Tag: History of Bodybuilding

Biographies by Conor HeffernanJul 31, 20176:27 pm

1903 and the birth of American Bodybuilding

After three years of pumping up, slimming down and posing, Britain, and the world was treated to the first ever bodybuilding competition in 1901. Hosted by the legendary Eugen Sandow, the ‘Great Competition’ as it was known claimed to have found the most perfect specimens alive. Unsurprisingly it wasn’t long before other nations, notably America, began to hold their own bodybuilding shows.

Within two years of Sandow’s ‘Great Competition’, the US was hosting its own bodybuilding show. Today we tell their story.

Bev Francis – A Balanced Approach For Dynamite Delts (1991)

It never thought in terms of training individual bodyparts when I was a world-champion powerlifters, and I certainly never did any specific shoulder exercises as part of my workouts. In those days, I’d think in terms of doing bench presses and squats, not chest and legs. So when I switched to bodybuilding, I had tremendously strong front delts from all those years of heavy benches, but my side and rear delts were lagging.

Let me add that my benches back then weren’t strict, bodybuilding benches, but an all-out powerlifting movement — bringing the bar very low, arching and pressing up using a lot front delts and even lats as well as chest and triceps. I was always a shoulder presser, which gave me even more disproportionate front deltoid development.

Resources by Conor HeffernanJul 21, 20177:22 am

Guest Post: A Comprehensive Look At The History of Physical Fitness

Photo courtesy of Flickr The way we look at physical fitness today is way too different from the way people used to consider it during the stone age or bronze age. Today, joining a fitness […]

Training by Conor HeffernanDec 2, 20167:47 am

Sigmund Klein and the invention of Leg Curl?

Lifters today often take machine training for granted. From leg presses to leg extensions, its easy to think that such inventions have existed since the dawn of the gym age. This of course, is entirely […]

Resources by Conor HeffernanDec 29, 201512:26 pm

The First Mr. Olympia

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It all began in April 1965 in a Joe Weider magazine…

Sick and tired of conversations about who was the greatest bodybuilder, Weider had decided to create a competition pitting champions from around the World against each other. In the same year that the iconic Gold’s Gym opened, Weider’s ‘Mr. Olympia’ would see A Mr. Universe, Mr. World and Mr. America pose, flex and tense in front of thousands of fans to determine the best that Bodybuilding had to offer.

Why create a new tournament?

Training by Conor HeffernanDec 15, 20151:39 pm

The History of the Smith Machine

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Ah yes, the dreaded Smith Machine. Criticised for its unnatural movements, failure to fully tax the muscles and its generally unappealing design.

Who invented the Smith Machine? Why did they do it and how did it become so popular? These are some of the questions answered in today’s blogpost on the history of the Smith Machine!

Biographies by Conor HeffernanOct 22, 20152:38 pm

1903 and the birth of American Bodybuilding

Within two years of Sandow’s ‘Great Competition’, the US was hosting its own bodybuilding show. Today we tell their story.