Joe Weider, bodybuilding icon and visionary entrepreneur

Known as the "Master Blaster", Josef WeiderJoe has made fitness a way of life around the world. Visionary entrepreneur, sports coach a precursor, co-founder of the International Federation of Bodybuilding and Fitness or creator of the Mr. Olympia contestThere is no shortage of success for Joe Weider. He is also at the origin of the career of another muscular muse, Arnold Schwarzenegger. From his birth in a working-class Montreal neighbourhood to his incredible success in the world of sports, discover the inspiring story of Joe Weider.

Who was Joe Weider?

Joe Weider was born on November 29, 1919 in Canada, in a poor neighbourhood of Montreal. Born into a Polish immigrant family, he was one of four children. Young Joe was soon forced to drop out of school in order to feed his family. A skinny kid, he becomes the target of harassment by several violent teenagers.

So Joe Weider dreams of becoming strong and muscular to defend himself. It is then that he discovers by chance a bodybuilding magazine entitled "Strength". In the wake of this, he collects salvaged material to build his own dumbbells in the basement of the family home. He also decides to create his own fitness magazine under the name "Your Physique". Joe Weider worked in the kitchen and sold his work for 15 cents. The legend of Joe Weider was born. Years later, "Your Physique" would become "Muscle & Fitness", the leading magazine for bodybuilders and bodybuilding.

Joe Weider, who died in March 2013 in Los Angeles at the age of 93, is still considered the the father of bodybuilding. From his friendship with Arnold Schwarzenegger to the creation of bodybuilding competitions, co-founding the International Federation of Bodybuilding and Fitness (IFBB) with his younger brother Ben, creating training techniques Whether it was the launch of a number of innovative products or the marketing of numerous magazines, food supplements and other bodybuilding equipment, his life was filled with success.

Each of the Master Blaster's achievements has helped to promote the health benefits of bodybuilding around the world.

His passion for bodybuilding

Very early on, Joe Weider developed a passion for the bodybuilding. At a time when building muscle in the gym got a bad rap in the United States, Joe Weider was a visionary. He quickly understood that training and diet were two essential elements in adopting a healthy lifestyle. Throughout his life, he has promoted fitness and weight training to change people's minds.

Joe Weider has also passed on his passion through coaching. He was indeed sports coach between 1970 and 1990. In contact with bodybuilding champions As a result of this experience, he has developed a number of bodybuilding training techniques for the likes of Arnold Schwarzenegger. The effectiveness of these different intensification methods is no longer to be proven. They are still widely used by athletes who want to build muscle or sculpt their bodies.

If you're a bodybuilder, chances are you're familiar with some of the techniques that Joe Weider developed:

• Eclectic training (which mixes basic exercises such as the squat for the thighs or the bench press for the pectorals and isolation exercises in the same session),
• Pyramid training (which consists of adding weights and reducing the number of repetitions for each new set in order to promote the recruitment of muscle fibres),
• the progressive overload (which refers to the fact of increasing the loads gradually to optimize muscle gain),
• the principle of supersets (which aims to link exercises involving antagonistic muscle groups without recovery time),
• the split training method (which designates a bodybuilding programme in which each session is devoted to a particular muscle group, as opposed to a full body physical preparation),
• cheating movements (which are used at the end of a set to perform one or two extra reps and increase muscle volume),
• instinctive training (which consists of building the training program according to the athlete, his anatomy and his objectives),
• and many more!

In addition to these training techniques for beginners and advanced athletes, Joe Weider has also developed methods related to recovery and nutrition. All of these are referred to as the Weider principles. These have enabled countless bodybuilders and other fitness enthusiasts to fitness practice to benefit from weight training programs to promote weight gain.

How did he and his brother create their empire?

Over the years, Joe Weider and his brother Ben have managed to build a real fitness empire.

Joe was first and foremost a formidable entrepreneur. After launching his first magazine as a teenager, he quickly created his first delivery of food supplements at home in 1936. This concept was simply revolutionary for its time. Distributed in nearly 60 countries, the Weider supplements are still a reference on the market today. These products (whey protein, amino acids, mass gainer, creatine, collagen, vitamins, nutrients, etc.) allow many athletes to benefit from a sufficient caloric intake to increase their muscle mass.

The father of bodybuilding also created a brand of weight training equipment which offers benches, dumbbells, cast iron, multifunctional home gym stations, pull-up bars and fitness equipment.

But Joe Weider also had a natural talent for marketing. To support the sale of his products, he needed to get a message across to consumers. To do this, he undertook various projects.

In the 1940s, he and his brother Ben Weider founded theInternational Federation of Bodybuilding and Fitness (IFBB). He also created in 1965 the famous bodybuilding contest Mr. Olympia to promote his art of living and to give visibility to bodybuilding. During long years, he will have even militated so that the bodybuilding can be part of the Olympic sports.

Joe Weider is also known for having built a real empire around fitness and bodybuilding magazines. In addition to "Muscle & Fitness", he also created "FLEX Magazine", "Shape" and "Men's Fitness". All of these magazines were sold in 2003 for the modest sum of 350 million dollars. For Weider, these various magazines were an opportunity to spread his message by promoting athletes in the muscular physique.

Finally, the influence of the "Master Blaster" on the fitness industry is colossal. From the vocabulary to the techniques for performing the strength exercisesThrough his work in the field of fitness, competitions, books, and magazines, Joe Weider has shed light on a world that was previously unknown. More than that, he has revolutionized the way people train and helped many athletes achieve long-unattainable goals.

The story of the Weider brothers is so compelling that director George Gallo decided to adapt it to film. The film "Bigger was released in 2018.

His friendship with Arnold Schwarzenegger

Joe Weider is clearly behind the success ofArnold Schwarzenegger. It all started during a bodybuilding contest organized in Germany in 1967. Looking for a muse to illustrate his message, Joe Weider discovered Schwarzenegger and managed to convince him to leave his native Austria for the United States.

Across the Atlantic, Schwarzenegger was asked to represent the Weider brands. But very quickly, Weider opened the doors of the cinema to him. Schwarzenegger made his first appearance in a leading role in the 1970 adventure film Hercules in New York. In the process, Schwarzenegger won the first of his seven Mister Olympia titles.

In parallel to his bodybuilding careerArnold Schwarzenegger appeared numerous times in Joe Weider's various magazines and did a series of commercial appearances.

Thanks to Joe Weider's influence, "Schwarzy" finally made his mark in Hollywood and became one of the most popular actors. He played in action films such as Conan the Barbarian, Predator and of course Terminator.

Arnold Schwarzenegger owes much of his success to the man who discovered him. He considers Joe Weider a surrogate father and expressed his emotion and gratitude when the "Master Blaster" died in 2013.

Conclusion

Joe Weider is the bodybuilding pioneer and fitness in the world. Starting from nothing, he is the proof that it is possible to succeed through willpower and perseverance. And if bodybuilding occupies the place it does today in society, it is largely thanks to the work of the "Master Blaster".

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