Man of Honour
Hi all,
Just finished watching Pumping Iron, for the millionth time (hey, it's good motivation, and keeps me from slacking for training for next years BNBF qualifiers) and it got me thinking...
Arnolds physique back in the 70's was immense, his nickname of the Austrian Oak was well deserved and he carried immense amounts of mass for the time. Not only was he a mass monster of the time, he was also very aesthetically pleasing to look at, he had great symmetry, proportion was spot on and he just looked good. And it was no wonder he was untouchable during the 70's when he competed.
Fast forward to today, and obviously the competitors you see are far bigger than back then, people like Ronnie Coleman, Jay Cutler, Branch Warren and most recently, Kai Green, who is weighing in at close to 300lbs competition weight are just ridiculously big. But while they are as big as they are, I don't think they look as "good" as Arnold did. They look good, sure, just not in the same way he did
So I guess the question is, if he was around today and entered the Olympia in the same condition he did in the '74 Olympia, to me his finest physique, and went up against the mass monsters of today, how would he do? Top 3? Top 5? Top 10 even?
Reason I ask, is a lot of people argue that bodybuilding is all about how big you can get now rather than trying to be pleasing to the eye, which would mean Arnold would stand no chance. However, I don't believe that argument to be true. One of the main favourites to take this years Sandow is Phil Heath. Phil simply can't compete on size against the likes of Jay and Kai, however the reason he is a favourite is because despite being the biggest, he has almost perfect symmetry and proportion, which suggests those two qualities play a far bigger part than people care to mention
Random discussion but thought it might be interesting to hear your views
Here's a picture of '75 Arnold against Ronnie towards the end of his career just as a quick comparison
I think the biggest and most noticeable change between the two periods in bodybuilding is legs, Arnolds legs are tiny compared to today, you really don't notice until you put pictures side by side, it's actually scary the difference!
Just finished watching Pumping Iron, for the millionth time (hey, it's good motivation, and keeps me from slacking for training for next years BNBF qualifiers) and it got me thinking...
Arnolds physique back in the 70's was immense, his nickname of the Austrian Oak was well deserved and he carried immense amounts of mass for the time. Not only was he a mass monster of the time, he was also very aesthetically pleasing to look at, he had great symmetry, proportion was spot on and he just looked good. And it was no wonder he was untouchable during the 70's when he competed.
Fast forward to today, and obviously the competitors you see are far bigger than back then, people like Ronnie Coleman, Jay Cutler, Branch Warren and most recently, Kai Green, who is weighing in at close to 300lbs competition weight are just ridiculously big. But while they are as big as they are, I don't think they look as "good" as Arnold did. They look good, sure, just not in the same way he did
So I guess the question is, if he was around today and entered the Olympia in the same condition he did in the '74 Olympia, to me his finest physique, and went up against the mass monsters of today, how would he do? Top 3? Top 5? Top 10 even?
Reason I ask, is a lot of people argue that bodybuilding is all about how big you can get now rather than trying to be pleasing to the eye, which would mean Arnold would stand no chance. However, I don't believe that argument to be true. One of the main favourites to take this years Sandow is Phil Heath. Phil simply can't compete on size against the likes of Jay and Kai, however the reason he is a favourite is because despite being the biggest, he has almost perfect symmetry and proportion, which suggests those two qualities play a far bigger part than people care to mention
Random discussion but thought it might be interesting to hear your views
Here's a picture of '75 Arnold against Ronnie towards the end of his career just as a quick comparison
I think the biggest and most noticeable change between the two periods in bodybuilding is legs, Arnolds legs are tiny compared to today, you really don't notice until you put pictures side by side, it's actually scary the difference!
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, finished 2nd in the Lightweight category, he weighed in at 71kg which is insane when you see him. He really dialed it in for the finals, conditioning was insane
Just posted my intentions in the Gym rats thread. Natural competition only so never reach the levels the pros are at, but still, be interesting
