Joe Weider. The Father Of Bodybuilding

Due to his height of 167cm(5'6'') and a weight of 52kg(114lbs) in his teens Joe was often robbed and bullied by his peers, which lead him to the though of wrestling.The wrestling coach that he asked for training, refused, because he believed the young man couldn't handle it.Then the future fitness guru got himself one axle and two wheels from a tram depot and made himself a barbell.
He started from where everyone else started at the time.
From their backyard or basement.

Joe Weider was born on November 29, 1920 in Montreal, Canada. This is the widely accepted version, since the archive burned in a fire and the exact date of his birth wasn't stored, but according to various sources, it ranges to 1922.

Wishing to share his experience with the world, Joe began by creating his publishing empire.When he was only seventeen years old, he printed out and placed on the market his first magazine "Your Physique" with a very small circulation, which quickly sold out because of the desire to workout and the hunger of the market for such literature.The magazine was renamed several times and ends up being the most successful edition in his career. The last name is "Muscle & Fitness"

His publishing doesn't end there, Joe has a number of other magazines on the topic, like:"Living healthy", "A Healthy pregnancy'', "Flex", "Muscular Strength", "Mr. America" and many others.He is an absolute pioneer in the editions of bodybuilding and fitness, able to meet the many and various niches.

Apart from magazines, Joe has published several books. The first and most famous of these is "Bodybuilding, the Weider approach", published in 1981, and the latter was co-authored with his brother , Ben, "Brothers of Iron" 2006, Joe Weider has also created his own line of sportswear and home wear, he is also a big manufacturer of nutritional supplements.

Sport Vision

He is often characterized by a holistic approach.He was the first to look at bodybuilding as a combination of
training, nutrition and rest, he is the first to link results with not only training, but mental engagement and mental workload as well. He coached many of the greatest bodybuilders and, of course, the foundation of the iconic competitions like Mr. and Ms.Olympia and the competition for veterans - Masters Olympia.

The time of Weider will forever remain as an era of bodybuilding. Many of his methods are questionable, he has been suspected of incorrect nutrition and supplement advertising, misrepresentation and false promises, but the fact that one way or another he turned bodybuilding from a basement exercise to a world wide competition and arguably a sport.

Training principles

Joe's training principals are ultra popular and used even today. He created the foundations of the science of bodybuilding. The first principle of the Weider approach is to isolate. Isolation and training of selected individual muscle groups and concentrating on them is the also first current principle of bodybuilding.Weider 's ideas do not end here, he recommends that lagging muscle groups should be emphasized during training. This principle is now known as a priority training.

As another form of isolation the author has developed the principle of pre-fatigue. In other words, in compound exercises like the deadlift and bench press, it's possible for small muscle group to "fail" before the big ones - such as the pecs or the dorsal extensor and therefore those bigger muscles are trained in advance, to ensure that during the compound exercise afterwards those muscles will be trained effectively and fatigued.

The Pyramid set principal is known to every builder. He suggests increasing the weight at the expense of reducing repetitions, thus the muscle group is warmed up and well prepared for the increased load without overloading. The principle is suitable for a variety of training, most often it's used in strength or muscle building workouts.

Training sets are not principals, but a philosophy made ​​by Weider in detail like his combination of sets.He first introduced the super sets, giant sets, and the combination of antagonist and protagonist muscle groups in the same set. He also mentions the drop sets, as well as the monitoring the intensity of ones workout : shortening the breaks between sets and increase the latter. Sets and the policy towards them and their variety are the center of the Weider principals.

Weider introduced the so-called . "instinctive training", self monitoring and adjusting ones workout to ones overall physical and mental condition. But the fact is that Weider isn't the inventor of most of these principles, he is the first publisher, he is the one that popularized them. Most of them are parts of the older and already used training systems.

Nutrition and rest

Weider promoted the idea of ​​healthy eating as a scientific rather than a fitness approach, he applies sports science and proven methodologies. And most importantly he strives to keep nutrition healthy, not a way to improve your results by sacrificing health. He tries to promote that through his whole life. Unfortunately in his time food science was just getting started and his principles were "marked " by the popular thing through those years, the "hate" of dietary fats. His balanced diet includes mainly carbohydrates and protein, vitamins, micro elements and supplements from natural sources. We can later see that vibe persist in his fitness supplement products.

In his time people also started to understand that rest is a very important part of training, they realised that the muscle actually grows while it's resting.Weider applies this principle to his workout splits, with most of them having 3-5 work days per week. His methods, routines and systems provide everything bodybuilding needs for decades. His practice is actually the most popular fitness and bodybuilding approach among amateurs and professionals for many years.

Coaching

Many famous and successful bodybuilders were trained by Joe Weider.The first among them of course is the former governor of California, Arnold Schwarzenegger, once an foreigner admitted to the United States thanks to Weider.
Also Mike Katz, Jack Delinger, Ray Schaefer and many others.

And further more many bodybuilders have done Weider's workout routines without being trained directly by him.But the most important steps of his bodybuilding coaching career are the competitions. He is the founder of the most popular disciplines and organizations in modern bodybuilding.
Some important dates:

• In 1946, Joe founded International Federation of Bodybuilding and Fitness (IFBB). Currently 176 member countries.
• In the same year the first bodybuilding show was organized - Mr. Canada.
• In 1965 the brothers organized the first Mr.Olympia contest, which is now the worlds leading bodybuilding contest.
• Much later, in 1980 Joe facilitates the holding of the first Ms.Olympia contest.

Death

On May 23, 2013 at the age of 93, following a heart failure at a hospital in Los Angeles, the man who created an entire fitness industry, quietly left our world.

Today, the name Weider is a brand and an icon. Regardless of how we look at his work, this is a man who left huge mark in bodybuilding and one of the founders of the process that brought the sport out from basements and garages and showed it to the world as a source of pride.

Like it or not, Weider died as someone who has achieved most of his goals and created a whole fitness empire by himself. Without this man, bodybuilding today wouldn't be the same.