Muscle: Confessions of an Unlikely Bodybuilder

4.5 stars out of 5.

I did not seek this book out. A co-worker who was moving back to the US was giving away books and this was the last. I thought - why not take it off his hands? It proved to be a real gem.

The story: Princeton and Oxford educated Sam gets a job in NYC before he starts a graduate program at Yale. Unfortunately this is New York City in the early 1980s and it is a scary place. Not only that, but his parents have just divorced. Looking for some sanctuary, he enrolls at the YMCA gym to beef up. Being 6'4" and only 170 pounds, he has a lot of room for improvement.

He proceeds to be infected with what he calls "the disease". He eats, sleeps and breathes weightlifting. This book chronicles his adventure from start to finish. I would say "from the bottom to the very top" but that wouldn't be accurate. He is a gifted writer, as both his parents are English professors. The book reads very easily and will provide lots of great material to impress your friends.

Since you will probably never read this book, here are some fun things to know about bodybuilders (advise skipping if you actually plan to read the book):

1. Bodybuilders are much different than power lifters. Power lifters compete by lifting the maximum number of weights. Bodybuilders are in shows that exhibit all the muscles in their body. They train, eat and prepare very differently from each other.

2. Serious bodybuilding often requires that men wear adult diapers during workouts. All concentration and energy is on the workout and sometimes accidents happen. Especially given the volume of food, supplements and steroids that these guys take, they usually utilize it.

3. The subject of the book would often throw up during workouts he was going so hard. His usually plan was 4 hours of workouts per day, 2 in the morning, 2 in the evening. He generally had to sleep 12 hours per day.

4. Steroids does nasty things to the body, including acne, roid rage, baldness, etc. One lifter would drink hydrogen peroxide to limit the acne.

5. There are actually a wide variety of jobs available for serious bodybuilders: bouncers, trainers, models, actors, etc.

6. "Arnold" is a hero for most of the bodybuilding world. To them, he is the epitome of what muscle can accomplish: fame, marriage into a prominent family, acting career, government, etc.

7. Bodybuilders speak predominantly in cliche: No pain, no gain. That which does not kill you makes you stronger. Make haste slowly. In the end, there will be no judges, only admirers of your greatness.

In fact, bodybuilders often recognize one of their own by hearing these idiotic phrases repeated. As if seeing the gigantic muscular-laden bodies was not enough.

8. Bodybuilders eat tremendous amounts of food. That is, until there is a competition. Then they diet so as to shrink-wrap their skin around their muscles. It is quite disgusting the torture they put their bodies through - as bad or worse then skinny fashion models bent on maintaining their waif-like stature.

The author eventually enters one power lifting competition and two bodybuilder competitions. He comes in 3rd of 3 in weightlifting after bench pressing "only" 365 pounds. Apparently being as tall as he is is a disadvantage in lifting - shorter lifters weighing in the 180-200 range (he was 240) can bench well into the 500s. He won his weight class in the first competition but lost the overall. In the second, after a mad diet in which his body fat went down to about 5% he came in 2nd in his weight class. He finally came to his senses and got out of serious bodybuilding.

I love stories that reveal a culture I had previously very little insight into. This is one of those books.