Dorian on backs
New Standards and Breaking Down Mental Barriers
Over the course of my Mr. Olympia reign, I became known for setting a completely new standard for back development, in much the same way that Tom Platz had done a decade earlier when it came to legs. That’s how it usually is in any sports endeavor, like when my fellow Brit Roger Bannister ran the four-minute mile in 1954. Until then, such a feat was considered impossible. Yet once he had done it, the mental barriers came down and runners began doing it all the time.
It was much the same with back muscularity. Until I came along and set the new standard, bodybuilders never thought it was possible to build so much thickness, width, and detail in the lats. After me, Ronnie Coleman took his own back to a new level of freakiness. Not to say that his back was better than mine— he had a bit more overall size and I had more detail to mine— but you get the point.
I would never have built my back to the proportions I did, had it not been for a few champions who came before me. Foremost on the list would be the man who won eight Mr. Olympia titles just before my reign began, Lee Haney. Lee’s structure alone had all the makings of a great back: very wide clavicles and a very small waist. So even before he started adding muscle back there, he already had a pronounced V-taper. While he was Mr. Olympia, one of Haney’s most formidable physique weapons was his wide, thick back. It wasn’t overly detailed, but it was still better than anything we had seen before in his predecessors.
The man who actually proved to be my greatest inspiration to make my back a strong point was the late Momo Benaziza. Momo beat me the first time I competed as a pro at the 1990 Night of Champions. It was the only time I was ever beaten as a pro, and the loss stung. The main reason Benaziza beat me was his thick, rugged back. It had such depth and was etched in detail all the way from his traps down to his draping lower lats, and it made mine pale in comparison at the time. Right then and there, I set it in my mind to get that same look for my own back, and for inspiration, I tacked up back shots of Momo at my home and at my gym.
Why Don’t We See More Great Backs?
Since Ronnie retired, I haven’t seen many backs in pro bodybuilding that I considered exceptional. I suppose this Joel Stubbs bloke from the Bahamas would qualify, but it’s hard to give him full credit since he doesn’t have a very complete physique overall (light in the legs). If you ask most bodybuilders why they don’t have great backs, they will often give the excuse that only a handful of guys with very lucky genetics are capable of building backs like me or Ronnie. I can’t speak for Ronnie, but I don’t think there was anything very special about my genetics in that area. It’s true that my lats do insert very low, but I see plenty of pros with similar attachments.
Momo outclassing Haney's back
