Luminous orange fake tan, gallons of shiny oil, puny posing pouches and masses of muscle; welcome to the popular perception of bodybuilding.  Meatheads, narcissists, freaks, steroid junkies; welcome to the common comprehension of bodybuilders. 

We’ve all done it.  See a heavily muscled guy walk past us on the street and we think ‘steroids’.  We think ‘poser’.  Those of us (most of us) who live outside the world of bodybuilding rarely stop to consider the flipside to the stereotype.  The hard work, the commitment, the competition, the sacrifice, the camaraderie, the rewards.

‘Wait a minute,’ you cry.  ‘That sounds like a real sport.’  Well, guess what?  Sport is defined in the Concise Oxford Dictionary as ‘a competitive activity’ especially ‘one involving physical exertion’.  Bodybuilding ticks both those boxes; ergo it is a real sport.

So In The Winning Zone has decided to give you a basic education in bodybuilding.  However, not being experts ourselves, (beyond flexing our muscles in the mirror at home) we decided to talk to Nick Wolanski; natural bodybuilder; cage fighter; Junior Mr Scotland; but just a normal, friendly guy.

The first thing that seems apparent upon meeting Nick in an Edinburgh coffee shop is that, for a bodybuilder, a champion bodybuilder at that, he isn't absolutely huge.  He stands out as being muscular, yes, but he doesn't block the doorway as one would expect.  But that is nothing to worry about, as he dispels a popular myth about his sport.

“Bodybuilding isn’t about massive, disgusting amounts of muscle.  Bodybuilding is a personal thing.  Some guys want to be bigger, some just want a six-pack.  It is about sculpting your body into what you want it to be, and that’s it.  You don’t have to be huge.”

The second thing that stands out about Nick is that he refuses a coffee.  He refuses a cake or a pastry.  He even refuses tea.  Eventually a bottle of water (still, naturally) is enforced upon him.  But of course, like any elite athlete, this is normal.  He is on a strict diet, and eats only what will be of benefit to him in his daily routine.  And that means lots and lots of protein, carbohydrates and vegetables.

“The amount of food I consume is just crazy.  When I am training to get bigger I eat two steaks a day and a whole chicken.  You get to the stage when you are sitting down to a meal and you are sick, you don’t even want to look at the food.  You are choking it down just because you know you have to do it to get big, to get stronger.”

This might sound unnatural to some, but any professional rugby player is encouraged to do the same in their off season.  The difference is that bodybuilding has employed strict dietary demands as a norm for generations.  Rugby has only started seeing the light en masse in the last ten years.  It is quite simply, and very obviously, the safest and most effective way to gain bulk.

And the fact of the matter is that Nick is eating naturally.  He doesn’t, and never has, taken steroids.  He has tried legal, over the counter supplements such as creatine and instant whey, (available in any health food shop) but plain old food remains the most effective method, he insists.

“I’ve tried every supplement under the sun.  At first I was obsessed with them.  I was looking for a quick way, a cheap way.  There are literally thousands and thousands of products you could take, and I was just trying anything.  I wasted my money on a lot of stuff that didn’t work, but I started to read into it a little more started studying nutrition.  And all you need is food.  Good, proper food.”

He continued: “If you want to just get big, you can eat whatever you want, but you will gain a lot of body fat.  But if you eat proper food, no processed stuff, and cook it yourself, that’s how you grow.”

Nick, doubtlessly akin to many keen bodybuilders, took up weights as a means for a small guy like himself to get bigger.  He isn’t ashamed to admit that.  “I started lifting weights when I was sixteen, at high school.  I was always quite small and wanted to get bigger and stronger.  It was a bit frustrating.  I didn’t want to be the small guy anymore.  I started training with my friend Kevin in the high school gym.”

Quickly though, he moved on to bigger and better gyms as his physique and confidence began to grow.  It was when he moved to Grangemouth Sports Complex, a popular choice for keen weightlifters, that he began to unravel the truth behind the widely held rumours of bodybuilding.

“It was really intimidating at first – all these huge guys.  It was full of monsters.  So we were a bit intimidated at first, but it pushed us on.  There is no point in being shy because there is a wealth of knowledge surrounding these guys.  They know how to get big, so you can question them.  They are just normal guys.”

Nick competes about twice a year.  And, similarly to the lifestyle of a boxer, he tapers his diet and lifestyle accordingly, ensuring he reaches optimum physical condition at the exact right time.  He loses the steaks, he loses the rice, pasta and potatoes.  He needs to be 100% lean for the contest.  There are no such things as ‘good fats’ when it comes to competition. 

“To compete you’ve got to diet for ten to twelve weeks, and in that time you are basically living off chicken, broccoli and water.  There is no alcohol or sugar.  And it is one of the most mentally challenging things I’ve ever done, especially when you are younger and your friends are all going out drinking at the weekends.  You’ve got to use your willpower and stick to your diet.”

And, of course, you don’t get into Nick’s condition simply by eating lots of chicken and cutting out your Friday night beers.  Like any world class swimmer in the pool or cyclist on the track, Nick must put in the hours on his training ground – the gym.

“You can’t get big by going to the gym ten minutes a day or once a week.  You’ve got to do it every single day.  It is really hard work.  It is dedication.  It is a lifestyle, and you dedicate yourself to it, and you give it absolutely everything you’ve got.”

And, just as cyclists become rowers and sprinters become rugby players or American footballers, bodybuilding is a versatile, talent transferable sport, insists Nick.  “People think you can’t use the strength you gain in the gym to transfer to another sport, but look at a sport like tennis.  Lifting weights produces power.  It gives you the muscle power for quick bursts of speed.”

And of course Nick himself has tried his hand at several other sports.  Fomerly a Scottish junior international table tennis player, Nick is now trying his hand at the slightly more daunting sport of mixed martial arts combat fighting (he is aware of the comic diversity between the two sports).  “I was going to fight class three times a week for two hours, and when I came back I was absolutely exhausted.  I was bruised, tired, sore, joints hurting.  It is much more cardio based, around your heart, because you are doing three five minute rounds.  Your strength goes down but your heart comes up, and your lungs get stronger.  You are more worried about your technique – your punching, your groundwork, grappling and wrestling.”

Next on Nick’s list is iron-man triathlon, he hopes.  But let’s get down to the nitty gritty.  Let’s answer the question everyone asks, and take a walk down the bodybuilding path everyone assumes is taken.  The ‘S’ word.

The primary effect of intravenous steroids is to increase testosterone levels.  Testosterone is the male hormone.  It is responsible for facial hair, increased size and increased strength in men.  It is naturally produced in the testicles.  Steroids are, in effect, injectable testosterone.

Nick explained in a little more detail why bodybuilders are known to use them.  “They [steroids] build more muscle because they increase your body’s ability to produce protein, to absorb protein, to synthesise protein.  It makes you hungrier, meaning you will eat more food and your body will get bigger.  It also stops your body wasting muscle.  If your body is hungry it will start eating into your muscles.  Steroids cause your body to burn fat instead.”

Of course there are side effects, otherwise everyone would be taking them, and they wouldn’t be illegal to possess (though, oddly, it is not illegal to actually take them).  Well known (but short term) problems include oily skin, deepening voice, shrinkage of the testicles and increased facial hair.

For an athlete who openly lauds the benefits of natural, drug free bodybuilding, Wolanski is remarkably honest, non-damning and above all, non judgemental about the use of steroids in his field.  He insists he has never taken them, but is equally adamant that he wouldn’t snub his nose up at a fellow bodybuilder who has.

“You can take steroids safely.  That’s why I say I’m not against them.  You can take mild steroids that aren’t bad.  They are quite safe, a light version.  Unless you abuse them there isn’t a terrible amount of risk.  The problem is you can’t say what they will do to your body in twenty years time. 

“The problem with steroids is that they are so perfect, genetically speaking, that once you take them, they manipulate your cells and stay in your body for life.  Sometimes you won’t notice it until you are 50.  For example, Arnold Schwarzenegger had a heart bypass.  But there wasn’t as much scientific evidence back then.  But nowadays people can take them safely.”

Wolanski also takes issue with the fact that while cigarettes and alcohol, both well known killers, are purveyed freely on every street, steroids are seen as some kind of class ‘A’ drug, on a scale similar to cocaine or heroin.

“I think if the government give people the right to give themselves lung cancer, charging them six pounds a time to do it, and give them 24/7 access to ruining their liver, then I think bodybuilders should be able to grow and get as strong as they want, potentially with something that is a lot safer.”

So there you have it.  The truth.  In 2007 there is no point in pretending that drug enhancement doesn’t exist.  There is illegal doping going on in just about every professional sport.  You just need to look at the example of some of the world’s finest athletes to see that it is something almost unavoidable.  Lance Armstrong and Ian Thorpe are two prominent examples of that. 

In that context, bodybuilding is no more of a dirty business than any other sport.  There are honest and dishonest competitors.  Wolanski is one of the honest ones.

RO

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