[AlexG]

maybe american bb are to lazy or to stupid to market themselve  ;D

Oh, I don't know.

Lou "Incredible Hulk" Ferrigno and Cory "Atalanta" Everson have done their fair share of acting, both on television and in the movies.  And after Arnold, they've both had a far greater impact on pop-culture memory then anything the other three (Who that?) you mentioned have done.

“I like a good story well told. That is the reason I am sometimes forced to tell them myself.”
~ Mark Twain / Samuel Clemens (1907)

[chris10000]

Oh, I don't know.

Lou "Incredible Hulk" Ferrigno

i knew somebody would name lou….but , lets face it, lou made it because of arnold

[Tigersan]

Haha, I wrote that I needn't ask who won before I clicked the link because it was so obvious that Iris would win – the idiots at IFBB can't stop themselves from wrecking the pursuit of Pro FBBing by voting for her each year.  I have nothing against Iris as looking as she does has netted her 6 titles, but, if the IFBB really wanted to arrest the downward slide they'd reward a less extreme appearance.  It's evident that they have given-up on FBBing in favour of Figure which has great physiques but isabout as exciting as watching paint dry.

The prize money now (4K US$ for fourth place, apparently) is so low now that the term "Professional" is now a joke as the women have to do something else to make ends meet.  Either the IFBB should remove all pretence of there being a Pro division, or (preferably) they need to change the judging criteria and reward less extreme looks to bring back sponsorship and media coverage.  Perhaps then the prize money can actually be worth the bother and it might reduce the seedy side of FBBing which does the sport no credit.  End of rant.

Now thats what i dont get… Tell me why would they favor less extreme appearance??? It's bodybiulding, not a bikini show (what NPC tries to do)
Bodybuilding is all about muscles. You fan of softer girls nothing wrong with that, be a fan of figure then. I myself dont like the fact that women
to get big need to use juice and they most of the time wreck their facial beauty… But that doesnt change the fact that Iris IS the best in terms of proportion,
conditioning and size (bodybuilding criteria), so i dont see why she shouldn't win.

I may like other girls better because they look nicer, have smoother faces, but thats not the point of bodybuilding… I agree to what you say about sponsorship,
yet i prefer seeing less women but in better shape… quality over quantity… As for money they seem ot be doing fine , most of girls work as personal trainers, which
is a good pay, + photoshoots they get. I never heard them complain, Except judging maybe…. Most of girls I have spoken to ddo it for themselves, not for money. To strengthen their personality
and prove to themselves they can achieve something most people cant or dont want to.

My 2 cents

[cpbell0033944]

I shall be posting a full response to recent posts in this topic tomorrow.

[cpbell0033944]

OK, here goes, in bullet points to stop me from typing too much:

– I agree that FBBing is not and should not be a beauty contest.

– I agree that size should be a judging criterion; my argument is that size and ultra-dry, dehydrated contest shape seem to have been prioritised to such an extent that symmetry, proportion and aesthetics of the physique seem unimportant to judges.  I have seen some results (including Figure) where the most shredded physique beat the best-balanced physique.

– IMO, Pro FBBing no longer exists, as a Pro sport is one in which the competitors are full-time professionals.  To be a full-time pro, you need to be able to win enough prize money or be paid enough by a team in order to prevent yourself needing to work for a living or do other things to make ends meet.  Currently, no FBB Pro could afford to do that, therefore the Pro category is not Pro at all, it is Extreme FBBing, but not Pro.  Similarly, so-called amateur FBBing can't really be called amateur as ALL FBBing is amateur.

– If the competitors and the organizing body are refusing to change, then they must accept that the prize money will drop further thanks to reduced sponsorship, that their sport will go "underground" because there will be NO media coverage outside of the BBing magazines, and that it will end-up as a very low-key affair.  This means that it won't be worth holding the Ms. Olympia at the same venue or at the same time as Mr Olympia, because it will eat away at the profit the IFBB will make from the Mr O. 

– This will cause one of two things; either the IFBB drops so-called "Pro" FBBing completely and euthanases it, or it will hold the Ms O in some small town hall somewhere with a few hundered spectators and a couple of camcorders filming it.

– My point is that the IFBB and its defenders face a choice – keep FBBing pure as the pursuit of size and ever-lower bodyfat %ages until someone collapses on stage and possibly dies, or modify it and see it thrive.  To me it's a no-brainer.

[cpbell0033944]

Continued from previous post:

OK, so what is my formula for success?  Firstly, regulations.

–  Drug testing.  If steroids areillegal in the US, then the IFBB has a duty to test for them.  Either apply the same type of testing as the IAAF use in athletics or set maximum permissible levels of testosterone and its homologues and growth hormone circulating in the body.

–  Judging must favour a chiselled but healthy look.  Pinched cheeks, dried-out skin and less-than-rounded musculature due to dehydration should be penalised; muscle definition and shape rewarded.  Look at old footage of the Ms O in the late 1980s and early 1990s and ask yourself if many of the top threes from those days would stand a chance of placing now in terms of conditioning?  Of course not.  Emphasise the body sculpting aspect (as promoted by the greatest ever, Cory) over the pure building; in other words, size should not overrule shape, form and symmetry. 

Now for marketing:

– Figure needs to be promoted as a beautiful, strong, muscular physique contest.  Posing routines need to be introduced after the high-heel quater turn part of the show.  It needs to be marketed to women as favouring the sort of physique that they,, with effort and dedication, could produce.

–  Masters FBBing needs to be promoted to women between 35 and 60 as proof that being buff is healthy and empowering for the older woman.  It also needs to be promoted to men as a good thing because it keeps women looking younger and sexier (I know that sounds misogynistic, but sexiness sells, I'm afraid)

– FBBing become effectively natural, so the two could combine forces.  This would increase the audience overnight and bring more competitors to events.  Look at the Champ Car/IRL situation; the series is stronger now it is no longer divided.  Encourage more adventurous posing routines by reducing the

– If there is a market for extreme size, re-introduce what is currently Pro FBBing as an "Extreme FBBing" category.  No holds barred, size and conditioning are everything.

[AlexG]

I made a slight correction of word use/spelling in your 1st of 2 posts.

Left you a PM about it.

“I like a good story well told. That is the reason I am sometimes forced to tell them myself.”
~ Mark Twain / Samuel Clemens (1907)

[cpbell0033944]

i just dont get your logic , cpbell ??

in your lat post in the alesha young thread you wrote she is perfect…???…
alesha is maybe bigger than iris…and made this in a short time…
but you are going to critic iris and applaud alesha  ??

can you explain this ???

I don't recall saying she was perfect.  I might have complimented her physique ike that, but I often separate whether I like an FBBers total look or whether I find her hot from the quality of her physique.  I originally loved Aleesha, but I believe that she is taking too many "supplements", shall we say, as her appearance is changing for the worse, IMO.  I LOVE size as a pure factor, but, unforynately, size usually comes with a price – GH jaw, gravelly voice, clitoral enlargement, needing to shave the face etc.  If size comes with that baggage, then I am turned-off.  In the rare cases where size comes without that, I love it.  Simple.

[chris10000]

I don't recall saying she was perfect. 

http://amaz0ns.com/option,com_smf/Itemid,135/topic,7523.msg85945/#msg85945

[chris10000]

–  Drug testing.  If steroids areillegal in the US, then the IFBB has a duty to test for them. 

only for women ????
ps: ifbb europe does have drugtesting

[Author]

Posts