Overview

Jon Hotten journeys deep into domain of bodybuilding, meeting ab obsessives, 'roid boys, and other equally bizarre characters in a book that offers an hilarious and at times disturbing insight into the world's weirdest sport. Bodybuilding is the wildest, wierdest sport in the world, but it's more than just a sport. It's a whole way of life for the supermen who scale its Olympian heights. Muscle is a journey through a land of giants, men for whom life is given meaning by the pursuit of the perfect pec and who worship at the shrine of Schwartzenegger. Jon Hotten has a 40-inch chest and 12-inch arms. Undaunted, he fights his unpromising genetics to hitch up with the bodybuilding circus, hanging out with the stars and legends, the casualties, gym rats and iron junkies. As his forbidding subjects open up, he discovers a story of unregulated excess, chemical mayhem and hard-won glory, a story for anyone who's ever looked in the mirror and wanted more...

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9780224069670

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Reviews

Superb -- Steven Poole The Guardian When it isn't alarming, [it's] merely amazing... Balanced, respectful, non-judgmental and rendered in an admirably muscular, entirely fat-free prose -- Giles Smith The Times

Is there not something heroic in the single-minded pursuit of the maximally developed human body? Jon Hotten's superb book offers some answers -- Steven Poole * The Guardian * When it isn't alarming, [it's] merely amazing... Balanced, respectful, non-judgmental and rendered in an admirably muscular, entirely fat-free prose -- Giles Smith * The Times * A compelling and often alarming through the darker side of gym culture * Time Out * A compelling piece of reportage * Daily Telegraph * Like a hardboiled detective story... The first must-buy book on its subject * Men's Health *

Is there not something heroic in the single-minded pursuit of the maximally developed human body? Jon Hotten's superb book offers some answers -- Steven Poole * The Guardian * When it isn't alarming, [it's] merely amazing... Balanced, respectful, non-judgmental and rendered in an admirably muscular, entirely fat-free prose -- Giles Smith * The Times * A compelling and often alarming through the darker side of gym culture * Time Out * A compelling piece of reportage * Daily Telegraph * Like a hardboiled detective story... The first must-buy book on its subject * Men's Health *

Author Information

John Hotten is the author of Unlicensed- Random Notes from Boxing's Underbelly and The Years of the Locust- A True Story of Murder, Money and Mayhem in the Last Age of Boxing, which was longlisted for the William Hill Sports Book of the Year award. A former editor of Kerrang!, he has written for the Guardian, the Sunday Times, Esquire and Punch.

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