Muscle Beach is the birthplace of American fitness culture. Muscle Beach began in the 1930s at the Santa Monica Pier, where an outdoor exercise area drew acrobats and strength athletes who performed for the public on weekends. The original location closed in 1959 amid controversy, and a new facility was established at this location in Venice in 1965, where it became the center of the weightlifting and bodybuilding counterculture that changed how Americans thought about physical fitness.
In the 1970s, Arnold Schwarzenegger trained here alongside other champions like Franco Columbu and Dave Draper, and the outdoor gym became world famous through the film Pumping Iron, which documented the 1975 Mr. Olympia competition and introduced Schwarzenegger to mainstream American audiences. The weightlifting cage on the sand still operates, open to the public for a small fee, and on weekends serious lifters train here alongside tourists who want to say they worked out at Muscle Beach. The skateboard park to the south was established in the same era and produced skaters who helped create modern skateboarding culture.