Instagram Muscle
Despite this obsession with looking the part, however, bodybuilders rarely get modelling work. “Fitness models aren’t just required to stand still looking good. They have to be able to perform skills on set,” says Topher Després of Wilhelmina Models. “Bodybuilders aren’t athletic enough.” Athleticism requires mobility and agility, neither of which are developed in aesthetic workouts.
Aesthetic training is about realising a specific physique that emphasises the upper body (and, bizarrely, the calves). Muscles such as the glutes and hamstrings tend to be ignored. Heavy squats and deadlifts are out; they make the waist too thick. For bodybuilders who work out exclusively for this look, training isn’t about being fit. It’s about being bigger.
The need for mass is a recurring theme among bodybuilders on social media. “I was just a scrawny African kid,” says Ulisses. “I was desperate to gain some size.” Hadzovic has a similar story. “I hated the guy I saw in the mirror,” he says. He attributes his lack of confidence, in part, to growing up without a male role model – his father left when he was eight. So he sought role models on TV and in the movies. “I saw pro wrestlers and they were jacked. Stallone, jacked. Arnold, jacked. That’s what I thought being a man was.”
It’s conceivable that the likes of Hadzovic have such enormous followings because so many men are now looking for ways to validate their masculinity on the tiny, hand-held screen, instead of the big one. For the muscle-minded, social media is a vast resource. “Liked” images – such as those on Hadzovic’s Instagram page – are the 21st-century equivalent of posters on a teenager’s bedroom wall.
Whether people are following for transformation stories, seeking instruction, or simply out of curiosity, digital fitspiration can be an important part of their lives. Watching the best of the best train, compete and recover is highly motivating. Hadzovic follows nearly 2,000 people and also pays attention to those who follow him. “A lot of my fans aren’t actually bodybuilders,” he claims. “They follow me because they like my personality. They like my never-quit attitude. People get inspired by all sorts of things. I’m not a musician, but I’m inspired when I hear a good song.”
It would be easy to dismiss Hadzovic and other aesthetic bodybuilding stars as oddities. As we duck out of the gym, he asks, “What am I famous for? Having a good body? Anyone can do that.” But, as a living embodiment of a physical ideal, he strives for the same thing all artists do: to develop, to be better, to grow.