The first time I ever heard of Arnold was in the mid 70’s some time at my cousins house on what I wanna say was ABC’s Wide World of Sports. Could be wrong about the show, but in any case it was just him in a presentation where he was introduced by some guy as “the world’s most perfectly developed man” I do recall it was those exact words.
He came out on a black stage with appropriate lighting and did a posing routine. I was about 12 at the time and remember thinking that this guy was right outta some comic book… only bigger. Everybody in the room was gape jawed and silent with a mesmerized HOHLLEE SHIT look on their face.
The general public had no idea what steroids were and I don’t think it’s a coincidence that bodybuilding stopped being carried on PPV about the same time that they became common knowledge in the media.
That one issue will keep bodybuilding from ever being as accepted as it once was nevermind mainstream whether any of us like it or not. I am no anti gear guy, but this is just the way it is.
The public has been turned off by heavily ignorant and negative media coverage and views anybody they rightly or wrongly even suspect of being on as akin to the crackheads they see in the movies.
[quote]Professor X wrote:
Rattler wrote:
LiveFromThe781 wrote:
i think Ronnie Coleman is the face of bodybuilding right now. i think he has a GREAT personality. the best personality for capturing a sport or anything you want to draw people into is being unique and making people want to see/hear more of you.
Ronnie is/was great at that. the problem is that he walks around at over 300 pounds which is very hard for people to identify with. Arnold had a great personality but he wasnt a mass monster, he just looked really really good.
his view of bodybuilding is very artistic whereas ronnie’s is just slap on more muscle and more muscle lightweight baby wooooooooooooooooo
Arnold was a mass monster at the time. Keep in mind, most posters here are desensitized to the size of these people. We are used to seeing guys like Ronnie, Cutler, Yates and so on. When Pumping Iron came out, most people had never seen anything like those guys before. Now, we aren’t so in awe of Arnold because we have guys so much larger.
Agreed. Arnold was seen just like Ronnie is seen today. People should stop using today’s standards to judge people from 40+ years ago.[/quote]
maybe maybe not, theres no way to know for sure. i cant really argue it because i wasnt alive 40 years ago and wasnt in the same mind set. youd have to be the exact same age at seeing both of them for it to be accurate…idk just stuff theyre going over in my Human Growth and Development book.
i will say this, from my own gym experience BBing is coming back. kids younger than me (im 21) know about Pro BBers and who won the Olympia etc. i know everyone thinks kids today are training just for abs but believe theres a LOT of people who look up to BBers.
IMO bodybuilding will never be close to mainstream. Main reason: the level of conditioning required by today’s bodybuilding standards.
I am in no way advocating that we have to go back to this supposed “Golden Age” of bodybuilding by penalizing taking the sport to new heights as a lot of people seem to want. However, while most of us see someone who is peeled and consider it an amazing feat that they nailed their conditioning, the vast vast vast majority of the public thinks it looks downright disgusting.
Another reason it will never become big is that it is a judged sport. Every mainstream sport involves that I can think of involves direct competition.
That being said, BBing is awesome, and I couldn’t care less if it never becomes mainstream. Besides, can you imagine the new breed of dbags that could come out of the woodwork if BBing was popular? It happened with MMA, and we don’t need any more people curling in the squat rack.
Humans, by nature, like competition; they like battle. the gladiatorial coliseums? American football? People want to watch a battle.
Bodybuilding… there is no battle. There are some guys in speedos, oiled up on a stage. A football game is constantly changing.
Okay… they did a few poses. How many timescan they do that before it gets boring? The general public will never watch a pose off for 2 hours.
The majority of men will feel awkward and insecure watching bodybuilding. People do not like feeling awkward and insecure. Most women do not find the bodybuilder look attractive, so there goes that viewer base.
It’s not exactly a sport in which you can get drunk, eat chili dogs, and cheer, as somebody pointed out. you’re not gonna jumpo up and high five your buddys very much; people like doing that. Veins popping out of quads is considered gross by the general public…
etc… etc…
[quote]Artem wrote:
Humans, by nature, like competition; they like battle. the gladiatorial coliseums? American football? People want to watch a battle.
Bodybuilding… there is no battle. There are some guys in speedos, oiled up on a stage. A football game is constantly changing.
Okay… they did a few poses. How many timescan they do that before it gets boring? The general public will never watch a pose off for 2 hours.
The majority of men will feel awkward and insecure watching bodybuilding. People do not like feeling awkward and insecure. Most women do not find the bodybuilder look attractive, so there goes that viewer base.
It’s not exactly a sport in which you can get drunk, eat chili dogs, and cheer, as somebody pointed out. you’re not gonna jumpo up and high five your buddys very much; people like doing that. Veins popping out of quads is considered gross by the general public…
etc… etc…[/quote]
Agreed, it’s why strongmen competitions get aired on TSN here and bodybuilding never even gets heard of. Why? Because like you said, people like competition. They want to see people physically competing agaisnt each other infront of their eyes. Even while they mind find strongmen physically unappealing, watching the guys do their competition is much more fun than watching guys stand on stage and pose. It’s just the nature of the sport.
Just like some sports in the Olympics… Nobody really cares to watch it except the core fanbase. Bodybuilding will always be most understood by those who live, or live parts of it. Most other people, will never understand why we think huge hamstrings are awesome.
[quote]oldtimer3 wrote:
Whatever happened to ESPN’s show “American Msucle.” When I used to visit the US in the 80s it was always on.[/quote]
It came on ESPN until the late 90’s. They subsequently cut all footage on bodybuilding contests that used to come on late at night as filler. I think I still have some episodes taped. I haven’t seen random footage on bodybuilding contests since.
ESPN used to show the Mr. Olympia contests back when Dorian was competing. I remember seeing him for the first time at a friend’s house shaking his quads out on stage before he flexed them. It was the craziest thing I ever saw…and I wanted to be able to do that.
[quote]Rattler wrote: Arnold was a mass monster at the time. Keep in mind, most posters here are desensitized to the size of these people. We are used to seeing guys like Ronnie, Cutler, Yates and so on. When Pumping Iron came out, most people had never seen anything like those guys before. Now, we aren’t so in awe of Arnold because we have guys so much larger.[/quote]
Bingo.
Obviously standards have changed (certainly at the pro level) but saying Arnold wasn’t a mass monster is laughable.
Someone on this site actually once posted that by today’s standards, Arnold had a physique more akin to an Abercrombie model.
[quote]oldtimer3 wrote:
Whatever happened to ESPN’s show “American Msucle.” When I used to visit the US in the 80s it was always on.[/quote]
American Muscle Magazine.
That show was cool. I always wished it was longer than a half hour. John Romano could be counted on to work basil and Twinlab veggie fuel into every single recipe in his cooking segment. I used to joke about it.
I may actually have some pre-historic vhs recordings of it somewhere still too.
what the collective “we” at T-Nation aspire towards, or to be rather, varies from individual to individual. However the variance of opinion on “ideal” physicality here on this site is minute comparatively speaking. In television land and down at the local mall, ripped at 170 lbs is the ideal; it’s the Mens Health Credo so to speak, 170lbs is big to some.
outside of 1morerep most people don’t look all that big at 170lbs.
point being, we surround ourselves with this idea of large. the more i train and grow, i note in my mind what say Kai Greene looked like in MD, i think push harder, i’m still small keep growing.
Therefore when i travel home and visit family and friends whom i haven’t seen since i was 50lbs lighter they say holy shit you got big. My response is not yet. i’m normal sized now, the difference is you all eat poorly, not enough, drink, and smoke. this is why you are little. Also, training is sort of important, it goes along w/ the eating thing.
The grand point is** bodybuilding will never be mainstream whereby most folks think you are big if the scale even moves into the 200 range. if that’s the case, as cool and promising as Phil Health is, he will forever remain the “white elephant” in the living room of middle America.