I keep wracking my brain on what made the bodybuilders of the 1990’s as a whole better than the guys we see today. I’ve gone back and looked at the diets, the training, the drugs, and the supplements, but I keep coming up with no definitive conclusion. Were we just in a rare era of ridiculous genetic freaks or was I missing something entirely all together? Maybe it wasn’t related to bodybuilding at all. We’ve all heard of the expression, “The Pussification of America.” Is it possible the overall apathy that plagues American culture has bled into the world of bodybuilding?
I’m a product of the 1980’s and 90’s. When I was a kid, my brother and I were always out doing something. If it wasn’t two hand touch football it was street hockey. When we got bored with that, we played Kill the Carrier or Man Hunt. I’d come home with scuffs on my knees, drenched in sweat, and filthy from head to toe. Nowadays, I can’t find any kids outside playing in my neighborhood if I tried. God forbid I see some out riding their bikes and they’re so padded up with helmets, wrist guards, knee pads, and reflective vests I don’t know how they manage to stay upright. And their parents aren’t any better. American adults are fatter and lazier than ever.
So where do we point the blame? My first thought is the internet. Instead of kids outside playing they’re inside on their Xbox 360, fucking around on the internet, and texting their friends. So what does this have to do with bodybuilding? Take a look at how easy we all have it. Once upon a time we actually had to get off our ass and drive to GNC for our supplements, now we order them online. Need training or diet advice? We used to have to get the balls to go up and ask a huge guy at the gym for tips or, much worse, we listened to our high school coach or gym teacher. Now we have Google, Q&A’s with the pros, and ‘Gurus’ we can hire online without even having to meet them. And if you’re a serious bodybuilder the days of going down to Mexico to pick up your shit is long gone. A few clicks of the mouse and in a week or two you’re well on your way to bulking up for the winter.
Now don’t get me wrong, I love the internet. I work on the internet, get my entertainment from the internet, and keep up with my friends on the internet. But damn, I’ll be the first to admit the internet has gotten me lazy. It’s had to soften up bodybuilders too.
The best part about the internet in my opinion is Google. If I have a question it’s answered in the blink of an eye. The problem is, how can I be certain the search results give me the best information I need? If I type in, “best cardio to lose fat and keep muscle,” I get 4.8 million results in 0.26 seconds. Shouldn’t the answer to this question be a little more solidified than a few million different opinions? As I’ve said time and time again, bodybuilders are the most OCD of all athletes. If you don’t think the top IFBB pro’s second guess themselves dozens and dozens of times during a contest prep you’re crazy; otherwise, we wouldn’t be in the era of ‘The Guru.’ The guru’s entire existence is to tell the little voice inside the bodybuilder’s brain to shut the fuck up and eat, sleep, and train.
When we use the internet, what are we really after? We’re searching for the easiest possible route to get us to the end goal. So when a bodybuilder goes online he’s looking for a short cut. I can just hear a bodybuilder thinking as he types, “there’s gotta be a routine online that can get me shredded that isn’t gonna have me doing 2 hours of cardio a day,” or even better, “hmm, I need the best drug protocol to get me as huge as Ronnie, as hard as Dorian, and as aesthetic as Shawn.” And they’ll try and try all these new training styles with acronyms I can’t pronounce, using drugs schemes that would make Patrick Arnold say, “WTF.”
And we wonder why Levrone, Ray, Yates, Wheeler, Cormier, and Coleman looked so incredible. They didn’t have all the bullshit today’s bodybuilder has at their fingertips. Do you think those guys were in the gym doing 7 set blood volumizer workouts sipping on hydrolyzed esterfied CarboMaize to maximize their 30 minute anabolic post workout window? Highly doubtful. They kept things simple. The training was basic. The diets were chicken, egg whites, tilapia, brown rice, and broccoli. And you could count on two hands the different variations of drug protocols.
The end result? A 90’s bodybuilder without a bloated stomach, hard as nails, that would dominate in today’s era. Maybe one day bodybuilding will return to that style. And maybe one day our economy will return to pre-2008. Possible? Sure. But highly unlikely.
Until next time you can follow me on Twitter @MattMeinrod or you can read my archive columns on www.MattMeinrod.com
