By Ron Harris
All you younger guys, get ready to roll your eyes, because here I go with a cranky old man rant. Back in the day, it was incredibly difficult to turn pro in bodybuilding. Only the class winners from the Nationals and the overall winners from the USA and North American earned pro status – that was it! As such, we had a crop of excellent amateurs that were all good enough to do damage on the pro stage, if they ever made it there. Often it took them five to 10 years at the National level. This gave us astonishing quality. Just for perspective the top five in the heavyweight class at the 1991 NPC Nationals was, in order, Kevin Levrone, Flex Wheeler, Paul “Quadzilla” DeMayo, Ronnie Coleman, and Matt Mendenhall. Google Matt’s photos if you don’t know who he us. He never turned pro, but he was on dozens of magazine covers in the ‘80s and early ‘90s, and would destroy most of the men turning pro these days onstage. The point is amateurs were stars on par with
Da Bullpen With George “Da Bull” Peterson III | My First Year as a 212 Da Bullpen With George “Da Bull” Peterson III | My First Year as a 212 Written by George “Da Bull” Peterson III 16 March 2021
2020 was your first year in the 212 division, and the first time you didn’t have to go down to 192 pounds in years. Was it liberating to know you could finally keep all your muscle and show it on stage?
For me, the best part of switching from Classic Physique to 212 was that the stress factors of losing muscle and making that lower weight were gone. I knew I could add more muscle and still be able to get to 212. There were times shortly before contests as a Classic pro where I was genuinely worried I would not make 192, and I would not be allowed to compete.
I don’t need to remind any of you how Covid turned the entire world upside down this year. Our industry was business as usual until the Arnold Classic weekend in early March, when all hell broke loose. Just a week later, the Arnold Classic Australia was cancelled, which would be the first of many events to be either postponed by months or not held at all. Jake Wood had just bought the Olympia from AMI and reinstated the Ms. Olympia. Promoter Dan Solomon had brought the Olympia back to the Las Vegas strip at Planet Hollywood. Hopes were high, but uncertainty was rampant. Soon the most prestigious event in our sport was moved from its traditional September date to December. The doubters were out in force all over social media. “There’s no way they are having the Olympia this year,” was a common refrain. But Wood, Solomon, and the rest of the crew were determined that the show would go on, and they forged ahead. At the eleventh hour, restrictions in the state of Nevada regar
Best Exercises to Build Big Arms Top Workouts and Tips for Muscular Bi's and Tri's By Ron Harris musculardevelopment.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from musculardevelopment.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.