Bodybuilding Facts - Then And Now
If you want to define bodybuilding you should think of tree words: training, diet and a good night sleep. All of them are very important if you want to built your body in a perfect way. Only the best of them have the opportunity to sign up in a bodybuilding competition, where they are awarded according to their body shape. Beside the fact that the muscles must be symmetric, the participant should know how to point out the body structure (there are different ways to point out muscle groups).
Then
The father of bodybuilding is Eugen Sandow who organizes the first competition was on September 14, 1901. The winner was a Englishman William L. Murray, and the prize was given by Sandow and his two judges Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and Sir Charles Lawes.
Until 1940 the ideal body measurements were like in ancient Greece, but when the golden age started (1940-1970), there were different standards. Muscle definition, symmetry and gaining more mass became the most important things. And so in 1950, some bodybuilders in Venice California, created the National Amateur Bodybuilders Association and the most important competition Mr. Universe. It took place in England for the first time that year, and in 1965 Mr. Universe became a very important title in the field.
Maybe the most significant figure in bodybuilding is Arnold Schwarzenegger, the person who wonned many Mr. Universe titles and who made an important film about this kind of lifestyle named Pumping Iron, released in 1977.
In the 1980s started a black era for bodybuilding which caused them many troubles, using of anabolic steroids. That is why NPC (National Physique Committee) began doing doping tests.
In the 1990s Vince McMahon founded World Bodybuilding Federation. This federation was a combination between Wrestling and Bodybuilding. He started signing may contracts with bodybuilders, who in the end left the federation because of the clauses. McMahon also had some problems with the police because he was suspected of making traffic with steroids. And that is why the federation disappeared later that year.
Now
One of the most important issues of the bodybuilders in present is to manage to make this sport an Olympic one. But unfortunately this thing is not quite possible because of it's history and because it is not yet settled that bodybuilding is a real sport.