Bodybuilders Of Today Vs Bodybuilders Of Yesterday

It’s often said, “The more things change, the more they stay the same.” The saying can be applied to bodybuilding. To an extent. As much as things have stayed the same from the time of Arnold, Zane, Platz and Nubret came on the scene, the world of competitive bodybuilding, nutrition, supplementation and working out has changed exponentially. I’m going to cover a couple facets within each category and how it’s changed in the last couple of decades.

Vintage Bodybuilders

Training

Then:
Bodypart splits. Monday was International Chest Day, and everyone did legs on Friday; everything else (back, arms, shoulders) fit in somewhere in between. Maybe you’d also go in Saturday or Sunday to work on your weak points. But the moral of the story was that you were weight training 5-6 days a week, every week.
Now:
New research is coming out from esteemed doctors, exercise physiologists and people in our industry touting the benefits of full-body workouts 3x/week, or Upper/Lower splits 4x/week. They’re realizing that the FREQUENCY that you hit a muscle (ie. More times per week) might be more important for growth AND fat loss than volume (ie. More sets per workout/bodypart). You can stimulate more muscle fibers when you work more muscle groups per session, AND you increase hormonal (Growth Hormone and IGF-1) output when you stimulate the bigger muscles.

Todays Bodybuilders

Nutrition

Then:
“Eating fat Makes you Fat” – It was common to see bodybuilders of yore pounding down carbs and chicken breasts in a desperate attempt to avoid any type of fats in their diets. Fat was the devil, and people thought you had to avoid it to get in contest condition.
Now:
Competitors are singing a different tune. I’ve yet to see a successful dieter who DOESN’T have at least 15-20% of their diet coming from healthy mono and polyunsaturated fats. We know fats are the most calorie dense of the macronutrients, so they help keep you full. But they also help maintain hormone levels, brain function, heart health, immune system strength and back up sources for energy. Not to mention, they also keep testosterone levels elevated so your metabolic rate (and lean body mass) stays higher for longer, even in a caloric deficit.

Bodybuilding Yesterday & Now

Supplements

Then:
There’s not a lot to be said for the extent of natural supplements used back in the 60s and 70s. Dessicated liver tablets were the mainstay of protein supplementation. They’re rich in amino acids, vitamins, lipotropics, minerals, nucleic acids and antioxidants. Liver also contains ‘heme iron’ which is important for oxygen and nutrient delivery to blood, and subsequenty, muscles. Bodybuilders also used sugar laden weight gainers for bulking up. With all this said though, competitors mostly relied on whole natural foods like steak, eggs, and milk. Steroids were in the picture, but not to the same degree that we see them on a professional level today; both in terms of quality AND quantity used.
Now:
Bodybuilders these days rely much more on supplements (which is ironic given than they’re supposed to SUPPLEMENT a diet, not replace it). We have amino acids, Yohimbine, 3-4 different kinds of creatine, and more vasodilators than we know what to do with. And this is only a small fraction of the stuff you’re going to see at your local GNC or Bodybuilding.com. Chalk it up to a technological/scientific revolution, but there’s no doubt that we use a lot more supplements than bodybuilders used to.

Bodybuilders Of Today Vs Yesterdays

Cardio

Then:
Long, slow distance, steady state. Bodybuilders used to walking on the treadmill or ride the bike for hours at a time, or even twice per day as it came closer to a contest. The logic here was that they were staying in the “fat burning zone.”
Now:
HIIT, high intensity interval training, is the wave of the future. We’ve learned that the fat burning zone doesn’t mean you’re burning bodyfat. It means you’re burning/oxidizing DIETARY fat. A higher heart rate maintained for shorter periods of time interspersed with bouts of low intensty work (ie. 15 seconds all out followed by 45 seconds low intensty), is better for BODY fat burning, lipolytic (fat burning) hormone output and muscle building hormone output too (Interval training = More growth hormone release).
Written By: Jamie Filer

Bodybuilding Stars Of Yesterday

Arnold Schwarzenegger

Serge Nubret

Franco Columbo

Dorian Yates & Lou Ferrigno

Samir Bannout & Frank Zayne

Scene From Pumping Iron (Including Arnold & Franco)