My very first weight workout and I’d injured my back! It wasn’t a very propitious start to a bodybuilding career. But the pain soon went away and I set about learning correct exercise form so I wouldn’t injure myself again. Soon I was training regularly, growing stronger and progressively more muscular each passing week.

Because my brother-in-law was my role model, my first interest was in weight lifting. Whenever I couldn’t accompany him to the gym, I’d work out in a makeshift home gym that I installed on the roof of my parents’ house. After about six months of training, I won the Lebanese Junior (under 20) Weight-lifting Championship in my weight class, which only made me more enthusiastic about pumping heavy iron.

Noting an improvement in my health and fitness, my parents soon allowed me to go to the gym by myself. It was the Strength and Health Gym, which was owned by Malieh Alywan, then the International Federation of Body Builders’ (IFBB) Vice President for the Middle East. Malieh was a former bodybuilder and still very enthusiastic about that sport. When I was 16, he and his brother Mounir (the gym’s trainer) predicted a great future for me as a bodybuilder, because I had naturally good body proportions and muscularity. By then I weighed only 110 pounds, but they still recognized that I had the correct genetics for bodybuilding.

The Alywans also published a magazine called The Star of the Sport, which was the bodybuilding journal for Lebanon and the Arab countries. I was greatly inspired by the photos and stories of famous bodybuilders in their magazine, but was still interested only in competitive weight lifting. Bodybuilders, I felt, weren’t true athletes, a belief that was soon to be challenged.

In April 1973, I was killing time at a newsstand, waiting for the start of a film I wished to see. Just by chance I noticed the cover of Muscle Builder & Power, the forerunner of Muscle & Fitness. Arnold Schwarzenegger was on the cover and I was totally awed by how huge and muscular he looked. The magazine was imported from America and extremely expensive, but I forgot about the movie and purchased it anyway.

Even though I couldn’t read the English text of the magazine, I was tremendously inspired by the photos of America’s greatest bodybuilders, men like Schwarzenegger (who soon became my lifelong hero in bodybuilding), Franco Columbu, Dave Draper, Frank Zane, Ken Waller, and all of the other greats who trained at Gold’s Gym in Venice, California. The magazine convinced me to forget about weight lifting and concentrate solely on bodybuilding, so I went back to the newsstand every month to purchase the new issue and reaffirm my love for bodybuilding.

I’d never seen a bodybuilder in Lebanon that compared with the Americans, and one glance through the magazine gave me incredible inspiration for each of my workouts. I progressed rapidly in my new sport. I even went to the magazine distributor’s warehouse to see if they had back issues of Muscle Builder & Power. I was such and enthusiastic and polite kid that they took pity on me and gave me about 20 old magazines. I was so excited by this gesture that I wouldn’t have taken a million dollars in exchange for my new hoard of muscle mags.

Gradually I added to my collection of magazines - still unable to read them - and purchased used weights and other equipment to upgrade my home gym. At first I trained totally incorrectly, though. I’d work out in the morning before school, again during my lunch break, and then again after school. By all rights I should have become overtrained, but I loved the sport so much that I actually continued to improve my physique.

In school I had learned French rather than English, and so decided to teach myself English so I could actually read the articles in my magazines. It didn’t make sense to look at the photos every day without being able to read the articles, so I bought an English dictionary and set to work, I was so fanatical about bodybuilding that I learned functional English in record time. Unfortunately, I ignored my school studies in the process.

My parents noticed my declining grades and my father tried to discourage me from spending so much time on bodybuilding. He encouraged me to keep up with my schoolwork so I’d have something to fall back on if I didn’t succeed as a competitive bodybuilder. I didn’t take his advice very gracefully at the time, but now I understand how right he was. There are thousands of bodybuilders who don’t have the genetic makeup to become successful professionals, but unwittingly throw away everything in life in their futile attempt to reach the top. When they fail, they have only hollow lives to sustain them. This is a good lesson to learn to avoid making the same mistake.

I was positive even at the age of 16 or 17 that I had the genetic potential to go all the way in bodybuilding. So I compromised with my father by studying more while still keeping up with my dedicated workouts. But I found it difficult to "hold two watermelons in one hand" and was thankful to finish school so I could devote all my energies to bodybuilding.

After a few months of serious bodybuilding, I had made dramatic progress and blew everyone off the stage at the Mr. Beirut competition. I then lost by one point to Toufik Saad at the Mr. Lebanon competition. Saad was much older and had been training for more than 10 years, however, so I felt no disgrace in losing to him. I did, however, resolve to defeat him the next time we met.

At that point Malieh Alywan told me that if I kept improving he would place me on the Lebanese team for the IFBB Mr. Universe competition. That prospect inspired me so much that I lived, ate, slept, and dreamed of nothing but bodybuilding for the next month. As a result, I improved so much for the Mr. Universe team pose down that I defeated Toufik Saad and everyone else in Lebanon. I was elated, because I would be traveling to Verona, Italy, to compete in the Mr. Universe show, an event I hadn't even known existed a year before.

At Verona I placed seventh in my class, by far the youngest man in the competition at 18 years of age. Malieh Alywan began calling me the Teenage Mr. Universe after that, even writing a story about my success in his magazine.

The Verona competition left an indelible impression on me because it was the first time I was able to see a few of the greats of bodybuilding in the flesh. I met Lou Ferrigno, Ken Waller, Bob Birdsong, Paul Grant, and Ahmet Enunlu, each of whom who'd eventually go on to win at least one world title. Birdsong was in my own class and I was astonished by his muscle mass and extreme hardness. I could never have dreamed I would one day be able to defeat Bob, but eventually I did.

The Verona experience convinced me that I had to get to America. The standard of physiques was of the highest order in America, and everything else was first class. Many bodybuilders from other countries made it big internationally only after moving to California to train.

Americans had gone to the moon, had incredible technology, an incredible society, incredible everything. I concluded that I'd only make it to the top of bodybuilding by living and training in America and more specifically in Venice and Santa Monica, California, where most of the best pro bodybuilders were located.

I began to investigate the possibility of moving to America. I was determined to move to California and once I make up my mind to reach a goal I invariably do, regardless of the roadblocks impeding my progress. My first obstacle was the prohibitive cost of going to America, but I did have sufficient funds to travel to Europe and explore bodybuilding outside Lebanon for the first time.

I initially went to England and trained for a time at the London gym of Len Sell, who had won two NABBA Mr. Universe titles. Albert Beckles and Roy Duval, two other Mr. Universe winners, were training there at the time which gave me a chance to observe the training methods of bodybuilders who were far superior to anyone in my home country. As good as the British bodybuilders were, they still lagged behind the Americans, and I continued to harbor my dream of going to California to train.

On the way home I stopped in Spain and trained at the gyms of Baldo Lois and Salvador Ruiz in Madrid. I was beginning to see bodybuilding around the world, an odyssey that would eventually take me to compete or guest pose in more than 40 countries. But I still had a burning desire to get to America.

In 1975, I won the Mr. Lebanon title and qualified to compete at the IFBB Mr. Universe show in South Africa. Unfortunately, the political situation in South Africa kept the Lebanese team at home. The government wouldn't allow us to depart. I was stunned by the decision, initially feeling that I'd wasted a year of hard training. But I have developed an ability to turn adversity into a positive drive toward success, so I was soon back in heavy training for the next Mr. Universe title.

My chance to reach America finally came in 1976 after I competed in the IFBB Mr. Universe show in Montreal. I met some friends from Michigan and they invited me to visit them. I went to Detroit on my visitor's visa and immediately made plans to receive my green card for permanent residence in the United States; the land that I knew held great promise for me.

My first impulse in Michigan was to hop on an airplane for Los Angeles. My friends suggested I settle for a while in Detroit before moving to California. It was a good plan and I ended up living in Michigan for a little over two years, working in an auto assembly plant to support myself.

In 1977, I placed second in my class to the Austrian Walter Bubinicek in the IFBB Mr. International contest at Columbus, Ohio. The next year 1978 I won Mr. Michigan and returned to Columbus for the International. Again I placed second, this time to Californian Roger Callard, a former Mr. America. I felt I should have won, but accepted the judges' decision.

At the 1978 International I met Bill Reynolds, who was then editor-in-chief of Muscle & Fitness magazine. Bill interviewed me for my first article in an American bodybuilding magazine, christening me "The Lion of Lebanon". The nickname became very popular with my fans, who have sent me literally hundreds of lions from around the world - stuffed lions, lion statuettes, paintings of lions, lion etchings, and even a doorknob shaped like the head of a lion. Bill felt I had the potential to one day become Mr. Olympia.

Another man who encouraged me greatly was Mike Mentzer, Mr. America, Mr. Universe, and soon to be runner-up in the 1979 Mr. Olympia show. Already one of the world's greatest bodybuilders, Mike had guest posed at the Mr. Michigan competition, which I won. Mike could see my potential and told me I would one day become a Mr. Universe and perhaps even a Mr. Olympia. He predicted I would become an all-time great, which inspired me to train even harder than before.

After the 1978 International, George Turner invited me to move to St. Louis to manage his gym and train for the Universe. Compared with my dull job at the Ford Motor company plant, this was an irresistible offer. I moved to St. Louis but didn't forsake my dream of living and training in California. I remained with George Turner for only a few months, however, before I was overwhelmed by my California dream. Again packing my possessions, I realized one of my greatest ambitions by moving to California in early 1979.

I felt at home immediately and eked out a living through personal training and writing articles for Joe Weider, until I was able to land a few posing exhibitions. I trained like a madman for the upcoming IFBB Universe in Columbus, Ohio, a city that had become a hotbed for bodybuilding competitions through the promotional efforts of Arnold Schwarzenegger and Jim Lorimer. A visa foul-up had scrapped my plans to compete against my friend, Tom Platz, at the 1978 Universe in Acapulco, so I felt 1979 would be my year.

In August 1979, I geared up for the Universe by winning the IFBB Mr. World title in Warrington, Pennsylvania, defeating Greg DeFerro and several other very good American amateurs. It felt good to become Mr. World, but I couldn't become complacent after my victory. The IFBB Universe was less than a month away.

The 1979 Mr. Universe competition was held in conjunction with the Mr. International and Mr. Olympia contests, making the overall show one of the greatest in bodybuilding history. My most formidable competition came from Ron Teufel, who had the Teenage Mr. America and Mr. USA titles to his credit. Ron was in great shape, but I had also done my homework and won the IFBB Mr. Universe title, reaching a goal I had set six years before.

Immediately turning professional, I competed in the Canada Cup at Hamilton, Ontario late in 1979, placing sixth with Chris Dickerson winning the first of his many IFBB pro titles. Between late 1979 and the fall of 1982 I had an up and down career, competing at every opportunity, looking great in one show and terrible in the next.

I consistently placed low at the most important shows because of a mysterious water-retention problem. It took more than three years of careful observation and investigation to discover the root of my problem and ensure optimum condition for every show. I'm a very intense competitor and was building up too much personal stress before each show. When I was overly stressed by an upcoming competition, my body reacted to the stress by releasing large quantities of the hormone aldosterone, which caused my body to hoard sodium. In turn the sodium retained excess water, which blurred out my best cuts (the grooves between and across each major muscle group).

I finally discovered a method of circumventing the aldosterone problem. Part of the plan was to learn to relax more. But more importantly, I learned to consume relatively large amounts of sodium up to 3 days prior to a competition which would dampen the aldosterone output. Then I went to very low sodium for three days. In only three days, the aldosterone release couldn't kick back in and I was able to free my body of sodium and water, coming in ripped to shreds for every show.

My first real success with the anti-aldosterone plan came at the 1982 Mr. Olympia show at Wembley, England. I placed fourth, much higher than I'd finished in previous Olympias. I personally felt the show was between Casey Viator and myself, but we must always accept judging decisions gracefully. Casey ended up in third place, while Frank Zane was second and Chris Dickerson first.

The ultimate goal of my lifetime was finally reached when I won the 1983 Mr. Olympia title at Munich, West Germany. I had been a little more ripped the previous year, which means that almost all my cuts showed. But I was more massive in 1983, so in total I was in my best all-time shape. Winning the Mr. Olympia title was an incredibly sublime experience.

You can be sure that the Lion of Lebanon will roar again. My love of bodybuilding has never been greater than it is today!