Joe Wheatley and his wife, Christine, are the current torchbearers of that heritage. Since 2003 their vision and tenacity have polished the aura of Muscle Beach by elevating the awareness of Muscle Beach not only through very successful bodybuilding, power lifting and strongman events but also by creating both a lifetime achievement award and a Hall of Fame award honoring the legends and supporters of Muscle Beach.

This time capsule is a result of their commitment to Muscle Beach and the preservation of its place in history.

I am very proud to be a part of that history and to call Joe Wheatley a friend.

For more info on the Toy Drive and Time Capsule events at Muscle Beach this coming weekend Dec. 12-13, go to Joe’s blog here.

http://contests.ironmanmagazine.com/pop_photoevent.cfm?EventID=6

LaLanne in his home gym

Saturday (5.16) I visited Jack LaLanne at his home to record a video interview about his early days in the gym business  and his days  on Muscle Beach. As usual, Jack and his wife Elaine, were the perfect hosts.  As a part of his daily workouts, Jack swims a half hour a day and now has an “Endless Pool” which he just raved about.  Great idea–always 88 degrees and you can vary the speed of the current to what is best on any day.  Jack’s 95th birthday is coming up in September and I wanted to expand my own knowledge of Jack’s early life in order to create an article for the October Issue.  To fully appreciate Jack’s enthusiasm and power, he must be video taped. Saturday’s taping provided me with a visual record of one of the seminal characters in our world and the world wide fitness revolution.  As Jack said to me, “I have dedicated my life to helping people become stronger and healthier”.  Jack’s enthusiasm for living is an ongoing inspiration.  Thanks to Jack and Elaine for a memorable day.  And thanks to our mutual friend Ricky Suzuki for making it happen.

Such is the quality of the writers and the relationships—we trust our authors to deliver. IRON MAN is driven by individuals and their ideas. We keep the authors’ tone and style intact so readers get to feel a writer’s thoughts. The variety of voices is what gives IRON MAN its character.

That’s nothing new about this magazine. From its founding in 1936, Iron Man was an open forum for ideas—and so it remains. Peary and Mabel Rader started the publication to spread the word about the wonders of weight training correctly performed. We continue that tradition by honoring the wisdom of the past as well as exploring the research of the present.

For me, wisdom is defined as ideas that have stood the test of time. For example, beginning on page 60 in this issue, Charles Poliquin revisits Vince Gironda, the legendary Iron Guru, with truths Vince discovered 50 years ago and science validates today. Vince was then what Poliquin, Jerry Brainum, Steve Holman and Bill Starr are today: pragmatists always in search of a better way, a more productive way to train, eat and supplement. While those four authors represent more than 100 years of combined experience, their creativity is the foundation of their writing. Staying hungry for knowledge is the keystone of their progress—plus, of course, being obsessed in a constructive way with what they love to do.

So IRON MAN continues to facilitate connections between the writer and the reader—and IRON MAN readers are as much seekers of information as its authors are. I hope you’re as surprised and delighted as I am each month with the issue’s content. While I don’t completely agree with everything we publish—training protocols, diet or supplementation—I believe that presenting a diversity of ideas makes IRON MAN as vital and relevant as the authors who create them.

We bring individual voices together so that we can all learn from them and test their unique ideas in our own training. I’ve often cited my lifelong friend Bob Gajda’s belief that the gym is really a laboratory and that we are the subjects of our self-created experiments. The bodybuilding experience is just that: a self-directed voyage of discovery. Enjoy the odyssey. IM

The stories and photos of that beach that appeared in the bodybuilding magazines were like a beacon for all of us who saw them. It was a fantasy world of endless summer, bodybuilding and, of course, girls. The apparent freedom and fun of those guys and girls became a powerful draw to the susceptible, me in particular. In the late ’50s, as I worked out in my unheated garage with the inside temperature below freezing,I saw photos of Zabo on the beach working out—in January. I promised myself that I’d somehow get to experience it. I was too late for the golden age, but I made it in time to be a charter member of Gold’s in 1965.

In early 2008 I was talking to Zabo about my odyssey to Muscle Beach, and he mentioned that he’d kept some scrapbooks. I asked to see them, and the result is the pictorial of Zabo’s Muscle Beach memories that starts on page 192. I want to thank him for sharing his personal vintage photos with me and with the many thousands who will get to see them. I hope you enjoy them as much as I do. Randall Strossen, Ph.D., is a recognized expert on the worlds of Olympic weightlifting and feats of strength. He travels the globe covering the sports for his magazine Milo, and for many years he also penned a column, IronMind, for this magazine. While we no longer cover those sports in depth, I like to feature Randy’s work from time to time. He combines a deep knowledge of the sports with the photographic skill it takes to capture them at their best. Randy’s photos express the superhuman athleticism that is the hallmark of the Olympic lifter. No other sport requires the raw explosive power, unbelievable flexibility and fearlessness of Olympic weightlifting. See page 284 of the February ‘09 issue for Randy’s highlight coverage of the 2008 Olympics in Beijing.

Erratum: In the interview with Terry Baldwin, “Strapping Up to Glory” (January ’09), the Web address listed for information on Flexsolate was incorrect. The correct address is www.Flexsolate.com. IM

He had an unwavering belief in the power of sport to unite and a lifelong dedication to the idea that bodybuilding is an important part of nation building. Nothing and nobody can stand in his shoes. Bodybuilding changes more than the body; Ben understood that and was a tireless evangelist for its transformative power.

Born in 1923 in Montreal in humble circumstances worsened by the deep poverty of the ’30s, Ben dropped out of school after the seventh grade to help support his family. That early trial by fire plus the relentless anti-Semitism of the time forged his spirit.

Ben began his lifelong support of the military by enlisting in the Canadian Army, landing on the beach in Normandy on June 6, 1944. In his later years he was awarded the title of honorary colonel. By 2004, his prestige was so high that during the ceremonies honoring the 60th anniversary of D-day, he was seated next to the president of France.

With his older brother Joe, Ben shared a vision of what bodybuilding could be, beginning with their belief that it was good for everybody. What I admired most about him was that he changed the politics of the sport in the United States and the world. Because he understood prejudice, he created in the IFBB an organization that judged competitors not on skin color or religion but on who had the best physique. Before the IFBB, it was impossible to be a Mr. America if you were Jewish or a person of color. Ben changed that. It’s often mentioned that he made a statement for equality in 1975 by insisting on equal treatment and accommodations for all athletes in apartheid South Africa during the IFBB World Amateur Championships in Pretoria. Few of us can make that kind of difference. Ben did!

Ben passed away on October 18, 2008. My deepest condolences to his family. IM