| As a sport, bodybuilding goes all the way back to the | | | | as a business in the 1920s with newcomers like |
| 12th century in India where we find the first training | | | | Charles Atlas coming on the scene. Who doesn't |
| techniques and bodybuilding specific nutrition. By the | | | | remember his ads that appeared in magazines, comic |
| 1500s in India, bodybuilding had become a national | | | | books, and newspapers all over the world? |
| pastime and people from all over the world had also | | | | Remember, the bully kicking sand in his face? That |
| taken up the practice and used stone and wood to | | | | was the first bodybuilding course I bought back in the |
| create the first dumbbells, thus giving birth to the crucial | | | | mid seventies. The manufacture of dumbbells and |
| component of bodybuilding which is lifting weights. | | | | barbells started gaining momentum all over the world |
| Among the general public, bodybuilding first became | | | | and new innovations in training, dieting, and exercise |
| recognized as a widely popular sport for commercial | | | | equipment were coming out more every year. |
| purposes in the late 1800's with the introduction of | | | | Bodybuilding developed a cult following from the forties |
| strongmen like Eugene Sandow. National and | | | | to the seventies with movies like Hercules featuring |
| International competitions began taking place by the | | | | the incredible Steve Reeves, as well as the popular |
| early 1900's. Sandow was one of the main figures in | | | | Tarzan series of movies that was played by many |
| the early bodybuilding movement and was known as | | | | different bodybuilding actors. Some of the notables of |
| The Father of Modern Bodybuilding. He consistently | | | | this time period were Joe Gold, the founder of Gold's |
| pushed his ideas and theories on bodybuilding and | | | | Gym and World Gym franchises, Harold Zinkin, Two |
| fitness to the world through exhibitions, personal | | | | time Mr. America John Grimek, and Great Britain's Reg |
| appearances and his breakthrough magazine, Physical | | | | Park. Bodybuilding was now beginning to set itself |
| Culture. | | | | apart from weightlifting and became even more |
| It was the persistent efforts of Sandow that led to the | | | | popular. The early seventies saw the introduction of a |
| incorporation of weightlifting into the Olympics at the | | | | young bodybuilder who would become a pop icon and |
| Olympic Games in Athens in 1896. In 1904, Sandow | | | | a household name all over the world, Arnold |
| was chosen as an honored judge at a major | | | | Schwarzenegger who used his superb talent and |
| bodybuilding event held at the Royal Albert Hall in | | | | charisma along with a never before seen physique to |
| London that attracted over 2,000 people to watch. | | | | become the best developed man in the world |
| The sport became even more popular and profitable | | | | according to the Guinness Book of World Records. |