During the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, the male body emerged as a popular subject of discussion among educated circles in Istanbul. It also served as a focus around which Ottomans established voluntary associations, events, and public venues. Ottoman Muslim, Armenian, Greek, and Jewish subjects stressed that in order for young men to be ideal members of their respective communities and ideal citizens of the Ottoman Empire they had to train and discipline their bodies. This paper investigates the ways in which Ottoman Muslim, Christian, and Jewish subjects created a new bourgeois masculine corporeal aesthetic and challenged an older one. The defining characteristics of this new look were a slim waist, muscular biceps, a straight back, and a broad chest. This body was considered beautiful, healthy, and civilized, as well as a defining component of a novel vision of bourgeois masculinity. The argument advanced is based on multi-lingual archival research, and is part of a broader doctoral dissertation project, which examines the interconnection of national and imperial identity, the body, masculinity, and nation building through the lens of a shared physical culture in late Ottoman Istanbul. This paper seeks to accomplish three goals: first, to trace the spread of a new corporeal aesthetic and look among elite Muslims, Christians, and Jews; second, to demonstrate how this novel corporeal aesthetic diverged from ‘traditional’ notions of bourgeois masculinity; and, three, to explore how educators and writers attempted to spread and popularize this new bourgeois among the emerging Ottoman middle class. The paper will draw from a diverse array of sources in Ottoman, Turkish, Armenian, French, German, and English from a number of private and public archives. These sources include journals, newspapers, memoirs, and vernacular photographs.