PROFESSIONAL BODYBUILDING FOR WOMEN:
A PROPOSAL

What Changes Should Be Made To IFBB Pro Women’s Contests?

By Bill Dobbins

Reports indicate the IFBB might no longer be sanctioning professional bodybuilding for women after the 1999 Ms. Olympia contest. Instead, we are told, there will some other organization sanctioning the pro women’s contests. While this announcement came as a shock to many at first, careful consideration should reveal that this is a blessing in disguise.

Women’s bodybuilding has been very limited and constrained under the supervision of the IFBB. Those who have been around bodybuilding since the 1970s will remember when Ben Weider brought in the late Oscar State, who had been a long-time official in Olympic weightlifting, to make bodybuilding competition more Olympic-like in its rules and procedures. While bodybuilding benefited in many ways from this make-over, it suffered as well. Olympic-like procedures may have made the sport seem more "respectable," but this came as the expense of limiting its ability to generate excitement. Particularly where the women were concerned.

It remains to be seen what kind of organization comes into being to take the place of the IFBB as a sanctioning body for professional women’s bodybuilding. But following are some recommendations for how women’s competition can be staged to make it more attractive and exciting to the fans.

WEIGHT CLASSES
I recommend that pro bodybuilding shows for women be held in weight classes. As it is now, smaller women who earn their pro cards have a choice of either remaining uncompetitive when compared to the biggest bodybuilders in the lineups or of "bulking up" in a (most often unsuccessful) attempt to match their size and density, losing much of their aesthetic appeal in the process. Because of the domination of the really big women bodybuilders in the pro ranks, many of the smaller amateurs no longer harbor pro aspirations, or even consider dropping bodybuilding altogether, losing size and competing in fitness – a process that has NEVER worked for ANYONE!

But if the pros compete as lightweights, middleweights and heavyweights (the exact weight cut-offs to be determined), even if there is an "overall" winner as well, smaller women will have a chance to win titles and more amateurs will be motivated to compete and professionals, which might well lead to their being more competitions scheduled for the female pros.

THE WEIGH-IN
With weight classes, you need to conduct a weigh-in. I recommend that the weigh-in be open to the public, when practical, and perhaps that fans be able to attend by purchasing special tickets. This gives the fans a way to become involved behind-the-scenes in a more up-close-and-personal way. Also, as Iron Man publisher John Balik has pointed out, fans are always interested in exactly how tall a competitor is or how much she weighs in competition shape. Holding a public weigh-in and publishing the stats helps to satisfy this curiosity.

PRE-JUDGING
I recommend that pro bodybuilding for women use a modified version of the NPC judging system, rather than that of the IFBB. I have written elsewhere about the problems of the IFBB system, with rounds judged separately. There is really no such thing as "symmetry" or "muscularity" as SEPARATE AND DISTINCT features of a physique. Judges should always look at EVERYTHING at all times. And the way perception works, the longer you look at something the more details your brain recognizes and records. Asking judges to write down a score for a round, when they have had very little time to study a whole stage full of competitors, means that even the best judges sometimes come to regret by the end of the contest the scores they wrote down early in prejudging.

In this proposed system, the women in a weight class would come out on stage altogether and be compared "standing relaxed" in groups up to five. No individual "standing relaxed" is necessary. Bodybuilding competition is about COMPARISION. After the judges have seen what they need to, the competitors would be called out for comparisons doing the mandatory poses – INCLUDING LAT SPREADS. Furthermore, as with the NPC system, judges could make final determinations by asking for any pose they want – "Show us your best leg shot," or "Let’s see your best most-muscular." There is no need to limit the information given to the judges. They should be able to see whatever they feel they need to see. And professional bodybuilders should be competent enough to do any pose required.

After this round, the women would return and each would do a 90 second posing routine, wearing standard posing suits. This should ideally be done to music, if practical considerations permit.

SCORING
At the end of prejudging, the judges would rank the competitors from each class in order. But this is a provisional score, not a final one. The judges will be given an opportunity to modify these placings during the finals. But these scores should be "official," that is part of the published record of the contest. (All scoring should be published, as it is with the NPC; especially when the bodybuilders are competing for money.)

FINALS
The basis of the finals would be, as it is now, individual posing routines. However, PROPS AND COSTUMES would be allowed. The competitors would not be limited to standard posing suits, but would be free to wear any kind of suit they wish, providing it shows the physique – which means some kind of bikini. In other words, if a woman begins her posing wearing a cape or jacket, she would need to discard those garments in the course of her routine in order to allow the judges and audience to see her physique. Thongs and T-back suits would be permitted. The most reasonable stipulation is probably this: If you can show it on television, you can wear it in the show; if television standards deem it "indecent," you cant. Given television standards nowadays, that should give everyone as much freedom to be creative with their costumes as needed.

Since the judges have seen the women pose during prejudging, the emphasis on the final round presentation would be on creativity. That is, they still need to display their physiques, to emphasize that they have muscle, but they also need to put on a show, to be interesting and exciting. This performance should be such that it is appropriate to the bodybuilding physique – no "dancing bears" routines such as I wrote about in my article on "Why Women’s Posing Sucks." The idea is still to convince the judges you are the best bodybuilder, but if the sport is going to survive and prosper it also needs to become more entertaining and exciting to the fans.

FINALS JUDGING
For the finals, the judges would have the opportunity to change their prejudging scores based on the presentations they see. The changes need to be within reason. Moving a competitor one place up or down would be common. Moving somebody two places up or down would need to be justified. Any changes more dramatic than this should be very rare and require some explanation by the head judge.

The prejudging and finals scores would not be cumulative. The judges would still turn in ONLY ONE SCORE, the score the judges arrive at after seeing the final posing routines. Prejudging and finals scores would be published in order to show the evolution of the scoring over the course of the contest, but only the final score (prejudging plus modifications) would count.

POSEDOWN
The top 10 would be announced, and then the top five in each weight class would return to the stage for a posedown, wearing their regular posing suits. During the course of the posedown, the judges would have one last change to modify their placings. At this point the modifications should be very few. A judge should feel very strongly to change placings at this late date, but he or she can if it is deemed absolutelyessential.

The scores would be calculated and the winners announced.

OVERALL
Once the judging is completed for all three weight classes, the three weight class winners would return to the stage for the judges to pick an overall winner, the overall winner being whoever gets the most votes from the judging panel, as is done now in NPC events. But the judges scoring for the overall should be published, which is not done currently.

SUMMATION
At this stage, this is just a proposal and open to input, criticism and modification. But the bottom-line is this: We need more exciting contests, we need more women in the pro ranks, we have to find ways of allowing smaller women to compete successfully and we need to increase both contest attendance and fan enthusiasm. Limiting pro female bodybuilding to be "respectable," sport-like and Olympic-like by introducing procedures and standards that have nothing to do with the actual nature of the sport has held it back for some considerable time, and some changes need to be made.