How to become bodybuilder

Bodybuilding is the use of progressive resistance exercise to control and develop one's musculature.^[1] An individual who engages in this activity is referred to as a bodybuilder. In competitive amateur and professional bodybuilding, bodybuilders appear in lineups doing specified poses, and later perform individual posing routines, for a panel of judges who rank competitors based on criteria such as symmetry, muscularity and conditioning. Bodybuilders prepare for competition through a combination of dehydration, fat loss, oils, and tanning (or tanning lotions) which make their muscular definition more distinct. Well-known bodybuilders include Charles Atlas, Steve Reeves, Reg Park, Arnold Schwarzenegger and Lou Ferrigno. The winner of the annual Mr. Olympia contest is generally recognized as the world's top male bodybuilder. The title is now held by IFBB professional Phil Heath of the United States.

Early years[edit]

Stone-lifting traditions were practiced in ancient Greece and Egypt. Western weight lifting developed in Europe around 1880 to 1953, with strongmen displaying feats of strength for the public, and challenging each other. The focus was not on the make up of their physique, and these strongmen often had a large stomach and fatty limbs.^[2]

First large-scale bodybuilding competition[edit]

Sandow organised the first bodybuilding contest on September 14, 1901 called the "Great Competition" which was held in the Royal Albert Hall, London, UK. Judged by himself, Sir Charles Lawes, and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, the contest was a great success and with a capacity crowd many bodybuilding enthusiasts were turned away.^[3] The trophy presented to the winner was a bronze statue of Sandow sculpted by Frederick Pomeroy. The winner was William L. Murray of Nottingham, England. The most prestigious bodybuilding contest today is the Mr. Olympia, and since 1968, the winner has been presented with the same bronze statue of Sandow that he himself presented to the winner at the first contest.

On 16 January 1904, the first large-scale bodybuilding competition in America took place at Madison Square Garden in New York City. The winner was Al Treloar and he was declared "The Most Perfectly Developed Man in the World".^[4] Treloar won a $1,000 cash prize, a substantial sum at that time. Two weeks later, Thomas Edison made a film of Al Treloar's posing routine. Edison also made two films of Sandow a few years before. Those were the first three motion pictures featuring a bodybuilder. In the early 20th century,Bernarr Macfadden and Charles Atlas, continued to promote bodybuilding across the world. Alois P. Swoboda was an early pioneer in America.