Bodybuilding: Lifestyle, sport or ??

Oldguyjiujitsu

Oldguyjiujitsu

OAF
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I view bodybuilding/weight lifting as a lifestyle that includes training, nutrition, cardio, recovery, etc 365 days per year. I may not be huge but i try to maintain a view of my abs year round because that is healthy and my goal is to make small incremental gains over the long haul. I do believe the days of the dirty bulk are gone as its not required to grow and remain healthy. I also understand that you cannot maintain contests like condition year round.

I was flicking through YouTube the weekend and saw a guest posing this weekend by many of the top stars. Some looked soft but decent as they had recently competed but Shawn Rhoden (Mr. Olympia) was smaller, out of shape and simply fat. This would imply to me that he has not been training consistently and watching his diet. Does he only get fit for one weekend per year because that is his job?

Many YouTubers such as Stan Efferding, John Meadows, Seth Feroce, Mike Rishad, Jeff Cavalier, Steve Cook, etc stay in shape all year round and to me that is the preference. If we want to point to gear...many of the above have openly stated that they can maintain a solid look on about 300mg of test most of the year...so why are the top pros so bloated in the offseason?

Am i missing something? thoughts? (Rhodes is about 7:30 into the vid)

 
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Maybe he's follwing the Lee Priest off season diet with buckets of KFC perhaps? :oops:

I imagine he knows there's a few guys who could end up out-sizing him (Big Ramy, Roelly, etc.) if they ever come in with proper conditioning so he's probably trying to put on a few extra lbs. & worry about cutting later. Still, I wouldn't want to show up at an exhibition or any kind of show like that - he must be getting paid or it may be in his contract though.
 
Does that make a living of the bodybuilding , try to stay i shape year round . but most of them let go when the don't compete and when the get a show posing , the just blow up in water from insulin but i think it looks ugly .

Shaw doesn't really train much during off season he try to spend time with the wife and kids and enjoy life and when time comes well he knows what to do and take to get in shape and body is relax .

Ronnie use to take 6 months off a year also if i remember right .
 
For me weight training is a lifestyle year around.
However I believe most of the elite pros who compete on the Olympia stage are focused on it being a job to make money and for ego and have very little regard for their overall health. I also believe their superior genetics allow them to train less, eat like shit and take less gear during the off-season. However once they start preparing for a show, they are all business with training, diet and drugs.
So after saying this, I’m of the opinion most elite bodybuilder treat it as a job, and definitely not a healthy lifestyle
 
biglove said:
Does that make a living of the bodybuilding , try to stay i shape year round . but most of them let go when the don't compete and when the get a show posing , the just blow up in water from insulin but i think it looks ugly .

Shaw doesn't really train much during off season he try to spend time with the wife and kids and enjoy life and when time comes well he knows what to do and take to get in shape and body is relax .

Ronnie use to take 6 months off a year also if i remember right .
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Really six months off?


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I don’t remember hearing or reading about 6 months off for Ronnie.

I treat it as a lifestyle. I think that as the average guy you’re not trying to put on 40 pounds of muscle in a year. So small increments while staying healthy with small amounts of gear is important. I was just talking about this with @Funnyman that this lifestyle can be lived in a much healthier way if guys paid more attention to diet.

For the pros who knows, I’m sure each one is different just like each of us has a slightly different approach. Shawn looks like shit and he knows it, you can tell by his posing and his overall demeanor. This is just a guess but from the few guys I know that compete, I’d hazard a guess he didn’t diet his way out of his contest prep. You go from stringent diet and water cutting precontest takes, to post contest. If you don’t diet out and slowly increase your food that happens to your body. I know guys that 2 days after competing are eating cake and large pizzas to themselves. They bloat up like crazy feel like garbage and don’t train.

Just my 2 cents
 
I can kind of see why the pros would slack off after a competition. I can’t even fathom the sheer intense dedication it must take to get ready for the stage, it’d be mind boggling! You’d never want to look at a dumb bell again and you’d have a ritual burning in the back yard of that food scale.
 
My buddy was a fairly high level competitor in Canada and the shit he put his body through was really not worth it in my mind.

After his first show he went off the rails that night and was puking his brains out.

For most of us this is a lifestyle but I think for people who make their living from their body (competitors,trainers, models) it becomes a job. That’s when it’s no fun anymore.
 
Hobby for me, job for them. If you make your living off it, it’s a job, IMO.
As soon as it becomes like a job to me I’ll quit.
I only do it because I enjoy it. (As I drink my oats, protien powder in extra water, or my gruel, lol)
And Shawn looked like complete shit compaired to the rest.
 
Sorbate said:
Hobby for me, job for them. If you make your living off it, it’s a job, IMO.
As soon as it becomes like a job to me I’ll quit.
I only do it because I enjoy it. (As I drink my oats, protien powder in extra water, or my gruel, lol)
And Shawn looked like complete shit compaired to the rest.
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Totally agree and as for Shawn if he is supposed to represent the pinnacle of the sport his appearance is his job so getting fat, his arms and back look small...IMO totally unacceptable. Especially for a guy known for aesthetics. Look at flex Lewis he looks amazing in the off-season.


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faller said:
The old saying “don’t turn what you love into a job” is so true! I had a small taste of it when I worked at Golds in the early 80’s, hated going there after a few months even to train.
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Totally agree, people asked me if when I retire from my day job, will I run my jiujitsu school full-time. My answer is always no. I love going there to hang out I don’t want it to become an obligation.


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Oldguyjiujitsu said:
Totally agree and as for Shawn if he is supposed to represent the pinnacle of the sport his appearance is his job so getting fat, his arms and back look small...IMO totally unacceptable. Especially for a guy known for aesthetics. Look at flex Lewis he looks amazing in the off-season.


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His arms looked really small. You’d think he’d be trying hard to keep the title? I guess until, the Olympia who knows how he will look
 
Oldguyjiujitsu said:
Really six months off?


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That's what i was told by someone that knows him .

But don't forget ronnie was on a huge tour where he would travel the world, do you think the really want to train when he travel hell no and most time there tired and annoyed .

If you go back and look lots of bodybuilders use to say levrone wouldn't train 6 months or more and would just train for a show .

It's like when we say some need more drugs and other barely anything everyone is different .
 
Definitely a lifestyle for myself. Enjoy being fit, healthy and striving to look good.

Watched the video you posted and agree with all comments with regards to the current Mr.O.
 
Definitely a way of life for me between boxing and lifting. Taking a year off from these really drove their importance home to me when I saw just how detrimental lack of exercise and proper diet can be, especially as we age.
 
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