The World’s Greatest Bodybuilder — by Russell Block
With the dawn, the empty gym, though soon to be bustling, appears inviting. My exercise begins the way it does every morning. Determination evident in my every feature, the breathing that I do before every session enlivens the heart, stimulates the capillaries, and then I close my hands around the bar. First of all, and there are many pieces of equipment surrounding the place that I begin, with eyes toward the ceiling, the pull-up is commenced. These daily workouts never fail to strengthen the muscles or provide a sense of purpose. Some of the most elite bodybuilders in the world fulfill their daily prerequisites in this facility. In fact, before I even get my chin all the way over the bar, although that is an inevitability, the best of the bodybuilders I recognize as peers begin to parade through the door. I can never arrive sufficiently early to get more than a few chin-ups deep into my routine before I see the others enter. Now especially, with the other bodybuilders beginning to grab massive dumbbells as they do bicep curls, and as they squat beneath unfathomable weights, I feel incredibly far behind having just once gotten my chin over the bar.
Once my muscles flow like the stream, or like a tributary to the wider Ganges of this all, I consider the plan I had in mind, looking to see where the other bodybuilders make the execution of that plan impossible, for that they occupy a machine, or because they simply stand in an aisle. I will need to be perceptive if I am to achieve my goals. When I look at the teeming forms and the veins that have escaped all bounds, I know it is possible. The greatest bodybuilder in the world works out here, and I therefore know it is possible to become the greatest in the world by coming here every day. Only it is frustrating, despite the promising nature of my pursuit, because all the time I spend meticulously devising my routine is often wasted once the other bodybuilders enter the gym. I consider myself a bodybuilder, too. It might be said that I have not been successful enough to think of myself in so flattering a term, but bodybuilders know that much of it is about learning the ins and outs of the life of the bodybuilder and much of it, perhaps in excess of prior success, is about first devising an ironclad routine.
I could continue to do pull-ups, almost endlessly; I know, however, and this is knowledge that it takes strict amateurs some time to come by, that the kind of exquisite, teeming forms evident everywhere cannot be achieved through these mere warm-up exercises. Without iron to pump, even the most dedicated of us would prove weaklings. Often-times, when I do get to the dumbbells, simply because bodybuilders have much to discuss, I will find the weights that would be ideal for me are difficult to reach. Robbing me of precious time, despite the fact that I do gain certain skills by trying to understand what they are saying, it is only when they begin to whisper about matters they do not wish me to overhear, and they move on, that I gain access to my weight. I do not wish for you to believe that this is the most complicated the gym’s workings get. No, far from it, in fact — in fact, I have barely commenced my routine. It is true that many people think the gym is straightforward, and that is partly why I feel I can call myself a bodybuilder.
A novel routine is at least as important as the execution of that routine. If you are to improve, this point needs to be entirely clear and understood thoroughly. I am therefore thankful that I pump iron where the best in the world do. I take my inspiration from the bulkiest others, but I find they all monitor me, despite my stature, at least as much as do I them. At first this would seem not to make sense. In the gym, however, it was seen early on that I had a talent for acute perceptions when it comes to routine, so that even the best, despite an underwhelming physique, took an interest in my methods. In fact, once it was clear to them that I understood the basics of life in the gym, two approached me, and I looked up to their stocky heads above the crests and boundaries of those muscle groups all people share, only theirs looked unfathomably powerful. It seemed they were opening the door to that camaraderie commonly enjoyed by successful bodybuilders, a camaraderie for which I had by then developed a sixth sense. I really could say, in that moment, it was like they were opening a door, and we were not simply talking as bodybuilders do. As they stood before me, I was aware of the slightest deviation in tone, noticing if that door closed in the slightest, or if it opened wider by just a fraction of an inch. Still, as much as it was my goal to share in this camaraderie, clearly I would have had to abandon all my convictions and my sense of myself in that instant, albeit neither of them stated this explicitly; and that I was unwilling to do. They were mistaken to think that anything like what they were asking of me was on offer. All of this passed like an entirely routine conversation. After they left, I continued determinedly to lift weights and studied my progress in the mirror before me, the whole gym, and my two interlocutors, present in its glass. I know I was not mistaken about the true nature of this conversation because nothing like it has happened since, and really it was only after this that I noticed how developing as a bodybuilder became nearly impossible.
Read more of The World’s Greatest Bodybuilder in print in future issues of The Rialto Books Review.
