Arnold Schwarzenegger poses at the Whitney Museum in New York City during a symposium in March 1976 called Articulate Muscle: The Male Body in Art.

The forum, which also featured 1972 Mr. Universe Ed Corney and future three-time Mr. Olympia Frank Zane, were subjects of a discussion about bodybuilding, as Sports Illustrated put it, “not in athletic terms but as artists living inside their own creations.”

The conference revealed the most overlooked aspect of the sport, then and now — bodybuilders absolutely view themselves, not as a mere mountain of muscle, but as a work of art in the vein of Michelangelo’s David.

Yeah they use a slew of noxious steroids like Tren, D-Bol, SARMs, Clenbuterol (which may not be an anabolic agent at all) and every testosterone derivative imaginable. But art is pain… and often deadly as well.