Bodybuilding - What's It All About Then?

Body building is the process of making the most out ofArnold Schwarzenegger helped to keep bodybuilding
what is called "muscle hypertrophy." It is done bypopular through the 1970s and was aided by the film
combining weight training, a certain intake of calories (allPumping Iron in 1977.
mapped out according to a specific diet) and gettingIn 1981, the National Physique Committee was formed
enough rest.by Jim Manion. The National Physique Committee is the
In a body building competition, the bodybuilders displaymost successful bodybuilding organization in the United
their bodies to a panel of judges who award themStates to date.
points. The muscles are defined by tanning methods,The 1980s are when bodybuilders started using
oils, fat loss and certain kinds of lighting that is designedanabolic steroids (along with a large number of other
to highlight the definition of each of the muscle groups.athletes) and it is also when the International Federation
A Potted History of Bodybuildingof Bodybuilders started doping tests in an effort co
Bodybuilding first appeared in the late 19th centuryfight the ever growing use of steroids and other
when a man named Eugen Sandow helped make itharmful substances.
popular. Sandow organized the first bodybuildingThe World Bodybuilding Federation - A Marketing
competition, which took place on September 14, 1901Disaster
and was judged by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, SirIn the 1990s, Vince McMahon (a wrestling promoter)
Charles Lawes and Sandow himself.tried to combine World Wrestling Federation style
The winner was a man from Nottingham Englandexhibition with bodybuilding and formed the World
named William L. Murray.Bodybuilding Federation.
The Golden Age of bodybuilding refers to the yearsHe signed competitors with long term contracts and
from 1940 to 1970 when the ideal changed from thebecause those contracts were so lucrative many
Grecian ideal to one that involved more musclebodybuilders left the International Federation of
definition, more mass and muscle symmetry.Bodybuilders and were then banned by the IFBB.
This age was made popular by the bodybuilders atVince McMahon started drug testing his athletes in
Muscle Beach which is in Venice California (and is still a1992 because he was suspected of steroid trafficking.
very popular place for bodybuilding!) in 1950 theThe WBF was dissolved later that same year.
National Amateur Bodybuilders Association started aSince the millennium there has been a push for
Mr. Universe competition in the United Kingdom.Bodybuilding to be deemed an Olympic sport, which
In 1965 one of the other major bodybuilding contestslooks unlikely, not just because of Bodybuilding's cloudy
called Mr. Olympia was started. Mr. Olympia is currentlyhistory with steroid use but also because it's still being
the biggest title to achieve in bodybuilding.debated as to whether or not Bodybuilding is actually a
Bodybuilding In The Modern Erasport (the craft involves no real athletic effort).