My Bodybuilding Journey

This is a slight continuation of my previous article, where I talked about how I became interested in the sport of Bodybuilding and what goals I had for it. However, I will briefly summarize them here.

“In order to aid in the recovery process of my ACL Tear, I will set the goal of becoming a bodybuilder less than a year out from my ACL reconstruction surgery.”

Not to spoil too much, but I bet you can guess since I’m writing this that the TLDR is yes, I did succeed in my goals, but it definitely was a journey, so I hope you’ll take the time to learn about it — if you need a preview, here you go

Setting the Stage

The first few months after my surgery I was committed to staying healthy and in shape, so I immediately returned to the gym, only doing upper-body and maintaining my diet. As soon as my PT cleared me for leg exercises, I immediately started slowly and steadily rebuilding the trunks I had developed before the surgery from playing soccer 7 days a week.

This went on until the end of 2021, when I reached about 163 pounds, relatively lean, at sub 10% BF, as low as 8% at one point.

Getting Started and my New Home

After a few conversations with a few different friends and peers, I found my coach Joe McNelis, who would be my main point of contact for the next few months. We exchanged a few emails, and set our meeting point, at the one and only, mecca of USA Bodybuilding, Diamond Gym in Maplewood, NJ. I had rumors about the place, but never really understood why.

Once I arrived, peering around from the outside, I thought to myself, “man, this place is small and old.” I was right about the age aspect, but once I walked through the entrance it felt like I was entering Narnia — the inside was absolutely massive. The walls were adorned with posters and photos of successful bodybuilders over the past few decades that had been victorious, all having one thing in common: they trained at Diamond Gym.

Early Saturday morning I found my coach in the back room, where apparently the lighting was the best. We shook hands, exchanged a few words, I shared my admiration as I continued to stare at the walls around me, also filled with 10’s of 1000’s of pounds of weights. He said “welp, drop the trousers and let’s get to posing.” I was really thrown off for sure — I’d never posed before and had only watched a few YouTube videos in recent days to get a rough idea and learn the names of the poses. Additionally, not in public, but nevertheless, it didn’t feel out of place given everything I had seen on the walls. Within a few short minutes and a few “quarter turn(s) to the right,” my coach had identified the areas where I needed to improve and focus, both to grow, reshape, recomp, etc.

A few of his trainees, all of whom were top competitors trickled in… we shared some introductions, downed our pre-workouts, and I experienced my first true bodybuilding workout. After the session I was hooked — I immediately signed up for Diamond Gym, and announced I would be there first thing Monday morning.

Commitment

The next day, Sunday evening, I received the workout and diet plan that would guide me over the next 20 weeks. This seemed simultaneously both a short time and eternity, as I had never experienced anything more than a semester at school which was 16 weeks, and even that didn’t compare. I didn’t know what I was getting into, but I knew once I signed up, there was no turning back.

Previously, over the last few months, my generous friend Tom had driven us to and from the local gym in our town, saving me a ton of money as I did not have a car, and wasn’t supposed to be driving anyway given that I was still recovering from ACL surgery (right knee). I still Ubered almost every night to the gym if I couldn’t score a second free ride, as I worked out twice a day, lifting and cardio, and eventually posing as well. I encouraged Tom to start working out, and he showed immense progress in a short amount of time. Super proud of him switching from only doing soccer workouts to taking on my (self-made) bodybuilding routine and keeping up with it throughout the week, every week, for months at a time, truly going from 0–100, very quickly.

However, once I made the commitment and officially started journey, Tom and I had to “break up” as we agreed that going to this bodybuilding gym was the best way for me to truly get immersed in the community and put forth my best effort. I had to start getting up early and pay for an even more expensive uber, every day, to and from the gym that was a few towns over. Every…single…workout… made it worth it. No matter how I felt every time I arrived at the gym, I was left feeling on top of the world, as if I had just accomplished something great, and it was usually before the west coast was even ready to start work, when I began my day job.

Sacrifice

I never realized before getting started how much I would have to give up in order to compete in the pursuit of becoming the best.

• Time: most of time was dedicated to the sport; I was always either going to the gym, at the gym, coming from the gym or cooking, eating, or cleaning up from one of the previous two
• Diet: it’s strict, plain and simple, 6 meals a day, no cheat days
• Nightlife: no drinking — it is not part of the diet and no staying out crazy late clubbing like I used to, needed to get my 8 hours and be up early to make sure there was enough time in the day to get everything done
• Social life: same as above, I deleted all the dating apps and focused on myself, and only hung out with my friends if I was able to successfully finish both my workouts and if I wouldn’t be put in a bad situation where I could mess up my diet
• Sports and activities: I was cleared to “get back to normal” to do a lot of things I loved like soccer and skiing, but I decided to put them off till after the competition to avoid getting hurt
• Travel: I was granted work remote, and had friends that wanted to go on trips that I turned down. My own family took an amazing trip to Italy that unfortunately was scheduled for the week before my competition, so obviously I couldn’t go and resist eating pasta every single meal, especially not a week before my competition; so I stayed and trained
• Mental Health: it takes a toll for sure, everything you do and think about is related to the sport
• Psychological health: no matter how good people told me I looked, no matter what my coach said, I paid too much attention to my competition for a while and this definitely made controlling my thoughts and emotions difficult

There were definitely more I can’t even think of, big and small, but too many to enumerate. In short, you have to give up a lot if you want to really be able to compete.

The Grind Itself

I was 26 years old when I started my bodybuilding career and had been lifting, what I thought was considered at a higher level, for around 13 years. I first started to get in shape and feel better about myself, as I was overweight at the time and very self-conscious. Lifting for the sport elevated what I knew as a tough workout, that most of my friends deemed too much to try, to a whole new level. The workouts were longer, heavier, had more sets, and less rest, all in one. Every aspect of the workout was more challenging, but this also meant the results started coming in more quickly.

There were many days I was tired, but I always found a way to push through every set, and every rep. I would take my breaks when needed, even occasionally split up workouts, but at the end of the day I knew the only person I was cheating was myself.

The diet was the same grind; I ate all my meals strategically timed throughout the day, spread out to consider digestion, absorption, energy release, and many other factors. I measured every meal down to the ounce and would set up containers, sometimes 30 or 40 for just one darn week. After a very short-while the sport became a second full-time job.

Progression

As I mentioned earlier I started around 164 pounds. After a few short weeks, with the goal of bulking, we got up to a little over 171 pounds or so. I wasn’t doing so much cardio as the goal wasn’t cutting; these few weeks were a little easier and more fun; I was lifting heavier which felt great after all the endorphins and stress released, I was eating more so I was never hungry, and I was doing less cardio so I was less tired. But I looked muscular and “big” in all the right places, so I knew things were going well.

Then the cut began… around 5–6 weeks in, about 15 weeks out or so, we made changes to my diet and cardio regiment that would carry my through the remainder of the program. We started cutting calories from 3000, to 2700, to 2550, to 2400, to 2100, and even less as the road to the stage shortened. Simultaneously, we increased cardio, from 3 days x 30 minutes, to 4 x 40, to the dreaded 5 x 50.

At this point there was a new aspect that had to kick n to gear real quick; the mental factor. I had to continue to motivate myself with less energy and more on my plate.

Trickle-Down Effect / Other Aspects of life

I learned the rhythm and as I became busier, I learned to become productive. With a greater set of tasks during the and less time, I had to become more productive. I started to get up earlier to get done extraneous tasks I needed to do for the day, while I had the energy. The coffee pot was setup the night before, so when I came down and hit start every morning I had enough time to do the dishes from the night before, meditate, and enjoy my first cup all before the cluck struck 07:00. I would then do some cooking for the day if needed, get a head start of a few hours at work during my quite east coast hours while my coworkers were asleep, and then head off to my first gym session.

When I came back from the workout I was ready for my first meeting and eventually lunch, which was always ready-made. I took my lunches while working, as I had to eat slowly to stretch the caloric intake a little longer and fight off the imminent feelings of hunger and low energy. I very much learned to embody the phrase “work smart, not hard.” I set goals for the work day, which, working on an independent feature for the time, was way easier. I was really fortunate as my heads-down, uninterrupted work, I could get done a great deal more in a much shorter time. I tried to only attend meetings that were absolutely necessary, or if I ended up getting looped into one that wasn’t, I would often do cardio, cook, clean, etc. during it to maximize my total productivity and minimize my waste. I learned the system, and you really have to — there is only so much time in the day, along with only so much energy.

The Camaraderie and Training Partners

I’ve participated and competed at various levels in many sports throughout my years, but never experienced a community quite like this before. The sport itself is definitely one of great solitude, which I think ends up bringing out the best in people. The more I got involved, the more I learned, the more I connected with others and grew my network. Everyone was super supportive and wanted to help me achieve my goals. People would join my workouts and push me like a coach as if we had been friends for years. I made a ton of great friendships that I will think last for sure. Even on competition day, when the stress was high, and everyone was depleted of water, nutrients and energy, some my direct competitors became great new friends, all wishing each other the best.

I decided I wanted to get to Seattle to have a change of scenery and linked up with my old friend Hassan. We used to play soccer together when I previously lived in Seattle and stayed in touch after I left. We always talked about working out but never actually did. He was following my journey and expressed interest in joining up, so when I told him I was coming to Seattle we made a plan to do so. We ended up working out almost every day together for 2 months, which really helped push me a lot. Having a training partner that keeps you accountable and pushes you is super valuable and makes or breaks a prep some time, ensuring you never miss a workout and always get the most out of them.

My List of Injuries

What would a sports journey be without a few hiccups and injuries along the way. As we already know I started off with an ACL tear, so every single one of my leg workouts were always done with great precautions. Other than that, let’s talk about what happened along the way.

- I stubbed my pinky toe on the exercise bike I brought into my house to use for light cardio during my ACL recovery; turns out I had a pretty bad sprain and wasn’t able to put pressure on it for weeks. Fortunately, I was still able to do almost all of my leg exercises, some of which I just had to push through the pain

- I had a lingering shoulder injury that started to come back, which often caused longer warm ups and extra physical therapy before and after any training that involved pressing movements

- I developed a lat strain whilst learning and increasing my weight on heavy rack pulls which also hung around for a few weeks, which is a long time when you consider how short the prep training was

- I had weak hip joints which lead to a strained psoas, which made squatting very difficult, sometimes impossible if I didn’t release it, which is quite difficult to do on your own, so I often had to seek alternative ways of release or someone who knew how to do it, which was few and far between

- I was born with a tongue tie and over the course of my life had the extra tongue muscle snipped 3 times. It was time for this again during my prep, which kept me out for 3 days and made the return slight painful as I had to keep my mouth closed and limit large movements that shook my body. The surgery needed a follow-up halfway through my prep because it was incomplete, which ended up scarring. The week after my competition I was leaving for 3 months, so the doctor recommend I had it done before hand. This was fine, but he planned to cut extra which would further cause a need for rest from training, and because of covid was backed up on appointments. This meant the only day possible was after my first competition, which was also 3 days before my second competition… Talk about terrible timing, but sometimes you gotta roll with the punches. This greatly affected my diet as I was both not hungry from the pain meds, but also could barely consume anything other than thin liquid for the next 2 days, but somehow, I managed

- And then there was the hospitalization …

Overtraining, Realization, and Decision-Making

Any athlete can attest to wanting to be the best and push themselves beyond their known limits in the pursuit of surpassing their potential. The younger we are and/or the further along we get in our training, the easier it seems to become to push ourselves.

We have seen throughout history across all sports, even the Olympians and the best of the best, humans always have limits. Unfortunately for me, this realization came in the middle of Week 17, 3 weeks before my first competition. The last 17 weeks of sacrifice, effort, and the grind, flashed before my eyes in the blink of an eye, and it went like this.

Sunday

• Was a planned rest day
• I walked a few miles around town with friends

Monday

• I had my normal training
• After training I only had time for 50% cardio
• I went to dinner for a friend’s birthday and had sushi
• I came home, got food poisoning, spent the night in the bathroom

Tuesday

• I went for a casual walk to get coffee
• Other than that, I felt like crap, so I took a full rest day and went to bed early

Wednesday — Day

• I felt normal, so I followed my normal routine
• Met my buddy Hassan at the gym, did a killer leg workout
• Then I didn’t feel so good, so I called an uber and went home 70% of the way through the workout, I didn’t even think about cardio

Wednesday — Night

• I got home from the gym and spent the next few hours in the bathroom
• I eventually decided whatever I had wasn’t going away, so I walked to the closest hospital, Swedish Medical Center, which thankfully was only a 10 minute walk

Thursday

• I slept through this entire day

Friday

• I woke up in a hospital bed, not remembering anything before checking into the hospital
• I spent the next few days on IVs because I was admitted due to hyponatremia, which basically means I had too low sodium / too much water, which cause an imbalance

Sunday

• I left the hospital and got on the first flight home to go see my family

Week 18

• All I did was rest
• I had no energy and was not cleared to get back to training
• Friday I tried to workout, but got sick halfway through and spent the rest of the night in fear of getting sick again

Week 19

• Sunday morning I decided to get back on the saddle and do some really light cardio… it felt good and this helped me get back on track
• I had been in constant communication with my coach, and we made lots of dietary changes, both for food and water, to account for my lack of training
• I finished out week 19 with a few more days of cardio
• I got back I the gym to keep the blood flowing

Week 20

• I kept it similar to week 19, but I still was lightyears away from 100%
• BUT — low and behold, I still took the stage for my first competition!!

Week 21

• I was feeling better, got a few lifts and cardio sessions in, until as I mentioned above, Thursday I had yet another lingual frenectomy…
• And yet again — I returned to the stage and was very happy with the my effort

The Results

First competition — OCB (Natural + Tested) — I was definitely nervous and came in weighing around 153 pounds. I got my spray tan the night before, had my big cheeseburger down in Atlantic City, and started my water tapering at 6 pm the night before, with the instructions to not drink until after the competition. I am thankful my friends and parents, along with my good friend Eddie, another bodybuilder I met at a posing clinic was there. Eddie was backstage and helped me throughout the pump-up process, and went as far as yelling at me while onstage, correcting my form and reminding me to do certain things. This helped me immensely and led me to finishing first in my group and second overall. What an incredible and satisfying way to start my bodybuilding career. Definitely was proud of myself despite all the obstacles I encountered along the way.

My friend Eddie

My parents and Austin and Tom

Second Competition — NPC (Untested) — Only a week later I returned to the stage, but this time it was a lot bigger. This was one of the biggest shows in the northeast, with hundreds more contests across all divisions. The competitors themselves, were also bigger. I weighed in at a miniscule 149 pounds, which is the lowest I had been in over 8 years. I was water depleted and on very low calorie, especially because of the additional unintentional cut from tongue surgery mentioned above. In this competition, my class ranged from my weight at 150 or so, to around 180, so the difference in mass was quite obvious. In short, I didn’t do so well — I was on track for 3rd in my class, but when I flexed too hard and gave up some quad definition, in the short 60 seconds you’re on stage, that’s all it takes to drop you down a spot to 4th place. I was definitely disappointed in myself, but was really happy with how I looked — the best I ever had, setting the stage for future competitions.

Lessons Learned

- Trust the process — this goes without saying

- Get a coach, and see the above

- Stick to the plan and know what you’re getting into — it’ll be worth it in the end

- If you want it, you can do it — your own worst enemy and best supporter

- Envision yourself on stage and remind yourself there is no turning back

Conclusion

I definitely learned a lot in my journey and experienced the good, the bad, and the ugly of the sport of bodybuilding. They always say its about the journey, but in this case the destination was pretty sweet too. After my second competition I became hungry for more, and this competition more so than the first one made me want to continue competing in the future. I’m not sure when or where, but I know I’ll be back. Thank you for reading!