Backstage oilup

Backstage is a world away from the order and magic the paying public laps up from their seats. This is not the carefully organized and choreographed final presentation, but rather the last minute preparations, the finishing touches to posing trunks and posing oil, a last set of reps to rush blood to pumped muscles.

Piles of clothes, gym bags, cosmetics and paraphernalia litter every free surface, and muted conversation and nervous laughter fails to hide the underlying tension in the waiting area.  

Many men here have support people – friends, buddies, 'sponsors' or fans to help them prep, not right back stage, but close to it, and these are the only people on your side.  

Everyone knows this is a zero-sum game, and virtually everyone in the room is the enemy. Only one can be first, only one can be the Overall Winner. If I'm going to win, then you have to lose.  

It's highly unlikely that anyone here thinks it, but for many, tonight is the summit and peak of their physical perfection. Never again in their lives will they look as perfect as they do now. Like the saying goes, take a picture, it'll last longer.  

Weeks and months of hard work, discipline, diet and monitored medicinals have culminated in the body they bring to tonight's show, and, if they’ve calculated correctly, they'll peak tonight.

Nobody can hold onto that perfection for long, and even tomorrow morning these men will begin to lose the chisled edge they've worked so hard to achieve.