Joe Weider, All American Athlete – Iron Game History – August, 2012

In the July 1950 issue of Your Physique, Joe Weider, publisher and editor, outlined ten predictions for the future. By the close of the twentieth century, he wrote, bodybuilding-by which he meant weight training-would become an international phenomenon; the general public, he proclaimed, would embrace fitness training for stress relief and enhanced health; the muscular physique would be valued and aesthetically appreciated; and the basic principles of bodybuilding-balanced diets, adequate sleep, fresh air, sunshine, and regular workouts-would be recognized as essential to healthy living. Weider’s sixth prediction, however, seems in retrospect to have been the least likely to be realized given the conservative attitudes toward strength training for sport that existed within North America in 1950.2 Weider wrote, “I predict that bodybuilding will become the stepping stone to every other sport and physical activity.”