True... Malaysia's culture & environment is not condusive to train to become IFBB.. plus most Malaysians lack of interest in BB.. the % of ppl who are into it are small and there is not much communities which supports it like the West does.. also Malaysia is not as advance as Western countries..

Most of our primary & secondary school's don't have gym, we play football/basketball/badminton during PT time. In the west, most school have gyms and most youngsters start to lift weights at a young age. Training since young gives them a better advantage of becoming a BB in the future, not necessary IFBB level, bur a NPC / National / State level is also good enough. Before 18 they probably have a few years experience of weight training. In Malaysia, the age to join a gym is 18. So most of us start later than ppl in the West.

Gyms are everywhere in the West and their hard core gyms are very condusive for training. I've trained in Western gyms and the atmostphere is totally different from gyms in Malaysia.. you really feel motivated seeing other BB training there and the desire to look as good as them is huge. Westerners are more friendly and if they see you're alone & strugling with your weights, they initiate to offer to spot you so you could go through your set more smoothly.. this is rare in Malaysia's gym.. in the West you could walk up to most ppl and start to initiate a talk without fearing hostility.. they are friendly and willing to teach you proper ways to train and exchange knowledge. I do like this point very much because you get to learn alot from them esp. professionals.

Also, Western cultures emphasize on physical strength and size, in their media, their sports (Rugbys, Wresting etc..) indirectly makes them to train in the gym more frequently than us. To engage in such sports, weight training is essential. In Malaysia, such sport are not popular, while badminton & football are more popular sports which does not need lots of muscularity and physical size. This is one of the indirect factors why Malaysia is not a condusive environment for BB.

I also noted that Westerner's diet focus more on meats & dairy products, which is more than Malaysians. Most of their meals contains huge portion of meat (steaks, grilled chicken, salmon etc..). Malaysian meals contains meat but at a smaller portion. Thus their diets are more condusive for BB. And Westerners eat bigger portion meals than us.

Supplements are cheap and very accessible in the West. Most Westerners purchase from BB.com at a cheap price. We've to pay more for supplements as it's imported + profit margin that the local stores here needs to earn.

Western countries have wide communities + media to support BB activities. Communities like bodybuilding.com, t-nation.com, outlaw muscle etc.. discuss about bodybuilding and for them to exchange knowledge. Sport magazine like Muscular Development, Flex, Muscle & Fitness etc.. promotes the BB scene which makes more ppl to get into BB. Bodybuilding competitions are held are every level, every state and in order to become a IFBB, you've to compete. The amount of BB Competitions is the West is prolific.. For Malaysians to become a IFBB, after competing locally they've to compete in the West... the competition scene in Malaysia is a stark contrast compared to Western countries..

In the West, bodybuilders gets sponsorship from supplements/fitness companies to compete. It's hard to become a IFBB without sponsorship. The amount of $$$ to keep a BB lifestyle is very expensive.. there's not much sponsorship can be found in Malaysia... so here you go..

It will be a long long way before Malaysia could reach the level of Western countries....

This 23 y.o. muscle boy from US, at such young age he already have near IFBB quality physique.. although certain parts he still needs to work on.. and he still could grow further more.

Nvr seen any 20+ y.o. Malaysian BB who can match with his body.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x3TfVQraWMI

Some screen shot from the clip:













This post has been edited by antaeusguy: Jun 14 2010, 07:23 PM

no idea.. his arms are damn huge