Bodybuilding Pros in 2017 have a weak/mediocre front lat spread

[LurkerNoMore]

I doubt you could find a pic of flex that looks this bad:

Close.  But yeah, it would be hard to find many competitors from that era with big guts.  Unlike today where it is near impossible to find any competitors without bulging bellies.

[BSN]

Flex Wheeler and Mike Francois at the 1995 Arnold Classic

[Nether Animal]

[JAGO]

Great shot, but the morphing is a bit extreme.

J

[Parker]

This.

Phils back is one of the best and Rhoden has a nice back double bi.
If Phil looks great from the back, and is kilos heavier than alot of people that competed in the 90's. There is no doubt that his lat spread is going to be better if done correctly.

Rhoden's BDB is not nice. It's laughable. He's like two different bodybuilders. One from the front, and one from the back.

[Royalty]

Even super heavyweights like Ronnie and Jay knew that they had to purposely hold in their guts (they both had guts). But they held them in the best that they could

[Parker]

Close.  But yeah, it would be hard to find many competitors from that era with big guts.  Unlike today where it is near impossible to find any competitors without bulging bellies.

Yep, Flex had that gut back in 96-97. He was trying to hold it in.

[Peter Benny]

I always remember the great front lat spreads of Phil Williams and Jacques Neuville.

[Dan-O]

I always remember the great front lat spreads of Phil Williams and Jacques Neuville.

Neuville was the only other guy in the Olympia lineup who could rival Lee Haney in back width.

[Parker]

Neuville was the only other guy in the Olympia lineup who could rival Lee Haney in back width.

Man, I am looking at his pics. He had a blocky look, and his back width wasn't all that good. Great detail from the front.

[Peter Benny]

Thinking back quite a few years ago, there are a few bodybuilders who could really pull off a tremendous front lat spread.  In their day, Willie Johnson, Paul Santos, Jim Morris, Ken Covington, George Paine, and Peter Grymkowski could really bring it.  If Tim Wescott is still posting here, he could probably identify some great front lat spreads.  His depth of knowledge regarding bodybuilding history is second to none.

[Tennisballz]

I doubt you could find a pic of flex that looks this bad:

his asscheeks look like a loaded diaper full of shit. 

[BSN]

Haney '91 / Dorian '93

[IronMeister]

[BSN]

^

[Da Freak]

Roelly looks mighty good there! Perhaps time for Dubai to adopt him.

[Nether Animal]

Che is correct, you have to slightly lean back when doing a front lat spread.

Case in point: Vince Goodrum, CSN, MFT, HPP, CEO. As you can see, Mr. Goodrum leans back, which accentuates his excellent V-taper.

Not true, he pulls forward to mitigate the longer limb length:

[Nether Animal]

his asscheeks look like a loaded diaper full of shit. 

Lmfao

[Natural_O]

Arnold and Sergio lat spreads

[Natural_O]

Phil Williams and Robby. I guess a small waist does help

[Nether Animal]

That Robby shot is perfection.

[beakdoctor]

Man, I am looking at his pics. He had a blocky look, and his back width wasn't all that good. Great detail from the front.

got to disagree. in the early 80s he was fairly aesthetic with signature french abdominal development. at the 82 Olympia he looked like a BETTER version of Zane yet Zane placed much higher than Jacques. Jacques had much better leg and back detail and thickness while looking less blocky. Jacques came in better in the next years but he never caught the judges eyes plus the competition improved alot.

 it's actually quite impressive how much the sport progressed between 82/83 and 87, 88. in a span of 5 years the production quality of the shows and the size and detail of the physiques were on a whole different level.

[Natural_O]

got to disagree. in the early 80s he was fairly aesthetic with signature french abdominal development. at the 82 Olympia he looked like a BETTER version of Zane yet Zane placed much higher than Jacques. Jacques had much better leg and back detail and thickness while looking less blocky. Jacques came in better in the next years but he never caught the judges eyes plus the competition improved alot.

 it's actually quite impressive how much the sport progressed between 82/83 and 87, 88. in a span of 5 years the production quality of the shows and the size and detail of the physiques were on a whole different level.

That's a good observation. The physiques did improve a lot in a short period of time from the early '80's to the later '80's. A lot of the '70's bodybuilders were getting older and still competing in the early 1980's (Dickerson, Zane, Boyer Coe, Tinerino) and a new group of younger bodybuilders came along around that time and made their mark on the sport in the pro ranks a couple years later (Haney, Gaspari, Labrada, Christian, DeMey).

[TheShape.]

Che is correct, you have to slightly lean back when doing a front lat spread.

Case in point: Vince Goodrum, CSN, MFT, HPP, CEO. As you can see, Mr. Goodrum leans back, which accentuates his excellent V-taper.

He is unironically doing the pose correctly 

[Van_Bilderass]

Regarding posing, it has basically never happened in the history of the sport that a pro changed/improved their posing. You can't teach posing and you can't re-learn posing once your posing style is set at the start of the bodybuilding career. So giving posing advice is completely useless.