Toshio Konuma, 43, is a Japanese bodybuilding legend. He started training at 17 and entered his first competition two years later. He won that, and he's been winning ever since. In 1985, he scaled the pinnacle of Japanese competition, capturing the Mr. Nihon title. Then he won it again in 1987, and held it for the next 13 years straight. Konuma (right), who works as a coach at the Nakano Health Club bodybuilding gym in Tokyo, talks about his experiences as a top bodybuilder -- what it took, what it takes -- and of some of the rough road he's covered along the way.
What got you hooked on bodybuilding?
Simply getting bigger, putting on muscle. It was something every boy wanted, and I had quite a complex about being small. I was the smallest kid in junior high and everyone called me a shrimp. I was weak, too, couldn't even run around the track in elementary school. When I started weight training after taking up boxing, I started packing on muscle and I was hooked.