Muscle: Confessions of an Unlikely Bodybuilder

I absolutely loved this book. The people that the author runs into in this book are people I have seen, (or a reasonable fascimile).

What really got me was when this extremely well educated bodybuilder stops working his lucrative literary job and takes a job as a trainer at a gym. And why not? I have worked with a lot of bouncers who took jobs in clubs because they figured they would be there anyway, why not get paid for it? I have a friend who now works as a trainer at a gym, even though he is well educated and could do a far more lucrative job. But he liked the weights, he works out multiple times a day, and he doesn't want to be too far away from the weights. His life revolves around building his body and his clients bodies.

That sort of dedication blows me away. As does the concept of taking steroids, (that give you acne, cause you to lose your hair, makes you insane, and cause your bits to shrivel), spray tans that get all over everything, and starving yourself to get that vascular paper thin skin look that shows off all of your muscles to the maximum. It blows me away, but I understand it. I understand people dropping everything and focusing on the one thing that is most important to them. I both admire it and look down on it. I admire the dedication but feel the lack of well-roundedness is unfathomable.

One part of the book that really stuck with me was the scene where the author was at competition. There was a celebrity bodybuilder there and he was doing arm curls while staring into space. His expression of someone who has done this a million times before and will do it a million more times. It had a horrible sense of finality to it that makes you wonder, why? Is it worth is to spend 8 hours every day working on weights and the rest of the time calculating your protein intake?

An absolutely amazing book!

The book is timeless! An awesome find. Nothing like it. Highly recommend reading it if you want to know the nuts and lots of bodybuilding.

This book has always been a fun read for me. I've read it several times since I first purchased it five or six years ago. Now I'm buying it as gifts for friends.

if you have ever been in a gym or even worked out at home with any kind of commitment than you'll enjoy this book.One mans journey in the quest for perfection and his eventual disillusionment.

I read this as an ebook on Hoopla and loved the story! Sam starts out having a crisis in New York. He felt weak and vulnerable dealing with the overcrowded environment of New York and used bodybuilding as a way of protecting himself. He wanted to be imposing and strong but wound up being sucked too deeply into the sport at the expense of his health. The book even shows how the author got that "cut" look you see with professional body builders. By eating about 1000 calories a day he encouraged his metabolism into a starvation response which ate all of his fat including the fat around his joints and the fat on the bottom of your feet which cushions your steps. I do not know if this is how all bodybuilders look "cut" but he clearly went to those extremes.It would've been nice to have an update on Sam and where he and the other cast of characters ended up in the 21st century as this book was experienced in the 80s and the book was published in the 90s. The writing isn't over your head or too simplistic so it makes for an absorbing read. I was always waiting for the next piece of the story.

Very good read and hard to put down. I would recommend it to friends.

A thoroughly entertaining, well-written journey into the extreme world of the bodybuilder. This book is a "must read" for anyone who is involved or interested in the art of physique development, and a good read for anybody who likes to read fiction.

Sam made a mistake in believing that a physical transformation could change him from a fearful New York city resident into a fearless hulk. After some years of body-building and steroids and a move to California, he gave it up. "I became a bodybuilder as a means of becoming a caricature. The inflated cartoon I became relieved me from the responsibility of being human. But once I'd become that caricature, that inflated cartoon, I longed for something else. As painful and humiliating as it is to be human, being subhuman or superhuman is far worse" (p. 249).