86 MD musculardevelopment.com July 2019
The GODS of SHRED
BYRONHARRIS•PHOTOGRAPHY BY PER BERNALIn the earlydeca des of bodybuilding, the celebrated ideals were shape, symmetry and of
course, size. As I oft en say, the name of our sport is body building. Condition wasn’t something
the athletes, fans or judges put much of a priori on. The main reason is that until much later,
there wasn’t enough knowledge about how to lose suffi cient amounts of body fat to display crisp,
clear muscle separations and striations. Diets tended to include plenty of red meat and whole
eggs along with heavy cream in rudimentary protein shakes, and cardio of any kind was unheard
of. Thus, muscles were covered under a thin veil of fat and water even at the highest levels of
competition. There were rare exceptions, which were punished rather than rewarded. The most
notable example was Vince “The Iron Guru” Gironda, who was scored dead last in events like the
Mr. USA in the 1950s for showing “too many ugly veins.” The standard up until the 1970s was to be
lean enough to show abs and a hint of muscle separation in areas like the chest, back, delts and
legs. The 1970s is when body fat fi nally began to show a downward trend, and muscle defi nition
steadily improved. The fi nal three years of that decade witnessed the Mr. Olympia reign of Frank
Zane, who was half the size of Arnold yet showed cuts and details The Austrian Oak and other
past champions never had. The stage was set for an entirely new outlook on physiques. It would
no longer be good enough merely to be big and have nice shape. Now you would also have to be
able to clearly see each muscle group distinctly. Eventually, bodybuilders routinely took to the
stage with body fat in the low single-digit percentages, and “condition” became a common term.
Here are the men who would take condition to new levels— the Gods of Shred!BYRONHARRIS•PHOTOGRAPHY BY PER BERNALIn the earlydeca des of bodybuilding,the celebrated ideals were shape, symmetry andof