Long ago, in a land far, far away…
Indeed, it is of course not just around the corner, but if you are in the area, a visit to Muscle Beach in Venice is not to be missed. It is the most famous place in the history of fitness and bodybuilding. Located on the beach at Venice Beach in California, it became a worldwide attraction because bodybuilders literally trained outdoors in the sun, right amidst tourists, street performers, and skaters.
Legends
Muscle Beach acquired legendary status because legends such as Arnold Schwarzenegger, Franco Columbu, and Lou Ferrigno also trained here. The whole image—also known as the ‘Golden Era of Bodybuilding’—was defined by the large muscle bundles, heavy dumbbells, and refueling stops on the beach under the burning sun that were part of the image of Muscle Beach in Venice. Many athletes still view Muscle Beach as the place where you can train without excuses. A place where you can showcase disciplines in public and where fitness and bodybuilding are seen as a lifestyle rather than just a sport.
So, you could say that Muscle Beach is essentially the place where modern bodybuilding became a kind of open-air culture. What makes it special is not just the gym itself, but the atmosphere, history, and influence on fitness worldwide. Today, you still see bodybuilders training there, calisthenics shows, posing athletes, influencers creating content, and old-school bodybuilders alongside the new generation. There is also a huge exchange of knowledge, and it motivates athletes to push themselves even harder and deeper.
Santa Monica
However, Muscle Beach in Venice was not the first Muscle Beach. It started in the 1930s in Santa Monica, in 1930 in Santa Monica. It wasn’t like Venice Beach, but here, alongside bodybuilders, acrobats, wrestlers, and weightlifters trained together under the scorching sun. This gave it a virtually circus-like atmosphere with shows, human pyramids, and strength acts. In the 1940s and 1950s, it became a hangout for powerhouses and muscular athletes from across the United States. In the seventies, a large part of this moved to Venice Beach.
Today, it is still a beautiful place to work out outdoors, with rings, pull-up bars, and exercise equipment in the open air, but it looks more like a fitness-calisthenics spot than the pure, raw bodybuilding vibe you find at Venice Beach; however, you can still feel that California way of outdoor training and that fitness culture very strongly in Santa Monica. For most, Venice Beach is still the Muscle Beach to find inspiration and to feel that vibe cultivated by the legends in the seventies and eighties.
Gold’s Gym
When thinking of Venice, one also quickly thinks of Joe Gold’s gym. He started the iconic Gold’s Gym, not far from Muscle Beach. Joe Gold, himself a bodybuilder who trained there, saw an opportunity to build a gym. Not a fancy, modern gym like it is today. It was more like a hardcore gym full of heavy weights, simple equipment, and fanatical lifters. It was precisely that combination that proved to be a winning combination. Inside the gym, people trained hard in an old-school way and practiced poses. And on Muscle Beach, less than three kilometers away, they trained outdoors, showed off, and focused on the media and the public.
In 1977, the documentary ‘Pumping Iron’ was released. This drew extra attention to the rise of the bodybuilding scene. Gold’s Gym was central to it as a beacon in the preparation of Mr. Universe and Mr. Olympia. The main roles were played by Arnold Schwarzenegger, Lou Ferrigno, and Franco Columbu, among many others. For many, it is still more than a gym today; it is a place of pilgrimage where the culture developed. Many bodybuilders still go there to soak up the culture and taste the atmosphere. Golds Gym is now a gigantic franchise with gums all over the world, but nothing can top the Venice Beach location, because that is where it all really began.
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