Pump it up

Bodybuilder outlines sport's rise in Korea

By Cho Mu-hyun

Forget Arnold Schwarzenegger. A real-life terminator is here.

Kim Seong-jun, currently a personal trainer at the Body Star fitness franchise based in Northern Seoul, is a veteran of Korean bodybuilding who has won multiple domestic and international competitions.

Standing over 1.8 meters tall and weighing over 100 kilograms (his weight has never dropped below the century mark), the 30-year-old doesn’t need to explain what he does for a living. His body tells the story for him.

“I was formerly a ssierum (traditional Korean wrestling) athlete in middle school,” said Kim. It was his first contact with weightlifting, which was required as part of his training. The change in his body captured him more than the desire for victory in a wrestling bout.

“My body began to improve drastically. That is when I started to get interested. I went on to enter a high school competition and found my passion. I decided I could do this for a living,” he said.

Korean bodybuilders, like baseball players, usually start their professional life by joining a local federation near their hometown, which are all under the supervision of Korean Bodybuilding and Fitness Federation (KBBF). Domestic bodybuilding was affiliated and developed alongside with weightlifting in its incipient stage, holding its first nationwide tournament, Mr. Korea, in 1949. It continued to develop, joining the International Federation of Bodybuilding and Fitness (IBFF) in 1968 and hosting the first Asian World Championships in 1984 in Seoul.

“Korean competitors are the top in Asia right now,” Kim said proudly. “Japan developed earlier than us, but we have followed closely, and now without a doubt Korea is at the top in Asian competitions.”

But what exactly is bodybuilding? You build your body through intense weightlifting exercises, continuously ‘damaging’ your muscle fibers. The post-workout rest and nutrition process allows the damaged fibers to recover, making the muscles stronger and bigger to adapt to the continuous pressure. This is called muscular hypertrophy.

It sounds simple enough but simplicity doesn’t mean it’s easy.

“When they ask me about bodybuilding, I compare the routine of a bodybuilder to hiking a mountain daily. You look at the mountain and say ‘it is going to be hard, it is going to be tough,’ but you do it. Sure you get used to it as you climb every day, but that doesn’t make it any easier the next time you do it,” said Kim.

Besides the strict and perpetual routine, another factor that may make those who want to initiate in bodybuilding hesitant is the cost involved.

“In other countries, (bodybuilding) is considered a luxury sport because of the costs. There are many requirements such as vitamins, protein supplements, vegetables, chicken breasts, eggs, equipment and these cost half your salary,” said Kim, comparing it to golf. “The average successful bodybuilder earns about 30 million won annually and roughly half of that goes into competition preparation.”

There are four major domestic competitions for bodybuilders based here: the Spring Bodybuilding Championships, Mr. Korea, Mr. YMCA and the National Sports Festival. A win in Mr. Korea, the longest running major competition, has been considered the traditional career dream for competitors while the National Sports Festival is on the rise. Bodybuilders usually enter one or two of the majors, while entering district or city level competitions in between to keep their fitness level optimal.

Ranging from the 55-kilogram class to the over-90 kilogram discipline, about 200 competitors enter the majors, usually all experienced participants. The average bodybuilder starts preparing three months prior to a competition. Kim shared his build-up regime.

“When the season starts, I eat five to seven meals a day, usually every three hours.” The meals follow strict nutritional requirements, consisting mostly of proteins, than carbohydrates. Kim works out six days a week when preparing for a contest, each day working on a different muscle group. He goes to the gym twice a day, spending at least two hours there both in the morning and at night.

The week before is the toughest time, where he avoids people because of the psychological pressure caused by the nutritionally disproportionate diet. He drinks no water two days prior to the day of competition, and goes through a brief but intense workout on competition day to buff up for presentation.

The KBBF follows IFBB regulations, requiring seven designated poses in the preliminaries, which usually take three to five minutes to complete.

“Your poses are just as important as your body. You can usually tell a rookie from a veteran by their poses and the mind set they enter in. Some even faint because of the fatigue and pressure” said Kim.

For those who pass the initial stage, they get less than a minute in the finals to do a free pose, and the ultimate bodybuilder is decided on that brief time frame. And is it worth it?

“All the way,” said Kim Seong-jun. “It doesn’t always reflect the preparation and the sacrifice you put in for that brief moment. But it is worth it.”