History UsefulNotes / Bodybuilding

** 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. However, as of 2023, she's the IFBB pro with the most number of professional wins (37, beating Dexter Jackson's record of 29).

** 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. However, as of 2021, she's the IFBB pro with the most number of professional wins (30, beating Dexter Jackson's record of 29).

* Cydney Gillon appeared in ''Series/{{Survivor}}: Kaoh Rong'' before going on to win the Figure category in the Miss Olympia competition from 2017 to 2022.

* Frank Miller initially used [[https://www.girlswithmuscle.com/images/?name=lisa+lyon Lisa Lyon]] (a female bodybuilding pioneer) as a basis for ComicBook/{{Elektra}}'s appearance. Lyon was also a photo model, and modelled for Robert Mapplethorpe in ''Lady: Lisa Lyon''. Lyon was also the model used by Bob Wakelin in his cover art for ''VideoGame/{{Athena}}'' and ''VideoGame/PsychoSoldier''.

** 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 (and went on to win in 2021 and 2022 as well).[[/note]]

** Raymond Moon, who was declared by Guinness in 2009 to be the oldest competitive male bodybuilder in the world at the age of 79. That was before he had cancer, which he then proceed to beat. [[http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2328452/Worlds-oldest-bodybuilder-Pumping-iron-83-year-old-body-builder-taking-boys-game.html He even entered a competition at the age of 83, in 2013.]] [[note]]Unfortunately, Moon later suffered a relapse and he died in January 2020 at the age of ''90''.[[/note]][[http://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/world-records/oldest-bodybuilder-male Jim Arrington also competed at the age of 83 in 2015.]] In 2022, James Arrington competed at the age of ''90''.

* Arnie himself counts Reg Park [[note]]NABBA Mr Universe Amateur 1951, 2 time NABBA Mr Universe Professional (1958 and 1965)[[/note]] as an early influence and lifelong mentor. Reg portrayed Hercules in five Italian Sword & Sandal films.

** Iris Kyle has ten Ms. Olympia overall wins and two heavyweight wins, plus seven Ms. International wins and one heavyweight win. By some measures this makes her the most successful bodybuilder ''ever'', male or female.

* TheEighties: To many, this was the GoldenAge of female bodybuilding. In men’s bodybuilding, it was kind of a transitional period between the Golden Era and the Mass Monster era, where guys were getting a bit bigger than before, but still keeping most of the aesthetics.

** Arnold Schwarzenegger helped define the image of bodybuilding for decades to come and was very dominant in his era. In all of his Mr. Olympia competitions, he was only bested once, losing to reigning champ Sergio Olivia in 1969. He came back the next year to beat Olivia, becoming the youngest Mr. Olympia ever at ''23 years old'', a record no one has yet beaten. [[note]]The closest contender to the record was a ''woman'' (Shanique Grant, who won her first Physique Olympia in 2018 also aged 23.[[/note]] Arnold proceeded to win every Mr. Olympia from 1970-1975, when he beat longtime friend Franco Columbu and rival/contender Lou Ferrigno (after dropping significant weight for the film ''Stay Hungry'') before retiring. Then, five years later, he decided to come out of retirement to compete one last time after training for ''[[Film/ConanTheBarbarian1982 Conan The Barbarian]]''. This was kept a secret and none of the other competitors knew he would be competing. With only seven weeks of prep, Arnold proceeded to beat favored contender Frank Zane, and won the Olympia for a record-setting seventh time.

** Bev Francis triggered one for female bodybuilding as a contestant in Miss Olympia 1991. She weighed in at ''160'' pounds (She's 5'5, fyi). Previously, no other female contestant had ever been that muscular. She came in at second place, having lost ''by a single point'' and was leading after two rounds, only to be overtaken in the concluding rounds. The debate of "How much muscle on a woman is too much?” has raged on ever since.

-->If the top ten of the Ms. Olympia sported a row of faces that looked like the bikini division, Ms. Olympia would probably be alive and well today. [[note]]Ms Olympia 2015 was cancelled[[/note]] By the same token, if the top ten of every bikini contest had bodybuilder faces, it would go away too.

** Raymond Moon, who was declared by Guinness in 2009 to be the oldest competitive male bodybuilder in the world at the age of 79. That was before he had cancer, which he then proceed to beat. [[http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2328452/Worlds-oldest-bodybuilder-Pumping-iron-83-year-old-body-builder-taking-boys-game.html He even entered a competition at the age of 83, in 2013.]] [[note]]Unfortunately, Moon later suffered a relapse and he died in Jan 2020 at the age of ''90''.[[/note]][[http://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/world-records/oldest-bodybuilder-male Jim Arrington also competed at the age of 83 in 2015.]] In 2022, James Arrington competed at the age of ''90''.

** Juliette Bergmann's win in 2001. She was the oldest woman ever to obtain the title, last competed in the Miss O. more than a decade previously (and had never placed in the top 5 ever). In the few years that had weight classifications, she was the only lightweight champion who was also overall champion.

** 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 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.

** In 1994, Flex Wheeler was in a near-fatal car crash, but went back to training as soon as he recovered. Then in 1999, he was diagnosed with a type of kidney disease called focal segmental glomerulosclerosis, which is heireditary but may have been exacerbated by his PED use. He got a kidney transplant in 2003, after which he stopped competing until a brief comeback in 2017. Then in October 2019 he had his right leg amputated because of circulatory problems.

** While there are plenty of non-competitive 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.

** An African-American bodybuilder wins her eighth Miss O. title, who was born in Michigan and won 2 heavyweight titles in the years with weight classification. Are we talking about Lenda Murray in 2003 or Iris Kyle in 2012? Also, if weight classifications are counted, both ladies had a 13 year gap between their first and last title.

** Dexter Jackson is the current winning-est male bodybuilder, as well as the 2008 Mr.Olympia champion, and kept competing until he was 51.

* StatuesqueStunner: Surprisngly averted by many Miss O. winners. Cory, Kim Chizevsky [[note]]4-time Miss Olympia, 1996-1999[[/note]] and Oriquen-Garcia are 5'8, qualifying them as this. But, Kyle was 5'7 and Murray was 5'5.
** Probably the tallest female bodybuilder to ever compete in modern times was Shirley Korito (née Eson; you may know her as "Sky" from ''Series/AmericanGladiators''). She's 6'3''.
* StoutStrength: What most bodybuilders are off-season, when they have more body fat. There's also the notorious "bubble gut" phenomeonon in men's open bodybuilding, where bodybuilders may appear on stage with a bloated gut despite being at extremely low body fat percentages. The cause is speculated to be intestinal gas caused by insulin resistance and an over-taxed digestive system, which is a side-effect of the ridiculous amount of food that modern mass monsters need to consume in order to keep up in the muscle mass arms race.

* Kim Kold (Klaus from ''[[Film/TheFastAndTheFurious Fast & Furious 6]]'')

* Arnie himself counts Reg Park [[note]]NABBA Mr Universe Amateur 1951, 2 time NABBA Mr Universe Professional (1958 and 1965)[[/note]] as an early influence and lifelong mentor. Reg portrayed Hercules in five Italian SwordAndSandal films.

Testosterone, the primary sex hormone and anabolic steroid in males, was discovered during the 19th century. Early attempts to injest or inject exogenous[[note]]originating from outside the body[[/note]] testosterone required extracting it from actual testicular tissue from animals such as guinea pigs and bulls; however, testicles barely store any of the testosterone they produce, so there was hardly any testosterone in the products made from them. Furthermore, this testosterone was in a form that would be neutralized by the liver if taken orally, and had a very short half life if injected, so these early treatments were useless placebos. It was not until the 1930s when researchers learned to synthesize testosterone in sufficient quantities to have any effect, and in fact it took several years more to figure out esters of testosterone which could remain intact inside the body. The 60s saw the introduction of testosterone-based synthetic anabolic androgenic steroids (AAS) such as dianabol which could further improve performance. Over the decades whole families of new androgenic compounds have been discovered, which each have distinct effects on muscle growth, recovery time from training, ability to retain muscle mass at very low body fat, and even the finer details of conditioning. 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.\\

Testosterone, the primary sex hormone and anabolic steroid in males, was the first real performance-enhancing substance to be discovered during the 19th century. Early attempts to inject exogenous[[note]]originating from outside the body[[/note]] testosterone required extracting it from actual testicular tissue from animals such as guinea pigs and bulls; this was very inefficent, so it was a major breakthrough when researchers figure out how to synthesize testosterone during the 1930s. Use of synthetic testosterone in some athletic circles may go back as far as the 1940s, and by the 60s there were also synthetic anabolic androgenic steroids (AAS) such as dianabol which could further improve performance. Over the decades whole families of new androgenic compounds have been discovered, which each have distinct effects on muscle growth, recovery time from training, ability to retain muscle mass at very low body fat, and even the finer details of conditioning. 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.\\

* DorkAge:
** A significant portion of the fandom thinks bodybuilding went in the wrong direction once competitions started rewarding extreme size to the detriment of aesthetics. For women, the winners eventually became {{Brawn Hilda}}s instead of Amazonian Beauties, while male winners became freakishly bigger and started appearing onstage with bloated bubble guts. Cory touched on the issue in an interview in 2008:
-->So I have not followed the sport in the last couple of years. So I am ashamed to say that but that is honest. I didn't like the direction it was going in. I would never want to be competing against some of the girls that I had seen in the last couple years because I would have been not little enough to be a fitness girl and not big enough to be a bodybuilder. Who I was winning the Ms. Olympia doesn't even exist anymore. [[note]]Cory was speaking a few years before the Physique category was introduced[[/note]] I don't think there would be a category. I would be closer to figure competition than I would be to bodybuilding and I would just not train as hard. It's different nowadays for sure. I don't think it's going in a direction the general public would like to see.
** The first time that the Arnold Classic and Mr. Olympia tested all competitors for anabolic steroids was in 1990 (only the second year of the Arnold Classic), and it caused such uproar that it also ended up being the last. A fabulous-looking Shawn Ray was awarded 1st place in the Arnold, only to be stripped of his placing and prize money a week later when it turned out he had failed the test (Mike Ashley was declared the new winner). The Mr. Olympia was also considered disappointing because everybody came in "off", having jumped off their steroid cycles early in order to pass the drug test. This was all done out of fear over the Anabolic Steroids Control Act of 1990. However, fans of men’s open bodybuilding come to see superheroes, and they thought that the testing system was a bunch of hypocritical BS. The promoters quickly realized that bodybuilding wasn’t really on the government’s radar anyway, so they quietly put an end to the short-lived drug-free experiment.
* DramaticallyMissingThePoint: The anoymous female bodybuilder [[https://melmagazine.com/the-perilous-secret-world-of-steroids-for-female-bodybuilders-15007ff9169b in this article]] argues that female bodybuilders should be allowed to use chemicals to enhance their physiques like their male counterparts, ignoring the fact that PED use has wreaked havoc on both male and female bodies.

* Cydney Gillon appeared in ''Series/{{Survivor}}: Kaoh Rong'' before going on to win the Figure category in the Miss Olympia competition from 2017 to 2021.

** 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 (and went on to win in 2021 as well).[[/note]]

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. Some competitors 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; for example, Cedric [=McMillan=] tended to look more conditioned from the back than he did 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.

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.\\

* NamesTheSame: Before 1976, "Mr Universe" could either mean the IFBB competition, or the NABBA [[note]]National Amateur Body-Builders' Association [[/note]] one. In 1976, IFBB changed the name of its competition to "World Amateur Bodybuilding Championships".
** Subverted with the introduction of the [=IFBB=] Elite Pro league in 2017, which can be considered a StartMyOwn to the [=IFBB=] Pro league. [[note]]Many reasons had been cited for the split, including alleged personal rivalry between IFBB President Rafael Santonja and NPC President Jim Manion. However, an elephant in the room is the inability of some contestants who wish to compete in the United States to obtain a visa; can't stand on the stage when you can't even enter the country. The Olympia series remains linked to the Pro league, and is ''not'' open to Elite Pro contestants.[[/note]]
** In Korea, "Ms Korea" can either refer to the winner of the conventional beauty contest, or the bodybuilding competition.

* Wrestling/{{John}Cena}} [[Creator/JohnCena Cena]]

* Wrestling/JohnCena
* Wrestling/{{Batista}}

* Frank Miller initially used [[http://www.ifbbpro.com/wp-content/uploads/image/halloffame/LisaLyon1.jpg Lisa Lyon]] (a female bodybuilding pioneer) as a basis for ComicBook/{{Elektra}}'s appearance. Lyon was also a photo model, and modelled for Robert Mapplethorpe in ''Lady: Lisa Lyon''. Lyon was also the model used by Bob Wakelin in his cover art for ''VideoGame/{{Athena}}'' and ''VideoGame/PsychoSoldier''.

** Raymond Moon, who was declared by Guinness in 2009 to be the oldest competitive male bodybuilder in the world at the age of 79. That was before he had cancer, which he then proceed to beat. [[http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2328452/Worlds-oldest-bodybuilder-Pumping-iron-83-year-old-body-builder-taking-boys-game.html He even entered a competition at the age of 83, in 2013.]] [[note]]Unfortunately, Moon later suffered a relapse and he died in Jan 2020 at the age of ''90''.[[/note]][[http://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/world-records/oldest-bodybuilder-male Jim Arrington also competed at the age of 83 in 2015.]]

First off, different people have different levels of responsiveness to resistance training, in the sense of how much muscle they will grow from the same amount of training. Imagine you make three complete beginners of the same age and sex do the exact same workouts as each other for the same number of years. If the first has average-level muscle growth genetics, the second has above-average genetics, and the third has below-average genetics, then the same program will cause the second and third subjects to grow more and less muscle mass, respectively, than the first subject within that time period. If somebody is a so-called "hard-gainer" even after several years of efficient training, then a successful competitive bodybuilding career is probably not in the cards.\\

In addition to "natty genetics", the amount of enhancement that people get from anabolic steroids is also genetically variable. Some people just transform into freaks as soon as they hop on the juice, while the unlucky ones get so little benefit that you wouldn’t be able to tell from looking at them that they were on gear. Being a hyper-responder to steroids is probably the single most important genetic factor in becoming a successful pro bodybuilder, at least in untested competitions.\\

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.\\

** To an almost horrific extent, male and female bodybuilders both are involved to a considerable degree in the sex worker business, selling themselves to subsidize their lift-all-day lifestyle.

First off, different people have different levels of responsiveness to resistance training, in the sense of how much muscle they will grow from the same amount of training. Imagine you make three complete beginners of the same age and sex do the exact same workouts as each other for the same number of years. If the first has average-level muscle growth genetics, the second has above-average genetics, and the third has below-average genetics, then the same program will cause the second and third subjects to grow more and less muscle mass, respectively, than the first subject within that time period.\\

While bodybuilding involves a lot of hard work and trying to grow as an athlete, there are a lot of things about your body that you don’t get to choose. The genes we inherit from our parents and more distant ancestors—and environmental factors which affect how those genes are expressed—give us particular physiological and anatomical traits which can be advantageous, disadvantageous, or neutral from a bodybuilding perspective.

* Sven-Ole Thorsen

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.

* DentedIron:

** Dorian Yates suffered a number of injuries such as muscle tears during his reign, which eventually forced him to retire.