SHOTLIST:AP - NO RESTRICTIONMilford, Mass. 11/16/121. Medium shot: Moustafa Ismail shows off one of his massive arm muscles.2. Medium shot: Zoom-in of Ismail working on cable cross-over gear at the gym.3. SOUNDBITE: Moustafa Ismail/World's largest upper armsThey call me Popeye, Egyptian Popeye. They say who hates spinach and loves chicken.4. Wide shot: Ismail using dumbbells at the gym.5. Medium shot: Alternate shot of Ismail using dumbbells at the gym.6. Medium shot: Ismail take off his t-shirt and shows off his arms and torso.7. SOUNDBITE: Moustafa Ismail/World's largest upper armsWe gonna say it's like a challenge for me to go and buy a shirt from normal store. I have to look for 2 or 3 hours in the store before I buy anything. If I put it in the store it gets ripped.8. Medium shot: Ismail working out at the gym.9. Close up: Ismail's tortured expression as he works out with massive weights.10. SOUNDBITE: Moustafa Ismail/World's largest upper armsI have been getting a lot of bad comments about people who have been saying I'm using implants or I did surgeries for implants or I use, inject myself with oil substance, which makes my arms that big, but they reality is I did the tests, the ultrasound test. I did the xray test. I did a blood test which proved that I have nothing unnatural.STORYLINE:Moustafa Ismail of Massachusetts says having arms as wide as an adult man's waist comes with plenty of unexpected challenges, including difficulty in finding shirts whose sleeves would fit his 31-inch muscles without dwarfing his 5-foot-11 frame. The eye-popping biceps and triceps, Ismail says, are a result of a punishing workout regime that began after a guest at his uncle's wedding mocked his overweight frame in his native Egypt. More than a decade later, the 24-year-old bodybuilder says he was surprised by recognition in the 2013 edition of the Guinness World Records as owner of the largest upper-arm muscles on earth. "They call me Popeye, the Egyptian Popeye," an amused Ismail said of the media reaction after the announcement in September. But unlike the cartoon character, he smiled and said softly, "I like chicken, beef, anything but spinach." Poultry, seafood and shakes provide nearly seven pounds of protein he needs every day to nourish the massive muscles, Ismail said while working out at the gym in the Boston suburb of Milford. About nine pounds of carbohydrates, at least three gallons of water as well as various mineral and vitamin supplements account for the remaining sources of sustenance, he says. "Bottom line, like, you have to drink a lot of, like, water ... to take care of your kidneys, like, to make all your systems clean," Ismail said. "Because if you drink a lot of, like, proteins, a lot of vitamins, there's a lot of stress on your system, you need to wash all of this by at least three gallons of water every day." Ismail quietly begun building his muscles in his Egyptian hometown of Alexandria before moving to the United States in 2007 and settling in the Massachusetts town of Franklin, located about 27 miles southwest of Boston. Keen to pay for his gym membership and hefty dietary requirements, he worked two jobs as a gas station attendant for several years. He gave up one job after his Colombian wife complained that he was pushing himself too hard. And then Guinness World Records came calling, offering him an all-expenses-paid trip to London for a signature appearance with the world's shortest woman and other anomalies highlighting the latest edition of world records. Ismail said he was stunned by a barrage of allegations from strangers who claimed that he either used steroids or had implants in his arms. Others speculated that he might have injected his muscles with a synthetic oil substance known as synthol that is used by bodybuilders to artificially fluff muscular tissues. "It is hurtful," Ismail says of the criticism from people who've never met him and don't even know him personally. "I have feelings too, like, I feel like ... if someone, like, (is) accusing me of wrong stuff, it hurts me, like, inside." He rejected the online accusations as baseless and malicious, saying his arms don't bear any scars that would have been inflicted by surgery. Financial pressures from supporting a wife in the United States and relatives in Egypt, he said, don't leave him with spare cash to buy pricey synthetic oils that some bodybuilders inject on their muscles to impress onlookers. Besides, Ismail said, he recently traveled to Tokyo, he appeared in a Fuji TV documetary program during which independent physicians collected blood samples from him and subjected his massive muscles to X-Ray and ultrasound tests to determine whether there were artificial elements there. "The test was in October ... it was live on TV," Ismail said. "They were surprised when they found nothing in my arms, nothing abnormal _ just the skin, the muscle tissue, the veins, the bones, like any other guy _ which is proof to me and proof to them that all what people accuse me of was fake." Still, the surprisingly vocal criticism forced Guinness officials to hastily removed references to Ismail's record on its website. Spokeswoman Sara Wilcox said in October that Guinness was conducting research with medical specialists and reviewing Ismail's category. She did not respond to questions emailed later seeking details on when Guinness is likely to conclude the review, what it entails and what experts will look at. Some fellow amateur bodybuilders, however, support Ismail and say they believe his arms are natural. "He's very nice guy, he always has a smile on his face when you say 'hi' and when I first saw him I thought 'Oh my God, he's a freak' _ the big Popeye arms, he's incredible, but he works out hard so good luck to him," said Janice Vincuilla of Bellingham, a former bodybuilder who began working out in 13 years ago. "His arms are huge. I didn't even know how he got the shirt over his arms _ that's how big they are. I was, like 'How do you do that?' He just looked, he was, like, 'I did,'" said Vincuilla who works in the same gym with Ismail. Ismail, who said the allegations prevented him from sleeping for a day, says he respects the rights of the critics to their opinion that he says "is motivation for me _ it's not something that's gonna put me down." Ismail said he is taking a lot of risks every time he lifts heavy weights to work on his muscles. That painful reality was driven home several years ago when he was doing squats with 800 pounds of weight in Egypt. He lost his balance and the metal left his with injuries that prevented him from working on his thighs until a few weeks ago. "The risk is, like, you can break your bones if you have the wrong technique, you can hurt your nervous system if you have no experience, if you just do it with no knowledge, you just, like, lifting weights randomly," he said. "In one second, if you lost control, maybe you gonna break your face, you gonna break your arms, you gonna hurt your joints." Ismail is not keen to discuss how much weight he could lift of bench press, saying that, despite the massive arms, he is not a weight lifter. "It's not about me lifting heavy weights. It's about me making the right techniques, even with the light weights, but getting good results out of that," he said.(****END****)