Nick Walker is an absolute beast!

[lifepulse]

Despite my lackluster interaction with Dex, I've always felt he was one of the greatest bodybuilders.
I'm a huge fan of his physique and was thrilled to see him live at the 2008 Arnold.

Yeah David, maybe I am bit different from my fellow meathedz ?

There are a lot of good pros who I don’t personally like a lot (not just personality, also physique), and there are pros that aren’t top-tier, that I personally like better than other top-tier pros. In other words, I can be a bigger fan of one guy vs. another, without thinking the guy that I personally like “should win”, just because of my preference. Much of it just comes down to one’s ability to be objective- to separate out your personally preferences, from what is objectively better or worse. I think classical music is “objectively superior” to most rock and roll (from a pure musicality standpoint), but I still prefer listening to rock and roll over classical music.

I don’t think most people have much capacity to sort out their PERSONAL PREFERENCES, from FACTS- and this causes a lot of the problems with the fanboys of the sport. Some can. Most can’t.

-David

[Beti ona]

Good point but I don't think this is unique to bodybuilding.
For example, most rappers need "street cred" to gain fan approval .
Older country music fans , often complain that today's country stars aren't "real country."

All I know is, every top pro BB was born with the genetic talent to be a top pro.
I also know I'm NOT going to "hang out" or train with any pro I see at contests.

This is why , as a fan ,I only care about a pros physique .

The best example I can offer as "proof" is my limited fan interaction with Dexter.
Back in 2008, I briefly met Dexter when he guest posed at a show in ATL.
I bought a signed pic from Dexter and he took a pic with me.
When I told him I enjoy meeting him, he mumbled ok and walked off.

I posted that pic here and Dexter looks like I just shot his dog.
I dunno, maybe he was tired or felt ill , but he looked kinda disgusted LOL.
Dexter's disgusted look was so bad, the Mayor and I have joked about that pic for years now.

Despite my lackluster interaction with Dex, I've always felt he was one of the greatest bodybuilders.
I'm a huge fan of his physique and was thrilled to see him live at the 2008 Arnold.

Yeah David, maybe I am bit different from my fellow meathedz ?

I think Dexter is a cunt, but sometimes the fans want these guys to treat them in a special way, how? They are going to receive 1000 more people with the same questions, so it is normal to be bored or disinterested.

These men are dieting, dehydrated and some heavy androgens not a great combination to be sociable.

Some boys and girls who seem nice and friendly, maybe they are taking some rec drugs.

And yes, people are different and we all have different energy and motivation throughout the days.

[Beti ona]

You're right about Pumping Iron's influence on bodybuilding. It sure helped get me into the gym and contest stage
I'm friends with Ken Sprague Sr , the guy who owned GOLDS's when it was filmed.

FYI, Ken told me , if George Butler couldn't get Arnold to star in it, he wasn't going to make the film.
Take out Arnold's personality and antics and it becomes a boring documentary on bodybuilding .

To raise funds to produce Pumping Iron, George Butler had the top guys pose at a NYC museum of Art.
They had Zane, Waller, Robby, Arnold, etc all posing like Greek statues on a slowly revolving column top.
Butler knew the wealthy "artsy-fartsy" patrons would only fund it, if bodybuilders looked like classic statues.

A very informative and interesting post

[GeorgeUK]

And likewise, if Arnold didn't do Pumping Iron would he have been considered for Conan?

When I started training I pretty much had Pumping Iron on my screen several times a week for the first year or so that I trained.

I came across the book in my home towns public library when I was 13. I was fascinated by it.

Pumping Iron was integral to so much of bodybuilding.

[Bestia]

Pumping iron was good. I also watched a film pumping for gold. Haney gasparino Christian.

[lifepulse]

And likewise, if Arnold didn't do Pumping Iron would he have been considered for Conan?

When I started training I pretty much had Pumping Iron on my screen several times a week for the first year or so that I trained.

I came across the book in my home towns public library when I was 13. I was fascinated by it.

Pumping Iron was integral to so much of bodybuilding.

I firmly believe that, if "Pumping Iron" hadn't existed, bodybuilding as we know it would not exist-- it would still be some weird super counter-culture thing that a handful of people did. And had been anybody BESIDES ARNOLD starring in the move, the same.


In that sense, I consider Arnold "the greatest bodybuilder of all time"-- even if he technically "isn't"-- he set the template that "bodybuilding is NOT just your look on a stage-- NOT just your muscle bellies, mass, conditioning, symmetry".


Is Arnold "TECHNICALLY the best COMPETITIVE bodybuilder ON A STAGE COMPETING AGAINST OTHERS" of all time? No. As of right now, I think Coleman still firmly owns that title (and might, forever).


But is Arnold the spirit and soul of bodybuilding? Yes-- he is what pretty much created the mold for soooooooo many who later got into it. Without Arnold, bodybuilding would not exist.


-David

[Howard]

And likewise, if Arnold didn't do Pumping Iron would he have been considered for Conan?

When I started training I pretty much had Pumping Iron on my screen several times a week for the first year or so that I trained.

I came across the book in my home towns public library when I was 13. I was fascinated by it.

Pumping Iron was integral to so much of bodybuilding.

I got into hardcore bodybuilding soon after Pumping Iron came out.
I still have my (8"x 10"?) paperback copy of PI with George Butler's autograph on the inside cover.
It has a cool pic of Ed Corny in Olympia condition with both hands raised on the cover.

Fellow meathead Bix, did the electrical work for Butler's home in Holderness , NH ( * 40 years ago)
Bix actually met Arnold and Maria there.. Arnold jokingly asked 170 lb Bix, " What titles have you won? "
Bix replied in a very serious voice ; " Mr Warren ." FYI, it's a tiny northern NH town and no such title existed .

[Howard]

I firmly believe that, if "Pumping Iron" hadn't existed, bodybuilding as we know it would not exist-- it would still be some weird super counter-culture thing that a handful of people did. And had been anybody BESIDES ARNOLD starring in the move, the same.


In that sense, I consider Arnold "the greatest bodybuilder of all time"-- even if he technically "isn't"-- he set the template that "bodybuilding is NOT just your look on a stage-- NOT just your muscle bellies, mass, conditioning, symmetry".


Is Arnold "TECHNICALLY the best COMPETITIVE bodybuilder ON A STAGE COMPETING AGAINST OTHERS" of all time? No. As of right now, I think Coleman still firmly owns that title (and might, forever).


But is Arnold the spirit and soul of bodybuilding? Yes-- he is what pretty much created the mold for soooooooo many who later got into it. Without Arnold, bodybuilding would not exist.


-David

this post x 10000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000 0 !!!!!!!!!

[GeorgeUK]

We all know how special both the film and the book were.

We can all pretty much recite the whole thing

- seeing them so excited watching Ed Corney posing was a beautiful moment

[Beti ona]

The Hulk series was my influence and my earliest (and unconscious) exposure to someone with massive muscles. There were also the superheroes cartoons, the Van Damme movies and Dragon Ball.

Then came the '90s magazines and DVDs of Jay, Coleman and all of that.

Arnold was in the right place and time, but Joe also shaped that character.

[Bestia]

The Hulk series was my influence and my earliest (and unconscious) exposure to someone with massive muscles. There were also the superheroes cartoons, the Van Damme movies and Dragon Ball.

Then came the '90s magazines and DVDs of Jay, Coleman and all of that.

Arnold was in the right place and time, but Joe also shaped that character.

I disagree about the ",right place at the right time". Arnold made his right place at the right time for most of the things in his life - with the exception of banging the housekeeper like a screen door in a hurricane and fathering her child.

[Big Beat]

For me there was Ali and Bruce Lee, then when I was 13 yo there was Arnold. It was 1985 and a mate handed me a copy of The Education of a Bodybuilder and that was it. A little latter I got the Pumping Iron book.

Then Commando came out followed by Raw Deal, Running Man, Predator and Total Recall in 1991. After 1991 Arnold the bodybuilder action hero actor was pretty much done and so were my competitive bodybuilding days.

[Howard]

We all know how special both the film and the book were.

We can all pretty much recite the whole thing

- seeing them so excited watching Ed Corney posing was a beautiful moment

" Now that's what I call posing"

[Howard]

I disagree about the ",right place at the right time". Arnold made his right place at the right time for most of the things in his life - with the exception of banging the housekeeper like a screen door in a hurricane and fathering her child.

Had Arnold just stayed with bodybuilding, he'd be another one of the great Mr Olympias and that's it.

The truth is, being a movie star is why everyone knows Arnold.

[Big Beat]

If Arnold had continued I would not have seen Zane beating him. If Arnold never stopped he only would have been 37 in 1984 when Haney took his first O.

Arnold could have won 10 or more Olympia's. If he was going to get beat it would have been injuries that got him.

Arnold had nothing to prove and obviously had other horizons in his mind.