IRON AGE- MISSION

Competitive bodybuilding is everchanging. From its inception (at least the modern one accepted by most bodybuilding historians) 100 years ago until the present it has evolved as no other professional sport. While it's not hard to imagine a time-transported Ty Cobb or Babe Ruth being able to get at least a few hits off of Roger Clemens, there is no doubt that Eugen Sandow (recognized by many to be the father of bodybuilding) would look quite out of place on even a local-level bodybuilding contest stage. In fact, professional champions from only two decades ago would never be able to even qualify for the 2002 Mr. Olympia, much less compete in it.

Just look at the facts: When Chris Dickerson won the 1982 Mr. Olympia he weighed well on the shy side of 200 lbs. at a height of 5' 7". Ronnie Coleman, the reigning four time Mr. Olympia stands 5'11" and competes in the 260-265 lb. neighborhood with even less bodyfat than Dickerson sported.

The amount of bodymass seen on some of today's pro, and even amateur, competitors would have been considered unattainable back when our current President's dad sat in the White House.

So, looking at raw stats an easy assumption could be made that because bodybuilders are getting bigger and leaner they are getting better. Not necessarily.

I discovered bodybuilding at around the age of 12. It happened while I was in the book section of a now-defunct department store.

While waiting for one parent or another to finish their shopping I started thumbing through the display copies of various books. None had really kept my attention until I discovered a large format softcover featuring a man of massive proportions holding his arms aloft against a black background. It was titled "Pumping Iron: The Art and Sport of Bodybuilding."

It's funny to me when I consider the consequences of that chance find today, 24 years later. Because here I am, still preaching, practicing, writing about, and thinking about the art and sport Charles Gaines and George Butler described so vividly in their now-classic homage.

And what they wrote about and photographed was a group of men who took it upon themselves to transform their bodies into what they wanted them to be. All of the men profiled in "Pumping Iron" made the decision that they no longer wanted to look "average." They wanted more from their bodies. So they used barbells, dumbbells, pulleys and the like to sculpt magnificent, uber-physiques out of mere flesh. They looked to me, at the time, not at all unlike the super heroes on the pages of the comic books I collected at the time.

I'll never forget the feeling of awe I experienced leafing through "Pumping Iron" in that department store all those years ago. But it wasn't just over my discovery that people could actually look like the men on those pages. What really made a lasting impression on my 12-year-old mind was that maybe, just maybe, if I worked hard enough, I could look like that one day too!

I like to recount this story when I tell people how lucky I feel to have found bodybuilding when I did. Because if I were twelve today and picked up a copy of one of today's bodybuilding books or magazines I would have put it back down and headed straight for the comics.

What appealed to me so much then was the idealized version of manhood the athletes in "Pumping Iron" represented– Broad shoulders, narrow waists, strong arms. Whether they actually embodied it or not, they all depicted the image of health, vitality, strength and masculinity. And, even more significantly at the time, bodybuilding appeared to be an express ticket to manhood.

But the competitors of today paint a different picture entirely. I will not get into descriptives here because I want this site to remain positive in tone. I will just say that the look favored my many pro bodybuilders today is not, nor ever would have been, one that I find appealing. This is not to say that the athletes don't work every bit as hard as their forbears to achieve their condition. But the results, in my mind, are not always worth the sacrifice.

Commemorating some bodybuilders who competed between the mid-60's and the mid-80's, my "Golden Age"
Giving people like me the chance to reminisce and,
Giving younger bodybuilders and non-bodybuilders a glance at a piece of the sport's history

Of course the period of time I've chosen to commemorate is not so much a "period" as an arbitrary span of years picked by me. One might argue that Steve Reeves began the Golden Age in the late 40's. Or John Grimek. Or even that bodybuilding didn't really get going until Mentzer hit the scene in the late 70's.

Well, I can appreciate many points of view and they're all valid. But this is my site.