Card chase: it's a long brutal road to the IFBB professional ranks—here's the inside story of two pro hopefuls and their run to the 2006 NPC USA Championships

Glass confides in me: "Jerome looks great, but he can't pose for crap. I have to coach him how to hold each pose right. Lionel lost time when he switched from Tom to Hany, and we've had to change things. His lower body is still smooth. His thing is he wants to keep all the size. He can't keep it this late in the game. He's going to have to do what he has to do to bring it in, and he's going to be cutting it close, no matter what. It'll be a last-minute thing now if he can pull it off."

JUNE 26 Glass splits up his two USA hopefuls. L-Train begins training at 11 AM and Hollywood continues to work out at noon with Schlierkamp. "I want to be able to focus on little things with each of them and really target exactly what they need, so it's best from now on if they don't train together," Yoda explains. "I also want to talk to Hany about bringing in Lionel's legs because we still have a lot of work to do on his lower body."

JULY 4 On what should be a festive holiday, Brown receives stunningly horrible news. His 12-year-old cousin, Lewis Perkins, was killed after being hit by a car. The driver didn't stop, and was later arrested. Brown was like a father to Perkins, and the boy's tragic death will never be far from his mind over the next few weeks. He will, however, be back in the gym the next day, working legs, temporarily substituting muscle pain for heartache. Brown loses himself in the rhythm of workouts and the discipline of diet.

JULY 12 The intensity is palpable. After completing each Glass-supervised superset of leg presses and walking lunges, Ferguson (257) is back in his usual leg-day position, flat on his back on the Gold's Gym floor.

JULY 14 2 WEEKS OUT Confiding in only me and Glass among the Gold's Venice regulars, Brown (236) says he is now aiming for the heavy class, which has a weight limit of 224.

JULY 19 9 DAYS OUT "It's gonna hit us!" Brown (232) shouts just before the truck plows into his new Dodge Magnum. As Myrtice was driving home in the carpool lane of the freeway, a truck crossed over the double lines and hit the passenger side (where L-Train sat), pushing the Magnum into the guardrail on the opposite side. Although shaken, the couple is uninjured, but they can't say the same for their severely wrecked new car.

JULY 22 6 DAYS OUT At the Los Angeles Championships, Southern California's contenders for the next week's USA climb onstage for a preview posedown. Brown and Ferguson don't oblige, but Deckard looks to be sharper than both of them.

JULY 23 5 DAYS OUT I watch Ferguson (250) pose for Prince at Gold's Venice. He still has water to pull, but otherwise looks on target. Today, per Prince's detailed instructions, Ferguson does a lighter pumping workout for chest and back and 90 minutes of cardio.

Brown signs with MuscleTech, as does fellow USA favorite Leo Ingram.

JULY 24 4 DAYS OUT In the final workout before the USA, on the last hellish day of carb depletion, the weights are light and intensity is low. Today, the only objective is pumping blood into carb-starved muscles. FLEX photographer Kevin Horton captures shots of Brown and Ferguson in Gold's. For the final photo, L-Train and Hollywood, now friends, glare ominously at each other, their faces only a few inches apart. Horton instructs them, "Now pucker your lips." Subjects and observers break up laughing.