Strength and How to Obtain It

Eugen Sandow – the most famous bodybuilder in the early days of the sport – not only invented the business of bodybuilding, but would go on to define the parameters of masculine beauty. After an early stint in a European circus, he met his mentor, Louis Attila, who helped turn the lean and wiry Sandow into a muscleman. Sandow’s career as showman began with a successful publicity stunt in Amsterdam, which he was able to parlay into repeated public performances of strength. Early in life Sandow decided it wasn’t enough to simply demonstrate his strength, but to actually display his muscular physique as though it were a work of art. He soon made his “Muscle Displays” the main feature of his stage show. As his European success grew, Sandow, always the promoter, had photographs of himself sold and distributed, with an unintended consequence: his photos become a sort of late 1800s soft porn among homosexuals. In the U.S., Sandow was able to use the emerging notion of muscular Christianity to connect physical strength with moral virtues – and thereby promote himself and the sport of bodybuilding.