Rühl Muscle Written by IM Magazine _MG_0154_body-image Nothing can prepare you for the sheer size of Markus Ruhl. He’s taller than you might think — 5’10” (178 cm), taller than many bodybuilders — and wider than you could imagine. Walking behind him as he strolled up the aisle at A1 Supplements, Melbourne, where a table and chair were set up for him to sign autographs and have photos taken, I am just waiting for tubs of protein powder to come flying off the shelves from his immense lats and shoulders. Someone asks him to do a double-biceps pose, and Markus jokes: “Did I tell you that it costs $100?” As for his measurements: “The last time I made measurements, [I] was at 60 (cm) for the arms, 143 kilos, legs are on 89 centimetres.” And the shoulders? “I have no idea,” he says, with a smile. Perhaps the measurement would be off the charts. “Last year, when I was doing my comeback in New York, I weighed in at 129 kilos, the day of the show. At the Olympia I go a little bit more down to 127 kilos.” Markus wears a size XXXX Large sports jersey emblazoned with sponsor Ultimate Nutrition’s branding and he admits that sitting on the plane was “not that comfortable”. He’s one of those guys who simply looks like he should be sitting there without a shirt on. At the Filex Australian Fitness and Health Expo show in Sydney during April, where Markus did a guest pose, he was asked on stage how long he had been training. “Two months,” he deadpanned. The true story is, of course, more complicated. Markus Ruhl was born on the 22nd of February in Darmstadt, Germany in 1972. His father died when Markus was just seven years old and his mother raised him and his siblings on her own. A football (soccer) injury as a teenager provided his entry into the iron game. He had badly hurt his left knee and the doctor suggested training with weights. “My knee was totally damaged,” Markus says, “so I go to the hospital for a couple of weeks after that and the doctor said I have to go to the gym, you know, to rebuild a little bit more muscle. That’s the reason why I was in the gym — and I will still be there.” Staying motivated has never been a problem for Markus; from the age of 19, when he first started lifting weights, until now, he has maintained his passion for the iron game. Making personal improvements is his real motivator. “First of all, I like to train, you know, I like to fight against myself; that’s the main reason,” he says. “I never expected that I would turn into a professional one day.” Markus took to bodybuilding like a duck to water and had been training in the gym for only a few years before he was approached with the idea of competing in a bodybuilding contest. “I was just going ahead with my training, then one day a big guy said to me, ‘Hey Markus, it looks like you can compete,’ so I started to prepare.” Markus had planned on making his competition debut at the 1994 Newcomer Championships in Hessen, the state where Markus’ hometown of Darmstadt is. However, Markus injured his shoulder while preparing for the show and had to wait until the next year to unleash his massive physique upon an unsuspecting public. In 1995, Markus won the Bachgau Cup in Babenhausen, in both Heavyweight and Overall divisions — his very first bodybuilding show. He was 5’11” and 243 pounds (110 kg). Soon after he competed in the Grosser Peis von Hessen (Hessen Grand Prix) and came second in the heavyweights. At this time he was working at a Volkswagen car dealership to support his bodybuilding dreams. Soon after came the fabled big break: turning professional. “Then I got a pro card, pretty easy, pretty fast, that’s it,” Markus says. “That’s the story. The rest, everybody knows that about me.” Markus’ training has always been intense and very heavy. He had to make a big change in his training methodology in the past three years, due to the weight Markus had been throwing around, as well as the duration of his workouts. If he didn’t change things, he says, he could do himself further damage. “I tore my chest a little bit,” he says, “so I make these changes, going away from the heavy stuff, the crazy stuff, doing more serious workouts.” He has also stopped lifting cars. When a member of the assembled crowd says he tried to lift a car and injured himself, Markus says, “You see, that’s the reason why I stopped that!” As is usual for a bodybuilder of his calibre, Markus’ training varies depending on whether he’s in preparation for a competition or in the off-season. “I’m going away from the heavy things and doing the supersets stuff,” he says. “So it’s easier for me, you know, I’ve got more relaxing after that; you know, more pump in the training.” Markus says he’s doing more supersets in order to grow, but doing it in a more methodical way, making more of what he calls the “right decisions”. Markus Ruhl once joked that the only cardio he does is walking from his car to the gym. In reality, the big German does some light cardio on the treadmill, starting at 30 minutes, eventually ramping it up to an hour or an hour-and-a-half as he gets closer to a competition. “I try to do the treadmill stuff,” he says. “Try?” I ask. “Yeah,” he laughs, “with [my] body weight it hurts a little bit, hurts the knees.” Later he tells his audience that he has a T-shirt with the slogan ‘Cardio is for pussies’ on it. “But, no, you have to do it,” he says. “You know, if you want to lose your body fat. I love to do my bike stuff.” Diet-wise, Markus likes to keep his meals as clean as he can — though it can be difficult with the hectic lifestyle of a travelling bodybuilder. “It’s hard when you’re on the road,” he says, “but, you know, these guys [the Ultimate Nutrition crew] make sure I always have my food with me. It’s good to do it [travel].” Markus’ supplementation is provided solely by Ultimate Nutrition, who has sponsored him since the beginning of 2008. “Yeah, you know, Ultimate Nutrition, nothing else, for sure,” he says. His supplementation also can vary depending on his physical goals. “When I’m in the bulking area, I take the ISO-Mass; I can really recommend this supplement because it’s the best thing [for] gaining size, and in prep for a show I’ll take the glutamine, the whey pro stuff, which is pretty lean.” Markus then asks the A1 Supplements crew if they have the ISOCool whey isolate protein yet. “That’s what I take. We’ve got it in different flavours; it comes out pretty soon in chocolate flavour.” He takes this when he’s in preparation for a show, especially. Markus has not been travelling with his wife Simone, a former competitor in her own right. Markus says that she is at home in Germany taking care of their children and their gym business. When asked about how his business is going, Markus says: “So far it’s pretty good, but a lot of stress. You know, German people are much more complicated than the Australian guys here, believe it or not. So, good so far but a lot of stress, so I’m always happy when I’m on the road.” Being on the road, Markus has come into contact with many different attitudes towards bodybuilding. He says that the perception of bodybuilding in Australia is similar to how it is in the United States. “I think here bodybuilding’s pretty famous,” he says. “I think people have a lot of respect for the sport. It’s not the same in Europe. In Europe, people think bodybuilders are all kinda stupid and I think that’s a big difference. Here in Australia, it’s the same as the United States; people are not that jealous, like it was in Europe. If you have a nice car, they’re jealous; if you have a good body, they’ll be jealous; if you have a nice looking girl, you know what I mean? So, that’s a big difference.” Markus retired from competition in October 2007 after placing 15th in the Mr Olympia. His reason for retirement was a nagging chest injury, as well as his view of the general direction that bodybuilding was heading, where competitions were focusing more on muscle ‘hardness’ than muscle mass itself. However, he made it clear that he would never retire from bodybuilding itself, only from competing. He returned a year later with a renewed spirit and a different outlook. “I was thinking about my chest injury, whether to retire or not, find a new sponsor — Ultimate Nutrition,” he says. “We have a lot of business going on with those trips, these guys sent me out to Indonesia, Malaysia, tour the whole world doing appearances, but after that I was thinking to myself, bodybuilding [is] so much fun and it’s not the same without competitions, so that’s the reason that I’m coming back. Believe it or not, it was a hard decision to say ‘I’m retired’ after so many years of competing. I’ve been doing that for my whole life.” Markus Ruhl has been living the true bodybuilding lifestyle for half his life. He turned professional at the age of 25 and now, at 38, he is once again contemplating a future away from competition. “I think 40’s a good age to retire,” he says. “Two more years maybe. You know, I’m thinking from year to year now. I want to retire in New York, so I think next year could be a good year.” So, what does the immediate future hold for Markus Ruhl? “Actually, I want to win my next show,” he says, “the Europa show in Dallas. And yeah, the Olympia, top 15.” Markus, we wish you all the best. IM
Posted on: Mon, 03 Feb 2014 06:00:49 +0000
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