How did the sport of Charles Atlas, Lou Ferrigno, and Arnold Schwarzenegger transmogrify into the mongrelized, gender-bending display of brown steroid abuse it is today?

From a layman’s perspective, the dividing line between bodybuilding being a sport of muscle-bound white men to a degenerate contest that focused on black men and gender-defying women came shortly after Arnold made it famous in 1977’s Pumping Iron. Ironically, the film documents Arnold’s conquest of the sport in apartheid-era Pretoria, South Africa! Unfortunately, the bodybuilding world capitalized on the positive notoriety generated by the film (and Schwarzenegger’s long, successful film career) by turning to blacks and masculine women.

Bodybuilding began in earnest in the late 1800s thanks to Eugen Sandow, a muscular Prussian who popularized what was then called physical culture. The Art of Manliness website and other sources have dealt with Victorian-era physical culture at length, so check those out if you’d like to learn more about this interesting period. This early strongman phase gave way to the Charles Atlas and Jack LaLanne period of bodybuilding and physical culture. As in most eras of physical culture/fitness/bodybuilding, there was a dual emphasis of marketing to individual, ordinary people who wanted to change their lives, and of professionals making themselves into models for those ordinary people to imitate.

The great thing Atlas and LaLanne is that they were truly good men. They improved the lives of millions of white men and women for decades through their physical fitness routines and products. Think of the housewives of the World War II and Baby Boomer generations, waking up each morning and doing situps and pushups with LaLanne before sprucing up their hair and working on breakfast. Millions of young men improved their bodies and character by refusing to give way to sloth and self-indulgence. LaLanne and Atlas practiced what they preached until the days they died. They never let themselves go. They ate healthy, avoided vice, and were stalwart pillars of their communities and nation.

The 1950s and early 1960s saw bodybuilding champions of this sort. Some of the most notable were Steve Reeves (a WWII vet and Montana rancher), Reg Park (an Englishman and mentor to Schwarzenegger), and Larry Scott (a white Mormon Idahoan and the first Mr. Olympia).

During that era the Super Bowl of bodybuilding was created — the Mr. Olympia competition. Unlike with Atlas and LaLanne, who used only natural methods and espoused clean-cut living, during the Mr. Olympia era, steroid use and championships went hand-in-hand. Visually, the only blip on the white-dominated bodybuilding scene was the Olympia regnum of black Cuban Sergio Oliva from 1967-69. But steroid use was ingrained in the top levels of the sport by the time of the Austrian Oak, Arnold Schwarzenegger. Arnold won six titles from 1970-75, a seventh in 1980, and was succeeded by his training partner, Italian powerlifter Franco Columbu, in 1976 and 1981.

By the time of the early 1980s, non-whites came to the forefront of the Mr. Olympia competition — and thus the entire physical fitness world. After Columbu’s 1981 title, a white man did not reign supreme again until the British and very-juiced Dorian Yates won six titles from 1992-97. From 1982 to 1991, 1998 to 2005, 2008, and then again from 2011 to the current day, non-whites have won Mr. Olympia. Which is to say that for 28 of Mr. Olympia’s 52 years in existence, non-whites (all blacks with the exception of Lebanese Samir Bannout in 1983) have won the title. In the 35 years since Columbu’s 1981 title, blacks have won 24 times, or nearly two of every three Mr. Olympia titles. That’s a staggering percentage of black domination.

Simultaneous to the shift in power from whites to blacks, white bodybuilders began tanning themselves to ape the darker-skinned competitors. Ostensibly, this is to make the muscles look more defined when they are oiled up and under the spotlights of a competition stage. But a casual glance at Atlas, Scott, Schwarzenegger and Columbu in their heyday will show you that white men don’t need dark tans in order to look muscular or show off definition. In fact, one of the world’s top bodybuilders is the extremely light-skinned German Dennis Wolf, who looks ripped whether or not he’s gotten his pre-competition tanning spray on.

White men look ridiculous when they transform themselves into dark-skinned Latinos or high yellow mulattos on stage. Like in the rest of society, white bodybuilders who try to act black in order to gain the favor of blacks and our elite leaders — still lose. We’re 17 years and two Obama administrations into a century where whites hate themselves, and four-time Mr. Olympia Jay Cutler is the only white man who has won Mr. Olympia in this century. During current Mr. Olympia Phil Heath’s six-year reign, his closest competitor was another black man five of six times. White men haven’t come close since Cutler lost to Heath in 2011.

The mongrelization of the sport of bodybuilding, and physical fitness in general, stretches into the truly scary and bizarre world of women’s bodybuilding. Granted, women need to be fit. But women should not look like or act like men. Bodybuilding and dieting to the extent that elite female bodybuilders do literally changes their facial structure to resemble that of men. It’s a problem that even supporters of theirs acknowledge has cut down on the competition’s marketability and appeal. In its place, fitness and bikini contests have emerged to provide a lane for female athletes to compete. No one outside the lugenpresse wants to see transsexuals flexing their muscles.

Building our bodies to glorify God, enjoy His gifts, and serve others is a good and biblical thing. Beauty and strength are gifts we ought to cultivate and honor. In rebuilding Western civilization, pro-white Christians should not discount these things simply because our enemies have hijacked the popular images of strength (Mr. Olympia, pro sports, etc.) and beauty (pornography, pop entertainers). The real ideals still exist, and not too long ago our people accepted them and thrived because of them. We can do it again.