chapter 1

When I first met Robin, he would go to the gym for two hours, six days a week. He calculated all his nutritional needs and ate an extremely low fat, high protein diet.
He chased after the most perfect body. His muscles had to be visible. They had to be symmetrical. He had to keep his body fat ratio down.
He entered body building contests... and won! Each competition took it's toll on him as he starved and dehydrated himself to show his muscles off to their best.
His face was chiselled, yet his cheeks were sunken in. His neck was wide and muscular with rope like sinews and blood vessels. His shaved pectoral muscles were hard. He could even tense and relax each one independently. He had large biceps and triceps and a solid forearm, where even small muscles and sinews were visible.
His trapezius muscle was a well defined triangle that spread across his back from the base of his skull. He had a trim waistline with visible obliques on his sides and a solid stomach, that showed off a perfect eight pack.
His gluteus maximus was perfectly round and solid. His hamstrings on the backs of his legs were quite prominent, as was his quadriceps femoris, running down the front of his thigh. His gastronimus muscles on each calf were beautifully divided into neat pairs.
But there was always something he could improve upon to get higher scores in competition.
His whole life was dedicated to body building and competitions. He worked hard in the gym and got results.
He took nutritional supplements by the handful and was always drinking protein shakes, or pieces of chicken. Yet, he said, he never 'cheated' he never too steroids, he never took dodgy tanning injections or anything else he shouldn't.
He was 100% natural.

Unfortunately, his dedication took it's toll on the rest of his life.

He spent so long in the gym that he could not hold a regular job down. The solution was to work at the gym as a personal trainer. Then he could do even more weights than usual during quieter times.

He had terrible mood swings, especially when he was preparing for competition. He was so hungry, his body crying out for food, but all he could give it was yet another tiny morsel of chicken.
By competition day, he would deny his bodily cravings, fight the lethargy and ignore the headache brought on by dehydration. He had to put on a smile and perform, when it was the last thing he wanted to do.
After a competition, he'd celebrate with a long, cool glass of water and a piece of chicken. No alcohol.

His family did not approve. They did not mind him bulking up in the gym, but to take it as far as he did could not be healthy, especially when he restricted his diet so much.

Robin did not have any friends outside of body building. He had many girlfriends, but he could not hold onto them. I saw him with someone different almost every time I met him.
The only person he loved was himself. He would pose in front of a mirror at every opportunity, when he thought he was not being watched.

Robin was like that for several years. Then all of a sudden he dropped out of everyone's view. He did no competitions, no photo shoots with that beautiful body of his, so I didn't see him.
I suppose, I assumed he'd given up the competition life. Maybe he'd found himself a woman who had steered him in an alternative direction. Maybe he'd settled down, got married and had a family!