What creates the turtle belly look?

J

Jester

Well-Known Member
I'm curious if there's a particular reason for this look?

Reading a few forums the 2 reasons ppl seem to cite are:

-Use of drugs.

-Eating too much food.

If it was the drug use that was responsible, wouldn't guys like Arnold, Franco, Sergio, Robby Robinson etc. all have the massive and bloated look?
 
Well the general thought (or rumor if that's what it is) is that it's because of growth hormone use. Arnolds and his comrads didn't have GH back in their day.

I've also heard it's because of the massive amounts of food they et, but i just don't know what the complete truth is.
 
It's probably the cigars...coughing builds tremendous abs
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Perhaps the use of a large amount of weight during abdominal exercises has something to do with the distended ab look. After all, the abs are still muscles, and those with strong cores (i.e., powerlifters) are also often blessed with 'turtle belly'.
 
Distended belly in bodybuilders and powerlifters alike = lots of food, a little GH, and even the AAS have been thought to cause a bit of pooching, but not sure on that one...

Oh yes, and the beer...even bodybuilders drink beer.
 
Using heavy weights for abs will help build muscle but won't extend the stomach. Food won't extend ONLY the stomach. You would also see it in their chins, faces, etc. Growth hormone, and perhaps steroids, are not discriminatory in what they grow. Excess use will also cause internal organs to grow which results in the extended belly look. It also is very unhealthy. What price glory? :confused:
 
Because it's the currently accepted norm. The tapers and flat midsections of yesterday have been replace with huge-ness for some time now, since Yates (although his wasn't all that bad), Sonbaty, Coleman and the likes. Good thing Lee Preist is around to save the world of bodybuilding
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I think it was back in 94 (I think) when Yates and Shawn Ray went 1-2 in the Olympia. That was the last possible stopping point (in recent times) for pure mass vs aesthetic proportions - at least relative to modern bodybuilding.

Admittedly I don't have the best knowledge of 80s BB'ing, possibly Lee Haney shouldn't have won all 8 Sandows there, but I honestly don't know enough about that era.

There's something wrong when a BB'er has a bigger gut than a pregnant woman . . .
 
Even Ray was larger than a lot of the 70's and 80's BB's. Looking at Haney, Dickerson, Nubret, Bannout vs. Mentzer I would have to say that Mentzer was the ushering of the size era. Then again you can't count out the importance of Ferrigno and of course Ahnold Sharzenperson when looking at comparitive size. But yeah I would say the Yates reign was the beginning of the distended gut.
 
Don't know if its the same thing or not, but a while back there was a thinkmuscle article which discussed visceral fat -- the fat which accumulates in the gut and around the organs (highly correlated with heart disease), which results in the pot belly look (as opposed to the squishy fat visible on the outside).

It seems unlikely that a body builder cut for competition would still have enough visceral fat, but I guess its possible. :confused:
 
Yeh Mentzer's abs were largish (Mentzer as a whole really... I guess), and Haney was obv. sizeable, but in his competitions he still looked fairly sharp in the mid-section.

Ray was def. bigger than your aesthetic 70s BB'er, but what he represented was the opp. of Yates, Nasser, Cormier and Coleman.....and worst of all of them was Jean Pierre Fux...

The thing with Arnold is I think he got smaller between his 74 and 75 O victories....and def.the 1980 shamble. Even though he had the freak chest and biceps, he was never HUGE by 80s or 90s standards.
 
Dorian Yates (1995), Ronnie Coleman (2001), Arnold Schwarzenegger (1974)

I've read some things suggesting gut size can be also affected by exercise selection.

this article for example:distended belly?

so far it sounds like you guys think it's mostly drug use, and I'd tend to agree, but could exercise selection be another factor? or at least a contributing factor?

I would like to know cuz the idea of being a "mass monster" does in no way apeal to me.

I'd like to be the guy on the right
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Ronnie Coleman (2003), Sergio Oliva (1978)
 
[b said:
Quote[/b] (McDee @ May 31 2005,4:30)]Dorian Yates (1995), Ronnie Coleman (2001), Arnold Schwarzenegger (1974)

I've read some things suggesting gut size can be also affected by exercise selection.
this article for example
Click to expand...
I always believed Yates had the beter back, pure size wise. That picture kinda puts testimony to that.

Sure exercises can increase the musclulature, but you can have very nicely well built abs without looking like you've been constipated for a year.

fz022.jpg
 
Age can also give you a belly. I don't mean a "fat" belly, but a larger gut than when you were young, even in a fairly ripped condition. I figure it does have something to do with food and the hormonal changes that go along with "overeating" as well.

Personally, I kind of like the turtle belly look but I'm also a fan of hugeness.
 
It's hormone use. Growth Hormone and to a lesser extent IGF are known to cause the cells in the lining of the digestive system to proliferate. If it was eating too much you'd see fat all over their bodies. Steroids so far as I know don't really cause this. Perhaps if you used a ton it would lead to much higher GH levels and cause the distended stomach, but I doubt it. For example while Arnold and BBers in his era didn't have access to GH, they had access to a lot of the steroids that are still used today, and even the ones with high levels of aromatization didn't lead to distended stomachs like you see today. The use of heavier weights these days would I think lead to a thickening of the midsection to some extent just because of the demand put on those musles, but not the turtule belly look. They'd still be proportioned.

As far as Coleman winning, aside from his midsection he's got an amazing physique. Plus up until recently a lot of the judges were I'd say allowing raw mass to weigh more heavily in their decisions than symmetry and proportion. It's how freakie guys like Ruhl still compete when their physiques aren't all that well proportioned. They've got the mass, so they're in the running.
 
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