Interestingly, if you look at the athletic statues from ancient Rome and Greece, you don’t see an emphasis on arms. They feature muscular midsections.
Funny thing is as much as I want big arms when I see a guy strutting around with big arms with his sleeves cut off it’s a real turn off.
Scott
Is it a turn on to see girls with big arms, lol
That was my problem, I did not focus enough on the midsection and now am paying the price for it, lol
Interestingly, in his prime Darden was very torso dominant, broad shoulders, wide lats, and a really big chest. Very classic proportions, not unlike Steve Reeves
You are right. The turn on is to see a guy with big arms who does not try to show them off.
Can anyone name a bodybuilder who was like that?
Guys neither turn me off nor turn me on. However, if a guy has put the work into building big arms and wears a cut off shirt what the prob? Most guys in my gym where sleeveless whether they have big arms or not. Its f’ing hot in my gym. If another guy is more developed than me, I look in jealousy/admiration and nothing more.
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Arnold.
Arnold? I’ve been around Arnold several times, but never where his arms were on display.
The guy who impressed me was Robby Robinson. The first couple of times he came into the FSU weight room, he was extremely relaxed and unassuming – even though his arms were on full display in a tank top. With his every move, his large muscular arms shimmered. He did no lifting, just walked around sort of inspecting the place for several minutes and left.
What Robby did, in my mind, was more impressive than if he had done biceps curls and triceps extensions with 75-pound dumbbells.
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Robby had a great physique.
The midsection emphasis on those ancient athletic statues never appealed to me. shrug
In those days the strength of a man was in his loins.
I’ve heard it told that the ideal physique is a picture where the abs are the picture and the surrounding muscle (arms, legs, chest, etc.) is the frame.
Back in the day when greats like Boyer Coe made an appearance at our health food store he just came as a regular guy but you could tell he was massive. Jim Haislop came later and he wore a suit! Me on the right at about 16?
Scott
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Boyer and his arms. What would you have given to look like him?
Later that week both Boyer And Jim Haislop guest posed at some local small potatoes bodybuilding contest. Somehow we managed to work our way backstage and we were just dumbstruck getting up close and looking at them warm up. It was unbelievable! The funny thing is when I was recently looking at those old negatives I found Mike Mentzer was even there and for some reason we didn’t pay much attention to him but Coe and Haislop were always my favorites! Chuck Sipes was another I wish I could have met!
Scott
I often wonder what guys like Boyer Coe would have looked like at about 16 and the other day I was looking through my old year book and I spotted this kid who looked very much like what I imagine Boyer looked like as a kid. He didn’t lift weights so much as participating in sports like football and track. I remember standing there in line next to him in gym class getting ready to play dodge ball. He was already fairly muscular, rugged looking with a dark complexion. I remember turning to my friend who was as wimpy as I felt at that moment pointing at this kid and said, he-man! He nodded! Of course this kid didn’t get interested in bodybuilding as much as getting drunk but if he had ??
There’s a picture of Mike Mentzer at 15 from one of the last books released by John Little. His development and potential very apparent.
The could be the very original “out-angle” (not that it was required haha)
I suppose the ancient Greek notions about the ideal physique were related to their ideas about athletic performance and athleticism. So what were the sports of the ancient Olympics? Wikipedia tells me the early games involved foot racing, combat sports like wrestling, boxing, and fencing, the long jump, javelin throw, discus throw, horse racing, and chariot racing. So sports were probably, in part, a way for young men to hone their skills at waging war.
You would want to have enough arm strength to wield weapons, draw a bow, throw a spear. But a lot of power for throwing comes from the lower body - legs, hips, and torso. Most good throwers do not have particularly thick arms (baseball pitchers, quarterbacks). And there would have been a premium on speed, quickness and explosiveness. So an emphasis on well developed legs and torso, without excessive bulk, makes sense.
Modern ideas about the ideal physique, particularly the extreme V-tape with wide shoulders and a tiny waist seem like an exaggeration of what the Greeks (and Romans) valued.
== Scott ==
Modern values are so screwed up from the likes of Hollywood and such that you won’t find any sense looking at what is valued today.
Scott