“What is classic” discussion

[CorgisOnTren]

and when it comes to what the judging criteria is, we could further distinguish between what the rules/guidelines stipulate vs. what the judges actually do in competitions

After hearing manion break down Logan vs Mike, it felt to me like judges do properly indeed follow the criteria

 

[ovrdooze]

apart from mass, the most noticeable diff for me is the legs. Golden era builders had different proportions, they didn't have the war elephant sized legs that could replace the columns at the Acropolis of Athens like today.

 

[madg]

I 100% agree that it is physique dependent, and not era dependent, as in "all guys from the golden era embody the classic look. That said, I think a lot more guys from that era has classic look because they didn’t push the drugs as hard or use as many, and were not trying to be absolutely grotesquely huge and peeled so a lot of them just looked that way. I mean once we started seeing guys chase extreme levels of mass and conditioning in the years after the golden era is when we started seeing the loss of shape and flow, and blockier perhaps unaesthetic physiques, though again it is still highly genetic and individual, obviously we had guys from those later years that were still very aesthetic.

Charlie Clairmonte and Francis Benfatto are guys that always comes to mind, but I just don’t think people really want to see this type of physique. From a shape and flow standpoint they are it, but I believe if they trotted a guy like this out here now, they would say way to small, and not lean enough, even though both look phenomenal. Hell, physique guys are way bigger and leaner than this now.

Clairmonte the GOAT

 

[Mute]

 

[gains4000]

We could distinguish between what the judging criteria is, and what the judging criteria should be

and when it comes to what the judging criteria is, we could further distinguish between what the rules/guidelines stipulate vs. what the judges actually do in competitions

it seems to me at some level the judges are often looking for guys who simply "look like" another guy who used to compete decades ago

at times it seems like its more a "look alike" contest than a bodybuilding contest

but what should the actual criteria be? I would say the criteria should be the exact same as open, with this single caveat: any appearance that indicates GH/Insulin use be a penalized

its not as if the contests in the 70's/80's would have rewarded "extreme muscularity" or mass monster freaks any less than we would want to reward them today

but if we want to make sure its a "classic" look, we would want to do everything we could to rule out guys that are abusing GH/Insulin

otherwise, best man wins

Classic competitors use just as much HGH and insulin as open bodybuilders. They just don’t have the genetics to be open bodybuilders. Same with men’s physique.

 

[Siggy]

If you look at pics of the first couple of years of this division compared to today, the guys are already much bigger.

This will eventually end up turning into the lightweight Open Division, it will be classic in name only.

 

[madg]