John Perry here with the latest guest post in this weeks installment of “Bodybuilding Corner”. Maybe you’ll agree with some of my opinions to follow, maybe not….Use the facebook comments feature to discuss!

In this post I am going to list who, in my opinion, are the top five bodybuilding physiques in the pre-modern era (before Dorian Yates) and the top five bodybuilding physiques post- modern era. Each physique I mention refers to a specific version of that particular bodybuilder. That is, their certain physique in a certain year. Also, each person can only be used once.

There are many people who think that the physiques of the seventies and eighties were the best of all time and that the look of pro bodybuilders today is “too much”. Meaning the modern era guys are too big, therefore, making their physiques not desirable to most. I, personally, disagree; in a bodybuilding competition there are certain criteria that the athletes are judged on. The judging criterion has not changed. There are seven compulsory poses and four quarter-turns. I don’t know if they did the quarter-turns in the sixties or seventies, but it makes no difference because it still comes down to size, proportion, symmetry and condition. If you took the top guys from 1975 and put them on stage against the top guys of today they would not be able to compete with the bigger guys just because of the size difference. Evolution occurs in all sports. As time goes by new information and technology comes about and the athletes in the top level of any sport get better and better. Most people would say they would rather look like Arnold than Ronnie Coleman. That may be true, but I am just saying Arnold wouldn’t beat Ronnie Coleman on stage.

I came up with the following list after many hours of research checking out all of upper level pros from 1965 to now. This is just my opinion and all opinions on a subject such as this are subjective by nature.

Top 5 Bodybuilding Physiques – Pre-Modern Era:

5. Arnold Schwarzenegger, Mr. Olympia 1974

Arnold is the cliché of a lot people’s favourite bodybuilder. If bodybuilding was judged on upper body and personality then, yes, I would agree. But truthfully, Arnold always had weak legs. They weren’t terrible, but far from where they needed to be to match his upper body. Legs are half of your body. To say that a bodybuilder with half of their body somewhat underdeveloped is the greatest of all time is ridiculous. The thing is, however, most of the top guys back then had weak legs. Legs were not as prioritized by bodybuilders during that time as they should have been. So Arnold was able to get in really good condition with a great upper body and look better than everyone else. I am a fan of Arnold; bodybuilding would be even less known about by the general public without him, but to say that he is the greatest of all time is not right in my opinion. Arnold, 1974 version, did look rather foolish though, but with who he stood next to I do agree with him winning his 6 Olympia titles, for sure. The comeback win in 1980 is a debatable one.

4. Mike Mentzer, Mr. Olympia 1980

 Mike Mentzer is known by many bodybuilding enthusiasts these days for creating his Heavy Duty, or   High Intensity training system. He created this system of training with the goal of training a drug-     free athlete to reach their maximum muscular-growth potential in the shortest amount of time. Mike was as much of a bodybuilding philosopher as he was anything else. His training system entails very low volume, training infrequently but each workout is completed with the goal of creating a new personal best, thereby placing a greater stress on the muscle than before and stimulating growth. He insisted that most bodybuilders are grossly overtraining and are not progressing optimally because of this. Mike also insisted that the typical high protein bodybuilder diet was not the best diet for building muscle. He suggested following a more balanced diet regime with somewhat convincing reasoning to back up his claims. If you read my first couple of posts you know that I believe that for a drug-free person a lot of volume will lead to overtraining and intensity is the key ingredient for long-term growth. However, I do not think as low of volume as he suggests is optimal. You would basically be doing about 3, twenty-minute workouts per week. But a lot of his philosophy does make logical sense in my opinion. In the 1980 Olympia Mike tied for fourth. Mike claimed to the day he died that the Olympia that year was rigged. He did never say that he should have won but always said that Arnold should not have won. He looked great in 1980 and I pick him as number four because he was almost perfectly symmetrical from top to bottom. Something that few bodybuilders have been able to produce is a 100% complete physique from top to bottom.

3. Frank Zane, 1979 Mr. Olympia

Frank Zane had one of the most aesthetically pleasing physiques all time no doubt. The three years that he won the Olympia he showed up with a level of conditioning greater than all of the other competitors. His proportion and symmetry were very good. He wasn’t the biggest guy, but bodybuilding is not just about being the biggest. Of course size matters, but so does symmetry, balance and conditioning. His conditioning was crazy for the era.

2. Lee Haney, 1987 Mr. Olympia

Lee Haney retired at the age of 32 after winning the Olympia eight times. His first win was at age 24. He is the second youngest person to the win the Olympia – the youngest was Arnold at age 23. No one of that era came close to his back lat spread and back double bicep until Dorian Yates came along in 1991, Haney’s final year.

1. Sergio Oliva, 1969 Mr. Olympia

If I could have the genetics of any of the bodybuilders from back in the day, I would pick Sergio. He was the only bodybuilder to have a smaller waist than Frank Zane and he coupled that with ballooned, blown-out-looking everything else, even huge legs…which no one had back then! They called him “The Myth” for a reason. Crazy!

Top 5 Bodybuilding Physiques – Post-Modern Era:

5. Nasser el Sonbaty, 1999 Arnold Classic

The year Nasser won the Arnold Classic he claimed to be around 290lbs. Bodybuilding is the only sport in which competitors over-exaggerate their weight and under-exaggerate their height to make it seem as though they have more mass for their height. I suspect 290lbs was a bit of an exaggeration but who knows? Anyway, Nasser was huge and shredded in 1999 year, blowing the competition out of the water.

4. Phil Heath, 2011 Mr. Olympia

Phil has been criticized in the past for having narrow clavicles, making him less than super-wide. I don’t think this is the case, it is more a matter of Jay Cutler, who Heath has been standing next to the past few years, having genetically super-wide shoulders. Cutler is the widest bodybuilder I have seen in real life, which is partly the reason he was able to win the Olympia four times. Jay Cutler and Kai Greene are the only two top level pros who have that crazy wide structure these days. Anyway back to Phil…he is called “The Gift” for a reason. The guy has the roundest muscle bellies since Flex Wheeler. When he is just standing there it looks like there is just muscle hanging off of him. Probably the most cartoonish-looking guy out there today.

3. Kevin Levrone, 1999 British Grand Prix

Look up his posing routine via YouTube and you will see why I picked this guy for as #3. Kevin’s legs were never were never quite as good after he turned pro. Maybe he had an injury and had to train around it. But for the 1999 British Grand Prix he certainly brought them back up. He was full, hard and dry. He also had an awesome posing routine.

2. Flex Wheeler, 1999 Mr. Olympia

Probably the most aesthetically-pleasing physique of the nineties. Tiny waist; tiny joints; round, full, muscle bellies and nailed conditioning. You can watch his posing routine on YouTube for this one too.

1. Ronnie Coleman, 2003 Mr. Olympia

“The Big Nasty”. This guy, at this competition, was the biggest, freakiest thing to walk on a bodybuilding stage to date. He had the biggest legs of all time, and biggest back of all time too, at this showing. This was 12 years ago and no one has come close to looking like this since. I doubt that anyone will for a while.

There you go that’s my top five from each era. Do you agree or disagree with me? What are your picks?