Premium Articles

The competitive bodybuilding lifestyle is not for everyone. With so many mass-building and fat-shredding variables to consider, and the full-time commitment it demands, bodybuilding takes a special breed of athlete. The career-defining traits possessed by the comparatively few successful pro bodybuilding champions – such as the Olympians – are the same as those seen in many high performers – whether from the business sector, halls of academia, entertainment industry, or sports arena.

In pro-bodybuilding – a sport which requires extraordinary levels of focus and commitment, and where an ultra fine line separates contender from non-entity – these traits become ever more important. Let’s now take a detailed look at some of the attributes it takes to be a true champion.

1. Relentless Dedication

With so much on the line, competitively speaking, the elite bodybuilder must demonstrate a laser-like approach to doing all that is needed to present a bone-dry and phenomenally muscular physique come game day. Having invested a significant amount of time and effort – not to mention money – with the goal of winning, the top pro is on a mission to produce the best possible package.

Without this mindset, there is no use aspiring to develop an impressive physique, much less train to stand out among the world’s best competitors. To develop the physique you want, you must commit to an oftentimes painstaking journey of self-improvement. Champions cannot be forged any other way.

2. Positivity

The total life experience of most people is characterized by a combination of both negative and positive events. While the former can be disruptive and the latter life-enhancing, both serve as important signposts for where we are going and how successful we are along the way. However, the truly successful spend much of their time cultivating positive emotions while de-emphasizing negative ones.

A champion bodybuilder knows that by focusing on positive events and emotions, a perceptual shift which encourages progress will occur. Building one’s physique can be an exercise fraught with frustration. By excessively focusing on potential problems and current physical deficits, we may buy into the struggle and on a subconscious level become convinced that we will never truly succeed. However when in a positive mind-frame, we activate circuits which promote further positive feelings, thereby providing the motivation we need to persist as we strive to achieve our goals. By talking about their goals and framing future successes as having already been achieved, the champion keeps these circuits active, thereby perpetuating positivity over a much longer period.

By dwelling on the negatives, we become psychologically defensive and our potential for growth becomes stifled. Most successful people, including the world’s best bodybuilders, are known to radiate positivity. Such inspired individuals have no time for negative people and the endless drama that proves burdensome for so many. By staying positive, your own capacity to succeed can only continue to grow.

3.  Laser Focus

As history continues to prove, the most successful pro athletes, are those who have their s&^*# together! The most organized, calm, and composed people, are those most likely to succeed – where the emotionally fragile often succumb to the stressful rigours of professional bodybuilding.

In addition to the internal influences, there are the invasive and often insulting outside influences that plague a bodybuilder’s life — especially in the online world. The champion remains unfazed by these distractions, and is easily able to deflect the negativity that may undermine a lesser competitor. By staying calm during trying situations, we become mentally strong and better equipped to handle setbacks and naysayers – mandatory attributes for all elite athletes.

Staying calm and in control is a key alpha-male trait, and one that is readily displayed by many successful bodybuilding champions. The most prominent case studies being the great Arnold Schwarzenegger and fellow Olympians, Ronnie Coleman, Dorian Yates, and Lee Haney – all of whom were all known for being cool, calm, and supremely confident.

Composure allows objectivity, and although bodybuilding is a subjective sport, building the perfect body is not. A person who is easily distracted or aroused is more likely to become disorganized in their scheduling of workouts and meals, and they likely lack the long-range thinking needed to stay on track in the long run.

By staying calm and focused, there is less chance that we will drain our emotional resources when the pressures of life become overwhelming. True champions direct their energy only toward that which will give them the progress they desire. Unnecessary confrontations, avoidable arguments, and endless requests for sympathy are the domain of emotional vampires, not pro level bodybuilding champions.

4.  Attention to Detail

Attention to detail could be the most important of bodybuilding variables – especially for the so-called hard gainers, those who struggle to build respectable size despite countless hours in the trenches. Anyone can lift weights and consume a bodybuilding diet – it takes no skill to do both at a basic level. However, to experience pro level gains, one must be extremely skillful in their approach. In fact, doing things optimally takes a careful attention to detail. From dieting to training, supplementation, posing, sleep, and contest prep, each bodybuilding variable warrants multiple considerations – all critical to ensuring one is stage-ready. A champion commits to becoming an expert in every field — an enquiring mind coupled with an insatiable quest to discover the best possible methods for progress are hallmarks of a competitor who has acknowledged the importance of attention to detail.

5. Confidence

In any facet of life there will always be those whose singular mission it is to verbally denounce others in an attempt to degrade these individuals’ achievements. Given the attention they receive, great champions are especially susceptible to the vitriolic comments of less dedicated and less talented people, but a true champion does not give such individuals a second thought. By acknowledging hateful comments and unwarranted criticism we give the attacker power over us, while lowering our own confidence and esteem to levels on par with those of the attacker. Remember, “Someone who is trying to bring you down, is already below you”.

Most successful individuals know how to deftly separate constructive criticism from insult and slander. Truly superior individuals can even frame such negative gossip as valuable feedback. For example, jealousy can be viewed as validation for success. Arnold Schwarzenegger once said, “Anyone can pity the weak – jealousy you have to earn.”

More than in any other sport, bodybuilding attracts the subjective opinions of others. A physique that is viewed by one person as a work of art, may be classed by another as an abomination. Eight-time Olympia champion, Ronnie Coleman, and late-great mass monster, Nasser El Sonbaty, were on more than one occasion told that they would not break through to the top of the IFBB’s pro ranks, and their initial placements reflected such thinking. However, both chose to ignore the naysayers and became two of the greatest bodybuilders of all time.

The take home message here is to be confident and sure of yourself, because at the end of the day, you control your destiny.

6. Humility

Though averse to unwarranted comments, the champion is always open to receiving constructive criticism. Bodybuilding is a sport teeming with egotists, and the problem with being too wrapped up in our own self importance is that we begin to believe that we have all the answers. Instead, the champion must learn to value the kind of criticism that can be used to correct deficits.

As bodybuilders, whenever we are alerted of a weakness, we may be tempted to write such information off as negative and destructive. On the other hand, the true champion will carefully consider whether such information is factually correct and – if the feedback is sound – determine how best to act upon it to improve that weaknesses.

We often see only what we want to see, blinded by our strengths – but to truly succeed, we must embrace the criticism of others and work to correct our faults.

7. Objectivity

True bodybuilding champions know their strengths and weaknesses, and they work to maximize the former while correcting the latter.

Known for possessing the best leg development in pro bodybuilding today, Ben Pakulski works hard to bring his upper body up to a similar degree. While some competitors may feed off the adulation that comes with having a freakishly well-developed body part, the real champ often focuses on balance. Pakulski’s mindset is one of not simply impressing fans and judges with a standout grouping, but of becoming the greatest bodybuilder in the world in all regards.

An aspiring bodybuilder must thoroughly assess their physique for any weaknesses that may ultimately hold them back. Once determined, all physical deficits must then be targeted and corrected. This process of self-betterment may take many years to complete, but persistence and objectivity are key. Many do not have the objective vision needed to perfect their physique, but the few that do will continue to move up in the ranks.

7. Resilience and Fortitude

While they may make it look easy, champions do not become great overnight – and the path to excellence is no easy ride. A capacity to voluntarily and routinely inflict immense amounts of pain on their bodies. is something that separates a bodybuilding champion from an also-ran. No one likes to suffer, and most of us will avoid suffering wherever possible. This is human nature. However, top bodybuilding competitors will force themselves to suffer for many long months without giving up. This is the mindset of the warrior. To live like a warrior demands sacrifice and grit. From the intense dieting, to the hours in the gym, and never ending cardio, countless pro-champions, by conventional standards, live lives of extremes. Withstanding such extremes demands immense fortitude and resilience.

For decades, a serious pro bodybuilder will devote himself to a single task: to build a stage-worthy physique that is capable of beating the world’s best. They will force themselves to do what so many of us will not, to become greater than most will ever be. While a majority of the world’s population sleepwalks their way through meager lives, the champion is planning and executing, never satisfied with mediocrity – and always ready to take on a new challenge. Top level pro bodybuilders live their lives on the margins of what society would deem to be sane. To achieve the level of jaw-dropping muscularity required to win pro shows takes a tremendous amount of fortitude. Only those individuals who can go to these extremes and come out alive will make it to the top.

Never Settle for Less

In a sport where competition is fierce, it is often difficult to gain an edge, but by adopting all the right traits in every facet of life, the contender can become the champion.