Brothers of Iron: How the Weider Brothers Created the Fitness Movement and Built a Business Empire

by Joe Weider and Ben Weider

In the depths of the Great Depression a scrawny, dirt-poor Jewish kid with a seventh-grade education picked up a barbell and got hooked on weight training. Building his muscles gave him confidence and... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1596701242
• ISBN13: 9781596701243
• Release Date: September 2006
• Publisher: Sports Publishing LLC
• Length: 305 Pages
• Weight: 1.50 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.1" x 6.3" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

The Brothers of Iron are the Fathers of the Fitness Revolution

As a fat 12 year old, I picked up my first copy of Muscle Builder Magazine and transformed my body and my spirit. Within a year, I had broken the 60 yard dash record at my junior high school. This transformation, largely motivated by the efforts of Joe and Ben Weider, changed the direction of my life and catapulted me into a lifelong mission toward health and fitness. This book was an inspirational story of commitment, courage, tenacity and guts. The Weider's ultimate success was the result of overcoming many hurdles and obstacles along the way. In their final chapter, Joe Weider cites his "lessons of bodybuilding: Determination, Persistence, Concentration, Focus and Patience." I will add one more -- Resilience - the ability to bounce back after getting knocked down. The only reason I didn't rate this book five stars is that I would like to have liked to have seen more content and photos regarding the early bodybuilders who were foundational to the success of the Weider empire.

Hooray to the brothers of Iron!

No doubt about it, Ben & Joe Weider made bodybuilding what it is today. From Ben's tireless efforts as an ambassador of the sport and brother Joe's passion with the magazines, Your Physique, Muscle Power, Muscle Builder, Mr. America, All American Athlete and Vigor to the current Muscle & Fitness and other magazines, forming the IFBB, offering bodybuilders a alternative to the joke that the AAU, York Barbell and Bob Hoffman offered and quality nutritional products that actually worked, bodybuilders all over the world owe a huge debt of graditude to the Weider brothers. My only complaint is that the Weider brothers did not take proactive action against anabolic steriods. Hooray to the brothers of Iron. Thank you for taking our sport to levels that only you two could have dreamed of. Ben & Joe are like the Walt Disney of bodybuilding.

A Dynamic Read

Joe Weider made his name and his fortune promoting the sport he loves and for which he has an astounding amount of passion --- bodybuilding. There is no one who even comes close to putting the sport of bodybuilding on a par with other sports. Nor is there anyone who has come close to promoting bodybuilding or resistance training as a way to gain health that can last a lifetime. This book is extremely well written. I suspect that's because a professional writer was brought in to make that happen and Mike Steere did a wonderful job. However, one can certainly see the different styles in communication in the chapters written by Joe and by brother Ben. The really fun reading, the wonderful reading was that in the chapters written by Joe. But one will notice soon into the book that it is a love fest by Joe Weider to Joe Weider. Weider blames other people for his failures, including a near bankruptcy and a failed first marriage. He also shows an incredible lack of love or human caring for his one and only child by his first wife. He mentions the child in passing and with no emotion. One wonders why he married a woman he didn't love or resect. All through the book Joe Weider brags about all he did for the sport of bodybuilding and he takes full credit for it all. He puts down numerous other people in the business. When Arnold was giving a speech and didn't give Joe credit for making it all happen for him, Joe was angry and upset. He wanted the credit and he wanted it publically. Well, truth be told, he deserved the credit. Arnold would still be a nobody in Austria without Joe Weider. And one needs to understand that egos are as huge as muscles in bodybuilding. This book gives us a look at the golden years of bodybuilding. It gives us the history of bodybuilding. It's an incredibly powerful and exciting book that gives us an insiders view into bodybuilding from the beginning. There has been a lot said about Joe Weider. Much of it bad. Bodybuilding is perhaps the only sport that has no sanction against the use of anabolic steroids. The articles we read in Muscle and Fitness, while great reading, offer workouts that the average person can't do. One has to be juiced to be able to handle all the reps and sets and gym time advocated in the articles. And one certainly has to be juiced to gain the mass of a Ronnie Coleman and the other greats of today. Even Arnold admitted taking steroids in his day and he was nowhere as big as the guys (or some of the gals) today. Weider comes off as a bit of sexist. He also comes off as very tight with money. Perhaps one can forgive that in a man of his age as long as you don't have to live with him or be around him. Anyone who is the least bit interested in bodybuilding, in running a business, in the magazine business or sports business should read this book. It's one of the best books I've read in a long time. You can't help come away with inspiration if you're a businessperson and a glowing love and respect for

An engaging memoir that deserves a wide audience

This engaging memoir deserves a wide audience. Anyone interested in bodybuilding, weightlifting, sports medicine, the history of the fitness movement, magazine publishing, marketing, motivational thought, Napoleonic history, or diplomacy will find this book worth reading. Schwarzenegger fans may learn a few new things about the Governator, who was Joe "Master Blaster" Weider's star protégé in the early 70's and features prominently in the narrative. Since the Weiders pretty much created modern bodybuilding (bodybuilding = improving the fitness, shape and size of your body through exercise), this is a must-read for anyone who is seriously interested in that subject. How the Wieders differentiated bodybuilding from weightlifting, and the running battle that weightlifting impresario Bob Hoffman fought against Joe Weider for decades, is one of the major narrative threads. Another is Ben Weider's quest to establish the International Federation of Bodybuilders (IFBB) worldwide, and have bodybuilding recognized by the International Olympic Committee. Building the Weider enterprise -- publishing, exercise equipment, food supplements and so forth is another thread that provides an interesting case study in entrepreneurship, with all the good luck, bad luck, shrewd decisions and blunders you would expect in a sixty year career. On the motivational side, this memoir reminded me of a Somerset Maugham short story where a verger (lay minister) loses his job because of illiteracy, becomes a tobacco store magnate, and is asked by an astounded banker where he would be if he could read and write. He answers "I'd be verger of St. Peter's, Neville Square." Well, apparently Ben Weider would have been an RCMP officer (he was rejected because he was Jewish), and Joe Weider would have been a tradesman (he lacked the two years of high school the trade school required). These are honorable occupations, but the point is that for both men, as for Maugham's verger, what the world considered handicaps steered them to great success. I say "steered" because millions of people in similar situations do not achieve extraordinary things. The additional factor that propelled the Weiders was tireless dedication to goals they firmly believed would ultimately be achieved. However, I disagree with Joe Weider's taking his success as proof that individuals shape historical forces and not vice versa. If Joe had believed that unicycling was the key to worldwide health and fitness, I think things would have turned out quite differently, regardless of his dedication. Of course I could be wrong, and we might all be riding unicycles instead of working out. Reading how Ben Weider managed to build the IFBB sports federation, established bodybuilding in communist countries, and eventually won provisional recognition for bodybuilding as an Olympic sport (it took 40 years) will give you better pointers on practical diplomacy then you will get by reading Sumner Welles and may

Best book on bodybuilding ever

I've been a collector of bodybuilding memorabilia for 36 years. This is the Think and Grow Rich version of bodybuilding. Great historical and motivational information. The Weider brothers had guts and vision. A must read for valuable bodybuilding and business information.