by Christian Duque
WHY? I’ll never understand the obsession with bodybuilding champions trying to get as heavy as they possibly can in the offseason. I think it’s counterproductive because the whole idea of the dirty bulk is not anything that is going to develop any quality muscle tissue. And mind you I am talking about the greatest bodybuilder on the planet right now, but he is no different than anyone else.
Gaining a ton of fat to then strip it down for a contest won’t do much for most. A lot of times we see these ridiculous numbers on the scales and this is somehow supposed to make us feel like we are witnessing greatness. If anything we are witnessing insanity. Let me explain. Most of the top-tier bodybuilders on the planet are using, or abusing, a long list of synthetic, exogenous hormones, SARM’s and SERM’s, and just about anything they can get their hands on. This is not reserved for the amateurs that are literally walking pincushions but crosses many different segments of the competitive grid. and this includes guys at the top of the sport winning the New York Pro, the Arnold Classic, and of course the Mr Olympia. They are not above experimentation. If anything, they have to stay one step ahead of the competition and this relentless pursuit makes athletes absolutely resilient when it comes to staying on top of the PED’s. They’re not going to be out-done because they can’t be outdone. Especially if you are the title holder. Everybody is after what you’ve got and you can’t be out-done. Somehow the bigger you are, the better you are. Size matters. Size is king. It’s sad but not true.
It’s insanity because of the fact that most of the weight you’re putting on is not quality weight. I don’t care how genetically gifted Samson may be, he is not walking around 325 lb of rock hard muscle. A lot of that is water, bad fats, and maybe even some weak body parts or hidden injuries. I think the smarter approach should be to stay lean and only increase body weight incrementally speaking. I would be very curious to see what Samson actually weighed when he won the Olympia. I’m sorry but I don’t think it broke 300 lb. For an athlete to hold 300 lb of muscle with single digit body fat percentages starts to look cartoonishly goofy. It’s not even something that I think is possible at this point in time. Now that being said, Samson is taller than the average ankle-biter. So it may be easier for him to carry more weight. At the same time, he needs to fill-out and he needs to look proportionate. Therefore, he also shouldn’t go up to 350 lb either. Even though I feel that is the next frontier. Really?
A lot of people think that 350 is never going to happen in bodybuilding.But why not? Gregg Kovacs got near that body weight even though he was a giraffe. The reality of the matter is that sensationalism is a driving force in the sport of bodybuilding. It is that sensationalism that thrives on these guys tipping the scales. Look at Lee Priest back in the day. He would get well over 300 lb and he wasn’t even 5 ft 6. What did he have to do gaining all that weight? The bottom line is he loves to eat. And he loved to lift hard. And there is a correlation there. If you’re after lifting big, then you can definitely EAT BIG. But if you’re a physique-based athlete and you’re looking to improve your symmetry and flow, I don’t really understand where all of the extra weight comes in. You also have to factor in that it is unbearable to walk around with that amount of body weight. Some guys can’t even breathe, other guys have flexibility issues, other guys honestly have to put their body through hell in a handbasket just to be able to maintain that amount of weight. They have to eat upwards of seven or eight times a day and they have to have large numbers of carbohydrates to keep that weight on. It’s not a pleasant experience by any stretch of the imagination.
And the suffering doesn’t have a purpose. For example, look at the suffering involved in peak week. That suffering deals with drying out, depleting carbohydrates, and manipulating sodium. It’s unbearable, but it has a point. On the other hand, gaining a truckload of weight and having to subject your body to all sorts of stresses in order to maintain body weight that isn’t helping you at all just doesn’t make any sense. There’s nothing hardcore about being counterproductive and that’s exactly what I feel is happening when some of these guys put on so much weight that really all it’s going to do is make the prep towards peak week harder. If Samson plans on getting on stage at well over 300 lb he will lose the title. I don’t care how tall he is. It doesn’t matter. At the end of the day, bodybuilders are not supposed to weigh 325 lb with single digit body fat percentage levels. And if it does happen, he may look like a space alien, and I don’t think that’s the look that we want either. I think the reason Samson and Andrew [Jacked] and guys like that are so marketable is because they’re able to carry a good amount of size while still being very symmetrical and aesthetically-pleasing. You start pushing this weight card and you’re not going to be so pretty to look at. And that will affect your guest posings, photoshoots, and potentially hurt your socials. There is such a thing as TOO BIG.
At least that’s my point of view. And if Samson is winning at 325, you may make a believer out of me. But I also happen to know that a lot of these guys lie through their teeth about what they actually weigh. Again, it goes back to the sensationalism aspect and the whole clickbait genre that bodybuilding finds itself in. I’m a journalist. I see right through it. Some fans probably see through it too, but maybe want to believe in the bullshit. I really don’t know, but if that’s what you call entertainment, then you can have at it.
