Okay, I know this is gonna be a possibly feather ruffling topics, but with the rise of coaches (gurus?) who have never excelled in the sport themselves, does anyone ever wonder if the average modern competitor actually knows less than their predecessors?
I’m not just talking PEDs of course, but even basic nutrition. I’ve certainly known plenty of high level BBers who seem pretty clueless to even high school level stuff, yet I’m left to assume that they get by on effort and genetics. Again, I’m sure this sounds bad, and I’m not trying to come off that way. Heck, I think the reason Arash and I get along so well is that he actually knows a heck of a lot more about training and nutrition than most other pro’s I’ve known. He even took it in stride when we first hung out and I corrected him about something concerning the digestion of fructose (Seriously, no ego with this guy!)
I think what got me even thinking about this is watching how many “decent” competitors suddenly feel they can turn an easy buck coaching others (usually they send everyone the same stuff anyway) when they can’t even explain what they did themselves (usually because they just followed the plan someone else gave them)
I think good coaches/trainers no A LOT more today than those in the past. The competitors themselves may very well no less. With the advances in nutrition, training, science, etc those interested can learn it and train others. The competitor no longer has to be in the “trenches” and learn through trial and error. They leave it to the coach to figure out. Many at the top just cash in on their genetics.
For what its worth I think the Diet information is better… Honestly cant say much about the training ,since I see allot of the stander ed stuff being done from previous eras.But I might be off base on that.
I’ll agree that knowledge of diet and nutrition is better, or at least more accessible (we have every keyboard expert who has ever done a pushup citing studies online and offering their expert coaching services), BUT, that doesn’t mean that everyone can EMPLOY that knowledge. I still see some pretty impressive looking top competitors offering advice and approaches that are 100% absolutely incorrect in every way, yet people follow along because they look like they do (usually because they followed their own coach’s advice).
I think it’s interesting that some of the best physiques of all time were built using really low fat diets. We know now that low fat diets suck the big one, but in the 80s and 90s most of the big dudes were limiting their fats and still created the best physiques of all time.
Hey, Dorian was quick to point out how he ate Ice cream and chocolate if he wanted, Mentzer too… I think the key was that the “smarter” competitors truly understood how everything fits together rather than look for a gimmick to make it “easier” like anyone writing a diet or training plan usually does to sell it to the masses.
I agree, and this statement is the basis of another argument I’ve heard people make: Bodybuilders today know TOO MUCH to the point where they cannot use their knowledge.
I’m not sure how much I buy into that theory, though.
lol, I don’t have one set way of doing things that I could market the hell out of. I’m the guy who truthfully tells you that training is hard, requires effort and time, and nutrition takes some planning, a little trial and error, and a willingness to balance out what you want with what you need… Not much of a tagline to sell a zillion e-books or become the next hot fitness author of the month!
About a year ago, I was at the Olympic Trials,
having a conversation with a young weightlifter who’s doing some big things at the national level these days.
We were chatting about training, and he said something that stuck in my mind. “You can’t train the same way everybody used to back in the old days. Weightlifting has evolved.”
Weightlifting has evolved, and you can’t train the way we used to anymore. I’m not sure how I feel about that.
Actually, I take that back. I’m totally sure how I feel about it. It’s wrong.
In case you don’t know, the sport of Olympic weightlifting has changed its bodyweight classes a couple of times over the last 25 years. All the old world records from the old weight classes were erased, and new records were started in the new weight classes. These are the records you know about now.
Let me give you a few of the old world records, okay? Here’s a short list:
Alexander Varbanov- 215.5 kg C&J, 75 kg class, 1987 (current 77kg WR – 214)
Blagoi Blagoev- 195.5 kg SN, 90 kg class, 1983 (current 94kg WR – 188)
Asen Zlatev- 225 kg C&J, 82.5 kg class, 1986 (current 85kg – 220)
Naim Suleymanoglu - 190 C&J, 60 kg class, 1988 (current WR 62kg – 183)
Anatoli Khrapaty- 235 kg C&J, 90 kg class, 1988 (current WR 94kg – 232)
Leonid Taranenko- 266 kg C&J, SHW class, 1988 (current WR 105+kg – 263)
Nicu Vlad- 200.5 kg SN, 100 kg class, 1986 (current WL 105kg – 200)
Now, let me point out two clear facts about these numbers: They were all done around 30 years ago. They’re still higher than the current world records in the changed weight classes that have been established. In other words, nobody has ever beaten these numbers.
Despite the alleged “evolution” of weightlifting, many of the results from the old days, which were obviously done using old training methods, still haven’t been topped.
Source:
Modern Weightlifting Training Methods Are Not Better Than Old Ones & There Are Numbers to Prove It
by Matt Foreman
I think they might know more in that many BBers back in the day probably didn’t know about every single little muscle in the body, or about protein synthesis and mTOR and lepton and grehlin, etc…
But in practice it probably looks fairly similar. It doesn’t seem like all of this knowledge and science that has permeated the BBing world has evolved the physiques much (if any). 99% of it still boils down to train your ass off and eat “right”. More of you want to gain, less to shred up.
