Friday, September 7, 2007

Classic Physiques in Magazines from the Golden Age of Natural Bodybuilding


















If you are looking for inspirational classic physiques in today's mainstream bodybuilding magazines, then good luck! They and few and far between. You might see an occasional article about a Golden Age bodybuilder. You might find a regular "natural bodybuilding" column (maybe) in some of the mainstream mags. You might even stumble across one of the modern day natural bodybuilding magazines like Natural Bodybuilding & Fitness or Fitness & Physique - which are geared toward contest competitors and which most stores and bookshops don't carry. In any of these cases, what you won't find are magazines filled with classic physiques from the Golden Age of Drug-Free, Natural Bodybuilding.

So aside from coming here to Classic Physique Builder, where can you go to find that inspiration? Well, you can go to some of our recommended sites. You can also still find back issues of the major bodybuilding magazines of the Golden Age of Natural Bodybuilding (1940-1959) at such places as ebay.com. At Ebay, all you do is search on the magazine name, and whatever is available will pop up.

What were the major bodybuilding magazines of the Golden Age (as we define it)? There were actually quite a few. Joe Weider published most of them: Your Physique, Muscle Power, Muscle Builder, and Mr. America. Other publishers put out IronMan, Strength and Health, Health and Strength, and The Reg Park Journal.

Between the years 1940 and 1959, these magazines portrayed the best of natural bodybuilding. All bodybuilding was natural then because this was the time before the introduction of steroids. It was also a time when a proportionate, classic physique was highly valued rather than "freaky size." So not only do these magazines, during this time, provide a source of inspiration, but the training info is not bad either - since it worked well enough to produce classic physiques like those of Steve Reeves, Reg Park, John Grimek, Clancy Ross, Armand Tanny, Marvin Eder, George Eiferman, Jack LaLanne, Vince Gironda, Leo Robert, Leroy Colbert, Harold Poole - just to name a few!

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