Bill Dobbins - Fitness & Figure Competitors: The Truth Behind The Beauty

**webmaster** · 12-02-2002, 12:08 PM

Bill Dobbins is back with a superb article on fitness and figure competitors, the truth behind them! Learn what they go through to do all they do!

http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/billdobbins2.htm

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mds1971 · 12-03-2002, 11:02 AM

This article was awful and sexist. At first I agreed with what Dobbins was saying about contemporary fitness competitions turning into gymnastic exhibitions and the inevitability of injuries, but all that other stuff about the winners being unattractive and not having muscular bodies was subjective. First off, most professional fitness competitors are more muscular than the average female. They are not huge, but this is not supposed to be just another bodybuilding division so it shouldn't matter. The same thing goes for the figure contests. As a novice figure competitor it pisses me off when people claim that we don't diet and train just because we don't have bulging veins. I am just starting out, so I am not where I would like to be, but I have seen other figure competitors who clearly exhibit first-rate conditioning. And even though I would like my bodyfat to be much lower, people can look at me and tell that I workout AND diet. Figure is still physique competition.

The article started out well enough, but veered off into some ole sexist, mean-spirited, biased drivel.

Shame on you !

BP22 · 12-03-2002, 04:50 PM

I agree with mds1971. My wife is a Figure competitor and is 5 days out from her second show. I am competing in the bb portion of the show and we BOTH have been dieting and training hard for 12 weeks. In fact we have 2 friends who are also competing in the Figure competition and they have also been dieting and training for 3 months. They deserve as mush respect as the bbers.

From my limited experience the Figure portions of the shows tend to be one of the most popular parts. The crowds love it, and why shouldn't they. There are beautiful women who are tone and muscular displaying their feminine physiques.

latrow · 12-04-2002, 07:49 AM

I didn't find Mr. Dobbins comments sexist or offensive at all. He is stating the facts. The problem is that we have such a narrow definition of what is attractive and "marketable" when it comes to the female physique. Why else would we have three different categories for competition? The powers that be tell these women "be lean and muscular, but not too lean and muscular". He was criticizing the judging criteria, not the competitors. You won't hear a male on this board complain about losing a contest because he "came in too hard", and needed to be "softer", or because he didn't spend the last 15 years studying gymnastics.

BP22 · 12-04-2002, 09:15 AM

Quote - "Why should women work to develop difficult and dangerous routines - especially if they aren't trained gymnasts - when they can just go up on stage and do quarter turns? Enter the contest, in addition, without a lot of effort put into training and diet to develop an impressive physique ("physique" being the middle term in the title "National Physique Committee")."

It's the "without a lot of effort put into training and diet to develop an impressive physique" part that I think is offensive.

But that's just my humble opinion.

latrow · 12-04-2002, 09:38 AM

I can definitely see your point about that comment, but it just brings me back to what I was saying before: Figure is very subjective. There are more and more of these contests popping up, and someone like you, who might bust their heinie working on their physique, will lose to a Hawaiian tropic model with rhinestones on her eyelashes. Perhaps he could have made his point a little better on that aspect.

RightFit · 01-09-2003, 02:37 PM

I don't care whether you're doing a fitness, figure or bodybuilding show, all the athletes train hard. Dieting and training for 12 weeks straight is not an easy thing. Dobbins may have meant for his comments to be directed toward the judging process, but, it came across as rather insulting to all of us who train hard for a figure competition. You can not compare figure competitions and beauty pageants!

03-19-2004, 01:10 AM

I disagree with you saying that figure competitors don't train or diet hard. I think we work just as hard as the female bodybuilders. The difference is we don't take the steroids that are necessary to look like a man wearing a bikini.

Tisha · 03-20-2004, 12:01 PM

Well, first I am a Figure competitor with Fitness America. I train VERY brutally actually for this event and diet for the record. I agree about alot of the Fitness routines. I did gymnastics when I was a child and watching many of the routines is like watching a floor routine, not all of them, SOME. I think Dawn Butterfield portrays the best example of a routine with great strength moves, dance and flexibility while having great muscle tone and nothing over-board! I don't think I would have a chance competing at a high level of Fitness because quite framkly, I STINK at gymnastics, however I am VERY flexible and can demonstrate all required strength moves. When the audience see's the flips from one girl and not another, it's thumb's down for the boring~ routine! In FAP Bikini (figure) they want the total package..Good skin tone, toned muscles, nothing over-board once again, not too lean. Symmetry and stage presence. And of course facial beauty. I like competing in this because I feel it suits me best. I liked your article Bill, I agreed with alot.