed out" the potential of their frame.\\

'''Notes:''' The size of the contestants' muscles is the first and most obvious criterion of bodybuilding judging. If muscularity didn't matter, then bodybuilding would be nothing more than a contest to see who could get as lean and dehydrated as possible, and you might see contestants with the physiques of horse racing jockeys dominating over the ones who look like superheroes. While the winner of a bodybuilding show is not automatically the one with the largest muscle mass, one must at least be respectably large and developed in order for other attributes like conditioning to do them any good.\\

Bodybuilders increase the mass of skeletal muscle through resistance training (which usually means weight lifting, but also includes other resistance mechanisms such as elastic bands) combined with adequate nutrition and sleep. Working out develops the mind-muscle connection and causes micro damage to the muscle fibers, which the body is then going to repair and grow back stronger than before using the calories and nutrients from food. It is important to implement progressive overload by increasing the difficulty of exercises over time, so that one's muscles be pushed to constantly improve instead of stagnating.\\

Unlike strongmen, Olympic weightlifters, and powerlifters, bodybuilders are not concerned with the maximum weight they can lift as a goal in and of itself; they only care about whether what they're doing will properly grow and shape their muscles from a visual perspective.\\

Compound barbell lifts such as the squat, deadlift, bench press, and overhead press are part of bodybuilder training, since these can be heavily loaded and are great at developing strength and size throughout the whole body. However, bodybuilders also rely on a variety of isolation exercises which more precisely target specific muscle groups, which is very important for controlling the proportions of a physique. If a certain muscle is not growing because it’s recruiting other, stronger muscles next to it do most of the work, then you need an exercise which reduces the ability of those stronger muscles to take over and forces the isolated muscle to activate. Sometimes it’s just as important to take out certain muscles you ''don’t'' want to grow; for example, lots of heavy squatting and deadlifting can cause the midsection to grow thicker from additional muscle, which is great if you’re a strongman, but bad if you’re a bodybuilder who’s trying to keep an aesthetically tapered waist. In that case, more leg pressing or leg extensions can help you grow your quads without blowing out your midsection. Bodybuilders may use free weights, machines, or both. Free weights have certain benefits such as recruiting more stabilizing muscles and being versatile for limited money and space, but machines also have their uses for accessing certain planes of movement that are difficult to get with free weights, and in reducing the risk of injury.\\
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As a sweeping generalization, bodybuilders tend towards high volume training based on doing more reps at lighter weight instead of fewer reps at heavier weight. Doing it this way is better from a stimulus-to-fatigue ratio: while one repetition at a near-maximal weight provides more of a hypertrophy (tissue growth) stimulus to the muscles compared to one rep at a sub-maximal weight, the heavier rep causes an amount of fatigue that’s disproportionately higher compared to the advantage in hypertrophic stimulus. More fatigue means it takes more time to recover after doing that exercise, meaning you can’t train the affected muscles as frequently as you could have using lighter weight. Volume, or the total amount of weight lifted in a given period of time, is the metric most correlated with hypertrophy. This isn’t to say that you can get huge just by curling five pounds a thousand times—any amount of weight you can do for more than thirty reps stops being hypertrophic and basically turns into a form of cardio—but the important thing is to have a balance where you’re challenging yourself without overly reducing the number of sets and reps you can do throughout the week. Avoiding excessive weights also helps you keep the movement strict, control the eccentric movement (i.e. let the weight down slowly instead of just dropping it), and reduce the risk of injury.\\
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A bodybuilder can lift as much as they want, but they're never going to get bigger unless they also consume enough nutrition and program in proper rest periods. A bodybuilder needs to consume enough calories to replace what they expend through lifting and maintain their body mass. Most important are the essential macronutrients consisting of proteins, carbohydrates, and fats. Protein is basically the building block of muscle, making its importance obvious. Carbohydrates help to hit overall calorie requirements—since a pure carnivore diet that provides that many calories tends to be unhealthy and impractical—and provides a ready source of energy for working out. As for fats, there are certain kinds that you should stay away from, but you do need a certain amount of fat intake for healthy hormone production, including testosterone. Micronutrients such as vitamins and minerals are also necessary, and diets which forget about micronutrients in the process of chasing certain macros can lead to health problems. Diet should start with healthy and nutritious whole foods, including green vegetables and protein sources (such as fish and poultry) that aren’t excessively high in cholesterol or saturated fats. Because of the amount of food a pro bodybuilder must consume to get the nutrition they need, it is necessary to break with the standard three meals a day and instead eat more numerous, smaller meals which add up to more food in total over the course of a day. If you're going to be a bodybuilder, and you don't know how to cook for yourself already, you'd better hurry up and learn. Whole foods are supplemented by—you guessed it—supplements, which include things like protein powders and suplement pills. There are big companies and influencers trying to sell you tons of this stuff with all kinds of exaggerated claims, and it's a rather poorly-regulated market, so check the science and read the labels before you add any supplement or pre-workout to your routine. During the off-season is when most bodybuilders focus on building mass, and they aren't worried about carrying around some extra body fat. It's not until they get into contest prep that they get concerned with slimming down.\\

The elephant in the room is, of course, performance enhancing drugs or [=PEDs=]. Use of synthetic testosterone in some circles may go back as far as the 1940s, and by the 60s there were also synthetic anabolic androgenic steroids (AAS) such as dianabol. Over the decades whole families of new androgenic compounds have been discovered, which each have distinct effects on muscle growth, training endurance, ability to retain muscle mass at very low body fat, etc. These also come with various potential side effects both minor and serious, ranging from gynocomastia in men, to masculinizing effects on women, to increased risk of experiencing heart and kidney problems at an earlier age than the general population. The increased availability and effectiveness of steroids has been partially responsible for the increasing size of bodybuilder physiques over the decades, together with improved nutrition and exercise science. Since the 90s, human growth hormone (HGH) and insulin have also been used to increase mass beyond what can be attained with steroids alone. Potential side effects of HGH include insulin resistance, and enlargement or unusual appearance of certain bone structures. Insulin shots are particularly dangerous because mistiming or overdose can cause a sudden drop in blood sugar, and the onset of coma or death in a frighteningly short time. Seriously, DontTryThisAtHome.\\

The use of AAS is illegal in the United States and many other countries, and organizations such as the IFBB are steroid-free on paper, but there is a general conspiracy of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" and "NotCheatingUnlessYouGetCaught". The promoters know full well that the competitors are on gear, and that they wouldn't draw the same attention if their athletes weren't enhanced, so everyone just does what they need to do for plausible deniability. Those who have retired from competition and are therefore at liberty to discuss PED use have been frank about both the advantages they’ve gained and the price that they or people they know have paid, and there’s always a debate being had about whether it’s possible to condone a certain amount of enhancement while still doing something to protect the health of the competitors. Natural bodybuilding competitions are an attempt to have bodybuilding without the PED use, featuring mandatory testing of all competitors for banned substances. Unfortunately, the testing methods used are often far from foolproof. What’s more, if testing is only done shortly before the completion, this might prove that an athlete is clean at the time of testing, but does not necessarily mean that they are natural year-round. No matter which side you’re on, the problem of how to deal with PED use in bodybuilding will probably be around for decades to come.\\

An important thing about mass is that size in the gym or on social media should not be confused with size on stage. Some people look absolutely huge in guest posing, gym pics, or selfies with favorable lighting, but once they diet down and dry out for competition, and are subjected to the harsh stage lights next to a bunch of other physiques, they often turn out diminished and deflated compared to the larger-than-life impression they give off-stage. Conversely, some people don't look so mind-blowing when you see them in the gym, but as their prep progresses they prove much better at getting their size to translate onto the stage.\\

Related to mass is the factor of height. Being tall can either be an advantage or a disadvantage when it comes to looking more massive. If you could compare two competitors whose physiques and conditioning were exactly the same in every way, except that one was six inches taller than the other while having the same proportions, the taller one would overshadow the shorter one with size and height despite their muscles not being any bigger in proportion to their frame. However, it is more difficult for a taller-than-average competitor to "fill out" their frame, because a person who is 6 feet tall will not make as much of a visible difference by putting on 15 pounds of muscle, compared to those same 15 pounds being added to a person who is 5 foot 6. A contestant who's a bit shorter than the average man or woman on the street, but bulges with dense muscle, will tend to look more impressive than a taller but lankier rival. In theory a taller bodybuilder has a larger skeleton which can support more muscle mass, and if they could really max out their potential they would dominate. In practice, however, this rarely happens; most pro bodybuilders are on the short end of average. On the flip side, a bodybuilder can be disadvantaged if they are ''really'' short, and/or not developed thickly enough to compensate for their lesser height. Some smaller folks have beautiful proportions and look plenty muscular when they're posing on their own, but get dwarfed when you put them onstage next to people who are taller than them, and at the same time greater or equal in muscularity. Due to these factors, the 2008 Mr Olympia saw the creation of a new category for men: the 212, so named as contestants must not weigh more than 212 pounds (96 kgs) and must be 5'5'' (167 cm) or shorter.[[/folder]]

[[folder:Conditioning]]
'''Definition:''' How well the bodybuilder has removed fat and excess water from their body to show off their muscle definition, striations, texture, and vascularity.\\

'''Notes:''' If an athlete is properly conditioned on contest day, the shapes of their individual muscles will stand out and there will be crisp separations between them when they flex: for example, a sharp split between the deltoids and the upper arms, or a line separating the quadricep from the hamstring when the leg is viewed from the side. The individual components of larger muscle groups should also be separated, as when the rectus abdominis is divided into a chiseled "six pack", or all three visible heads of the quads stand out. The next aspect is being able to see the striations created by bundles of muscle fibers when the muscle is flexed; these show up in places like the pecs, deltoids, lower back, and glutes. Striations that appear to go perpendicular to the length of the muscle, called "cross striations" or "feathering", are highly prized in the triceps or quadriceps. A third aspect is the appearance of a hard, "grainy" texture to the muscles which shows muscle maturity or extreme dryness. And finally there's vascularity or the prominence of veins under the skin, which adds some cool freak factor.\\
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Outstanding conditioning is the most elusive art in bodybuilding. There are some competitors like Cedric [=McMillan=] who are considered wild cards because they have the structure and muscularity to potentially win an Olympia, but have so far never managed to nail their conditioning and thus never reached their full potential. A curious fact is that conditioning can be uneven throughout the body. The glutes and ham strings are the most common problem areas, and many people struggle to look as conditioned from behind as they are from the front. Not everyone's conditioning problems are the same, however; Cedric tends to look more conditioned from the back than he does from the front, while Akim Williams doesn't look as conditioned above the waist as he does below. Akim is also said to be one of those bodybuilders who's cursed with "thick skin", which tends to obscure the muscles and veins underneath. Conversely, others such as Phil Heath are blessed with "thin skin" which allows every detail to be revealed. While preparation methodology is obviously important, personal genetics definitely has some influence.[[/folder]]

[[folder:Symmetry/Proportion]]
'''Definition:''' Whether the muscles on the left and right sides of the body are the same size and shape, and whether there are any over- or under-developed muscle groups throwing off the overall balance of the physique.\\
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'''Notes:''' Symmetry between the left and right sides is an important aesthetic factor. This can be a problem if, for example, an athlete finds that their left bicep naturally lags behind the right bicep in size. Injuries and muscle tears can be highly damaging to both symmetry and mass, such as in 1997 when Dorian Yates had torn both his bicep and his tricep on the left arm, making it look much smaller than his right. However, assymetry isn't always punished as much as critics think it should be, since several of the mandatory poses and especially the side poses make it possible to hide or downplay assymetrical body parts.\\
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The word "symmetry" is often misused to mean what is more properly called "proportions", which is how the bodybuilder's frame, limbs, torso, and muscle groups relate to each other in size and prominence. At the base level you have the skeleton, which determines overall height, the length of the torso and limbs, the width of the shoulders, the size of the rib cage, and the width of the pelvis. On top of that go the skeletal muscles, which may have different shape or attachment points on different people because of personal genetics.\\
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It is fairly common for a bodybuilder to have one or more dominant body parts, which grow more easily in response to training or take up more space on their frame by virtue of their insertions and their part in the overall structure. By the same token, almost everyone has one or more "lagging" body parts which either don't grow in response to training, are limited in size by their muscle insertions, or which the bodybuilder neglects to train enough. Somebody who's missing an important body part can get dinged on their score for being "incomplete", and there will be a real problem if an entire area of their body such as their legs or back is underdeveloped compared to the rest of them.\\
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Having a strong body part is normally considered a good thing, since it adds "wow factor" and helps someone stand out from the crowd: the size and quality of Arnold Schwarzenegger's pecs, Dorian Yates' lats, and Tom Platz's quads helped make them famous. Having a weak body part can actually have an upside if it emphasizes the virtue of a strong body part, such as Arnold's mediocre triceps making his biceps look that much bigger. It cuts both ways, however. A bodypart that's strong can make a weakness next to it all the more glaring, as with Dennis Wolf's skinny calves not measuring up to his tree-trunk thighs.\\
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There’s debate among bodybuilding fans about whether the winner of a contest should be the one who’s most complete with the fewest flaws, or one who may have some flaws but has more "wow" factor in terms of structure or strong body parts. You can see this in the rivalry between Chris Bumstead and Breon Ainsley in Classic Physique.

[[folder:Posing]]
'''Definition:''' How skillfull the bodybuilder is at hitting various poses to show their physique in the most flattering way, emphasizing strengths while minimizing weaknesses.\\

'''Notes:''' Posing is the medium through which the physique is presented, and can be appreciated as an artistic skill, especially the individual posing routine. Posing on stage is more difficult than it looks, as bodybuilders have to keep all their muscles flexed as much as possible for an extended period, and maintain constant control over their bodies while they're in a physically depleted state. Bodybuilding is a game of illusion: truly great posing technique can not only make good body parts look even better, but can even transform weaknesses into strengths. For example, Dorian Yates didn't have very impressive arms in proportion to the rest of his body, but in the side tricep pose he could flatten his tricep by pressing it into his massive lat, making the tricep look way bigger than it actually was. Another case is Arnold, who was self-conscious about his waist being wide compared to contemporaries such as Sergio Olivia. Whenever he’d pose in photo shoots he would twist so that his upper body would face front but his waist would be seen from more of a side angle, making it look smaller and creating a crazy V-taper illusion.\\

Conversely, bad posing technique can draw attention to weaknesses, and even make body parts look worse than they really are. Take the 1988 Mr. Olympia, for example: when Gary Strydom hit the back double bicep, he retracted his scapula and shrugged his shoulders up, perhaps trying to emphasize his trapezius. This backfired by causing him to lose any semblance of width through the lats and worsened his disadvantage against the champion Lee Haney. Haney made an error of his own by pointing his toes slightly inward as he hit the back poses, hiding the outer sweep of his quads and making his legs look skinny; not enough to cancel out his dominant back, but enough to make the pose not as strong as it could have been.\\

Some other elements of good posing and stage presence are keeping the stomach sucked in as much as possible—including during the transitions between poses—and to remember to flex all muscle groups no matter what the pose. This is important to make one’s conditioning come across, since if you forget, for example, to flex your quads while hitting the front double bicep or front lat spread, you will look like you don’t have enough separation in your thighs.[[/folder]]

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[[folder:Comparisons and Mandatory Poses]]
At its heart, bodybuilding is a sport of comparisons. Sure, it's important to look good on stage by yourself, but you can't win or place well unless you're able to stand next to a bunch of other intimidating physiques and still make the judges think you're beating them.\\

When it comes time to do comparisons, whether in prejudging or in finals, the whole pool of bodybuilders in the show will be divided into different "call outs", where as few as two and as many as six bodybuilders will be called out to pose at the same time. The first call out consists of those whom the judges are considering for the highest placings, the second callout for the next several places down, and so on. If the judges decide one of the competitors looks too good (or not good enough) for the call out they're in, they can bump them up to a higher (or down to a lower) call out. After the bodybuilders in a call out go through the mandatory poses the first time, the judges may shuffle around who's standing next to who in the call out, and make them do the poses again so they can see a side-by-side comparison between people who weren't next to each other the first time. They can also winnow down the size of the call out as they go in order to better scrutinize the ones who are really neck-and-neck with each other.\\

Compound barbell lifts such as the squat, deadlift, bench press, and overhead press are part of bodybuilder training, since these can be heavily loaded and are great at developing strength and size throughout the whole body. However, bodybuilders also rely on a variety of isolation exercises which more precisely target specific muscle groups, which is very important for controlling the proportions of a physique. If a certain muscle is not growing because it’s recruiting other, stronger muscles next to it do most of the work, then you need an exercise which reduces the ability of those stronger muscles to take over and forces the isolated muscle to activate. Sometimes it’s just as important to take out certain muscles you ''don’t’’ want to grow; for example, lots of heavy squatting and deadlifting can cause the midsection to grow thicker from additional muscle, which is great if you’re a strongman, but bad if you’re a bodybuilder who’s trying to keep an aesthetically tapered waist. In that case, more leg pressing or leg extensions can help you grow your quads without blowing out your midsection. Bodybuilders may use free weights, machines, or both. Free weights have certain benefits such as recruiting more stabilizing muscles and being versatile for limited money and space, but machines also have their uses for accessing certain planes of movement that are difficult to get with free weights, and in reducing the risk of injury.\\

Simply put, bodybuilding is the sport of "building up" your body, and displaying your muscles before an audience and judges. The first part requires a weight-lifting regime to build up muscle mass, while the second part involves the reduction of body fat so that the muscles themselves can be clearly seen. In contrast to weightlifting, powerlifting, or strongman competitions--which are all about athletic performance--bodybuilding is judged purely based on appearance. It doesn't matter how much you lift in the gym, or exactly what training methods you used to get that physique; all that matters is how impressive you look when posing on stage.

Bodybuilders increase the mass of skeletal muscle through resistance training (i.e. weight lifting) combined with adequate nutrition and sleep. Working out develops the mind-muscle connection and causes micro damage to the muscle fibers, which the body is then going to repair and grow back stronger than before using the nutrients from food. It is important to implement progressive overload by increasing the difficulty of exercises over time, so that one's muscles be pushed to constantly improve instead of stagnating.\\

Unlike strongmen, Olympic weightlifters, and powerlifters, bodybuilders are not concerned with the maximum weight they can lift as a goal in and of itself; they only care about whether what they're doing will properly grow and shape their muscles from a visual perspective. Standard compound lifts such as the squat, deadlift, bench press, and overhead press are performed by bodybuilders, but they also incorporate a variety of isolation exercises which more precisely target specific muscle groups. Bodybuilders may use free weights, machines, or both. As a sweeping generalization, bodybuilders tend to prefer doing more reps at lighter weight instead of fewer reps at heavier weight. This lets them get in a higher volume of weight lifted per session (important when the goal is hypertrophy rather than strength), allows them to properly perform the eccentric movement (i.e. letting the weight down slowly instead of just dumping it), and reduces the risk of injury. Some pros such as Ronnie Coleman and Dorian Yates did break with this trend by lifting heavy, and got amazing results, but they did pay for it in the form of injuries which caught up with them over time. Another technique which many bodybuilders incorporate into their programming is partial reps and limited range of motion. For example, they might only go halfway down on a squat, or might push the barbell only three-quarters of the way up while bench pressing. In the bench press example the athlete can get better hypertrophic results by increasing the amount of time the muscle spends under tension, since locking out essentially takes the load off the muscles by shifting it onto the joints. And with the squat example, the athlete can reduce the risk of injury by avoiding the "bottomed out" position of the exercise where the muscles and joints are under the most strain, and by avoiding the range of motion where their body is weakest they increase the amount of weight they can safely lift. Those who use partial reps can compensate for the limited range of motion by performing multiple exercises for each muscle group which target different stages of the movement, and by alternating sets of partial reps with sets using full range of motion.\\

A bodybuilder can lift as much as they want, but they're never going to get bigger unless they also consume enough nutrition and program in proper rest periods. A bodybuilder needs to consume enough calories to replace what they expend through lifting and maintain their body mass. Most important are the essential macronutrients consisting of proteins, carbohydrates, and fats. Also necessary are micronutrients such as vitamins and minerals. Diet should start with healthy and nutritious whole foods. Because of the amount of food a pro bodybuilder must consume to get the nutrition they need, it is necessary to break with the standard three meals a day and instead eat more numerous, smaller meals which add up to more food in total over the course of a day. If you're going to be a bodybuilder, and you don't know how to cook for yourself already, you'd better hurry up and learn. Whole foods are supplemented by—you guessed it—supplements, which include things like protein powders and suplement pills. There are big companies and influencers trying to sell you tons of this stuff with all kinds of exaggerated claims, and it's a rather poorly-regulated market, so check the science and read the labels before you add any supplement or pre-workout to your routine. During the off-season is when most bodybuilders focus on building mass, and they aren't worried about carrying around some extra body fat. It's not until they get into contest prep that they get concerned with slimming down.\\

The elephant in the room is, of course, performance enhancing drugs or [=PEDs=]. Use of synthetic testosterone in some circles may go back as far as the 1940s, and by the 60s there were also synthetic anabolic androgenic steroids (AAS) such as dianabol. Over the decades whole families of new androgenic compounds have been discovered, which each have distinct effects on muscle growth, training endurance, ability to retain muscle mass at very low body fat, etc. These also come with various potential side effects both minor and serious, ranging from gynocomastia in men, to masculinizing effects on women, to increased risk of experiencing heart and kidney problems at an earlier age than the general population. The increased availability and effectiveness of steroids has been partially responsible for the increasing size of bodybuilder physiques over the decades, together with improved nutrition and exercise science. Since the 90s, human growth hormone (HGH) and insulin have also been used to increase mass beyond what can be attained with steroids alone. Potential side effects of HGH include insulin resistance, and enlargement or unusual appearance of certain bone structures. Insulin shots are particularly dangerous because mistiming or overdose can cause a sudden drop in blood sugar, and the onset of coma or death in a frighteningly short time. Seriously, DontTryThisAtHome.\\

The use of AAS is illegal in the United States and many other countries, and organizations such as the IFBB are steroid-free on paper, but there is a general conspiracy of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" and "NotCheatingUnlessYouGetCaught". The promoters know full well that the competitors are on gear, and that they wouldn't draw the same attention if their athletes weren't enhanced, so everyone just does what they need to do for plausible deniability. Those who have retired from competition and are therefore at liberty to discuss PED use have been frank about both the advantages they’ve gained and the price that they or people they know have paid, and there’s always a debate being had about whether it’s possible to condone a certain amount of enhancement while still doing something to protect the health of the competitors. Natural bodybuilding competitions are an attempt to have bodybuilding without the PED use, featuring mandatory testing of all competitors for banned substances. Unfortunately, the testing methods used are often far from foolproof. What’s more, if testing is only done shortly before the completion, this might prove that an athlete is clean at the time of testing, but does not necessarily mean that they are natural year-round. No matter which side you’re on, the problem of how to deal with PED use in bodybuilding will probably be around for decades to come.\\

An important thing about mass is that size in the gym or on social media should not be confused with size on stage. Some people look absolutely huge in guest posing, gym pics, or selfies with favorable lighting, but once they diet down and dry out for competition, and are subjected to the harsh stage lights next to a bunch of other physiques, they often turn out diminished and deflated compared to the larger-than-life impression they give off-stage. Conversely, some people don't look so mind-blowing when you see them in the gym, but as their prep progresses they prove much better at getting their size to translate onto the stage.\\

Related to mass is the factor of height. Being tall can either be an advantage or a disadvantage when it comes to looking more massive. If you could compare two competitors whose physiques and conditioning were exactly the same in every way, except that one was six inches taller than the other while having the same proportions, the taller one would overshadow the shorter one with size and height despite their muscles not being any bigger in proportion to their frame. However, it is more difficult for a taller-than-average competitor to "fill out" their frame, because a person who is 6 feet tall will not make as much of a visible difference by putting on 15 pounds of muscle, compared to those same 15 pounds being added to a person who is 5 foot 6. A contestant who's a bit shorter than the average man or woman on the street, but bulges with dense muscle, will tend to look more impressive than a taller but lankier rival. In theory a taller bodybuilder has a larger skeleton which can support more muscle mass, and if they could really max out their potential they would dominate. In practice, however, this rarely happens; most pro bodybuilders are on the short end of average. On the flip side, a bodybuilder can be disadvantaged if they are ''really'' short, and/or not developed thickly enough to compensate for their lesser height. Some smaller folks have beautiful proportions and look plenty muscular when they're posing on their own, but get dwarfed when you put them onstage next to people who are taller than them, and at the same time greater or equal in muscularity. Due to these factors, the 2008 Mr Olympia saw the creation of a new category for men: the 212, so named as contestants must not weigh more than 212 pounds (96 kgs) and must be 5'5'' (167 cm) or shorter.[[/folder]]

[[folder:Conditioning]]
'''Definition:''' How well the bodybuilder has removed fat and excess water from their body to show off their muscle definition, striations, texture, and vascularity.\\

'''Notes:''' If an athlete is properly conditioned on contest day, the shapes of their individual muscles will stand out and there will be crisp separations between them when they flex: for example, a sharp split between the deltoids and the upper arms, or a line separating the quadricep from the hamstring when the leg is viewed from the side. The individual components of larger muscle groups should also be separated, as when the rectus abdominis is divided into a chiseled "six pack", or all three visible heads of the quads stand out. The next aspect is being able to see the striations created by bundles of muscle fibers when the muscle is flexed; these show up in places like the pecs, deltoids, lower back, and glutes. Striations that appear to go perpendicular to the length of the muscle, called "cross striations" or "feathering", are highly prized in the triceps or quadriceps. A third aspect is the appearance of a hard, "grainy" texture to the muscles which shows muscle maturity or extreme dryness. And finally there's vascularity or the prominence of veins under the skin, which adds some cool freak factor.\\

If mass is what puts a contestant in the running for a top spot, then conditioning is the polish which separates the best from the rest. It is a very heavily weighted factor in contests, and for good reason. Part of the thrill of bodybuilding is seeing the human body presented like an anatomical drawing, with every possible muscle fiber and vein on display. Fat and water retention erase definition and hide away the crazy details. There also has to be a penalty for coming out of shape, in order to prevent bodybuilders from coming in as bloated and watery as possible just to look bigger. Finally, the emphasis on this factor potentially allows bodybuilders such as who didn't win the genetic lottery in terms of skeletal structure, muscle growth, or muscle insertions to compensate for their flaws through their skill and hard work at conditioning. It is possble to simply lack so much size that no amount of conditioning would allow you to win, but conditioning can be a great equalizer once a certain minimum of size is achieved; when superior conditioning is combined with size, it tends to grant a decisive victory.\\

The basic elements of a bodybuilder's contest prep, undertaken in the months and weeks leading up to a contest, are dieting and cardio exercise to progressively reduce body fat percentage. At the same time, athletes need to keep lifting right up to the show in order to ensure they don't lose the muscle gains they made during the off season. It is highly recommended for an athlete to prep under the advice and supervision of a qualified coach. Prep needs to be precisely timed so that the bodybuilder's physique will "peak" on the exact day of the contest. At the very last stage, the bodybuilder will restrict their water intake and may even take diuretics (drugs which increase the amount of water the body excretes as urine) in order to get as "dry" and "peeled" as possible. Being at around 5% body fat and dehydrated is a precarious state which is not physiologically sustainable for more than a day or two; the contestant's health must be carefully monitored, and it's a dangerous balancing act to get as conditioned as possible without inducing debilitating lightheadedness, muscle cramping, or worse, especially when diuretics are involved. Some bodybuilders who went too far in the name of conditioning have had to be helped off the stage for medical attention, such as Paul Dillett at the 1994 Arnold Classic. A few are even known to have died just days after their last competition, such as Terri Harris[[note]]who died in August 2013, days after her pro debut during that year's Tampa Pro.[[/note]] and Mariola Sabanovic-Suarez[[note]]who died in August 2019, also just days after her pro debut during that year's Tampa Pro.[[/note]]. When the body is being pushed to its limits in this way, the appearance of a contestant's physique and conditioning can change for either better or worse between prejudging and the night show, or even right before the judge's eyes over the course of a routine.\\

Conditioning is always in tension with mass, since a certain amount of size is always sacrificed during the cutting process. Natural bodybuilders will find that their muscle mass decreases pretty dramatically as a result of cutting; "enhanced" athletes have a much easier time holding onto their gains, but even they are subject to a certain amount of downsizing. There is also the fact that a contestant's muscle bellies may appear "flat" or somewhat deflated if they show up really depleted onstage; one can compensate by "carbing up" right before the show in order to restore some fullness, but overdoing this can result in a loss of conditioning. There is also the pump-up room, a place with some equipment where contestants can do exercises to get the blood flowing into their muscles before they go on stage.\\

Outstanding conditioning is the most elusive art in bodybuilding. There are some competitors like Cedric [=McMillan=] who are considered wild cards because they have the structure and muscularity to potentially win an Olympia, but have so far never managed to nail their conditioning and thus never reached their full potential. A curious fact is that conditioning can be uneven throughout the body. The glutes and ham strings are the most common problem areas, and many people struggle to look as conditioned from behind as they are from the front. Not everyone's conditioning problems are the same, however; Cedric tends to look more conditioned from the back than he does from the front, while Akim Williams doesn't look as conditioned above the waist as he does below. Akim is also said to be one of those bodybuilders who's cursed with "thick skin", which tends to obscure the muscles and veins underneath. Conversely, others such as Phil Heath are blessed with "thin skin" which allows every detail to be revealed. While preparation methodology is obviously important, personal genetics definitely has some influence.[[/folder]]

[[folder:Symmetry/Proportion]]
'''Definition:''' Whether the muscles on the left and right sides of the body are the same size and shape, and whether there are any over- or under-developed muscle groups throwing off the overall balance of the physique.\\

'''Notes:''' Symmetry between the left and right sides is an important aesthetic factor. This can be a problem if, for example, an athlete finds that their left bicep naturally lags behind the right bicep in size. Injuries and muscle tears can be highly damaging to both symmetry and mass, such as in 1997 when Dorian Yates had torn both his bicep and his tricep on the left arm, making it look much smaller than his right. However, assymetry isn't always punished as much as critics think it should be, since several of the mandatory poses and especially the side poses make it possible to hide or downplay assymetrical body parts.\\

The word "symmetry" is often misused to mean what is more properly called "proportions", which is how the bodybuilder's frame, limbs, torso, and muscle groups relate to each other in size and prominence. At the base level you have the skeleton, which determines overall height, the length of the torso and limbs, the width of the shoulders, the size of the rib cage, and the width of the pelvis. On top of that go the skeletal muscles, which may have different shape or attachment points on different people because of personal genetics.\\

It is fairly common for a bodybuilder to have one or more dominant body parts, which grow more easily in response to training or take up more space on their frame by virtue of their insertions and their part in the overall structure. By the same token, almost everyone has one or more "lagging" body parts which either don't grow in response to training, are limited in size by their muscle insertions, or which the bodybuilder neglects to train enough. Somebody who's missing an important body part can get dinged on their score for being "incomplete", and there will be a real problem if an entire area of their body such as their legs or back is underdeveloped compared to the rest of them.\\

Having a strong body part is normally considered a good thing, since it adds "wow factor" and helps someone stand out from the crowd: the size and quality of Arnold Schwarzenegger's pecs, Dorian Yates' lats, and Tom Platz's quads helped make them famous. Having a weak body part can actually have an upside if it emphasizes the virtue of a strong body part, such as Arnold's mediocre triceps making his biceps look that much bigger. It cuts both ways, however. A bodypart that's strong can make a weakness next to it all the more glaring, as with Dennis Wolf's skinny calves not measuring up to his tree-trunk thighs.\\

** Ernestine Shepherd and Edith Wilma Connor are {{Cool Old Gal}}s, who were in their mid 70s when declared by Guinness to be the oldest competitive female bodybuilder in the world ([[http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1392076/Ernestine-Shepherd-Guinness-oldest-female-bodybuilder-74.html Shepherd in 2012]]; [[http://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/world-records/oldest-bodybuilder-female Connor in 2011]]). [[http://wtnh.com/2016/04/22/guinness-book-of-world-record-holder-oldest-female-body-builder-ernestine-shepherd/ Shepherd re-entered Guinness Records as the oldest female bodybuilder in 2016, at the age of 79.]]

** Dexter Jackson may have only one Mr. Olympia win, but he's won the Arnold Classic a record five times and has the most contest wins of any IFBB bodybuilder in a pro career spanning from 1992 to 2020. His nickname is "The Blade" because his conditioning is always razor sharp, and nobody else could have continued to look so good or place so well at Mr. Olympia up to the age of 51 when he finally retired.

** Ashley Kaltwasser took part in Miss Bikini Olympia 3 times, and won the titles consecutively. In her first win in 2013, she also defeated Nathalia Melo, the winner of the previous year. Unfortunately, in 2016, she placed fourth.

* Ab and Thigh (AAT): Face the judges, place your hands on top of or behind your head, and flex your midsection and thighs. While it’s obvious which parts are the main focus, it helps to have decent lats, since even when they aren’t flared they improve your taper. This pose tends to reward a lean, aesthetic bodybuilder with great conditioning and definition through the midsection, such as Shawn Ray or Sean Rhoden, but it can also be surprisingly good for a mass monster like Dorian Yates or Roelly Winklaar who has sheer mass in the thighs, width through that lats, and a decent midsection.

** Shawn Rhoden came out of left field to dethrone the extremely dominant and long-reigning Phil Heath. He had only placed fifth at the 2017 Olympia, when he had been in some of his least impressive shape, and by the 2018 Olympia he was 43, older than any Mr. Olympia before him. Furthermore he had health issues earlier in the year which had caused him to miss the Arnold Classic. But in spite of all this he came at his best to the 2018 Mr. O., with highly aesthetic shape, killer midsection, conditioning at least as good as Phil’s, and plenty of cocky stage presence. In contrast, despite having his usual level of completeness and conditioning, Phil came in with a bloated stomach for the second year in a row; it got out of hand during the finals, when he seemed out of breath and unable to keep it sucked in as the night wore on. The judges could no longer ignore this fault after the amount of criticism from fans on social media the year before, and granted first place to Sean while putting Phil in second. In the process of winning, Sean also beat the more muscular bodybuilders Roelly Winklaar, William Bonac, and Big Ramy by out-conditioning them.

* The most famous is (of course) Creator/ArnoldSchwarzenegger [[note]]NABBA Mr Universe Amateur 1967, IFBB Mr. Universe 1969, 3 time NABBA Mr Universe Professional (1968-1970), 7-time Mr Olympia (1970-1975 and 1980)[[/note]]

* The late Nicole Bass and Melissa Coates were both bodybuilders before becoming wrestlers.

** In fact, there hasn't been an Miss O. under the age of 30 since Chizevsky won in 1997 at the age of 29. [[note]] If weight classifications are counted, Iris Kyle was 27 when she won her first heavyweight title in 2001. She was 30 when she won her first overall title in 2004. If the newer categories are included, Shanique Grant won her two Physique Olympias aged 23 and 24, while Ashley Kaltwasser and Nicole Wilkins won their first Bikini/ Figure Olympia aged 25.[[/note]]

** Davana Medina took part in Miss Figure Olympia 3 times, and won consecutively, including the 2003 inaugural edition. Also, while Nicole Wilkins has won the title 4 times, Medina was the only winner with 3 consecutive wins before Cydney Gillon. [[note]] Besides Wilkins, only two other Miss Figure Olympia had won consecutive titles (Jenny Lynn in 2006 and 2007, and Latorya Watts in 2015 and 2016). Medina's record held until 2020, and was broken by Cydney Gillon who won the category from 2017 to 2020.[[/note]]

** Ronnie Coleman really messed up his spine and hips as a result of all the extreme lifting he did as a champion bodybuilder. Since his retirement he’s gone through multiple surgeries, needs to use crutches or a wheelchair, and lives with chronic pain.

** Ronnie Coleman shares with Lee Haney the record of eight Mr. Olympia wins (1998-2005), and he was the biggest, freakiest Mr. Olympia the world had yet seen, weighing up to 300 lbs. on stage and showing incredible size and thickness throughout. Despite facing one of the deepest Olympia lineups ever, which included Flex Wheeler, Kevin Lavrone, and Shawn Ray, he was just too much for them and only Jay Cutler was massive enough to pose a serious challenge. He was also the bodybuilder with the greatest number of contest wins before Dexter Jackson broke the record.

** Shawn Rhoden came out of left field to dethrone the extremely dominant and long-reigning Phil Heath. He had only placed fifth at the 2017 Olympia, when he had been in some of his least impressive shape, and by the 2018 Olympia he was 43, older than any Mr. Olympia before him. Furthermore he had health issues earlier in the year which has caused him to miss the Arnold Classic. But in spite of all this he came at his best to the 2018 Mr. O., with highly aesthetic shape, killer midsection, conditioning at least as good as Phil’s, and plenty of cocky stage presence. In contrast, despite having his usual level of completeness and conditioning, Phil came in with a bloated stomach for the second year in a row; it got out of hand during the finals, when he seemed out of breath and unable to keep it sucked in as the night wore on. The judges could no longer ignore this fault after the amount of criticism from fans on social media the year before, and granted first place to Sean while putting Phil in second. In the process of winning, Sean also beat the more muscular bodybuilders Roelly Winklaar, William Bonac, and Big Ramy by out-conditioning them.
** Mamdouh "Big Ramy" Elsbiay finally got his turn in 2020, winning redemption under circumstances of great challenge and adversity. Heralded as The Next Big Thing in bodybuilding ever since his debut at the New York Pro in 2013, Ramy would gain a reputation for embodying EveryYearTheyFizzleOut. Everybody could see that he was the most massive and muscular bodybuilder of his time, but for year after year he would come in too big and not conditioned enough. He changed coaches every year without managing to stick to one or find a formula that worked, and while he came extremely close at the 2017 Mr. O with second place, he would slip all the way down to sixth in 2018, not be able to compete in the 2019 Olympia, and place third in the 2020 Arnold Classic when his conditioning was off yet again. By this time people were starting to write him off as someone who would never live up to the hype. Because of the COVID-19 Pandemic he had a hard time traveling to enter a show where he could qualify for the 2020 Olympia, so all he could do was keep prepping according to the guidance of his coach Chad Nicholls and wait for a chance to compete. Then, just before he was going to compete in the Europa Pro in Spain, he tested positive for the virus and missed his last chance to qualify. His being able to compete at Mr. O hinged on him getting a special invitation, which he was given, prompting some bodybuilders and commentators to complain that he didn’t deserve it. With his poor track record on conditioning and all of the interruptions to his prep, nobody thought it was likely that he’d come in with good enough conditioning to place well in a contest with such a stacked lineup. He’d be facing three Mr. Olympia winners—seven-time winner Phil Heath, defending champion Brandon Curry, and 2008 champion Dexter Jackson—as well as 2019 runners up William Bonac and Hadi Choopan. Despite all this, he arrived in the U.S. at two weeks out with his conditioning coming along better than usual, and he spent those last two weeks living and training with Dennis James to get in the best shape of his career. He finally did what the judges and fans had been telling him to do for years, and it worked: now that he had conditioning as well as mass he was able to beat everybody—including a slightly off Phil Heath and a very good version of Brandon—to take both the Sandow and the People's Champion award by a decisive margin.
* DentedIron: Ronnie Coleman really messed up his spine as a result of all the extreme lifting he did as a champion bodybuilder. Since his retirement he’s gone through multiple surgeries and times when he wasn’t even able to walk, while even on his better days he experiences constant chronic pain.

** While there are plenty of non-bodybuilders who take steroids just because they want to look jacked, or want a shortcut to getting muscular, there's a small number of people who are dead-set on making it to the biggest stage in the world and doing whatever it takes to get there. For them the steroids, hormones, etc. aren't shortcuts that allow them to skip the hard work, but rather keys that unlock the extremes of the bodybuilding lifestyle. Anyone who goes down that path will have to do tons of research about drug purposes and side effects; break the law by obtaining and using banned anabolic steroids; train harder and more frequently than ever to get the full benefit of their enhancement; shovel down so much food over the course of each day that eating feels like a chore; inject insulin to help break down more food than their pancreas alone can handle, despite the risk of a quick death if they get the dosage or timing wrong; do cardio and cut calories until they're down to under 5% body fat on stage despite weighing up to 300 pounds; and take diuretics as the finishing touch to get paper-thin skin on stage, which could cause collapse from deyhdration or even death if they go too far. Add in some potentially gruesome muscle, joint, and spinal injuries that can be gotten through training accidents, as well as the long-term risk to the heart and other organs that comes with steroid use. And to top it all off, the prize money is still pretty lousy and there will always be people outside of the niche community of bodybuilding who think these people look like disgusting freaks. Whether or not you condone pro bodybuilding as it exists now, you can hardly accuse these athletes of lacking determination.

** Ronnie Coleman, who was 41 when he won his last Mr Olympia in 2005.

** Dexter Jackson is the current winning-est male bodybuilder, and kept competing until he was 51.

* SpiritualSuccessor: For female bodybuilding, the "fitness", "figure" [[note]] also known as bodyfitness[[/note]] "bikini" and "wellness" competitions, which heavily de-emphasize muscle mass. [[note]] Fitness competitions include an aerobics/dance/gymnastics routine in addition to the usual posing. [[/note]] The Fitness Olympia was first introduced in 1995, the Figure Olympia in 2003, the Bikini Olympia in 2010 and the Welnness Olympia in 2021.

* SpiritualSuccessor: For female bodybuilding, the "fitness", "figure" [[note]] also known as bodyfitness[[/note]] and "bikini" competitions, which heavily de-emphasize muscle mass. [[note]] Fitness competitions include an aerobics/dance/gymnastics routine in addition to the usual posing. [[/note]] The Fitness Olympia was first introduced in 1995, the Figure Olympia in 2003, and the Bikini Olympia in 2010.

There’s debate among bodybuilding fans about whether the winner of a contest should be the one who’s most complete with the fewest flaws, or the one who may be more flawed but has more "wow" factor in terms of structure or strong body parts. You can see this in the rivalry between Chris Bumstead and Breon Ainsley in Classic Physique.

Simply put, bodybuilding is the sport of "building up" your body, and displaying your muscles. The first part requires a weight-lifting regime to build up muscle mass, while the second part involves the reduction of body fat so that the muscles themselves can be clearly seen. Unlike powerlifting or strongman competitions, bodybuilding is judged purely on aesthetics. It doesn't matter how much you lift in the gym, or exactly what training methods you used to get that physique; all that matters is how impressive you look when posing on stage.

** The International World Games Association, organiser of The World Games, suspended bodybuilding after the 2009 edition due to doping issues. Bodybuilding had been part of the World Games since the inaugural event in 1981. [[note]]Kike Elomaa, that year's Ms Olympia, was also the women middleweight champion.[[/note]]

** The International World Games Association disagrees; bodybuilding was suspended after the 2009 edition and has yet to be reinstated.

** Lee Haney retired after winning his eighth Mr. Olympia in 1991, and he would be the last Mr. Olympia who was able to hit the vacuum pose. Dorian Yates began his reign in 1992, and brought an unprecedented level of conditioned mass to the stage in 1993, but by continuing to win for the next several years he also made having a blockier midsection more acceptable.
** For female bodybuilding, 2015 saw the cancellation of the Ms Olympia competition, while the Ms International had already been cancelled since 2014.

* TokenMinority: The 2018 Ms Bikini Olympia had one in Kim Hayeun, an ethnic Korean.[[note]]She was the first Korean to compete in a Miss Olympia contest, but did not make it for the finals.[[/note]] The same year's Ms Physique Olympia subverts this, as Penpraghai Tiangngok was the first ethnic Thai to compete in a Miss Olympia contest AND managed to get into the finals; she placed 8th. The 2019 Ms Figure Olympia had An Da Jeong, who was the first ethnic Korean to compete in the category (and second to compete in a Miss Olympia contest); she placed 14th out of 23 contestants.

'''Notes:''' The size of the contestants' muscles is the first and most obvious criterion of bodybuilding judging. If muscularity didn't matter, then bodybuilding would be nothing more than a contest to see who could get as lean and dehydrated as possible, and you might see contestants with the physiques of horse racing jockeys dominating over the ones who look like superheroes. While the winner of a bodybuilding show is not automatically the one with the largest muscle mass, one must be least respectably large and developed in order for other attributes like conditioning to do them any good.\\

'''Notes:''' The size of the contestants' muscles is the first and most obvious criterion of bodybuilding judging. If muscularity didn't matter, then bodybuilding would be nothing more than a contest to see who could get as lean and dehydrated as possible, and you'd see contestants with the physiques of horse racing jockeys dominating over the ones who look like superheroes. While the winner of a bodybuilding show is not automatically the one with the largest muscle mass, one must be least respectably large and developed in order for other attributes like conditioning to do them any good.\\

The basic elements of a bodybuilder's contest prep, undertaken in the months and weeks leading up to a contest, are dieting and cardio exercise to progressively reduce body fat percentage. At the same time, athletes need to keep lifting right up to the show in order to ensure they don't lose the muscle gains they made during the off season. It is highly recommended for an athlete to prep under the advice and supervision of a qualified coach. Prep needs to be precisely timed so that the bodybuilder's physique will "peak" on the exact day of the contest. At the very last stage, the bodybuilder will restrict their water intake and may even take diuretics (drugs which increase the amount of water the body excretes as urine) in order to get as "dry" and "peeled" as possible. Being at around 5% body fat and dehydrated is a precarious state which is not physiologically sustainable for more than a day or two; the contestant's health must be carefully monitored, and it's a dangerous balancing act to get as conditioned as possible without inducing debilitating lightheadedness, muscle cramping, or worse, especially when diuretics are involved. Some bodybuilders who went too far in the name of conditioning have had to be helped off the stage for medical attention, such as Paul Dillett at the 1994 Arnold Classic. A few are even known to have died just days after their last competition, such as Terri Harris[[note]]who died in August 2013, days after her pro debut during that year's Tampa Pro[[/note]] and Mariola Sabanovic-Suarez[[note]]who died in August 2019, also just days after her pro debut during that year's Tampa Pro.[[/note]] When the body is being pushed to its limits in this way, the appearance of a contestant's physique and conditioning can change for either better or worse between prejudging and the night show, or even right before the judge's eyes over the course of a routine.\\