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[Definitie:] "An ergogenic aid is any substance or phenomenon that enhances performance."
(Wilmore and Costill) 
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Afghan tough guys swap guns for gym
Schwarzenegger becomes a role model in Kabul as young men
strive to build the beautiful body
"People don't want to fight any more," says Temour Shah, a beefy 23-year-old, pumping weights under
an Arnold Schwarzenegger poster at Gold's Gym in central Kabul. "They want to look healthy - like in
the movies."
Bodybuilding is the new craze of postwar Afghanistan, particularly among young urban men. The number
of gyms in Kabul has doubled to 46 in the past two years, while a further 30 are scattered across the
country.
Every day from 5am men crowd into sweaty halls across the city, grappling with clanking weights machines
before cracked mirrors.
Conditions are spartan - water coolers, neat white towels and showers are unknown luxuries - but enthusiasm
runs high. Barely able to afford the £4 monthly membership fee, some enthusiasts work out in their baggy
shalwar kameez trousers; others use their work clothes.
"Everyone wants to look strong, but the problem is calories. Most clients just don't have enough food,"
says Hafizullah Anis, 26, who owns Gold's Gym. He says he helps his poorer clients by offering them free
protein supplements he buys at Bagram US military air base.
Returning refugees from Pakistan and Iran have fuelled the bodybuilding craze, but its origins stretch
back to the 60s. One of the oldest aficionados, Aziz Arzo, owns a rundown gym in a former dental surgery
overlooking the dried bed of the Kabul river.
A short, stocky man in his 50s, he proudly displays his first exercise machine: a homemade contraption
of weights, hooks and pulleys. Other weights in the gym are fashioned from concrete moulds and old engine
parts.
He says he has 150 "students", of whom the poorest work out free of charge.
"I am one of the originals. They come to me for my experience," he says, beside a pouting portrait of
himself on a podium in the 70s.
Bodybuilding is a natural pursuit in a culture that prizes machismo. The national sport, buzkashi,
involves two horseback teams beating a headless calf carcass around a pitch.
The streets are covered with pensive images of the Tajik warlord Ahmad Shah Mas soud, an Afghan national
hero. But inside the gyms, the governor of California is king.
"I studied Schwarzenegger's career carefully," says Noorulhoda Sherzad, a dentistry student and the
current holder of the Mr Kabul title.
"He achieved everything he wanted. I have dreams, too."
The Taliban tolerated bodybuilding, but only if those working out remained fully clothed and wore
beards. "The competitions were ridiculous. You could only show your top," Mr Sherzad says.
In those days, strong, young men could be conscripted into fighting. Today, however, "our gun is
our muscle", says Ahmad Ranjber, a gym owner who boasts a 77-year-old among his clients. "And he has a
good body, too," he adds.
The body-conscious vogue also reflects slowly increasing freedoms. Strict social norms prevent young
men and women from mixing in public, but many bodybuilders coyly admit they hope to impress. Mingling with
American soldiers has fuelled their desires.
"I am exercising for the big body so the girls will like me," says Feroz Khan, a 20-year-old lorry driver
at Bagram base, taking a break from his first workout. He has an American girlfriend called Nikita, he boasts
in broken English, although some of his friends express doubts. Romantic choice was part of Afghanistan's
new dispensation, he insists.
"I am a love man - I am not for arranged marriage," he says. "Under the Taliban, it was very dangerous.
If I looked at a girl; they would say, 'Why you look?' Then they would fight me.
"But now Hamid Karzai is my chief. Since he become president he will allow the love marriage."
Regrettably, however, an unsavoury side of modern sport has seeped in.
The prestigious Mr Afghanistan crown lies unclaimed after controversy engulfed last month's contest.
There was a "small problem" with one of the frontrunners, explains a judge, Fazal Ahmad, of the Afghan
Bodybuilding Federation. "We suspected him of doping."
There are no drug testing facilities in Afghanistan. 1 5 - 0 8 - 2 0 0 5 Businessman, 23, Crowned Mr. Afghanistan
By DANIEL LOVERING KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) -- Khosraw Basheri feverishly pumped iron for years, toning his body so it rippled with muscle and veins. His hard work paid off Saturday, when he claimed a historic title in his war-battered country - Mr. Afghanistan.
The 23-year-old businessman from western Herat province flexed and grinned his way to victory in Afghanistan's first-ever national competition to select a top bodybuilder. "I will never forget this day, the day I became Mr. Afghanistan," said Basheri, sweat and makeup streaming down his massive frame. "This has been my hope for the past two years, since I started preparing myself for this." At 96 kilograms (212 pounds), Basheri was among the heaviest contenders in the event, which featured nine weight classes and was held at a dilapidated movie theater in the Afghan capital, Kabul. Forty-eight competitors from across the country struck poses onstage, twisting their oiled torsos to display swelling back and abdominal muscles or extending legs to show off sinewy calves. Some winced, others forced smiles. More than 200 spectators - some wearing turbans, others three-piece suits - crammed into the theater to watch the bodybuilders, who qualified for the event by winning contests in their home provinces and represent the sport's national appeal. "The most popular sport after football (soccer) in Afghanistan is bodybuilding," said Sayed Mohammed Payanda, secretary general of Afghanistan's National Bodybuilding Federation. "Most people in Afghanistan, especially young people, like bodybuilding very much." It's so popular, in fact, that Arnold Schwarzenegger - the former bodybuilder and movie star turned California governor - is among the most widely recognized Western celebrities here. Modern gyms and athletic clubs have popped up in many provinces in recent years, Payanda said, adding that some Afghan bodybuilders have returned from neighboring Pakistan and Iran since the hard-line Islamic Taliban regime was ousted in 2001 and President Hamid Karzai subsequently took office. But Afghanistan's bodybuilding community is still reeling from the loss of its entire national team - 13 leading competitors - in a 1993 plane crash in the country's north. "We lost most of Afghanistan's national bodybuilders, but we are trying our best to make a good team," he said. Three Pakistani judges - all former bodybuilding champions in their home country - chose Saturday's winners from a field of musclemen who ranged ages 22-34. Mr. Afghanistan and some of the other competitors will compete at coming regional and international championships in South Korea and China later this year, Payanda said. Basheri, who has been lifting weights and bulking up for the past eight years, started competing professionally in 2001 and represented Afghanistan at an overseas contest in Bahrain last year. Asked about his future hopes, the bodybuilder said: "I want my country to be peaceful and quiet and independent. There has been war here for more than 25 years, so I hope we will have peace." |
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