Muscle Beach at Santa Monica Pier — not to be confused with the later Venice Beach Muscle Beach — was the original outdoor gymnasium of Southern California, established in the 1930s. Gymnasts and acrobats trained here publicly through the postwar decades, and the culture that spread to Venice and eventually became the global idea of California beach fitness started in this spot.
The current facility is modest and in daily use by gymnasts and acrobats — public performances still happen on weekend afternoons. Immediately adjacent, the International Chess Park has permanent concrete chess tables where serious players come to compete. The combination of athletic display and chess games, ten feet from the pier and the ocean, is a distinctly Santa Monica scene.