Conor Heffernan

@physcstudy.bsky.social

1.2K followers 740 following 75 posts

Lecturer At Ulster University. Historian of health, fitness and physical culture. Co-host of Boys We've Seen podcast. I also run history of fitness website, physicalculturestudy.com

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Conor Heffernan @physcstudy.bsky.social · Oct 10

To mark the release of my new book, When Fitness Went Global: The Rise of Physical Culture in the Nineteenth Century (Bloomsbury, 2025), I’m giving away a copy.

To enter:
💪 Repost
🌍 Comment with your favorite strength tradition

I’ll pick a winner next week.

#StrengthHeritage #SportHistory

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The Man Who Invented the Selfie Body

Long before Instagram, men were stripping down, oiling up, and mailing their photos to London to be judged by strangers. They weren’t influencers — they were Victorians chasing moral perfection through muscle. This piece looks at how nineteenth-century fitness culture created the first “selfie body,” tying together vanity, virtue, and the global rise of physical culture.

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Conor Heffernan @physcstudy.bsky.social · 5d

Just out now — I joined the History in Focus podcast from the AHR to talk about my article Mistakes I Carried: Building Strength in a Time of Crisis.

Listen here: www.historians.org/podcast/mist...

Mistakes I Have Made

What if historians could own up to their mistakes? Or learn to see their mistakes not as weaknesses to be hidden but as a necessary part of the process of growth and discovery? That is what a recent s...

www.historians.org

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How the Back Squat Took Over the Gym (and Why Its Future Is Still Being Written)

The back squat feels eternal, like it arrived fully formed as the king of strength training. But the movement that dominates gyms today is surprisingly young, shaped not by ancient warriors or textbook science but by circus strongmen, commercial fitness pioneers, Cold War politics, and a century of debate and experimentation. The squat was once performed on tiptoes. Racks did not exist. The idea of squatting heavy was considered reckless. Then everything changed. This is the hidden history of the barbell squat and why understanding it matters for how we train today.

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The History of the Preacher Curl

The Preacher Curl bench feels eternal — a staple in every gym, worshipped by bros, bodybuilding purists, and anyone chasing that arm peak. But it’s younger than you think, and its story starts not in a Weider catalog but in a tiny LA gym run by the most stubborn, brilliant, and occasionally infuriating mind in physical culture: Vince “The Iron Guru” Gironda.From Vince’s secretive training den to Larry Scott’s Olympia-winning arms, to Arnold sneaking reps on a seated version, the Preacher Curl’s rise is part invention, part mythmaking, and part good old-fashioned bodybuilding gossip.This is the unlikely origin story behind the world’s most iconic biceps bench — and how to actually use it properly, according to the Guru who built it.Strap in. Arms up. History curls incoming. 💪📜

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How To Lose Weight Fast And Make Your Muscles Stand Out

🧠💪 “Calories are units of heat energy…”Before calorie counting apps and high-protein influencers, there were mail-order muscle prophets like Dan Lurie. This week’s post looks at a 1950s excerpt from Dan Lurie’s Body Building System — a fascinating blend of moral advice, pseudo-science, and self-help.Lurie, one of the great showmen of American Physical Culture, taught that trimming fat wasn’t just about aesthetics — it was about discipline, self-control, and moral renewal. His tone might sound quaint or even comic now, but it captures a post-war moment when the body became a site of personal progress and patriotic strength.👉 Read on for calorie charts, moral lessons, and a crash course in mid-century muscle metaphysics.

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When Was The Arnold Strongman Classic Created?

Before Rogue, before the Wheel of Pain, before Hafthor’s record lifts — there was 2002. The inaugural Arnold Strongman Classic marked a turning point in strength sport history. Conceived by Terry and Jan Todd alongside Arnold Schwarzenegger and Peter Lorimer, it was designed not to test endurance or spectacle, but pure, brute force. This post revisits the first Arnold Strongman, the lifters who competed, and how a new standard for strength was born.

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Reposted by Keith Lilley, Conor Heffernan

Jane Winters @jfwinters.bsky.social · 18d

For UK academic folk, in case you don’t know about this service, the AHRC does publish all panel outcomes, with figures for numbers of applicants, numbers of successful awards etc. There is a lag, though, so the most recent info is from January 2025.

AHRC panel outcomes and attendance

Details of the outcomes of applications and panel membership relating to the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) panel meetings.

www.ukri.org

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The History of the Bulgarian Split Squat

An exercise designed to enact as much pain as possible. Everyone who’s done a Bulgarian split squat knows the pain. Few know its Cold War origins. This is the story of how one of the most dreaded leg exercises began — and why it refuses to die.

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The First Protein Powder: How a 1900s “Superfood” Launched the Supplement Industry

Before whey, creatine, and influencer “supp stacks,” there was Plasmon — a milk-based powder from 1900s Britain that promised to build flesh and nerve in equal measure.Endorsed by doctors, explorers, and strongmen like Eugen Sandow, Plasmon sold science, masculinity, and modernity a century before the modern supplement industry was born.It’s the forgotten superfood that invented everything from protein marketing to wellness culture.

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Conor Heffernan @physcstudy.bsky.social · 25d

Was proud to be part of Made of Stone on RTÉ — a brilliant doc on David Keohan and the revival of Irish stone lifting. Huge credit to David, director Will Hutchby, and @ulsteruni.bsky.social for backing my madness. Still on RTÉ Player.

www.rte.ie/player/movie...

Made Of Stone

Documentary on David Keohan, also known as

www.rte.ie

Conor Heffernan @physcstudy.bsky.social · 26d

Well my ego is well and truly fed! Haha thank you!

Conor Heffernan @physcstudy.bsky.social · 26d

I just love how ingenious they had to be in their training, literally inventing certain movements on the fly. I presume you've seen the Rogue docs? If not well worth it!

Conor Heffernan @physcstudy.bsky.social · 26d

Wow! I mean obviously he would need a custom bike but I would so love to try this

Conor Heffernan @physcstudy.bsky.social · 26d

😅not with a three year old in the next room!

Conor Heffernan @physcstudy.bsky.social · 26d

Thanks Nicholas! A labour of love.... and late nights

Conor Heffernan @physcstudy.bsky.social · 26d

I mean the natural follow up now is whether you've tried it? I've done some wild diets in the past thanks to early 1900s health fanatics... and somehow survived!

I mean, are you even a historian if you don't have a backlog of work?!

Conor Heffernan @physcstudy.bsky.social · 26d

Haha 'intolerable academic' reviews for the win!

Conor Heffernan @physcstudy.bsky.social · 26d

Ah that is so so cool and definitely on my list! I'm constantly on the lookout for conferences in Iceland for said reason haha.

Stop there is a 215kg plus stone here I once tried... after a few minutes a kind passerby suggested I should stop...

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A Drug Free Mr. Olympia? The Strange Case of the 1990 Mr. Olympia

In 1990, bodybuilding’s biggest stage tried something radical: a fully drug-tested Mr. Olympia.For one brief, strange moment, Joe and Ben Weider promised a new, “healthier” era—IOC-style testing, steroid bans, and the hope of Olympic legitimacy.It didn’t quite go as planned.Today’s post looks at that year’s short-lived experiment: the moral panic that sparked it, the chaos backstage, and why elite bodybuilding quickly decided that “natural” wasn’t for them.

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Reposted by Conor Heffernan

Sarah Elizabeth Cox @oispooky.bsky.social · 29d

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ review 😆🙏🏻

#AThousandBlows

www.grapplingwithhistory.com

Reposted by Paul Bowman

Conor Heffernan @physcstudy.bsky.social · 29d

How Fitness Conquered the World (and What It Still Teaches Us)

open.substack.com/pub/physical...

How Fitness Conquered the World (and What It Still Teaches Us)

open.substack.com

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How Fitness Conquered the World (and What It Still Teaches Us)

Ever wondered why gyms look the same in Dublin, Delhi, and Detroit? My new book When Fitness Went Global (Bloomsbury, out next month) traces how nineteenth-century ideas about strength, health, and discipline spread across empires and into our lives today. From Indian clubs to mail-order muscles, it shows how the global body was built—and sold.This post looks at the key lessons: that fitness has never been neutral, that it’s always been commercial, and that our bodies still carry the weight of history.Read the story behind the book and why muscles matter more than we think.#FitnessHistory #GlobalHealth #PhysicalCulture #WhenFitnessWentGlobal

Reposts 0 29d

Reposted by Conor Heffernan

Kubobukata @kubobukata.bsky.social · 29d

Hooray! 😁 I'm far from an expert, but whenever I've read about early strongmen it's been a delight. I also have a persistent double take reaction when I see this picture of George Hackenschmidt: "Those are very modern-looking boots! No, wait..."

Strongman George Hackenschmidt posing in something like underpants and shoes with calf-length socks.

Conor Heffernan @physcstudy.bsky.social · 29d

New article out today 🎉

Gymnastics and childhood in early-19th-century Dublin — how foreign instructors, Irish medics & schools shaped kids’ bodies, health, and national ideals.

Open Access (CC BY) — free to read & share.

bit.ly/4onFCYp

#skyhistorians @iaphistorians.bsky.social

a black and white photo of a person riding a bicycle with the words retro exercise written below them

ALT: a black and white photo of a person riding a bicycle with the words retro exercise written below them

media.tenor.com

Conor Heffernan @physcstudy.bsky.social · 29d

Thanks Paul! Oddly the internet turned on him soon after (no correlation) but not because of expert creep, but rather his PhD credentials. My concern would be the unquestioning race science on his philosophy blog...

Conor Heffernan @physcstudy.bsky.social · 29d

Haha always Sarah! C'mere how is your book coming along? We just finished a Thousand Blows on Disney and my poor wife had to suffer through me continually looking up your website!

Conor Heffernan @physcstudy.bsky.social · 29d

I have many many questions. I am hoping to go to Iceland in the next year or two and these are absolutely on my list. Husafell would likely kill me but I think I could end up somewhere on the manhood spectrum!