Melvin Anthony talks about new school bodybuilders and their training ethic.
Melvin Anthony is a bodybuilder that was in his prime between the second Golden Era of the 90s and the modern era we see today. He competed from the late 90s through to 2008. So he brings an interesting perspective on the recent debate about modern bodybuilding. Is the quality not up to par with the 90s and earlier? Or is this an unfair criticism? Do bodybuilders today not train as hard as earlier eras? In our latest GI Exclusive interview, Melvin Anthony believes that bodybuilders train very hard today… but thinks they can also train harder.
Melvin Anthony doesn’t want to to knock the new school era of bodybuilders. He understands how general sweeping statements can paint a broad stroke on a very diverse group of athletes. That’s why when we asked him about the current state of bodybuilding – he was very careful with his words. He doesn’t think that there is a bad training ethic in bodybuilders today – but he does think that it could push to the next level to match the greats of yesteryear.
In fact, history is very important to Melvin Anthony. He worries that we are not focusing enough on the history of bodybuilding to learn from what was done in the past. Anthony thinks that social media and short attention spans might be preventing bodybuilders today from reaching their best.
“I’m not saying they’re not training hard,” Melvin Anthony states in our interview. He continues:
“I’m not saying that they are not worthy of what they are getting on stage. But there’s a level that they can get to that they haven’t tapped into yet. And I believe they will. Hopefully they’ll get it. Hopefully they’ll start talking to a Flex Wheeler or a Jay Cutler – ‘Hey man, how did you train. Can you show me what you did?’ Watch how those guys train… I’m not saying they’re not training as hard. I just think they can train harder.”
Melvin Anthony stresses the difference between training hard and training beyond hard in a similar manner as past legends. He thinks that the immediacy of the internet has changed the attention span of everyone – including bodybuilders. He worries that they don’t deeply learn enough about the past and actually engage with it.
But Melvin Anthony also makes a point to say he’s hopefully that this will pass. The current era of bodybuilding seems to be almost a transitional one. We still have some greats of the early aughts competing such as Phil Heath and Roelly Winklaar among others. The new crop of bodybuilders, such as Hunter Labrada or Nick Walker, are only just now exploding onto the scene.
Melvin Anthony is optimistic that these bodybuilders are only on the beginning of their journey – and that their training will become even more focused as they continue to grow as athletes. He hopes that the new generation will learn from the past greats and become the next legends of the sport.
You can watch Melvin Anthony’s full comments about new school bodybuilding and training in our latest GI Exclusive interview segment above.