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Bodybuilding.com

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Bodybuilding.com
Company typeSubsidiary
IndustryEcommerce, Fitness Industry
FoundedFebruary 16, 1999; 25 years ago (1999-02-16)[1]
FounderRyan DeLuca
HeadquartersBoise, Idaho, U.S.
Key people
CEO Karl Walsh
ProductsDietary supplements
Number of employees
450
ParentRetail Ecommerce Ventures[2]
Websitebodybuilding.com

Bodybuilding.com is an American online retailer based in Boise, Idaho, specializing in dietary supplements, sports supplements and bodybuilding supplements. The site also once had a highly popular forum section which was shut down in September 2024 without notice.

In September 2015, the CEO and founder Ryan DeLuca stepped down from his role, announcing he would be succeeded on an interim basis by Liberty Media CFO Chris Shean.[3] Chris Shean was subsequently replaced with the appointment of Karl Walsh in October 2021.

History

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Bodybuilding.com grew out of wholesale-creatine.com, an online storefront created by teenage web marketer and amateur bodybuilder Ryan DeLuca in 1997, to capitalize on the rising popularity of creatine supplements.[4][5]

A majority stake in Bodybuilding.com was acquired in July 2006 by Milestone Partners for an undisclosed amount.[6] In January 2008, Liberty Media Corporation acquired a controlling stake in Bodybuilding.com for more than $100 million.[7] DeLuca stayed on as the company's CEO.

Bodybuilding.com corporate headquarters, Boise, ID

As of 2014, it has 450 employees working at 3 locations, including distribution centers in North Las Vegas, NV; Shiremanstown, PA; and Bedfordshire, U.K.[8] The corporate headquarters is also located in Boise, along with the company's customer service call center.

In 2013, the company donated the equipment for Boise's first outdoor gym, located in Ann Morrison Park.[9]

In 2007, an FDA agent purchased several dietary supplements from the company which were determined to contain anabolic steroids. In May 2012, Bodybuilding.com was fined $7 million, and as part of the settlement, CEO DeLuca and his brother Jeremy were both fined $600,000 for selling misbranded drugs.[10][11]

In September 2015, founder and CEO Ryan Deluca suddenly announced he would be stepping down from his position as CEO.[12]

In April 2018, it was publicized that Bodybuilding.com experienced a security breach, though the site would not say if any of its users' data was stolen.[13][14]

Vitalize, LLC.

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In 2015, Liberty Interactive spun off Bodybuilding.com and its stake in Expedia into a new company, Liberty Expedia Holdings.[15] In December 2016 after a massive layoff,[16] Bodybuilding.com reorganized to form 4 different companies/brands.

Forums

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At the time of their discontinuation, Bodybuilding.com's forums were the internet's largest online forums for fitness discussion.[14] They were known for their strong sense of trolling and their expansive discussion of unrelated subjects in the Misc. (miscellaneous) subforum.[17][18] As of 2022, 18 million people used the forums.[19] This popularity led to them becoming one of the last remaining Web 1.0 forums.[17] They were politically diverse, notable in comparison to other boards like the right-wing 4chan.[20]

Notable people who posted on them included bodybuilder Zyzz,[21] WWE wrestler Lars Sullivan[22] and the perpetrator of the 2014 Isla Vista killings, Elliot Rodger.[23] The site popularized the GOMAD diet (drinking one Gallon Of Milk A Day) and dry-scooping (consuming pre-workout powder stimulants without water); both methods are known to be dangerous.[24][25] In 2008, 19-year-old Abraham Biggs committed suicide after being bullied on the forums. He livestreamed his suicide on justin.tv, and posted the link to the stream beforehand on the site.[26] In 2011, user ThePoz discovered and publicized a way to access private photographs of Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg on Facebook itself.[27][28] In 2014, Australian man Gable Tostee was found not guilty of murdering his girlfriend Warriena Wright. He had defended himself by posting a full testimony of his actions at the time of her death on the forums, alongside photographs.[29] Also in 2014, the site popularized the word "nutting" as slang for ejaculation.[30]

On September 19, 2024, the company discontinued its entire forum section without notice. All links to its forums redirect to the message below:

Hi Team,

No good growth came without change. We’re building new ways to connect our global community.

Be on the lookout here on Bodybuilding.com, or subscribe to our emails below to stay up to date on the newest brand developments.

Together, we’ll move forward to discover more ways to Build Your Body, Build Your Mind and Build Your Life.

Team BBCOM

Enter your email address to subscribe

Ten days later, former users of the Bodybuilding.com forums organized to re-create the misc section on a self-hosted domain titled newmisc.com, which opened to public registration in October 2024.[31][32]

"Days in a week" debate

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The forums are notable for a thread titled "Full Body Workout Every Other Day?" created on May 17, 2008,[33] in which two users got into a long and intense argument over the number of days in a week. The thread started when user m1ndless posted: "If I go [to the gym] every other day I will be at the gym 4-5 times a week, is that over training? [...]" User steviekm3 responded: "That makes no sense. There are only 7 days in a week. If you go every other day that is 3.5 times a week."[34] m1ndless, from this point on posting under the username TheJosh, responded: "Monday, Wednesday, Friday, Sunday. That is 4 days. How do you go 3.5 times? Do a half workout or something? lol".[33][34] User Justin27 agreed with stevekm3 by saying "7x in 2 weeks = 3.5 times a week, genius."[34]

The argument went on for two days, mostly between TheJosh and Justin27. The argument narrowed down to a disagreement over whether or not a week is seven or eight days; Justin27 said a week is defined as Sunday to Saturday, while TheJosh defined it as Sunday to the next Sunday.[33][34] The argument then hinged on whether Sunday counted as a "real day".[35] It intensified to where they were posting harsh insults, such as when Justin27 told TheJosh: "You are the dumbest boy alive. Jump off a bridge."[34]

The thread went on for 120 posts,[36] or five pages.[37] It was rediscovered by Reddit in 2015, and as of 2016, was viewed 3 million times. It was the subject of a documentary by Jon Bois for SB Nation in 2016. He referred to it as the "perhaps the dumbest argument in the history of the Internet".[33] Deadspin said it was "the least essential discussion ever had".[38] In 2015, Vice News contacted mathematician Joanna Nelson for a resolution, and she said that TheJosh would have to schedule his workouts in two-week chunks, claiming a week is seven days from Monday to Sunday.[39]

See also

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References

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  1. ^ "Bodybuilding.com WHOIS, DNS, & Domain Info - DomainTools". WHOIS. Retrieved 2016-07-13.
  2. ^ "Bodybuilding.com forms partnership with Retail Ecommerce Ventures". PR Newswire. July 1, 2022. Retrieved March 2, 2023.
  3. ^ "Bodybuilding.com founder DeLuca steps down". Idaho Statesman. 5 October 2015.
  4. ^ DeLuca, Ryan. "Ask a guy who started Bodybuilding.com anything, part I". Retrieved 17 November 2014.
  5. ^ "Catching Up with the 2006 30 Under 30 Alumni, Leading Your Company Article - Inc. Article". Retrieved 2007-11-20.
  6. ^ "Milestone Completes Sale of Bodybuilding.com". Milestone Partners. Retrieved 17 November 2014.
  7. ^ Ando, Ritsuko (2008-01-07). "Liberty Media buying Bodybuilding.com stake: report". Reuters. Retrieved 2008-01-10.
  8. ^ "Bodybuilding.com achievements". www.bodybuilding.com. Retrieved 17 November 2014.
  9. ^ "Boise's first outdoor gym opens Thursday in Ann Morrison Park". KTVB News Channel 7 Boise. Retrieved 17 November 2014.
  10. ^ Roberts, Bill. "Bodybuilding.com agrees to pay $7 million fine for violating Food and Drugs act". Idaho Statesman. Retrieved 19 February 2013.
  11. ^ "US FDA Criminal Investigations- May 22, 2012: Bodybuilding.com, LLC, Ryan Deluca, and Jeremy DeLuca Plead Guilty in Federal Court to Violating FDCA". Food and Drug Administration. Retrieved 2012-09-28.
  12. ^ "Bodybuilding.com founder DeLuca steps down". idahostatesman. Retrieved 2016-05-03.
  13. ^ Hadley, James. "Bodybuilding.com Breach: Proof That An Organization's Biggest Cyber Risk Is Its People". Forbes. Retrieved 2024-07-31.
  14. ^ a b "Bodybuilding.com discloses security breach". ZDNET. Retrieved 2024-07-31.
  15. ^ "Liberty Interactive to spin off CommerceHub, Liberty Expedia". Reuters. 2015-11-12. Retrieved 2017-09-24.
  16. ^ TEGNA. "Bodybuilding.com lays off about 90 in Boise". KTVB. Retrieved 2016-12-29.
  17. ^ a b Jones, Kate Davis (2015-03-26). "Bodybuilding Forums Are One of the Last Relics of Web 1.0". Vice. Retrieved 2024-07-31.
  18. ^ "Gable Tostee's journey from an introvert to a self-styled playboy". ABC News. 2016-10-20. Retrieved 2024-07-31.
  19. ^ "5 Best Bodybuilding Forums (Reviewed For 2024)". 2020-12-17. Retrieved 2024-07-31.
  20. ^ "The Unheard History of Bodybuilding Forums, as Told by the Trolls and Counter-Trolls Who Made Them Huge". MEL Magazine. 2019-04-11. Retrieved 2024-07-31.
  21. ^ "Zyzz Can Never Die". MEL Magazine. 2022-04-21. Retrieved 2024-07-31.
  22. ^ Konuwa, Alfred. "Lars Sullivan And WWE's Recent History Of Turning A Blind Eye To Bigotry". Forbes. Retrieved 2024-07-31.
  23. ^ Woolf, Nicky (2014-05-30). "'PUAhate' and 'ForeverAlone': inside Elliot Rodger's online life". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 2024-07-31.
  24. ^ "Meet the Bodybuilding Bros on the 'GOMAD' Diet — a Gallon of Milk a Day". MEL Magazine. 2018-12-12. Retrieved 2024-07-31.
  25. ^ Rodrigues, Ashwin (2021-06-07). "Dry Scooping Pre-Workout Is a Terrible Idea". Vice. Retrieved 2024-07-31.
  26. ^ "The Dark, Disturbing Trend of Teens Live Streaming Suicide, and How It Can Be Stopped". Inside Edition. 2017-10-17. Retrieved 2024-07-31.
  27. ^ Hill, Kashmir. "Mark Zuckerberg's Private Photos Exposed Thanks To Facebook Flaw". Forbes. Retrieved 2024-07-31.
  28. ^ "Facebook glitch reveals private photos -- including Zuckerberg's". TODAY.com. 2011-12-07. Retrieved 2024-07-31.
  29. ^ Bogle, Ariel (2016-10-24). "'Tinder murder' accused posted testimony on a body building website". Mashable. Retrieved 2024-07-31.
  30. ^ Hathaway, Jay (2016-08-26). "The sexy, sloppy history of 'nut' and 'succ'". The Daily Dot. Retrieved 2024-07-31.
  31. ^ "Bodybuilding.com Forum Notice of Shutdown". Bodybuilding.com. Archived from the original on 2024-10-01.
  32. ^ "New Misc. Bodybuilding Forum". New Misc.
  33. ^ a b c d Bois, Jon (2016-02-18). "The Dumbest Boy Alive". SBNation.com. Retrieved 2024-07-31.
  34. ^ a b c d e "'You My Friend Are El Wrongo': Two Bodybuilding Meatheads Argue Over How Many Days Are In A Week". UPROXX. 2015-01-05. Retrieved 2024-07-31.
  35. ^ Waugh, Rob (2015-01-05). "'How many days are in one week?' Bodybuilders argue it out". Metro. Retrieved 2024-07-31.
  36. ^ "Bodybuilders row over the number of days in the week". Evening Standard. 2015-01-05. Retrieved 2024-07-31.
  37. ^ Jordie. "Throwback: A Bunch Of Meatheads Get Into Argument Over How Many Days Are In A Week In Body Building Thread". www.barstoolsports.com. Retrieved 2024-07-31.
  38. ^ "Deadspin | How Many Days Are In A Week? Internet Steakheads Go To War". deadspin.com. Retrieved 2024-07-31.
  39. ^ Conti, Allie (2015-01-05). "We Got a Mathematician to Settle the 'How Many Days Are There in a Week?' Controversy That Tore a Bodybuilding Forum Apart". Vice. Retrieved 2024-07-31.
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