IFBB Pro League and Mr. Olympia head judge Steve Weinberger has a well-earned reputation in the bodybuilding community. He’s known as a judge that calls what he sees right down the middle without hesitation or apologies. He’s also very active in helping pros and athletes that ask his opinion on how they can get better. Weinberger believes honesty is the best policy for judging and his feelings about how competitors can improve.
Dennis James had Weinberger on a recent roundtable episode of The Menace Podcast with Chris Cormier and Milos Sarcev so he could educate listeners and fans on how he and other judges do their business at contests. One topic was why the mandatory poses are so important, even more so than the posing routine.
Weinberger said, “I’m not saying it’s a bad thing to have posing routines, but the good thing about mandatories is you can’t hide anything.” Weinberger talked more about how competitors could use certain poses to maximize strengths while hiding weaknesses. That may be great for the athletes and entertaining to the fans, but the contest is won and lost during the comparisons.
“You can hide certain bodyparts in the posing routines. In mandatories, you can not hide anything.”
Weinberger is in his position because he has a great eye for physiques, whether it’s an amateur or a Mr. Olympia champion. Sarcev asked Weinberger about current Mr. Olympia Hadi Choopan’s physique in 2022 versus 2021 where he placed third.
“(In) ‘21, he had a few problems with his physique,” Weinberger answered. “He was harder in ‘21, but he had a more complete package in 2022.”
Weinberger shared more about how he judges contests, his thoughts about past Mr. Olympia winners such as Lee Haney, Dorian Yates, and Ronnie Coleman, whether we will ever see an eight-time Mr. Olympia winner again, and a lot more. Go to the Muscle & Fitness YouTube channel to see this episode in its entirety, and check back every Sunday at 3 pm Eastern time for new episodes of TMP.
