THE BODYBUILDING STORY
Most of us have heard of Arnold Schwarzenegger and perhaps Charles Atlas, Steve Reeves, Reg Park and Lou Ferrigno. They are all well-known body builders. The top professional body builders are recognized in the annual Mr Olympia contest. In 2011 this prize was won by Phil Heath.
Compare this to the 1894 Sandow stage!
Eugen Sandow of Konigsberg, Prussia pioneered this sport and wanted an audience to be thrilled by an exhibition of his physique in what he called “muscle display performances”. He became quite famous doing this and was regarded as having the ‘perfect physique”. He set up the first contest, calling it the ‘Great Competition”
Body-Building has come a long way since those days as people today see Phil Heath only at the beginning of what he can do with his body.
Today we have many facets of body-building including female bodybuilding and natural bodybuilding; bulking up for different sports in different ways and, of course, the competitions.
This is Pro female bodybuilder Nikki Fuller, performing in a side chest pose.