3 November 2009
UAE will become the centre of attention when they stage the inaugural Men’s World Bodybuilding Championships this weekend at Al Ahli Club Indoor Hall. “Clarity, symmetry, proportion, these are three main things we are looking for and, of course, the posing, the overall performance on the stage,” said Christina Y. Kam, Executive Director of the Asian Bodybuilding and Fitness Federation (ABBF) who is one of the top women judges in men’s bodybuilding.
She expressed hope that women bodybuilders would also be allowed in the Middle East, although the President of the World Bodybuilding and Physique Sports Federation (WBPF), Osama Ahmad Al Shafar, ruled out against it because it is against Islamic culture.
Nevertheless, UAE will get an opportunity to see the best athletes parade their rippling torsos with 74 countries having confirmed their participation.
“We have weight 10 categories from 55kg to over 100kg with the heaviest European being a German (123kg) and an Austrian (126kg). It will be interesting to watch,” said Axel Bauer, Vice-President of the European federation who has been associated with the sport for the past 24 years.
“We have seven compulsory poses such as front upper biceps, front biceps, triceps, abdominals and thighs. The next round is the posing routine — 60 seconds routine to music of their choice. Then they pose it out by standing next to one another,” explained Bauer on how points are given. “It’s not a subjective impression of a physique,” he added. Asked how athletes maintained their physique, he said: “For shows, athletes try to reduce body fat to the minimum as the muscles can be displayed best when the body fat is very low and the water is very low. When the athletes go on stage, that’s the peak performance,” said Bauer. The Austrian believes that bodybuilding is an ideal sport for youths. “In performance oriented sports, the top athletes of course they train very different from the normal person on the street. The bodybuilding lifestyle is healthy for everyone. Everyone can do weight training, with guidance of course. What we called Bodybuilding or Physique Sports is something that the general public can relate to. You are a body and you have a mind. You look according to what your physique looks. If you want to look good, weight training is a very good means to keep fit, to keep the lean body mass,” said Bauer.
Contrary to the general belief that bodybuilders are stiff shouldered hulks, Bauer said that some of them are as flexible as gymnasts. “Some athletes might look a bit awkward because they have big muscles but a lot of our athletes are very flexible. When they show the poses on stage, you cannot see what flexibility they have. But some athletes show a routine where you can see they act like a gymnast,” he said.
There is also a common perception that bodybuilders look ugly. “I know they don’t look pretty,” said Bauer. “But it’s the sort of look the bodybuilding community likes.”
He said ideally “an athlete looks good with wide shoulders, small waist and hip structure, not exactly big muscles but well toned.” But nowadays, he says, there are athletes especially in the heavy weight someone six foot tall weighing 125kg “that’s huge”. He admits this look is not appreciated by everyone. “But most athletes look very good,” he said. On the inevitable question of drug abuse in bodybuilding, Bauer said: “This is something which affects all performance oriented sports. We have an anti-doping programme that is completely in line with the WADA (world’s anti-doping agency) code. We are going to do random tests because without doping control we cannot do sport,” said Bauer who is a lawyer by profession.
