Pumping Iron: The Art and Sport of Bodybuilding

by Charles Gaines and George Butler

Book Overview

"Who are they and why do they do it?--these men who dedicate themselves to building bodies like Hellenistic statues; who crisscross the world competing for titles as grandiose yet as publicly... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0671219227
• ISBN13: 9780671219222
• Release Date: January 1974
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster
• Length: 221 Pages
• Weight: 1.60 lbs.

Customer Reviews

Glad I could find it!!

My husband is really into Bodybuilding and he had been looking for this book as he had lost his copy from back in his teen years. I was so glad I was able to find this for him!! He was very happy to receive it!He likes this original book as opposed to the "revised" one.

great deal

i'm am so happy with this purchase! bought it for my brother for christmas, when he see's that it is autographed by the authors and arnold he is going to freak!

These were the real champions

I book this book back in 1973 and then lost it in a flood but was able to get a copy at a used book store.These were the real champions and pioneers of bodybuilding; Arnold, Nubret, Columbu, Zane, Corney, Waller, Katz etc.You rarely see training photo's like this and heretofore, never saw bodybuilders depicted as real people as Gaines and Butler did with this work and the movie that followed.Pumping Iron and a Mega-Superstar German with a hard to prononunce last name literally took bodybuilding into the mainstream and turned the stars of our sport into household names.While I was lucky to find a copy of this book at a used book store, I really feel that Gaines and Butler should have a reprint for people who would like a new, first class copy; perhaps even a revised version showing where those champions are today.Great book Mr. Gaines and Mr. Butler.

Brought bodybuilding into the spotlight

Before this book, bodybuilding was an obscure sport that nobody cared about or was interested in. Pumping Iron changed all that with it's realistic look at the sport with many pictures of the champions of the 70's & early 80's at work and play. Shattered many of the myths that people believed about bodybuilders and presented them as ordinary people with an intense drive and competitive will.

What Bodybuilding Is

This engrossing documentary/commentary of bodybuilding is the Bible of what bodybuilding IS. It does not drown you with technical detail, nor attempt to teach you HOW to bodybuild. What it does is bring you inside the gyms, (where the competitors work out) the arenas (where they compete) and inside their minds, where the peculiar and fascinating drive for the physical ideal finds its germination, growth and finally fruit on the posing platform. Why they do what they do, and just a smattering of detail of the equipment they use to accomplish their ends, rounds out this book. It is centered around a not-then-well-known Arnold Schwarzeneggar in his quest for the ultimate bodybuilding title, the Mr. Olympia. A few other competitors are also featured along with their quest for physical perfection and recognition of that by the bodybuilding contest judges. The well-placed and very informative pictures of the athletes at work in the gym, at play and in competition were a constant source of fascination to me as a teenaged boy, and I spent uncounted hours slowly flipping through the pages and examining every detail of what I thought a physique SHOULD look like. If you have ever been mildly curious of what essence makes men into bodybuilders, or have wondered WHY they do this, this book is for you. I recommend it very highly, and would probably be flipping through it right now if I had it, so inexhaustible is its supply of interesting information!