The old school days of bodybuilding is known for the aesthetic look that today’s competitive bodybuilding lacks: a small waist and huge V-Taper is what won shows back in the day, and now is it who is the biggest. Bodybuilders have evolved into these giant monsters that we now see on stage instead of the aesthetically pleasing bodies to look at like back in the 70s and 80s.
Men's Physique
Men’s Physique was brought into the competitive bodybuilding industry just a few years ago. This division was created for the reason of fairness. Let’s face it, not everyone has the genetics, money, and time to be a bodybuilder. Guys wanted to step on stage without looking like a monster, and thus Men’s Physique was born.
Men’s Physique criteria are based on V-Taper, Conditioning, and a pleasing look. It created a whole new era and quickly became the most popular men's division to compete in. Over the last few years, however, even Men’s Physique competitors have slowly gotten bigger, and so did the criteria. Bodybuilders began crossing over to Men’s Physique to gain another opportunity for a trophy and because the standards got bigger since when it first started.
Well, this created quite the controversy because Men’s Physique competitors were complaining about bodybuilders having an unfair advantage, because of their size. And now, we have the new Men’s Division called the Classic Physique division.
Enter Men's Classic Physique
The new Men’s Classic Physique division is a very smart idea. It basically fills in that gap between Men’s Physique and Bodybuilding. The criteria for this division goes all the way back to the 70s and 80s standards of bodybuilding. The judges want to see a very aesthetic look, small waist, v-taper, and even legs. This gives the chance for Men’s Physique competitors who have decent legs to move up to Classic Physique so they can finally show them off!
The poses are very similar to bodybuilding with a few alterations. The poses will be Front Double Bicep, Back Double Bicep, Side Chest, and favorite classic pose. So the NPC is giving you the option to choose any famous classic pose that the old school bodybuilders used to do on stage. There is also a Maximum Weight for each height class, so everyone receives the same advantage on stage, which is really awesome.
Take-Home Message
This new Classic Physique division is sure to bring a lot of good change, and attention to the competitive bodybuilding side of things. Pretty much everybody in the NPC World are really excited to see how this new division plays out. I myself have actually decided to compete in this new division and cannot wait to see how I do!
