“Errrggghh … errrggghh … errggghh!” Danny Joe grunts between shoulder shrugs, his knuckles turning white while gripping a pair of 110-pound dumbbells. He slams the dumbbells onto the rubber mat after a set and rests for exactly 30 seconds, striking various poses to keep his blood flowing. Then Joe reaches for the dumbbells, and the noises begin again.

Members of the 24 Hour Fitness in Los Angeles’ Koreatown know the familiar rhythmic grunting when they hear it.

“He’s somewhat of an icon around here,” says one member. “He’s one of us. We’re proud of him.” A daily fixture in the gym, the 23-year-old bodybuilder works as a personal trainer, but it’s well-known that his most dedicated client is himself. A championship plaque from Joe’s inaugural bodybuilding competition hangs near the gym entrance, and he’s got his sights set on the 2008 California Natural Bodybuilding competition. If he wins, he’ll earn his professional bodybuilding card and take one step closer to the holy grail of natural bodybuilding: Mr. Natural Olympia. 

Joe and his supporters know he has a long way to go before he can flex in his Speedo on an international stage. “Danny’s a newcomer but he’s got such great potential,” says Danny Jacob, president and founder of the International Natural Bodybuilding Association (INBA). “If he keeps working hard, in a couple years this guy is gonna be one of the top in the world.”

The Seoul native was born in 1984 in a country where brawn wasn’t emphasized. When Joe was 12 years old, he and his family immigrated to the United States at a time when muscle was in. A lifelong action movie buff, he grew accustomed to watching former bodybuilding icon Arnold Schwarzenegger tear up the silver screen. Too young to hit the weights, Joe discovered a love for basketball and became the starting shooting guard on his Woodland Hills High School team. His scrawny 5-foot-7-inch frame squashed any aspirations of pursuing basketball in college. “After I stopped playing basketball, I needed to find something I could find a love for,” says Joe. “I really wanted to stay active.”

While a freshman studying business management at Santa Monica College, he was finally introduced to the weight room by his older brother Wontae. “He got me into it, took me to a gym,” he recalls.

It wasn’t hard to tell that the 130-pound Joe had never lifted before. “I was weak, man,” he recalls, laughing. “Still, after the first time, I fell in love with it.” He began lifting regularly, going to the gym three to four times a week for up to three hours a day.

Weightlifting soon evolved from a hobby to a passion for Joe, who found the gym a perfect escape after his longtime girlfriend left him. “I was hurt, you know? There was nothing to rely on, I was depressed and I didn’t know what to do.”