THE CITY GYM BOYS ARE KNOWN FOR APPEARING AT parades and festivals across New York City—from the Puerto Rican Day Parade on Fifth Avenue, to the Brazilian Day Festival, to the African-American Day Parade in Harlem. The fun starts when we get off the subway, carrying our backpacks, and find a quiet side street and start stripping down, looking to get that quick pump. People start walking by, doing double takes, totally confused: Who are those guys?
We were Clark Kents on the subway. We’re about to turn into Supermen.
Now, on the sidewalk, everyone gets into their own zone. We’ve got our music on in our headphones, and we start doing what we each have to do to get a nice pump, get the blood flowing. We start working out. Some of us are doing pull-ups on scaffolding. Some of us are doing push-ups on the sidewalk. It’s like getting ready for the Super Bowl. It’s physical, and it’s mental. You can feel the adrenaline.
Then, finally, we take off the shirts and rub on the cocoa-butter cream, and by that time people are gathering around, going crazy.
These parades and festivals go on for hours and hours. We know from the moment we take the shirts off that we won’t have a moment to ourselves until we put our shirts back on. There’ll be packs of girls, and boys, people of all ages, following after us, whistling, cheering, amazed. At the Brazilian Day Festival, people are wondering, “Are they Brazilian?” At the Colombian Independence Day Festival, they’re saying, “Are they Colombian?” The truth is, demographically and ethnically, our group consists of a little bit of everyone.
But the whole group doesn’t get to crash the festivals or do the modeling gigs or work at the schools. Not all of the guys who approach us to be part of the group understand what it takes to be a City Gym Boy. There’s the looks, of course. But there’s a lot more: the physical and mental dedication. The passion for community service. The weekly commitment to volunteering at the Boys & Girls Club of Harlem.
And, of course, no drugs. I interviewed a guy from the gym recently, a guy I’ve known a long time. He wanted to be in the group. But I saw that his body had changed—likely due to steroids. I said to him, “You know, our guys have to be clean. And it’s better if you let me know, ‘cause you can stop.”
So he confessed: He’d done a photo shoot and admitted to doing a cycle of testosterone. “Just once,” he said. “To make me feel better emotionally.”
I couldn’t let him join the team. It’s difficult to turn down a friend. But if you’re using, I’ll tell you right at the start that this is not acceptable within the City Gym Boys. Our goal is to train hard in the gym and create a bangin’ physique the old-fashioned, natural way. We’re not about fleeting overnight success—we’re about hard work.
You don’t want to be strolling along 135th Street during the Harlem Week festival, basking in your moment of glory, knowing that you use enhancement drugs. You’d be cheating not only yourself but also all of those people in the ‘hood who are looking to you for inspiration.
When I was competing in bodybuilding, I felt the pressure from a lot of people to get big quicker. I never gave into that. I never felt that I would be me if I used enhancement to win. It wasn’t a question of the potential guilt. I just never felt like I needed to do anything unnatural. I said no to it then, and I say no to it now.
Steroids are always an option in my world, but for me and the City Gym Boys it isn’t.
Truth is, I have never done any kind of drug in my life. I’m not into experimenting. Never smoked a joint, never done a line of coke—that’s just not the kind of person I am. I was never the person to say, “I’ll try it.” I was always the one to say, “I don’t think so.” And that feeling just gained momentum. It was like working out: The more I kept saying no, the more I knew I would always say no.
When I was younger, it was coming at me so much that I found that the more I said no, the more I was proving to myself that I was a strong person. The fact that I was doing so well in the competitions helped, too. I was not getting first place against drug users, but I would get second or third. I felt that if I was beating a lot of the guys who were juiced, even if I didn’t get the top prize, in my world I’m really winning because I’m 100 percent natural.
Medically, it’s been proven: The path of steroids is a risky one. The younger City Gym Boys are already trained to go natural, because the public schools have wisely started to preach against the drugs in health classes.
The natural path to fitness is the road to take. And if you have any doubt, all you have to do is look at the faces of the people who approach us at the festivals. They see bodies that are perfectly proportioned, not ballooned and grotesque. They see smooth skin, not acne pockmarks. Their admiration is a whole lot more satisfying than a trophy. It’s the most incredible feeling when we turn a corner and start to walk through a crowd, and people’s eyes make their way toward us.
But the funny thing is, after awhile it’s not so much about ego anymore. It’s more like, “I have to continue this”—for them, not for myself. You’re changing peoples’ lives. After all the time in the gym, when you actually take it out there onto the street and realize how impressive and inspiring you are to others, that’s when it becomes clear that you can’t stop. You have a mission: to get as many people as possible to want to follow your path.
“Your body can be anything you want it to be”
And so you’ll be going back to the gym. It becomes a cycle, a cycle of work and pleasure. More time in the gym means a more effective show at the parades and festivals, where people keep coming up and saying things like, “I love what you’re doing,” and, “I guess I have to join a gym.” And even if they’re saying that jokingly, you can tell that you’ve already made a difference—especially when they approach you thinking you must be doing some amazing, unreal workout, and you tell them that they can start changing their own lives with a few simple body weight workouts and a new commitment to activity.
It’s hard for anybody to see a group of attractive cut guys walking down the street, with crowds of men and women drawn like filings to a magnet, and not be reminded that maybe they themselves ought to be spending five or ten minutes a day on a treadmill. When you’re not at your own best and you see six guys with six-packs who are where you’d want to be in your fantasy, it gives you motivation to achieve your fitness goals.
I’m here to tell you that your body can be anything you want it to be, and when your body is at its peak, your brain benefits, too.
SPEAKING OF “BRAINS,” I met Jelani at a festival in Harlem. He’s a sophomore at Williams College and a graduate of the Ethical Culture Fieldston School—one of the most prestigious prep schools, with more famous alumni than you can count (including New York Times executive editor Jill Abramson and John Lennon’s son Sean).
When he’s not in school, you’ll usually find him by my side in one of our middle-of-the-night workouts at J’s Big Gym in Washington Heights, surrounded by guys who might have never finished high school, or who might be finishing up a tough day at the brokerage. The late-night gym community isn’t concerned with where you’re from or how much you make. It’s a sanctuary for those who want to work hard and shape their body.
This is a young guy with his eye on the prize. I have a feeling that Jelani might be the next name on that boldfaced Fieldston alumni list.