David Chapman's Review

Muscle, Smoke & Mirrors, vol. I by Randy Roach
David Chapman

One of the historian’s best attributes is the ability to look at a subject dispassionately, and by using reason and historical knowledge, to figure out what was the truth of a situation that happened in the past. This is one of the qualities that Randy Roach brings to his book Muscle, Smoke & Mirrors. Perhaps Randy has gained a better, less frenzied viewpoint on some of the controversies that have swirled around bodybuilding due to his perspective from Canada. He is close enough to see the problems that plague his neighbor to the south, but far enough away to remain free from them. Then again, it might also be that he is legally blind; it is a commonplace that sometimes the sightless see better than their sighted brethren. Whatever the reason, this book is remarkably free of the passions, partisanship and cant that have bedeviled other similar histories. Neither is it bland or insipid; it confronts controversies with refreshing honesty and eloquence.

Although the book is nominally a history of bodybuilding nutrition, in reality it is much more than that. Roach must have realized early on that he could not tell the story of the food, supplements and additives that have been used to build muscular bodies unless he embedded it in a wider history of bodybuilding itself. So starting in the mythological era of Samson and Milo of Crotona, Randy guides the reader through the labyrinth of conflicting exercise methods and nutritional advice that sent many an athlete down a dietary dead end. He ends volume one at the advent of the “Age of Arnold” and the increased use of anabolic steroids.

Unlike many authors, Roach realizes that it is necessary to look at both the distant as well as the more recent past in order to understand fully bodybuilding’s nutritional origins. Eugen Sandow, Bernarr Macfadden, Edmond Desbonnet, Alan Calvert and many other 19th and early 20th century figures are discussed in detail; their lasting contributions (or lack of them) are set out in clear and readable prose. It is clear from both the subjects under discussion as well as the wide-ranging endnotes at the back of the book that the author has done extensive research. But M,S&M is not a mere listing of established facts; Roach dares to wade into various divisive issues and present a balanced picture. He describes a number of touchy subjects that continue to afflict bodybuilding including racism, homophobia, religious intolerance, conflicting mega-egos and the role that huge profits played in the feud between the two big players in the early iron game: Joe Weider and Bob Hoffman. Throughout it all, Roach takes a balanced, trustworthy and logical look at these and other issues.

In short, volume one of Muscle, Smoke & Mirrors makes us yearn for the speedy appearance of volume two.

Muscle, Smoke & Mirrors