We are in the final month before the 2023 Olympia weekend in Orlando, Florida. Bodybuilding’s biggest weekend is set for November 2-5, and new developments are emerging every day. It can be hard to keep up with what’s going on in the world of bodybuilding and fitness, but that’s why we provide you with a weekly summary of your favorite shows on the Olympia TV and Muscle & Fitness YouTube channels. What you can expect from three of the top podcasts in the industry this week.
Table of Contents
Competing with the Blind: Overcoming the Odds with Jessica Parcells!
Fame Flex Friday
There was no episode of The Fit Rockstar Show this week, but the ladies of Fame Flex Friday provided a special episode that is full of inspiration. Camille Perriat, Whitney Jones, Lenda Murray, and Wendy Fortino wanted to shine a light on a contestant who overcomes all obstacles, and Jessica Parcells fits that bill perfectly.
Parcells is a bikini competitor who has been diagnosed with Stargardt disease, which results in the loss of central vision. His story and passion for fitness will provide the motivation you need for your next workout. You can help their mission to raise awareness of Stargardt Disease by watching and sharing this episode.
“Olympia or nothing”
prime time muscle
This week’s Prime Time Muscle takes an exclusive look at the importance of the Olympia brand. Tim Wilkins, Terrick El Guindy, and Chris Cormier talk about the importance of being called Olympia Champion and how it can change the direction of one’s life. Then, they pay tribute to three-time Mr. Olympia, Sergio Oliva. El Guindy expressed that Oliva could have been Olympia’s champion today. Listen to their arguments and also comment on your views. Then, El Guindy and Cormier face off in a trivia game for the coveted Golden Goat trophy.
Target: ‘A group of muscles’
Judges say that in general, the ideal body should be slim from a wide back to a narrow waist. In principle, no part should be disproportionately large or small. The skin should appear almost puckered over the muscles so that they are well-defined as if they were carved by a sculptor. Stage presence matters.
Those body types are still rewarded in “natural” shows, say judges who drug-test competitors, and in some divisions of specific bodybuilding competitions. The women in the bikini and figure categories and the men in the physique categories are very fit but not too big, and the entrants in the men’s classic physique and women’s physique categories are big but look like the old-school ideal.
But since the advent of giant bodybuilders called “mass monsters” in the 1990s, size has often outweighed aesthetics in the crowd-favorite open categories in which the largest men and women compete, Schonfeld said. “When people go to zoos, they want to see lions and tigers,” he said, “not cats and dogs.”
Jim Rockell, who was the chief judge of Mr. Olympia for nearly 20 years until 2013, said that the largest entities now tend to win the Open Division, no matter how outlandish they may appear.
“They’re overdosing on steroids, growth hormones, oils, and other things,” he said. “It’s too bad.”
“Oil” refers to an oil-based mixture that can be injected into muscles – often in the calves, biceps, and shoulders – to make them appear temporarily larger.
“There’s no real aesthetic appeal to his body,” Rockwell said. “They’re just a bunch of muscles.”
Some bodybuilders do not hide their drug use. Current and former competitors at all levels talk openly about it in podcasts, YouTube interviews, and on social media.
Some preach caution and restraint; Others advocate trying anything to become big. Trainers lament that young people in the gym – whether they plan to compete or not – often ask what they should take before they have learned what their bodies can do without drugs. Medications are easily available, especially online.
“The volumes, dosages, and regimens they’re on are comparable to what people were able to get their hands on 10, 20, 30, let alone 40 years ago,” said Stuart Phillips, a muscle physiologist at McMaster University. In Hamilton, Ontario.
However, all the steroids in the world couldn’t exert Mr. Olympia-winning power on most people. The rare bodybuilders who get it start out with a genetic gift for gaining muscle, which they usually discover soon after starting weight training.
This is how lifting weights builds muscles:
Each muscle consists of thousands of individual fibers, and the body grows and maintains them using amino acids that come from proteins in food.
