A New Era of Muscular Perfection: Does the Age of the Mass Monsters Come to an End?

The era of "mass monsters" in the world of bodybuilding began with the explosive triumph of Dorian Yates and his almost 270 pounds at the 1992 Mr. Olympia contest. A year earlier, one of the greatest bodybuilding champions, Lee Haney, had won the title for the eighth time, respecting the classic aesthetics of the physiques presented until then in the most important of the bodybuilding contests. However, Dorian Yates completely changed the rules of the game. Yates became the heaviest Mr. Olympia and with the greatest amount of muscle, sacrificing aesthetics for pure muscular volume. Yates opened the doors for other monsters like Nasser El Sonbaty, Paul Dillett, Markus Ruhl, and the legendary Big Ramy. Yates also showed the way to characters like the enormous Ronnie Coleman, who did not hesitate to follow the path and add as much muscle as possible to his body.

This new aesthetic shift in the world of bodybuilding, however, relegated some of the previously important participants in the contest, such as Flex Wheeler, Shawn Ray, and Kevin Levrone. The era of mass monsters dictated that beyond excessive aesthetics, classic lines, and harmonious proportion, the new aesthetic was muscle and extreme condition. Characters like the aforementioned Yates, El Sonbaty, and Ruhl, undertook to acquire more muscle per centimeter of their body than any other human being in history had done. Proportion was sacrificed for the obsession with size, reaching its highest point with the triumph, two consecutive years (2020 and 2021), of the Egyptian Mamdouh Mohammed Hassan Elssbiay, better known as Big Ramy, who presented himself to compete with more than 330 pounds of weight in that scenario.

While characters like Hadi Choopan, Derek Lunsford, and Nick Walker have been responsible for continuing the trend towards extreme volume in the traditional (open) Mr. Olympia, other characters have begun to forge their own history from other trenches, surprising the world with voluminous and highly worked physiques, but extremely aesthetic, sacrificing size to reclaim the classic aesthetics of the bodybuilders of the 70s, added to the contemporary extreme condition (minimal fat levels). Chris Bumstead, a Canadian bodybuilder, has established himself as the great representative of the Classic Physique category of the Mr. Olympia, which prioritizes aesthetics and proportion over volume. Bumstead, who has won the title six consecutive times, has given colossal popularity to the category and has renewed a great interest on the part of the public in the classic physiques beyond extreme size.

Keone Pearson is another character who needs to be talked about. Winner of the title for two consecutive years (2023 and 2024), Keone has drawn the attention of the public and many of the bodybuilders today. Pearson is currently considered one of the bodybuilders with the best genetics in the world of bodybuilding, with many considering him the heir to the almost perfect aesthetics of Flex Wheeler. Keone has become the great favorite of the Mr. Olympia 202-212 category. After two consecutive titles, Keone makes us wonder if he could be capable of making the big jump to the open Mr. Olympia, gaining more weight without losing his proportions, as the 2021 winner, Derek Lunsford did, winning the open Mr. Olympia two years later. Everything seems to indicate that the future of bodybuilding has Bumstead and Keone as two of its main protagonists.

After winning the title for the sixth consecutive time, Bumstead dropped a bomb by announcing his retirement. The bomb exploded for the second time a couple of days later when Bumstead announced his intention to participate in an open contest in Prague. For this "comeback," Bumstead announced that he would seek to gain more weight, while maintaining proportion and condition, something complicated, but that would help him cause a great impact. There are even some who say that, if he wins the contest in Prague, Bumstead would be looking to participate in the open Mr. Olympia in 2025, which would be colossal news. I have no doubt that Chris Bumstead and Keone Pearson have been key to a return to the classic physiques of the 70s and 80s. Bumstead and Pearson's offensive has made a dent in the armor of the mass monsters, to the point that their influence seems to have reached the traditional open Mr. Olympia, in which this year Samson Dauda prevailed, a character with a much more aesthetic and proportioned physique than that of the previous champions, Choopan and Lunsford.

Bumstead's participation in an open competition, forced to present himself with more weight, is undoubtedly a great risk. Something akin to professional suicide, which is still complicated for the career of a great consecrated. If he wins, Bumstead could be considered responsible for giving a strong aesthetic turn to the current bodybuilding. Personally, I consider myself an admirer of the era of the mass monsters like Yates and Coleman, more for their brutal dedication to training than for their proportions. However, it is clear that for the general public, many of them not so familiar with brutal volume, a return to more harmonious physiques would be healthy at this time for the sport in general. Will the era of mass monsters be coming to an end? Would Bumstead be the spearhead for the return of classic aesthetics to the world of bodybuilding?