BODYBUILDING is a funny old game. Once upon a time it was seemingly simple – the biggest guy wins, assuming he is lean enough. And in the 80’s lean enough was having a full set of abs, separation in your quads, a Christmas tree in your back and a juicy chest split.
The trunks were big and the ass was not a thing anyone gave a flying fuck about – it was about the most impressive and aesthetically pleasing physique. Then, as time went on and the sport progressed, things like feathered quads and striations in triceps became more normal.
At some point in the later 2000’s or early 2010’s, at a high level, it became entirely normal for everyone to be utterly peeled and the yardstick for who was the leanest became the arse, because the rest of the body was functionally at the limit of leanness.
This in itself I have no issue with; at a high level, when everyone is very excellent, it’s a normal progression for the margins separating athletes to become incredibly small.
So Rick – what are you moaning about?
My issue is the way this has translated to the amateur ranks. It’s becoming common for class winners to have shredded glutes and be outsized and out-conditioned in every other body part by their competitors in second and third. I don’t blame the athletes, that’s just the game, but I do question if shredded glutes is the best representation of the sport and if it’s what we, as fans and enthusiasts, should really value.
I also (shockingly) don’t fully blame the judges or federations. Any time someone is awarded a win who doesn’t have fully shredded glutes, despite clearly winning on every other measurable parameter, social media is aghast with cries of “but he has soggy glutes”, apparently overlooking all the parts of bodybuilding anyone outside of our particular niche gives any kind of crap about.
The general public are often the most confused by this state of affairs: “but that guy is massive, why didn’t he win?” The response of “oh, but look at the lines in his glutes” does little to reassure the casual observer that the correct decision has been made and risks pushing an already very odd space further into obscurity.
So what is the solution as a competitor? Well, the obvious and undeniable solution is to be both the biggest, most balanced and leanest physique and to ensure your glutes are peeled. However, this is 1) sometimes easier said than done, and 2) I think missing the wood for the trees. I would argue a good set of calves to be just as important, but they are apparently all but irrelevant (I suspect because some people just can’t grow them).
And where does that leave us as a ‘sport’? Probably stuck in a slightly stupid place where one very specific thing has quietly been allowed to outweigh almost everything else. Not because it’s actually the most important, but because it’s easy to point at, easy to circle in a screenshot and easy to scream about online.
If, at amateur level, the deciding factor has become whether someone’s arse is crispy, then we’re not really refining the sport, we’re just dumbing it down. We’re rewarding people for winning one very specific battle, while ignoring the bigger picture of what actually looks impressive.
And if the bloke in the crowd can’t work out why the biggest, best-looking body on stage didn’t win, that’s not because he’s an idiot who “doesn’t get bodybuilding”. It’s because we’ve drifted so far up our own arses that even we are struggling to explain it.
Richard Foster is the owner of Strom and long-time bodybuilding enthusiast.
He owns Strom, is a shareholder in Beast Pharm and is a director of Combat Fuel.
He has competed in powerlifting, bodybuilding and strongman and is a former promoter of Wales’ Strongest Man.
He has previously judged bodybuilding shows as well as MC’ing more than 30 amateur bodybuilding shows.
He can be reached on richard@stromsports.com
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