The lines we love: balancing your proportions makes for a winning look - For the Competitor - achieving overall muscle maturity

From the moment you step onstage in a figure or fitness contest, the judges begin scrutinizing your physique, and with a dash of the pencil, they assign you a spot in the pecking order of perfection. While taking in the whole of your presentation, one thing commands their close inspection: the proportion of muscle on all parts of your body. Those lines that you create when genetics meet training and diet are the key factor in physique placement, eclipsing the size and muscularity issues that weigh heavily in bodybuilding, reports Rich Gaspari, pro judge and three-time Mr. Olympia runner-up.

"We want to have fitness fit more into the mainstream," Rich comments on today's more cautiously turned-out fitness physique. "Doing too much heavy weight training, competitors can have that blocky look where their waists look thick. I look for a smaller waist and slightly broader shoulders, and good, muscular legs, but not overly muscular There's a fine line between showing enough muscle on your frame and being too muscular.

"You want to have a little muscularity in the lats," he adds. "Some girls have no back at all and look straight; you can't have that. You want a bit of the taper, and a little development in the shoulder, but not overly developed to show 'caps.' The glutes should have some fullness and roundness, and there should be a slight fullness in the thighs. I think a lot of women neglect calves. That's a sexy body-part for a woman. When they walk onstage in their heels, I want to see a bit of calf development. It's important to have a balance of development throughout your physique."

Made to Order

Sound like a tall order? Reproportioning the physique is a show-to-show endeavor, with most competitors experimenting to find the right formula to achieve those winning lines.

"All I've got to do is look at my legs and say, 'Get big,' and they get big," quips fitness pro Adela Garcia-Friedmansky, who regularly measures her quads. "When I first started lifting, all I did was squat. I didn't do calves, I didn't do upper body."

By incorporating running, sprinting, stadium steps, Spinning and boot-camp class plyometrics, along with high-rep superset leg training in the gym, Adela has been able to bring down her thigh size so they no longer overpower her 5' 1/4" frame (from 23 inches at her former "thicker" size, to 21 1/2 inches in the off-season and 19 1/2 inches at contest time). Simultaneously, she has improved the shape of her glutes and balanced her smaller calves.

Bodyfat composition is a significant factor, Adela points out. Just as muscle size itself can throw off your proportions, where and how your fat settles can throw you off course. Though you can't change your genetics, you can tweak your diet and cardio to overcome problem areas. Adela is more careful in how she presents her physique onstage as well. "Doing quarter turns, I used to bring my rear arm to the front to show the side chest, like a bodybuilder, until my trainer told me to keep my arm down. It looked like way too much pec development."

Since her pro fitness debut in 1998, Stacy Simons has also been retooling her physique to develop her optimal lines. "The judges have always said that my back is too big," she comments. "I try to emphasize working on more of a cap on my delts so my back looks more in proportion, but I refuse to go lighter. To me, my back is my strong point, and I like lifting heavy."

Because judges have also pinpointed her quads as too large, Stacy focused first on bringing up her hams to match, then taking the entire leg size down. "At the 2001 Fitness Olympia, they were the size I like them to be; it's just a matter of tightening them up more."

As with many competitors, Stacy's childhood sports have contributed to the over-development of a specific bodypart. "From so many years of diving and twisting, I've built up my obliques on my left side, which can make me look a bit blocky at times," she explains. A one-two diet-cardio punch helps her whittle her waist.

The reassuring element that both Stacy and Adela point to is muscle maturity. Prescriptive training over time--training that focuses on selectively adding or subtracting muscle with the goal of improving overall shape and proportion--can help you attain the optimum level of symmetry for your physique. It also provides rewards that go way beyond the size of your trophy.

COPYRIGHT 2002 Weider Publications
COPYRIGHT 2003 Gale Group