by Tim Farrell
During the Victorian era , a bulging waist was a preindication of a bulging wallet , and way - witting work force were n’t embarrassed to channel around some surplus pounds . Even strongmen — who dazzled circus - goers by lift tremendous weights and large brute — were big - belly . But all of that commute with Eugen Sandow . Sandow did more than simply shock and tickle audiences with his bantam shank and rend muscles ; he pioneered the impression of work out for the interest of aesthetics . He also launched the sportswoman of private-enterprise bodybuilding and inspired the conception of personal seaworthiness . Today , that ’s a multibillion - dollar industry in the United States alone .
Cut Like a Statue
Sandow like to tell his devotee that he started perfecting his body at the old age of 10 , after his father took him to Italy to see the statues of the deity . The graven abdomen and chiseled biceps exhort him , and when he returned home , he became obsessed with grow his muscles . Of course , none of this is rightful .
A skipper of create his own legend , Sandow ’s biography tend to be a patchwork of great marketing and tall tales . What ’s get laid for sure is that he was a Prussian acrobat who toured with small - time carnival across Europe during the 1880s , until he landed in Brussels without a penny to his name . There , he stumbled across an educator in the nascent world of physical physical fitness named Louis Durlacher , well eff as Professor Attila .
At the time , it was retrieve that rear more than 5 lbs . at once could cause muscles to cramp and lock , finally run to paralysis . Attila , however , decide to buck democratic feeling . A former strongman himself , he ’d formulate a system of reformist weight training in which muscles are strengthened by step by step increasing the weight lifted over time . Today , it ’s the cornerstone of muscle building . When Attila met Sandow , he knew he ’d found the perfect specimen to essay his system .
In 1889 , the pair moved to London to secure a strongman show for Sandow . to catch people ’s care , they set their sights on the city ’s reigning brawny duo , Sampson and Cyclops . Sampson was know for lifting " imperial tons" ( 2,240 pound . ) , Cyclops for tearing coins in one-half .
Sandow began by challenging water flea to a feat of strength . On the Nox of their competition , he walked out in a foppish , tailored wooing . Once at center leg , he tore off the outfit in one clout , revealing only popish sandals , a pair of leotards , and a physique the likes of which no one in the audience had seen before . The gang went wild and apace took the side of the bighearted , mysterious competition . Sandow thoroughly defeat Cyclops in a series of barbell ski tow .
One week later , Sandow returned to the microscope stage to face Sampson and match him stunt for stunt . Then come the final challenge — chain - breakage , in which both contestants had to break free only by flex their muscles . Sampson had never been defeated in this contest , but then again , he ’d always cheated ; his chains were set to fall apart . Sandow had discovered Sampson ’s illusion calendar week earlier and chase down the blacksmith , who made him a set of his own simulated concatenation . On the night of the contest , the chains burst off Sandow ’s body in platter time , and Sampson stormed off stage . London had a new business leader of posture .
Touch My Muscles
Public display were only half the secret of Sandow ’s success . To promote his show , Sandow had himself photographed wear out nothing but a well - placed common fig tree leaf . As the images distribute across Europe , the crowds grew . Sandow also supplemented his income with private exhibitions , where patrons give an extra fee after the show to touch his muscles while he described them in detail . Smelling Strategic Arms Limitation Talks were kept on hired hand to rouse the women who pass out .
When the show moved to New York in 1893 , it catch the care of a young Florenz Ziegfeld , Jr. , later known for his Ziegfeld Follies theatre of operations show . Ziegfeld decided to produce a massive show with Sandow as headliner , and together they crisscross the res publica multiple times . Along the agency , Sandow became a notorious womaniser . Ziegfeld , who did n’t believe in bad publicity , allow word of Sandow ’s escapades vaporize . He even spread a rumor that the muscleman was tomcatting about with sexpot actress Lillian Russell , which make a major stir in gossip columns .
Pumping Up
By the turn of the century , Sandow ’s name had become synonymous with strength , good looks , and fortune . set phrase like " strong as a Sandow" were commonly used around the world , and he was nimble to capitalize on the name recognition . One of the first celebrity to back sporting goods , Sandow ’s " combined developer"—a pectus expander with dumbbell handles — was so ubiquitous that , today , any case of rubber cord is known in French as un sandow .
In 1901 , the muscleman blow up his stage business by hosting The Great Competition , the first modernistic competition in which participant were pass judgment solely on the appearing of their bodies . Sandow take his friend Arthur Conan Doyle , author of the democratic Sherlock Holmes fib , to judge the outcome . But Sandow ’s contribution to bodybuilding and personal fitness did n’t stop there . He also spell some of the first major books on weight training and demonstrate dozens of gym around England .
By the outbreak of World War I , Sandow had all but withdraw from the point . A new wave of American and European strongman had emerge , root on by his success . From then on , Sandow focused exclusively on his role as a man of affairs and groundbreaker . And though he was far from a feminist , he promoted weight grooming for women , which set him apart from his peer . He also promoted exercise as a way to ameliorate multitude ’s wellness , claiming that his workouts could cure conditions such as gout . Although many of his ideas turned out to be untrue , Sandow was implemental in providing a link between recitation and health .
In an era predating professional play leagues , Eugen Sandow was arguably the most famous athlete in the world . While his name is rarely get wind these days , his legacy still be in training gyms , sinew magazines , vitamin shops , and sporting - commodity memory board across the globe . The musical theme that humans can do something to battle nature ’s aim for their bodies was once a laughable conception . Today , it ’s the foundation of a multibillion - dollar mark manufacture . Perhaps most fittingly , Sandow hold up on in one other agency ; he ’s now the sculpture he always wanted to become . At the Mr. Olympia Competition each year , the laurels give to the winner is a gilded figurine of Eugen Sandow .
