IN THE middle of the 19th century, the realms of strength, health and bodily aesthetics all came together. This new world even had its own Adam, complete with fig leaf. His name was Eugen Sandow.
At that time in history, a man like Sandow, whose body could throw up mountain ranges of delts, traps and biceps, escarpments of abs and pecs, columns of quadriceps and calves, all at the slightest twitch, was a true wonder. That in itself was unprecedented, at least in the modern world; such ideal proportions were witnessed only in the statues of the renaissance masters, and paintings. But Sandow went further. His pretty-boy, almost “unmanly” features compounded the cognitive dissonance everyone already experienced upon witnessing his brawny form.
Born Friedrich Wilhelm Muller in East Prussia, he…
