The 2006 CBBF Canadian Fitness & Figure Championships – A Bodybuilding Show without Poses!

At this year’s CBBF Canadian Fitness & Figure Championships, over 90 superbly conditioned athletes journeyed to Edmonton, Alberta, many with the dream of competing for their province at Canada’s top figure/fitness competition. A lot of these athletes arrived in Edmonton excited, apprehensive, and enthusiastic at the prospect of standing on stage and competing against their peers. However, something went wrong – what should have been a fun, rewarding and fulfilling experience, turned into a disappointing exercise in frustration for many. So what happened? 

In my opinion, it was the standard that the winners displayed in terms of condition and muscle development, which was unattainable for the majority of the other competitors. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t intend to demean or single out any of the winners, as they did what they think they have to do in order to win, but I must confess that I really didn’t have an answer for a lot of the disappointed athletes who came up to me following the show, complaining that they were totally frustrated with the huge mass and muscularity that many of the top winners possessed. Most claimed that there is no way they could ever begin to develop such a physique, at least not naturally. Many told me the only reason they got out of bodybuilding was to get away from the excessive size and muscularity required to be competitive. They were simply looking for an alternative competition in place of bodybuilding, and figure was the perfect answer. Now the same excessive muscularity and thick muscular development is creeping into figure, which is the reason why women’s bodybuilding is just about dead.

Figure competitions are growing, with huge numbers of girls filling out the many categories in competitions all across Canada. Obviously, these women are trying to tell us something! But are we listening? From what I saw at this year’s CBBF Canadian Fitness & Figure Championships, the answer is no! This became clear when many of these dissatisfied competitors confided in me that they would not compete again at the national level until things changed. In fact, they were looking at other organizations where excessive development is scored down.

I will argue this fact with anyone: The look that many competitors displayed at this competition is literally impossible to achieve without the help of performance-enhancing drugs. Yes, I probably hit a nerve, and if anyone is offended, send me the results of your negative drug test and I will apologize. In fact, we just ran the CBBF National World Qualifier in Toronto where the winners are officially drug tested, and I saw very few winners from the Canadian Fitness & Figure Championships there other than Ontario’s symmetrical and beautifully shaped Marnie Holley. Marnie won the Tall class in fitness at the Canadian Championships and then went on to take the Tall class at the Qualifier, earning a spot on the Canadian team to the IFBB World Championships. In my opinion, Marnie sports the ideal structure and conditioning that I feel the judges should look at as a model. It is puzzling that there seems to be different criteria for picking fitness winners, as they don’t seem to possess the same muscular development as the figure winners.

I have covered the bodybuilding scene for close to 30 years, and many of this year’s top figure athletes at the CBBF Canadian Fitness & Figure Championships looked to me more like bodybuilders than figure athletes. The noticeably deep voices, square jaws, wide shoulders, narrow hips, flowing full muscles are something I have seen in the relaxed lineup at women’s bodybuilding competitions for many years. In fact, I found myself often bored with the endless relaxed comparison poses in this figure competition and was hoping the chief judge would instruct the lineup to hit a front-double-biceps pose!

My question is: Who is setting the criteria for what we should be looking for in CBBF amateur figure competitions? It is my understanding that the purpose of promoting the Canadian Championships is to find and reward the winners with the opportunity of turning pro and competing against the best pro figure competitors in the world. Have any of the CBBF judges even seen an IFBB pro figure competition? Have they even studied the contest reports in the magazines or on the Internet to see just who is winning these pro shows? 

I have seen every Figure and Fitness Olympia competition as well as every Figure and Fitness International competition (part of the Arnold Classic) held to date, and, yes, the winners display impressive muscularity and shape, but the size and mass is toned down. I use the sexy and exquisitely shaped Monica Brant as an example. I have known and seen her compete since 1990 and no one, under any stretch of the imagination, could ever accuse her of possessing excessive muscular development. In fact, if the judges didn’t know who she was, I wonder how she would have placed at this year’s CBBF Canadian Figure Championships if she had entered. In spite of her less than massive musculature, she has consistently placed in the top three in pro figure competitions for the past several years.

Without question, the CBBF has to address the growing problem of picking overly muscular women for their winners in figure competitions. What are we doing? Didn’t the IFBB issue a directive instructing officials to score down excessive muscular development with the 20%-less rule? If that was the case at this year’s figure/fitness championships, I didn’t see it!

I think the problem is with our judges. Most have a background in men’s bodybuilding and that is what they are comfortable judging. So, all their judging is based on muscle and muscularity and it takes a really trained eye to look beyond these obvious criteria. They have to be educated to change those ideals into looking for balance, pleasing shape, grace, poise, natural physical beauty, and eye-pleasing esthetics. 

Ask yourself this question: If you had a product to sell, would you want that particular winner to represent your company in an ad for a product that you wanted to market to the public? Would your customers find this model attractive? If the answer is no, then there’s a problem.

If we want our sport to grow, turning off the public is not the answer. We are even turning off many of our own competitors! I fear that if this trend continues, figure competitions in Canada will go the way of women’s bodybuilding. So let’s get our act together, develop strict guidelines, and have the guts to reverse this disturbing trend of picking excessive size and muscularity before it is too late; in fact, I fear that the genie is already out of the bottle and it may be too late to put her back in!

...Garry Bartlett
garryb@seriousaboutmuscle.com

SeriousAboutMuscle.com contributor Garry Bartlett is the leading authority on Canadian bodybuilding, fitness and figure. Garry's "Canadian Corner" column has appeared in MuscleMag for over 25 years and has provided an unsurpassed level of exposure and publicity for Canadian bodybuilding, fitness and figure enthusiasts.