Bodybuilders are employed as fitness trainers, product endorsers, fitness
product salespeople, nutrition specialists, models and media personalities.
Bodybuilders need to have lots of discipline, follow specific nutritional
guidelines and undergo hard physical training. Muscles are sculpted to exact
requirements, and long hours in the gym reward bodybuilders with physiques
that resemble finely crafted works of art.
Wayne Demilia, a vice-president with an international bodybuilding group,
says there are only about 130 top-ranked male professional bodybuilders in
the world. Another 50 are female. These are the elite of the sport. There
are 25 top-ranked bodybuilders from the U.S.
The peak year for female professional bodybuilders was 1985, says Demilia.
Since then, the number of female professional bodybuilders has dwindled. Whereas
female bodybuilders had smoother physiques in the '80s, now the trend is more
pumped-up, masculine bodies.
According to the International Federation of Bodybuilders, to reach the
top ranks of professional bodybuilding you must win your country's national
bodybuilding title or the international title in amateur bodybuilding.