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Arnold Schwarzenegger

Strengths

Arnold definitely made an impact on bodybuilding, as both a personality and with his physique. His arms were huge and peaked and his chest was among the very best of all time - even compared to the likes of Dennis James and Markus Ruhl - Arnold stands out. Of course a lot of that incredible size and shape comes down to genetics (as many have tried to develop Arnie's chest and few have succeeded), but you can rest assured he had drive, ambition, charisma and confidence that few ever did. Okay, this isn't a personality contest - but he did have a lot of strengths. Other than arms and chest, his midsection was very streamlined and his abs were sharp. His back was also very dense and defined. Arnold's calves set a new standard at 20 inches - they were formally a weak point that he brought up after years of intense training.

Weaknesses:

Arnold's legs were not big - at least not by today's standards. At the time they were adequate, but these days, they wouldn't fare well against most contest ready wheels. His delts were small, or at least dwarfed by his chest in some shots, specifically the side ones.

MORE PICTURES! Click HERE for the Arnold Schwarzenegger photo gallery!

Dorian Yates




Strengths

Dorian is another bodybuilder that can be praised a lot for personality - his confidence, professionalism and expressed love for the sport of bodybuilding helped a lot. But since I'm trying to assess physiques, I'll get to that. BACK - Dorian definitely had one. Although Ronnie's back at the 2003 Olympia may have been bigger, it didn't have the detail that Dorian's did. The one time Ronnie's detail was close was at the 2001 Arnold Schwarzenegger Classic. But even then, it wasn't quite the combination of size and detail that Dorian Yates was known to display. In fact, the debate over who had the better back between those two still rages on. I would have to give it to Ronnie because to me, his freaky size is even freakier than Dorian's freaky detail and conditioning, but you'll hear opposite opinions on that one. Dorian also probably had the best calves of bodybuilding - the only bodybuilder who I can think of to be in his league for calves would be Mike Matarazzo. On top of this, his whole body seemed to be cut from stone - he had great conditioning, density, thickenss, separation, striations, cuts, whatever you want to say about being bone dry and shredded on game day - Dorian was a poster boy for it.

Weaknesses:

Dorian had a blocky waste compared to some of his top competition. Overall, his body was at its best before the injuries he had later in his career as a result of his high intensity training. He tore his biceps and that became a weakness, but luckily he still had enough strong points to come home with six consecutive Sandow trophies.

MORE PICTURES! Click HERE for the Dorian Yates photo gallery!