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Early years
The "Early Years" of Western Bodybuilding
are considered to be the period between
1880 and 1953.
Eugen Sandow
Bodybuilding did not really exist prior to
the late 19th century, when it was
promoted by Eugen Sandow of Prussia
(now northern Germany) ,[2] who is now
generally referred to as "The Father of
Modern Bodybuilding". He is credited as
being a pioneer of the sport because he
allowed an audience to enjoy viewing his
physique in "muscle display performances".
Although audiences were thrilled to see a
well-developed physique, those men simply
displayed their bodies as part of strength
demonstrations or wrestling matches.
Sandow had a stage show built around
these displays through his manager, Florenz
Ziegfeld. The Oscar winning 1936 musical
film The Great Ziegfeld, depicts this
beginning of modern bodybuilding, when
Sandow began to display his body for
carnivals. The role of Sandow was played
by actor Nat Pendleton.
Sandow became so successful at flexing
and posing his physique, he later created
several businesses around his fame and
was among the first to market products
branded with his name alone. He was
credited with inventing and selling the first
exercise equipment for the masses
(machined dumbbells, spring pulleys and
tension bands) and even his image was sold
by the thousands in "cabinet cards" and
other prints.
Sandow was a perfect "gracilian" (this was a
standard where a mathematical "ideal" was
set up and the "perfect physique" was close
to the proportions of ancient Greek and
Roman statues from classical times - see
Golden Mean). This is how Sandow built his
own physique and in the early years, men
were judged by how closely they matched
these "ideal" proportions. Sandow
organised the first bodybuilding contest on
September 14, 1901 called the "Great
Competition" and held in the Royal Albert
Hall, London, UK. Judged by himself, Sir
Charles Lawes, and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle,
the contest was a huge success and was
sold out and hundreds of physical culture
enthusiasts were turned away. The trophy
presented to the winner was a bronze
statue of Sandow himself sculpted by
Frederick Pomeroy. The winner was William
L. Murray of Nottingham, England. The most
prestigious bodybuilding contest today is
the Mr. Olympia, and since 1977, the winner
has been presented with the same bronze
statue of Sandow that he himself presented
to the winner at the first contest.
First large-scale bodybuilding competition
in America
On 16 January 1904, the first large-scale
bodybuilding competition in America took
place at Madison Square Garden in New
York City. The winner was Al Treloar and he
was declared "The Most Perfectly Developed
Man in the World".[3] Treloar won a $1,000
cash prize, a substantial sum at that time.
Two weeks later, Thomas Edison made a
film of Al Treloar's posing routine. Edison
also made two films of Sandow a few years
before, making him the man who made the
first three motion pictures featuring a
bodybuilder. In the early 20th century,
Bernarr Macfadden and Charles Atlas,
continued to promote bodybuilding across
the world. Alois P. Swoboda was an early
pioneer in America.
Notable early bodybuilders
Many other important bodybuilders in the
early history of bodybuilding prior to 1930
include: Earle Liederman (writer of some of
the earliest bodybuilding instruction books),
Zishe Breitbart, Georg Hackenschmidt, Emy
Nkemena, George F. Jowett, Finn Hateral (a
pioneer in the art of posing), Monte Saldo,
Launceston Elliot, Sig Klein, Sgt. Alfred Moss,
Joe Nordquist, Lionel Strongfort
(Strongfortism), Gustav Fristensky (the
Czech champion), Ralph Parcaut, a champion
wrestler who also authored an early book
on "physical culture," and Alan C. Mead, who
became an impressive muscle champion
despite the fact that he lost a leg in World
War I.
Ed Holovchik (also known as
Ed Fury), and Mr. Los Angeles
contestant, 1953
1950s and 1960s
Bodybuilding became more popular in the
1950s and 1960s with the emergence of
strength and gymnastics champions joining
the sport, and the simultaneous
popularization of muscle training, most of
all by Charles Atlas, whose advertising in
comic books and other publications
encouraged many young men to undertake
weight training to improve their physiques
to resemble the comic books' muscular
superheroes. Of notable athletes, US national
and gymnastics champion and US Olympic
weightlifting team competitor John Grimek
and British strength athlete Reg Park as
winners of newly-created bodybuilding
titles such as the Mr. Universe and Mr.
America competitions paved the way for
others. Magazines such as Strength & Health
and Muscular Development were
accompanied by the public notoriety of
Muscle Beach. The casting of some
bodybuilders in movies was another major
vehicle for the sport's popularization. Of
bodybuilder-actors perhaps the most
famous were Steve Reeves and Reg Park,
who were featured in roles portraying
Hercules, Samson and other legendary
heroes. Dave Draper gained public fame
through appearances in Muscle Beach Party,
part of the "beach party" series of films
featuring Annette Funicello and Frankie
Avalon that began with Beach Blanket
Bingo, and also in cameo appearances in
television series such as the Beverly
Hillbillies. Other rising stars in this period
were Larry Scott, Serge Nubret, and Sergio
Oliva. The gym equipment and training
supplement industries founded by Joe
Weider were complemented by the growth
of the International Federation of
BodyBuilding & Fitness (IFBB), which was
co-founded by Joe and his brother Ben. The
IFBB eventually displaced the Amateur
Athletic Union's Mr. Universe titles and also
that of NABBA, the National Amateur
Bodybuilders Association as the most
important and notable contests.
1970s onwards
New organizations
In the 1970s, bodybuilding had major
publicity thanks to Arnold Schwarzenegger
and others in the 1977 film Pumping Iron.
By this time the International Federation of
BodyBuilding & Fitness (IFBB) dominated
the sport and the Amateur Athletic Union
(AAU) took a back seat.
The National Physique Committee (NPC) was
formed in 1981 by Jim Manion,[4] who had
just stepped down as chairman of the AAU
Physique Committee. The NPC has gone on
to become the most successful
bodybuilding organization in the U.S., and is
the amateur division of the IFBB in the
United States. The late 1980s and early
1990s saw the decline of AAU sponsored
bodybuilding contests. In 1999, the AAU
voted to discontinue its bodybuilding
events.
Rise of anabolic steroids
Ronnie Coleman 8 x Mr. Olympia - 2009
This period also saw the rise of anabolic
steroids used both in bodybuilding and
many other sports. In bodybuilding lore,
this is partly attributed to the rise of "mass
monsters", beginning with Arnold
Schwarzenegger but including Franco
Columbu, Lou Ferrigno, Dorian Yates, Lee
Haney, Ronnie Coleman and Paul DeMayo
and also the emergence of athletes such as
Rich Gaspari and Andreas Munzer, who
defied their genetics to attain size and
hardness previously unimagined. To
combat this, and in the hopes of becoming
a member of the IOC, the IFBB introduced
doping tests for both steroids and other
banned substances. Although doping tests
occurred, the majority of professional
bodybuilders still used anabolic steroids for
competition. During the 1970s the use of
anabolic steroids was openly discussed
partly due to the fact they were legal.[5]
However the U.S. Congress in the Anabolic
Steroid Control Act of 1990 placed anabolic
steroids into Schedule III of the Controlled
substance act (CSA). Similarly in Canada,
steroids were added to the Criminal Code of
Canada as a Class IV controlled substance
(that class was created expressly for
steroids).

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Tuesday, December 14, 2010

History of body building.

What is the need for BODYBUILDING?

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