IT all began on Muscle Beach more than 60 years ago when a group of fitness-conscious men gathered to spend hours lifting weights in skimpy swimsuits while showing off their physiques.

While muscles got toned and close friendships formed, the modern body-building movement was born on the beach in Venice, California. But you might not know that from the photos.

Black and white pictures from the Muscle Beach of the 1930s show a group of trim men who look more like gymnasts than the hulking body builder that Arnold Schwarzenegger came to epitomize decades later in the documentary "Pumping Iron".

These early body builders clearly had no excess fat, but their muscles barely bulged. They were light and compact enough to climb onto each others shoulders in some rather un-macho kinds of cheerleaders' poses.

"It was about looking good, being strong, and it was a popular thing to do because we thought a female would like you to be trim," said Harold Zinkin, a 81-year-old former Mr. California who recalled a more innocent time in his 1999 memoir "Remembering Muscle Beach".

No one had access to muscle-enhancing drugs and supplements that years later would let body builders grow into oversized caricatures of their former selves.

How times have changed. Today, Arnold Schwarzenegger is running for governor of California, and his legacy in body building has helped transform the industry. All over the world, young body builders influenced by the star of the "Terminator" films, compete for serious prize money in contests such as the annual "Arnold Classic", where the winner gets US$100,000, a US$20,000 gold Rolex and his very own Hummer vehicle.

Schwarzenegger "is literally the one individual who has propelled this industry to the big ordeal that it is today," said Dave McAuliff, editor of HardCore Muscle magazine, one of many that today feature photos of Arnold clones and articles on ways to enhance the physique with steroids.

Spectre of steroids

It is not just the prize money and the cars the winners drive away in that have got bigger. Today's champions are oversized men and women displaying rippling rows of oversized muscles that hardly seem to be humanly possible. That is because they are not, just about anyone in the industry will tell you.

"In this industry, steroids are like the big elephant in the living room. Nobody wants to talk about it," McAuliff said. "I'm not going to say it's fully accepted. It's not promoted or endorsed by anybody.

"But anabolic steroids are what allow you to transcend the limits of the human body. Your body genetically is only able to get so big," he said.

Anabolic steroids, synthetic derivatives of testosterone, were originally used to treat diseases that caused the loss of lean muscle mass, but by the late 1950s they had started to circulate among perfectly healthy athletes. By the 1970s, when "Pumping Iron" had drummed up household interest in body building as a curious spectacle if not a serious sport, Schwarzenegger and his contemporaries generally admitted to at least dabbling in doctor-prescribed steroids.

At the time little was known about their side effects, but in recent years steroids have been linked to all sorts of health risks from cancer and high blood pressure to hair loss, shrinking of the testicles and reduced sperm count.

While much has been learned about the health hazards and laws have been passed restricting steroid use, steroid consumption has by most accounts grown over time, not just among serious body builders but skinny youths just wanting to fill out their frames.

"Young society today, they are looking for the easy way," said Franco Columbu, a two-time Mr. Olympia who appeared in "Pumping Iron" and is Schwarzenegger's best friend. "They are more into saying 'Is there any thing that you are taking that is a secret that I could take too?"'

Today the winners of body building competitions sometimes say they achieved their body bulk without drugs. More likely, insiders say, is a practice of going on and off the steroids at prescribed times so that the user can keep them undetectable.

"I hate it," says Zinkin, who came to know the up-and-coming Schwarzenegger 30 years ago and still talks to him frequently. "You are not looking at what a person has done himself. It's hard to compete against the best there is who are taking drugs if you aren't doing the same."

(Agencies via Xinhua)