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Born Bernard Macfadden, he was a weak and sickly child. Orphaned at a young age, Macfadden seldom had time for exercise. At age sixteen, disgusted by his physical form, which he referred to as “a complete wreck” and mistrusting of the medical profession, Macfadden bought a pair of dumbbells and created a daily exercise schedule for himself. He was inspired after reading William Blaikie’s How to Get Strong and How to Stay So (1879), which was also a weight-loss system. Blaikie advocated exercise and diet for those with “considerable superfluous flesh” (Blaikie 1879: 155). Macfadden quickly added long walks outside, cold baths, minimal clothing, and mostly vegetarian eating habits to this regimen. In 1887, he opened his first studio in St. Louis under the name “Bernard Macfadden-Kinestherapist-Teacher of Higher Physical Culture.” Having coined the new “scientific” label of “kinestherapist,” he also created the slogan that he would use all his life: “Weakness is a crime; don’t be a criminal!”