At what age can you spot potential for bodybuilding?

[friedchickendinner]

I would say from a very early age, maybe 6-7 years or so?

If you don't show any potential by 10 then don't bother

[joswift]

why are you looking at 6-7 year old children?

[Kwon]

At what age can you spot potential for bodybuilding?

Around 48-49

[friedchickendinner]

Lee Priest

[friedchickendinner]

[Primemuscle]

Although I know what the OP meant with this thread title, it is a bit off. Anyone can be a bodybuilder. Not everyone who does will become a successful and famous competitive bodybuilder.

I've been working out since I was a kid who was inspired by some of the great bodybuilders from the past. I was a puny kid who was motivated because I wanted to have a physique like they did. Somewhere along the line, I realized that wasn't gonna happen.

I continue to workout to this day for the purpose of building and maintaining a better physique and a healthier body. I'm proud to say I am a bodybuilder. -Just not one who ever had the potential to become the next Arnold Schwarzenegger.

[SOMEPARTS]

As a pro juiced to the gills? No way to know because the guys that look the best usually have small joints. Naturally big builds like Cutler usually don't pan out. Also the ability to get lean and tolerate sides at that level right up there in importance.

[BB]

You can spot athletic performance and drive young. With aesthetics and bodybuilding, I think it comes later. A lot of it is simply being around a large pool of young bodybuilders. The gurus/schmoes throw the money and time behind a lot of them, and slowly the best pull ahead, and the also-rans get forgotten about. Much like how other sports work.

[pellius]

I think it's hard to tell just by looking at someone. Obviously, you can evaluate structure and muscle attachments, but it's the response to training, and later to hormones, that will be a good clue as to your potential. Assuming diet and training are on point, and I don't mean scientifically optimal, just that you are getting the required nutrients and doing just the basic training most start with, you will get a good idea after the first year. That age can be anywhere from your early teens to twenties. If you start bbing in your 30s I don't think you can be on the Olympia stage as you have past your prime years to achieve your full potential.

[RinkRatRN]

Like most posters would say genetics and structure really make the difference and at 10-14 you can probably have good idea about structure.  A better way to tell might be looking at what the parents look like.  My son is a hockey player and when scouts are looking at young players, they are always looking at the parents, height, structure, build and if they look generally athletic

[njflex]

I don’t compete anymore but this is age 23 and 49 yrs old

[che]

I don’t compete anymore but this is age 23 and 49 yrs old

Great look NJ ,where you natural  at 23 ?

[I Sinoda I]

I don’t compete anymore but this is age 23 and 49 yrs old

That last pic looks like you forgot to cover your wiener.

[harmankardon1]

14 .....before that not really

[njflex]

That last pic looks like you forgot to cover your wiener.

I did...

[che]

I had the greatest genetics in bodybuilding history , 16 years old  , just boxing ,some push ups and sit ups ,   no weightlifting .

[pellius]

I had the greatest genetics in bodybuilding history , 16 years old  , just boxing ,some push ups and sit ups ,   no weightlifting .

Poon must have been plentiful during those days.

[che]

Poon must have been plentiful during those days.

It was OK , nothing like my modeling/stripper days

[SOMEPARTS]

That last pic looks like you forgot to cover your wiener.

Might as well get your outing here early in the game.

[Earl1972]

for a natural that has only a year or two of training?  who knows? 

most of the greats got their pro card shortly after they began training/juicing and immediately started to win shows and place high at the olympia

i don't know of any that were stuck as amateurs for years and then became an elite pro

some point to ronnie being a late bloomer, but he never had trouble qualifying for the olympia so it wasn't exactly a rags to riches story

E

[Methyl m1ke]

I think it's hard to tell just by looking at someone. Obviously, you can evaluate structure and muscle attachments, but it's the response to training, and later to hormones, that will be a good clue as to your potential. Assuming diet and training are on point, and I don't mean scientifically optimal, just that you are getting the required nutrients and doing just the basic training most start with, you will get a good idea after the first year. That age can be anywhere from your early teens to twenties. If you start bbing in your 30s I don't think you can be on the Olympia stage as you have past your prime years to achieve your full potential.

You pretty much have to start serious heavy basic training when you are real young 14 15 tops. If you dont you will never get there and even if you go the high dose route youll never keep what you gain. Meaning, you will lose toon mucj dieting down.

[pellius]

You pretty much have to start serious heavy basic training when you are real young 14 15 tops. If you dont you will never get there and even if you go the high dose route youll never keep what you gain. Meaning, you will lose toon mucj dieting down.

Back in the 1980s when steroids were legal and you could get them from a doctor upon request, Dr. Walczak, who had a practice in Sherman Oaks, California and was the go-to doctor for all the pros in that area including Arnold and Franco, said that you make about 80% of your gains in the first year and the crucial period to see how you respond to training assuming you are getting enough nutrition and your training is decent. You will continue to improve when you get into your adult stage and then you will have to use steroids to exceed you natural genetic potential and then it depends on your genetic response to hormones. But in the end, provided you don't start too late, it doesn't make too much of a difference when you start. If you started at 16 as opposed to say 24, you'll still end up pretty much at the same level at 32 years old. You don't just continued to grow and when you reach your genetic limit that's it.

Phil Heath started serious bbing at 23 threes years old after college and his basketball phase. Within three years he was already a pro and qualified for the Olympia stage two years later at the age of of 28 at only five years of training. Something the vast majority of bber don't achieved even if they started training to five years old. He pretty much peaked in 2011-2012 at 31or 32 year old. If he started training at 14 he may have earned the same record at an earlier age but he still would end up just as big at 31-32 years old of maybe just start getting worse earlier as what had happened anyway.

[Kwon]

Me at 14 years old and had not lifted anything besides my own weight, which was effortless. If someone were looking for someone with bodybuilding potential, I doubt I'd have passed muster. I think it is pretty clear that when I said I was a rail, I wasn't kidding. I was a swimmer, a diver, a runner and an equestrian. I definitely was not a bodybuilder....as if that isn't obvious.

My quads weren't much bigger than my calve which weren't much bigger than my ankles. My upper arms are same size as my forearms. If I remember correctly, I weighed 144 lbs. and stood 5' 11 1/2" tall. My hands and feet were huge. One thing is for sure. I was definitely cut...almost to the bone. 

On the positive side, I actually had hair on my head...not a lot, but something at least.

Was that 1950?

[IroNat]

Steve Reeves at 16



Reeves at 18

[Primemuscle]

Was that 1950?

Ha, ha, I am 75 years old now. -Born in 1944. So no, it was not 1950. It was 1958. In the days of surfer hair and enormous cars with huge pointy tail fins.

Reg Park won Mr. Universe for the 2nd time in 1958.




Steve Reeves poses in the Mr. Universe competition in 1954

Arnold Shwarzenegger around the same time