The Body Shop: Parties, Pills, and Pumping Iron -- Or, My Life in the Age of Muscle

In a matter of months, he grew from a dorky beanpole into a hulking behemoth, showing off his rock hard muscles first on the streets of New York City and then alongside his colorful gym-rat friends in strip clubs and in the homes of the gotham elite. It was a swinging time, when "Would you like to dance?" turned into "Your place or mine?" and the guys with the muscles had all the ladies — until their bodies, like Solotaroff's, completely shut down.

But this isn't the gloom-and-doom addicti...