Some ramblings and musings this morning:
Watching the stream last night, and looking at the photos this morning, I am struck again how the pictures simply don’t capture the awesomeness or differences in conditioning as seen in the video.
In the pictures, all the athletes look great. In the video they are too…but the video showed things such as how hard and dense Branch is when standing next to someone…the pics somehow don’t capture that startling difference. When Phil Heath comes out, the roundness and fullness of his muscles simply leap out at you in the video. Not so much in the pics. Dexter Jackson looks simply COMPLETE and amazing in the pics and in the video.
It’s very telling when the judging went into comparison mode the strengths and differences between the physiques…all these guys (from pics) are very very close in conditioning and most are quite complete physiques…it comes down to preference in aesthetics I think.
I was disappointed in Roelly. I’ve been following him all year since the Arnold and from the videos leading up to the contest he looked like he could be in the mix. However, when he came out, he looked really smooth to me. I think he forgets that he needs to be flexed at all times and not ever truly “relaxed”…you look smooth next to everyone else if you do that. The judges are looking at you the entire time!
Another thing about Roelly is when compared to all the other competitors, he is really not that big. He’s shorter than most, and his size is not equivalent to those around him. His back simply does not compare with the others…and I think he suffers from what Wolf suffers: high lats. His density as seen in the pics or on video doesn’t compare either with the other competitors. I’m thinking something went wrong in the hours leading up to the pre-judging…its almost as if he suffered some “water spillage” due to something wrong during the carb loading phase. Heck, maybe he just didn’t carb load enough!!!
I think the judges will choose between Jay and Phil and most people have indicated. But I am really not happy with that…Jay is HUGE and WIDE…but his arms are way down in size and doesn’t look proportional to the rest of his hugeness. His waist is back up to his original blockiness standards (not like last year where he brought it down). He is in shape, but not the awesome specimen he was last year.
Phil has gotten huge too…but he looks really really funny to me. That chest is simply not Olympia caliber…and it is due unfortunately to very poor insertion genetics there. Everything else is pure awesomeness though…but I can’t get over that chest.
Dexter Jackson has the complete package to me…and if I were a judge he would be Mr. Olympia. His physique is complete. Others might match his conditioning…others might have larger bodyparts…but the flow, the insertions, the shape…that is unattainable via training, diet, drugs, etc. That is pure genetics. Dexter is the complete package on that stage…and I just don’t think it will be rewarded.
Ronnie Rockell now has a physique that looks almost just like Dexter’s! Amazing. His shape is simply excellent as well…I am really impressed by his progress over the years.
Branch, as noted many times before, is simply the most conditioned and hard athlete on that stage. I actually think he has improved on his “lines” quite a bit. He is definitely not as blocky as previous years, and he has slowly but surely brought up his arms in relationship to the rest of his physique. This is actually the only time ever, I wouldn’t mind his coming in 2nd…or dare I say it…if he even won.
I feel bad for Kai. I would love to find out what happened to his conditioning! He looked like he could have made a preperatory mistake ala Roelly.
Wolf stood out to me. Yes, he has weak points, but his height and rediscovered fullness makes him another favorite of mine. Amazingly, Hide also looked good. That guy is improving all the time! I never really liked his physique that much, but he is really building it nicely.
I heard that prejudging is 50% of the score, and the posedown of the top six is the other 50%. That means if you don’t make top 6 in prejudging, you can’t move up the next day no matter what. I guess this is a new scoring method that began with the Arnold’s this year. This is why, for instance, Hide could drop out of a contest due to injury and still place 7th.
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