pellius,
Whenever I watch the movie "Forgetting Sarah Marshall", I always think about your posts.
I also envision this being how the fight between you and RatherBe240orBust would have gone down had it come to fruition:
[press 6-7 repeatedly for this fight to go on continuously, LOL]
^ Honestly, that's how I envision you laying waste to 240orBust.
You ended up running him off the board, which is funny.
I've always wondered what the hell Jay did that year to achieve such a dramatic improvement. He was already a multi Mr. O winner and was there anything new under the sun that he wasn't already doing and taking? At that stage, everyone is pretty much maxed out size-wise and then it's all about conditioning, but Jay got bigger and was just as conditioned as 2001. And why was he never able to duplicate it?
In an interview with MDTV after his 2010 Mr. Olympia win, he said that after the contest was over, he went home and crawled into a ball, because he was so dehydrated. So he was obviously REALLY pushing the limits in terms of cutting for that contest, and I assume he did the same thing in 2010, as he was at least 5% sharper in 2009.
You bring up a good question...honestly, I wondered the same thing. Maybe he just realized that he only had so many good years left, and decided to just push it to the absolute maximum, and took risks even larger than his normal risks. It's hard to say though...I'm not certain about that, but...it's possible he just did even more of the same stuff. Just upped an already high dose. Otherwise, as you said, what more was left for him to take, when he was taking everything and the kitchen sink? Lol. Or everything but the kitchen sink.
I know that most will say more drugs or legit kigtropins or access to increlex... but I think the drugs were always there. I'm going to make the far fetched speculation that it was his training and mindset. Don't be fooled by Jay's pleasant easy-going demeanor. I think that year he was driven like a man possessed. It was a huge blow losing to Dexter and he had this one chance to make history and reclaim the title legitimately (I don't count Arnold because of all the mitigating factors). To just blow everybody's mind and have people look at him, shake their head, and say "WTF?" To make a lasting mark and go down in history.
I know it's a common belief here that at that top of the top level it's all drugs but maybe, just maybe, training and the do or die mindset still plays a role.
Great post. Good points.
Honestly, I would side with what Flex Wheeler said in the wrap-up video for the 2007 Mr. Olympia contest where he said that Jay deserved to place "maybe 5th" that year. It must be sad being an "Uncrowned Mr. Olympia" like Flex to see someone win the contest who probably did deserve 4th or 5th.
Realistically, at BEST, where did Jay deserve to place in 2007? Maybe 3rd? I see no way that he could have beaten Victor Martinez and Dennis Wolf. I think a good argument could be made for Dexter Jackson beating Jay in 2007, and even a misshapen and injured Ronnie could have possibly kept his 4th position. Basically, I could see this switch - here are the original 2007 placings:
1st: Jay Cutler.
2nd: Victor Martinez
3rd: Dexter Jackson
4th: Ronnie Coleman
5th: Dennis Wolf
Switched to this:
1st: Victor Martinez
2nd: Dennis Wolf
3rd: Dexter Jackson
4th: Ronnie Coleman
5th: Jay Cutler.
So basically, Dexter Jackson and Ronnie Coleman maintaining their placings, but with Victor winning, and seeing the big switches in positions for Cutler and Wolf.
Or else, what might have been realistic? How about this?:
1st: Victor Martinez
2nd: Dexter Jackson
3rd: Dennis Wolf
4th: Jay Cutler
5th: Ronnie Coleman
IMO, Victor or Dennis won that contest. I would probably give it to Victor since I felt he was more complete [better back]. Jay was off in terms of conditioning, and Ronnie was injured, and down in size. Dexter was his usual excellent shape, so I think 3rd would be fair for him. Maybe even Dexter being ahead of Wolf [as was the case in actuality], once again, because of completeness of his physique [back - as Dennis Wolf had an undeveloped lower back, compared to the others in the top five].
I think Dexter Jackson was roughly 3rd in 2007, and Ronnie was roughly 4th. Victor was roughly 2nd...but obviously that makes a world of difference when it would have been his only Mr. Olympia win. It's not like the difference between placing 7th and 8th, after all!
I would say that everyone was within a place or two from where they deserved with the exception of Jay. I would not have placed him higher than 4th in 2007. Flex Wheeler's exact words [as I mentioned above] were, I believe, that Jay was good for "maybe 5th".
I would have had no problems with Jay placing 4th that year.
Oh...and speaking about what he did to achieve that condition...Jay actually said that he made some "last minute adjustments" before the night show. Uhh...how exactly does a bodybuilder make "last minute adjustments"? Is it just adding a LASIX tablet or something? Exactly what else can a bodybuilder do at the last minute to radically change his physique? I remember Craig Titus once writing in Muscular Development magazine that he made some "last minute adjustments" too.
I never understood that expression.
In any case, I think what happened is that since it was obvious that Jay was given a gift in 2007 - possibly one of the most outrageous placings ever for a Mr. Olympia contest, IMO, that the next year, the judges were particularly harsh on him. I would even say that Jay improved in 2008, and Dexter looked worse, and yet Dexter won.
Then in 2009, we all saw what happened.
Interestingly, in 2007, Jay had loose skin under his pecs. Yet in 2009, his chest was as sharp as I had ever seen it.
I'm extremely curious as to how it happened. I really have no idea. But hey, it is what it is.
The photo below compares Jay from 2007, 2008, and 2009. I'm amazed at how such seemingly minor differences make tremendous differences in practice. I don't think this photo is quite clear enough to show what I meant about his loose skin under his pecs, but that problem was gone in 2009:
