Video: Animated Schwarzenegger to Zane Morph

Arnold Zane Morph

Before we get into the animation, take a look at this halfway mark between Arnold and Zane. This is the unretouched version, before the hair and posing trunks were fixed. The Zane trunks made the midway morph look even more like Frank Zane, but even after the upper part of the trunks were filled in to match Arnold’s trunks, the image still seems to favor Frank Zane. At first glance, does this look more like Frank Zane, or Arnold Schwarzenegger?


We made Arnold and Frank’s heights similar for a more direct comparison of their body proportions, independent of their heights. The area where they’re most dissimilar is the torso. First of all, the choice of posing trunks factors in to the appearance of the torso. Arnold wore his trunks a couple inches higher than Zane, which would make his torso appear shorter and legs appear longer, but even with their respective heights equalized, Arnold’s waist is actually shorter and his legs are actually longer. Notice how much higher Arnold’s hips go up as the morph goes back and forth. Also, Arnold has more development higher up on the hip, the gluteus medius area. Something apparent in some back photos of Frank Zane was, even though he was ripped, he had softness in what some may consider the lower back, but that is actually the upper butt, the gluteus medius, and if Zane’s gluteus medius was more developed the percentage of fat would go down in that area, the percentage, not necessarily the amount. The small pocket of fat is less apparent in these photos but notice where the iliac crest, which is where the gluteus medius attaches, is on Zane. That can be considered the lower back, but technically it’s the butt. That is the gluteus medius muscle. Ronnie Coleman may have gone a little overboard, but that is the same area, hugely developed. And when your, quote, lower back, is that developed, you can start calling it your butt, which the gluteus medius is actually part of. But in most people’s minds, what is considered lower back on Frank Zane, is considered butt on Ronnie Coleman, due to Coleman’s development.


Of course, as described in our Arnold Schwarzenegger vs Big Ramy Quads episode, the overdevelopment of the hip muscles can lead to wider hips, so you may have to be careful when developing your gluteus medius in order to, quote, harden up, the lower back area, also known as the upper butt, aka gluteus medius.


Also notice, through the back and forth of the morphs, that the perception of Arnold having long pecs, in other words, his pecs appearing to take up more space top to bottom on his torso, may be a perception at least partially based on the shortness of his ab area, compounded by his higher posing trunks, and possibly gravity lowering his large pecs a little in the relaxed position.


Something else noticeable is how much more three dimensional Arnold’s rectus femoris were. Schwarzenegger and Zane have similar shaped quads but Arnold’s upper quads, the rectus femorus, stood out in bolder relief.


For time’s sake, a final observation is that Zane’s gastrocnemius, at least at the time the photos were taken, late 1960s for Arnold and 1976 for Zane, is that, from this inner angle, Zane’s calf, where it crosses over the joint to attach to the femur, appears more pronounced on Zane. It’s interesting because the Arnold photo was taken before Arnold started to prioritize calves and incorporated, in addition to standing and seated calf raises, donkey calf raises, which, with the knees straight or less bent, seem to build the gastrocnemius higher up on the leg where they cross the femur. Here’s a great shot of Zane’s upper calves popping out from the back of the knees.

About Yegor Khzokhlachev 797 Articles
Gorilla at Large

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