David Lyons rips his muscles over and over, lacerating tissue and tearing fiber. Beads of sweat pool at his temples and dribble down his chin. He grates his teeth. He grunts and continues to wreak havoc on his body.

Lyons works out for about an hour a day, at least five days a week — each repetition with the weights shredding his muscles. It’s a natural process called hypertrophy, and Lyons uses it to bulk up. The 55-year-old Los Angeles resident is preparing for a bodybuilding competition in December. These contests of physique attract musclemen from across the U.S. who are looking for fame and prizes. For Lyons, the motivation is internal.

Lyons was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis at 47 after numbness in his limbs prompted him to see a doctor. Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a chronic condition that affects more than 2 million people worldwide. The disease destroys the outer coating of nerves, like melting away the plastic covering on a power cord.

Without this protective layer, nerves can’t communicate with the brain. Because of the disconnect, people with MS often experience debilitating fatigue, cognitive lapses, numbness, balance problems, and chronic pain. These symptoms make training for a bodybuilding competition grueling both physically and mentally.

Lyons winces and does another repetition, defying the ache, the fatigue, and the numbness. The bodybuilding challenge is his way of proving that he can overcome his MS-related limitations.

“I stopped focusing on the pain. I stopped focusing on the fact that my leg was dragging and that I had to strap my arms onto the weights so that I wouldn’t drop them,” Lyons said.

“You have to take your mind off of the disease,” he added. “I’m doing something to overcome this.”

Battling MS at the Gym

This isn’t Lyons’ first time training for a bodybuilding competition. In 2009, he competed in the Florida State Bodybuilding Championship and won a prize for most inspirational bodybuilder. Today, Lyons has corporate sponsors and fans, but back when he first announced that he wanted to body build as an MS patient, his fitness trainer, Darren Barnes, didn’t know if it was possible.

“People with MS don't do bodybuilding,” Barnes said. “His doctors warned him against it, and they told him he was going to end up in a wheelchair.”

But Lyons isn’t the type to sit still, even when fatigue and pain are added to the equation. Training with Lyons is like working out with the Energizer Bunny. He just won’t quit. His wife, Kendra Lyons, a registered nurse in the Los Angeles area, said his dedication to staying fit borders on religious.

“He's the most disciplined person I've ever met,” Lyons said.

“We just went through an episode where he wasn't feeling good. He doesn't like to admit it and talk about it,” she added. “The way he battles it is he gets up and goes to the gym no matter what.”

Building Muscle and Self-Confidence

Building muscle is a counterintuitive process — in order to bulk up, Lyons has to break himself down. When Lyons works out at the gym, he literally rips his muscles. The damaged muscles trigger an immune system response, which comes in to remove the broken material and tells nearby muscle cells to start promoting development. The new muscle grows back stronger and more resilient.

“All we do in the gym is break our muscles down — we're trying to rebuild stronger,” Barnes said.

Despite his fortitude and resilience at the gym, Lyons hasn’t always been so self-assured. When he was first diagnosed, the former boxer and martial artist broke down — but he didn’t rebuild. Suffering from mood swings and depression, Lyons went through a divorce and began living alone. The disease attacked his body full force, and he went from 190 pounds of muscle to about 160 pounds of “mush” in just a year and a half.

“When people are diagnosed with a disease like this,” Lyons said, “they face the mirror, and they ask, ‘Why me?’ and ‘Why do I have to deal with this?’”

“There were doubts,” he added. “There were questions and the ‘Why?’ and ‘God, if you’re really with me why would this happen to me?’”

Lyons isn’t alone. Mood swings are common for people with MS, and it’s a difficult symptom to add to the list. Depression, like muscle building, tears you down.

When muscles are torn during exercise, they start sending out “inhibitory neural feedback,” signals that tell the brain to stop movement. Neural feedback is important because it prevents muscles from overextending themselves to the point of injury. As the body adjusts to intense exercise, the feedback response slows, and bodybuilders are able to work out harder and longer.

Stop exercising for an extended period of time, and the process reverses. Muscles weaken and tell the brain they’re ready to quit after just a short period of time. Workouts are just as mental as they are physical, Barnes said.

Rebuild Stronger

In the end, Lyons made a conscious decision that “he wasn't willing to accept the MS breaking him down without being able to rebuild stronger,” Barnes added.

The rebuild brought along some changes. Lyons got help from friends. He remarried. He wrote a book, and he went to the gym almost every day. He credits bodybuilding with saving his life. Now he’s sponsoring a Multiple Sclerosis Fitness Challenge that provides personalized workouts for homebound multiple sclerosis patients in Los Angeles area.

“I would see patients a little worse off than Dave who would never enter the gym because they would wobble,” Kendra Lyons said. “We want to inspire others to get out.”

Just Do Something

All that exercise has paid off. Lyons is ripped. Look at the cover of his book, and his muscles seem to pop out of the frame. But it’s not enough. In just a few months, Lyons will be back on stage for another bodybuilding competition.

Lyons continues to pump iron, and the veins in his neck stand out, making a road map that explores the side of his face.

For Lyons, the workouts aren’t really about the size of his muscles, and they’re not about awards. Bodybuilding is a chance to show other multiple sclerosis patients that nothing is impossible. Anyone can turn a breakdown into a rebuild.

“Sometimes things don’t work out perfectly in my life, and many times there are trials that you look at and don’t think you can overcome,” Lyons said. “All I tell people with MS is to do something — it doesn’t have to be bodybuilding.”

“You could try to get on a stationary bike, you could lift up little weights,” he said. “Move your bodies because you need to move. You’ve got to do something to fight it.”