Changes to IFBB and NPC Fitness

There are some changes being made into the fitness division beginning for the IFBB in a few short weeks for the NPC next year. Personally I think they are for the better, and I'll explain why below the official advisory notes (from IFBBPro.com)

 CHANGES TO NPC FITNESS:
Beginning in 2011, the emphasis in Women’s Fitness will be the fitness routine and will be scored as 1/3 on Physique/2-Piece Swimsuit and 2/3 on the 2 Minute Fitness Routine. The 2 Minute Fitness Routine scores will be doubled. The mandatory movements within the routine, in no specific order, in Women’s Fitness are as follows:


* Push Up (of any kind)
* High Kicks
* Straddle Hold
* Side Split


The Physique/2-Piece Swimsuit round will be judged during prejudging and the 2 Minute Fitness Routine will be performed and scored during finals. It is suggested that finals begin with the 2 Minute Fitness Routine.


All trophies should be awarded to Fitness athletes in their routine outfits.


The Overall comparison will happen immediately after all awards for each height class are given out.


For the Overall comparison, Fitness athletes will be judged wearing their routine outfits. 

Source: http://www.npcnewsonline.com/news_2010BOGnotes.cfm

Honestly, I think it's great that the fitness division has mandatory moves again and I also agree that the majority of the fitness judging needs to be from the routine, yet it doesn't make the physique round seems unneeded at the same time. Having a routine is a major part of fitness, so having it count more makes a lot of sense. Bottom line, you can have a VERY nice physique, but if you're routine isn't up to snuff, you could be on the outside of the top 5 easy. We'll see this take affect at the Ft. Lauderdale Cup on November 20th and in the NPC next year.

Good luck to all fitness competitors with these new changes! :)