USA Shape Shifters

5 things we learned from the 2017 USA championships.

- Greg Merritt

Size, like a full house, usually wins. But sometimes shape is the stronger hand. The 36th annual NPC USA Championships featured only 106 competitors, but you can’t evaluate a contest by a head count, just as you can’t judge a bodybuilder by the weigh-in scales. If a pro qualifier serves up at least one guy who impacts the big league, it’s a soaring success. In Las Vegas on the last weekend of July, a sub-200 bodybuilder pulled a royal flush and brought home the biggest prize. Now we’ll see if 24-year-old light-heavyweight Derek Lunsford can continue his hot streak at the pro level.

1 THE LIGHTER GUYS WENT HIGH-DEF When you weigh less than 176 on a contest stage, cuts are always at a premium. And so it was for the four lightest classes at this year’s USA. Bantamweight Jeffrey Orillaza, aka Mighty Mouse, was remarkably dense for someone 5'4" and 143 pounds, with a curvy side chest pose, but it was his detailing that separated him from the rest of this 12-man class. Mighty Mouse’s quad separation and chest splintering were his strong points. At the USA Championships, the top five competitors in each class after Friday’s judging move on to Saturday’s finals, where they perform their posing routines and accept their trophies. This year, even the worst lightweight received that honor, because there were only four competitors. Despite the lack of depth, the lightweights did serve up an impressive champ. In his first pro qualifier, Texan John Small won, propelled by his deeply divided wheels.