Body Building

Bodybuilding is a form of body modification. It involves intensive muscle hypertrophy. If one engages in this type of muscle building the activity is called body building. When one is in a competitive race body builders display their physiques. Judges give points based on the appearance of the person. Fat loss, oils and tanning are used in the evaluation process. There are a number of famous and well-known body builders. These include Arnold Schwarzenegger, Charles Atlas, Reg Park, Steve Reeves, and Lou Ferringo. At present, the world's top bodybuilder is Jay Cutler. Eugene Sandow is the "Father of Modern Body Building." Sandow was in the Oscar winning 1936 musical film "The Great Ziegfeld" in which Sandow displayed his body.

The early years of body building are usually considered between 1880 and 1933. Sandow was very successful at flexing and showing his physique. He created several businesses around this fame and produced exercise equipment such as dumbbells, spring pulleys and tension bands. Bodybuilding contests began in September of 1901. This was a huge success. Later body building contests continued to present the winner with the same bronze statue of Sandow that he himself presented to the winner of the first contest.

Bodybuilding became more popular in the 1950's and 1960's. Muscle training was popularized by the work of Charles Atlas who advertised in comic books. Bodybuilding continued to be popularized with thanks to people like Arnold Schwarzenegger in the 1970's. The 1980's and 1990's saw successful bodybuilding contests. In 1999 these were discontinued. Recently there has been much emphasis placed on weight training and nutrition. Performance enhancing substances have also been used with both negative and positive publicity.