The last time I competed was in 1991, I was 29 then. Now I'm finally getting ready for my first show in 16 years and even though I've kept up with the times so to speak, and as I look around my gym, read these boards and read about peoples different training philosophies, I've came to the realization that BBing is no longer about lifting weights and dieting......it's about (and in this order), drugs, diet, cardio and then weights.
I'm about as old school as one can get and when I read or see about how most people nowadays are getting ready for shows, it's almost laughable because I seriously don't think that SOME people really understand what it took or takes to get really ready to compete. IMO, it's about hitting the weights hard, dieting HARD, some gear and cardio, but again, it's drugs, 2 hours or cardio and about 45MINS OF WEIGHTS.....wtf??
Now I know why most people (pros especially) do more cardio than actually train with weights and of course it's because they rely more on the gear than they do on their actual weight training and diet...........but here's the thing, even though they do more cardio than weight train, and even though they're bigger, they're also smoother, sure some are harder, but 90% lack clear separation and striations no matter how much cardio they do.
Well, there's my rant for the evening, take it for what it's worth and even though I'm going to do it again and after looking at todays competitors, I'm still convinced that BBing's best days are behind us, people have relied on gear and are much lazier because of it.
Personally, I prefer old school training and sucking it up on a diet up until the day of a show. Like the old saying used to be............."if you don't look like you're dieing on stage, you didn't diet hard enough".
Funny how some think that nowadays is "hardcore"...........ha, you've NEVER seen hardcore until you've trained or got ready for a show old school!!!