Hey dear readers, here's a new and with this the next post of the IRON AGE posting series up here on your dear "MANSLAUGHTER THUG LIFE" blog, After this very one here is already the fourth post of the IRON AGE series I won't say anything for the introduction of it anymore. I mean if you have just joined in to this posting series then check the earlier posts and perhaps at first the very first one of the IRON AGE posts if you want to know how this works and how this all is about and how it will go on. But just that you know about it, this whole IRON AGE posting series thing is totally dedicated to Old School Bodybuilding and Iron Pumping especially from the 1930's/1940's up to the late 1980's/early 1990's when with the retirement of the almighty Lee Haney the period of the IRON AGE ended, and the IRON AGE series is completely and solely dedicated to it, nothing else and no other posts dealing with something else will come up under this label, Bodybuilding is in the focus of it, no, not just that, but it's THE focus of it. And then that's it for this introduction to this very post here and now, and so, alright, just let's kick it off just right, "BA-BA-BANG!!!", so here we go again!!!
FROM THE DEPHTS OF WEIGHTLIFTING AND STRONGMEN GYMS...
OLD SCHOOL BODYBUILDING
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BODYBUILDING FROM THE 1950's TO THE 1970'S
...A NEW IRON FORGED PHYSICAL CULTURE IDEAL SPREAD INTO THE WORLD.
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| Old School. the real deal. |
THE BEGINNINGS - OLD SCHOOL BODYBUILDING IN THE 1930's & 1940's: Like already said the beginnings had very close or maybe the closest ties and links ever in the history of modern Bodybuilding to Weight Lifting, with a lot of the early Bodybuilders had been Weight Lifters, too, as well as pretty often at some points in their careers early Strongmen athletes. This had two direct consequences on them and on their work outs as being (the first real) modern Bodybuilders:
(1.) The work outs were heavily influenced by Weight Lifting and were in some ways quite equal to the work outs of Weight Lifters. This is to say to or about the work out routines and schedules that were the bottom line to what (exercises, muscle groups, etc. pp.) was how (in which way, with which weights, with how many reps, in how many sets etc. pp.) and when (how often per week, in which time or day intervals, etc. pp.) trained.
(2.) Real physical strength and power enjoyed a huge and major significance for the early Bodybuilders and had been the linchpin of their work outs and was for them the main key to make major improvements of their bodies. Strength of the muscles and not the mass. (And everyone into Bodybuilding and Iron Sports in general anyhow should know pretty if not damn well what a significant and major/important, a sharpening influence strong and powerful muscles have on the composition and the look and shape as well as the development of your whole body.)
(And just look at the amazing steroid-free bodies of the Old School Bodybuilders and you should know how right they were with their views.)
That is very interesting and fascinating in one, especially if you think about how that used to change over the decades with a separation of just muscle mass and the principles and practises how to get it on the one side and real strength and power and the principles and techniques how to build it on the other side of the coin how you see and read and hear it very often today. But later to this more, so even if this now may sound strange to you, the separation between muscle mass and muscle strength as different trainings focus', then just calm down and just read on (in the IRON AGE articles) because we will have more precise looks on this, so that you will pretty sure more or less hopefully soon know more about it. Now onward with the early Bodybuilders and work outs and their close and tied links to Weight Lifting (as well as Strongman/Strongmen sports for sure). And this means also back to the close ties between strength and mass, the power of the muscles and their building and shaping which also (!) includes the addition of flesh, meat, and mass to your body. When they which means the Bodybuilders of old started their work outs they were set to face brutal and mercyless work out routines that totally cracked down their cerebral systems and muslce powers, so normally at least of their main work outs not that many were that often placed a week (especially if you compare it to what came in the decades after them and to/with what we have today), nothing like double split schedules, training two times a day, and for five days or even six days or something so like this a week. Only before a contest they pumped up the volume to burn extra calories and body fat. And it also meant that they usually still worked their daytime real life jobs because back then with Bodybuilding you simply couldn't make your living no matter how great you have been and this full time jobs had been pretty often real blue collar hard working class jobs, and it also means that back then there had been nothing like our modern gyms and fitness studios today, and maybe or probably also most of the Underground Hardcore Gyms of our days would look like wellness centres compared to the rudimentary and just brutally pure and by improvisation marked atmosphere and equipment and facilities of the cellars, garages, and storage halls/rooms where the work outs back then had usually been placed, when and where even the weights and the different weight lifting stations had to be installed ad-lib. (Before this slowly changed over the next decades, and how slowly this used to change you can imagine when you keep in mind that also the almighty Arnold "The Oak" Schwarzenegger started his Bodybuilding career and work out routines in dusty and shady gymnasium halls and even under the sun at the fresh air without any real proper training equipment except his own body not so much because it was of free choice but instead of this because no alternative existed.) Also the exercises had been unusual at least for us today, because how often your or I or just we see guys doing dumbbell swings as an exercise in the gyms around the globe these days. (And I mean dumbbell swings as a proper exercise and I don't mean this idiots that grab a dumbbell as big as it can get and can't move it forward or backward without putting their whole body in the swing...) This is something that today seems to celebrate a sort of revival or comeback with Kettlebell swings as a very similiar exercise to dumbbell swings getting more and more popular over the last years and also still gaining more and more popularity and reputation. Something more is something that really needs to be named and brought to attention, so keep in mind that we are talking here now about days of the 1930's and the descent to the decade of the 1940's, a period often and correctly called the beginning of the modern Bodybuilding sport and this means Bodybuilding as something of its very own, so when we talk about this era or time period which means in particular the two decades of the 1930's and the 1940's we are also talking about the era of the second world war and the Thrid Reich and with this an ongoing and ongrowing global militarization of society, economy, politics, culture, and media(s). And latest with the kick off of the war and then latest with the entry of the United States of America into that war the Bodybuilders of that era had to face something the Bodybuilders of later eras and also we ordinary people and gym addicts of today can only very hardly imagine: Shortages. Especially and of course of steel and such stuff. So this means that there had been very often no proper weights and/or dumbbelss and barbells existed like we know them today and are used to train with, and plastic dumbbells weren't invented (and suck anyhow anyway, period). And when I write that especially things linked to the U.S.A. are of high importance for the history and development then just keep in mind that it had been the States where modern Bodybuilding like we know it today was born latest when no one else than the god-like Eugen Sandow stepped the stages of the United States of America and flexed his muscles instead of lifting heavy weights and bending massive steel, not at least due to the fact that the U.S. American audience cheered up by far more to it than to the classical weight lifting and Strongmen show elements. And it was in the States where and when first modern public and cost-free work out facilities were created and made like the infamous Muscle Beach of Santa Monica near Los Angeles where in 1938 first gymnastic platforms were installed and later on had been heavily enriched with weight lifting equipment. And so it is easily to say that Bodybuilding was sort of a new movement back then that was heading out from the West of the World a.k.a. the United States of America to spread more and more around the globe. A world wide Physical Culture movement, a global Iron Age ideal. A movement that was already meant to happen right from the 1930's on, but due to the World War II this was set on stand by untill the 1940's and the by far too late end of the disgusting, dumb, unhuman, and incredible blind farce known as the Thrid Reich of Nazi Germany. Back to the Old School Bodybuilding which means the Bodybuilding of that certain era. The work outs were mostly made out of heavy compound exercises and this means especially out of Deadlifts, Squats, Shoulder-Presses, and Olympic Weight Lifting exercises, made round by curling and pressing exercises for the biceps and triceps, and enriched by other exercises even some may seem pretty obscure from our todays point of view and some had also surely been pretty dangerous and exotic and a talent for imrpovisation was also needed back then when you wanted to be a Bodybuilder, as well as the taste for and the lust for finding out new stuff, new exercises, new methods, new equipment stuff. All work outs were done with free weights, dumbbells, barbells, as well as improvisated weights were common back then. Mostly all exercises had been carried out with a full or whole body approach which means that the whole body should have to be taken under fire with them and this means that what ever could be done standing on your feet was done standing on your feet. The weights were heavy and massive, and the work outs brutal and butcherly. The usual routine was also to carry out full body work outs, not splitting into the muscle goups like it is mostly today. It was all meant to set the whole muscles on and of your body under complete fire and to crack down your whole cerebral system as heavily as it was possible. And after this... take rest days. Only few genetical very gifted ones like John Grimek could here and there break out of this schedule and give their bodies even more to grow even more for a certain time period before even they had to step back from this extreme approach. But also for them one thing was of the highest importance: Rest. Sleep and eat and wait for the regeneration to happen and the food and sleep to do their work and give you the benefits you worked your ass off for. Rest and sleep as far as it was possible when you also worked a full day time job because there was no way to talk of Pro Bodybuilders like we know them today. The nutrition was kept easy, simple, and straight, all without any dingle-dangle bullshit. Meat, fish, chicken, eggs, eggs, eggs, and more eggs, milk, milk, milk, and more milk, fresh fruits, fresh vegetables, and clear water. No industrialized food just good natural full proper food, but also no bullshit trendy oh so "healthy" nutrition trends like low carb and all this post-modern bullshit of today that's at the end of the day nothing else than a sort of a self- and freely-chosen "deficit-nutrition" (with, especially if you have bad luck, surely all the negative long time consequences one for sure had to deal with later on, especially if you take it to the max) and that's sold so much so often to the countless legions of bullshit dumb-ass idiots outta there. All natural, organic, and of high value, that's how it was back then and that's how anyone should keep it in mind. No supplements like we know them today to think of, and steroids and such stuff hadn't been know in that way also back then. Good old days. Glory days. Back to the exercises: Don't wonder if you don't find the Benchpress named above. The Benchpress is a pretty new and modern exercise that back then just was born and it wasn't one of the famous exercises back then and men like the almighty John Grimek abolished it most of the time. The reputance of the Benchpress is something that should change slowly over the next years and decades, but back then in the 1930's and the 1940's which means the certain time period this is now all about it wasn't really a topic for most of the Bodybuilders back then. Several Bodybuilding magazines were already published back then, all with sort of reputance and influence, for sure, but not comparable to what came after the first magazines and not to talk about todays global selling magazines like "Flex" and "Muscle & Fitness" and (especially for my german readers) the mighty "Sport Revue", to name just this three magazines. A handfull of Bodybuilding federations were active and already existing back then with several different championships especially all over the States with the AAU "Mr. America" had been the most important for the most of the years during that two decades and with the NABBA "Mr. Universe" finally taken this leading role by the late end of the 1940's and especially the year of 1950. John Grimek, Steve Reeves, Clancy Ross, Steve Stanko, Jules Bacon, George Eiferman, Jack Delinger, and Vince Gironda are definitely names you should know from that era (for John Grimek you can already check out the tribute post to/for him up here), so go and search for them and discover some of the most impressive and greatest physiques ever developed. All forged in iron. This now leads us to the next chapter of this very post... and now we're becoming classic.
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BECOMING CLASSIC... - THE CLASSIC BODYBUILDING OF THE 1950's: And this chapter deals all about and all with the following decade, the 1950's, a decade not less named than the golden age of Bodybuilding. Up here let us say that we name it the classical or classic period, from the Old School Bodybuilding of the early beginnings of the 1930's and the 1940's with larger than life and forever immortalized athletes like John Grimek and Steve Reeves the 1950's were a decade in which it all was given a more reliable foundament and in which the classic bodybuilding physique had been created, a time period in which Bodybuilding became more and more a thing of its own and let Olypmic Weight Lifting as well as Strongman/Strongmen sports aside. So up here we say that we now go from Old School Bodybuilding to Classical Bodybuilding. Let us see what was different or better what changed, as well as let us see what stayed the same and what reasons let to the differences as well as to the similarities between the era of Old School Bodybuilding and the era of Classic Bodybuilding. So, okay, here we go again: Latest with the year of 1950 finally the NABBA became the worlds strongest Bodybuilding federation for quite a while with leaving the AAU behind and this also meant that the annual NABBA event of the "Mr. Universe" became the most important event and championship in Bodybuilding and this for around two decades or so with leaving the AAU "Mr. America" finally behind. And this also meant that the most important annual Bodybuilding championship wasn't held in the United States of America anymore but instead of this in good oldmother Europe, in London, England/U.K. precisely. And it needed no one else and nothing else than the Weider Brothers and their IFBB with their annual "Mr. Olympia" and the supreme ruling dominant shining Bodybuilding forces that first Larry Scott and Sergio Oliva and then especially no one else than the almightiest of the almighty Arnold "The Oak" Schwarzenegger were to finally change this. But that's a story of a later time, so now back to the topic, the 1950's, the decade that first saw the global succesful spreading of Bodybuilding and a new Physical Culture ideal that was forged in iron. The first NABBA "Mr. Universe" held as being the leading global Bodybuilding championship was in 1950 and saw one of the greatest Bodybuilders of all time being the glorious victor, Steve Reeves, a true Old School Bodybuilding legend. Steve Reeves announced after this triumph that he won't compete anymore and he was never to be seen on a Bodybuilding stage wearing his posing slip again. (If you want to know more about the reasons and motivations why Steve Reeves hung up his posing slip as soon as he became- again- the world's leading Bodybuilder in 1950 then read the tribute article to or about him that will follow this very article here in the- soon- future of this very blog.) Steve Reeves used to beat in 1950 up on stage in London a man who after this should become a if not the leading force in Bodybuilding of the 1950's or at least the most years of this decade and with a glorious shining charisma also beyond this, a man who was active for a long time, a man who influenced heavily Arnold "The Oak" Schwarzenegger, a man who lived a inspirational and succesful life, and a man who should become sort of a or better the definition of Classic Bodybuilding and Classical Bodybuilders: I am talking about no one else than the made in England original and Leeds finest Reg Park, a man with one of the greatest physiques ever seen, as well as a man of high intelligence and a great character. And a man who like Steve Reeves should become to Hercules and with this a movie star, but that's another story, and a story of the 1960's and also a step aside of Bodybuilding. But anyhow, you can stay tuned for a tribute post to honour Reg Park up here later on some day, so much I can already say right now. Take my word on it. Now back to Bodybuilding in the 1950's. What marked a heavy difference between the days of old before and the 1950's was the fact that the World War II was over and so Bodybuilding could finally start its victorious crusade from the United States of America spreading out the new Physical Culture all over the world (also in the states of the Soviet Union, where the love of and for Physical Culture and the honour and respect of and for it could benefit from a long going old and rich tradition), and it also meant that the days of shortages more and more became history and so the equipment and the gyms and with it the training exercises and methods could develop more and more and the huge need of and for improvisation wasn't needed like before anymore. But however, even Europe embraced Bodybuilding and the new Physical Culture and its ideals more and more and in the Soviet Union and especially in mother Russia a old ongoing love fueled the hunger for Bodybuilding and the new iron aged Physical Culture (as well as also Olympic Weight Lifting for sure) it still had been first and foremost the United States of America that had and acted the leading global role in hailing Bodybuilding. So the first real proper gyms spread in higher numbers and amounts across the country, and especially in California. And also a first (very) early wave of female Bodybuilding started out and the public reacted with joy and interest to it (even it surely had been male Bodybuilding what was the thing to do also in the eyes of the public), beside a huge development of first real training machines like ones for example for leg extensions. This means that the exercises changed quite a bit and while the Bodybuilders still worked heavily their asses off in the gyms they started to work more and more with more "detailed" exercises, like dumbbell pullover as a crossover exercise for back and chest muscles became pretty popular during that time, like first real and more and more isolation-exercises for specific parts of the muscle groups became more and more known and used. But still and this for justified and more than good reasons the heavy compound exercises like Deadlifts, Squats, and the Shoulder Press were the leading order of the day. This was enriched by the still pretty new but more and more popular becoming Benchpress. The work outs were based on this biggies and enriched by smaller exercises, and this in a bigger amount than before and also more profound than before, with more and more and better and better aimed isolation-exercises like for example dumbbell flying movements to kill off the chest just right carried out with a bunch of several different angle placements on the training bench. But despise the first real proper training machines still and for sure free weights, barbells, and dumbbells lead the way for good. Also more and more the work out split became known. While former Bodybuilders worked out especially in whole body work out routines in the 1950's first training splits became known and famous, with working for example the upper body day one, the legs day two, arms day three, and maybe a heavy compound day at the end of the week (, just as an example). So the work out schedules grew also on a bit from two or three days a week to around four or five days a week or something like this with a first specific or particular aiming at single muslce groups (usually one or maybe two) per work out. But still not comparable to what should become later on and started only a decade later first really off. So the first real split work outs of the 1950's had been sort of a forestaste of the split work outs and the later on very famous and popular Volume Training that had it's golden days in his classic form then especially in the 1970's. And still the building of real physical strength was linked close and tied to the building of big muscles. So all in all we can say or see that over the 1950's in contrast to before the work out techniques had been enriched and cultivated and also had been aimed more and more at what should become known more or less specific Bodybuilding exercises and methods and movements (the Benchpress, isolation-exercises, volume training, split work outs, etc. pp.) and the first proper modern real training machines used to pop up as well as a first small boom of or for female Bodybuilding took place, like already mentioned before, but the systems and ideas as well as ideals and the main exercises to become strong AND big stayed pretty much the same than before (and keep in mind that the training focus of no one else than Reg Park was aimed at reaching the "ultimate strength" and you should know the deal), it all simply was given a more reliable and more, if you want so, scientifical foundament and approach. And this was a lot of important and hard work to do for this one decade. The principles of nutrition stayed pretty much the same than before, and still there had been pretty much no steroids or what the hell else ever invading the sport. Also no real supplement industry was there, with the modern supplements like we know them today had been still stucked in there (very early) child shoes, with just first protein powders (especially based on egg protein) being markable supplements to happen back then. The first real or better the bigger changes should happen later on from the 1960's and this will be what we will deal with in the next chapter of this very article. Great Bodybuilders of that certain time of Classic(al) Bodybuilding of the 1950's beside the amazing Reg Park had been mostly ones to be active already before (so just look at the names given to you at the end of the chapter about Old School Bodybuilding of this article) or had been mostly Bodybuilders with their mark on the sport even in the 1960's like for example the larger than life Bill Pearl and Larry Scott (who should become famous a little bit later on but started out in the 1950's). And a man who in the 1950's not competed anymore on stage and was only to be seen in movies and on the TV was adored as the best Bodybuilder, of the world if not even the best Bodybuilder ever and this man was no one else than the demigod of the iron age: Steve Reeves. The magazine and book industry started also to roll more and more and becoming more and more important, so that it could finally start out a big revolution in the sport of Bodybuilding from the 1960's on, surely with commercial interests and goals behind it. But even with the little first boom of Bodybuilding and first commercial interests wanting to gain their benefits from out of it and even maybe the first Bodybuilders could start to somehow make their living out of and with it the 1950's had still been miles away from later on growths of Bodybuilding and of a commercialization of Bodybuilding no one couldn't really talk. If you want so then the world was still sound, intact, and in good order. And the Bodybuilders were still natural and their work out routines had also still been for natural people. And just take a look at for example Reg Park and you will see what impressive and great physiques had been built through out the 1950's. But what was anyhow fact was clearly and simply that Bodybuilding had become totally something own, standing on its own feet, as a own discipline of the world of iron and strength sports, and so it stood not anymore behind Olmypic Weight Lifting (including, if you want so, Powerlifting here and now) and Strongman/Strongmen sports but at least equal beside it, and Bodybuilding had definitely produced over the 1950's his first really own and solely/exclusive stars especially with Steve Reeves (even he was not a active competing Bodybuilder anymore at this time) and Reg Park, and also Bill Pearl who should also be going on tough and strong for a decade if not longer on. At the end of the 1950's Bodybuilding was famous and popular and as much known to a wide public audience than never before, and this leads us to the following decades, the 1960's as well as the 1970's, a decade marked by first massive and drastic changes for and in Bodybuilding...
PUMPING UP THE VOLUME - BODYBUILDING IN THE 1960's & THE 1970's: Here's the next chapter of this article, dealing in once with the last two time periods of the history of modern Bodybuilding that we are up to handle and deal with today, the 1960's and the 1970's. I choosed to deal with them at once in one chapter due to the fact that this two decades are very closed and tied linked together with the developments and changes of the 1960's had been the ones of the 1970's with being "only" cultivated in that later decade. We will move on from 1960 to 1980 and then we will close this post and the 1980's as well as the changing of times and things with the the early 1990's we will work up and through some day in the future of this blog and its very own IRON AGE posting series. So here we go, forged in iron, Bodybuilding in the 1960's and 1970's, and with the muscles the volume got pumped up heavily. Maybe this chapter of this article will come out a little bit shorter than the two ones before. Don't you wonder about this, if this should be so at the end. Even don't wonder about it when I say that this calmly could be this way without missing out on anything important after all even this two decades and especially the 1970's are maybe the most important ones of this very post as well as maybe in the history of Bodybuilding in general. The reason that it could easily be that this chapter turns out to be the shortest or smallest in the end is easily that the main revoultionary concepts and developments, makers and champs, training techniques and work out systems of that certain time period will get their proper own posts up here later on in their own IRON AGE posts, and some of the champs of that era will get their proper own tribute posts up here as well. So don't wonder when this as the maybe most important chapter of this article turns out to be the one of the smallest amount, if this should happen then for good reasons, and you can stay tuned for more about it all to come in the future and so calm down and cool down your mood, take my word on it And so enough of the small talk, here we go, back to the topic, the 1960's and 1970's and the revolutionary developments that Bodybuilding experienced in that certain decades. The first biggest and most important change in contrast to the decades before is that from the 1960's on Bodybuilding started to get bigger and bigger and this especially from the 1970's on and with the rise of no one else than THE biggest and greatest of ALL times, Arnold "The Oak" Schwarzenegger, it had the charismatic and intelligent leading figure with the best physique ever it needed, the right man at the right place at the right time - and also with the right support, for sure. Bodybuilding started to grow on and to get bigger from year to year. Public interest grew on and Bodybuilding grew on from a Underground Movement and Underground Way of Life to something that exploded into the mainstream of society and in the 1970's with Arnold Schwarzenegger as THE lead character and figure of it all and latest in the middle of the 1970's then with the succesful "Pumping Iron" movie and with other legendary Bodybuilders that had been also great athletes and also great personalities like Frank Zane, Franco Columbo, and Lou Ferrigno to just name this three ones Bodybuilding conquered the mainstream of society and became even more important and influential for the back then very prominent and succesful avantgarde art scene and art and aesthetic legends like Andy Warhole were totally fascinated by Bodybuilding, by Bodybuilding as a way of a sort of living art with the human body as the work of the art and the sculpture itself. This must have been truly an amazing time... AMAZING!!! Without a single doubt, period. Beside this it is clear to see that the bigger growing and more and more famous becoming world of Bodybuilding also developed and grew on with bigger and better equipped gyms, a more and more growing and better and better and more and more diverse as well as scientifical becoming supplement industry, modern and better and more developed training machines which promised a revolution of workin' out and training (but a promise that failed to come true... for good reasons, of course...), bigger and more professional magazines and competitions, and stronger growing Bodybuilding federations (especially the IFBB should really become the- solely- shining star of them all over the years), and more prominent and bigger Bodybuilding superstars from the almighty Bill Pearl and the iconic Larry Scott as well as the nearly mythological Sergio Oliva to the superhuman like Lou Ferrigno and the maybe first ever Bodybuilding extremist Mike Mentzer and with Arnold Schwarzenegger being THE biggest, greatest, and best of them all in a way and sense, the greatest among the great ones, then and now. I will with this words now finally come to the close of this very post (keep in mind, like above announced the main development lines of Bodybuilding in the 1960's and especially the 1970's will further on in the future get their very own posts/articles up here), and just name you the three or four biggest changes and developments by name, because later on this important (and also today very important developments) will get a proper article of their own. And so here we go, the three or four biggest and most revolutionary changes and developments of the 1960's and then especially the 1970's:
(I.) The IFBB of the Weider Brothers became the leading and totally dominant force in Pro Bodybuilding with their annual "Mr. Olympia" became the top of the world in Bodybuilding.
(II.) Steroids broke into the sport and changed it heavily and latest from the 1980's on forever and drastically and like the world should experience and see in a more and more extreme and drastic way, so that Bodybuilding turne out more and more into "Massbuilding".
(III.) & (IV.) New and revolutionary Training concepts (and partially also nutrition concepts) saw the light of the day, namely the Volume Training and the High Intensity Training systems, in parts (especially in case of the HIT systems, just remember Arthur Jones and its "Nautilus" machinery) backed up by what was called the "Machine Revolution" (that never really happened, but that's another story)...
Each point of this three to four ones will get a proper own article later on, so stay tuned for it but for now calm down, just wait a few days. By the way, also sometime in the 1960's but more of the 1970's you could start to make a living out of Bodybuilding if you had been a smart guy. And also from the 1960's on already for the first time ever black or colored athletes used to win and to win also the big titles in Bodybuilding. So, you see, in every sense Bodybuilding finally got really professional from the 1960's on and especially in the 1970's. Also female Bodybuilding got popular and popular more and more especially during the second half of the 1970's and reached its forever immortalized golden days with the beginning of the 1980's when the divine Rachel McLish was crowned the first ever "Mrs. Olympia" and delivered the definition of the greatness female Bodybuilding can truly be and reach, and so she remains also today the forever unreached greatest ever, the best and the definition of female Bodybuilding, point and fact. Today it are from my point of view especially the Fitness and the Figure classes of the IFBB female Bodybuilding league that stand as close to the golden ideals of female Bodybuilding as ever possible with for example the amazing Nicole Wilkins as a rolemodel of/for it. The 1970's then ended and the 1980's should start with one of the most controversial moments in the history of modern Pro Bodybuilding, with the victorious comeback to the "Mr. Olympia" stage of Arnold Schwarzenegger in 1980 when he conquered his seventh and final "Mr. Olympia" title what used to lead to very heated controversial discussions first and to frustrated second, third, fourth and so on ranked ones. (And to Mike Mentzer using to retire from active Bodybuilding direct after the 1980 "Mr. O."...) However, he did take the win and like always he was in great shape anyhow, period. From then on Bodybuilding changed and went through some troubled years before with the truly amazing Lee Haney a totally ultimate dominant force returned to the stage. But this is another age, and we will come to it at a different day. So stay tuned for it. And for even far more, too.
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| "Mr. America" Clancy Ross - one of the greatest ever! |
(1.) The work outs were heavily influenced by Weight Lifting and were in some ways quite equal to the work outs of Weight Lifters. This is to say to or about the work out routines and schedules that were the bottom line to what (exercises, muscle groups, etc. pp.) was how (in which way, with which weights, with how many reps, in how many sets etc. pp.) and when (how often per week, in which time or day intervals, etc. pp.) trained.
(2.) Real physical strength and power enjoyed a huge and major significance for the early Bodybuilders and had been the linchpin of their work outs and was for them the main key to make major improvements of their bodies. Strength of the muscles and not the mass. (And everyone into Bodybuilding and Iron Sports in general anyhow should know pretty if not damn well what a significant and major/important, a sharpening influence strong and powerful muscles have on the composition and the look and shape as well as the development of your whole body.)
(And just look at the amazing steroid-free bodies of the Old School Bodybuilders and you should know how right they were with their views.)
That is very interesting and fascinating in one, especially if you think about how that used to change over the decades with a separation of just muscle mass and the principles and practises how to get it on the one side and real strength and power and the principles and techniques how to build it on the other side of the coin how you see and read and hear it very often today. But later to this more, so even if this now may sound strange to you, the separation between muscle mass and muscle strength as different trainings focus', then just calm down and just read on (in the IRON AGE articles) because we will have more precise looks on this, so that you will pretty sure more or less hopefully soon know more about it. Now onward with the early Bodybuilders and work outs and their close and tied links to Weight Lifting (as well as Strongman/Strongmen sports for sure). And this means also back to the close ties between strength and mass, the power of the muscles and their building and shaping which also (!) includes the addition of flesh, meat, and mass to your body. When they which means the Bodybuilders of old started their work outs they were set to face brutal and mercyless work out routines that totally cracked down their cerebral systems and muslce powers, so normally at least of their main work outs not that many were that often placed a week (especially if you compare it to what came in the decades after them and to/with what we have today), nothing like double split schedules, training two times a day, and for five days or even six days or something so like this a week. Only before a contest they pumped up the volume to burn extra calories and body fat. And it also meant that they usually still worked their daytime real life jobs because back then with Bodybuilding you simply couldn't make your living no matter how great you have been and this full time jobs had been pretty often real blue collar hard working class jobs, and it also means that back then there had been nothing like our modern gyms and fitness studios today, and maybe or probably also most of the Underground Hardcore Gyms of our days would look like wellness centres compared to the rudimentary and just brutally pure and by improvisation marked atmosphere and equipment and facilities of the cellars, garages, and storage halls/rooms where the work outs back then had usually been placed, when and where even the weights and the different weight lifting stations had to be installed ad-lib. (Before this slowly changed over the next decades, and how slowly this used to change you can imagine when you keep in mind that also the almighty Arnold "The Oak" Schwarzenegger started his Bodybuilding career and work out routines in dusty and shady gymnasium halls and even under the sun at the fresh air without any real proper training equipment except his own body not so much because it was of free choice but instead of this because no alternative existed.) Also the exercises had been unusual at least for us today, because how often your or I or just we see guys doing dumbbell swings as an exercise in the gyms around the globe these days. (And I mean dumbbell swings as a proper exercise and I don't mean this idiots that grab a dumbbell as big as it can get and can't move it forward or backward without putting their whole body in the swing...) This is something that today seems to celebrate a sort of revival or comeback with Kettlebell swings as a very similiar exercise to dumbbell swings getting more and more popular over the last years and also still gaining more and more popularity and reputation. Something more is something that really needs to be named and brought to attention, so keep in mind that we are talking here now about days of the 1930's and the descent to the decade of the 1940's, a period often and correctly called the beginning of the modern Bodybuilding sport and this means Bodybuilding as something of its very own, so when we talk about this era or time period which means in particular the two decades of the 1930's and the 1940's we are also talking about the era of the second world war and the Thrid Reich and with this an ongoing and ongrowing global militarization of society, economy, politics, culture, and media(s). And latest with the kick off of the war and then latest with the entry of the United States of America into that war the Bodybuilders of that era had to face something the Bodybuilders of later eras and also we ordinary people and gym addicts of today can only very hardly imagine: Shortages. Especially and of course of steel and such stuff. So this means that there had been very often no proper weights and/or dumbbelss and barbells existed like we know them today and are used to train with, and plastic dumbbells weren't invented (and suck anyhow anyway, period). And when I write that especially things linked to the U.S.A. are of high importance for the history and development then just keep in mind that it had been the States where modern Bodybuilding like we know it today was born latest when no one else than the god-like Eugen Sandow stepped the stages of the United States of America and flexed his muscles instead of lifting heavy weights and bending massive steel, not at least due to the fact that the U.S. American audience cheered up by far more to it than to the classical weight lifting and Strongmen show elements. And it was in the States where and when first modern public and cost-free work out facilities were created and made like the infamous Muscle Beach of Santa Monica near Los Angeles where in 1938 first gymnastic platforms were installed and later on had been heavily enriched with weight lifting equipment. And so it is easily to say that Bodybuilding was sort of a new movement back then that was heading out from the West of the World a.k.a. the United States of America to spread more and more around the globe. A world wide Physical Culture movement, a global Iron Age ideal. A movement that was already meant to happen right from the 1930's on, but due to the World War II this was set on stand by untill the 1940's and the by far too late end of the disgusting, dumb, unhuman, and incredible blind farce known as the Thrid Reich of Nazi Germany. Back to the Old School Bodybuilding which means the Bodybuilding of that certain era. The work outs were mostly made out of heavy compound exercises and this means especially out of Deadlifts, Squats, Shoulder-Presses, and Olympic Weight Lifting exercises, made round by curling and pressing exercises for the biceps and triceps, and enriched by other exercises even some may seem pretty obscure from our todays point of view and some had also surely been pretty dangerous and exotic and a talent for imrpovisation was also needed back then when you wanted to be a Bodybuilder, as well as the taste for and the lust for finding out new stuff, new exercises, new methods, new equipment stuff. All work outs were done with free weights, dumbbells, barbells, as well as improvisated weights were common back then. Mostly all exercises had been carried out with a full or whole body approach which means that the whole body should have to be taken under fire with them and this means that what ever could be done standing on your feet was done standing on your feet. The weights were heavy and massive, and the work outs brutal and butcherly. The usual routine was also to carry out full body work outs, not splitting into the muscle goups like it is mostly today. It was all meant to set the whole muscles on and of your body under complete fire and to crack down your whole cerebral system as heavily as it was possible. And after this... take rest days. Only few genetical very gifted ones like John Grimek could here and there break out of this schedule and give their bodies even more to grow even more for a certain time period before even they had to step back from this extreme approach. But also for them one thing was of the highest importance: Rest. Sleep and eat and wait for the regeneration to happen and the food and sleep to do their work and give you the benefits you worked your ass off for. Rest and sleep as far as it was possible when you also worked a full day time job because there was no way to talk of Pro Bodybuilders like we know them today. The nutrition was kept easy, simple, and straight, all without any dingle-dangle bullshit. Meat, fish, chicken, eggs, eggs, eggs, and more eggs, milk, milk, milk, and more milk, fresh fruits, fresh vegetables, and clear water. No industrialized food just good natural full proper food, but also no bullshit trendy oh so "healthy" nutrition trends like low carb and all this post-modern bullshit of today that's at the end of the day nothing else than a sort of a self- and freely-chosen "deficit-nutrition" (with, especially if you have bad luck, surely all the negative long time consequences one for sure had to deal with later on, especially if you take it to the max) and that's sold so much so often to the countless legions of bullshit dumb-ass idiots outta there. All natural, organic, and of high value, that's how it was back then and that's how anyone should keep it in mind. No supplements like we know them today to think of, and steroids and such stuff hadn't been know in that way also back then. Good old days. Glory days. Back to the exercises: Don't wonder if you don't find the Benchpress named above. The Benchpress is a pretty new and modern exercise that back then just was born and it wasn't one of the famous exercises back then and men like the almighty John Grimek abolished it most of the time. The reputance of the Benchpress is something that should change slowly over the next years and decades, but back then in the 1930's and the 1940's which means the certain time period this is now all about it wasn't really a topic for most of the Bodybuilders back then. Several Bodybuilding magazines were already published back then, all with sort of reputance and influence, for sure, but not comparable to what came after the first magazines and not to talk about todays global selling magazines like "Flex" and "Muscle & Fitness" and (especially for my german readers) the mighty "Sport Revue", to name just this three magazines. A handfull of Bodybuilding federations were active and already existing back then with several different championships especially all over the States with the AAU "Mr. America" had been the most important for the most of the years during that two decades and with the NABBA "Mr. Universe" finally taken this leading role by the late end of the 1940's and especially the year of 1950. John Grimek, Steve Reeves, Clancy Ross, Steve Stanko, Jules Bacon, George Eiferman, Jack Delinger, and Vince Gironda are definitely names you should know from that era (for John Grimek you can already check out the tribute post to/for him up here), so go and search for them and discover some of the most impressive and greatest physiques ever developed. All forged in iron. This now leads us to the next chapter of this very post... and now we're becoming classic.
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| The forever immortalized Bill Pearl. - A true legend and a ruling force of the 1950's & 1960's. |
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| Dave Draper and his crew. |
(I.) The IFBB of the Weider Brothers became the leading and totally dominant force in Pro Bodybuilding with their annual "Mr. Olympia" became the top of the world in Bodybuilding.
(II.) Steroids broke into the sport and changed it heavily and latest from the 1980's on forever and drastically and like the world should experience and see in a more and more extreme and drastic way, so that Bodybuilding turne out more and more into "Massbuilding".
(III.) & (IV.) New and revolutionary Training concepts (and partially also nutrition concepts) saw the light of the day, namely the Volume Training and the High Intensity Training systems, in parts (especially in case of the HIT systems, just remember Arthur Jones and its "Nautilus" machinery) backed up by what was called the "Machine Revolution" (that never really happened, but that's another story)...
Each point of this three to four ones will get a proper own article later on, so stay tuned for it but for now calm down, just wait a few days. By the way, also sometime in the 1960's but more of the 1970's you could start to make a living out of Bodybuilding if you had been a smart guy. And also from the 1960's on already for the first time ever black or colored athletes used to win and to win also the big titles in Bodybuilding. So, you see, in every sense Bodybuilding finally got really professional from the 1960's on and especially in the 1970's. Also female Bodybuilding got popular and popular more and more especially during the second half of the 1970's and reached its forever immortalized golden days with the beginning of the 1980's when the divine Rachel McLish was crowned the first ever "Mrs. Olympia" and delivered the definition of the greatness female Bodybuilding can truly be and reach, and so she remains also today the forever unreached greatest ever, the best and the definition of female Bodybuilding, point and fact. Today it are from my point of view especially the Fitness and the Figure classes of the IFBB female Bodybuilding league that stand as close to the golden ideals of female Bodybuilding as ever possible with for example the amazing Nicole Wilkins as a rolemodel of/for it. The 1970's then ended and the 1980's should start with one of the most controversial moments in the history of modern Pro Bodybuilding, with the victorious comeback to the "Mr. Olympia" stage of Arnold Schwarzenegger in 1980 when he conquered his seventh and final "Mr. Olympia" title what used to lead to very heated controversial discussions first and to frustrated second, third, fourth and so on ranked ones. (And to Mike Mentzer using to retire from active Bodybuilding direct after the 1980 "Mr. O."...) However, he did take the win and like always he was in great shape anyhow, period. From then on Bodybuilding changed and went through some troubled years before with the truly amazing Lee Haney a totally ultimate dominant force returned to the stage. But this is another age, and we will come to it at a different day. So stay tuned for it. And for even far more, too.
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| The young Arnold Schwarzenegger, the man they simply called "The Oak".
- The Greatest of all times ever.
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That's it for this post, I hope you enjoyed reading (I hope you did), even it was/is a really long article. Hell, I know that it is not complete but "just" a summary (and with covering five whole decades- the 1930's, the 1940's, the 1950's, the 1960's, and the 1970's- how could or how can it be complete anyhow...), but I hope that I haven't forgotten something highly important or that I haven't wrote something completly wrong. And keep in mind, it's just me doing this, a fan doing it as a fan and for the fans of Bodybuilding, and no professional and payed for it journalist or scientist. So all in all I think this article is a pretty good and complete and interesting one and it's very work-filled, for sure, so I hope you enjoyed it. So much for now. We'll read us (hopefully!) soon again later on up here in and with new IRON AGE as well as other posts of other topics. Anyhow, so much already thanks for your time and interest, more coming up soon and this already this very present day. Stcik with the iron and keep on pumping. Cheers /// Andy
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