From the writings of Aristotle and Plato, there should be little dispute over the fact that ancient Olympians were fully cognizant about physical training and dietary techniques. Indeed, Socrates himself coined the phrase 'mens sana in corpore sano': a sound mind in a sound body.

The great strongman Eugen Sandow is credited with organizing the first 'physique' competition at the Royal Albert Hall in London, England, in 1901. With none other than Sir Arthur Conan Doyle serving  as one of the judges!

With the formation of the International Federation of BodyBuilding and Fitness (IFBB) in 1946, by brothers Joe and Ben Weider, modern body building was born. Today, the IFBB numbers close to 200 national affiliates and the sport of body building is practiced by millions worldwide.

Like many other sports, competition day is but the culmination of many months and years of behind-the-scenes training. The athletes compete by bodyweight: six categories for men; three for women.  A body building competition breaks down into two stages: Prejudging and Finals. 

At Prejudging, each category presents on-stage before a panel of nine judges. During this presentation, the competitors are compared against each other while performing relaxed turns and compulsory poses: seven for men, five for women. Each judge must award each athlete a placing, from first to last, giving no two or more athletes the same placing. Two high and two low placings are then discarded. The remaining five placings are summed to produce a Prejudging subscore and placing. Ties are immediately broken.

During Prejudging, the competitors are compared for muscularity (size and density), definition (cuts), proportion (shape) and symmetry (balance).

In the Finals, the top six from Prejudging are judged again by the same panel of judges.  Each athlete is called on stage to perform his or her individual posing routine to music: 60 seconds for men, 90 seconds for women. This is followed by a final comparison of the compulsory poses and a posedown. Again, each judge must award each athlete a placing, from first to last, giving no two or more competitors the same placing. Two high and two low placings are then discarded. The remaining five placings are summed to produce a Finals subscore. This subscore is added to the Prejudging subscore to produce the final score and placing. The athlete with the lowest score is awarded first place. Ties are immediately broken.

Competition at world, continental and national levels is generally open to Junior Men and Women, Master Men and Women, and Mixed Pairs categories. 

The top finalists are drug tested, strictly adhering to the World Anti-Doping Code and using only laboratories which are accredited by the International Olympic Committee.

 BodyBuilding at The World Games 2005

BodyBuilding events on the Official Sports Program of The World Games 2009 Kaohsiung:

TBA