Prologue

Markus Ruhl was born in Darmstadt, Germany on February 22, 1972. His father died when little Markus was just seven years old, leaving his mother, a dressmaker, to raise her two sons and a daughter on her own. Wild and adventurous as a child, Markus was always one of the taller kids for his age and excelled at soccer. American youths thrive on baseball, football, and basketball, but in Germany as in most of Europe, soccer reigns supreme and many a young player dreams of one day representing their nation in the World Cup. Had everything turned out that way for Markus, we would never have known the awesome spectacle of mass that inspires crowds of thousands to join in a hearty chorus of ‘RUUUUHHL!!!’

1990, and construction begins

Markus tells us how it all began in the very beginning of his DVD. As we watch home video footage of a very stocky young Ruhl posing for us in the Hot Skins lycra shorts that were fashionable among meatheads the world over back then, he says:

"I can’t believe it. These pictures are from 1992, and I just training two years when I make these pictures. I started bodybuilding at the age of eighteen years, and I was a very, very small guy because I play soccer ten years before, and my bodyweight was 120 pounds before I go in the gym the first time."

It should be noted that even in this early footage, you can see the genetically weak and strong points that are still clear today with a hundred pounds more muscle. His chest, traps, biceps, and legs were already quite developed, while his lats and particularly triceps lagged behind. In fact, in his side chest pose back then, his triceps flat-out sucked. Rather than being two-thirds of the upper arm, they appeared to comprise less than half the total mass. We then see footage of him outside with his back to a car, grabbing it from underneath and pushing with his legs to lift it a good foot off the ground in a playful stunt. We also see him in the gym using a standing shoulder press machine, quite similar to the one in the footage of him training in 2003 later on. He continues:

"The reason why I go in the gym was my doctor says to me, I have a big injury in my left knee from the soccer, and I have to go in the gym and build some muscles in my left leg, that’s the reason why I go at this time. So when I start training, I will say not bodybuilding, but training for fitness, I don’t want to go on stage one day, or I want to be a professional bodybuilder. I just go to the gym to have fun and be a little bigger than the other guys, or my friends."

As it turned out, Markus quickly grew estranged from his childhood friends, and forged new friendships in the gym with those who shared his interests in getting bigger and stronger. Gradually, as his body expanded and took shape, a new sport called his name.

"So, after five years of training, one day I say to me, I am so big I have to go on stage, and that’s the reason why I go on stage after five years of workout."

Actually, Markus had planned on competing after four years, and had targeted the 1994 Newcomer Championships in Hessen as his first show, but injured his shoulder while preparing for that. It was 1995 when he made his delayed debut at the Bachgau Cup in Babenhausen, winning the Heavyweight and Overall titles at 5-11, 243. Can you imagine that, weighing 243 pounds at your first contest? Even Ronnie Coleman was only about 212 at the same height when he won his first show, the NPC Texas. The next week Ruhl went to the Grosser Preis von Hessen, or the Hessen Grand Prix, and took second in the Heavyweights in a tougher lineup. He knew he needed more size before he was ready to advance to the higher levels of competition beyond his native Germany. For two years, he put everything into his bodybuilding aspirations while working at a Volkswagen car dealership.