Who would you consider the "Joe Weider" of natural bodybuilding?

[jairochang]

Before Joe Weider's magazines, mail-order training systems and contests existed, bodybuilding was not a professional sport. It was a hobby at the most. The supplement industry was inexistent, champion names unknown, and there were no movies about it, televised, or webcast contests. But Joe came into the scene as an entrepreneur and lead the creation of a mainstream bodybuilding culture with Muscle & Fitness, Mr Olympia, and well... his most marketable product Arnold.

Natural (drug free) bodybuilding, on the other hand is still at an early stage culture wise, even though the number of contests and sanctioning organizations has grown quite a lot over the past 10 years. Which names come to mind when you think of Natural Bodybuilding? Is there any big names promoting contests, magazines, branding, and involved with the natty culture? ...Chet Yorton, Doug Miller, John Hansen, Fred Rowlett, Denny Kakos, Layne Norton, Paul Revelia?

[MillerTime07]

Natural bodybuilding is a joke. If I had a dollar for everybody that had natural bodybuilder in their instagram, I'd be rich.

[deathmetal1992]

Natural bodybuilding is a joke. If I had a dollar for everybody that had natural bodybuilder in their instagram, I'd be rich.

couldn't have worded it any better

[BrennanMWhite]

Natural bodybuilding is a joke. If I had a dollar for everybody that had natural bodybuilder in their instagram, I'd be rich.

Not to derail the thread, but how many people are really natty? From what I've found, most every contest is pretty easy to skirt the rules. Just saw someone today in a different section with "natural" in his username. He's 5'7", 200+ lbs and 10% of less bf. That's not natty. He may not be on Cell Tech, but he's definitely taking too many BCAAs.

Edit: I'd like to compete in physique one day, but I can't fit much more mass on my frame. Every contest I look at has winners that make me look tiny.

[deathmetal1992]

Not to derail the thread, but how many people are really natty? From what I've found, most every contest is pretty easy to skirt the rules. Just saw someone today in a different section with "natural" in his username. He's 5'7", 200+ lbs and 10% of less bf. That's not natty. He may not be on Cell Tech, but he's definitely taking too many BCAAs.

Edit: I'd like to compete in physique one day, but I can't fit much more mass on my frame. Every contest I look at has winners that make me look tiny.

http://www.naturalphysiques.com/28/f...ass-index-ffmi

Anything over 26 below 10% is definitely not natty. 25-25.9 could very well be enhanced but can still be natty and achieved only by those with superior genetics.

Most people will be somewhere around 23-25 after 5+ years of training and fairly low bodyfat.

[BrennanMWhite]

http://www.naturalphysiques.com/28/f...ass-index-ffmi

Anything over 26 below 10% is definitely not natty. 25-25.9 could very well be enhanced but can still be natty and achieved only by those with superior genetics.

Most people will be somewhere around 23-25 after 5+ years of training and fairly low bodyfat.

That's what I'm going off of lol. I'm somewhere around 25, but my bf is relatively high - making it not accurate.

[deathmetal1992]

That's what I'm going off of lol. I'm somewhere around 25, but my bf is relatively high - making it not accurate.

Yeah you tend to lose mass when you diet, a good rule of thumb is for every 3 lb of fat you lose, you lose about 1 lb of lean mass. I'm close to 23 but I'm around 10% and I haven't been training seriously for the past 2 years. I know I could probably get close to 25 if I get my numbers up.

Natural bodybuilding is a joke. If I had a dollar for everybody that had natural bodybuilder in their instagram, I'd be rich.

Now that I think about it, the father of "natural" bodybuilding is Mike O'Hearn.

[ProYeo]

Speaking to the the OP's question that seems to be getting at the branding of natty BB... I don't know if there is anyone like that. I'm going off of a limited amount of personal experience here, this is just based on what I've seen.

I haven't competed that much, or that long. Now, I'm natty, there are people who are preach-y natty, or whatever, that isn't me. I'm not here to judge what people do and I definitely appreciate and look up to those who aren't natty as I do those who are - 'supplements' aren't magic... there's an obscene amount of work behind every physique. I don't agree with the folks who want to claim natty and aren't - just be who you are, own it, ya know! For me it was just a personal choice... there will be side effects, and you don't get to pick them. I want to be huge, but I don't want to play that kind of roulette.

Anyway, I got steered into the direction of some of the natty orgs kind of by accident. I had no designs to be trying to become some world class competitor, I just wanted to give it a try. I competed in some orgs, did well, had fun, etc. But the natty orgs are so fractured and there's so much... I don't know what to call it, infighting, cattiness, something....

You go around the world and you find the IFBB... you know what it is, you know the brand, you know the people, you know what you are going to get! In natty orgs, I've just seen a continual splintering, fracturing, bickering, etc. A lot of "I'm taking my ball and going home" kind of stuff ... I don't like X, Y, or Z so I'm going to start my own org. I can personally list 5 orgs right now that I've seen created because someone promoted a show for one org, didn't like how it went down, and decided to start their own org.

That's not sustainable and it doesn't do anything for the actual athletes. Everything else aside - pretending everyone really is natty, everyone has good intentions, etc. Simply having continual fracturing with promoters taking a subset of athletes with them, over and over. It's confusing, counter-productive, and terrible for trying to establish some sort of dominant brand.

Several of these orgs try to do a magazine, or podcast, webcast, etc. But it just caters to their own individual group of athletes which dwindles as people move between orgs. So sure, each org has their figurehead person - someone who may truly be trying to do good and grow the sport, but outside of that group of people, nobody knows who that is.

Unless there is some sort of cultural shift where egos get out of the way and folks can get over their personal issues ... I don't know how any sort of real growth can happen.

[JigPig]

Natural
Bodybuilding

Pick 1.

Its hilarious when you consider how much larger and more conditioned people are in 'natural bodybuilding' shows in USA when compared to Natural bodybuilders on European shows.

Unless you're one of the genetic elite, competitive natural bodybuilding is a waste of time.

[Salden]

Just did the test.
Currently I am 210 lbs at 5 11" and 17% bf.
Outcome : 24.5
Lean bodymass : 175 lbs

I agree : over 26 with <10% bf is not natty ( you too Mike O H )....

[Natureal]

Maybe Vince Gironda, i know he was against steroids, not sure if he ever tried them though.

[203mh]

Natural bodybuilding is a joke. If I had a dollar for everybody that had natural bodybuilder in their instagram, I'd be rich.

x100. Lee Banks now says to be off everything while doing classic physique and going by 'SuperNatual'