Stumbled upon a great site (here) that details the dawn of the “physical culture” era. It is great to see gym with kettlebells, rings, ropes and plenty of barbells and club bells. In fact the gym shown looks eerily similar to many crossfit gyms around the world! Another point of interest is the old time strongmen who reached the pinnacle of their respective sports long before the rise of performance enhancing drugs (PEDS).
Eugene Sandow”s wikapedia page (here)
Other names of the “Physical Culture” era: Arthur Saxon, Tommy Kono, Reg Park,