IFBB Pro League Vice President Tyler Manion expects another groundbreaking year in the world of bodybuilding. In a recent sitdown with Hany Rambod, Manion discussed a handful of topics including his thoughts on Wellness, judging criteria, the sport’s international growth, and drug testing in natural bodybuilding.
With years of experience assessing and evaluating physiques, Tyler Manion’s eye for talent is unrivaled. He regularly serves as a head judge at bodybuilding shows and also has officiated the Mr. Olympia contests. Overseeing the NPC and IFBB Pro League is no easy feat, but he continues to raise the bar by providing informative videos on the ideal standards for each division.
As with any sporting league, changes and adaptations come with the territory. Over the past year, Manion has instituted new weight and height caps for the Men’s Physique and Classic Physique categories. In his latest appearance, he opened up on the NPC’s expansion of natural bodybuilding before shedding light on judging criteria across some of the most popular divisions.
Tyler Manion Talks Polygraph/Urinalysis Testing for Natural Bodybuilders and the Sport’s International Growth
Considering the number of influencers and bodybuilders seeking natural physiques, Rambod asked if the IFBB Pro League would accommodate those who wish to remain drug-free.
Level Up Your Fitness: Join our šŖ strong community in Fitness Volt Newsletter. Get daily inspiration, expert-backed workouts, nutrition tips, the latest in strength sports, and the support you need to reach your goals. Subscribe for free!
“I’m seeing influencers are sometimes going into the natural route,” says Rambod.
“So what we’re doing is we’re going to build up the natural shows in the NPC. We added a lot more this year. I think there’s going to be 25-30 across the country and then we have a Pro qualifier which is called the Ben Weider Natural Pro Qualifier it’s in Virginia Beach.”
To ensure a level playing field for natural competitors, Manion revealed the league will use urinalysis and polygraph testing.
“It’s been urinalysis but we’re going to do urinalysis combined with polygraph testing as well. Some shows will be urinalysis, some will be just polygraphs it depends on where you’re at. But we’re really going to try to build that up.”
As for the sport’s international growth, Manion and the IFBB Pro League couldn’t be happier:
“The growth has been incredible. The growth in Brazil has been crazy. The growth in Japan has been crazy. The growth all over Europe, South Korea, Australia, the rest of South America outside of Brazil. Argentina and Colombia and all these different places. The growth is insane. It’s such a good thing for the sport. Obviously, we’re seeing it with top-level athletes being from all over the world.”
That being said, Manion doesn’t foresee any new divisions popping up.
“I don’t foresee unless something comes up that’s crazy, I don’t see us adding a division on the men or the women right now.”
Manion Opens Up on IFBB Pro League Division Standards
Manion believes the Wellness division needs to ‘tone it back,’ especially when it comes to adding size.
“I put out a criteria video, right? Because I think the top two girls in the world right now are great examples of Wellness. Sometimes I think some people run wild with what we want to do with the criteria, especially on the women’s side, it’s extremely important to try to enforce the criteria but also let people know what the criteria is which is why I started doing my videos to put out there for everybody as well. We want to tone it back with what a lot of girls are doing size-wise and stuff.”
He specified that Francielle Mattos and Isabelle Nunes, the top two in the world, represent the ideal look of the Wellness division.
“You can tell they are listening but it’s still going to take a little bit of time because it is the newest division to try to get that standard across to many more people not just the top two,” adds Tyler Manion.
In addition, Manion reinforced why changes were made to the rules, weights, and heights in Classic Physique and Men’s Physique.
“I didn’t look at the Classic weights for a long time. How the weights were jumping… didn’t make total sense. Once I went back and looked at it after I looked at the Men’s Physique weights.
That’s why we had to do some tinkering with that as well to make an even playing field for everybody. Once we got Classic right, okay, Men’s Physique is going to be X amount of pounds less than that. Ten pounds of muscle is a lot of weight,” shared Tyler Manion.
While the league offers five divisions for men and six for women, Manion stressed that some physiques don’t fit a particular category, which presents a unique challenge for participants.
“Muscle looks good on a physique, right? Muscle looks good. It’s just naturally, it doesn’t matter if you’re a judge or just someone watching, you’re like oh wow this person looks great. A lot of times you can look amazing but you don’t fit that division. Getting everything in line with the criteria is not easy. It’s not easy. But to do that is so important to keep everything differentiated so you have those actual divisions.”
Lastly, Manion underlined changes to the Men’s Open category and complimented contenders who have the ability to hit vacuums.
“Why Classic is so great too, you see what these guys’ waistlines are now in the Open class. Obviously, there was an emphasis placed not only in Classic but in the Open about controlling the waistline and everything else. We’re seeing now, the top three in the Mr. Olympia can all pull vacuums.”
Tyler Manion recently discussed the future of the IFBB Pro League after a regional bodybuilding show in Brazil introduced a ‘Men’s Wellness division.’ Even though some fans were for or against the new concept, Manion made it clear that the league had no interest in adding categories, emphasizing that they were happy with what is currently offered.
Tyler Manion continues to serve the bodybuilding community as the IFBB Pro League Vice President. Fans look forward to the new developments he teased in natural bodybuilding in the months to come.
RELATED: IFBB Pro League Boosts Prize Money Pool for Menās Open By $210,000
You can watch the full video from the Hany Rambod YouTube channel below:
You can also follow us on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and
YouTube for even more content.
