Charles Atlas took the name "Charles Atlas" after a friend told him that he resembled the statue of Atlas on top of a hotel in Coney Island and legally changed his name in 1922.
16 Facts About Charles Atlas
2.
Charles Atlas marketed his first bodybuilding course with health and fitness writer Frederick Tilney in November 1922.
3.
Charles Atlas tried many forms of exercise initially, using weights, pulley-style resistance, and gymnastic-style calisthenics.
4.
Charles Atlas was inspired by other fitness and health advocates who preceded him, including world-renowned strongman Eugen Sandow and Bernarr MacFadden.
5.
Charles Atlas was too poor to join the local YMCA, so he watched how exercises were performed, then performed them at home.
6.
Charles Atlas attended the strongman shows at Coney Island, and would question the strongmen about their diets and exercise regimens after the show.
7.
Charles Atlas would read Physical Culture magazine for further information on health, strength, and physical development, and finally developed his own system of exercises that was later called "Dynamic Tension", a phrase coined by Charles Roman.
Related searches
Eugen Sandow 8.
Charles Atlas soon took the role of strongman in the Coney Island circus side show.
9.
Charles Atlas met Frederick Tilney, a British homeopathic physician and course writer who was employed as publisher Bernarr MacFadden's "ideas man".
10.
Charles Atlas wrote a fitness course and then asked Tilney to edit it.
11.
Each lesson is supplemented with photos of Charles Atlas demonstrating the exercises.
12.
Besides photographs, Charles Atlas posed for many statues throughout his life.
13.
Charles Atlas began to experience chest pains after exercising during his final years, resulting in his hospitalization in December 1972.
14.
Charles Atlas died from a heart attack in the hospital on December 24,1972, in Long Beach, New York at age 80.
15.
Charles Atlas is rewarded by the swift return of his girlfriend and the admiration of onlookers.
16.
The ad was said to be based on an experience the real Charles Atlas had as a boy.