Shoulders. Legs. Arms. Chest and back.

This is how Josh Darling sees his body-in sections. Sections that he isolates and works to perfect. The arms? He begins bulky-with a 100-pound barbell. Then he tapers the weight so he can sculpt his body with higher repetitions. He repeats the routine for the triceps. Tomorrow it will be legs. The same principle always applies -heavy weights, then sculpting. After the workout, he goes to cardiovascular training. Darling, a 5-foot-9, 205-pound exercise sports sciences major, works out five days a week (sometimes more).

His daily goal: To burn at least 1,000 calories.

His major motivation: Bigger muscles.

"I always thought I should look more muscular than the average guy," Darling says, "because I don't consider myself average."

But on campus, the average guy is just like Darling-men who will do just about anything to build, sculpt and ultimately show off the perfect body.

Over the blaring rock music in the O'Connell Center basement gym is a common sound-the dinging of weights and the grunting of lifters. Every afternoon and night, they're doing bench presses and squats, curls and crunches. They wear tank tops and shorts. They look at themselves in the mirror and flex. Almost all of them are men.

Corthney Daniel, a computer science major, is often one of them. Self-described as skinny, he completes 90-minute workout sessions on Tuesdays and Thursdays to gain weight and build muscle mass. Despite citing the health benefits of exercise, he says the reason he works out is becasue of the effect it has on his appearance-specifically his upper body.

"You can get away with not having a big chest if you have a six-pack," he says.

But Daniel also says that working out is important for other reasons, like self-confidence. He says that being overweight or skinny is sometimes inaccurately associated with weakness and laziness. That can have a great effect on a student's life on campus, says Dr. Jamie Funderburk, clinical assistant professor and a licensed psychologist at UF's Counseling Center.

"Anyone will feel anonymous among 40,000 students on [UF's] campus. Being one person among many puts more weight on how you look and affects your opportunit[ies] to meet people. Appearance may become insignificant when you start developing friendships but is important early on," she says.

Men's identities are tied to notions of their ability to attract mates, individuality issues such as overall success, career achievements and self-confidence, says Helen Bowden, graduate student coordinator for Student Mental Health. Thinner or overweight men may tend to have negative body images and feel they are less masculine, she says.

Brandon Reid, a sophomore in the College of Health Science, says that society is the compelling force behind body image concepts. "The perfect body is not the norm, but it's what everybody looks up to." He says a culture's celebrities, sports figures and role models contribute to men's perceptions of how to look and ultimately how to start relationships.

"Personality counts, but the first thing people see is what is attractive and looks good, then they get to know the person. You're not going to get a phone number to find out what [a person's] personality is like. Looks are what is important."

Reid believes more muscle translates into more girls, and that's the equation that motivates him.

To build the perfect body, men typically use excercise. But the rise of supplements, energy boosters and other nutritional products has followed the increased participation in weight training and sports. Three of the most popular ingredients include:

˜Creatine. It's supposed to boost strength levels, increase muscle size and strengthen and prevent muscle tissue break-down that may follow strenuous exercise. Naturally produced in the liver to provide energy to muscles, the supplement further increases the chemicals' level in the body and is said to produce more power during short, intensive activities.

˜Ephedrine. It's usually combined with caffeine and aspirin and claims to increase fat and calorie burning rates. This increase in the body's metabolism makes its users feel stronger and is supposed to enable them to lift more and burn fat faster. Darling, who uses a version of ephedrine called Rip Fuel, says it brings his heart rate up, increases his body temperature and make him more apt to exercise. He takes it before he does cardiovascular workouts to get an "aerobic feeling."

˜ZMA, zinc monomethionine aspartate. It's combined with a magnesium compound and used to enhance testosterone levels. The increase in testosterone is said to augment strength and boost muscle growth and definition.

With the availability of so many new supplements and drugs, Funderburk says abuse of these substances and excessive exercising are becoming more common in men. In extreme cases, men develop body image disorders.

One such disorder, known as muscle dysmorphia, is characterized by excessive weight lifting and/or other exercise and inaccurate perceptions of the body. A man with muscle dysmorphia may be big and extremely muscular yet see himself as small, frail and weak. Men may also develop eating disorders, such as anorexia and bulimia, in which they restrict eating to achieve a certain weight or purposely regurgitate food. An estimated 10 percent of men suffer from eating disorders.

Body image issues, though, have been stereotyped as problems almost exclusively plaguing women. As a result, men have to handle the mounting pressure to look good virtually alone. Now that men have joined women in the quest to obtain the ever-elusive ideal body, mental health professionals are looking at the source of this obsession-mainly the media. Funderburk says that even action figures have changed to reflect the supposed ideal. In 1964, G. I. Joe was smaller than six feet tall with 12-inch biceps, but now he's a muscle-bound male with 27-inch biceps.

Josh Darling, though, doesn't blame the pressure from society for his view on body image. "There is pressure from me on society," not the other way around, he says. Why? Because people who do not exercise and "let themselves go" do not appeal to him.

And that's why he continues to work out five days a week, why he lifts the weights, and why ends his day the way he does.
With a high-carbohydrate and high-protein shake.