The official website of Charles Atlas

The official website of Charles Atlas(charlesatlas.com)

77 points by gregalbritton 2 years ago | 26 comments

freedomben 2 years ago |

Without re-igniting the "should you use tables for layout" debate, this is a great look at masterful use of tables for layout. It also reminds me how much we used to use images as part of a great website. Been a long time since I've seen map and areas used for nav bars! It manages to be both glorious and terrible at the same time. It's probably just nostalgia warping my memories, but man I miss the early web.

codetrotter 2 years ago | |

I wonder if people who are used only to modern website looks will even recognise this page as having any clickable elements :^)

DougHolland 2 years ago | | |

Uh, that's me. I didn't know it was clickable until reading these comments.

OfSanguineFire 2 years ago |

Reading Marvel Comics in the 1990s, Charles Atlas was still just enough part of American culture that parodies appeared of its classic advertisement about a bully at the beach "Hey, quit kicking that sand in our faces!"[0]. I recall "Hey, quit kicking our faces!" and "Hey, quit kicking Sandman in our faces!" Long shot, but if any HN readers have an encyclopedic Marvel Comics knowledge and could find those two parodies, I’d be grateful.

[0] https://www.pinterest.com/pin/406168460114811471/

peff 2 years ago | |

This is the one I remember seeing as a kid:

https://www.reddit.com/r/comicbookcollecting/comments/15vvfj...

conception 2 years ago | |

I’d check an archive of “What the?” - https://marvel.fandom.com/wiki/What_The--%3F!_Vol_1

If anywhere would have had it I’d guess it would have.

OfSanguineFire 2 years ago | | |

Thanks, that sounds about right. Wikipedia's article for What The--?! has:

> What The--?! hosted a number of fake advertisements that made fun of classic comic book advertisements such as Charles Atlas

davidjhall 2 years ago | | |

It's in What the--? Vol 1, Issue 3 -- last page (36) edit: Here's a partial image : https://marvel.fandom.com/wiki/Sandman_(Earth-9047)

lucasfcosta 2 years ago |

It’s quite impressive how the muscularity standard for men has increased over time.

I_Am_Nous 2 years ago | |

Yeah, the photos on the homepage just show a very fit, normal guy and it's true that nearly anyone can look like that. Compare it to Arnold Schwarzenegger (who later admitted to using steroids) and it's nuts.

ksherlock 2 years ago | | |

And compare Arnold in his prime to anybody on the Mr Olympia stage today. That body and $175 will get you ticket in the nose bleed section.

User23 2 years ago | |

It’s pretty much an open secret that every Hollywood actor that needs to be muscular for a role uses some kind of anabolic androgen. You see stories like “he put on 30 pounds of muscle for this role in six months” and it’s obvious what’s going on. Also the signature overdeveloped upper traps and that trenbalone “dryness.”

All that being said I’m still curious about the activity efficacy of the dynamic tension method. My understanding is that you basically flex to make your opposing muscle groups work against each other as a training stimulus.

shrubble 2 years ago | | |

Dynamic tension is almost like isometrics, except with an isometric hold you don't move the limbs and thus only hit the muscle at one angle. This is OK because muscles get stronger such that they have more strength 30 degrees each way from where you place them under stress.

The simplest way to demonstrate DT for yourself is to straighten your arms, cup your fingers together and pull the arms/shoulders outwards; then, move your straightened arms in an arc from waist to above your head. You should feel it in your shoulders and back.

dale_glass 2 years ago | |

Depends on by whose standard you go.

Being a mountain of muscle will mostly get appreciation from other dudes in the gym.

kleiba 2 years ago | |

Or the availability of PEDs.

_the_inflator 2 years ago |

Great one. This is what it still was like to surf the net with an iPhone around 2010.

sen_armstrong 2 years ago | |

Yinz misreadin' this comment. It's saying it was still like this in 2010.

diggan 2 years ago | |

Internet Archive have copies of the website as early as 1999. Way back before surfing on iPhone was a thing (before the iPhone at all was a thing).

noSyncCloud 2 years ago | |

This was still what it was like to surf the web with a Nokia in 2000, you mean.

askonomm 2 years ago | | |

Damn what Nokia did you have. Mine could only send email and play Snake at the time :(

ilrwbwrkhv 2 years ago |

Dynamic tension is a great form of exercise. And Charles Atlas was a legend.

ProxCoques 2 years ago |

This prompted me to check whether the other website of this nature was still around. And it is! http://www.llapgoch.org.uk/

bdcravens 2 years ago |

Where's the classic "sand kicking" ad?

cf100clunk 2 years ago | |

Hey kids, put on your x-ray specs and see these great comic book ads from yesteryear:

https://comicbook.com/news/the-charles-atlas-hall-of-fame-10...