This post originally appeared on VICE Canada
In an eight-minute YouTube video that has attracted over 28,000 views, Renaldo Gairy prepares himself for an excruciating workout at the Olympia Fitness gym in Mississauga, Ontario, as electro-dubstep blasts heavily in the background.
With biceps that each measure wider than his head, the 36-year old bodybuilder grasps onto the bar of a lat pulldown machine, forcing it towards and away from his collarbone.
Each back-and-forth motion reveals bulging veins and deeply-chiseled muscles, as Gairy feels the intensity of the bar, connected to a stack of weights on the opposite side of the machine.
He turns to the camera and says, "Don't do this. It's bad for your shoulders, OK? Don't say I didn't warn you."
Gairy has made a name for himself in the Toronto bodybuilding scene, earning the nickname "Razor" for his sharp physique and tiny waist.
With an Instagram following of 10,000 and counting, he is part of a new generation of athletes that is driving the renewal of the modern bodybuilding industry through social media, regularly updating fans with body selfies, training videos, and pictures of protein powder.
The professional bodybuilder is also determined to go where few of his Canadian counterparts have gone before: to compete for "Mr. Olympia," the most prestigious bodybuilding title in the world, previously claimed by names such as Arnold Schwarzenegger and Phillip Heath.
"Getting to that Olympia stage, you're talking the best in the world," Gairy said in an interview with VICE.
But while the Olympia remains his ultimate goal, Gairy, like many other aspiring bodybuilders, is taking advantage of "prizes" that exist beyond the competitive stage.
Once a niche scene that has ebbed in popularity, bodybuilding has entered the digital age, and bodybuilders—aspiring, amateur, and professional—are navigating an industry where "success" comes faster and is more attainable than ever before.
Bodybuilding has always been shrouded in some form of controversy, fighting to be taken seriously as a professional sport.
Photo by Gary Bartlett
But Oliver Bateman, a historian and professor at the University of Texas, says bodybuilding subculture has hit the mainstream, thanks in part, to the rise of "Instagram lust heroes."
"Social media has enabled the sale of the self to happen on a level that we've never experienced before," he told VICE.
"Instagram, Facebook, Twitter—they've all magnified the ability to present yourself. Yourself is what you're always selling them holding the product, that sort of stuff," says Partlow.
"A lot of those people have high hopes that one day they'll be signed on to something but in most cases nothing ever comes out of that."
Gairy says some amateur athletes end up getting the "short end of the stick" in the pursuit of sponsorships.
"I know one person working for a company, she's considered a sponsored athlete, but for her to go to Vegas for the Mr. Olympia to work the booth, she has to pay her own way. They demand it out of her," he said.
"Some people are so desperate for it, they want to be sponsored because that will validate them...that they're willing to be slaves."
While Gairy has achieved a level of success that many athletes are working towards, he is determined to be at the top of the ladder, where the sponsorship money is greatest in an increasingly competitive fitness industry.
When I ask him why bodybuilding matters to him so much.
"I enjoy looking like this," he said.
"It's a little bit of masochism where you're enduring pain, and then there's the reward everyone sees. I don't do this to brag or think I'm better than anyone, but it's definitely something I have that people can see and know I worked for this."
Gairy admits that selfies and followers don't carry the same passion he has for competitive bodybuilding. But in the meantime, social media promotion remains an "absolutely important" part of growing his bodybuilding career.
"It's almost like your best commercial is standing in front of your phone, taking a selfie and writing a little blurb," he says.
"It seems more into everyone's individual hands."
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