Visit any bodybuilding message board, and you'll likely encounter a few dozen "regulars" who are very good at criticizing the physiques of professional bodybuilders. It's a sport of perception, and this kind of evaluation is normal and acceptable. After all, Ronnie Coleman's biceps wouldn't be considered legendary if there weren't a lot of less-than-legendary biceps to compare them to. However, there is a small tangent of bodybuilding fans that tend to credit the physiques of bodybuilders to a phrase heard all-too-often on the forums: "All Drugs". They use this phrase quite often to illustrate the dependence of bodybuilders upon anabolic steroids. Whenever a pro slims down in the off-season or after a surgery, the cry is heard as well. Is it true? Are the professional bodybuilders we see in magazines really just a product of massive drug use?

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Pro bodybuilders are bigger than most people they encounter on a daily basis. They likely feel like superman because they are the Alpha male in every room they enter. They have no problem making friends because almost every man wants to ally himself with the biggest man in the room. And the girls, well, they like muscles.

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If you watched the webcast of the 2009 IFBB Mr. Olympia contest (or followed the results on any of the many websites covering it), you probably noticed Jay Cutler return to the stage with a lifetime best conditioning, and at a very light body weight to boot. He wasn’t the mass monster of years past. In 2003 or 2004, he would have been lucky to grab 6th place with a physique like that. However, in 2009 he won the Sandow trophy with this new level of shape – not size. Even though he still had a certain level of blockiness unavoidable because of his frame, he still managed to win the whole show. It wasn’t only Jay. Look at Branch Warren, Phil Heath, Kai Greene, and Dexter Jackson. They rounded out the top 5, and they were all smaller but leaner this years. Perennial favorites such as Markus Ruhl, Dennis Wolf, and Victor Martinez showed up carrying more muscle, to be sure – but they were soft in comparison. What is the lesson to be learned here? It would appear the IFBB “belly rule”, a mandate instituted five years ago, has finally come to fruition. The top contenders who showed up as mass monsters finished out of the big money. Those who came to the stage diced walked out with trophies.

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Winning bodybuilding a show isn’t about who can bring the most muscle to the stage on any given Saturday night. It’s not about which man is the most conditioned. It’s not about who is the best poser, the best looking, or who can move the most weight. Instead, the winner of any given bodybuilding show is the man who arrives onstage with the best possible combination of muscle mass, conditioning, symmetry, shape, and presentation. In the professional bodybuilding ranks, it’s difficult to pick out a winner, in many cases. Every man in the top 6 at any show has a perfect combination of body parts, delivers great genetic shape, and has attained a great degree of conditioning. In other words, everyone at that level has everything put together right. At that level, flaws just ...

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Pre-Contest Sodium Manipulation

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Bodybuilders like Bill Pearl and Casey Viator exemplified outstanding forearms in the 1950s and 1960s.  In the 1970s, Serge Olivia was king of the forearms.  The 1980s saw thick, insane forearms on men like Bertil Fox.  In the 1990s, Steve Brisbois had perhaps the best ‘hamhocks’ in the business.  And today, top pro Phil Heath is known for his almost cartoon-like forearms.

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Q:  I’m what you could call a life-style bodybuilder. I’ll never compete but, being over 30, I really need to watch what I eat. With a busy lifestyle, this is no easy thing. Any advice on how I can construct a lifestyle diet plan that’s practical for a busy guy?

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Q:  What is an appropriate age for kids to start lifting weights?

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Contract with major supplement company… $100,000

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