The big man: the real measure of size in bodybuilding
A big man in bodybuilding doesn’t simply mean someone who fills a doorway. Sometimes the person with more weight looks bigger in clothes, but on stage what counts is muscle shape, conditioning and quality.
When I arrived at school at half past nine on Tuesday morning, the other teachers were already ready for the photo. I rushed in at the last moment, smoothed my hair in front of the mirror and heard the photographer exclaim: “Well, this guy isn’t all that big!” Apparently someone had mentioned that one teacher was still missing, the BIG physical education teacher.
Why does the big man cause so much confusion?
Honestly, a remark like that sometimes annoys me. Not because anyone means to be unkind. Rather because the word “big” means completely different things to different people.
An ordinary person often looks only at overall volume. Someone in a wider jacket, who is heavier and rounder, simply seems bigger. In bodybuilding that isn’t enough. If you really want to see a big person, you could think of those 400 kg Americans who have eaten themselves so large that they can no longer cope with their own bodies. That is absolute size. Athletic size is something else.
I have a brother, Silvar, who is 7 – 10 kg heavier than me most of the time. In clothes he is clearly bigger than I am. He has solid muscle mass, but also a higher body fat percentage. In company I have even heard that if my brother competed in bodybuilding, he could easily beat me. That shows how foreign bodybuilding is to many people.
Big man in bodybuilding: weight doesn’t tell the whole story
Bodybuilding doesn’t look only at how many kilos a person weighs. It looks at how much of that body is muscle, how visible the lines are, how conditioned the physique is and how the body looks on stage. If I don’t look like I’m on a contest stage 24/7, it doesn’t mean anything is wrong. Contest condition is a separate state, not an everyday one.
At the birthday table I have explained to relatives that yes, my brother may be 7 – 8 kg heavier than me. In clothes, that adds to his visual size. But if we both walked on stage right away, the picture would be different. I would stand out on stage; he would “disappear.” That sounds harsh, but that is exactly how a sport works where body fat percentage and muscle quality decide a lot.
I may be lighter, but if our body fat percentages are night and day, the whole comparison changes. What’s interesting is that in everything else people talk about quality all the time. Quality counts. Yet when judging a man’s size, quality is suddenly forgotten.
How do you really judge a bodybuilder’s physique?
Let’s take Kiivikas and Murumets, for example. If both walked into a room in T-shirts and a foreign audience didn’t know them, most people would probably guess that the bodybuilder is Murumets. In their eyes, Ott might perhaps be a gymnast. For an ordinary person, outward mass is what counts.
But if you put Muru and Ott on stage, with stage makeup and under strong lights, the picture can change completely. Even though the weight difference between these men may be as much as 30 – 40 kg. On stage a T-shirt hides nothing. That’s where it shows who has the condition, who has muscle separation and whose physique holds up to comparison.
The same goes for me. A female teacher recently said that I’m apparently somehow small now. Big, small, small, big. Go figure. I replied that in my sport quality counts. I could easily eat my way up to 110 kg, but then the veins and striations are gone, and that doesn’t bring good results at competitions. To keep my weight under control, I try to cycle 20 km every day.
The big man and a fair comparison with others
A topic of its own is when someone comes to compare their calf, thigh or arm with my calf. You can compare, but let’s do it at the same body fat percentage. If the thigh circumferences being compared belong to men where one has a body fat percentage of 11 and the other 28 or 32, then honestly there isn’t much to compare.
It’s about the same as two men with the same body fat percentage measuring an arm, but one of them doing it with a sweater on. The numbers may seem similar, but the substance is different. In bodybuilding, substance is what counts.
FAQ
Does a higher body weight mean a better bodybuilder?
No. Body weight is just one number. Bodybuilding judges muscle mass, proportions, conditioning, separation and how the physique works as a whole on stage.
Why does a bodybuilder look different on stage?
Contest condition is a temporary and very precise state. Lighting, stage makeup, conditioning and posing bring out the muscles in a way you can’t see in everyday clothing.
Is an ordinary person’s judgment of size wrong?
Not maliciously wrong, but often incomplete. Without knowing the sport, people mainly look at outward volume, not at body composition or the quality of stage condition.
That’s my reflection this time.
Author: Janar Rückenberg
Source:Turg.Fitness.ee
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