Physical Culture

Interested in the history of modern fitness?  Enjoy a good rags to riches.. and back to rags story?  Amused how history repeats itself?  Read this book.

It chronicles the life and times of Bernarr Macfadden, a 20th century pioneer in the fitness industry and a character in every sense of the word.

This is the guy that made Charles Atlas famous!  Well, okay… Macfadden and Eugen Sandow made Atlas famous but you get the point, right?  This guy was in the thick of it: advocating limited caloric intake, shunning processed food, promoting vigorous exercise, started a religion, founded a horrible tabloid magazine… the whole deal – good and bad.  It’s a well written book about an interesting subject and the author is charitable enough to try out Macfadden’s methods and describe the results in an appendix.

Macfadden’s message?  Not much different than those who according to Adams have been preaching the gospel of health for the last 2,500 years: “Eat less, exercise more.”  Close enough.