Bodybuilding Tycoon Joe Weider: Dead 0 Comments by: Phrost of natural causes, not as a result of having Arnold rip his arm off LOS ANGELES (AP) — Joe Weider, a legendary figure in bodybuilding who helped popularize the sport worldwide and played a key role in introducing a charismatic young weightlifter named Arnold Schwarzenegger to the world, died Saturday at age 93. Weider's publicist, Charlotte Parker, told The Associated Press that the bodybuilder, publisher and promoter died of heart failure at his home in Los Angeles' San Fernando Valley. "I knew about Joe Weider long before I met him," Schwarzenegger, who tweeted the news of his old friend's death, said in a lengthy statement posted on his website. "He was the godfather of fitness who told all of us to be somebody with a body. He taught us that through hard work and training we could all be champions." A bodybuilder with an impressive physique himself, Weider became better known in later years as a behind-the-scenes guru to the sport. Weider being swole in decades past Weider, a legendary figure in bodybuilding who helped popularize the sport worldwide e with such publications as Muscle & Fitness, Flex and Shape. Schwarzenegger himself is the executive editor of Muscle & Fitness and Flex. Via USAToday
Now THOSE I would pay good money for! "My Dearest E:My pectorals ripple at the mere thought of you snatching and jerking.Yours in Anatomical Development,Joe"
So seriously - what's not to like? I don't know his life story very well, so are there some skeletons in his closet? I only know him as Joe Weider the founder of the IFBB and all the off-shoots that entailed ...
He was a snake-oil salesman who knowingly put out useless crap supplements (often with false claims in advertising) and sold them to teenage kids who wanted to look like their bodybuilding idols, all the while ignoring or outright denying the real "supplement" responsible for those guys looking like that. He also basically tried to take credit for every form of weight training as though he invented it (his "Weider principles"). Also, there is enough circumstantial evidence for me to suspect his influence in the judging of bodybuilding competitions in favor of bodybuilders affiliated with his empire. I am not saying he didn't also do a fair amount of good, but there's enough there for me to have mixed feelings about him. I am not one who believes that everyone is perfect in death and that we should make believe that someone like Joe Weider was a saint. I am not saying he is evil incarnate either. Just that, while I can appreciate his accomplishments, I also recognize his shortcomings.
Thanks, E. That's probably one of the more balanced obituaries I've ever read. Seriously - I gave up on the idea of heroes long ago. EVERYONE has a dark side that they reign in or let out to some degree, and the relative darkness of that side will often be the determining factor in how we remember that person. Myself, for example ... the worst thing I've ever done in my life was that time I gave a puppy only one biscuit when I really had two.
