Strength & Health

{{Short description|American bodybuilding magazine}} {{Use American English|date=April 2026}} {{Use mdy dates|date=March 2025}} {{Infobox magazine | title = Strength & Health | image_file = Strength and Health 1937-05.jpg | image_size = | image_alt = | image_caption = May 1937 issue | frequency = | founder = Bob Hoffman | founded = 1932 | firstdate = | finaldate = {{End date|1986}} | finalnumber = 54 | company = York Barbell Company | country = USA | based = York, Pennsylvania | language = | oclc = 2251991 }}

'''''Strength & Health''''' was a bodybuilding/fitness/Olympic weightlifting magazine, one of the earliest magazines devoted to fitness and bodybuilding.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Building Upper Body Strength and Resiliency with Double Kettlebell Press |url=https://strongandfit.com/blogs/news/build-insane-upper-body-strength-and-resiliency-with-the-double-kb-press |access-date=2023-11-03 |language=en}}</ref> Until the late 1960s, it was the most popular weightlifting magazine in the United States.<ref name="biblio"/>

==History== The magazine was published between 1932<ref name="Morais"/> and 1986 in 54 Volumes, a volume a year in 6 parts, published every 2–3 months.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://musclememory.com/mags.php?mag=sh|title=Strength & Health| work=Muscle Memory|accessdate=15 January 2013}}</ref> It was published by York Barbell Company, which was established by Bob Hoffman.<ref>{{cite journal|author1=Kimberly Beckwith|author2=Jan Todd|title=Strength. America's First Muscle Magazine: 1914-1935|journal=Iron Game History|date=August 2005|volume=9|issue=1|url=http://library.la84.org/SportsLibrary/IGH/IGH0901/IGH0901c.pdf|accessdate=4 May 2016}}</ref>

In the 1940s, several early gay physique photographers, including Bob Mizer, contributed photos to the magazine and advertised homoerotic (sometimes nude) photographs in its back pages. This eventually gave rise to physique magazines designed for gay audiences, starting with Mizer's ''Physique Pictorial'' in 1951. In an article titled "Let Me Tell You a Fairy Tale", the editors of ''Strength & Health'' decried the emergence of "homosexual magazines", warning of their corrupting influence on youth.<ref>{{cite book|author-link=David K. Johnson|last=Johnson |first=David K. |title=Buying Gay: How Physique Entrepreneurs Sparked a Movement| location=New York |publisher=Columbia University Press |year=2019 |isbn=978-0-231-18911-8}}</ref>

==Editors== Its first editor was Lithuanian-born weightlifter Walter Zagurski.<ref name="sportsreferencezagurski">{{cite web|title=Wally Zagurski|url=https://www.sports-reference.com/olympics/athletes/za/wally-zagurski-1.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200418053753/https://www.sports-reference.com/olympics/athletes/za/wally-zagurski-1.html|url-status=dead |archive-date=April 18, 2020|website=Sports Reference |accessdate=March 3, 2019}}</ref> Managing editors during the magazine's history included: George F. Jowett, Gord Venables, Jim Murray, Ray Van Cleef, Harry Paschall, Bob Hasse, John Grimek, Terry Todd, Tommy Suggs, and Jan Dellinger.<ref name="biblio"/>

==References== {{Reflist|refs= <ref name="biblio">{{cite journal |title=A Briefly Annotated Bibliography of English Language Serial Publications in the Field of Physical Culture |year=1991 |journal=Iron Game History |url=https://www.starkcenter.org/igh/igh-v1/igh-v1-n4-n5/igh0104k.pdf |last1=Todd |first1=Jan |last2=Roark |first2=Joe |last3=Todd |first3=Terry}}</ref> <ref name="Morais">{{cite thesis|author=Dominic Gray Morais|title=Strength in numbers: "Strength & Health" brand community from 1932-1964|url=https://starkcenter.org/igh/igh-v9/igh-v9-n1/igh0901c.pdf|type=PhD|publisher=University of Texas|accessdate=22 May 2023|date=May 2023}}</ref> }}

==External links== {{commons category}} *[http://musclememory.com/mags.php?mag=sh Strength and Health - Cover Page Collection]

{{DEFAULTSORT:Strength and Health}} Category:Physical culture Category:Fitness magazines Category:Bodybuilding magazines Category:Defunct magazines published in the United States Category:Magazines disestablished in 1986 Category:Magazines established in 1932 Category:Sports magazines published in the United States Category:Magazines published in Pennsylvania