Detransformation is it something new?

Everything in life goes  cyclic. The length of these cycles change. This blog-post is about your bodybuildingcycle.  When you start to build your body and you get hooked, you decide to “lift forever”.  But will you? I don’t know.  The idea for this post came when I visited the FIBO and saw an old, once famous bodybuilder in one of the nutritional supplement stands. He was so in contradiction with the new generation in their posing slips, flexing, laughing when visitors made pictures of them with their friends.

It made me think. I wrote about elite professional bodybuilders and knew many had to break of their career, because their joints, organs or their head could no longer cope with the pressure of dieting, training and especially chemicals such a career needs.

I posted about “Palubism” here: //www.juicedmuscle.com/jmblog/content/distended-bellies-0

The new term is “Detransformation” , some (hopefully angry young guys) use to compare photos of famous bodybuilders in their prime with pictures of their deterioration. Later in this blogpost I will try to explain how this is possible.

About the photo-comparison above from Mustafa Mohammad, on the boards kids say he looks like an ordinary truckdriver. When he would have continued to compete, and do all the things you need to do to compete at that level, he would most probably ruined his health (Mustafa had to be hospitalized from stage twice with so many diuretics that he almost died). Then others would call him an idiot for doing so. Or if he would have a healthy body that can take a lot, he would have ended like Dave Palumbo and Greg Kovacs, and then everybody would say he looks ridiculous. If you sit behind your computer being a keybord-warrior, it is easy to bash these guys and disrespect them. Mustafa also got screwed by the judges many times something that happens a lot, placing is often done for economical reasons. Mostly the financial benefit of one of the sponsors or organisator.

Mike Matarazzo was a truckdriver, in an interview after his heart attack he said: “If I could go back in time, those things never would have happened. I would have gone back to driving a truck. I have no doubt in my mind that the primary cause of my problem--the biggest thing--was the chemicals. It was the steroids, the growth hormones, the diuretics. We take Cytomel to lose fat, knowing it's an incredibly powerful thyroid drug, and that's only one of the many, many drugs out there taken by everyone, from amateurs to the highest level in the world.”

Somebody on GetBig (where else?) posted: “Mike, your selfish and egotistical bodybuilding obsession now sees your family, once again, placed in the unenviable position as carers for your ailing body.

You chose to use chemicals because you could never accept your body.  You wanted to be big and intimidating...Why couldn't you just be happy, being YOU ?”

It takes a lot of willpower and dedication to train to become a bodybuilder, it is a lot harder to become an elite bodybuilder, because those extra k’s are very hard to achieve. I think that’s why the new class of Mr. and MS. Physique are getting so popular. Also look at the Men’s Health contests where the winner is only winning coverage in an article and a photo on the front page.

What we can do is compare the careers of the best bodybuilder that ever lived (i.m.h.o.) Arnold Schwarzenegger and action -movie star Sylvester Stallone, both men have about the same age. On the pic you see both men at the age of 62.

Arnold always wanted to become the best bodybuilder in the world. He succeeded, but the physiques in bodybuilding where changing and the new rules demanded bigger legs. Arnold had genetically determent small legs, so he'd cut the bottoms off his sweatpants so he would be reminded of that fact all day in the gym. Again with his dedication and willpower he overcame this

Then Arnold decided to become a movie-star, his body helped or forced him into a certain direction, thus he became an action-hero. A new cycle in his life. Let’s speed things up. We all know Arnold had a successful career as a movie-star. Then he decided to enter politics. He succeeded and he trained for a short period of time under President Bush who appointed him as the President's Council on Physical Fitness and Sports, in which he served from 1990 to 1993. He allowed himself to return natural. Like most men of his age he became fatter and his muscles sagged out.  He was spotted on the beach this way and even hadn’t shaved his body-hair. I think he’s in peace with himself.

Sly Stallone still goes strong, he is advocating HRT and makes no secret of the fact that using testosterone and Growth Hormone keeps older men fit. And if they still train their body can look great too. Two men, two goals.

On the net you can find tons of “Before and After “  pics, but you seldom find “Before – After – and Final” pictures. Because what happens to these people after they succeeded. Succeeded in losing all that fat, succeeded in gaining all that muscle? You reed often that most people that where very fat and managed to lose it to a more healthy  body composition, later fell back and became even fatter.

The same is true for body recomposition.

A lot of …

A lot of training, a lot of poundages, a lot of food, a lot of traveling, a lot of tanning, a lot of dieting, a lot of aerobic exercises, a lot of chemicals and painkillers

Dave Draper 63 years old on the pic.

What really strikes me is that many of the bodybuilders from the “Golden Era “ kept their healthy physiques. Many of them kept training and eating well. Some names are by example: Frank Zane Robbie Robinson, Ed Corny. Some of the legends sized down, or got fat, most of them kept an impressive physique even as a senior.

Then what is the differences between the golden era and now? Well, one difference is that, today, GH has helped bodybuilders reach the enormous size that they are able to obtain, while another major factor is insulin use. These two things coupled with an immense amount of food has allowed for a huge increase in the size of today’s bodybuilding athletes. And let’s be realistic, some damage  is also due to aging. We don’t all age simultaneously gracefully. That’s why some of these oldies rely on anti-aging, TRT and HRT and probably VGR.  And even sometimes the scalpel.

Ronnie Coleman  is just unreal, at 5’11” he regularly stepped on stage at 297lbs (almost 300lbs) and walked around at over 330lbs offseason.

While Arnold with a 6’2” frame weighed only 235 lbs on stage and offseason 260 lbs, though most of the time Arnold didn’t bulk in the offseason but allowed a break in which he really got skinny.

 Let’s remember all these bodybuilders, also the true legends, are only human. Some take the right decision, others don’t. But we do need to respect them for their tremendous efforts to belong to the best. And compete in this subjective sport that is often unfair to them. Because they are the soldiers that take the bullet, while others make money at their expense. And criticize them and their appearance is so easy when you are anonymous typing behind your computer.

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=80anUAMGwLU