On Durlacher's recommendation,[3] he began entering strongman competitions, performing in matches against leading figures in the sport such as Charles Sampson, Frank Bienkowski, and Henry McCann.

Set in London's Royal Albert Hall, Sandow judged the event alongside author Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and athlete/sculptor Charles Lawes-Wittewronge.

[9] Durlacher recognized Sandow's potential, mentored him, and in 1889 encouraged him to travel to London and enter a strongmen competition.

[14] In April 1894, Sandow gave one of his "muscle display performances" at the California Midwinter International Exposition of 1894 in Golden Gate Park, San Francisco at the "Vienna Prater" Theater.

[15] While he was on tour in the United States, Sandow made a brief return to England to marry Blanche Brooks, from Manchester.

[citation needed] He was soon recovered, and opened the first of his Institutes of Physical Culture, where he taught methods of exercise, dietary habits and weight training.

In 1900, William Bankier wrote Ideal Physical Culture in which he challenged Sandow to a contest in weightlifting, wrestling, running, and jumping.

At his own expense, from 1909, he provided training for would-be recruits to the Territorial Army, to bring them up to entrance fitness standards, and did the same for volunteers for active service in World War I.

Sandow built his physique to the exact proportions of his Grecian Ideal, and is considered the father of modern bodybuilding, as one of the first athletes to intentionally develop his musculature to predetermined dimensions.

[30][31] Sandow died at his home in Kensington, London, on 14 October 1925 of what newspapers announced as a brain hemorrhage at age 58.

[34] Manly's items were replaced for the anniversary of Sandow's birth that year and a new monument, a 1.5 ton natural pink sandstone monolith, was put in its place.

The stone, simply inscribed "SANDOW 1867–1925", is a reference to the ancient Greek funerary monuments called steles.

Sandow was befriended by King George V, Thomas Edison, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and classical pianist Martinus Sieveking.

"Physical [sic] Strength and How to Obtain It by Eugen Sandow" appears as one of the books in the catalog of the personal bookshelves of Leopold Bloom in Chapter 17 (Ithaca, line 1397) of James Joyce's 1922 novel Ulysses.

[37] English Heritage put a blue plaque on his house at 161 Holland Park Avenue in west London in 2009;[38] it describes him as a "Body-Builder and Promoter of Physical Culture".