Held down for years, bodybuilding industry gets pumped up

Adan Homadi, 17, worked out at the Future Gym in Baghdad. Gyms were once heavily regulated in Iraq. After Saddam Hussein was deposed, gyms sprang up all over Iraq's capital. (ANDREA BRUCE/WASHINGTON POST)

BAGHDAD - Younis Imad, 18, started lifting weights at the Future Gym along Baghdad's Palestine Street here a little over a year ago. "I was overweight," he said, taking a break between sets. "I was very upset about that." He was also in need of a job.

The gym's owner, Ali Torkey, took Imad under his wing, gave him dieting tips, and put him on a whey protein regimen. Four months ago, newly buff after weeks of working out, Imad found work as a security guard at a radio station in Baghdad, where improving security is reflected in the revival of everyday activities such as bodybuilding.

"I feel better when I come in and exercise," said Imad, having arrived straight from the station to work out wearing jeans, a fitted red T-shirt, and combat boots. He works out six times a week, and in the past year he has shed most of his body fat and grown a thick chest and huge biceps.

The advent of affordable gyms and the influx of muscle-building supplements, including many steroids illegal in the United States without a prescription, have turned bodybuilding, a longtime obsession for many Iraqis, into a booming industry.

Iraqis' interest in bodybuilding, a male-only activity here, soared during the 1980s, when such figures as Sylvester Stallone and Arnold Schwarzenegger gained worldwide celebrity.

Gyms were regulated by the government, and membership was limited to people with official connections. Those who worked out elsewhere used makeshift equipment and were barred from formal competitions.

But since Saddam Hussein was deposed in 2003, gyms have opened all over the capital. When violence in Iraq soared shortly after the US-led invasion, security companies tapped into the bodybuilding community to hire guards. As a result, extremist groups opposed to the US occupation began targeting the thick- biceps-and-bulging-chest crowd.

"Many of them were killed for working with foreigners," said Haider Adil, 24, the owner of a nutritional supplement store in central Baghdad.

For a period, many bodybuilders kept a low profile, avoiding gyms and wearing loose-fitting clothes that hid their builds. "Many changed their lives," Adil said. That has changed over the past year as security has improved, in part because of the arrival of more US soldiers.

Many Iraqis still join gyms to build muscle in the hopes of landing a high-paying job in security, which, like bodybuilding, is one of Iraq's few growth industries.

Torkey, the owner of the Future Gym, has capitalized on the craze. He trains bodybuilders and administers steroids, which he injects himself.

"I cannot give it to someone who is new," explained the 24-year-old high school dropout. "After two or three months I begin giving it to him."

On a recent day, most of the men at Torkey's gym were working out barefoot. Since the gym's two treadmills were broken, a cardio workout was not an option. The stereo blasted songs by Lil' Kim, the Pussycat Dolls, Shakira, and Eminem.

Before the US invasion, bodybuilding aficionados relied on months-old, dog-eared bodybuilding magazines for information about muscle-building protein supplements, which were banned by the government, and other techniques to lose weight and build muscle.

"We used to see them in magazines only," Ahmed Ridha, 30, a bodybuilder and personal trainer at the Dragon Gym, said of the supplements. "We didn't have them."

With government oversight gone, gyms started opening in virtually every Baghdad neighborhood and in other large cities. Some bodybuilders started smuggling whey protein and other substances into Iraq, but their exorbitant price made them inaccessible to most.

Monthly memberships cost $10 to $15.

The more expensive gyms have newer equipment and offer perks such as personal training and cardio machines. Through the years, upticks in violence hurt business, but the industry found ways to cope.

"Even if there are mortars, even if there are sand storms, people come in and exercise," Ridha said. Adil's business, which opened two years ago, now has two locations in Baghdad.