Who Is Joe Weider?

Josef E. "Joe" Weider was born on November 29, 1922 in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. 

He is the Canadian co-founder of the International Federation of Bodybuilders (IFBB) together with his brother Ben Weider. Joe Weider also created Mr. Olympia and Ms. Olympia. 

What few people know is that Joe Weider started his empire with just $7 at the tender age of 17. He built barbells out of car axles and wheels. Later he became a manufacturer of gym exercise equipment and one of the first people ever to focus on nutrition as a part of bodybuilding. 

His line of nutritional supplements is one of the most recognized across the world.

Joe Weider introduced the mental approach to working out. He never claimed to be an innovator. He always said he took different elements from different sources and synthesized them into bodybuilding. To sum it up, Weider is one of the first that put together and introduced a series of training principles that successful bodybuilders use today:

1. Pre-Exhaustion Training
2. Pyramiding
3. Super sets
4. Muscle Priority Training
5. Set System Training
6. Instinctive Training
7. Giant Sets
8. Tri-Sets
9. Staggered Sets
10. Compound Sets

We have a lot to thank Weider. Without him bodybuilding would not have been the way we know it today!

Great Body - Eugen Sandow

Now I am sure that most bodybuilders today have no ideea who Eugen Sandow was and that is why I decided to pick him as today's Great Body of the Day. Eugen Sandow was born Friederich Wilhelm Mueller on April 2 1867. He died on the 14th of October 1925 but he is the individual that people refer to as the "Father of Modern Bodybuilding". We basically have to thank this guy as much as we have to thank Weider or Arnold for promoting this sport.

Sandow loved Greek and Roman statues of gladiators together with other statues of heroes. He loved them so much that he considered the physique depicted in them to be how a man should look like. By the tender age of 19 he had already reached part of his goals and was performing stunts in different side shows. People din not care about how much he lifted, they were amazed of how he looked. That is when a famous promoter, Florenz Ziegfeld, became his manager and had him perform shows in which Sandow showed off his body. They were called "muscle display performances". This can be considered the "father" of bodybuilding shows and competitions as later on in time a competition was also organized, the first ever bodybuilding competition. Eugen Sandow even built the first ever line of equipment and was among the first people in history to market a product by using as brand his own name.

Eugen Sandow did a lot for this sport and so few people know about him that I just had to let at least some know about him.

Great Body - Bill Davey

Our great body of the day is a guy that is labeled as a natural bodybuilder, is a trainer and has quite a lot of success in the busines! Bill Davey definitely has a physique others would kill for. He was born in 1966 and has started bodybuilding between junior and senior high school years. The reason behind it was that he was involved in football and the coaches wanted him to become bigger. Bill Davey is 6 feet tall and his weight during off season is 225 to 230 pounds. During competition he weighs 215 lbs. His competitive record includes:

# Musclemania - 2002 SuperBody - 1st place (Professional Division)

# Musclemania - 2002 World Championship -- 6th place

# 1997 AAU Mr. America - 1st Heavyweight and Overall

# 1996 Musclemania Natural Championships -- 1st Heavyweight

# 1996 WNBF World Championships -- 12th Open Division

# 1996 NPC Team Universe -- 7th Heavyweight

# 1996 NPC Junior Nationals -- Didn't place Heavyweight

# 1995 ANBC USA Nationals -- 1st Tall Class

# 1995 NPC Junior Florida Heavyweight and Overall

# 1995 ANBC Tampa Bay Natural -- 1st Tall Class and Overall

# 1994 NPC Florida West Coast -- 1st Light-heavyweight and Overall

# 1994 NPC Sarasota Championship -- 1st Heavyweight and Overall

# 1994 NPC Naples Championship -- 1st Heavyweight and Overall

# 1992 Florida West Coast -- 1st Light-heavyweight

Davey had a lot of success in his career and even launched a special DVD with his personal training routine. I saw it and it is quite good, very motivational. I saw it on Repetrope Here

If you never saw this guy before here is a presentation of natural bodybuilder Bill Davey:

As a bodybuilding trainer Bill Davey also has some tips written in All Natural Muscular Development that I think you should take a look at:

1. GO HEAVY----- OR GO HOME.

2. CHANGE YOUR WORKOUT EVERY THREE WEEKS.

3. TRAIN ONE MUSCLE GROUP PER SESSION.

4. MAKE EVERY REP OF EVERY SET COUNT.

5. WHEN YOU THINK YOU CAN'T TO ANY MORE REPS IN A SET, DO TWO MORE.

6. KEEP WEIGHT TRAINING SESSIONS TO ONE HOUR MAXIMUM.

7. ALLOW FIVE TO SEVEN DAYS BEFORE TRAINING MUSCLE GROUP AGAIN.

8. LEARN EACH MUSCLE GROUP'S RANGE OF MOTION -- AND WORK THAT MUSCLE THROUGH THAT FULL RANGE OF MOTION.

9. STRIVE TO DEVELOP NEUROMUSCULAR CONTROL.

10. DON'T NEGLECT SPECIFIC ROTATOR CUFF EXERCISES.

Jay Cutler is Mr. Olympia

I'm sure you allo know by now but it is important to mention again: Ronnie Coleman's Mr Olympia throne was taken by Jay Cutler. After dominating the bodybuilding industry for 8 years in a row Ronnie had to settle for second best. Jay Cutler is Mr Olympia. As you could of expected it was a pretty close competition and nobody could have predicted it or not. Last year showed us an impressive Jay Cutler but he wasn't number 1 material then. He now is (or is Ronnie dropping?) A lot of questions have risen and people are already speculating on the outcome of Mr Olympia 2007. It will be whole year until that. Meanwhile Jay Cutler will enjoy his reign. The official standings of Mr Olympia 2006 are:

1. Jay Cutler

2. Ronnie Coleman

3. Victor Martinez

4. Dexter Jackson

5. Melvin Anthony

6. Gustavo Badell

7. Toney Freeman

8. Markus Ruhl

9. Dennis James

10. Günter Schlierkamp

11. Vince Taylor

12. Branch Warren

13. Johnnie O. Jackson

14. Dareem Charles

15. Troy Alves

I should mention the other winners as well:

- Mrs. Olympia -> Iris Kylie

- Figure Olympia -> Jenny Linn

- Fitness Olympia -> Adela Garcia

We wish them all the best and the runner ups need to keep on fighting.

Ronnie Coleman is in danger

Ronnie Coleman is in danger but not of loosing his Mr. Olympia rain. He is in danger of loosing the number one spot in a unofficial Best Biceps ranking. The one that is about to beat him is young Daryl Gee. Just as Ronnie Coleman he has massive and cut biceps from one edge to the other. The only real difference is that Daryl's are bigger and that is very important in bodybuilding as we all know. I think Daryl will go a long way with the help of these biceps. All around he looks pretty good but he still has a lot of work before challenging the top bodybuilders in the game. Gee is already getting noticed and specialists are taking a closer look at him every day.

Rachel McLish is 48 years old

The lovely Rachel McLish has just got to the age of 48. If this scares most women today for her it's nothing as she still looks as well as 26 years ago. That's when she won Miss Olympia, in the first year if its existance. As you can see from the picture the standards of female bodybuilding were definitely different. This is the main cause, at least from my point of view why this side of bodybuilding is constantly dropping in fans. It is a shame that women forget that they are women and it is an even bigger shame that influent people in this sport encourage this attitude. Most men today say that they really like a woman with a hot body but there is simply too much muscle on today's bodybuilding models. It's one thing to look at Trish Stratus for instance and another one to look at a woman that looks exactly as a man from the back. Leaving that aside, Happy Birthday Rachel and may your life be as beautiful as it was until now.