FLEXING PHYSICAL PERFECTION
Date: 24-05-2007
Posted by: Anabolic Info TeamThailand |
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As a recently-released photo essay shows, it takes more than ego to develop the physique of a bodybuilder
To be a serious bodybuilder, one not only needs defined muscle articulation, but also the ability to definitively articulate your goal - both to yourself and to loved ones.
After listening to a few established and fledgling bodybuilders, a life dedicated to engineering one's physique to physical and aesthetic perfection seems, to them at least, less a life of sacrifice than a life of unequivocal devotion.
"Every athlete, every man, wants muscles. It's just a matter of how much you want it. For us, we like to have muscles and we like to compete. We want it to be out of this world. We're not doing this just for health reasons. We have to exceed the limits of those who exercise to stay fit. It all depends on your heart, your determination. The endurance has to be above normal human endurance to be able to achieve a body like this," says Thailand's world champion bodybuilder, Sitthi Charoenrith.
Sitthi was the 2005 and 2006 winner of the 80kg-category at the International Federation of Bodybuilding (IFBB) World Championships. He had been training for over 12 years before he achieved the most coveted title in the bodybuilding world. Hailing from Surin, Sitthi knew the day he packed his bags and headed to Bangkok what he wanted to do with his life.
"I was determined to play sports only. After high school, I came to Bangkok without anything. Some people invited me to play sports in the army, so I enlisted myself in the army. And I've been training as a bodybuilder ever since," he recalls.
Sitthi quit the military when he wasn't permitted to take leave to attend a bodybuilding competition. He enrolled at Ramkhamhaeng University where he studied political science, still finding time to train and compete. Although his course normally takes four years or more to complete, Sitthi graduated after less than three.
Today, Sitthi, along with Douglas Latchford, president of the Thailand Bodybuilding Association, owns Power Zone Gym, a health club specifically designed for weight training. The 34-year-old world champion is married to another accomplished local bodybuilder, Apiporn Chonsomboon. They have an immaculately-groomed white spitz, which Sitthi jokingly calls their child.
"Most bodybuilders can't sustain a relationship because they spend too much time on bodybuilding," Sitthi says.
This is not criticism of his peers, just a straightforward answer to a question about bodybuilders' lifestyles. Some athletes eventually choose their families and day jobs over the sport, and as a consequence their performance suffers, he observes.
Somkid Sumethowejakul has had a slightly different experience to Sitthi. For three years, the 40-year-old father-of-one has been competing and winning medals in local and international competitions. At one point, Somkid juggled bodybuilding and a full-time job as a chef in a hotel restaurant. He worked from five in the evening until three in the morning, after which he trained for hours before catching a snooze.
These days, he cooks less and trains more. When his daughter was three, he was forced to choose between his wife and bodybuilding. Somkid opted for the latter. His daughter now lives with his parents in Chiang Rai. They chat on the phone every morning.
"I can't go out like my friends because I have to control my diet. If you have a girlfriend who likes to go out to eat and drink, then the relationship can't survive because you don't have the time," he says.
Any regrets? Does he wish things had worked out differently?
"What's there to regret? My life hasn't gotten worse, it's gotten better. The money isn't better, but doing this makes me happy."
At the moment, both men are training for the 2007 World Championship. According to Latchford, six months before a competition the athletes start increasing the size of their muscles by working out for three hours a day, five days a week. Each day is dedicated to a different body part - arms, chest, legs, back or abdomen. They train for an hour and a half in the morning, have lunch and an afternoon nap, then work out for another hour and a half in the evening.
For the final three months of their preparation, the bodybuilders implement the most challenging endurance test of their regimen: The diet. Every day they exercise and eat five or six high-protein meals, which consist mostly of chicken and broccoli.
"We eat every two to three hours. Sometimes we eat up to midnight. It's better to go over than under. In the morning, we eat something like 10 boiled eggs - whites only - or we fry the egg whites in olive oil. We also eat boiled chicken with rice or potatoes. Another meal may be fish or pork. We eat one kind of meat per meal to help our bodies digest and absorb the food better.
"During the diet, I have really strong cravings for cakes and something spicy or sour. Actually, spicy food is good for you because it boosts your metabolism. We have to lose 10kg within 10 weeks. That's one kilogramme per week. We have to control fat and sugar. And if the weight doesn't go down, we have to start cutting carbs. It's very stressful. It seems we have it easy when you watch us on stage, but we have to fight with this diet regime. We have to fight with the fact that we have to rid our bodies of as much fat as possible," Sitthi says.
Amateur bodybuilding competitions are divided into eight weight categories ranging from 60kg to over 90kg. Clad in thong swimwear, their bodies shaved, oiled and sprayed with tanning liquid to accentuate their muscles, the athletes perform a one minute routine to music, flexing their muscles and flaunting the cultivated proportions of their bodies to the judges.
"You're judged on how well you can control your muscles. People who have not trained properly sometimes get muscle cramps and fall down flat right on stage. When the body is dehydrated, the muscles are more susceptible to cramps ... the bigger the muscle, the more beautiful it is. It means the athlete has had more training. And if athletes have good muscle definition it means they have controlled their diet correctly," Sitthi explains.
But with this "sport", it isn't just the athlete's dedication, training regime and discipline that can catapult them to the top of the game. A bodybuilder's genetic make-up plays a critical part in winning over the judges.
"The IFBB has standards that they look for in a bodybuilder. The proportions of the body, for instance. Some people have genetically good proportions. For others, the legs are too short, or the torso's too long. So the first thing is to look for the correct proportions. Second is the size of the muscles and third is the definition," says Latchford.
To some people, bodybuilding is a vulgar sport, a sad endeavour of the self-obsessed. The athletes' glistening, artificially bronzed bodies with their tumescent bulks and bulging veins appear repulsive. But there are also those who appreciate watching these men and women contracting their muscles on stage, who find beauty in the strength and possibilities of a human body pushed to its limits. And many can only dream of pursuing the physical, mental and emotional feat required to attain such a physique.
Latchford says he has always been fascinated by the human form. The 76-year-old former squash player is an admirer of Khmer sculptures as he believes them to be the "pure form of the male and the female in stone and bronze". Recently, he launched a coffee-table book, Adoration: The Siamese Male Physique, in honour of the sport and to celebrate "the strength, the stamina and the perfection" of the bodies of Thai practitioners.
Through his black and white photographs, well-known Thai fashion photographer Phansiri Sirivejaphan dissects the athletes' bodies, capturing the ripples created by muscles and veins, the easy smiles of the athletes and even the gritted teeth on a straining face. Although it is now an established athletic practice and a cultural phenomenon, bodybuilding was once a source of amusement for the proletariat. Bodybuilders were limited to circus and vaudeville performers until Prussian strongman Eugen Sandow opened his Physical Culture Studio in London at the turn of the 20th century, giving weight training an appeal to the middle class and eventually to the masses. As evidenced by Adoration, bodybuilding has since progressed from a frowned-upon sideshow for the working class to a subject of artistic expression.
Bodybuilding has been around in Thailand for about half a century, according to Latchford. Started by Acharn Jeau Jaksurak, who founded an amateur bodybuilding club in Bangkok, the sport has experienced a slow growth in the Kingdom as it is time-consuming and expensive. And while it is gaining more practitioners and supporters, bodybuilding has also picked up opponents along the way and has occasionally been marginalised by sports authorities. It has yet to experience the level of popularity found in Europe and the US.
Today, more and more young people are turning their attention to bodybuilding. Some are pursuing a career in it, often against their parents' wishes. Newcomer Palakorn Jittayasoton, 24, says he is lucky that his parents understand why he gave up his job to train fulltime. His reasons are as simple and articulate as some of his predecessors: It makes him look good. It makes him feel good.
