by Christian Duque
There’s something really wrong with the sport of bodybuilding when a former Mr Olympia makes it a goal to reach 350 lb in the offseason. What is the purpose of that? What is the purpose of this constant race with size that so many of the top tier competitors have? Are we talking about a sport that is all about aesthetics and symmetry? Are we talking about a sport that is all about perfecting the look of the muscle for the judging panel? Perhaps to look its best in photographs and videos? Or are we talking about a pure freak factor? Because while I’m asking you a lot of questions in the very first paragraph of my article, I think it stands to reason that the sport is at a point in time where it can go off the rails.
I would argue that the sport lost its way in the 1990s but even in the 1990s condition was still king. I think conditions continued to be king in the 2000s but something happened in the 2010s where the sport just went off the deep end. This is why so many of the competitors of the 1990s, the 1980s and from the golden era look at the current crop and are left dumbfounded.
What does the current crop of bodybuilding have to do with what bodybuilding stood for in its inception? Of course there are competitors that still keep it real. The bottom line is that you cannot build a physique by a constant yoyo effect between tipping the scales at these amounts of weight and then coming down for the contest. I’d like to discuss why so many competitors are doing this to themselves. I would also like to hear from you, the fans, throughout social media because at the end of the day the top guys are the ones that are inspiring the younger generations to take on the challenges that they set. It used to be that the competitors in the old days set the bar high. But is gunning for 350lb setting the bar high or is it simply a futile effort at trying to shock the conscience of the fans while doing a major disservice to their physique?
Samson is a competitor that really honestly leaves me asking many questions. Here’s a competitor who won the Olympia and who has won the Arnold Classic but is as clueless today as most competitors coming up the ranks. He’s not acting like someone who wants to regain his Olympia title. Rather, he is acting like somebody trying to get cheap thrills. And what do I mean by cheap thrills? I don’t mean anything sketch, I just mean that instead of wowing the fans by building a phenomenal physique, he is engaging in tactics for popcorn headlines. What good could come from reaching this amount of weight? is he going to be able to get on stage at 350lbs? is he going to be able to get on stage at 340lbs? is he going to be able to get on stage at 330lbs? Or is he more than likely going to get back on stage at around 300 lb? if he’s going to get back on stage at around 300lbs? So why is he putting on 50 plus pounds of weight on his frame? Why is he taxing his heart? Why is he taxing his joints? What is the purpose of putting on 50lbs of mostly water and fat when in reality he can’t keep it for the stage? It’s not muscle. There’s no way it’s muscle. It’s not physiologically possible for that to be muscle.
Now of course he looks great, right? Yes and no. He looks great because he still seems to have a lot of muscle but he can’t compete like that. And it sets a very poor example because people see him chasing these numbers and they want to chase these numbers, too. These dirty bulks don’t go anywhere. And if it’s not a dirty bulk and it really is a clean bulk and he’s gaining quality size, then it stands to reason that perhaps the bodybuilding public will believe anything. You don’t put that amount of weight on yourself and realistically say it’s muscle. Even taking exogenous, synthetic hormones and every experimental, exotic supplements under the sun, there is no way for a competitor to put on the amount of muscle that would equate to 350lbs on a scale – at least not the kind of muscle that a competitor needs in order to win the Mr Olympia.
I’m sure a day will come when competitors on the Olympia stage do in fact weigh 350 lbs, but at what cost? The best physiques of today would get laughed off the stage in the 1980s and 1990s. They are nowhere near as conditioned as guys like Dorian and Nasser were and maybe the standards have changed, but why do they continue to change in wrong direction? Instead of going back to the way bodybuilding used to be, when it used to inspire competitors and gym enthusiasts to lift and eat soundly, it’s instead creating a category of freaks.
We need to qualify that a little bit because I feel that the term freak can be both good and bad. Of course everybody wants to be a freak in the sense that bodybuilding enthusiasts want to reject society’s dictates and be super human. Being a freak in that context is cool, but being a freak in the sense that you no longer have your lines, you no longer have flow, you are no longer building something truly artistic, then that kind of freak is not necessarily something that I think most people are shooting for. That kind of freak is not someone that’s going to win contests and receive top honors. It’s also not the kind of freak that I think is going to be marketable to supplement companies. Perhaps to a niche of supplement companies but the vast majority of companies that are signing athletes to contracts want to have somebody that they can use in campaigns. In order to use you in a campaign, you have to build a physique that is somewhat admired by the mainstream public. If Samson is trying to go for the Markus Ruhl route then I guess he’s well on his way, but how many Olympias did Markus rule win? How many Arnold Classics did Ruhl win? He won a single NOC but that’s about it. I don’t want to rain on Das Freak’s career but to want to be that kind of freak when you have been a previous Mr Olympia to me is counterintuitive.
And it also speaks to the point that Samson doesn’t actually have a coach. I think his wife has done a great job and I think they are a great team but a big name coach would dissuade him from putting on this amount of size. Because once he reaches the 350 lb goal, he then needs to start shedding it fast so that he can be in shape perhaps for the Arnold Classic, perhaps for another New York Pro, perhaps for the Olympia. And that’s taxing on the body. And once you’re done with this whole experiment and you compare where you started and where you finish, does the muscle gain really justify the process? I think that there are far better ways to gain 2, 3, or 5lbs of lean quality muscle than to do this extreme bulking phase. And it just seems like the whole reason for it was just to stand on a scale and see a specific number. How does that make any sense? How does that show us the maturity of a guy that was once the ambassador of bodybuilding to the world? I mean this guy was number one. This was the best bodybuilder on the planet for a full year. So again seeing a number appear on a scale seems like a cheap thrill and a really sad way to get press in my opinion.
To each their own. but it just doesn’t make any sense to me to put your body, your digestive system, your hormonal system, your metabolic rate, through the rigmarole just to see a number on a scale. So he got to 350 and he got to that weight very quickly (which is even riskier), now he has to lose all of it. What sense does that make? It doesn’t make any sense in my opinion.
As always, I like to conclude these articles by asking you, the readers, what say you? I look forward to reading your feedback in the comments. Please be sure to copy and paste a link to this article on all your social media feeds. It is bound to generate lively conversation.
