Old iron, new drugs: The fight for natural muscle
Inside the weight room of the Peshawar Sports Complex, the rhythmic clinking of iron plates reverberates against concrete walls long before the rest of the city awakens. Plates are loaded onto steel bars, mirrors reflect young athletes lifting and pushing weights, and iron hits the floor with thunderous clang. Heavy breathing of the men exercising punctuates the noise of the machinery.
Observing every move of the trainers in the gym is 64-year-old Shiraz Muhammad. He tracks their reps. His catches details that less experienced eyes miss: an elbow flaring out too far during a bench press, a heel lifting slightly off the wooden platform during a heavy squat, or a shoulder rounding under stress. With a quick gesture or a firm word, he steps in to adjust the men’s form.
A lifelong resident of Mohalla Shah Wali Qatal, nestled within the densely packed lanes of the historic old Qissa Khwani area inside Peshawar’s ancient walled city, Shiraz carries the nostalgia of a bygone era. He serves as a veteran coach overseeing bodybuilding, weightlifting, and powerlifting at the sports complex. But to the generations of lifters who pass through these doors, he represents far more than an instructor. He is a living bridge linking Pakistan’s golden age of natural athletic training with today’s fast-paced, modern gym culture.
The fitness landscape has shifted dramatically since he began his training in 1982. At that time Arnold Schwarzenegger was a global icon and growth hormones were not discussed. Fitness and weight lifting were niche hobbies – or rather a passion – for they were only for the few who could commit to live a clean and healthy lifestyle after spending hours at the gym to chisel their bodies.
Over the decades, fitness in Pakistan bloomed into an industry and the original bodybuilders, who trained in the traditional natural discipline, saw the dramatic advancement toward commercialisation and instant physical transformations. The industry increasingly normalised synthetic enhancements, anabolic steroids, and growth hormones among young gym-goers.
The gym facilities when he started training at Qayyum Stadium – part of the Peshawar Sports Complex – during the early 1980s bore little resemblance to today’s air-conditioned commercial fitness clubs. It was essentially an open-air ground equipped with raw, heavy free weights, cast-iron discs, homemade barbells, and sturdy wooden benches. There were no cable pulleys, no padded leg extension machines, and no heart-rate monitors. The training environment was bare, exposed to the elements, and reliant entirely on the grit of the men who gathered there.
Knowledge was limited, but enthusiasm was high. What the young men learned about fitness came from word-of-mouth. Shiraz mentioned his first teacher was Sohail Durrani. “There was no internet then. Our only source of information was bodybuilding magazines,” he said. He and other trainees would visit London Book Depot to buy magazines, sometimes second-hand, for Rs50 each. “They had workout tips for young bodybuilders and we followed them in the absence of proper coaches.” Steroids, growth hormones and even protein powders were unknown in Pakistan then. Diets consisted mainly of eggs and chicken. “Our tools were basic and simple, but our approach was modern. We knew there was no shortcut in bodybuilding.”
During this golden era of international bodybuilding, Schwarzenegger was global pop culture's ultimate muscle icon, celebrated worldwide for his massive frame and cinematic presence. But while many young Pakistani athletes sought to copy Arnold’s sheer mass, Shiraz found his true aesthetic inspiration in a different legend of the era: Frank Zane. Known in the bodybuilding world as "The Chemist" for his meticulous approach to physical sculpture, Frank Zane championed a physique built around razor-sharp conditioning, narrow waistlines, wide shoulders, perfect symmetry, and classic proportion rather than overwhelming bulk.
Dr Sahibzada Mehmood Noor, dean and chief executive officer of the Lady Reading Hospital in Peshawar, has been a student of Coach Shiraz for the past two decades. “There are very well equipped and modern gyms out there but I still go to a government gym at Peshawar Sports Complex because I do not value gym equipment. I focus mainly on the quality of coaching and proper techniques,” Dr Noor said while talking to The Express Tribune.
About the widespread use of drugs by bodybuilders, he said that most people use testosterone hormones for muscle mass. “Our body normally controls production of testosterones. When we take testosterone in large quantities, it disturbs the natural body mechanism. It impacts the natural production of sperm resulting in infertility,” he added. “The long-term use of testosterone can result in diabetes and even death as well,” he said. “Testosterone is a male sex hormone which naturally makes muscles, sperm and is responsible for all of our manly features in the body. On the other hand, anabolic steroids are manufactured and their overdose could be fatal,” he added.
“When you exercise, it naturally increases your muscle mass and subsequently results in increased testosterone production. Exercise burns calories. The more you burn calories, the muscular you become,” he said.
In recent decades, performance enhancement drugs and steroids have developed into an underground black economy.
There are anabolic steroids mostly made from testosterone and in the medical world it is used under the strict supervision of an endocrinologist because of their serious side effects. When non-professional people, like a bodybuilding coach, give it to their trainees, it will result in serious side effects and medical complications, he explained.
Today’s young lifters are constantly bombarded with curated images of hyper-muscular physiques on smartphone screens. This constant visual pressure, combined with a cultural desire for fast results, has created an environment where patience is increasingly rare. In many commercial gyms across urban centres, the traditional emphasis on long-term skill acquisition, progressive overload, and organic muscle building has been replaced by a search for chemical shortcuts.
Anabolic steroids, growth hormones, veterinary compounds, and unverified chemical stacks are now easily accessible to young gym-goers. Eager to pack on massive amounts of muscle mass in a matter of months rather than years, many novitiates jump straight to dangerous pharmaceutical cycles before they have even mastered basic squat or deadlift technique.
When asked about the use of supplements which some people confuse with steroids and performance drugs, Dr Noor said that supplements are totally different from steroids.
“Multivitamins and protein powders are supplements. They are not harmful if you have vitamin deficiency or you want to boost your protein intake,” Dr Noor said, adding that supplements are not performance enhancing drugs and don’t have side effects.
“But we have to be very careful because some manufacturers mix steroids with proteins or other medicines and supplements to make their product more attractive for the end users. So I would recommend going for a reputed brand when using them,” he added.
The nutritional culture
In the 1980s, the modern multi-billion-dollar sports supplement industry had not yet arrived in Pakistan. Commercial protein powders, pre-workout formulas, branched-chain amino acids, and creatine were entirely nonexistent in local markets. Furthermore, performance-enhancing substances like anabolic steroids and human growth hormones were virtually unknown among regional lifters.
Physiques were constructed purely through real food, rest, and hard labour. A bodybuilder’s diet in Karachi or Peshawar was straightforward, unrefined, and rooted in wholesome local foods. Protein came directly from farm-fresh eggs, whole chicken, fresh milk, lentils, and meat-based traditional dishes prepared at home. Carbohydrates were provided by whole wheat rotis, rice, and seasonal fruits. Physical growth was slow, steady, and incremental—built stone by stone over years of consistent natural effort and natural recovery.
“Our 1980s generation of bodybuilders is unique in many ways. Firstly, we were all natural as far as the diet plan is concerned. Secondly, we used free weights which were difficult to master but very effective in building muscles,” Shiraz explained, adding that after entering the gym, he used to do 500 bodyweight squats followed by weighted squats as a trainee.
“Without a proper protein-rich diet, technique and a comprehensive workout plan there will be no progress. A coach will tell you about your workout as well as diet,” he said. At the peak of his training, Shiraz ate 40 eggs and a whole chicken daily and hit the gym three times a day. “We worked two muscle groups in the morning and evening. The noon session was for cardio, which many bodybuilders now consider taboo.”
He stresses that a solid physique requires five years of consistent work. “Today players want results in six months using steroids and growth hormones, which often lead to premature deaths and heart problems. My generation of bodybuilders is still healthy.”
With few coaches available in Peshawar for diet and advanced techniques in the 1980s, he travelled to Lahore once a month to train under Muhammad Azam Bajwa, a former Mr Asia. From 1985 to 1996 his diet was strict: eggs, salad and chicken across five meals a day, with no carbohydrates, milk, yoghurt or bread. The only occasional cheat meal was custard at weddings.
His weight has remained steady at 75 kg from the day he started bodybuilding through his national championship years to date.
Online videos and social media hype
Beyond the rise of performance-enhancing drugs, another dangerous trend has emerged in recent years: young lifters substituting structured, long-term training under a qualified mentor with online video tutorials and social media hype. Over the past two decades, the explosion of social media platforms, digital video channels, and modern commercial fitness centers across Pakistan has transformed traditional bodybuilding into a fast-moving, image-obsessed industry.
Today’s gym-goers are constantly bombarded with online content promising rapid, effortless transformations. “Most people avoid a professional coach these days. Instead, they go for online videos and tutorials which promise a great body within no time,” Shiraz explains. He points out that watching short clips—such as plank exercises or routine breakdown videos—on a mobile screen and attempting to copy them blindly in the gym offers no practical benefit.
“These YouTubers have created an overhype in order to attract as many views as possible to make money,” Shiraz says, stressing that exercise is only one component of a much larger equation. “A coach will tell you about your workout as well as your diet. Proper technique is also very important. Without a proper protein-rich diet, technique, and a comprehensive workout plan, there will be no progress.”
Training without the direct supervision of a veteran coach not only stalls muscle growth but significantly increases the risk of severe injuries, which often causes discouraged beginners to quit the sport altogether. “Over the years, I have noted that by copying YouTube you can increase your stamina despite the risk of severe injuries, but you cannot make a good body because no one is there to correct your mistakes,” Shiraz said. “You need proper angles and proper technique to see growth in your body. As a coach and teacher, I see that only 10 out of 100 people can use a dumbbell properly for a shoulder workout. This is because of YouTube videos, and if your technique is incorrect, you are inviting injuries.”
“By copying YouTube videos, you can increase your stamina despite the risk of severe injuries but you cannot make a good body because no one is there to correct your mistakes,” he argued.
Dr Noor also urges the new generation to return to foundational, natural methods. He advises: “As a doctor, I would suggest that youngsters should not opt for shortcuts and they should go for natural bodybuilding, which is time-consuming but long-lasting.”
In his long coaching career, Shiraz estimates he has trained more than 10,000 women and over 30,000 men. Currently he serves as an official judge of the Bodybuilding Association, vice-president of the Pakistan Weightlifting Federation and president of the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Weightlifting Association. “No one comes to me to learn bodybuilding the old way anymore,” he said, adding that in recent decades he himself mastered the art of using gym machines but still natural bodybuilding techniques advocated and taught by him are seen to be too slow by many people. “Now the concept of using free weights only is almost gone. There are machines which are easy to use. This has changed the technique altogether,” he said.
“The most unfortunate thing is that the natural, original Arnold-style approach has been lost. I advise parents to watch their children,” Shiraz warned. “If they see a major physical change within three months of joining a gym, they should ask questions. A natural body takes three to five years to develop, not three to six months.”