When did weight training become popular in Ireland?

Black Sheep

I had the Argos York spinlock collar dumbells and barbell as well, and a really rickety York bench.

The aesthetics of the 80s action movies definitely were aspirational for kids in the 80s and 90s - boys obviously, not the girls ;) And they were heavily influenced by golden age bodybuilding. Then there was a lot of analysis in the media in the late 90s that it shifted to less bulky ideal male body types, Brad Pitt and so on... But when I look at modern culture it seems to me that being properly 'jacked' is definitely aspirational again.

I think if Arnold in Commando and Predator was iconic in the 80s and early 90s, when I think about really influential male actor physiques in the past few years the things that jump out at me are Daniel Craig in Casino Royale, and to a greater extent, Tom Hardy in Warrior. Tom Hardy's traps in that movie should have got their own credits, they were talked about so much.

Eoinbmw

Chris Hemsworth as Thor and Henry Cavil as Superman seemed to have drawn a lot of attention too and of Course wwe's Cena and the Rock.

The Davestator

Ben Dunne was the major change. Before that, most young people could not afford to join a gym. Obviously there are cultural and social factors, but the major change came with the introduction of low cost gyms.

HerrKuehn

I seem to have triggered a few gym bros, so maybe I better explain it a bit better. Before social media plenty of people went to the gym, despite what some people seem to think, there were affordable (local authority) gyms in the 90's, at least in Dublin. Of course people were training for aesthetic reasons then too, that is not the point I am trying to make. The point now is that it is so driven by social media and unrealistic expectations that it has gotten to the point it is beyond healthy. An example would be someone like Zyzz who had a lot of followers on social media, Derrick (more plates more dates) regularly discusses peoples steroid cycles and is very open about his own use. I have young guys I work with who take Clenbuterol to get shredded for the summer after bulking up during the winter! That is absolutely nuts in my opinion. I get professional athletes taking PEDs, they aren't trying to be healthy, they are trying to maximise performance, it's like turbocharging a car, it isn't good for the engine long term. There are reasons why they do it and it is a trade off, but guys just doing it to supposedly look a bit better is insane.

CPH91

Long-time lurker but finally a question I can answer.

Weight training and gym cultures in Ireland date to the 1820s when a Monsieur Beaujeu and others opened up Callisthenic gyms in Dublin. Interestingly he trained men and women using exercises like dips and chins. Heck, David Keohan's work on rediscovering Irish lifting stones has highlighted a much longer lineage of strength in Ireland.

The early origins of our modern interest in health and fitness came in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century when physical culture came to Ireland. Eugen Sandow - the man who the Mr. Olympia statue is modelled on - toured Belfast and Dublin in 1897 to great acclaim. The first Irish bodybuilding show was hosted in 1908 and the first weightlifting federation was organised in the late 1900s. We had a slow but steady growth of gyms in cities during this time.

This grew in the inter-war period when new kinds of gyms (like the Hercules co-op gym which still exists today) began to emerge. During the 1930s and 1940s, and continuing into the 1950s and 1960s, Irish fitness largely mimicked what went on in Great Britain.

To return to the question, a better question might be, when did weightlifting and bodybuilding break into mainstream Irish society given its nearly two-century history. The answer lies predominantly in the 1970s and 1980s when popular gyms grew in importance in Ireland thanks to broader worldwide forces (Pumping Iron, pumped-up action movie stars etc.) which met with the existent Irish interest. Importantly Irish fitness has always responded to developments in Britain and the United States.

More recent turns are obviously the rise of social media, new training modalities, and ease of access to PEDs. It is fascinating to see everyone's different responses because - as a historian of strength - we tend to think that when we joined fitness was when it was popularised.

Anyway, I'm rambling here somewhat. The answer is basically longer than many realize but it has intensified in the past four decades.

Also painfully aware that on the internet no one knows you're a dog, I've written a book The History of Physical Culture in Ireland and research this as a living. I'm aware that my book is very expensive (academic publishing is a different thing) but I've spoken about this on the Iron Culture podcast, and Arthur Lynch's No Lift podcast and run my own site - Physical Culture Study for anyone who wants to learn more. Likewise check out the StrongManProject - which is a free, online archive created by Rogue Fitness and the Stark Center and has hundreds of years of fitness writings and courses on it.

Thanks for making my day everyone. The more interest we take in our history the better and gladdened to see the amount of nuance here.

Black Sheep

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120879903#Comment_120879903

Maybe we need a Q&A thread with you on the history of physical culture in Ireland... Thanks for chiming in. Your website, and your book look really interesting (Judging from the 'table of contents').

CPH91

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120880510#Comment_120880510

That'd be awesome. If you thought there was any interest in it just let me know. I'm always happy to discuss this stuff

Mr. CooL ICE

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120879903#Comment_120879903

3 sentences into this post and i knew exactly who you were. Your podcasts on No Lift are brilliant amd everybody should give them a listen.

CPH91

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120889213#Comment_120889213

Haha I'm that obvious?! Thanks so much, really appreciate that as I'm aware how niche my research can be!

Mr. CooL ICE

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120889438#Comment_120889438

Well, it's obvious to someone who has listened to the podcasts!

Mellor

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120879903#Comment_120879903

Amazing post. Would definitely support and engage in a AMA type thread on physical culture in Ireland. I’m sure the right people are on thread to make it happen.

In the meantime I’ll be checking out those other references. Lurk less please.

Mellor

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120879746#Comment_120879746

I don’t think anyone was triggered. It was simply that your post was incorrect. You might not have meant to imply that training for aesthetics is a new thing, but you did - it was a bit silly.

I don’t think your current point of unrealistic social media makes any more sense. Zyzz was a bodybuilder, probably the first social media “influencer” type. But I don’t see how his physique was any more unrealistic than Ronnie, Dorian or Arnie? If anything they were all magnitudes more extreme.

Derek (MPMD) is also a bodybuilder, who runs a podcast about bodybuilding and steroids. A steroid podcast talking about steroids. Kind of expected tbh.

The internet has just make this information more accessible for those who are interested. But the guys in the magazines, or on TV. Where always clearly on steroids.

banie01

In Limerick there's a long history of weight training. From Garryowen Weightlifting club in the 60's and onto the Southill Powerlifting club and other spots. Ifolks like the Dillons, the Bulmans and the Macnamaras to name a few and there were a few very weight-oriented gyms around too. I know in Ballynanty in the 80s that Ray Slattery had a gym in 1 of his sheds that was very well-frequented. Not by me ;) I was in his other shed playing arcade games.

HerrKuehn

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120890254#Comment_120890254

Zyzz had a large online following, was very much admired by a lot of young guys. He also died in his early 20's. Not exactly someone to look up to in my opinion. His physique along with the other bodybuilders you mention was built using PEDs, which might make sense for professional athletes who have access to proper medical supervision, not so much for average clueless guys. I like Derrick and he seems to know what he is talking about, he is very clear about the costs of using these substances. My point was really more about it becoming much more popular with average joes now, as I mentioned I have heard guys in work saying they use Clenbuterol to cut weight for the summer. That is so far from health/fitness, it needs to be called out for what it is. I get that I am probably a bit dismissive of bodybuilding as I don't regard it as a "sport" as such, it is more like a kind of modelling.

Mellor

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120890592#Comment_120890592

I aware of Zyzz's online presence. And I haven't suggest anyone should emulate him (he died from a undiagnosed cardiac issue FWIW). I only mentioned him as you brought him up. He was the example that you gave for how it's recently become a focus on aesthetics. I'm disagreeing with that. As an example, Arnie was significantly more famous and influential on fitness. And his size was significantly more insane.

His physique along with the other bodybuilders you mention was built using PEDs, which might make sense for professional athletes who have access to proper medical supervision, not so much for average clueless guys.

Zyzz's physique was noting like the other bodybuilders I mentioned. He was significantly smaller. Yes they all used PEDs. I'm not suggesting bodybuilding is a healthy pursuit for anyone, I'm saying that you claim, that this is a new phenomena is nonsense. The guys I mentioned go back to the 70s FFS.

I wouldn't assume that athletes are doing PEDs under proper medical supervision. The super-elite maybe, the also rans definitely not.

 I like Derrick and he seems to know what he is talking about, he is very clear about the costs of using these substances. My point was really more about it becoming much more popular with average joes now, as I mentioned I have heard guys in work saying they use Clenbuterol to cut weight for the summer. 

Derek is clearly well educated on the topic and puts information out there. The internet has done that to every subject really, information has never been more accessible. Is PED use more common now, I don't know but I would say it probably is so. But I'd be sure that if you took an Average guy on steroids today verses an Average guy on steroids in the 90s. The guy today would have much more knowledge on the substances, his doses, his bloodwork, recovery drugs etc. Verses a guys in the past probably not even really knowing what they were actually injecting.

But you are still missing the point. You brought up extreme steroid users. Of course that's not healthy. But that was never the discussion. Most people who lift weights are not on steroids. Most people who do serious cardio are not on EPO. PEDs are not required in you are into fitness. These are extremes are they are not new things.

There were plenty diet pills sold OTC to slimmers in the late 90s and early 2000s that were borderline PEDs. People have always gone to extremes. The people it training as a serious hobby are not the ones I'd worry about. It's the crash dieters that lifestyle mags continue to champion.

Black Sheep

There'll always be a niche into PEDs, worrying about this tiny minority of users' health is largely pointless in my experience. They wont even take health advice from other PED users and former PED users with any consistency.

Has it grown in recent years? Maybe, although equally it could have peaked a few years ago, no one can be sure. It's certainly wrong to overly focus on PED use in considering the broad health benefits the growth of lifting in Ireland offer in comparison.

The PED use chat does bring me back to the Sunday World scare stories of my youth, that my mum would wave in my face, where some doctor who knew bugger about what he was on about would somberly warn the parents of Ireland that teenage boys were consuming vats of creatine to beat the band, and nothing good would come of it! Come on, I know some of ye are old enough...

kirk.

And there was this guy helped popularize it

Charles Atlas

CPH91

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120892630#Comment_120892630

Just to chime in, that media scare about creatine now appears downright farcical, if not borderline irresponsible, in 2023. I previously dug into it here!

https://www.playingpasts.co.uk/articles/general/creatine-is-cheating-no-matter-how-you-look-at-it-moral-panics-and-irish-supplements-in-the-new-millennium/

Cill94

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120894317#Comment_120894317

The Irish media has quite the history of demonising creatine with literally no supporting evidence.

I recall one ex Irish rugby international writing a newspaper article, in which he claimed creatine could have played a significant role in the death of Jonah Lomu.

I think irresponsible would be a fair way of describing it.

DoctorEdgeWild

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120890592#Comment_120890592

There was a really good thread here years ago discussing whether or not Bodybuilding fit the criteria for a sport. Had some great contributors. Reminded me of how many great posters have come and gone over the years. (full disclosure, it's the sport I compete in so I'm biased!)

Dante

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120879903#Comment_120879903

Never has there been a more on-point answer in the history of Boards, kudos sir.

The Dip

I joined a gym in Dublin for the first time back in 2006 (Jackie Skelly's!). Hadn't a clue what I was at to be honest. The gym was busy but there was a lot of machines and relatively small weights area. Some people just used the treadmills and went for a swim after. The people who were serious into weights were mostly big Polish lads! I think the Eastern European influence definitely opened up eyes. Rugby was getting popular too and GAA was changing to favour strength.

In Dublin, Ben Dunne gyms also opened around this time and were the first properly affordable gyms.

More recently, I think the boom of the fitness industry/lifestyle on social media has probably had the biggest impact on people under 35. Even if some of it is vomit inducing narcissism, I think a lot of younger people are healthier than they were 20 years ago. Some would rather gym and coffee than going for pints. You'd be classed as a health nut if you did that 20 years ago.

Padre_Pio

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120877779#Comment_120877779

Totally agree.

So what if someone is going to the gym and exercising regularly to look better. Exercising for aesthetics is nothing new, been around for donkeys years.

Someone's motivations should be of no concern so long as people are exercising in a safe and healthy way.