My brother in law is Anthony Vidal. He actually qualified for the Arnold this past year in arm wrestling, but with covid, and the fact that he completely tore his quad a few weeks before, it wasn’t going to happen.
You know, the term “monster” gets thrown around a lot, and IMO it can be someone who just pushes the boundaries so much, in a positive way (ie. Yates in 1993), or it can be someone who pushes them so much, but arguably crosses the line with something like bodybuilding where you will always hear the term “aesthetics.”
I loved Marcus Ruhl, but even Yates conceded that he’d never win the Olympia with how they judge contests.
The last several years, I can see things going a bit… let’s say badly. Phil won because he was the best guy onstage the first few years, but his physique seemed to deteriorate his last few, and to be honest he didn’t have the most aesthetic physique ever, or else we would never have seen the concept of “classic” even come to mind.
That’s a pretty good description with the walnuts -lol. I have to think that the gear is what plays such a serious role in the malformed bodies we see onstage. Arnold in his prime (IMO 1974) compared to any of today’s open BBers,… I would venture to guess that no one on the street, even most hardcore gym trainers would prefer to look like Phil over Arnold.
I can still picture those old photos of Arnold sitting in a college class, sweater and jeans, and his midsection just small, if not merely normal looking. Now find any pic of Phil just sitting around, and while his arms are gonna look the size of small children, his chest and midsection just mesh together into one giant mass… Again, if we’re talking aesthetics, if we’re talking the “art-form” of bodybuilding, then its easy to argue that some have pushed too far.
S
