Editors note: As one of the fathers of modern bodybuilding, Joe Weider founded the International Federation of Bodybuilders, created the Mr./Ms. Olympia contests, and published numerous fitness magazines. He also developed several weight training programs in the 1950s, many of which were available by mail-order. Weider was interested in helping his clients build the whole man, and along with the booklets on bodily development he sent out to subscribers, he sometimes included pamphlets on how to strengthen other aspects of their lives like dating and career.
Below youll find one of these pamphlets on How to Make Women Like You. (It has been condensed from the original, but the ellipses do not indicate cuts — that was just Weiders writing style.) Once you’ve been successful in getting a woman to like you, you’ll want to read up on Weider’s tips for a healthy sex life.
It’s the night of the Senior Prom — and suddenly at your side is the one girl you’ve been wanting to meet all evening! The introductions are made, and then — poor you! You stand there, clinging to her hand like an octopus, unable to think of a blessed thing to say! Your Adam’s apple churns up and down like a roller-coaster! As she first waits expectantly, then at last turns away toward someone with more presence of mind, you say to yourself: “What’s the matter with me? Why can’t I turn on the old charm and get girls to like me?”
Does that sound familiar to you? Then stop building up that inferiority complex! There’s only one thing wrong with you — you’re just unprepared to meet girls! And if you’re unprepared to meet them, you’re certainly unprepared to talk to them and date them. So what can you do about it? Well, that’s why I am sending you this important bonus lesson — to teach you the fine art of being popular with girls.
You’ve been doing a fine job building your physique through my course — but that’s only part of my job! Now I want to help you enjoy life to the fullest — take advantage of your new-found strength and power!
And, frankly, one of the most enjoyable things in life is — women!
The first thing you should understand is that wanting to meet a girl and to date her is a perfectly normal, healthy emotion — as natural as breathing! Accept it just that way — the truth with no pretenses. Don’t hide the fact that you are attracted to someone, and don’t be ashamed of it even though you are kidded unmercifully about it by those who are less mature than you.
Remember this: it’s your life, and it’s up to you to handle it with skill, knowledge, freedom, enthusiasm and joy. You are the captain of your ship. You can steer it skillfully or bungle the job and crash upon the rocks. Therefore, it’s important to you to have at your fingertips the basic rules of social intercourse.
The second thing to understand is that it is just as natural for girls to want the company of boys! So you should remember that the girl you admire is looking for a boy she can admire. And if you have all the qualities of that kind of young man, you can be sure that she will not only be glad to date you, but will be quite disappointed if you don’t ask her for a date!
Just as you have a “dream girl” in your mind, so she has an ideal — the kind of young man she wants to date. And you’ll get your date if you are prepared to show her that you are just the guy she’s looking for!
What does a girl look for in a man? What does she look for in you?
1. First of all, she wants you to be physically fit — to have a well-built, well-cared-for body.
A body that you’re proud to own. A body that looks good when seen at the beach or in business clothes.
A body she won’t be ashamed to be seen with!
She doesn’t expect a muscular monster, and you don’t have to continually flex your muscles, nor spread your lats from Maine to California, nor expand your chest till the buttons on your shirt burst off. The secret is to be natural!
At the same time, you can be sure that she will not tolerate a man of sloppy posture — the human willow-tree. Nor will the man who is skinny or scrawny, who has no pep and ambition, win her regard. She wants no “Johnny-sit-by-the-fire.” She’s young and vital and radiant with good health, and she expects you to meet her point for point in this respect.
Of course, as a pupil of mine, you have been building your body to just the specifications she desires — and so on this point you can’t very likely go wrong. Just follow the instructions in my course, as I send them to you each week.
I have continually coached you on building handsome, shapely, well-defined muscles. I’ve given you pointers on posture. I’ve taught you how to have useful muscles as well as “showy” ones. The only thing you now will need in the “muscles department” is to maintain your present gains, and to work for ever-greater symmetry and classical proportions. This, I know, I can count on you to do.
2. She wants you to be clean and well groomed.
Shining from glossy, healthy hair and sparkling white teeth, right down to his well-shined shoes.
Never let yourself “offend,” as the deodorant advertisements read. Bathe at least once a day…and certainly bathe before meeting your date. But for some men bathing is not enough. Just because you may use a soap absolutely guaranteed to kill body odor does not mean that it’s guaranteed in your case.
Get a good men’s deodorant, such as Mennen’s or Odorono…something that stops the odor but not the perspiration. Don’t use “anti-perspirants” which block the pores…just use something that blocks the odor. Don’t be “half-safe.”
Another thing that will cost you the second date with your dream girl is to be overly generous in using cologne or after-shave lotion which is rather “loud.” Remember…when you are squiring your girl to a dance or party she is also dressing to please you. Now if she is wearing a heady perfume that set her back about $20 an ounce, and you arrive on a wave of spicy cologne or after-shave lotion that cost about two bucks, your scent will over-power hers, and the combination will be so “noisy” that both of you will find yourselves in a little island of your own on the dance floor with your friends at a safe distance away!
Rather than use any toiletry, make sure you don’t smell of anything. Let her shine in the cosmetics department…you be the showcase that sets off her beauty. If there is one supreme consideration you can offer Miss Dream Girl, it’s to be self-effacing in such matters. Believe me, she’ll love you for it!
It should be unnecessary to remind you that clean, well-pressed clothes are a “must” for a satisfactory courtship. This doesn’t mean that you have to stock up your wardrobe with $100 suits. But whether you are wearing an especially-tailored creation or a $35 suit from the “ready-to-wear,” the principle is the same…be neat, be clean, be well-pressed.
Even if you’re going on an outing, or roller-skating, or bowling, instead of to a formal dance, and you’re wearing dungarees and a T-shirt, be sure they’ve been freshly laundered…and, of course, that you’ve been bathed and deodorized.
No matter what the occasion, good grooming is most important, for it tells your girl more about your personal habits than any words could ever speak!
Women don’t want “fashion-plates” for dates, but they do want their men to look so good that they can be proud to be seen with them.
3. She wants you to treat her with respect…like a lady.
When you are introduced to a girl, don’t grab her hand and shake it like a rat terrier manhandling a mouse. Don’t even reach for her hand until she offers it to you.
If she does extend it, take it — press it firmly for a moment, then let go. Don’t try to send her messages in Morse Code by clinging, fondling and pressing her hand. She’ll get the message, but the answer will be NO!”
Respond to her greeting in the same manner. If she gives you a bear-hug of a handshake (if that’s how hearty she is), respond in kind. Don’t be weak if she is strong. If she is more delicate, be more gentle yourself.
When you’re out on a date with her, know that she does not want to be pawed right away. She does not want you to assume that she is “easy.” She’ll have more respect for you and more eagerly want your attentions if you are not too free with them. She will enjoy being won more if you let her believe that she is winning you!
Don’t do all the selling yourself…be a bit reserved, a bit cautious, not so headlong…let her do some of the work. There’ll be a mutual respect if you do.
4. She wants you to be able to hold your own conversationally as well as physically.
It is quite possible that the girl who has bowled you over is somewhat shy herself. Not every girl has perfect poise and self-possession. Maybe she needs a bit of conversational “priming” to get her going.
If this is the case — or if she is so darned self-confident that she can tell you off at fifty paces — you can keep her interest in you growing by leaps and bounds by getting her to talk. To do this, you will have to learn the simple art of ending the first few introductory sentences with a question which she has to answer. And, chances are, if you get her verbal “pump” started, she’ll be a gushing Niagara in a few moments. From then, you can talk about anything.
5. She wants to know that she has been noticed.
Vain? Perhaps, but human.
You will win her favorable attention if you let her know that she has attracted you. You can assure her of this by using sentences like these:
- “I’m so glad to meet you. I noticed you when you came in, and hoped that we’d have a chance to get acquainted.”
- “Didn’t I see you on Main Street this afternoon? I noticed you in front of Jefferson’s.”
- “Just what color would you say your dress is? It’s such an unusual shade and I wonder what it is.”
In every case you have said that there is something unique about her which attracted your attention. Everyone likes to think he or she is different. In this way you are subtly flattering her. She’ll eat it up, too!
6. She wants you to be charming — not only to herself — but to her friends.
She relishes the opportunity to “show you off” to them, to have them admire her good taste in choosing you.
You can be charming. No matter how shy and awkward you may think yourself, you can make yourself charming and attractive.
Arthur Murray, the famous dancing teacher, was so much taller and more unattractive than all the other boys that he never dared to show up at a high school dance. He was miserable and had a terrible inferiority complex until after he graduated. Then he learned the greatest principle of being charming and gracious. It has made him the successful man he is today…and the delight of every feminine student in his vast classes.
He learned that the secret of true charm is not to think of yourself, but to think of the other fellow first and to make it easy for him to you, and then to respect you and enjoy you.
What is charm, then? It’s simply consideration for others. For when you consider another’s feelings, desires, and needs above your own, how can he or she fail to respond generously? Who could turn you away? Who could say “no”?
TRY IT AND SEE!
Sincerely Yours,
Joe Weider
Trainer of Champions
Last updated: July 5, 2017
Steroid Solidarity
The Culture of Juicing at the Mr. Olympia Competition
By Oliver Bateman Summer 2017
http://www.vqronline.org/reporting-articles/2017/07/steroid-solidarity
The Mr. Olympia bodybuilding contest, which has been held in Las Vegas since 1999, and the Arnold Classic, held annually in Columbus, Ohio, since its inception in 1989, constitute the fall and spring formals, respectively, for the bodybuilding community. Both events crown bodybuilding champions, but the Olympia is the older and more prestigious of the two. Since 1965, when a handsome, tanned Mormon named Larry Scott wowed a small but dedicated crowd with his twenty-inch tape-measure biceps, the Olympia has fulfilled founder Joe Weiders dream of crowning the champion of champions among the heavily muscled set.
In the fall of 2016, this championship of champions and the fitness exposition with which it was combined sprawled across 500,000 square feet in the Las Vegas Convention Center, welcoming 1,100 vendors and exhibitors, a new high for the event. More than 55,000 men and women (another milestone) roamed the vast space, most clad in muscle-baring finery, in Zubaz pants that billowed around their quads and spaghetti-strap tank tops that clung to their lats. Many attendees looked like they could be competing in the Olympia finals themselves. They were bodybuilders, after a fashion, united by a common vision of better bodies through chemistry. They were packed in and giddy, these large people carrying large bags of nutritional supplements from booth to booth. Respite could only be found outside in the 100 degree heat or at the convention centers cafeteria, where they could eat grilled-chicken salads and discuss the impressive bodies they had seen and the muscle-building supplies they had purchased.
There, at a table with filmmaker Chris Bell, retired World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) pro wrestler Matthew Wiese, and Wieses bodyguard, Tony, a conversation was taking place, which, like so many other conversations that would take place over the weekend, was primarily about drugs.
Bell, an ex-powerlifting champion who directed the 2008 steroid documentary Bigger Stronger Faster*, had just returned from a rally in Washington, DC, where thousands of aggrieved users of an herbal supplement called kratom were petitioning against the federal governments decision to classify it as a controlled substance. According to its proponents, kratom aids with opioid withdrawal, eases musculoskeletal pain, and increases energy, although so far no clinical tests have been carried out that substantiate these claims.
Gaining access to steroids and other related drugs can be challenging, but disciples of steroid culture, like cannabis enthusiasts, have found both legal and illegal ways to secure their fix, through licensed physicians prescribing human growth hormone (HGH) and testosterone replacements (which are rarely covered by health insurance) or more casual connections at the gym, or on the dark web, or on steroid forums like Reddits Steroid Source Talk board, where the drugs are usually cheaper and far more ubiquitous (though poor quality is always a risk).
Wiese, who wrestled for World Championship Wrestling as a catchphrase-spouting monster named Horshu (working the sound shu into nearly everything he said) and for the WWE as one half of a powerhouse tag team under the moniker Luther Reigns (who partnered with the even larger Mark Jindrak), had come to Las Vegas with the intention of buying as much kratom as possible. Tony was Wieses added muscle, which seemed superfluous since Wiese himself is six-four and around 280 pounds, and Tony is eight inches shorter and at least forty pounds lighter.
Ive taken good stuff and bad stuff all my life, and this kratom is good stuff, Tony said. I mean, I sold crack in South Central, and you dont get anywhere with that. But kratom, you take it and youre, you know, just woken up. Like a cup of coffee but sharper.
Ilustration by Danijel eelj
Wiese tapped me on the forearm to draw my attention. I got all kinds of problems, he said, referring to the various cognitive and physical impairments that prompted him to join a class action lawsuit against the WWE (the suit was dismissed in March 2016). Im not a scientist, but I know what works. My chronic pain, its way reduced. I dont feel any desire to take tramadol or oxycodone.
Bell, who has spent the past fifteen years researching the supplement industry, nodded. When something appears to be efficacious, the government response is always, Lets regulate this. Lets put this behind a pharmaceutical paywall. Lets make people who have learned what does and doesnt work, which is how people have always learned stuff, jump through all these hoops.
My whole life has revolved around my body, Wiese added. You look around here, and its all these people who clearly understand their bodies. Ive landed flat on my back, taken body slams, fallen off the ring apron. I get it; my body gets it.
I started taking steroids when I was forty, interjected Tony, whose current age was indeterminate. How old do I look now?
No one answered.
Im forty-nine, he continued. Do I look forty-nine?
All this stuff works like a charm, Wiese said. But look, Tony and I have to run.
The two stood upthe towering pro wrestler and his five-eight bodyguardand bused their trays.
Theyre going to see their dealer and load up on kratom, Bell explained. Lots of people are here to see their dealers and get what they need. The Olympia is a kind of body-building prom.
Actually, the term bodybuilder is very specific and refersor should referto someone who is training for the sport of bodybuilding, not to someone who lifts weights in a gym, says Anthony Roberts, a fitness writer whose obsessiveness over precise nomenclature informs his book Anabolic Steroids: Ultimate Research Guide. That book was one of the first comprehensive treatments on the subject since Dan Duchaines Underground Steroid Handbook began circulating within the beefcake literature during the early 1980s. Since then, Roberts has reported on fitness, nutrition, and the byzantine workings of the Food and Drug Administrationwhich determines the legality of supplements and drugs that are used for building strengthfor a variety of American and European outlets, many of them part of the so-called muscle press that caters to the interests of a niche set of readers.
That said, you look around at a convention like the Olympia, and you see all of these guys who are bound together by a particular style of training, of diet, and, in most cases, of performance-enhancing-drug consumption. Its a culture in which people have learned from one another, as was the case with all those baseball players José Canseco introduced to steroids during the 1980s.
In an age of widespread public contempt for steroid use, usually directed at athletes in high profile sports such as professional baseball and mixed martial arts, bodybuilding represents an outlier: Its highest-profile competitors are not just performance-enhanced but almost superhumanly so.
The bodybuilders today are huge because the testing is absolutely minimal, Roberts says. The point everybody missesthe point thats been missed in every story about something like the Olympia, which is usually about what a freak show it isis that steroids created bodybuilding as we know it.
So its like rave culture and ecstasy, how one complements the other? I asked.
If you mean raves existing as an outgrowth of the ecstasy experience, as something you can experience while in that altered state, then yes, he answered. Bodybuilding isnt a steroid sport; bodybuilding is the official sport of the steroid lifestyle. And this lifestyle follows what is almost like a Roman agricultural-festival cycle: A lot of the people who attend the Arnold in the spring and the Olympia in the fall train just like the bodybuilders theyre going to see, bulking and fertilizing their bodies in the winter for the summer harvest. Many dream of nothing more than being mistaken for one of those dudes at an eventmistaken for being a proand, in between, theyve got great bodies for going to the Jersey Shore or wherever. The Olympia, for everything else it might bea place where there are weightlifting competitions, where vendors sell superfoodsis first and foremost a steroid convention with a bodybuilding show.
The goal of that bodybuilding show, in any case, is the discovery of muscular perfection. While speaking to fans on a stage in the rear of the convention center at this years show, former Mr. Olympia champion Jay Cutler, a five-nine man almost too wide in the shoulders to fit through standard doorways, told a self-deprecating story about how a mother and daughter saw him returning to his car and mocked his waddling gait. Cutler, though proud of his accomplishments, recognized that these had nothing to do with the desirability of his body. After all, he was in the business of maintaining the perfect body, not an attractive one.
Surely this was the hypertrophied, body-beautiful future Joe Weider had been dreaming of when he began collating and stapling together the pages of pictorial physique magazines, with guides to developing broader shoulders and thicker biceps. Weider, who along with his younger brother, Ben, carved out a fitness-publishing empire in the 1940s from the basement of his parents house, chafed against the strictures of the Amateur Athletic Union (AAU) and the Mr. America bodybuilding contest it sanctioned. At the time, the AAU was dominated by an erstwhile US Olympic weightlifting coach named Bob Hoffman, who insisted that his bodybuilders meet various strength prereq-
uisites before being allowed to compete.
Weider had enjoyed some success as a bodybuilder but far less as a weightlifter, and vehemently disagreed with the AAU rules that Hoffman had helped draft. Requiring that a bodybuilder shoulder-press 200 pounds, for instancesomething that Weider struggled and, at times, failed to domade little sense in the context of what was essentially an aesthetic contest. Moreover, Weider argued that Hoffman was unfairly overlooking African American athletes with impressive physiques, citing Melvin Wellss failure to claim the Mr. America crown on several prior occasions. During the late 1950s and early 1960s, Weider would attempt to remedy these oversights by using his publications to promote the careers of black bodybuilders such as Rick Wayne, Harold Poole, and Chris Dickerson. But for Weider, racial equality came second to aesthetics: He was willing to consider anyone as a possible champion, so long as they had the look he prized.
For Weider, the point of a bodybuilding contest was to recognize well-built bodies. Previous Mr. America winners such as 1944 champion Steve Stanko, a prodigiously strong Olympic athlete who won the title despite suffering from bulbous varicose veins caused by phlebitis in his legs, didnt fit the body-beautiful mold. In Weiders opinion, bodybuilders should train as he believed the Greeks had: first for perfect bodily symmetry, and then in more specialized ways for competitive sports like wrestling. Train for form, in other words, and function would follow.
The dispute between Weider and Hoffman intensified throughout the 1940s and 1950s, until Weider finally launched Mr. Olympia, in 1965. Unlike other bodybuilding pageants, such as Mr. America, which limited winners to a single title, Mr. Olympia was an invitation-only affair for individuals who had already won championships. It would leave no doubt about who was the worlds most perfectly developed man. This idea of perfection would be further driven home with the 1977 debut of the Eugen Sandow trophy, a statuette invoking the legacy of the Prussian strongman who wowed Victorian-era crowds with his gorgeous physique.
The initial Mr. Olympia, at which Larry Scott prevailed, was a modest affair. Scott defeated Harold Poole, an African American, and Earl Maynard, a native of Barbados. Scott defended his title in 1966, then retired. Sergio Oliva, an Afro Cuban weightlifter with musculature of heretofore unseen proportions, claimed the next three Olympias, establishing a pattern that holds to the present: The champion of champions was a dynastic position, with upsets unlikely and one-off victories rare.
Olivas reign ended with the emergence of Arnold Schwarzenegger, the charismatic Austrian Oak who, while perhaps not as physically gifted as his predecessor, exceeded him as a vehicle for selling Joe Weider-published magazines and Weider-brand supplements. Weider might have been more racially inclusive than Bob Hoffman and the AAU, but his pageant was still a bottom-line enterprise: He needed a champion with a great body and an even better personality to help him move his products, and, during the 1970s, the racist attitudes of white readers ensured that black bodybuilders did not sell copies the way white bodybuilders like Schwarzenegger did.
In the course of winning six consecutive Olympias (and one more, after returning from a hiatus) and starring in George Butlers hit documentary Pumping Iron, Schwarzenegger exceeded Weiders wildest expectations. By the time he had become a cinematic superhero, mainstream awareness of bodybuilding had increased considerably. Or so it seemed, in the neon spandex-and-leg-warmer era of aerobics and bodybuilding-style weight training that followed Schwarzeneggers ascension to superstardom.
Much as it did when it debuted in the 1960s, Mr. Olympia owes the very shape of its competitors to the performance-enhancing drugs they take. As these drugs improved and evolved over the years, so, too, did the competitors. Sergio Oliva and Arnold Schwarzenegger were once supernatural poster boys for state-of-the-art pharmaceuticalschemicals that became professional sports signature influence as well as its dirty little secretand yet, not that many years later, despite the improbability of those bodies, the heroes on posters these days are flexing considerably larger muscles.
The Olympia debuted at an auspicious moment in the history of American steroid use, just seven years after Ciba Pharmaceuticals released the oral steroid Dianabol, in 1958, making it the first such drug to hit the domestic market. In short order, Olympic training tables, NFL locker rooms, and the countrys handful of high-performance bodybuilding gyms were awash in these substances. Powerlifters sported shirts that read Dianabol: The Breakfast of Champions; Olympic weightlifter Ken Patera told reporters that an upcoming competition against the Soviet Vasily Alekseyev would determine which are betterhis steroids or mine.
The 1960s and 1970s represented a Wild West period in the history of performance-enhancing drugs. The federal government wouldnt move to classify steroids as controlled substances until the late 1980s, when Joe Biden pushed a major legislative overhaul through the Senate. Prior to that, sports dynasts, such as Schwarzenegger and many of the star players on the Pittsburgh Steelers, used the drugs to dominate their respective fields. But for the world that surrounded bodybuilding and powerlifting, even a federal crackdown proved unavailing. Classifying steroids as Schedule III controlled substances might have changed how the lay public viewed these drugs, but diehards werent about to give them up. It was in the strength-training and bodybuilding communities that steroid use had become most widespread; and it was in these communities, even after suspected users in other sports began to face official opprobrium, that the folk science of performance enhancement would continue to develop.
One can trace the chemical evolution of the sport from Larry Scott, the smooth-bodied winner of the first Olympia, to Lee Haney, the densely muscled eight-time champion who dominated the 1980s, claiming every title from 1984 to 1991. During this span, competitors downplayed the negative cosmetic side effects of the available steroids, such as bloating and acne. Tanning sprays minimized the visibility of pimples and pustules while highlighting the bodys overall definition, and an improved understanding of diet and diuretics controlled the bloating that accompanied some of the heaviest-duty medications. Former chemistry teacher Frank Zane, who claimed the trophy at three Olympias starting in 1977, brought a new level of precision to drug dosages and timing. Meanwhile, workout fanatics Tom Platz and Mike Mentzer used steroids to push their exercise regimens beyond the outer limits of human possibility.
Haney, a 245-pound piece of mobile Greek statuary, appeared to represent the end point of human muscular development. Everybody thought Haney was as good as it could getthat he was Schwarzenegger 2.0, Chris Bell said. When we were growing up, his smiling face and his awesome biceps were inescapable. He was on every Weider magazine cover. But then a cheaper, synthetic version of HGH, a substance which had been around for a while but was prohibitively expensive, entered the marketplace. And suddenly you had a guy like Dorian Yates from England.
Yates, who started his career as a slight teenager pumping iron in a grimy Birmingham gym, combined easier access to HGH with Mike Mentzers high-intensity training routines in order to win his first Olympia, in 1992, at a lean 260 pounds. Yates was just huge, Bell said, and maybe he wasnt as aesthetically pleasing or symmetrical in his development as Lee Haney, who he almost beat in 1991, but there was nobody like him. He had shoulders and deltoids that were like big boulders.
Yates is a great example of this phenomenon of how drugs shape bodybuilding and not the other way around, says Roberts. After Yates, the training didnt changeI mean, any person could try to do the Mentzer workouts he supposedly did, and they wouldnt wind up looking like thatbut the chemicals did. And so were all the guys who came after Yates. They were just so immense. Guys got on the bodybuilding stage at 270 and 280 pounds. It was exciting; it was a genuine advance.
Roberts and Bell believe these periodizations are critical to understanding the evolution of the sport. The first generation of bodybuilders who competed in Mr. America during the 1940s and 1950s represented what competitors might hope to achieve through diet and exerciseechoes of their classic physiques can be seen in the bodies of promising young athletes who have yet to experiment with steroids, or whove used only small amounts. Then came the early Mr. Olympia winnersproducts of the Dianabol era, all somewhat bloated and smooth, a time when young Schwarzenegger himself was still slightly puffy. By the end of his Olympia streak, however, Schwarzenegger was lean and razor-sharp, closer to future winners Frank Zane and Chris Dickerson than he was as the younger and raw Austrian Oak. These men advanced bodybuilding into the 1980s, seemingly exhausting the sports chemical possibilities: They knew which steroids helped them gain mass and which steroids and other drugs helped them improve their definition. Dorian Yateswith a humongous physique built through the assistance of cheaper HGHinaugurated a new age, a profound moment in the development of the body, after which fans have witnessed only minor cosmetic tweaks in the appearance of the competitors.
The latest cosmetic change, Roberts explained, is the result of targeted, sculpting-oil injections or implants similar to what people seeking more ample posteriors have sought from plastic surgeons. Now theyre the cutting edge in bodybuilding, putting finishing touches on these bodies that are impressive but really quite dysfunctional, when you think about it. Maybe a strongman or athlete could look like a bodybuilder from the early 1960s, but there has never been any athletea functional performer in an athletic endeavorwho looked like most of todays guys.
But athletic prowess wasnt what anyone ought to have been watching for at the 2016 Olympia. Instead, it was the fulfillment of the inevitable triumph of reigning champion Phil Heath, who looked as large as any other man on stage but who had the advantage of already being champion. For the better part of a decade, Heath had earned recognition as the man whose training regimen, genetic profile, performance-enhancing-drug use, and personality set him apart from his opponents. One studied Heath because he represented the current state of the art.
The bodybuilding pageant everyone expected Heath to winthe reason for the season, as it weretook place at the Orleans Hotel, an aging and somewhat nondescript casino about five miles from the Las Vegas Convention Center. The program spanned two nights, with the first night featuring all of the invited competitors performing their seven mandatory posesFront Double Biceps, Rear Double Biceps, Front Lat Spread, Rear Lat Spread, Side Triceps, Side Chest, and Front Abdominal-Thigh.
Much of the online conversation on the forums of Bodybuilding.com, T-Nation, and elsewhere, revolved around these poses and the athletes who would hit them. Douglas Alexander, my cousin and an aspiring physique athlete, fed me all of the latest gossip on the competitors as I waited in the press pit for the first night to begin.
Theyre saying Big Ramy leaned out this year, he texted me, referring to Egyptian competitor Mamdouh Elssbiays alleged decision to take the Olympia stage twenty pounds lighter than the previous year. But Im sure his quads are still amazing. Watch that thing he does with his quad, he added, adverting to how Big Ramy swings his hypertrophied quadriceps muscle back and forth like a bowl filled with jelly.
Most of the first evening passed uneventfully, because bodybuilding itself is largely uneventful, characterized by repetitive posing performances that quickly blur together in the spectators mind. The most exciting part of the three-hour show was Womens Fitness, a competition comprised of gymnastics and dance, which represented the only real display of athleticismthrough handstands, flips, one-handed planks, and other such maneuversat the entire event. And yet few in the crowd really seemed to care; the gallery was still only two-thirds full, and people kept leaving to buy snacks and use the restrooms. Womens Physiquea variant of bodybuilding that emphasizes feminine aesthetics, overall beauty, and muscle definition rather than size (which I erroneously assumed was a featured part of the Olympia)had been held earlier in the day at a small stage in the rear of the convention center.
Ilustration by Danijel eelj
Dorian Yates
Mr. Olympia Champion
1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997
The marginal role of women on the competition stage was part of a longer and more puzzling trend. After circulating a memo in 2005 ordering female competitors to decrease their muscularity by 20 percent, the International Federation of Bodybuilding and Fitness (IFBB) discontinued womens bodybuildingthe original Ms. Olympia competition, which predated the womens physique and fitness competitionsin 2015. Once the subject of the second Pumping Iron documentarya little-seen follow-up to the original released in the mid-1980swomens bodybuilding has been dying a slow death, due partly to the aesthetic concerns of IFBB officials and spectators alike. Female bodybuilders labored under a heavy burden: They were expected to appear muscular but not too muscular, even as they trained to compete in an event designed to showcase muscularity. And, unlike their male peers, many of whom viewed descriptions such as muscle monster and freak as badges of honor, women to whom fans might affix such labels faced the loss of lucrative sponsorships and other perks. In a sport ostensibly dedicated to pushing the outer boundaries of the human body, it was telling that womens bodies remained constrained by official fiat, backed by the tacit approval of spectators.
Its still verboten for women to talk about their steroid use, Roberts said. Women who use steroids conjure up images of Chyna and Nicole Basslarge female bodybuilders who participated in pro wrestlingwith those messed-up faces from prolonged hormone abuse. Even those women whose careers clearly depend on steroid usage, at least at very low levels, wont discuss it. Right now, theres no female bodybuilding star who is open about taking steroids; theres no outspoken female steroid expert. Women who rely on steroids to sell the products they endorse have to pass themselves off as fake naturals in a way that men dont. And its weird, because more women are lifting weights and doing strength-building exercises than ever before. Its a terrible double standard that benefits men. Women are forced to stay quiet or, even worse, lie about what theyre doing.
The IFBB now offers extraordinarily traditional content in terms of gender roles, even as sports like CrossFit and mixed martial arts have profited from defying them. Once upon a time, the bulked-up figures of Cory Everson and Bev Francis loomed over womens bodybuilding and the sport seemed to have a bright future. But even as the convention floor at the Olympia was now full of female fitness fanatics, female CrossFitters, female powerlifters, and female physique celebrities, the competition stage was all about the male mass.
The agents of mass who followed the womens events did not disappoint. They were in fact so closely matched that only immutable characteristics, such as height and skin color, distinguished them. Kevin Levrone, a stellar performer in the 1990s, and now fifty-two, was among them, with a much-diminished upper body and, at least by the standards of the sport, subpar legs. He got out because he was struggling to maintain the lower body, Markus Rühl, a former Mr. Olympia competitor, told me as he cheered for the man hed once competed against. But I think he is in good form tonight.
Levrone, the so-called Maryland Muscle Machine, got plenty of sympathy applause, in part because he lost a number of closely contested Olympias during the late 1990s and early 2000s. Levrone was only five years older than fellow competitor Dexter Jackson, another contemporary of both his and Rühls. Jackson, by comparison, was perfect from top to bottoma fact his rowdy cheering section acknowledged repeatedly, screaming their support for him.
Dads going to win, Jacksons daughter Myah said. He looks unbelievable.
Ilustration by Danijel eelj
The finals didnt want for drama, but it was all minor drama, localized drama, low-stakes drama. Myah Jackson and her family continued to shout their support for Dexter Jackson, until they received a text from the eventual third-place finisher that Phil Heath had already begun celebrating, even before the last posedown among the finalists. (Heath had apparently received early word of his scores and placement from someone within the organization, though his victory hardly came as a surprise.) Rühl clapped heartily for Levrones bonus posing session; the old pro hadnt been among the top ten men invited to pose on the second night, but he had been granted a special opportunity to appear before his fans. Levrone cried and shook as he struck and held each pose for the last time. But neither Levrones nostalgia appeal nor Dexter Jacksons fabulous conditioning mattered in the end.
What mattered, as Anthony Roberts had repeatedly told me, were continuity and respect for the IFBB brand. Heath, who racked up his sixth consecutive Olympia, was at least as good as any bodybuilder currently in the sport. Moreover, with a background in Division I college basketball, Heath had a legitimate athletic pedigree. Even better, there were no skeletons in his closet. Bodybuilding was a seamy business, but the movers and shakers still preferred that their biggest stars have a certain maturity. Haney had a college degree and a background in youth counseling; Schwarzenegger had that million-dollar smile and business sense; and Ronnie Coleman was a beat cop in Texas.
Heaths dominance became even more valuable to the IFBB when Dwayne The Rock Johnson, a former WWE champion and a box-office superstar, took the stage. A six-five powerhouse, Johnson dwarfed every bodybuilder up there with him, and had come to announce what was touted as the biggest news in modern bodybuilding history: His production company had just cut a deal with CBS Sports that would finally bring the Olympia back to network television. Given that bodybuilding has never made for compelling televisioneven WWE impresario Vince McMahon failed to create a weekly national bodybuilding show in the early 1990sthe idea that an upstart would be gunning for veteran champion Heaths crown seemed like a vital story line. This was the model used in Pumping Iron, which was edited in such a way as to make it appear that Lou Ferrigno and Schwarzenegger were ferocious rivals. The more recent Generation Iron did the same thing with Heath and his eccentric opponent Kai Greene.
Johnson, who owes his spectacular midforties physique to the efforts of bodybuilding trainer George Farah, appeared to be overestimating the appeal of the sport in much the same way that his mentor McMahon did. McMahon, like Johnson, cuts a hulking figure and has relied on bodybuilding routines to maintain his impressive physique well past his athletic sell-by date. There is something about the sport that each man believes in, that appeals to thembut what? Perhaps the publics appetite for this material has changed in the nearly thirty years since McMahon launched his World Bodybuilding Federation; perhaps the result will be different. Past performance doesnt augur well for its future, but there is a chance that the sport could achieve a degree of mainstream appeal. Sports such as mixed martial arts and NASCAR took a long time to connect with viewers. Perhaps its reasonable to believe that bodybuildings time has come, too.
At any rate, the potential embrace of the sport by a larger audience would seem to forecastimplicitly, at leastan embrace of steroids. If knowledge of performance-enhancing drugs became more widespread, the way cannabis use in movies and television increased awareness and preceded decriminalization in some states and legalization in others, maybe this mass-market version of the Mr. Olympia could succeed. In that way, the private steroid culture of the competition would be disseminated more widely, perhaps to the point at which color commentary during these events would combine discussions of posing acumen with analysis of steroid cycles, of drug use, of an athletes choice of site-injection oil to mask his weakest areas.
Itll never happen, Aaron Cook, an amateur powerlifter and close friend, said to me when I shared this idea with him. Though, man, Id love for it to happen, because honestly, I think when everyone is on steroids, it gets us back to genetics, only this time its whose genetics tolerate steroids the best, whose body reacts the best to steroids. Ive been using for years, and while Ive gotten results, I look like garbage. Yet Phil Heath looks amazing. I want to know what he takes, what he uses. Thats my dream, to watch experts talk about that on TV. But I dont know that many other folks share that dream.
Past attempts to market bodybuilding to a mass audience have failed, said Roberts. They will probably continue to fail. Bodybuilding as a competitive sport is a niche activity. However, the community that surrounds it, the community linked together by bodybuilding praxisdrug use and trainingis much larger and more consequential. Im not sure how you capture that and sell it to the American public. Can you televise a festival like Burning Man, turn that into some media event? Most likely not. However, I think people who value this community, whether theyre McMahon or The Rock, quite understandably think it might resonate with others. Even if theyre wrong, I think that speaks to the kind of community this is: People get involved in bodybuilding as a hobby and it becomes an entire mode of existence.
Ilustration by Danijel eelj
Phil Heath
Mr. Olympia Champion
2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016
As I waited for Chris Bell to give me a ride back to my hotel, I introduced myself to Flex Wheeler, a retired bodybuilder who had won the Arnold Classic four times.
I asked Wheeler, who remains widely regarded as the greatest bodybuilder of all time, about the return of Kevin Levrone.
I dont know, he says. I guess what Kevin did makes me want to get back in that kind of shape, but then part of me knows I cant, because I wouldnt be coming back at half of what I was. How I was back then is how I want my fans to remember me, you know?
What about the thrill of participating?
I look at my old pictures and feel a lot of joy, Flex replied. I looked great in them. I was just right on point. Participating wasnt about the process, you know, it was about getting to those momentsand I nailed it. I really nailed it.
Six months later, Wheeler announced his plans to compete in the 2017 Mr. Olympia. He had set aside his earlier concerns about presenting fans with a diminished body; he wanted back in because this was where he belonged. He was returning to the fold.