Been a while since I dusted this thing off.
I didn't do as well as I had planned this last summer. I got a wild hair up my ass at the last second to also do classic. The problem, I would have to pull another 4 lbs off to make weight. I already had to pull 7 lbs from my fasted morning weight just to make LHW and was going to try and pull another 4 lbs. I made the decision Sunday night when I arrived at 211 lbs. Normal fasted morning weight was 205 lbs. Weigh in was Tuesday afternoon. I did the math and figured fatal water loss would be around 192.5 lbs, so it only left me 1.5 lbs to be safe with. I took a diuretic and started walking the streets in full sweats when it was 98 degrees. I ended up walking about 18 miles total. Did the bathroom sauna trick and stepped on the scale Tuesday afternoon at 193.5 lbs. Barely able to stand.
I drank a gallon of water that evening into the morning and ate 1000 g of carbs and 150 g of fat. I stepped on the scale the next morning and had only gained .5 lbs. I was flat as a fucking pancake and there wasn't really anything I could do. The diuretic wiped me out and was still in full effect. I stepped on stage and took 6th, as a shell of myself.
I drank another gallon of water and ate another 1000 g of carbs and 150 g of fat. I nearly died that night. My body locked up when I was in bed and I couldn't move. I couldn't even cry out for help. I was there by myself, as my wife had work she couldn't miss. I laid there for FOUR HOURS with my body completely locked up. I was looking at my multimineral and new I needed to get there. After a bit I was just hoping my heart would seize up and end it, it was that bad. Then it just relaxed... Now it was like 1 am and the only thing I can do was sleep. I woke up and hadn't gained any weight. I figured my giant body contraction probably burned every ounce of glycogen in my muscles. I stepped on stage that morning and placed 12th. At least I wasn't last. Not even close to last.
Anyways, that will never happen again. I will never coach myself for a show and there is no way I will every try and do classic again. I am working on putting on so much muscle tissue it would be physically impossible to even get there even at 0% BF.
I took a couple months off and did some disaster relief down in FL. It kind of wrecked me a bit. I had some major fatigue coming out of it. I was working 16 hour minimums on my feet the entire time, literally never sat down, getting in 35k steps a day and it was hot as fuck. Surprisingly got fatter doing it, but that is probably because I came off everything when I was there. I didn't even bring my TRT. It was actually a blessing in disguise as went on a mitochondrial health kick when I came back.
Focusing on mitochondrial health has improved everything. Sleep, mood, fat loss, muscle gains, strength, health markers, etc... Even my test levels running the same doses in the past are up 30%. I am currently 241.2 lbs and leaner than I was this time last year at 217 lbs. I was going to stop the growth phase 1 February, but as long as things are still progressing, I am not stopping this train. In the last couple weeks I have hit 622x8 reps on squats to a 12 in box, 530x6 on stiff leg deadlifts, 8 ppsx10 on hack squat hitting the bottom each time (no one else in the gym can even do 7 pps for 1) and 365x6 on inclines 2:1 tempo. You can say things are going well.
Not sure if I am doing a show this year or not. Just kind of enjoying the process right now. Plus, I have several clients lined up for shows, so i am trying to focus on them.
