Flexing His Muscles

All eyes turn to Jay Cutler as he walks into Gold's Gym for his afternoon workout.

A behemoth of a man with a 60-inch chest, chiseled, 23-inch biceps and legs so muscular they look inhuman, Cutler doesn't appear to notice he's the center of attention for the 20 or so exercisers in the gym. He's too focused on starting the first of two weight sessions on a recent Friday in the northwest valley Gold's.

It's one week before he's scheduled to defend his title as the reigning Mr. Olympia at The Orleans and Cutler is running more on automatic pilot than conscious awareness, some innate drive pushing him through the final days of his grueling preparation for the biggest bodybuilding competition in the world.

At first glance, it may seem that Cutler lives a life of leisure, working out four hours a day and devoting much of his time to his physique. But bodybuilding, Cutler insists, is a full-time job and then some. It also is a lucrative one. If he can win his second title, Cutler stands to receive $155,000 in first-prize money and add additional sponsors to his already-long list.

"People don't realize it's basically a 24 hour-a-day thing," says Cutler, who moved from California to Las Vegas with his wife in 2000. "I get up every day and I have the same issues as everyone else. I just have a different lifestyle. I'm doing this for a living."

Indeed, training for this year's contest started almost immediately after he won his first Mr. Olympia title in 2006. At this level of competition Cutler doesn't have to compete in other tournaments so he devotes all of his time to the Olympia. His precontest preparation began in May.

Four hours in the gym, seven meals and more than 100 supplements a day are the basics of what it has taken for Cutler, 34, to rise to the top of the competitive bodybuilding world.

A typical day for him starts around 8 a.m. One hour on the treadmill or other cardio equipment in his garage is followed by breakfast, 20 egg whites. He used to have to crack those eggs, but, luckily, one of his sponsors is an egg white company that sells buckets of them ready to prepare.

Meal two comes just before his weight session at Gold's. On this recent Friday, Cutler eats 10 ounces of lean steak stir-fried with red peppers and served with two cups of cooked rice.

The mound of food looks overwhelming, but Cutler forks bite after bite into his mouth until it's all gone.

"I'm hungry about three times a day. The rest of the time, I have to force-feed myself," says Cutler, who must consume about 6,500 calories a day to maintain his physique.

That's the equivalent of 11 McDonald's Big Macs; 12 Burrito Supremes from Taco Bell (something Cutler has never eaten); or five whole rotisserie chickens. During the off-season, Cutler supplements meals with thick, high-caloric protein shakes and consumes about 8,000 calories a day. It takes 3,500 calories to create a pound.

Once at Gold's, Cutler becomes all business. His workout routine is always an area of interest to fans. They all ask the same questions: How big are his arms? How much can he bench press? Isn't he afraid of crushing his wife?

The amount of weight lifted doesn't matter, Cutler says. It's what you do with it that counts. For the record, though, he bench presses about 500 pounds, can squat 700 and no, he doesn't worry about weighing more than his wife (at 5-foot-9, his competitive weight is about 270; he weighs more than 300 during the off-season).

Gym member Ira Walker stands near the cable machine, watching Cutler out of the corner of his eye. Walker's a huge fan who idolizes Cutler because the bodybuilder treated his son well when they met during one of his personal appearances.

"He's the epitome of the sport," Walker says, beaming and gawking. "When you see him in magazines, he looks big. When you see him in person, holy cow. He's that much bigger."

He's so big, Cutler says, people naturally think he spends about 10 hours a day in the gym and are dismayed to discover he doesn't. They always want to know, what does he do with his time?

Surprisingly -- or not, if you've ever cooked before -- eating and meal preparation can take up about seven hours a day. Recently, Cutler had to stay up until 4 a.m. so that he could consume all of his meals. Eating the right amount of food is critical to building muscle, he says.

In addition to his 20 egg whites, Cutler will eat more than five pounds of fish in one day. He doesn't like fish but eats it because it's so lean and healthy.

"Sometimes I have to hold my nose while I'm eating it," he says.

Sleep takes up another seven- or eight-hour chunk. That leaves about four hours in the day during which Cutler will handle his business, which includes promotional appearances and sponsorships of everything from workout gloves to weight supplements.

Cutler has probably made more money as a competitive bodybuilder than previous Mr. Olympias, says Peter McGough, editor-in-chief of Muscle and Fitness magazine.

He has pursued sponsors, started his own fitness clothing line and won 14 pro contests, McGough says. Four of those had prize money of at least $100,000.

But Cutler says he doesn't do it for the money anymore. At 18, he dreamed of becoming the best bodybuilder in the world. Once he wins a couple of more Mr. Olympias, he'll think of retiring.

About a week out from the show, Cutler feels a little lonely and out of touch with reality. He has cut off all of his friends and socializing to prepare for the contest.

"We live in a very small box to do what we do," Cutler says. "It's very solitary. I rely on my wife very, very much when I'm training."

At this point, he's thinking of nothing but repeating his win. To do so, he'll have to perform a four-minute posing routine to music.

Cutler has a good chance of doing that, McGough says. The title holder often has an advantage over other contestants; that, combined with his stellar conditioning could very well have him winning his second Mr. Olympia.

"Winning last year sort of enhanced him as a competitor. He's going to have a certain confidence," says McGough, who interviewed Cutler when he was 23. "His legs are just like an anatomical chart, they're huge and split. He's very wide, almost as wide as he is tall."