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Drinking this after almost every workout over the past 4 months has seemed to help me to put on additional muscle mass, and seem to crave it now if I don’t have it, but it is hard to quantify the results.

Recommended!

CFH

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Not since Jack Fritcher penned the hot muscle-sex between Ryan and Kick in “Some Dance to Remember” has muscle-sex reappeared in all its glory as in “Muscle Bound” by David Marlow. It’s as if the author hoists a 45 pounder, dashes it to the gym floor, and shouts “I’m in” to the world of muscle obsession, hot n sweaty muscle sex, and muscle worship as it it known by gay men who work out. And what a welcome addition this novel is! David Marlow is the acclaimed author of a half dozen or so other novels, but this is his first entry focused on the gay community.

Chase Hyde, aka Coach, is a very real and lovable character totally dedicated to body-building who holds his feelings close to this massive pecs as he wends his way through the mysteries of relationships, but mostly avoiding them as a self-described “romosexual.” Then one day Hunter Rowe enters the picture and breaks through his defenses, but not without persistence and deception. An extended back story appears in the third section of the book that details a relationship with one Christian Falconer, a relationship that struggles for survival. [...] exacts sweet revenge later in this page-turner of a novel. Hated to see it end! Sequel! Sequel! Sequel!

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Being in Shape

Amos Lassen

Chase Hyde did not have plans to settle down and in this way he was different from his friends. He had a beautiful body and could get who he wanted when he wanted. He called himself a “roamasexual” and he feared that settling down with one guy would make him unavailable to others. There was lust everywhere, so who needed love?

Then Chase met Hunter online. Hunter was an executive on Madison Avenue and a bodybuilder like Chase. However he wanted to be involved with someone. What the two men shared was a passion for muscle and soon Chase found himself involved with Hunter. But wait–it is not all that simple.

For sure, there is a lot of sex here and it is described intensely. As for the characters, I am not sure I liked then but they sure pulled me in.

Chase makes a living writing and from rental property but he really spends all of his time working on his body. He not only loves his muscles, he loves everyone’s muscles. When Hunter sees Chase’s picture and profile online, he decides that he is the man for him. Of course, the two men hit it off but Hunter becomes sappy and it seems that Chase has moved on and we get the story of Christian, the only other man Chase had ever been involved with. Then we go back to Hunter. We do come back to Christian for a twist at the end of the story.

Marlowe is a good writer but this reads disjointedly.

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I initially thought the love story of two bodybuilders obsessed with building muscle would be somewhat comical, although comedy is not frequently found in gay fiction. I found little comedy in “Muscle Bound,” and lots of descriptive gay sex, but I also found the characters, while not always likeable, wholly engrossing.

The novel begins with Chase Hyde, a Californian muscle hunk in his late forties who lives by writing novels and renting out property; but most of Chase’s life is obsessed with bodybuilding and bodybuilders. Chase loves muscles, on himself and other men. He loves to work out and he loves when other men admire him. He is a self-described “roamosexual” who finds other men to have muscle sex with while refusing to be involved in a long-term relationship with a man. Enter Hunter Rowe, a twenty-something bodybuilder and New York corporate executive. Hunter discovers Chase’s online profile and instantly believes Chase is the muscle daddy he has been looking for, his coach whom he can worship and who can give him the exciting, brutal, frightening muscle sex for which he longs.

The two bodybuilders meet and hit it off. Hunter becomes needy, sappy, and annoying to the reader, but Chase puts up with the affection, while deciding whether he wants to become more involved with Hunter. The reader is then taken into the story of Christian Falconer, the only man Chase previously had a relationship with, to understand why Chase has difficulty becoming emotionally intimate with Hunter. At this point, I found the novel disjointed because the author starts out with the birth of Christian and tells his life story through the entire middle third of the novel, some 120 or so pages, without even referencing Chase. I kept wondering why all this character background was needed, but at the same time, I was interested in Christian’s own bodybuilder story, his denial of his latent homosexuality and the messy situations he got himself into. Once Christian’s story is told, including the brief time he spent with Chase, the novel returns to Hunter and Chase’s romantic story, although Christian will show up again later.

As I said above, I found the characters, except for Chase, not very likeable. I also thought the gay sex was overdone in parts. Throughout the novel, I kept waiting for some twist in the plot beyond just watching two men making out. The twist comes at the end, but this book is very long; the 350-pages of small print made it feel nearly twice that long. That said, I kept reading. I would have a hard time defining “Muscle Bound” as a well-plotted and crafted novel, but David Marlow is a good writer who keeps his reader’s interest. At times, I thought the characters very shallow, and often stupid, their obsession with bodybuilding making them take steroids they know will hurt them, and their addiction to muscle sex putting them in potentially dangerous situations. In some ways, I found the book sad because of the characters’ insecurities. Christian, especially, had his demons to battle, being in denial of his homosexuality, wanting to pretend he was straight, and struggling with his muscle obsession and its contradictions with his Christian beliefs.

Despite the characters’ flaws, and the book’s disjointed organization, I wanted to know what would happen, and I give Marlow much credit for keeping me interested. Nor was I disappointed. I found the ending immensely satisfying. “Muscle Bound” by David Marlow is an interesting look into the mixed motivations of bodybuilders, revealing the dark side of the sport and ultimately affirming one must be true to himself.

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i have never tried Orthotics before so i did not know what to expect when i put them in my shoes. they fit snugly in my size 13 shoe and when i tried them out for an 8 hour shift at work it felt like i had only worked 4 of those 8 hours… usually my feet are killing my but the time im done.

thank you Dr Scholl’s for a GREAT product!