14 MD musculardevelopment.com July 2019
BY Kevin Levrone
Facebook: Official.Kevin.Levrone
Twitter: @LevroneKevin
Instagram: kevinlevronePER BERNALKevin Levrone
Back in May, everyone was talking
about the way Shawn Rhoden looked at his
guest-posing appearance in Pittsburgh and
comparing him to me. More accurately, many
people explained him not “looking the part”
of a Mr. Olympia champion by saying he was
giving his body a long rest before he started
his Olympia prep, which was something I
did in the latter half of my career. Many were
also very upset that he went onstage, even
if it was only to guest pose, down in muscle
mass and carrying far more body fat thaa
they deemed acceptable. I’m not here to
judge or criticize Shawn. Instead, I want to
look at another side nobody seems to have
mentioned. Does Shawn Rhoden have a
contract with the Mr. Olympia contest telling
him what’s expected of him or what he’s
supposed to look like? Does he have anyone
giving him those types of guidelines to
follow? Those disparaging Shawn noted that
past Mr. Olympia winners like Lee Haney,
Dorian Yates and even Jay Cutler were never
seen so off the mark in terms of condition
and muscle mass. What these critics forget
is that all those athletes had Joe Weider
personally looking after them. None of them
were left to figure it all out on their own: what
to do, how to market yourself, and what was
expected of you as a champion.
I was a Weider athlete under contract
from the time I won the NPC Nationals. The
contract stipulated in specific terms how to
carry yourself as a professional, and what
your duties and obligations as one of Joe’s
athletes was. There was a code of conduct
to follow, and Joe was a mentor and advisor
to all of us. He taught us how to pose
properly, and he was at all our photo shoots
to make sure we looked our best and the
photographers got the absolute best shots.
Joe really cared about us. Once or twice a
year, all the athletes under Weider contract
went out to the Weider headquarters in
Woodland Hills for meetings. On the walls
were larger-than-life oil paintings of the
greats like Arnold, Larry Scott, Frank Zane
and others. You felt a real sense of history
sitting in that office where all the stars had
met with Joe before you. In the meetings, we
were told what was expected of us in terms
of things like photo shoots and appearances,
with itineraries for the whole year, and it was
made clear that we had to be in proper shape
for these. And Joe would stay in touch with
us all year to check in and see how we were
doing, offering advice when it was needed.
Shawn Rhoden doesn’t have anything
like what I’ve described today. He’s on
his own. Who should step in and take the
responsibility of looking after the champ
today? How about whoever oversees
marketing the Mr. Olympia title? It’s a brand,
the event is a business, and Shawn is a large
part of their investment. Think about all of
this before you jump on the bandwagon and
slam Shawn Rhoden. And it shouldn’t even
need to be said, but I’m very sure he will look
phenomenal again this September when he
defends his Mr. Olympia title. So before you
rip the man apart for not looking the way you
though he should have at 18 weeks out, think
about everything I said.ron Harris
I have no personal agenda against Shawn
Rhoden, but my job is to call ‘em like I see ‘em.
And the pictures and videos I saw of Shawn
Rhoden guest posing were— to be blunt—disgraceful. Shawn apologized and explained
on his social media accounts shortly after the
fiasco that he does give his body a break after
the Olympia, and he does get fat. For health
reasons, and especially in light of the fact
that the man is 44 years old, I can understand
him not being comfortable with doing “what
it takes” chemically to maintain that Mr.
Olympia physique as we know it 12 months
a year. However, he is the top bodybuilder
in the world. As Mr. Olympia, millions of
bodybuilders and aspiring bodybuilders
around the world look to him for inspiration
and motivation. He is a role model. What does
it say about the Mr. Olympia title, or the sport
of pro bodybuilding in general, if even the
best-built man in the world only resembles his
winning form for a fraction of the year?
I can understand losing muscle mass,
as extreme size does require use of certain
agents, but carrying as much body fat as he
does in the off-season seems more like plain
lack of discipline to me. No one is expecting
him to be shredded to the bone like he was
when he won the title, but anyone can stay in
decent condition if they eat mostly clean and
hit a moderate amount of cardio. Moreover,
as Mr. Olympia you are expected to look the
part whether you want to or not. Even when
champs like Jay and Ronnie guest posed
out of shape, they were still impressively
enormous.
Lastly, it’s a bad look for the sport when its
top athlete only trains hard and eats right for
a third of the year. Can you imagine Olympic
gymnasts only starting to practice hard a few
months away from the Games? Or how about
someone training for the Tour de France?
Would they only start getting serious on their
bikes at 16 weeks out? Even in something a lot
of you look down on, the CrossFit Games, the
top men and women are training like demons
all year long to win their world championships.
I know Shawn Rhoden will put it all together
for the 2019 Mr. Olympia. I also know he is his
own man and doesn’t need me or anyone else
telling him how to live his life. But I agree with
Kevin in that if he isn’t sure how he should be
representing the Mr. Olympia brand and title,
someone from that organization should step
in and guide him.Instagram: ronharrismuscle“Shawn Rhoden is on
his own. Who should
step in and take
the responsibility
of looking after the
champ? Think about
that before you jump
on the bandwagon
and slam
Shawn Rhoden.”DiD Shawn RhoDen
‘Pull a levRone’ in PittSbuRgh?
“As Mr. Olympia
you are expected
to look the
part whether
you want to or
not. Even when
champs like Jay
and Ronnie guest
posed out of
shape, they were
still impressively
enormous.”