Thanks man. You’re absolutely right. I should know better than to use drugs to treat issues with drugs. Outside of AAS use I’m a very holistic person. I generally try everything I can (within reason) before prescription drugs. I don’t even like taking ibuprofen. I generally believe that most minor healthy problems can be resolved with clean diet, lots of rest, and adequate exercise/mobility.
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Day 48 Update:
Today starts my deload, Saturday night was my last heavy lifting session. As of today I am 13 days out from my competition. I need it. My body is trashed, but if the past is any indicator how future performance, I am in a perfect spot right now and should go in the competition and smash it. I am not guaranteeing a win, but I know that I’ll do very well with respect to previous versions of myself, and in strength sports I think that’s all you really ask for/expect.
An update on the previously mentioned mood sides, I feel like it is a non-issue now. Now that I know and I am able to better manage my emotions, everything seems fine in my house, and the wife and kids seem much happier. This was obviously without the assistance of any additional drugs.
Saturday’s training session:
top single @ 515 on axle DL (was supposed to be a top triple at 565 or so)
Back off single at 470
Front banded axle deadlifts 1x2 @ 360 (This has REALLY helped with me learning how to pull back and up so that the axle doesn’t get too far in front of me and pull me over)
SSB Anderson good morning (from DL stance and starting position), 3x6 @ 175
Westside inverse hamstring curl 3x10
wide grip neutral seated row, 3x6 @ 190
Stone over 50" bar, 5x2 w 30s rest between sets @ 340, 1x2 @ 300
Machine single leg glute bridge 30 reps/leg
Honestly this cycle with tren went MUCH better than I expected. I expected to have to deal with tons of crazy side effects, but the reality is the only side effect I had was the mood issues, and that was easily handled once I realized it was going on. Blood pressure and HRR were both good during the entire cycle. Even acne wasn’t that bad and on most AAS I seem to have moderate acne flare ups. I guess my genetics are good enough that I don’t have to deal with most of the stuff most others do with respect to tren sides. Even NPP had more sides than tren did. I do feel like eating such a clean diet really does help mitigate side effects as well.
Tren will definitely be in my future so long as I continue to compete in strongman.
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Day 49 Update:
7 weeks into the blast and it is still going very well. I could talk about it, but it would just be a repeat of everything I have already said.
Yesterday’s training session went really well despite my body just being destroyed and needing a deload:
Max reps in 60s viking press at 305 (16 reps)
Max reps in 60s viking press at 275 (23 reps)
Competition weight is 300 lbs
Dumbbell push press 2x6 with 60 lbs/hand
Only did one set, something happened during Viking press and my left wrist became painful and swollen as soon as I was done
Standing T-bar row, neutral grip. 3x5 at 160
3x6 single arm incline dumbbell bench, 65 lb dumbbell
Somehow my left wrist was fine with the movement but I couldn’t hardly stand the 60’s in my hands while standing.
3x8 bird dog row with 35 lb dumbbell.
Luckily my strongman coach is also an excellent physical therapist, so anytime anything comes up, he knows how to help me get better and how to work around certain injuries. Right now I have a few knots in my muscles around my right scapula, and he is able to do dry needling to get them to loosen up and go away. It is a phenomenal benefit for which he does not charge me a dime. He doesn’t charge me for anything above and beyond the coaching and programming. I basically have a free PT on standby.
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Day 51 Update:
I took the night off from training last night, allergies and poor sleep caught up to me. The poor sleep was caused by having knots in my upper back muscles, nothing to do with insomnia. Got my coach to do some dry needling on my back, it fixed the left side but for some reason the right side is being super fucking stubborn and won’t release.
I started my water load today for my water cut. I woke up at 246.6 today, which was pretty much expected. Drinking an additional 2 gallons of water per day for the next 9 days is going to blow. But I’m going to do what it takes to make weight.
I am still not super lean (I leaned out more on NPP, but I was also on cycle for about 6 weeks longer) but here is a photo from yesterday morning
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Day 56 Update:
I had to take a week off from the gym for nasty allergies/head cold. I still don’t feel 100% but I was probably feeling 85-90% in the gym last night. I guess deload came at a good time. We finally got 10 competitors in our weight class (middle weight) which means the winner will get a bid to the Arnold Amateur World Championships.
Last nights workout was a very short and simple workout:
Viking press, 1x20 @ 250. This felt harder than it should have but I’m certain it was because I’m still not 100%
2x8 incline dumbbell Y’s
3x5 neutral grip bent over machine rows
3x6 single arm incline dumbbell bench
3x8 bird dog rows
I am 6 days into my 10 day water load, weigh ins are on Saturday and competition is on Sunday. Now I just need to finish deloading, get better from this stupid sickness, and make weight and I’ll be ready to smash some weights.
Every time I compete, I am wiped out for the next 2-3 days. I mean absolutely useless. I had intended to cease use of the tren the day of my competition, but would it be worth it to cut the dose in half and run it until the end of the week just for the sake of recovery?
Not sure what you mean here? I would quit after the comp. Think that is what you mean? I would just run the test a bit higher for a week, and cut out the Tren. I don’t think it will help that much, plus you are probably not training after for a couple days anyways.
Yea, the last day/last pin of my test/tren cycle will be competition day. I was thinking about maybe running tren for 4-5 days after the competition just to assist with recovery from the competition. I will not be training for probably 2 weeks after my competition, mostly because I’ll be taking a week off then I am going on vacation the 2nd week after.
So you think the level of assistance I get from recovery with the tren won’t be worth it to keep running it? Honestly you’re probably right, it was just a thought I had so that I’m not so beat up for so many days
I think it is mostly nervous system fatigue from these strength sports. If you are going to take two weeks off, I would just stop the Tren after. I guess you could do one additional shot (probably not going to hurt you).
I am in the same boat. I am wrecked after a meet. I usually can’t sleep the first night (to amped up from heavy lifting), and that makes it even worse.
I made weight today, I weighed in at 230.6. As of right now I am around 245 after refeeding and rehydrating, I still have a little more eating and drinking left to be done.
I took my 75 mg anadrol today and I have 100 more on standby for tomorrow.
Anyone ever have their kidney’s ache during/after a water cut?
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Props on the cut man! You feeling strong and recovered? I’ve never attempted a cut like that. Sounds like you should be strong though with the weight coming back on.
I think you will notice the drol at that dosage.
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Well here is a competition recap:
I took 3rd in my weight class out of 10 guys, not because I did poorly, but the other 2 guys that beat me were animals. Even if I had executed perfectly, I still would’ve ended up in 3rd.
Event 1, Viking press 300 lbs:
I hit 14 reps here and took second. First place got 15 reps. I was consistenly hitting 15-20 reps in training, but our viking press was A LOT more stable than the one used at the competition, and that instability ate up 6-8 reps for me.
Event 2, yoke run 700 lbs for 100 ft:
By far my weakest event, however, I crushed it compared to how I normally perform with the yoke. I hit 100 feet (the farthest I have ever taken 700 was 25 ft) in 42 seconds. However this was still only good enough for a 5th place finish. I had two drops which cost me about 4-5 seconds, but I was 6 seconds behind 4th place, so even a perfect run would’ve had me in 5th place. This was probably my most surprising event
Event 3, max axle deadlift:
I hit 615 on axle at like RPE 7.5-8, which put me in a 4 way tie for 3rd. First place tie was at 665. I attempted 665 and got it 2-3 inches off the ground but after blowing my load on the yoke, 665 just wasn’t there. If there had been no yoke run before hand, I may have hit 665. Hopefully by the end of the year I’ll be a 700 lb deadlifter on a power bar or DL bar.
Event 4, sandbag/keg/sandbag medley:
Took 2nd on this event at 32 seconds. 2 last minute changes in weight. we ended up with a 265 bag, 225 keg, 308 bag instead of 220 bag, 250 keg and 308 bag. First place guy CRUSHED this event at 27 seconds. 3rd place finished in 56 seconds. Unfortunately I tweaked my bicep when lapping the 308 bag, which didn’t affect me during the medley, but greatly impacted my stone loading.
Event 5, 320 lb stone over 50" bar:
Took 3rd in this event in 30 seconds (everyone got 60s but I cut it short). I was 4 points behind 2nd place at this point and short of him zeroing the stones I knew I wouldn’t catch him. I was one point ahead of 4th place, so I knew if I tied him I would keep my one point lead. I could feel a small tweak in my bicep going into this but on the very first rep I felt a sharp, tearing pain in my left bicep, so I did as many reps as I needed to keep 3rd place (4 reps) and called it there. I could’ve easily taken first with 8-10 reps had I not had a bad bicep (winner got 7 reps), but that still wouldn’t have moved me up enough in points to get into 2nd place.
Overall I did really well and hit pretty much all of the numbers I expected to outside of the viking press. Even if I had won stones and viking press and not had two drops on yoke, I still would’ve taken third. I would’ve been 1 point behind 2nd instead of 6.5, but 3rd is 3rd. I was expecting more like 23s on the medley, but the weight change on the first sandbag, combined with the fact that our 300 lb sandbag is actually only about 270 (I learned this about a week before the competition) really slowed me down a lot compared to what I thought I would do. I took top 3 in 4 out of 5 events and my weakest event killed my point total about as much as I expected it to. Hit PRs in 3 out of 5 events too so I can’t be upset about that.
With all of that said, you’ll never hear me make an excuse for losing, I got beat fair and square by two really solid competitors.
Now time to heal the bicep and start prepping for nationals in October. I’ll have another shot at an Arnold bid then.
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Great to hear it went well and you could pull all of that off! Also congratulations to your performance! You are a beast.
Glad that health wasn’t an issue this time. Give your body some rest, you earned it.
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Thanks man, I’m definitely beat/trashed feeling still today. It usually takes me 2-3 weeks after a competition to feel 90+% again.
The eye held up at least, so that’s good!
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I have already mentioned a few times that this cycle was a huge success. I ended up running 315 mg/wk tren A, 420mg/wk test C, 50 mg/day Oxandrolone, 500 IU/wk HCG and ran anadrol on comp day at 50 mgx2 (total 100 mg)
One thing to note, my kidneys ached pretty intensely when I was down 20 lbs of water. I wonder how much of that had to do with the oxandrolone that I was running. From what I understand it is largely processed by the kidneys instead of the liver.
I think for my next blast I may either front load the orals, or just avoid them altogether for the sake of water cutting. Apparently a dull ache in your kidney (or in my case both of them) is an early sign of kidney failure, as is reduced urine production, both of which were issues I was dealing with for about 36-48 hours. Luckily I never peed blood, but I was likely on the verge of damaging them. I feel fine now, but the water cut and the refeed were both certainly pretty shitty.
Tren is far more damaging to kidneys than oxandrolone ever will be.
Do you blast/cruise or cycle/PCT. If you PCT but want to be competitive I might suggest getting on TRT. I’ve heard 1mg/lb of BW, but I don’t quite buy that. 125mg/wk is what I need to maintain and I weigh around 170 at this point in time.
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I’m getting blood work done again in a few weeks at my TRT doc
I am a blast and cruise guy. I usually run 180-200 mg/wk of test when not blasting. I haven’t tried to maintain this weight yet at that dose, but I’m confident it’ll be enough
I forgot to say
Congratulations on your performance, you should be proud. Not many of us get to the level you are at in terms of sheer strength or athletic prowess.
Good luck for the future, be careful and godspeed!
If you ever end up at the Arnold classic in Aus I’ll come to watch you lol. I always go to the Arnold classic. I’vE bEeN iN tHe SaMe RoOm As ArNoLd, he popped in to speak.
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Isn’t this stuff the best? Very toxic given the uniquely high dosages used by seemingly everyone, but very effective.
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