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Andrew Griffiths meets the British men who dedicate their lives to become honed and toned bodybuilders – and there isn't a shot of steroids in sight.
The hills are so steep on the outskirts of Sheffield that it feels like the trams need grappling irons. “Hold on tight!” urges the recorded voice as it announces the next stop as Waterthorpe. She’s not kidding either.
I’m looking for the Evolution Gym, which is buried away on an industrial estate off a featureless arterial road heading back into town. Outside the gym there is a man sweeping up leaves. I guess this must be Jon Clark, because Jon Clark is a bodybuilder and you don’t get many road sweepers with arms thicker than most men’s thighs. I’m early.
Clark, a local lad, leans his brush against the wall and greets me warmly. He looks irritatingly healthy, slicked back hair and all. Clark leads me inside, where the gym has been partitioned into small rooms, each stuffed full of equipment like it is trying to burst out of a too tight gym top.
In the bodybuilding world, Clark is something of a legend. Four years ago, at the age of 40, he was crowned both British Masters Champion and World Champion, receiving his 'Pro' card – “the golden chalice of bodybuilding” – in recognition.
Now 44, Clark is about to compete in the DFAC (Drug Free Athletes Coalition) World Finals once again, held this weekend in Miami. I am here to try to find out what drives him – and other bodybuilders – to become such muscular man-mountains.
Clark was born into a family of Sheffield steelworkers and wished to be a bodybuilder from childhood. He says he can remember the huge arms of his father, and an old photo of his Granddad from the 1940s, posing as a member of a strong man club. Clark wanted to look like the ‘He Man’ drawings in the cartoon books he read.
To some, 'Popeye' is a more relevant comparison. Say ‘bodybuilder’ to many people and they will think of grotesquely over developed men who have achieved their size with a liberal dose of steroids (sorry, but Popeye's spinach tins surely wouldn't have passed your entry-level doping control). It's less a sport than a test of lab chemistry.
Clark does not count himself among the legion of the doped. Now a judge for the British Natural Bodybuilding Federation (BNBF) – an organisation that shuns the use of drugs amongst its competitors – he insists that their competitions are drug free. They operate “Olympic standard” drug testing regimes, he says, and all their competitors undergo a lie-detector test on the day.
“We have a guy who is ex-military in America, affiliated to our world federation, and he flies out to each country to ensure that we achieve that level playing field.” says Clark.
The BNBF held its championships in Liverpool last month, with the winners now about the represent their country in Miami. One of those qualifiers is Marcus Lee, 28, a protégé of Clark’s.
When Lee first enters the gym to join us, I'm not quite sure where to look. The door opens and my eye starts around about ceiling height, then works its way down. Eventually it lands on Lee. This is not a big guy.
Clark senses my surprise.
“With natural bodybuilding, you can look good in clothes, they hang well on you, you can walk around like a regular person.” says Clark. “But I think you’ll be surprised what Marcus looks like in the flesh.”
He’s right. When Lee later removes most of his clothes in a moment of revelation, I am absolutely astonished.
Lee is 5’5” and 76kg – which puts him into the ‘super lightweight’ category. He tells me he started going to the gym when he was 20; it soon became all consuming. “I wasn’t training for anything specific,” says Lee. “Just to look good, be strong. I don’t go to the pub, I don’t socialise that way – my pub is the gym.”
He worked for a while as a personal trainer and his Dad said to him that he was his own best advertisement. “He used to say that I am like a walking billboard.” says Lee.
Clark spotted him at his very first competition in 2013. “After that first competition I was hooked,” says Lee. “You are always chasing a goal that you can never complete, because you are always bettering yourself. So it is a constant challenge.”
Bodybuilders refer to themselves as ‘athletes’ and it is easy to be sceptical about that, as they don’t actually seem to do anything in competition other than strike poses while wearing letterbox smiles and little else. But talk to them about their training regimes and they are every bit as gruelling as those required to excel at any sport – as is the single-minded mentality, which can border on obsession.
“Every morning I am on the spin bike, and I think about my friends saying: ‘do you want to do this, or want to do that?’ and I say 'no I can’t' and they say 'come on man, just relax a little'.” says Lee.
“And I think to myself: ‘do you know just what I put myself through to get to this stage?’ People don’t know. It is everything. It is your sleep, then as soon as you wake up it’s your cardio, and then it’s your first meal to your last meal. And that is both on-season and off-season. So it is literally 24 / 7, 365.”
Clark nods in agreement. “It is about taking your body to the absolute limit it can achieve,” he says. “Then going on stage and being able to show it to its maximum. That is an art in itself. There are some great gym bodybuilders who never achieve placings because they can’t present it.”
But what about those who take the quick fix? Even though Clark is a member of a natural bodybuilding federation, he is surprisingly sanguine about steroids and the people who use them, despite the well documented effects on health and men’s fertility. He airs none of the accusations of cheating encountered in other sports, instead simply requesting that if a bodybuilding stage is declared drug free, that is respected. The words "level playing field" reoccur time and again.
“People who take steroids still have to lift weights, they have to diet, they have to get up at 5am before work and do their cardio,” says Clark. “Bodybuilding is a hard sport, whether you are natural or you are not natural.”
“If you take steroids, it’s all right, it’s your choice.” he continues. “Just don’t step on a tested federation stage, and potentially take something away from the guys who put hard work in and aren’t on the drugs.
"There are plenty of federations that don’t test and if you want to take steroids then there are bodybuilding federations in which you can show your achievements.”
This weekend will be Lee’s second time out in Miami, competing in the World Championships. His first was two years ago, and he didn’t place. I ask if he feels more prepared this time, and if he fancies his chances.
Before he can answer, Clark says: “Marcus will be a contender this year.” Then Clark and Lee catch each other’s eye, there is a beat, and there is a moment between them as we huddle together in that small gym, trying not to bang our heads on projecting pieces of training equipment.
“I’ve just got to do the best I can, then I’m happy,” says Lee, coyly.
Clark seems moved to explain why he's backing his protégée in such a vaunted competition: “Being a professional at anything, you should in my eyes be a role model, for people who are up and coming, to look up to and learn from. I’ve competed since 1993, and at world level since 1997.
“Through my competitive career there have been pros running the show, putting in their time and effort and their dedication to inspire me, as I’ve been coming up. Now it’s my turn.”
What makes normal men become muscle-ripped bodybuilders? - Telegraph
The hills are so steep on the outskirts of Sheffield that it feels like the trams need grappling irons. “Hold on tight!” urges the recorded voice as it announces the next stop as Waterthorpe. She’s not kidding either.
I’m looking for the Evolution Gym, which is buried away on an industrial estate off a featureless arterial road heading back into town. Outside the gym there is a man sweeping up leaves. I guess this must be Jon Clark, because Jon Clark is a bodybuilder and you don’t get many road sweepers with arms thicker than most men’s thighs. I’m early.
Clark, a local lad, leans his brush against the wall and greets me warmly. He looks irritatingly healthy, slicked back hair and all. Clark leads me inside, where the gym has been partitioned into small rooms, each stuffed full of equipment like it is trying to burst out of a too tight gym top.
In the bodybuilding world, Clark is something of a legend. Four years ago, at the age of 40, he was crowned both British Masters Champion and World Champion, receiving his 'Pro' card – “the golden chalice of bodybuilding” – in recognition.
Now 44, Clark is about to compete in the DFAC (Drug Free Athletes Coalition) World Finals once again, held this weekend in Miami. I am here to try to find out what drives him – and other bodybuilders – to become such muscular man-mountains.
Clark was born into a family of Sheffield steelworkers and wished to be a bodybuilder from childhood. He says he can remember the huge arms of his father, and an old photo of his Granddad from the 1940s, posing as a member of a strong man club. Clark wanted to look like the ‘He Man’ drawings in the cartoon books he read.
To some, 'Popeye' is a more relevant comparison. Say ‘bodybuilder’ to many people and they will think of grotesquely over developed men who have achieved their size with a liberal dose of steroids (sorry, but Popeye's spinach tins surely wouldn't have passed your entry-level doping control). It's less a sport than a test of lab chemistry.
Clark does not count himself among the legion of the doped. Now a judge for the British Natural Bodybuilding Federation (BNBF) – an organisation that shuns the use of drugs amongst its competitors – he insists that their competitions are drug free. They operate “Olympic standard” drug testing regimes, he says, and all their competitors undergo a lie-detector test on the day.
“We have a guy who is ex-military in America, affiliated to our world federation, and he flies out to each country to ensure that we achieve that level playing field.” says Clark.
The BNBF held its championships in Liverpool last month, with the winners now about the represent their country in Miami. One of those qualifiers is Marcus Lee, 28, a protégé of Clark’s.
When Lee first enters the gym to join us, I'm not quite sure where to look. The door opens and my eye starts around about ceiling height, then works its way down. Eventually it lands on Lee. This is not a big guy.
Clark senses my surprise.
“With natural bodybuilding, you can look good in clothes, they hang well on you, you can walk around like a regular person.” says Clark. “But I think you’ll be surprised what Marcus looks like in the flesh.”
He’s right. When Lee later removes most of his clothes in a moment of revelation, I am absolutely astonished.
Lee is 5’5” and 76kg – which puts him into the ‘super lightweight’ category. He tells me he started going to the gym when he was 20; it soon became all consuming. “I wasn’t training for anything specific,” says Lee. “Just to look good, be strong. I don’t go to the pub, I don’t socialise that way – my pub is the gym.”
He worked for a while as a personal trainer and his Dad said to him that he was his own best advertisement. “He used to say that I am like a walking billboard.” says Lee.
Clark spotted him at his very first competition in 2013. “After that first competition I was hooked,” says Lee. “You are always chasing a goal that you can never complete, because you are always bettering yourself. So it is a constant challenge.”
Bodybuilders refer to themselves as ‘athletes’ and it is easy to be sceptical about that, as they don’t actually seem to do anything in competition other than strike poses while wearing letterbox smiles and little else. But talk to them about their training regimes and they are every bit as gruelling as those required to excel at any sport – as is the single-minded mentality, which can border on obsession.
“Every morning I am on the spin bike, and I think about my friends saying: ‘do you want to do this, or want to do that?’ and I say 'no I can’t' and they say 'come on man, just relax a little'.” says Lee.
“And I think to myself: ‘do you know just what I put myself through to get to this stage?’ People don’t know. It is everything. It is your sleep, then as soon as you wake up it’s your cardio, and then it’s your first meal to your last meal. And that is both on-season and off-season. So it is literally 24 / 7, 365.”
Clark nods in agreement. “It is about taking your body to the absolute limit it can achieve,” he says. “Then going on stage and being able to show it to its maximum. That is an art in itself. There are some great gym bodybuilders who never achieve placings because they can’t present it.”
But what about those who take the quick fix? Even though Clark is a member of a natural bodybuilding federation, he is surprisingly sanguine about steroids and the people who use them, despite the well documented effects on health and men’s fertility. He airs none of the accusations of cheating encountered in other sports, instead simply requesting that if a bodybuilding stage is declared drug free, that is respected. The words "level playing field" reoccur time and again.
“People who take steroids still have to lift weights, they have to diet, they have to get up at 5am before work and do their cardio,” says Clark. “Bodybuilding is a hard sport, whether you are natural or you are not natural.”
“If you take steroids, it’s all right, it’s your choice.” he continues. “Just don’t step on a tested federation stage, and potentially take something away from the guys who put hard work in and aren’t on the drugs.
"There are plenty of federations that don’t test and if you want to take steroids then there are bodybuilding federations in which you can show your achievements.”
This weekend will be Lee’s second time out in Miami, competing in the World Championships. His first was two years ago, and he didn’t place. I ask if he feels more prepared this time, and if he fancies his chances.
Before he can answer, Clark says: “Marcus will be a contender this year.” Then Clark and Lee catch each other’s eye, there is a beat, and there is a moment between them as we huddle together in that small gym, trying not to bang our heads on projecting pieces of training equipment.
“I’ve just got to do the best I can, then I’m happy,” says Lee, coyly.
Clark seems moved to explain why he's backing his protégée in such a vaunted competition: “Being a professional at anything, you should in my eyes be a role model, for people who are up and coming, to look up to and learn from. I’ve competed since 1993, and at world level since 1997.
“Through my competitive career there have been pros running the show, putting in their time and effort and their dedication to inspire me, as I’ve been coming up. Now it’s my turn.”
What makes normal men become muscle-ripped bodybuilders? - Telegraph
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