This is what made me want to bodybuild!

[thebrick]

you all might laugh at me but my insparation when i was 8 or 9 years old was charles atlas.i used to ready the comics and always wanted to be big like him.

I remember those old ads! Remember the little cartoon in the one Charles Atlas ad about the skinny guy getting the sand kicked on him by the big guy at the beach? After he muscles up on the Charles Atlas regimen he goes back to settle score and the woman was all goo goo over his muscles?

 

[phoenix13]

Fortunately (or unfortunately, in the eyes/minds of some), my mom was liberal enough to let me & my sister collect G.I. Joes, Thundercats, and He-Man toys. That certainly nurtured my fascination with strength/muscularity/vascularity.

 

[pesty4077]

I remember those old ads! Remember the little cartoon in the one Charles Atlas ad about the skinny guy getting the sand kicked on him by the big guy at the beach? After he muscles up on the Charles Atlas regimen he goes back to settle score and the woman was all goo goo over his muscles?

If we remember those ads, we all must be getting older!

 

[thebrick]

Well...older, yeah, but fighting it every inch of the way, LOL!

me too I prefer to think of it as getting wiser and more experienced.

 

[maven]

I heard they are making a new He-Man movie. Not to insult Dolf, but who thinks Jay Cutler would be perfect for it?

 

[mule]

he man was my favorite as well, i never wanted to lift until much later but as a little kid he man was by far and away my favorite show, sign of the future that is for sure.

 

[Sesshomaru]

This picture is what got me to really take my training to the next level. I admired BBers but never saw that as attainable, but this physique is very close to mine in structure and when I saw that combined with the performance this body could do, Ive been striving to reach it.

 

[pimpman]

I remember those old ads! Remember the little cartoon in the one Charles Atlas ad about the skinny guy getting the sand kicked on him by the big guy at the beach? After he muscles up on the Charles Atlas regimen he goes back to settle score and the woman was all goo goo over his muscles?

Lol ..... holly crap you brought back some good old memorries.
I use to love that one.

 

[thebrick]

Brick, what about Larry Scott, Chuck Sipes, Dave Draper and Sergio Olivia, and all those other guys on the Weider Team back in the 60's and 70's? They were my inspiration at first, but Arnold was the MOTIVATOR! LOL Now, I'm giving away my age! I still have "He-Man" and "The Transformers" on VHS! I watch the tapes every blue moon. No action figures.

I was impressed by all those guys. I remember seeing Sergio and Arnold on the televised Olympia for the first time. I had never seen muscle mass like that. It was unreal.

Hey, here's a little trivia for ya... does anybody remember Dave Draper being on the Beverly Hillbillies and Granny was going to cure him of the "barbell bloat"?

 

[blackhole]

i got psyched about lifting cause of the movie predator. u all remember that scene in the beginning where carl weathers and arnold shake hands - and the camera zooms in on their arms while they are flexing? that was awesome i wanted to be like that. also i think in that movie carl weathers was pretty jacked and had a good physique for an actor. i loved when arnold 'Dutch' threw a knife at some guy and it went through him and stuck his body to a wooden post behind him and arnold said 'Stick Around' - best 1 liners. who would have thought that 2 of the actors in that movie would now be GOVERNORS - jesse and arnold

 

[MASS1975]

I remember seeing the Hulk on TV as a kid. Then He-Man toys. I'd save my allowance and buy muscle mags as I got into my pre-teen years. Strydom, Newman, Matarazzo were all inspirations. Seeing WBF stuff on TV during WWF broadcasts. I still remember walking into the gym for the first time... it was paradise!

 

[PlateStacker45]

**broken link removed**

 

[Metal]

Dolph Lundgren

But whay got me motivated was this guy.... Tony Jaa. Ive been in Kempo for 11 years. But I want to be stronger. So I can whoop ass like this... lol http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hiANsBkgqjU

 

[abolish the weak]

I'll have to admit, He-man did it for me too!!! I was a huge fan, had all the action figures and Castle Grey Skull. And those badass panthers He-Man and Skelator rode on, remember? He Man's was green, Skelators was dark purple. I also had the big ass bone dragon that carried all of the weapons in it's mouth. Ok, now I'm just getting carried away

 

[gungalunga]

If only I had known then my life would have never been the same after this evening I sat in front of my TV to watch Conan The Barbarian...

Same here. I was about 11 when Conan The Barbarian came out in theaters. I asked my Dad to take me and he said OK. When we got near the theater he said "Oh....I didn't know this movie is rated R. Oh well, we are already here...just dont tell your mother." We got back home and my Dad must have figured he should just tell my Mom that he took me to see it even though it was rated R, because she asked him how the movie was and I heard him say "Oh Christ....in the first 10 minutes people are getting hacked up with swords and getting ther heads lopped off. Later he starts screwing some babe and she turns into a demon and he throws her in the fire...blood and guts throughout the whole movie...I hope it didn't warp his little mind too badly." I thought it was the coolest thing I had ever seen in my life. I asked for my first weight set and bench soon after, and have been at it ever since.

 

[Chrysler]

This photo still boggles my mind....LOL

That is definitely what got me started, Lou Ferrigno and Arnold. Arnold, when seen in those pics, still has the best chest of all time. His side chest pose is unreal.

 

[juggernaught]

I started reading them at issue 152 ! Rasputin was the man !Totaly what made me want to be big and strong him , Captain America and the Thing.

for me it was comic books, mostly the x-men. of course every character had an impressive build, but colossus just blew me away:



he was massive, incredibly strong, and could turn to steel. how cool is that?

i remember looking at him as an 8 year old kid and wondering if it was possible to even look like that, not understanding the muslcular system and never being exposed to bodybuilding.

then, when i was 10 i saw the terminator. that first scene when arnold "lands" in 1984 and walks to look over LA just blew me away.

eh, the colossus pics was supposed to go in a different spot, but you get the idea.

 

[Retriever]

The Incredible Hulk impressed me most as a kid.

 

[bigguns078]

I wasn't bit by the bodybuilding bug until later in life.. I fell in love with weight training in eight grade when my buddy had a flat bench in his basement.. We would load it up with 120 lbs and struggle to do two half reps and it felt great.. We thought we were total badasses! Then i really got into weight training when i had to lift for high school football.. I remember junior year a bunch of guys on our football team (with out varisty jackets on of course) went to see "The Program." The whole movie theatre was filled with high school football players from different towns.. When i saw Steve Lattimer working out, kickin ass on the field, and putting his head thru a car window.. That is when i said.. "I wanna be big"