The Hidden Masses

STEROID CULTURE IS EXPANDING, NO LONGER CONFINED TO A SUBGROUP OF STRONGMEN AND BODYBUILDERS. TODAY’S USERS AREN’T JUST CHASING AESTHETICS. THEY’RE SEARCHING FOR YOUTH, VITALITY AND THAT MOST NEBULOUS OF ATTRIBUTES: MASCULINITY. BUT TO WHAT END? AND AT WHAT RISK? MEET THE NEW FACE OF THE GLOBAL STEROID EPIDEMIC

- Alex Moshakis

At his most powerful, Alec Wilson’s biceps measured 45cm around. On a good day, he could deadlift 212kg – equivalent to the weight of a lion. In the moments before he heaved an almighty load, he would summon a rough growl from his stomach, shocking his body into the production of adrenaline. Other men knew when he’d arrived at the gym. They could hear him roar.

Wilson was 36. He was not a professional bodybuilder, but an academic with a couple of science degrees. Most days, his office was a lab. And yet his training had become relentless. Almost every night, as soon as his young son had gone to bed, he would head to the local weights room, lift hard and chat game with other big men. Often, he felt he could go all night. Lifting. Talking. Lifting. Talking. “I’d stay until they kicked me out,” he told me. “Then I’d go back the next night.”

Wilson and I first met at a bar not far from where he lives. (His name has been changed at his request.) Instantly, he struck me as a contradiction. At 178cm, he isn’t especially tall, though he looks big. His shoulders are broad, his chest resembles a whisky cask and, in many ways, he is large enough to make me feel like a small boy. And yet at times he spoke so softly I found him difficult to understand; when we first introduced ourselves, his right hand was trembling.