Elijah Maine

BodySpace member Elijah Main, a.k.a. “SuperMaine,” set a record for this feature: A United States Navy Seabee, Elijah is stationed at a naval air base in Sicily, and he flew all the way to Palm Springs, California, for the shoot. That’s the longest distance ever traveled by a BodySpace member for his or her photo shoot.

Born in Rochester, New York, Maine joined the Navy at 18, wanting to try something new and with the long-term goal of being part of making the future safer for his kids. That goal was tested a few years later, in 2005, when he received his orders to deploy to Fallujah, Iraq. Only days before he left, Hurricane Katrina hit the base in Gulfport, Mississippi, where he was stationed.

Elijah was evacuated to New York with his young family, but he lost everything in the hurricane and floods, even his uniforms.He was then sent to be a part of the rescue and relief effort. He felt good being able to help, he says, but it was tough because he needed help too.

Elijah has since done two tours in Iraq and has also served in Kuwait, Belize and Diego Garcia. Along the way he got into lifting weights in often makeshift gyms. Then he discovered BodyBuilding.com’s BodySpace, the online community for like-minded people looking for inspiration and motivation. There he quickly found new ways of working out and new people with whom to share experience and information.

Now, “SuperMaine” tries to talk with as many people on BodySpace as possible, finding most of them inspirational. In addition, he’s proud to hear that he’s the inspiration for others, which comes back to Elijah’s long-term goals. He wants to keep helping people and having an impact on their lives. He wants to be somebody people can talk to and maybe, even more, be someone who leads by example.
So visit Elijah on BodySpace at BodyBuilding.com; while his handle is “SuperMaine,” you can also find him as “1jz300” and online directly at BodySpace.com/1jz300. Tell him you saw him in IRON MAN and that you heard he made a long journey to get here.

—Ian Sitren

Editor’s note: For more BodySpace bodies and info, visit Bodybuilding.com.