PUMPING IRON – MODERN STRENGTH TRAINING & BODYBUILDING

A lot has happened in the industry from the 19th century to the beginning of professional bodybuilding.?That is reason enough to dedicate the second part of our series to this exciting time.?Join us on a journey back in time to the beginnings of modern strength training and the muscular athletes of that time.?Learn first-hand from the German bodybuilding pioneer how he has experienced and shaped development since the 1950s.

During the 19th century, strength training became more and more important: three major trends in modern physical culture can be dated to this very epoch, which should have an important influence on the further development of the entire industry.?Sport in England, Swedish therapeutic gymnastics and gymnastics in Germany shaped relevant social changes and were important drivers of innovation.?The European fitness trend also spilled over the pond to America and culminated in the “First American Weight Training Boom”.

Everyone knows furniture from Sweden – but do you also know fitness “made in SWEDEN”?

Pehr Henrik Ling (1776–1839) was the founder of Swedish therapeutic gymnastics, which, despite the name, was primarily aimed at prevention.?The Swede founded the first state-recognized central institute for gymnastics in 1813, where gymnastics teachers for schools, the army and medicine were trained.?Swedish therapeutic gymnastics consisted mainly of resistance exercises and enjoyed increasing popularity.?Another innovative Sweden laid the foundation stone for a dosed, isolated training of individual muscle groups: The doctor Gustaf JW Zander (1835–1920) developed a wide variety of strength training devices with variably adjustable resistances, which were manufactured industrially from 1877 and sold worldwide (see Geest, 2012 & Pauls, 2015).?Zander marketed its training concept holistically and at the beginning of the 20th century more than 100,000 people were already training in the so-called “Zander Institutes”.?Before the First World War, many such urban training centers were created.?The forerunners of today’s studios were already equipped with training and massage rooms, swimming pools, saunas, etc. Unlike the gymnastics clubs, these centers already offered flexible training options at that time in order to keep fit and healthy with the help of equipment.

The gymnastics movement around the educators “Turnvater Jahn” and Johann CF GutsMuths also helped to establish physical fitness from the royal houses to the schools – although the focus here was less on specific muscle training.?In addition to the fitness strongholds of Sweden and Germany, new, up-and-coming weight training centers developed in Russia and the Baltic countries in the second half of the 19th century.?The former “trainer guru” Dr.?Wladislaw von Krajewski (1855-1907) gathered in St. Petersburg the best of his guild (including Hackenschmidt and Sandow).?Other weight training centers were established in all major European cities (including London, Paris and Vienna) and the pikeperch devices also spread in Germany (including Leipzig, Berlin, Baden-Baden).

“Life is Movement” – Sandow, forefather of bodybuilding

Friedrich Wilhelm Müller (1867–1925) alias “Eugen Sandow” achieved great fame when he defeated the previously self-declared strongest man in the world, Charles A. Sampson, at a showdown.?It was this Sandow who, from now on, performed his trained body with muscular poses and power tricks to attract the attention of the public – this is where the birth of modern bodybuilding comes.

With the first modern Olympic Games in Athens in 1896, the body cult of antiquity experienced?a renaissance.?At that time, no one fulfilled this body ideal better than the young German.?He toured Europe, the USA and Australia with his own stage show and made fitness an event.?Sandow sold series of postcards with the image of his astral body and liked to pose (like the Greek models) dressed only with a fig leaf.

What many do not know is that Sandow was far more than just an “athlete and poser”.?He was interested in sports science backgrounds, anatomy and targeted muscle training and was later the “Personal Trainer” of the British King George V. In 1919 he published his own textbook with “Life is Movement”, in which the well-known author Sir Arthur Conan Doyle ( Sherlock Holmes) wrote the foreword.?Countless representatives from the aristocracy, politics, church, medicine and science protected this work.

Own “Sandow schools” were quickly established.?His strengthening methods were spread, taught and practiced in these germ cells.?As a result, he published his own training concepts, correspondence courses, books and a magazine, which certainly led to Sandow being one of the most popular personalities of his time at the height of his career – comparable only to Arnold Schwarzenegger.?His marketing, show and business talent paved the way for modern bodybuilding and the parallels to the “Terminator” are amazing.?The pioneer died in 1925 and went with him one of the most dazzling figures of the time.?The turmoil of the two world wars led to the development of bodybuilding as well as that of fitness

California – the cradle of modern body cult

In 1936 Jack LaLanne founded the first “modern” gym in Oakland (California) and in the late 1930s the “Physical Culture” development continued with the “Mr.?America Contest ”and other“ Mr.?Contests ”.

A very special place contributed significantly to the hype and the spread of the fitness wave in the USA – Muscle Beach.?The world-famous outdoor gym under the California sun was the place where strengthened muscles achieved true cult status.?The who’s who of the scene trained on the “muscle beach”, which was originally located in Santa Monica (from 1933 to 1959) and later in Venice (LA).?Strength athletes, bodybuilders, gymnasts and acrobats met on Muscle Beach.?They made weight training an event and happening.

“Pudgy” Stockton – the first female bodybuilder

The female star of this time was Abbey “Pudgy” Stockton (1917-2006), who, as a professional power woman, delighted people with her shows.?Together with her husband, she showed an impressive live show of acrobatics, gymnastics and strength elements at the Santa Monica Pier.?As a “strong woman” among the many men, the little American who stood out on the cover of countless magazines at the end of the 1940s stood out clearly.?From 1944, Stockton published her own fitness column “Barbelles” in the magazine “Strength & Health”, in which she gave women valuable training tips.?In 1948 she became “Miss Physical Culture Venus” and for the rest of her life she campaigned for female weight training.?She is an icon and was the great role model for women in the first decades after World War II,?who were already training according to the bodybuilding system.?Before and after there were many “strong women”, but “Pudgy” can be described as the first to make modern “bodybuilding” popular for women.

Muscle Beach Venice – playground of LaLanne, Columbu, Arnie & Co.

As early as 1951 the “Weight Pen” was opened on Venice Beach, which was officially renamed “Muscle Beach Venice” in 1987.?Jack LaLanne, Steve Reeves, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Franco Columbu and Lou Ferrigno are just a few of the many sonorous names that have made Venice Beach the new Mecca of the strength sports scene and the origin of the modern fitness movement.?In 1965 Joe Gold founded the legendary “Gold’s Gym”, which at the latest with the documentary “Pumping Iron” (1977) with Arnold Schwarzenegger attracted worldwide attention.?In the 1950s it was Steve Reeves who, as a Mr. Universe and then above all as a Hercules actor, triggered a worldwide bodybuilding boom.

Weight training scene and bodybuilding in Germany

At the end of 1955, Harry Gelbfarb (1930–2005) opened the first fitness studio in Germany in Schweinfurt.?The crowd of “iron friends” was quite manageable nationally in the fifties.?Through the first “Mr.?Germany Election “In 1960 in the Munich Bürgerbr?ukeller, the weightlifting scene became known overnight, even though the media reports at the time were of a rather critical nature.?Up to 1963 there were only about 40 commercial fitness studios in which mostly bodybuilders and strength sports enthusiasts trained.?Characterized by this time, the derogatory term “Muckibuden” came into being.?At that time, only a few thought it possible that this movement would one day become the most popular and perhaps even the most popular sport in Germany with over 11.09 million members.

In addition to the previously mentioned muscle athletes, a large part of this development is due in particular to a man who towered above everyone in the Hall of Fame of bodybuilders and who made the fitness movement world-famous – Arnold Schwarzenegger.?At the beginning of his exceptional career, he also strengthened his muscles in Germany.?What would be more fitting than to let his companion and sponsor Albert Busek have his say – who witnessed the development of German bodybuilding and the fitness boom up close.

Conclusion Albert busek: visionaries & icons

The human musculoskeletal system has always fascinated people.?Countless scientists, artists and, above all, athletes have worked intensively to raise awareness.?Without the “mouse” (lat. Mus muscle “mouse”) we would not be viable, yes, we could not even laugh (43 muscles are used for this).

In Europe, this “muscle awareness process” began about 200 years ago and since then it has always been individual people – icons – who have made a decisive contribution to popularization in the respective periods, along with the researchers and visionaries.?In addition to the people mentioned in this report, there are many more that could be enumerated, but that would go beyond the scope here.?With the visionaries, the respective assertiveness makes the big difference and with the icons it is the brilliant marketing.

The two outstanding icons of the past 150 years are Eugen Sandow (born 1867 as Friedrich Wilhelm Müller in K?nigsberg) and Arnold Schwarzenegger (born 1947 in Graz).?Around 1900 Sandow was as popular as the big football stars today.?Sandow achieved this with his appearances (strength demonstrations and muscle poses) all over Europe and finally also in the USA as “Sandow, the Strongest Man in the World”.?Despite several setbacks, Sandow continued on its way.?At that time Sandow also founded a “League” in his adopted home England and called it “All-for-Health-League” based in London.?Sandow published books and magazines, had a mail order business for training articles and founded Sandow Institutes.?If film technology had existed back then, Sandow would have been one of the superstars.

Two years after the end of World War II, Arnold Schwarzenegger was born in Graz, the man who, after some other very popular athletes, was eventually to become THE designated Sandow successor.?Arnold had similar prerequisites as Sandow: Stark (weightlifter and powerlifter in the early years), totally focused on his goals, charismatic and a brilliant self-marketer from a very young age.?Like Sandow, Arnold had critics against him, but he never let himself be put off his path, no matter how unimaginable this path seemed to many – even in his immediate surroundings.?In this issue you will find a report on Arnold’s career.?As an individual, no one worldwide has given the fitness industry more impetus than Arnold Schwarzenegger for more than 50 years.