Bodybuilding is defined as working out with weights to
reshape the physique by adding muscle mass and increasing separation and definition of the various muscle groups. The practice is distinct from other types of
resistance training (e.g., bodyshaping, bodysculpting,
and fitness training) in that it is the visible result of
training—large, well-defined muscles—that is judged
rather than any ability developed in the course of
building those muscles. Appearance counts; the athletic component—lifting weights—is not presented
but re-presented through a series of poses. Opinion is
divided on the question of whether bodybuilding is a
bona fide sport. Many men practice bodybuilding, but
only a small proportion of bodybuilders compete. In
contrast, most women who lift weights exclusively to
build larger muscles are either active competitors or
aspire to compete. Bodybuilding competitions are well
established internationally, but the sport has yet to
achieve Olympic status.
History
Modern bodybuilding descended from the mid-19thcentury health reform movements, including the muscular Christianity movement, that emphasized exercise
and heralded a cult of manliness that, by the end of the
century, was embraced through exercise, athletics, and
weight training. Eugene Sandow is credited with generating intense interest in bodybuilding in Europe and
the United States. First appearing in 1893 at the
Chicago World’s Fair, this strongman and physique
showman represented a new ideal of muscular manhood. Strength and stoicism replaced passivity and
turning the other cheek in a cultural form that linked
athleticism and religion.
At the same time, as the population became more
sedentary, concern for public health increased. Muscu-lar masculinity replaced the prevalent masculine models of the thin, wan intellectual and the corpulent businessman of the 1800s. For women, the Gibson Girl
dominated the scene from the late 1800s to World War
I.“The Gibson Girl was a healthy, strong, athletic, albeit
corsetted ideal” (Bolin 1992a, 85).
An industry quickly developed to support physical
culture: the invention of resistance training machines,
the use of various types of weights, and the widespread
availability of training/exercise programs. The world’s
first major bodybuilding contest was held in Britain in
1901, followed in 1903 by the first such competition in
the United States, sponsored by Bernard MacFadden.
Physique competition was the focus of the show, with
the athletic feats and strength displays relegated to a
supporting position—an unprecedented approach at a
time when bodybuilding was more often an exhibition
tacked on after weightlifting contests. Twenty years
later, MacFadden’s 1921 physique contest spawned one
of the best-known U.S. bodybuilders, Angelo Siciliano,
who later changed his name to Charles Atlas and
claimed the title of the Most Perfectly Developed Man in
America. Atlas perpetuated the ideal of a muscular
masculinity through his mail-order courses on physical
development. He embodied the industrial self-made
man, who, through hard work (i.e., Atlas’s program of
exercise), could overcome hardship (i.e., being weak).
In the 1930s, physique contests began to gain in
popularity. The Amateur Athletic Union (AAU) inaugurated its first Mr. America Contest in 1939. Other national contests followed, facilitating the promotion of
local and regional bodybuilding contests as qualifying
events, thereby boosting the sport economically and
socially.
Joe Weider and his brother Ben are regarded as a
driving force in the modern history of bodybuilding and
Joe remains a major promoter of bodybuilding as a sport
and way of life in the 1990s. Their goal was to make
bodybuilding into a genuine sport. In 1946, the Weiders
founded the International Federation of Bodybuilding
(IFBB), which today has 134 member countries.
The era of bodybuilding spanning the 1940s and
1950s continued to incorporate the health concerns of
the physical culture movement and to provide opportunities for physique competitors through contests
such as Mr.America and Mr. Universe. Steve Reeves became a public figure in bodybuilding via his subsequent career in Hollywood’s Hercules movies.
In the 1960s, bodybuilding included multiple amateur and professional contests at the national and international levels in the United States and Europe. European bodybuilding was dominated by the Mr. Universe competition. In 1965, the Mr. Olympia bodybuilding championship was created by the IFBB. By the
1990s it would become the highest award possible in
international bodybuilding competition.
The 1960s can be regarded as the beginning of the
Arnold Schwarzenegger era in the United States. The
1970s were punctuated by the publication of Charles
Gaines and George Butler’s book Pumping Iron (1974),
followed by the movie of the same name, which helped
popularize and increase national recognition for the
sport. Bodybuilding became more competitive, and the
standards of perfection demanded greater expertise in
the knowledge of dieting, nutrition, and training.
By the 1980s, bodybuilding had been reborn. Professional bodybuilders and the gyms where they train
have been transformed into elite clubs with resistance
machines, aerobic classes, stair climbers, stationary
bikes, tanning beds, computerized diets, and personal
trainers. Professionals could earn money through personal training, endorsements of fitness commodities,
guest performances, and seminars. Health clubs expanded and became co-ed during this time. The popularization of bodybuilding ultimately converged health
spas with the development of elite gyms and led to the
decline, but not disappearance, of barbell clubs and
hardcore gyms. The elite gyms are often expansive facilities catering to the public at large as well as providing a setting for the professional.
Rules and Play
Rigorous training, a strategy for continual muscle development including size, shape, proportion and body
symmetry, disciplined dieting and nutrition, posing
practice, and the preparation of a choreographed posing routine are integral components of bodybuilding
competition. Competitive bodybuilding is organized
formally at both the amateur and professional levels
through a number of associations, each with a bureaucracy, by-laws, agendas, membership fees, contests,
promotions, and personnel consisting of judges, promoters, competitors, and fans.
Competitive bodybuilders train toward their competitions throughout the year, varying it as their contest approaches. During the off-season, they work to
acquire as much muscle as possible. Pre-contest training frequently involves lighter weights and more repetitions, and super sets (two exercises performed backto-back without rest in between). Simultaneously,
bodybuilders increase aerobic activity to acquire the
necessary leanness.
Bodybuilding is one of only a few sports where a
rigorous diet is such a central feature in training. Participants have estimated that diet is 90 to 98 percent of
pre-contest preparation. Since success for the competitor demands a lean body coupled with significant muscle mass in a symmetrical form, fat is the enemy of the
competitive physique. For bodybuilders diet entails
modifying the relative proportion of carbohydrates,
protein, and fats in the calories consumed. The diet
typically consists of five to seven small meals a day,
with no more than 10 to 20 percent fat. The ultimate
goal is to reduce body fat to a very low percentage,
preferably 7 percent or lower for men and 10 to 12 percent or lower for women.
For the day of the competition, bodybuilders strive
to have a physique that has “peaked”—one that has
achieved its potential in terms of maximum leanness,
muscularity, vascularity, striations, and skin thinness
and tautness. Fluids under the skin can obscure the
muscles and can be avoided through the manipulation
of diet. A peak may be missed, sometimes by a few
hours or several weeks, because the diet strategy did
not work or it was not followed closely enough.
Local, state, and national competitions usually consist of two segments: the morning, or pre-judging, portion when most of the judging decisions are made and
the evening contest, in which the finalists and winners
are announced and awarded.
The day of the competition includes a backstage
“pumping up” through exercise and lifting light
weights, wherein blood is brought to the surface resulting in vascularity and muscle fullness. The competitor’s
body is stained with a temporary tanning agent, and
posing oil is applied to give shine and enhance the visibility of the muscle. Sometimes an oil that causes the
skin to feel hot and appear vascular may also be used.
Judging occurs as the competitors display their
physiques through mandatory poses and the presentation of a short choreographed routine set to music. The
standard of excellence for bodybuilders is the “X.” The
lower portion of the “X” signifies the ideal of large flaring thighs, with a thin waist and wide shoulders and
back (latissimus dorsi). Contestants are evaluated for
symmetry or proportions, muscular development, vascularity, skin tightness and tone, leanness, muscle fullness, muscle shape, and the overall configuration of
their physiques. In the evening, the competitors, depending on their placing, will have an opportunity to
present their choreographed routine. After presentations of the routines, each class of competitors will engage in a posedown. Hard rock-and-roll music is usually played and the audience cheers on their favorite
contenders, who engage in a drama of comparison.
Men and women in their classes move around the stage
and may stand next to an archcompetitor in a symbolic
duel of muscles and body parts.
In nonprofessional competitions weight classes
dominate and height classes are used by some organizations. Other additional classes include novice classes,
teen classes, and masters classes that may be further
subdivided by age. Professional competitions include
no class divisions.
The Culture of Bodybuilding
Historically, bodybuilding for men has been associated
with the working classes and blue-collar professions
where physical efficacy is a component. Bodybuilding
was born in hardcore gyms (the term hardcore is usually used in reference to gyms where weightlifting is
marked by intensity, commitment, and seriousness),
and, at the amateur level, hardcore gyms are still the
site of choice for competition training. Their atmosphere cannot be replicated in the social milieu of the
modern health club. A hardcore gym offers various advantages for potential competitors: the presence of
mentors—former competitors and active competitors—to help the novice bodybuilder learn all aspects
of the sport as well as a pool of other serious lifters
from which to find a training partner. There is camaraderie in such gyms, but also unspoken but powerful
rules of respect and the sanctity of training. There is a
no-nonsense atmosphere, embellished with pictures of
professional bodybuilders and local competitors. A
particular kind of clothing has come to be associated
with hardcore bodybuilding: tank tops, tee shirts,
sweatshirts, sweatpants, and “baggies” designed for the
workouts. Contemporary bodybuilders, unlike their
predecessors, come from all professions, following an
influx of white-collar men that began in the 1980s.
These elite centers have lost some of the sense of camaraderie and family forged by the subculture of
bodybuilding in its earlier days. By the end of the 1980s
the single-owner, hardcore gyms were on the verge of
extinction. Competitive women’s bodybuilding has a
different cultural role. The female bodybuilder is in a
position to contribute to the social redefinition of
womanhood and femininity, which involves challenging the notion that the muscularity that embodies
power and privilege is the “natural” purview of men.
Centered as it is on the body, bodybuilding still occupies a somewhat marginal position in an age that favors the mental over the physical.
Women and Bodybuilding
Women’s bodybuilding has a briefer history than
men’s, and is distinct from it. Health reform in the mid-
19th century at the time of early feminism led to the innovative idea that exercise was healthful for women
and that women’s muscles could be beautiful, contradicting the prevailing view of middle-class femininity
as frail and ethereal, which continued through the turn
of the century. Early on, Sandow and MacFadden both
promoted the benefits of exercise and muscle development for women.
MacFadden may be counted as one of the first to
promote the ancestor of modern women’s bodybuilding contests. From 1903 to 1905, he staged a series of
local and regional physique competitions culminating
in a grand competition with a prize for the “best and
most perfectly formed woman.”Paradoxically, MacFadden’s very success placed the development of women’s
physical culture back in the closet for some time. In
1905, he hosted the Madison Square Garden Mammoth
Physical Culture Exhibition, which included the finale
of MacFadden’s women’s competition. Shortly before
the competition, Anthony Comstock of the Society for
the Suppression of Vice, had MacFadden’s offices raided
for the spreading of pornography. The offensive items
were posters of the finalists of the women’s physique
competition, who were dressed in white formfitting,
leotard-like exercise wear, along with a photo of one of
the men’s winners in a leopard-skin loincloth and other
items (Todd 1991, 3–8). MacFadden was arrested and
found guilty of dissemination of pornography, although the trial’s publicity served to promote his
physique extravaganza even more. MacFadden, however, ceased all publication and promotion of women’s
physiques. Women’s physique exhibitions continued to
be relegated to sideshow strength performances
through the early decades of the 1900s of women like
Sandwina, who displayed her strong and beautiful figure at the Barnum and Bailey Circus in 1910.
Weight training for female athletes was introduced
in the 1950s, and women’s competitive bodybuilding
emerged as a sport about 20 years later. Competitions
began in 1975 just before the first competitive powerlifting contests for women in 1977. The social movements for gender equality in the 1960s were a major influence in bringing women into the sports arena.
Women’s bodybuilding found a home in the hardcore
gyms where men trained, and it moved, along with
male bodybuilding, from these gyms into scientific and
contemporary pavilions of nutrition and training,
which opened their doors to the public and became
part of the modern fitness industry of the 1980s. The
first Miss (now Ms.) Olympia was held in 1980, establishing the zenith of women’s international titles.
Bodybuilding Today
The question of whether bodybuilding is a sport continues to be debated among sports researchers and
within organizations. The detractors of the bodybuilding-as-sport position claim physical exertion does not
actually occur in the competition itself, which is limited
to posing displays of muscularity. Supporters contend
that posing and presenting choreographed routines is
indeed a physically demanding and grueling activity.
Joe Weider is the driving force behind the National
Physique Committee, which organizes amateur and
professional bodybuilding on the local, state, regional,
and national levels. For some years, the only other organization for competitive bodybuilders was the Amateur
Athletic Union. In the late 1980s,“natural” contests and
bodybuilding organizations (those that drug test, using
polygraph and/or urine testing methods) began
emerging. This has occurred in part as a result of a
generalized increase in public awareness of anabolic
steroid use among athletes. Natural organizations include the World Natural Bodybuilding Federation
(WNBF), which sponsors professional bodybuilding
and the National Gym Association (NGA), a WNBF-affiliated amateur organization. The recent growth of
“natural” (drug-free) bodybuilding organizations and
their increasing popularity is a positive sign for the
sport.
The use of anabolic steroids among competitive
bodybuilders remains a concern. As a result, widespread drug testing became routine in many professional sports, including some bodybuilding organizations and within the Olympics. Steroid use also
inflamed the existing debate over what constitutes
femininity, as some female bodybuilders were using
the drugs to increase their muscle mass too.
Bodybuilders, meanwhile, continue their quest for
Olympic status for what they view as a true sport.
—ANNE BOLIN
Bibliography: Bolin, Anne. (1992a) “Vandalized Vanity:
Feminine Physiques Betrayed and Portrayed.” In Tatoo,
Torture, Adornment and Disfigurement: The Denaturalization of the Body in Culture and Text, edited by F. MasciaLees. Albany: State University of New York Press, 79–90.
Chapman, David L. (1994) Sandow the Magnificent: Eugene Sandow and the Beginnings of Bodybuilding. Urbana:
University of Illinois Press. Klein, Alan. (1993) Little Big
Men: Gender Construction and Bodybuilding Subculture.
Albany: State University of New York Press. McLish,
Rachel. (1984) Flex Appeal. New York: Warner Books.
Schwarzenegger, Arnold. (1985) Encyclopedia of Modern
Bodybuilding. New York: Simon and Schuster. Weider,
Betty, and Joe Weider. (1981) The Weider Book of Bodybuilding for Women. Chicago: Contemporary Books.