Conor Heffernan

@physcstudy.bsky.social

1.2K followers 760 following 82 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 · 14d

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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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 1 15h

Conor Heffernan @physcstudy.bsky.social · 16h

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

Reposted by Conor Heffernan

RTÉ Brainstorm @rtebrainstorm.bsky.social · 20h

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 · 1d

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.

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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.

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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.

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Conor Heffernan @physcstudy.bsky.social · 12d

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

Conor Heffernan @physcstudy.bsky.social · 12d

Thanks Chris! Hope you're keeping well

Conor Heffernan @physcstudy.bsky.social · 12d

Thanks Vanessa!

Conor Heffernan @physcstudy.bsky.social · 14d

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 · 14d

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.

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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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Reposted by Conor Heffernan

TRE - Talk Radio Europe @tre.radio · 17d

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 · 19d

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 · 20d

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.

Reposts 2 Oct 27

Reposted by Keith Lilley, Conor Heffernan

Jane Winters @jfwinters.bsky.social · Oct 24

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.

Reposts 2 Oct 22

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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.

Reposts 2 Oct 20

Conor Heffernan @physcstudy.bsky.social · Oct 17

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 · Oct 16

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

Conor Heffernan @physcstudy.bsky.social · Oct 16

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 · Oct 16

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

Conor Heffernan @physcstudy.bsky.social · Oct 16

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

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