Conor Heffernan

@physcstudy.bsky.social

1.2K followers 760 following 84 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 · Nov 13

Today marks publication day for my book When Fitness Went Global!

It explores how physical culture travelled the world, how ideas about health circulated across continents, and how we arrived at today’s global landscape.

Bloomsbury have it at 10% off today:

www.bloomsbury.com/uk/when-fitn...

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Brawny Books: David Chapman, Sandow the Magnificent.

A number of readers have reached out in the past month asking for book recommendations on the history of physical culture. As someone who has spent several years researching the topic, I’ve read my fair share of good, and not so good, books. Thankfully today’s book, the first of our ‘Brawny Books’ book club, falls in the good category.

Reposts 0 1d

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Five Strange Home Gym Purchases That Quietly Changed How I Train

Over the past two years, my home gym has filled up with objects that most people would not recognise as sensible purchases. A half-stone that refuses to sit neatly in your arms. An old wooden forearm roller. Sandbags that collapse, pull, and fight back. Plates older than most commercial gyms. None of this equipment made training easier or more efficient. It just made weaknesses harder to ignore. This piece is not a buying guide. It is an account of what actually stayed in my garage and why. What I do with these tools. What changed. What got harder. And why awkward, old fashioned equipment has quietly taken over my training.

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When Did Everyone Start Looking Like This?

I kept noticing the same thing in old fitness photographs. Not the exercises. Not the equipment. The bodies. An Irish physical culture instructor named F A Hornibrook shows up in Fiji around 1900, training local men. Different place, different lives, different contexts. And yet the bodies he presents look strangely familiar. Upright. Controlled. Strong but careful. If you stripped away the background, they could be almost anywhere. This piece is about how that started happening. Not through big institutions or famous names, but through quiet repetition. The moment when bodies stopped looking local and started looking correct.

Reposts 1 9d

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Forgotten Exercises: The Dumbbell Swing

Before kettlebells, CrossFit, or Olympic lifting platforms, there was the dumbbell swing. Praised by Arthur Saxon, formalised by early weightlifting bodies, and still discussed by John Grimek in the late 1950s, it was once a core test of explosive strength. This piece explores how the lift was performed, why it mattered, and how a movement capable of producing 200-pound one-arm lifts ended up largely forgotten.

Reposts 2 11d

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How did you become a strength performer in the early 1900s?

It’s a deceptively simple question that has sent me down a wonderful rabbit hole over the past two weeks.Long before formal weightlifting competitions, influencer deals, or sponsored athletes, being strong meant being different in a world that wasn’t yet obsessed with barbells or gyms. And yet, hundreds of men and women managed to turn their strength into a career. They earned wages on the stage, in the circus, or in the smoky atmosphere of crowded music halls, performing astonishing feats with objects the public instantly recognised and understood.In this post I break down the three main pathways to becoming a strength performer in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. From circus apprenticeships to nightly challenge acts and the early bodybuilding and weightlifting contests that turned unknown lifters into minor celebrities, this was a world fuelled by showmanship, risk, and opportunity.If you’ve ever wondered how Sandow, Sandwina, Saxon, or dozens of forgotten figures paved their way to the stage, this is the most enjoyable history detour you’ll take today.

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What Came Before the Carnivore Diet?

The Carnivore Diet—once a fringe curiosity—has become a cultural force. Powerlifters swear by it, influencers monetise it, and everyday people now discuss ribeyes with the same evangelical fervour once reserved for kale.But for all the modern hype, there’s an older story buried in the archives of physique culture.While most people trace the idea of an all-meat diet to the Inuit explorations of Vilhjalmur Stefánsson or to the modern advocacy of Shawn Baker, a forgotten group of mid-century bodybuilders were experimenting with something remarkably similar: Rheo H. Blair and Vince Gironda’s “meat and water” diet.This short-term cutting protocol—equal parts genius and madness—was tested on lifters like Steve Davis and even (allegedly) a young Lou Ferrigno. It promised rapid fat loss, a “ripped to shreds” look, and the kind of monastic discipline that only Golden Age bodybuilders could tolerate.Today’s post digs into Blair’s motivations, the lifters who trialled this carnivore-esque approach, and what—if anything—it tells us about the modern Carnivore movement.Is Carnivore new? Or did bodybuilding already try this—and pay the price—half a century ago?Read on for the forgotten history of bodybuilding’s first meat-only diet.

Reposts 2 18d

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The Work Beneath the Weights

Why do we train?Not how. Not how often. Not which routine, which guru, which split.Why.I’ve been lifting in some form for twenty years now. Not chasing medals, not chasing perfection, and certainly not chasing the kind of physique that teenage me thought would solve all my problems. Over those two decades my motivations have shifted—from insecurity to discipline to habit to something I still struggle to name.This essay is about that search.About strength, stones, old philosophers, and the quiet ways training forces us to meet ourselves.

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Conor Heffernan @physcstudy.bsky.social · 25d

Thanks David :)

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What I Told the BBC About How the Fitness Industry Began

Last week I joined the BBC World Service to talk about where the modern fitness world came from. The presenter asked about the joyful side of exercise, which opened up a conversation about early gymnasia as third places, muscular bonding, and the surprisingly communal roots of nineteenth century movement culture. I also shared the programme with strongwoman Rebecca Roberts, whose segment grounded the history in the present.Here is what I told the BBC, what surprised me, and why the deeper story of fitness culture still matters today.

Reposts 2 25d

Reposted by Conor Heffernan

David Storey @davidstoreygeog.bsky.social · 28d

Measurement, morality, and the display of bodily perfection:
@physcstudy.bsky.social on the origins of the 'gym selfie'
@rtebrainstorm.bsky.social
www.rte.ie/brainstorm/2...

How the Victorians invented the gym selfie

British and Irish men in the 1890s mailed their portraits to fitness guru Eugen Sandow, who created a global business with gyms, books and training kits

www.rte.ie

Conor Heffernan @physcstudy.bsky.social · 29d

I am always glad to raise awareness of half naked bodybuilders from a century ago

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The First Fitness Comment Section

The nineteenth century had the first comment section. Not online, not digital, but printed in tiny columns at the back of physical culture magazines where men from Dublin, Cape Town, Sydney and Ohio posted their progress, bragged, argued and compared bodies without ever meeting. They mailed photographs, they rated each other’s physiques, they fought over technique and they tried to impress a celebrity trainer who sat at the centre of it all. If you want to understand how fitness became global, commercial and endlessly performative, it starts here, in a world where the gym selfie travelled by steamship and the algorithm was a London editor with a good eye for biceps.This is a story from my new book, but it is also the origin point for everything that annoys, entertains and traps us in modern fitness culture. The first influencers had no phones. The first progress pics arrived in envelopes. The first comment wars were printed slowly and carefully for the world to judge.

Reposts 2 Nov 26

Conor Heffernan @physcstudy.bsky.social · Nov 26

I mean. Do we do Colm calendars yet? Feels like Daniel has the market cornered

Reposted by Conor Heffernan

RTÉ Brainstorm @rtebrainstorm.bsky.social · Nov 26

How the Victorians invented the gym selfie. British and Irish men in the 1890s mailed their portraits to fitness guru Eugen Sandow, who created a global business with gyms, books and training kits, writes @physcstudy.bsky.social @ulsteruni.bsky.social @researchireland.ie www.rte.ie/brainstorm/2...

Reposted by Conor Heffernan

RTÉ Brainstorm @rtebrainstorm.bsky.social · Nov 25

How the Victorians invented the gym selfie

British and Irish men in the 1890s mailed their portraits to fitness guru Eugen Sandow, who created a global business with gyms, books and training kits

www.rte.ie

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Three Old-School Squats You’re Not Doing

Most gym-goers treat the back squat like gospel — the lift that separates the “serious” from the “weekend warriors.” But relying on it endlessly can mean stalled progress, nagging discomfort, or plain boredom. Long before machines, hacks, and influencer routines, lifters used a range of brutal, elegant squat variations that hammered the quads, built strength, and didn’t require a rack. Three of them — the Sissy Squat, the Zercher Squat, and the true old-school Hack Squat — deliver humbling depth, savage isolation, and surprising carryover to your main lifts. This short piece looks at how each works, why legendary figures like Vince Gironda, Ed Zercher, and George Hackenschmidt swore by them, and what you might gain from bringing them back into rotation. If you think they’re easier than back squats, you’re in for a shock.

Reposts 2 Nov 24

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Saddlin the Mare

A simple idea with a long memory Last week I travelled through the Sma Glen in Perthshire and lifted one of Scotland’s strangest stones. The challenge is called Saddlin the Mare. You take a two hundred pound stone from the ground and work it up a smooth seven-foot boulder until it stays in place.The stone looks ordinary from the road. The test is anything but. As a historian of fitness I love these old challenges because they show how people measured strength long before gyms or competitions. They are shaped by landscape and habit rather than rules.This post looks at the history of the Saddlin Mare, the revival of traditional stone lifting and what the test teaches once you try it for yourself.

Reposts 2 Nov 19

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Who is Bodybuilding's First Champion?

Before the golden age of Sandow, Hackenschmidt and the Weiders, there was William “Billy” Murray – the world’s first recognised bodybuilding champion. His physique won Sandow’s Great Competition in 1901, impressed Arthur Conan Doyle, influenced early strongman shows… and then quietly slipped out of history.In today’s post, we revisit Murray’s life: the athlete who beat thousands to become bodybuilding’s first king, the strongman who toured in Roman armour, and the quiet figure whose legacy was nearly erased – until a decades-long hunt for a missing gold Sandow statue brought his name back into the spotlight.If you’re interested in the origins of physique culture, forgotten champions, and the gap between fame and historical memory, this one’s for you.

Reposts 2 Nov 17

Conor Heffernan @physcstudy.bsky.social · Nov 14

Lauren! It's been a minute. Thanks so much and hope you're keeping well

Conor Heffernan @physcstudy.bsky.social · Nov 14

Thanks Chris! Hope you're keeping well

Conor Heffernan @physcstudy.bsky.social · Nov 14

Thanks Vanessa!

Conor Heffernan @physcstudy.bsky.social · Nov 13

Thanks so much Claire. I couldn't have been more honored (and surprised to be part of such a great collection!)

Conor Heffernan @physcstudy.bsky.social · Nov 13

I cannot wait to read this!!

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John Christy, 'Mid-Year Checkup', Hardgainer Magazine, July/August (1999)

Every so often, an old HARDGAINER piece hits harder than a new “science-based” training thread. This one, from mid-1999, is a perfect example — part training audit, part tough-love manifesto. It’s a six-question gut check that asks the simplest, hardest thing: are you actually stronger than you were six months ago?The author hammers the eternal basics — patient progression, consistent eating, and the discipline to stick with a program long enough to know if it works. It’s a reminder that none of the new supplements, recovery hacks, or influencer programs change the core truth: strength is earned through focus and time, not novelty.If you’ve drifted off course this year, this is a great reset — the same advice that worked in 1999 still works in 2025.

Reposts 3 Nov 12

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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.

Reposts 2 Nov 10

Reposted by Conor Heffernan

TRE - Talk Radio Europe @tre.radio · Nov 10

On Let's Talk with Giles Brown, from 10.00CET - @physcstudy.bsky.social with 'The Years of the Wizard: The Strange History and Home Life of Renaissance Magicians', and Conor Heffernan (@physcstudy.bsky.social) on 'When Fitness Went Global: The Rise of Physical Culture in the Nineteenth Century'

Reposted by Conor Heffernan

Sarah Elizabeth Cox @oispooky.bsky.social · Nov 7

Taking a break from The Devil's Dancefloor tonight to work on pinning down Miss Juno May for a forthcoming international essay collection on women's wrestling, past and present-ish. Out 2026 (I don't know how, when, where) edited by @physcstudy.bsky.social & US colleagues!

AMAZONS OF THE ARENA! 🤼‍♀️

A black and white photo of current WWE women's wrestler Rhea Ripley, leaning nonchalantly on ring ropes wearing black lipstick and black, metal, studded leather and sort of generally being the hottest thing you've seen in your whole life. I am, like, almost straight as well. Perhaps.

Screenshot of Spokane Press newspaper in 1907, in the centre is a curvy Edwardian woman posing arms behind head in white blouse and trousers, above her the headline SIX FOOT THRILLER IS COMING FROM LONDON

Conor Heffernan @physcstudy.bsky.social · Nov 6

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.

Reposts 2 Nov 5

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