Karachi, Pakistan – In a small room in his modest household dwelling, Asad Naqib Khan threads a stitching machine needle.
Because the rhythmic hum of the machine fills the air, the tailor’s gaze often drifts over to the display of his cell phone within the hand of his oldest baby. The daddy and son are watching bodybuilding movies on YouTube.
Twenty-eight-year-old Asad is a father of 5 kids aged 10 and youthful. He is not only a tailor struggling to make ends meet — he’s additionally an aspiring bodybuilder.
“For as long as I can remember, I have wanted to become a bodybuilder,” he explains whereas hemming a shirt that morning in early 2022. “I used to watch older guys in my neighbourhood go to the gym and spend time building their strength and muscles.” As a teen, he fantasised about doing the identical. “Once, I went to watch a bodybuilding competition and wanted to become just like the men I saw on the stage,” he recollects.
Asad grew up with eight siblings and remembers how his father, a each day wage labourer, would wrestle to search out common work to help his household. Because the eldest son, Asad felt compelled to share his father’s monetary duties as quickly as he grew to become a teen. Leaving center college meant he had restricted choices, however as a substitute of opting to change into a labourer like most males from his neighbourhood, he determined to apprentice with a tailor. When he was 18, he branched out on his personal. Through the years, nonetheless, he yearned for the one factor he believed would carry function and happiness to his life – to change into an expert bodybuilder. “One of my biggest dreams is to make Pakistan proud by competing internationally and winning for the country,” he explains.
But it surely wasn’t till 2019, when he met Zahir Shah, a former bodybuilding champion in his 40s who owns a health club in a busy Karachi neighbourhood, that Asad started on this path.
Asad finishes stitching the shirt and fingers it to his son to fold. He says that his kids, significantly the 2 boys, take enjoyment of watching his exercise movies. “They urge me to work out harder so I win first place. God willing, I will make them proud.”
He envisions introducing his sons to bodybuilding, and likewise has aspirations to open his personal health club, like Zahir, which his boys can at some point assist him run “so I don’t have to work as a tailor any more.”
A hidden world
The world of Pakistani bodybuilding is one which few outsiders ever get to see.
With no state funding, nationwide construction, or regulation, the game thrives within the shadows, haphazardly managed by a couple of dozen impartial federations scattered throughout the nation.
The rising international curiosity in health and bodybuilding tradition has fuelled native curiosity within the sport with a surge in Pakistanis flocking to their native neighbourhood gyms.
Younger males practice tirelessly to showcase their physiques for competitors judging panels by a collection of poses to focus on muscle definition, measurement and symmetry.
Since Pakistan’s first championship was held in 1952, bodybuilding has remained largely a working-class pursuit – it’s also known as a “poor man’s sport” throughout the neighborhood – and confined to small-scale regional and nationwide competitions. However the sport has undergone a profound transformation lately owing to worldwide publicity by social media, gaining wider consideration and affording its star bodybuilders unprecedented alternatives. The prospect of taking part in worldwide championships, fame, money prizes, journey, and potential modelling contracts has attracted 1000’s of males from Karachi to Peshawar and past. Aspiring bodybuilders with restricted means spend their evenings after college or work fervently lifting weights beneath the glare of fluorescent health club lights and their coaches’ watchful eyes.
Many see bodybuilding as step one out of poverty and dead-end jobs. Some are drawn to the attract of social media stardom as they publish photographs of their chiselled our bodies on-line, whereas others dream of breaking into the modelling trade. Via interviews with bodybuilders and different trade insiders over reporting carried out between September 2021 and January 2024, we find out how males navigating the intersection of bodybuilding and modelling are uncovered to worlds that each have a good time, and exploit, bodily look.
The price of bodybuilding
It’s virtually midnight, and the deserted streets of a quiet residential colony lined with weathered concrete properties are lit with the dim glow of flickering streetlights. On the second flooring of a small constructing, the lights of Zahir’s health club nonetheless burn brightly. Regardless of the late hour, the health club is packed and buzzing with vitality, and previous Bollywood songs blare from the audio system at every finish of the stuffy room. Asad, and about two dozen different younger males, are busy lifting weights. Their dedication to their coaching, in line with Zahir, is usually pushed by the urge to adapt to the archetypical male magnificence customary set by international celebrities and influencers.
“Having big muscles has become a status of attractiveness because of what we see in movies from Hollywood and Bollywood … and these young boys also want to look like that,” he explains. “For most of these boys, looking good is far more important than just being healthy.”
For a lot of, it’s a pricey pursuit.
“Building a body that stands out costs more than most of these men earn,” Zahir explains.
The typical month-to-month wage in Pakistan in 2023 was 81,925 rupees ($291) and most males getting into the game – both new graduates or unskilled employees – make considerably much less. Balancing the accountability of supporting their households amid Pakistan’s financial disaster with the monetary calls for of bodybuilding reminiscent of health club memberships, specialised diets, protein dietary supplements, {and professional} teaching, is a big problem. Many bodybuilders find yourself borrowing cash from buddies or household, or taking out loans. Some change into utterly depending on their coaches for help.
“I’ve been working as a tailor for over a decade, earning around 30,000 rupees ($107) per month,” says Asad, pausing after a set of bench presses. “Affording the essential protein-rich diet, which costs at least 1,000 rupees ($3.50) daily, is beyond my means.”
The truth is, his entry into bodybuilding solely grew to become potential as a result of Zahir waived his preliminary health club charges, supplied complimentary coaching periods, and infrequently assisted along with his food regimen.
On the packed flooring of his health club, Zahir watches the actions of his shoppers. “When Asad came to me he was like a matchstick,” he recollects fondly. “He is a very hard worker and one of my best students.”
Asad, who depends solely on the revenue generated from stitching shalwar-kameez, finds himself grappling with quite a few monetary duties. It’s a fixed wrestle to cowl the youngsters’s college charges, pay for nutritious meals and meet different family prices. Even so, six or seven nights per week he rides his previous bike throughout city to Zahir’s health club to spend the night lifting weights.
“The coach helps me with whatever he can. I have even borrowed money from friends just so I can buy chicken and fish,” he admits, wiping sweat off his brow as he will get prepared for one more set of repetitions.
“All the difficulties we face in reaching our goal are brought to fruition when we go out in public and people turn their heads to look at us,” one other of Zahir’s trainees chimes in.
Zahir, who’s a powerful advocate for pure bodybuilding – coaching with out using steroids, development hormones, or diuretics – performs a pivotal position in Asad’s bodybuilding journey as he helps him put together for competitions and foster self-discipline.
Asad confidently struts throughout the ground bare-chested, joking and interesting with others. “Even when I’m sewing clothes, my heart is here, in the gym,” he says with an enormous smile.
He’s in no rush to go dwelling, and says he’ll keep till 1 or 2am. It’s the form of sport, he explains, the place “the bigger you get, the smaller you feel you are, so you want to work harder to become even bigger.”
Gaining confidence
Throughout city, Usama Saeed, 30, a former bodybuilder who works as a health coach at a number of gyms, wolfs down a home made lunch of boiled rice and hen inside a newly renovated air-conditioned Karachi health club. It’s virtually 2pm, and his shoppers will quickly begin arriving for his or her each day coaching periods.
Usama is well-built. He wears a cosy white tank prime, a silver chain glints in opposition to his pores and skin and his gelled hair has new highlights. There may be an authority in the way in which he effortlessly strikes concerning the room, however, working a hand by his hair, he shyly admits that he has not all the time been this manner.
He launched into his bodybuilding journey after spending a lot of his teenage years in hospital receiving therapy for sarcoma, a uncommon bone and gentle tissue most cancers. “The cancer had left me physically frail, weighing a mere 42 kilos [93 pounds],” he explains, and that made him a simple goal for bullying. “My own friends and cousins used to make fun of me because of my appearance.”
Usama recollects how they might incessantly poke enjoyable at his scrawny construct, suggesting that no woman might ever be fascinated about him and the way he “would go flying in the air if they so much as blew air on me … that’s hurtful for any young man.” Usama, who was 21 on the time and nonetheless recovering from his illness, says he withdrew right into a shell and have become an entire recluse. “I had zero body confidence and couldn’t face people … That’s when my best friend encouraged me to go to the gym with him.”
The health club progressively grew to become Usama’s sanctuary and it was there that he first encountered bodybuilders. “Within a few months, as my body began to transform, I got it in my head to completely change the way I looked,” he recollects. Usama’s choice to start coaching to change into an expert bodybuilder quickly after he went into remission met disapproval from his dad and mom.
“My parents and siblings are all doctors. They were overprotective and concerned about my health, but like all middle-class Pakistani families, they also had trouble respecting my decision to pursue professional bodybuilding instead of becoming a doctor like them,” Usama explains. He nonetheless lived at dwelling and relied on his household for residing bills, however they refused to pay for protein dietary supplements, hoping to discourage him. “But I had made up my mind.”
Finally, his household got here round. “My mother began noticing the changes in me; how people would watch me in public and how I was getting my confidence back, she accepted it … My family is proud of me now, but I wish they had supported my decision early on,” he says.
Drug shortcuts
Usama leans again on the elliptical coach and sneaks a peak at himself within the full-length mirrors that line the health club wall. Though he has come a good distance because the days spent in hospital, his health journey was fraught with substantial well being dangers that younger bodybuilders typically encounter of their quest for fast outcomes.
“My first [competition] cycle was in 2018. I had zero knowledge about muscle growth and steroids, and did whatever my trainer told me. This included taking steroids because I was obsessed with getting my body ready for the stage,” Usama recollects.
“For months, I was pumped with growth hormones and 500 milligrams (0.018 ounces) of Trenbolone two or three times a week by my trainer whose only goal was to bulk me up so I would win. I had no idea how dangerous this was.”
Trenbolone, a potent anabolic steroid, is a category of artificial drug initially developed to advertise muscle development in livestock. Anabolic steroids, in addition to artificial development hormones, are generally utilized by bodybuilders in Pakistan and might look like a shortcut to constructing muscle though they might carry extreme potential negative effects and are banned by the WADA (World Anti-Doping Company), the recognised anti-doping international authority.
Some anabolic steroids and development hormones could also be prescribed by docs for medical causes reminiscent of hormone alternative remedy or to deal with muscle losing related to most cancers, HIV/AIDS and different circumstances. Nonetheless the non-medical use of those medication poses dangers reminiscent of cardiovascular problems, liver and kidney injury, hypertension, and hormonal imbalances which might result in points starting from zits to infertility and even long-term psychological dependency.
The potential for misuse, abuse, and related well being dangers is the explanation why it’s unlawful for pharmacies in Pakistan to promote steroids and hormones and not using a prescription.
Illicitly imported variations, nonetheless, are generally obtainable on the black market, Usama says.
As an instance his level, he pulls out his cell phone, dials a quantity and places the decision on speakerphone. After two rings a groggy male voice solutions. Usama offers him a reference and asks him what “stuff” is out there. Nearly mechanically, the person begins itemizing medication as if studying them off a menu.
“If you know where to look, it can be delivered to your doorstep within minutes,” Usama declares matter-of-factly.
‘Not allowed to say “no” to your coach’
The dangers related to steroids and development hormones not often deter coaches, Usama says.
“Gyms are a breeding ground for drug abuse. It is more common than you could ever imagine,” he explains whereas driving by Karachi’s bustling rush hour visitors to a different health club the place he’ll spend the night coaching one other set of shoppers in a residential complicated.
Health club homeowners and coaches are infamous for encouraging using substances amongst their most proficient athletes and even paying for the medication as these males successfully act as residing commercials for his or her institutions, Usama explains. “The larger and more muscular athletes become under their training, the greater the number of victories and titles their gym and coaches can lay claim to,” he says. This helps carry in additional shoppers.
Zahir, who claims he has banned his athletes from taking any medication and encourages them to give attention to their food regimen and exercise routines, agrees. He says he has witnessed coaches make their very own capsules and distribute them to inexperienced athletes. “They are just in it to make a quick buck … they are playing with their lives,” he says, shaking his head with disapproval.
Over time, Usama explains from private expertise, younger bodybuilders come to depend on their coaches for steerage on which steroids to take and in what amount. Al Jazeera has witnessed coaches routinely inject obliging trainees with unregulated quantities of steroids.
“If bodybuilders need to be scared of anything, it is the influence of manipulative coaches who brainwash trainees so much, they begin taking steroids like regular painkillers or cough medicine,” says Usama, recalling how he was inspired to pop tablets and inject his physique with a mess of medicine he “can’t even remember the names of” whereas making ready for competitions.
And coaches, who sometimes demand respect and blind obedience, wield important affect within the lives of younger bodybuilders.
That’s significantly true when the coach is your sponsor, Usama says.
“I was very happy when my coach offered me my first job as a trainer,” he recollects. The job barely paid something, however the perks included free entry to the health club, which was an enormous incentive for him as a pupil, and a “‘full stack’ – which included all the steroids I would need for my competing cycles, fully paid for by the coach.” Usama rolls his eyes and chuckles wryly. “This is how they trap you,” he says.
“When they invest their money in you, they make you feel special,” he explains, “then they expect you to submit to them completely.”
Usama says he was made to work lengthy hours by his coach who had little consideration for his well being and wellbeing. He was by no means allowed to query the medication he was made to take, and was additionally barred from competing for federations aside from those his coach had affiliations with. “It’s very easy for them to get you banned, so you have to be careful … You are simply not allowed to say ‘no’ to your coach.”
Harmful practices
Usama says bodybuilding is “a very masculine sport” that calls for subjecting one’s physique to ache and danger within the pursuit of proving dominance over different males. “At the same time, it’s also very emasculating because you are always controlled by someone else … there’s no peace of mind,” he says.
In 2020, after two years {of professional} bodybuilding, Usama determined to cease competing so he might give attention to his work as a coach, and give up taking performance-enhancing medication. He considers himself lucky for stopping early. “I only suffered from headaches and mood swings,” he says. “But many bodybuilders continue taking these drugs for prolonged periods, and they end up suffering from serious side effects.”
In 2021, the sudden demise of 51-year-old Shehzad Khan Afridi, a celebrated bodybuilder and former Mr Pakistan, the largest nationwide bodybuilding championship, simply days after profitable a gold medal within the 75kg (165-pound) class of a contest held in Karachi, drew consideration to the possibly life-threatening abuse of gear happening behind the closed doorways of Pakistan’s gyms.
In accordance with Sohail Anwar, secretary of the internationally recognised Pakistan Bodybuilding Federation (PBBF), founding father of a preferred health club chain, and former adorned bodybuilder in his 50s who has spent the final 20 years teaching bodybuilders competing internationally, “Afridi was supposed to compete in the 85kg [187-pound] category, but a couple of days before the competition he was moved to the 75kg category.”
Anwar, who was Afridi’s coach in 2011 when he first gained that title, explains that shedding 10kg (22 kilos) in two or three days requires deprivation of sodium, water, and injecting “yourself with dangerous amounts of diuretics”.
“Diuretics draw all the fluids out from your body and the dehydration thickens your blood which can … lead to heart failure,” he explains.
Afridi’s demise was essentially the most publicised in Pakistan in latest occasions, nevertheless it was not the one one.
In 2016, 4 skilled Pakistani bodybuilders, two of them gold medallists within the South Asian Bodybuilding Championship, died as a result of alleged steroid abuse inside a single month.
Regardless of the issues, many coaches, together with Anwar, admit it’s tough for skilled bodybuilders to win contests with out steroids.
On condition that regional and native bodybuilding federations face an absence of clear governance and pointers, anti-doping and safety-promoting efforts have been advert hoc. For now, the prevailing tradition is one the place athletes merely “have to take steroids so they stand a chance at winning,” Anwar says. “It would be foolish for anyone to go to a nuclear war with just a sword in their hand.”
Aspiring fashions
On the residential outskirts of Islamabad, Kamran Safdar, who’s in his 40s, welcomes Zishan Khan, 30, a seven-time bodybuilding champion and aspiring mannequin, into his small, dimly lit dwelling studio.
Kamran’s well mannered, unassuming manner defies his status within the space as a go-to photographer for extra daring portfolios.
Whereas societal norms historically encourage ladies to be extra conservative of their self-expression, latest traits have granted Pakistani males higher on-line freedom. With extra entry to cellphones and social media, males have pushed the boundaries of what was as soon as thought of socially acceptable by the proliferation of scantily clad photographs and shirtless selfies posted to platforms like Instagram and TikTok.
This quickly evolving digital ecosystem has spurred a brand new era of bodybuilders and health influencers to realize on-line followers and recognition. These with extra severe job aspirations look to get skilled portfolios made in hopes of gaining new followers but additionally securing paid modelling work.
A primary shoot that doesn’t require in depth manufacturing could price roughly 5,000 rupees ($17.70), in line with trade insiders. Most agree that the extra suggestive a shoot, the upper one’s probabilities of getting observed by expertise scouts.
“Sometimes, clients will come with their own references and ask for a ‘bold’ shoot … you have to understand people’s limitations and requirements have both changed,” Kamran says.
Zishan, who’s from the historically conservative province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, can be defying norms. He has taken the day without work from his administrative authorities day job to journey two hours by public bus from town of Mardan to Islamabad for the photoshoot, and has come to Kamran with a particular request: to appear to be a warrior in his new photographs. Kamran pulls out a chunk of fake fur, handmade leather-based cuffs, and a Viking helmet from a canvas bag for him to put on.
“My friends and family don’t approve when I take bold pictures in underwear,” Zishan declares amid the digicam flashes. “But I’m not afraid of a backlash – I do what feels right to me.”
“I have spent thousands of rupees on my physique and I enjoy showing it off,” he says. “He makes my body look good,” Zishan provides, proudly exhibiting earlier footage taken by Kamran saved on his cellphone.
Zishan’s portfolio hasn’t led to any important jobs but, however he’s hopeful it will change.
The following morning, Kamran is photographing 25-year-old college pupil Hammad Khan who can be an expert bodybuilder with modelling aspirations.
They’re at a secluded woodland spot subsequent to Islamabad’s Rawal Lake.
“Showing [my] body off can be very empowering,” Hammad says. “When a lion suddenly jumps out of the bushes, he shocks and impresses everyone. I hope these photos will do the same for me. I am currently off-season so my body is not in great shape, but my existing followers are expecting new photos,” he explains excitedly as Kamran makes use of concealer and a make-up brush to cowl his zits.
Hammad undresses after which runs into the water in his underwear to splash himself for the shoot.
“I could never do this in my hometown in Swabi,” he chuckles nervously. Swabi, positioned roughly 100 kilometres (62 miles) northwest of Islamabad, is a small municipal metropolis within the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province of Pakistan. “The people are much stricter and closed-minded there. It’s a cultural thing.”
He says his photographs draw combined reactions. “Some people compliment and call me sexy, but many also curse me,” says Hammad, earlier than a fast wardrobe change behind a tree into cosy neoprene pants for one more spherical of photographs.
Exploitation and false guarantees
“There is an Urdu saying: ‘Dikhay ga to bekay ga [If it’s seen, it will be sold]’,” says Usama. “If I don’t look a certain way or don’t maintain how I look, nobody will come to me for training.”
Because the day winds down and Usama’s final shoppers head out, his good friend invitations him again to the health club flooring to snap photographs and shoot exercise movies for one another’s social media.
Usama raises a forehead, pouts and lifts his shirt as his good friend cheers him on whereas filming content material for Usama’s Instagram and TikTok accounts the place he has greater than 18,000 followers on every platform. “This is my bread and butter now and I have to be more strategic in how I sell myself to the public,” he says, referring to how he depends on his social media profiles to attract in potential health club shoppers. Lately, he has additionally began receiving affords for paid endorsements to advertise native health merchandise.
“Every time I post ‘masala’ [spice], my engagement shoots up,” he provides. However at any time when he uploads a brand new shirtless selfie, he’s additionally inundated with non-public messages and photographs.
“A lot of them are from women, but the majority are from men who only have sex on their mind,” he says, scrolling by a protracted checklist of unread messages. “I don’t engage with them but I still enjoy going through the messages because essentially they are a compliment.”
Many bodybuilders energetic on social media say their inboxes are sometimes flooded with inappropriate feedback from male followers, some pleading to fulfill or providing monetary incentives in trade for sexual favours.
This newfound consideration can simply change into a robust dependancy, in line with veteran Karachi-based vogue and leisure journalist Zurain Imam. With a profession spanning 30 years, Imam has intently noticed the journeys of people in industries that idealise bodily magnificence. “For most, it is all related to self-worth and seeking validation, wherever it comes from,” he says amid the clamour of blaring music and energetic dialog at a rooftop get together in late 2023. “[Some] might be posting to get attention from photographers and designers for modelling gigs,” he explains, including that many younger aspiring male fashions posting on-line have informed him they’ve obtained unwarranted DMs and sexual propositions from trade professionals.
Hammad, Zishan, Usama, Asad, and Zahir, together with numerous different bodybuilders from their neighborhood say exploitation is a actuality for a lot of attempting to get into modelling. Every of them has skilled false guarantees of labor or complimentary photoshoots solely to search out themselves in uncomfortable conditions, harassed, or being supplied work in return for sexual favours.
“You have to understand that false promises and exploitation of young men majorly outweighs them actually getting ongoing and respectfully earned work,” Imam elaborates.
‘There is a predator at every corner’
A number of years in the past, after attempting for a few years to realize a foothold within the vogue trade, Usama received a break when he was chosen to stroll the runway for a famend designer at a vogue week occasion. “It was a huge deal for me and I was very excited,” he displays. “I had done all the fittings and on the night before the fashion show, I got a call from the designer asking me to visit him in his hotel room. He made it clear to me that if I went along, he would make me a star by hiring me for all his future shows and campaigns; that he would take care of me like a ‘sugar daddy’.”
He smiles however there may be resentment in his voice – his dream was dashed that night time. Usama refused, and his identify was struck off the decision sheet. The designer, who’s married with grown kids, mocked Usama’s choice. “He said hundreds of models enter the business every day who would be grateful for the opportunity,” he recollects.
“Without any exaggeration, there is a predator at every corner,” says Usama, who nonetheless receives inappropriate messages from different famend vogue designers. “These are powerful people with verified profiles on social media,” he provides, exhibiting screenshots of their conversations.
Many fashions from humble backgrounds who really feel compelled to capitulate are ultimately “groomed to become the ‘property’ of those who promoted and supported them,” Imam says. “They never really get out from under the influence of their initial enablers.”
Hammad, who, like Zishan, says his interactions with Kamran have constantly been respectful, has obtained quite a few affords free of charge photoshoots through social media from people claiming to be skilled photographers. “The first time I got an offer for a free photoshoot, I was very excited,” he says, recalling an interplay shortly after he gained his first bodybuilding title a number of years in the past. “He told me he was an experienced photographer with an impressive portfolio, but straight away he asked to see my full nude photos.”
Lately, Zishan says a photographer invited him to his Islamabad studio with the promise of a possible modelling job. Halfway by the shoot, the photographer groped him. “I just got up and left,” he recollects, angered and disenchanted by the incident. “But a lot of immature and inexperienced guys get intimidated, and get involved in wrong things. People can do anything for money.”
The aftermath of a video leak
Haroon, a 28-year-old instructor from Karachi, began bodybuilding to pursue a modelling profession that by no means materialised.
Sitting on a big rock at Karachi’s Clifton seaside, Haroon, who requested that solely his first identify be used on this story, takes a deep breath and gazes blankly on the tranquil low tide. A procession of camels adorned with vibrant tassels and jingling bells crosses the shore.
“After being asked to take off my clothes and sleep with the casting directors and photographers on pretty much every audition that I ever went to, I was ready to give up,” Haroon recounts, fidgeting along with his cellphone’s shattered display.
Very like different younger males hailing from decrease middle-class households, Haroon says he grew up juggling private aspirations and the accountability of supporting his ageing dad and mom and sister. The load of those duties took on a brand new urgency in 2020 when, on the peak of the pandemic, he misplaced his job as a instructor. Broke and determined to search out work, one in every of his health club buddies “proposed the idea of venturing into sex work,” he recollects. He agreed to go alongside as he wanted money and noticed no different alternative.
“One evening, he arranged for me to meet one of his contacts who apparently had the connections to get me some good clients,” Haroon explains. “When I got to the apartment, the man and two other guys said they would have to ‘audition’ me to assess the kind of clients they could refer to me,” he provides, trying up with a grimace. “At the time, I didn’t realise they were also filming the whole encounter.”
The next day, Haroon found that they’d leaked the video on-line, revealing his face and identify.
In a rustic the place homosexuality is closely persecuted and regarded a felony offence, and the place there’s a large stigma connected to sexual abuse, the trauma and alienation that Haroon suffered within the aftermath was immense.
“Thankfully, my parents never found out, but friends and old colleagues did and they stopped talking to me completely … even my best friend, who I used to share everything with, completely boycotted me. We haven’t spoken since the incident,” he recollects. Haroon felt such disgrace that the thought of interacting with individuals prompted him to withdraw from the world. “But then I went through a phase where I didn’t care any more because the worst had already happened.”
Haroon admits he went on to create extra video content material that he now deeply regrets. He additionally endured intense bouts of despair that led to self-isolation and self-harm. “People think something like this would be hard on women but it’s hard for men, too,” he says.
Haroon explains the one manner he has been in a position to cope and attempt to transfer on is by making a acutely aware effort to “not think about it” and focus on his future. “Ever since I was a kid, I wanted to be famous,” Haroon sighs. “I just never imagined it would be like this.”
‘Worth millions to me’
Many Pakistani bodybuilders imagine the absence of help networks to deal with bodily, emotional {and professional} strains leaves people susceptible to abuse and isolation.
“Young men are alone when it comes to handling difficult situations in both modelling and bodybuilding,” says Imam. “It is up to them to protect themselves.”
Anwar of PBBF believes there’s a easy resolution to nurture extra supportive environments inside gyms. The federal government of Pakistan should determine one internationally recognised bodybuilding federation, he says, and provides them the authority to solely permit gyms that work with trainers who fulfil sure security requirements to take part in bodybuilding championships.
This, he argues, might elevate consciousness concerning the dangers related to utilizing dangerous substances, whereas advocating for pure bodybuilding, the strategy Zahir promotes.
In the meantime, Asad, Zahir’s athlete, the tailor, continues to compete in regional contests. Competitors days are a whirlwind of exercise as coaches deftly and hurriedly apply tanning lotion to intensify their protégés’ muscular tissues earlier than contestants are summoned to the stage to pose for the judges.
Again in November 2021, when he was declared the brand new Junior Mr Sindh at a contest simply exterior of Karachi, Asad beamed as he strutted onstage to gather his massive golden trophy.
“It’s plastic but it’s worth millions to me,” he’d declared as supporters thronged him, desperate to snap selfies.
However for now, his monetary scenario continues to be tough, prompting him to take a second part-time job stitching clothes at a manufacturing unit close to his dwelling. He’s presently on a break from coaching to economize for food regimen and training charges so he can realise his dream of competing for the Mr Pakistan title. “It is taking time, but I am ready because God is with me,” he says with willpower.