A world without muscles

[madmax01]

Recently I was reading about the history of bodybuilding, in the article said that before 19th century there wasn't anything like or related to bodybuilding, I thought, how bored could be (compared to now) without men who push their bodies to the limit just to increase muscularity for them and for the others, I just cannot imagine walk on the streets and don't see ordinaries muscle or buff guys. This is one of the reasons Im pleased to live now. Does anybody ever thought about that?

[wolfotehmoon]

I agree.

Ooooon the other hand, think how exciting it would have been if you had discovered that lifting heavy things and eating tons of good food would make you bigger... and you were the only one out of your personal circle of family and friends (or, heck, even the only person in your town) to know. >3

[inflated]

Actually in the 19th century there were strongmen but bodybuilding was not very common at all. Being big and muscular was considered low--only slaves and working class laborers had developed muscles. There were muscular people it just was not considered a positive trait by many people.

[wolfotehmoon]

Originally Posted by inflated

Actually in the 19th century there were strongmen but bodybuilding was not very common at all. Being big and muscular was considered low--only slaves and working class laborers had developed muscles. There were muscular people it just was not considered a positive trait by many people.

There was still a fascination with big guys in general, I'd say especially in America. Look at then-modern tall tales: Paul Bunyan, John Henry being the most famous, of course.

EDIT to respond to ric's message below mine :P : You're thinking of a centaur, dude. And then there's the cyclops, minotaur. Granted, they were monsters people were scared of, but that was cuz they were ginormous.

I thought the ancient Greeks or Romans had those stories of Hercules, Posiden, Zeus, that half man half horse thing, the Titans etc...the sculptures of those dont look exactly skinny or small. How about the gladiators? I would think if I were a gladiator and my life was on the line I would be doing some kind of physical conditioning.

[Atlas]

Originally Posted by drew

A world without muscles...isn't that called Europe?

This.
I'm still thinking about why here in Europe it looks like big muscles are almost like a taboo. Seriously.

[CelticMuscle]

In the 19th century, you had the Enlightment (which was the reappreication of the classical Greeks) and that's when people started to consider the idea of strength. It should be stated that:

1896: The Olympics were reinvented (with the first medal being awarded in the weightlfting)
1872: Jules Verne writes "Around the World in Eighty Days" and compares Passpartout with Hercules
1860: Alexandre Dumas writes "The Three Musketeers" and endows Porthos with near to superhuman strength

[Speck35]

People were also pretty short back then.

[Lucas88]

Originally Posted by Speck35

People were also pretty short back then.

You've got that right. Here in Virginia there are lots of structures dating back to the 1800's and earlier. Stairways, doorways, root cellars...if you're over 5'8 or 9" you have to duck; if you have any bulk at all you have to turn sideways AND duck. There's a stone farmhouse outside of Purcellville, VA, where the walls are about 2' thick and solid rock and the doorways through them only come up to my chin.

It wouldn't take a huge man by today's standards to BE a huge man by the standards of the 1800's.

[arpeejay]

I think the point is that the masculine ideal changes over the generations.

At the end of the 19th century / early 20th century, wealthy American men tended to be really huge. Think William Howard Taft, the only president to weigh more than 300 lbs. Their rotundity was a sign of their wealth.

That gave way to a Hollywood ideal with was "willowy" but athletic. Sort of Cary Grant crossed with Bill Tilden, the baseball player. "You can never be too rich or too thin" was the motto from about the 1920s through the 1960s.

It was only in the 1970s, with the advent of "Pumping Iron" and "Rocky," that the public began to get seriously interested in muscle. The gay liberation movement helped that along, when all those former sweater queens decided they wanted to be mustachioed Tom of Finland lumberjacks.

And that's pretty much been the case right down until the past decade, although I've heard (especially from the teen / twenty somethings I encounter here and in other gay spaces) that big and built isn't necessarily the "in" thing for young gay men, it's back to "willowy" (think Joseph Cross as Augusten Burroughs in "Running with Scissors," or, better yet, Michael Cera from "Juno" and "Arrested Development.")

As for waaaaay back...

Michelangelo, anyone? Adam and God on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel? They're seriously hunky! :-)

xoxo

Richard

[arpeejay]

Originally Posted by Lucas88

It wouldn't take a huge man by today's standards to BE a huge man by the standards of the 1800's.

And yet there were still plenty of tall people: George Washington was 6'2, after all!

xoxo

Richard

[Lucas88]

Originally Posted by arpeejay

And yet there were still plenty of tall people: George Washington was 6'2, after all!

xoxo

Richard

I don't know about plenty...he was considered very tall for the period...and have you BEEN to Mount Vernon? The some of the stairways are CRAZY.

[arpeejay]

Oh, I know what you mean, Lucas! I haven't been to Mount Vernon but I have been to the brothel in Pompeii and it was a similar story. Ditto, medieval armor at the Metropolitan Museum in New York.

I just meant that today's average height isn't outside the bounds of what was possible, even for then. 6'2 may have been NBA quality in the 1700s but it was Yao Ming sized. :-)

xoxo

R

[wolfotehmoon]

Another quick addition, I believe Frederick Douglass was also very tall, and having been to his house in DC, it had similar problems. Another little fact: he had a pair of small weights that he worked out with in his bedroom. A regular Jack LaLanne!

[Phlex]

Originally Posted by CelticMuscle

In the 19th century, you had the Enlightment (which was the reappreication of the classical Greeks) and that's when people started to consider the idea of strength. It should be stated that:

1896: The Olympics were reinvented (with the first medal being awarded in the weightlfting)
1872: Jules Verne writes "Around the World in Eighty Days" and compares Passpartout with Hercules
1860: Alexandre Dumas writes "The Three Musketeers" and endows Porthos with near to superhuman strength

And don't forget Jean Valjean in "Les Miserables" (Hugo, 1862).