Re: Ms. Olympia Results

On Sun, 30 Sep 2007, Curt wrote:

Physique competition is all about maintaining maximum muscle while stripping all fluids and bodyfat from the competitor's body.

It wasn't always that way and I'm not sure when the change occurred. Some amount of separation or the ability to see the different muscle groups separated or devoid of *excess* (not the same as *ALL*) fat is necessary, but I don't see why there has to be a roadmap of veins across a woman's abs in order to score highly in a contest. Ripped glutes may look unusual and be interesting in a "Hey, isn't that crazy?" kinda way, but it's not essential or necessarily goal worthy, imo.

The theory i've heard is that there was a sort of arms race. If all the competitors are at rippedness level X, where X = athletic but human, then by going to X+1, you look better, and win. That means that to beat you, everyone else has to go to X+1, but then, X+1 looks normal, and the first person to go to X+2 wins. After a few years, you end up at X+N = freakish.

This is why they started, what are they called, fitness sections as distinct from pure bodybuilding, to get back to something a bit more normal (and sexy). Only now the same arms race is playing out, and fitness competitors are getting steadily more ripped.

The same theory explains why bodybuilders of both sexes are ludicrous shades of brown - if everyone else is plastered in creosote, you need to step up to dilute tarmac to have a standout tan.

tom

--
On two occasions I have been asked [by members of Parliament], 'Pray,
Mr. Babbage, if you put into the machine wrong figures, will the right
answers come out?' I am not able rightly to apprehend the kind of
confusion of ideas that could provoke such a question. -- Charles Babbage
.