Throwing pebbles at the Great Wall of The IFBB….
How many pebbles would you need to throw to knock down the Great Wall? Heck — how many pebbles would you need to throw to even make a dent?
I need to know. Why? Well, you see, that guy down there — the one chucking pebbles at the wall? Yeah, that’s me.
I believe that the SPORT of bodybuilding is a powerful and brilliant endeavor. Yet I am also convinced that the sport is lost and buried behind the Great Wall of the industry, the media, and the competitive “powers that be.” In short, we have a sport with NO RULE BOOK being practiced by people who claim expertise. If there are no rules, then how can one be an expert? Fling — there goes one of those pebbles . . .
Now, there ARE base rules and practices to the sport. They have just not yet been academically delineated and published under peer review and approval. The only thing CLOSE to standards that we currently have are based on PRIVATELY OWNED regulations. They are not impartial, and thus not fair. Each league has it’s own “version” of the sport. No one has the same rules. How can this sport be regulated without a standard set of rules for practice?
The answer: it can’t. it would be like McDonald’s owning the police force. If McDonald’s was the police, well, just imagine what would happen if a Burger King got held up . . .
Fling . . . another pebble.
Ironically, if you ask for rules and criteria for judging, you rarely get clear, academic standards. Most often, all leagues will offer is some arbitrary verbal explanation that is not only convoluted, but often self-contradicting. it’s like they’re making it up off the top of their head. The few that can offer a written document (and VERY FEW CAN offer one), it is equally vague, and often uses terms that are not defined within the document itself, making it essentially ineffective as an explanation.
So, here I sit, on the OTHER side of that wall, flinging pebbles. Given enough time, i’ll make SOME sort of dent.
In the meantime, I am trying to incorporate voices from the OTHER side of the wall in my radio show and podcast. (If you’ve been asleep at the wheel, I have a podcast called The big Inside — listen to episodes art thebiginside.com, or subscribe for free on iTunes.) I figure that relevant voices might add some power, and turn pebbles into rocks.
One of the first notable voices will be Eddie Robinson. Eddie wiill be on The Big Inside on the Monday January 7th broadcast (the podcast version will be uploaded to the site a day or two after the airing).
Eddie is no stranger to the “game” of the bodybuilding world. He has been awash in the arena for nearly two decades. Sure, it’s obvious he was not among the most “integral” (a.k.a., “non-drug-using”) bodybuilders when he was at his height. But much of his decision to pull back from the IFBB heights was based on the insanity of the demands.
On the program, I do not intend to herald him as some sort of unsung hero of bodybuilding reform. Yet I also do not intend to roast him alive, either. Those who know my “style” know I am pretty sharp at “pulling responses” from people (which is a polite way of saying I am a brilliant conversational saboteur when I am getting fed a line of crap). My pebbles may not harm the Great Wall of the IFBB, but once I separate a warrior, a single pebble can easily take down a mighty Goliath.
Yet that is not my aim. My bag of pebbles are saved for that massive wall of bullsh1t, behind which is hidden the authentic sport of bodybuilding. So, I have no intention of beaning Eddie square between the eyes.
No no. It is much more useful to hand him his OWN bag of pebbles . . .
I find that, when allowed to toss, most people also take aim at the Great Walls of nonsense in their lives. Eddie and I may not share similar paths, or even similar goals. But on The Big Inside, we’re all about the HUMAN journey. And since the Great Wall of the IFBB is about anything EXCEPT for human compassion, well, Eddie need not even have a contrary opinion to be of use in the war to set bodybuilding upright.
In short, I am excited to talk to him. Indeed, on a total side note, I remember Eddie from my teenage years from the old mags. He was — among others — notorious for over-the-top, in-your-face photo shoots — the kind that romanticize bodybuilding as uber-heroic and where SOMEHOW guys who wore daisy-duke cut-offs, stripe spandex hot shorts and string Y-back tanktops all looked, well, TOUGH instead of cheesy.
Eddie Robinson’s image was profoundly controlled. He was always represented as both over-the-top as well as almost a goofball. (But MOSTLY as over-the-top.) He was part of a media generation that made bodybuilding a bigger-then-life series of mythological characters.
In the media, Eddie’s generation (with Matarazzo, DeMay, Quinn, DeMayo, Baker, etc.) was about the imagery of the bodybuilding MYTH that got built up from the Schwarzenegger/Zane/Ferrigno/Columbo media that focused on the LEGENDS surrounding the sport.
Legends (the attainable destination) became transformed into myths (the unattainable goal) during the era Robinson was big in the IFBB. What is it like to be part of THAT media machine? And wasn’t this same sort of media skewing a large part of the problem we now have today — that there is a lack off standard in the sport? Did not the myth-touting larger-than-life boys of the late 80’s and early-to-mid 90’s set a stage for a sloppier competitive field? Were they just obeying a mandate, or are they culpable for perhaps having laid some bricks into the Great Wall itself, thus helping hide away the "authentic version" of the sport for the next generations?
Fling.
You see, people like Eddie become important to interview because they will shed light on these questions, if not perhaps offer viable answers.
Although it may at first, on the surface, seem like I am "fraternizing with the enemy," when you take a closer look and understand the focus it is actually about building an ally. Regardless of whether Eddie Robinson — or Lee priest or ANY of the upcoming "bodybuilding and training insiders" — agree with my standpoint, their willingness to share and speak and talk frankly is where their value comes in.
Each word from their lips becomes another pebble for my hands.
And lord knows it’s gonna take a lot more before that damn wall finally starts to crack.
REMEMBER: LISTEN TO XN’S INTERVIEW WITH IFBB PRO EDDIE ROBINSON ON THE BIG INSIDE PODCAST, FOUND AT THEBIGINSIDE.COM. (Episode # TBI-009, available after 1/8/08.)
