THE 10 GREATEST BODYBUILDERS IN HISTORY
Vikings Lift Weights!
I finally decided to take a crack at doing this list. I understand that there will be disagreements with this list but I don't give a shit because you are reading mine and I am not reading yours! Ha, ha.
Bodybuilding is a subjective sport so creating a Top 10 list is difficult. The physiques of the ten men profiled here could not be more different. I tried to remove my own personal preferences in order to be objective. The criteria for selection is as follows:
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Success in the important contests: I have a hard time placing someone on the Top 10 if they haven't won or placed well in the important shows (Olympia, Universe, Night Of Champions, Arnold Classic, etc).
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Dominance of their era: There have been certain eras in bodybuilding where the sport had a number of worthy champions and other times when the sport was missing the dominant bodybuilders. In other words, I am taking the era in which they competed into consideration.
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Impact on the sport: This is an ambiguous criteria. The men who made the sport what it is today deserve recognition. Fifty years ago weightlifting was considered an odd activity. Now even pussy triathletes train with weights. The guys responsible for this paradigm shift are clearly worthy of consideration.
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Badassery: There is something to being the craziest and biggest man on the planet. There is a reason why no one gives a shit about middleweight or natural bodybuilding. Natural bodybuilding is like womens basketball...a lame unwatchable corruption of the original sport.
Now with this criteria in mind... I give you The 10 Greatest Bodybuilders in History! Enjoy!
10. Shawn Ray
The poster boy for bodybuilding in my formative years. No bodybuilder has been on more magazine covers and for good reason. Shawn is a legendary figure in the sport and was unanimously voted as the "Best Bodybuilder to never win the Mr. Olympia" by the bodybuilding media in 2003. Why does he make the list? He was Top 5 in 12 consecutive Mr. Olympia contests! (1990-2001) Shawn was a little man in a big man's sport. He typically weighed around 200 lbs on stage which made him 50-70 lbs lighter than most of his peers. His displayed a level of symmetry and development that, to the average consumer, was more aesthetically pleasing which is why he was the most well recognized bodybuilder in the world.
Shawn was one of the last major bodybuilders to not fall into the growth hormone craze. I certainly cannot say that he never took it but it is obvious from his physique that he did not go crazy with it. He never displayed the huge "growth gut" that most of his peers did. I read an interview with him in the 90s and I remember him saying that there "were certain things he was not willing to do" to win and I have always assumed he was referring to massive GH use. He once said "Dorian Yates and I have nothing in common, physically speaking. He's a Volkswagen; I'm a Porsche." There were two men that Shawn Ray could never overcome, Lee Haney and Dorian Yates. Unfortunately those two giants ended up dominating bodybuilding for the better part of two decades. He always felt that the sport had been stolen away by absurdly large and goofy looking mass monsters and he always stuck to his idea that aesthetics and physical balance should be the standard rather than just lean body mass. I tend to disagree but I have always admired Shawn Ray for being a consistent competitor and ambassador for the sport.
9. Steve Reeves
A pioneer in the sport who competed in the late 1940s and became the first Mr. Universe in 1950. Looking at Steve Reeves does not conjure images of bodybuilding... by modern standards he looks like pansy underwear model. Obviously the world is different now and he was one of the biggest men on the planet in the late 40s. He is not on the list for his physical stature. He was truly the first "physique" guy in Hollywood and while he was never a major star, he did give the public someone to look to as a model physique.
Early bodybuilders like Reg Park, Sergio Oliva and Arnold Schwarzenegger attribute their discovery of weight training partially by watching Steve Reeves. Reeves had a large hand in creating the "Muscle Beach" phenomenon that would reach its zenith in the 70s. In film, he starred in many of the Italian Hercules style movies and for some inexplicable reason turned down a role in Dr. No and Fistful of Dollars (the lead role would go to Viking legend Clint Eastwood).
In Arnold's landmark book "Encyclopedia of Modern Bodybuilding" he states:
By [the 1940s] the distinction between lifting weights purely for strength and training with weights to shape and proportion the body had been clearly made. ... However, bodybuilding still remained an obscure sport. No champion was known to the general public—that is, until Steve Reeves came along. Reeves was the right man in the right place at the right time. He was handsome, personable, and had a magnificent physique. Survivors from the Muscle Beach era recall how crowds used to follow Reeves when he walked along the beach, and how people who knew nothing about him would simply stop and stare, awestruck.
Steve Reeves was truly the first "bodybuilder" i.e. someone who gained notoriety for his body. That is why he is the 9th greatest bodybuilder in history.
8. Frank Zane
Three time Mr. Olympia 1977-79 and the torch bearer for the sport after the retirement of Arnold Schwarzenegger. I have to admit to not being a Frank Zane fan. He was under 200 lbs on stage which to me is blasphemous but I do have to admit that his physical form was refined and unique. He was the first bodybuilder to attain the "shredded" look that is now the standard for competitive bodybuilding. He was an educated man and realized that in order to win he had to offer a different look than his larger competitors. If I had to guess, I would theorize that he was the first guy to perfect the use of diuretics in order to achieve that incredibly hard on stage appearance.
Frank Zane is one of only three men to beat Arnold in competition, that alone makes him a legend in the sport. Being a three time winner of the Mr. Olympia contest puts him in the company of Arnold, Haney, Yates and Coleman as the only men to win three or more consecutive Mr. Olympia's. I place him at #8 because he was aberration in the sport. Bodybuilding is a sport of physical extremes and each successive champion is generally bigger than the last. Zane broke that trend weighing 50-60 less than Arnold on stage. Long story short... he did not make a long term impact on the progression of the sport. He was a visible champion and was more physically accessible to fans so his popularity was, and in some circles still today, notable. He is one of the all time greats without question.
7. Lou Ferrigno
The Incredible Hulk. That is all I should have to say. Yeah, I know, he never won any significant competitions. Lou is a classic case of being too tall to be a great bodybuilder. He is a gigantic 6'5 which is about six inches too tall to be a top notch competitive bodybuilder. To my knowledge his competition weight of around 320 is the heaviest on stage weight in the history of the sport. He was simply a monster and still is.
His greatest contribution to the sport is with his on-screen portrayals of himself in Pumping Iron and as the Incredible Hulk. For Pumping Iron to work as a movie there had to be a big goofy guy for Arnold to pick on and antagonize and Lou did a great job in that role. The movie was shot in documentary style but it certainly was a dramatization of the actual events. His work as the Hulk exposed millions of young kids to the greatness of being monstrous. If you ask a non-fan of the sport to name five bodybuilders they will name Lou. That is why he is on this list. He is certainly one of the most famous bodybuilders of all time and his notoriety to his day revolves around his massive physique. His notoriety and recognition in the sport more than makes up for the fact that he was not physically designed to be a great on-stage champion. Did I mention he was the fucking Hulk? Enough said.
6. Lee Haney
The first 8-time winner of the Mr. Olympia contest, he held the title from 1984-1991. His place in history is an important one. He bridged the gap between the golden era of bodybuilding (the 1970s) and the era of freakzoid bodybuilding (ushered in by Dorian Yates). When compared to modern champions or even his successor (Yates) he looked physically normal. He did, however, push the sport forward. His back development was on a different level than the great champions before him. The biggest difference between bodybuilding now vs. the 1970s is the development of massive beef-slab lats and inhuman quad/hamstring development. Haney was the man who pushed the envelope on back development which is now seen as the most important discernible factor when comparing world-class competitors.
Lee was also the last "normal" guy to be a champion in the sport. He was a well-rounded and considerate individual who used his physical notoriety to teach and inspire people. His show on ESPN "Lee Haney's Championship Workout" was something I remember watching as a kid. He was the last champion that people could look at and think "Hey, maybe I could look like that". The skepticism about the sport and the associated drugs had not reached the level it has now. Lee was roughly the same size as Sergio Oliva and Arnold Schwarzenegger and thus did not arouse public suspicion of drug use. His successor would end that suspension of disbelief...but as it stands now Lee Haney was the last "human looking" champion. An unquestioned legend and quality man well deserving of the number six spot on this list.
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