Here at Martialedge we support our authors. David Robson has been a regular columnist martial arts fitness for us since 2005. So when he told us of the news of his upcoming book releases we were all over it... Make sure you buy this book on its release later this year!

Written by: Nasser El Sonbaty, with David Robson.

Released: 2008.

Very seldom does book that hits you with the full force of a Richter 10 earthquake appear on the market. The Truth Behind the Muscle: the Nasser El Sonbaty Story is one such book that not only details the life of one of bodybuilding’s most outspoken and controversial champions, but provides never before published insights into, and navigating the often murky depths of, the bodybuilding industry, in a no holds barred fashion. For all its good (its development of discipline and character and its training and nutrition aspects), bodybuilding, especially at the professional level, could not be described as a pure, wholesome pursuit. With widespread drug use – both performance enhancing and, in many cases, recreational – coupled with the extreme mentality needed to pursue something that takes a single-minded approach to building the body for purely aesthetic reasons, you have a definite recipe for an industry driven by ego-centric, eccentric, non-orthodox personalities. The Truth Behind the Muscle bench-presses all illusions we might have of a sport based on integrity, honesty and good-natured competition as far from our consciousness as possible. What is left is the down and dirty realities of life in the professional bodybuilding ranks, directly from the mouth of one who has been at the forefront of this industry for over 13 years. Nothing is excluded and none of professional bodybuilding’s main players are exempt from Nasser’s forthright analysis and cutting commentary.

With alarming insight and candor, Nasser speaks from the heart as he cuts through professional bodybuilding speculation to reveal an industry that, in his view and experience, is corrupt and damaging. Though he has achieved at the highest level, winning the 1999 Arnold Classic Championships and controversially placing second at the 1997 Mr. Olympia along with victory at a further five pro contests, Nasser has navigated his bodybuilding career with clinical detachment worthy of an expert psychoanalyst. His wit and insight hack and devour as he tells all about the industry that he has been intimately involved with for the best part of his life.

Like the man himself (Nasser routinely competed at around 285 pounds), The Truth Behind the Muscle is huge. At over 400 pages, including over 200 photos, Nasser covers everything there is to disclose about professional bodybuilding, what it takes to compete among the best in this arena and what the life of a professional bodybuilder is really like.

Keeping with his mission of leaving nothing out, Nasser also discusses how he became one of bodybuilding’s best: the training and nutrition programs he used, the drugs he took and the attitude needed to forge ahead despite inequity and discrimination. This book is compelling reading from the first page to the last.

If you are curious about the following, this book is for you:

• -Exactly what drugs are needed to be competitive at the professional level, how these substances are used and what a bodybuilder might do to acquire them?

• -What many of the professional bodybuilders you see in the magazines are really like in person.

• -What the daily life of a professional bodybuilder entails.

• -The real dangers of competing in the professional ranks.

• -The corruption that abounds in the professional bodybuilding industry.

• -How a professional bodybuilder can survive in a climate that is seldom conducive to financial stability.

• -A detailed account of how Nasser made it to the top of the bodybuilding world.

• -How to train and eat to build massive muscles.

• -How a professional secures guest posing spots, how much is paid and the realities of guest posing.

• -Exactly how rampant are gay sex and recreational drug use in the professional ranks?

• -What the IFBB upper echelons don’t tell their athletes.

• -Political corruption at the highest levels within bodybuilding.

• -Nasser’s personal experiences traveling the world guest posing and competing.

• -How a professional bodybuilder deals with injury (Nasser’s experiences included).

Author Profile: David Robson

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As an active martial artist, bodybuilder and accredited personal trainer, David employs the latest cutting edge research to enhance his own training progress, and that of the many ...

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