Muscle Confessions of an Unlikely Bodybuilder

From skinny scholar to muscle-bound showman. “Easily the best memoir ever written about weight training, steroids and all” (Men’s Journal).

When blue-blooded, storklike Samuel Wilson Fussell arrived in New York City fresh from the University of Oxford, the ethereal young graduate seemed like the last person on Earth who would be interested in bodybuilding. But he was intimidated by the dangers of the city—and decided to do something about it. At twenty-six, Fussell walked into the YMCA gym. Four solid years of intensive training, protein powders, and steroid injections later, he had gained eighty pounds of pure muscle and was competing for bodybuilding titles.

And yet, with forearms like bowling pins and calves like watermelons, Fussell felt weaker than ever before. His punishing regimen of workouts, drugs, and diet had reduced him to near-infant-like helplessness and immobility, leaving him hungry, nauseated, and prone to outbursts of “ ’roid rage.” But he had come to succeed, and there was no backing down now.

Alternately funny and fascinating, Muscle is the true story of one man’s obsession with the pursuit of perfection. With insight, wit, and refreshing candor, Fussell ushers readers into the wild world of juicers and gym rats who sacrifice their lives, minds, bodies, and souls to their dreams of glory in Southern California’s so-called iron mecca.

Samuel Wilson Fussell resides in Montana. Since 2004 he has lived as a subsistence hunter and worked as a rescue, recovery, and salvage scuba diver for the Flathead County Sheriff Dive Rescue Team. He is a graduate of the Lawrenceville School, Pomona College, and Oxford University. Since the initial publication of Muscle, his life story has been optioned for film, television, and the stage.