This article is about Charles Atlas, the bodybuilder. For other uses see Charles Atlas (disambiguation).

Charles Atlas (1892–1972), "self-made man", trained himself to develop his body from that of a 'scrawny weakling', eventually becoming the most popular muscleman of his day. His company, Charles Atlas, Ltd. (1929-and continuing today) markets a fitness program for the "97-pound weakling", a registered trademark.

Born Angelo Siciliano in Arci, in southern Italy, he moved to Brooklyn, New York at a young age. Initially a small, weak child, Siciliano worked hard to tone his muscles, using a variety of weights. He acquired a physique that earned him the nickname "Charles Atlas", after the mythical Atlas, the Titan who held up the heavens. He later filed for and received trademark status for the name. He soon took the role of strongman in the Coney Island Circus Side Show. Contemplating the strength of a tiger in a zoo, he had conceived the idea of working muscle against muscle, rather than working out with weights. This system was later dubbed Dynamic tension.

In 1922, the publisher of the magazine Physical Culture dubbed him "The World's Most Perfectly Developed Man" in a contest held in Madison Square Garden. He was chosen by a cross-disciplined group of health and medical experts, educators, anthropologists, scientists and medical doctors who viewed Atlas as the "perfect male body" and placed his physical measurements on file for posterity. Atlas' physical measurements are buried in a time capsule at Oglethorpe University.

Atlas developed his own muscle-building mail-order business through the use of advertisements in popular periodicals. In 1928 his business partner Charles Roman took over the marketing of the business and coined the term "dynamic tension" to describe Atlas' use of muscle-against-muscle resistance exercise, now generally known as Isometric exercise.

The Charles Atlas advertisements popularized the phrase "98-pound weakling". His most famous advertisement featured a weak scrawny kid who decides to bulk up after getting sand kicked in his face at the beach. Although the original ads stated "I turned myself from a 97 pound weakling into the World's Most Perfectly Developed Man", the phrase was most commonly rendered in the media as 98 pounds, possibly due to trademark issues. It may also derive from the British usage "seven-stone weakling"; seven stone is 98 pounds.

His company did so well that it emerged from the Stock Market Crash of 1929 unscathed. As many as 30 million people have bought his mail order course, which is still offered today. "Charles Atlas" was selected by Forbes Magazine as one of the 20th Century's "Super Salesmen", and named one of the Most Influential People of the Twentieth Century by Times Sunday Magazine. Known throughout the world as a strongman, he is considered a founding father of modern-day body-building and fitness, and of isometric exercise.

Besides photographs, Siciliano posed for many statues throughought his life, including, it has been said, the statue of George Washington in New York's Washington Square Park. He died of heart failure at age 79 after his daily jog on the beach. At the time, people were still writing to him requesting his picture, and soliciting advice on fitness.

Charles Atlas, Ltd owns the following trademarks: "Atlas"; "Charles Atlas"; "Dynamic-Tension"; "Atlas Nutrition"; "Mr. Atlas"; "The World's Most Perfectly Developed Man"; "97-pound weakling"; "Insult that Made a Man Out of Mac"; "Hero of the Beach" and "Hey Skinny!".

The song "I Can Make You a Man" from the Rocky Horror Picture Show refers to Charles Atlas in lines such as "A weakling weighing 98-pounds/Will get sand is his face when kicked to the ground", "Makes me shake, makes me wanna take Charles Atlas by the hand/In Just seven days I can make you a man" and "He thinks Dynamic Tension must be hard work".

• Charles Atlas Ltd.'s website
• Charles Atlas' life through advertisements and articles