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the trouble with

Once again i find myself in the position that I’m struggling to solidify my feelings on the sport of fitness …and bodybuilding as a whole.

First and foremost its important to understand that, for the most part , these guys ARE athletes in the truest sense of the word. The dedication and hard work that they put into their preparation for a show is second to none. Its a shame that the so called professional soccer players so lauded by the public don’t put the same amount of effort into their preparation, The issues arise  once the athlete gets to the show.

Its a shame that the federations that ‘promote’ these shows aren’t nearly as professional in their approach as the ‘amateur’ athletes. they allow practices that would never be accepted by any other ruling body.

In a sport, (yeah ill call it a sport for the sake of the hard working individuals that compete) where the winner is decided by the subjective views of a few individuals that ‘qualify’ to judge, transparency is a must.

As it is, each athlete is being let down by the desire for the federations to line their pockets, and in doing so are guilty of the open favoritism that is akin to corruption.  In no other sport would a referee be able to adjudicate in a fixture where they coached one of the teams, and yet this is common in shows in the UK.

In short the scene needs cleaning up, it needs honesty and openness and to start:

  • Never should a federation allow a relative of a promoter to compete judge or influence in their same show
  • Never should a trainer be allowed to judge a show where someone they train is taking part
  • Never should training partners or coaches be allowed to present prizes or go backstage unless all training partners are given the same privilege.

The thing is, all of this happens in bodybuilding every year. If you’re not going to be truly transparent then you are going to struggle with the public view of the ‘sport’.

Ultimately this is cheating, worse than doping, this is corruption, athletes pay the federations, the public pay to attend the shows, the federations in turn are duty bound to make sure the judges treat both athlete and public with enough respect to not openly favour athletes known to them trained by them or even, god forbid,  related to them.  If there is even the slightest possibility that a judge is not 100% impartial then they should recuse themselves.

Until this is the norm, the sport of bodybuilding and fitness will also struggle in the UK.