Natural bodybuilding: An account of its emergence and development as competition sport

Abstract

Natural, i.e. drug-free, bodybuilding has been rapidly developing in different parts of the world as a distinct body culture with its own practices, discourses, organisations, key figures and focal points. A central aspect of this has been natural bodybuilding’s emergence and development as a competition sport. The present article traces its tentative articulation in the late 1970s, its formation as part of a broader natural movement in bodybuilding in the 1990s, and its consolidation and global expansion from the 2000s to the present day. In sketching this trajectory, natural bodybuilding is situated in the context of the bodybuilding industry and its historical transformations, as well as of the broader phenomenon of performance- and image-enhancing drugs and the reactions the latter has provoked in sport and wider society. The aim of the article is to offer an initial overview of a previously uncharted competition sport and in the process contribute to an exploration of bodybuilding as a varied and evolving phenomenon.

Bodybuilding and Fitness Doping in Transition. Historical Transformations and Contemporary Challenges

“…This has become a distinct culture, with competitions, events, promoters and federations. The emergence of a broader movement towards natural bodybuilding can be located to the late 1980s and early 1990s (Liokaftos 2018). This development coincides with stricter regulation of anabolic steroids in the US.…”

“…The status of muscular bodies gradually changed, however. Early bodybuilding competitions in the 1930s and 40s were meant as public demonstrations of what bodybuilding could do to reverse the corrosive effects of modern civilisation (Liokaftos 2018). Emphasis was initially put on displaying the 'natural body'.…”

“…Supporters of natural bodybuilding make use of two discourses (Liokaftos 2018). The first one is about choice.…”

Negotiating female fitness doping: gender, identity and transgressions

“…Female bodybuilding essentially began in the late 1970s (Fair 1999). In the 1980s and 1990s the highly muscular and defined female bodies gradually gained recognition, both within bodybuilding and in the public discourse (Liokaftos 2018). As these women's bodies steadily grew in mass and vascularity, discussions on PIEDs soon emerged (Andreasson and Johansson 2014).…”

“…As these women's bodies steadily grew in mass and vascularity, discussions on PIEDs soon emerged (Andreasson and Johansson 2014). Little by little, then, women entered the subculture of male bodybuilding, including adopting the drug-use practices associated with this culture (Liokaftos 2018). Interestingly, this development occurred parallel to a growing interest among researchers in body and gender studies in general, and to the development of feminist perspectives and theory in particular.…”