A Century Of Bodybuilding Photos Show A Marked Shift In Our Perception Of Body Image

Over the years, bodybuilding has literally grown.

Bodybuilders are getting bigger, bulkier and more orange as time advances, and while it's a part of our culture that many of us don't really understand, bodybuilding -- especially the Mr. America contests -- reflects "a desired image of modern manhood," John D. Fair writes in the introduction to Mr. America: The Tragic History Of A Bodybuilding Icon.

If guys want to beef up to meet some modern standard of desirability, why do they look like a medical illustration of a person without skin, or that they've somehow turned themselves inside-out?

"As societal views toward the male body and physical culture evolved," Fair writes, "bodybuilders had to redefine themselves in light of the clash between revered traditions and concessions to current tastes. The Mr. America Contest, which once epitomized the aspirations of tens of thousands of weight trainees, was premised on adherence to time-honored values of health, fitness, beauty, and athleticism, while Americans -- and especially bodybuilders -- became obsessed with appearances and engaged in training practices and lifestyles that often subverted those ideals. By the end of the century, physique competitors and promoters seemed perplexed about what constituted a perfect specimen of manhood. Reckoning with these cultural questions became the foremost concern in modern bodybuilding not only in the United States but worldwide, since the Mr. America title, at least from the 1940s to the 1970s, was, like other aspects of American culture, a global icon."

It's interesting to see just how much these perceptions of pure fitness have changed over the past 100 years, thanks to advances in supplements, workout equipment and our understanding of how the human body works.

It seems people push these limits harder and farther every year, and when you look at the following pictures of guys at peak physical fitness over history (from a guy who looks like Vladimir Putin sucking in his gut in 1900 to the sinewy muscles on show in 2015, you'll see just how much things have changed.

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