Difference between US bodybuilders and everybody else?

[Big Dave Smith]

Okay... so check out musculardevelopment.pl

I can't help but notice a HUGE difference between the way our bodybuilders look versus bodybuilders of europe, and the rest of the world. These guys at the worlds are SUPER shredded. You just don't see very many out of shape. They also maintain their size very well.

Does anybody have more knowledge of this?

Training? Diet? Cardio? Drugs? Genetics? Is it just because we're choosing from such a large overall pool that the cream rises to the top, and we don't see the guys that look marginal?

Also, it's strange because their amateurs look fantastic. The Arnold Amateur is basically the Euros coming over and kicking ass... but the IFBB pro ranks are dominated (mostly, not all of course) by US citizens.

Muscular Development - najlepszy portal kulturystyczny! / Galeria Zdj?? / 2009 / Mistrzostwa ?wiata M??czyzn w KulturystyceFina?y - Kulturystyka m??czyzn do 100kg

Muscular Development - najlepszy portal kulturystyczny! / Galeria Zdj?? / 2009 / Mistrzostwa ?wiata M??czyzn w KulturystyceFina?y - Kulturystyka m??czyzn do 100kg

Muscular Development - najlepszy portal kulturystyczny! / Galeria Zdj?? / 2009 / Mistrzostwa ?wiata M??czyzn w KulturystyceFina?y - Kulturystyka m??czyzn do 90kg

Muscular Development - najlepszy portal kulturystyczny! / Galeria Zdj?? / 2009 / Mistrzostwa ?wiata M??czyzn w KulturystyceFina?y - Kulturystyka m??czyzn do 85kg

Some of their lines are etched SO deep. Glute-ham tie ins. They simply have no body fat!

[Ehren]

Wow, those guys look great.

Having lived in Europe off and on for the last 10 years, and for the past 5, in Europe only, my opinion is that there are a couple factors.

I think it's diet and general lifestyle. You don't commonly see fat kids or young people in Central and Eastern Europe (Poland, Czech, Slovakia, Slovenia and Ukraine etcetera). So very few of them were fat kids who grew up and became BB'ers. Rather they progress from lean and skinny kids and when they put on muscle, they start out pretty lean to begin with. Then a little tweaking with diet and AAS and they cut up FAST. They all play sports of some kind all their lives, and walk everywhere or take public transportation far more than the US. This all contributes.

Not so in the US and Western Europe. The UK and Western Germany are much like the US in terms of fat kids and adults. But as soon as you cross into the Eastern Part of Germany, you can really see a shift in people looking healthier and generally leaner. It's just a better starting point for bodyfat.

That said, American BB'ers are in general, far stronger than the same sized European bodybuilder. It gets looks in the gym if you can do sets with 315 on bench for instance. I think this is because most American "Big Guys" play football and baseball and start with the weights sooner than in Europe.

JMO of course.
On a side note, I saw Pavel Jablonicky at dinner a few months back. Dude is still MASSIVE and granite hard. But he must have smoked about half a pack at dinner

[Big Dave Smith]

I wonder what their training is like if many of them don't lift as heavy. TONS of volume? I've heard that they often hit the gym twice a day for training.

It's strange because even when the US guys are super lean, the deep striations and details aren't as prominant.

We also know that many of these world amateur guys don't take their pro cards. Ali Amini said in an interview that many of them will make more money from their country by continuing to go back to the world's and placing well.

Another factor... Tom Prince said that he came off all his gear 2 weeks before competing because in his opinion... the muscle was already there, the fat was gone, and ALL gear made him hold water. I know of two other individual successful bodybuilders who share the same idea... but I know of many guys who've been as lean as these world guys who stay on test right up to the day of the show.

So much contradiction. Bodybuilding is confusing! LOL.

[The BB Monad]

I think diet and lifestyle is the reason.

Also you mentioned that the pros are US citizens - many europeans become US citizens after they turn pro, right?

And I do agree that american bodybuilders seem to be much stronger! Or at least lift heavier weights than us european guys. I for one have never focused on the weight at all due to fear of injuries and prefer form over anything else.

[betito]

the secret is diet and cardio till you are half death...

[loganb_football]

I think Christian Thibaudeau had mentioned this in an article or two in the past...

[chris250]

they diet harder than we do...

[chris250]

my question is why do the use dream tan vs protan or jan tana ?

[doug1]

nice small waists too, maybe they haven't gotten into the massive gh doses yet

[doug1]

the lighter weights? hmm, maybe this is a factor too? are the extreme poundages in lifts like squats, rows etc. that require a lot of core support thickening the waist area too? couple that with the extreme heavy breathing that these lifts produce could be expanding that rib cage area(remember
"breathing squats", to expand the rib cage?). I think of franco columbo, super strong especially for his day and lets also look at his midsection area, not exactly tiny.
i don't know, just something to consider. maybe someone can show me some power lifters who have small waists. mario p. does come to mind that contradicts my theory

[Big Dave Smith]

Call me crazy, but I like that bronze look. It's all fake in appearance anyway. That bronze look, when you're shredded, looks cool!

They're definitely running GH. It's one of the things they can get readily, use whenever, and pass a piss test for worlds.

By diet harder, how do you mean? Longer and more gradually? Only eating clean foods for 99/100 meals?

[betito]

Originally Posted by Big Dave Smith

Call me crazy, but I like that bronze look. It's all fake in appearance anyway. That bronze look, when you're shredded, looks cool!

They're definitely running GH. It's one of the things they can get readily, use whenever, and pass a piss test for worlds.

By diet harder, how do you mean? Longer and more gradually? Only eating clean foods for 99/100 meals?

I mean crazier... just keep lowering carbs and fats till you don´t even know your name and you look like shelby... off course it´s common to keep great condition offseason, otherwise the diet would be even more torturous. Not to many people think like Dante over here, gaining strength or size is secondary, you have to be schredded to the bone and that is the only thing that matters... till somebody dies which I´m amazed it didn´t happen yet

[chris250]

Lats and I where talking the other day (awhile back) and he says, that they just focus more on diet than anything else...they take things to the extreme...they make us (USA guys) look like pussy's..LOL !!! Maybe LATS will get on here and put his input in to...but I would say, they just diet until they feel like death...

chris

[Shelby]

...

[big_guns]

ok guys let me clear this they are not from europe and the contest in middle east in qautar.and about the drugs guys in middle east use a small amounts.i talked to a guy who was in the iraqi national team they used winstrol and clen for the contest and he say they was exteamly hard

[Shelby]

Originally Posted by big_guns

ok guys let me clear this they are not from europe and the contest in middle east in qautar.and about the drugs guys in middle east use a small amounts.i talked to a guy who was in the iraqi national team they used winstrol and clen for the contest and he say they was exteamly hard

Board member buselmo, who lives in SA, has stated quite the opposite on numerous occasions.

[The_Beast]

I have prepared a bodybuilder from the middle east who competed several times at the world championships. His level of conditioning could make most pros jealous, but it was the norm at the worlds.

He was training twice a day, heavy in the morning, more "volume/intensity techniques" in the afternoon.

Pre-contest he was also doing 2 cardio sessions (one after every weight session) per day.

But one of (if not the) biggest difference was the way he ate off-season. Sure he ate a caloric surplus, but only from clean food. The quality of his off-season diet was as good as some NA pre-contest diet (but with more quantity).

These guys basically have the same mindset as european olympic athletes who often train 30-40 hours a week.

Regarding super supplements, honestly he wasn't taking anything special or mega-dosing. His hGH intake was semewhat high but not out of the norm (8-12IU depending on the phase) but it was pharma grade.

[betito]

Paco Bautista and Javier Mula do this: crazy high volume all year, incredible condition all year, come contest time they have little to lose and they are full of details with very tight skin, then they carb load and literaly explode. Bautista told that he needed to keep great conditioning all year to achieve that ultra thin tight skin, he also told that when he used to bulk up in the offseason his skin didn´t look the same.

Another example of the condition people goes for here in Spain, this is Xisco Serra, he diets keto (his prep guy is raul carrasco, ifbb pro who preps people with a similar diet aproach as dave Palumbo dietwise and Dorian Yates trainingwise ) Xisco was o zero carbs for a lot of months this year, he was looking close to this for month after month after month... then he squezed the water out, carbed up and BOOOM!
http://img134.imageshack.us/img134/5272/90060321.jpg


This was a couple months ago, now Xisco is offseason and a couple weeks ago looked like this
http://img376.imageshack.us/img376/1931/xisjpg.jpg

[joshbarnett]

wheels are way behind...i dont see how u can grow eating 0 carbs like that year round...JMO cycling carbs is best in my opinion

[puritan]

Originally Posted by big_guns

ok guys let me clear this they are not from europe and the contest in middle east in qautar.and about the drugs guys in middle east use a small amounts.i talked to a guy who was in the iraqi national team they used winstrol and clen for the contest and he say they was exteamly hard

hey bro, im from europe and i know what competitors use here.
winstrol and clen is just a 5% of contest prep drugs.