Peary Rader

Rader was born on October 17, 1909, in Peru, Nebraska.[1] He grew up near Hemingford in Box Butte County, Nebraska.[1] He started lifting weights as a teenager and later shifted his emphasis to heavy, high repetition squats, building his bodyweight up to 210 pounds within about a year (he eventually reached 220 pounds).

Rader was victorious in a number of local and regional weightlifting contests, and also became proficient at a number of other lifts (such as the one-hand clean) and feats of strength. Rader was the Midwestern Heavyweight Champion for seven years, with official lifts of 220 pounds in the one-hand clean and jerk, 280 pounds in the two-hand clean and jerk, and a squat of 450 pounds (without support gear).

Rader founded Iron Man, a bodybuilding magazine, in 1936. It was initially called Your Physique.[1][2] At its peak, the magazine had a circulation of 40,000.[1][2] Rader published Iron Man through the September 1986 issue, which included a number of letters from prominent people in the field to celebrate the magazine's fiftieth anniversary. In 1986, Rader sold the magazine to John Balik, who repositioned it as a hard-core bodybuilding magazine. Rader also published Lifting News for many years.[3] He authored approximately 1,300 magazine articles; most were in Iron Man, but some were also published in Strength Athlete.

Rader was the chairman of the National Body Building Association.[4] He was inducted into the Body Building Hall of Fame and the Power Lifting Hall of Fame.[4] In the 1950s, alongside Bob Hoffman and Joe Weider, Rader was a "pioneer" in the commercialization of protein as a bodybuilding supplement.[5]

Rader married the former Mabel Kirchner in 1936; they had two sons, Jack and Gene.[6]

Rader died on November 24, 1991, in Alliance, Nebraska, at the age of 82.[1][2]

• Dellinger, Jan, "Iron Game Heritage, Part II", Hardgainer, September–October, 1994.
• Strossen, Randall J., "Peary Rader (1909-1991)", Hardgainer, March, 1992.