Charles Atlas biography

Profile

Born in Italy, Charles Atlas immigrated to the U.S. in 1904. Scrawny and shy, he endured beatings by boys on his block. In an effort to fight back, he devised a system, later called Dynamic-Tension, that build up his muscle strength. With his new-found muscles, he joined a circus circuit in Coney Island. With Frederick Tilney, he developed a mail-order bodybuilding course in the early 1900s.