I'm one of those guys who said that.
It comes from a place of care, concern AND having been there. Nothing else.
The decisions should be made by the athlete, and he should obviously be talking about those things with his coach and actually listening to his coach, which you are of course.
I don't pretend to know any more then anyone else, especially a coach who is as well regarded as Justin but, I do know what it's like to be the athlete who is "dealing with this thing" and thinking "it'll just go away", "It'll get better if I just give it more time", "I'm not where I want to be yet so I'll keep pushing".
That's in all of us who ever actually REALLY live a competitive bodybuilding lifestyle. We can be our own worst enemies because we care so much about the result and most of us pay for it in some form later in life.
You've been through a lot in the last year. The bright side, you have that much more experience from dealing with those things and continuing to learn your body.
Much love and respect man.
Yes, you were one of them. I appreciate the care and concern. I don’t mean this in a rude way. I don’t know if you’ve been 285 lean eating 8k cals. I’m guessing that’s not what you meant by saying you’ve been there and were referring to challenges during an extended offseason, but everyone is different and every situation is different. I also know that you have had clients who are at a much higher level than I am. It’s all love and respect from me as well.
If you can genuinely look at my pictures from my 2025 rebound and compare them to my current physique and say I’ve stagnated, I don’t really understand.
I think I approach my relationship with my coach a bit differently man. I trust Justin completely, and I turn my brain off. When there’s a problem, I bring it up, and we address it together. That’s how it has to be. If Justin tells me to go to the doctor, I’m going no ifs ands or buts. If he tells me to shut it down, again I’m the first to say fuck yeah let’s do it. If he wants to lower my drugs, I’ll be like sweet! One of his top open pros just dropped all his gear and gh in half because he is able to now at this point in his career.
In addition, I’m surrounded by some high level pros who are looking at my physique in person consistently giving me feedback. One of them (I can dm you if you’re curious lol) finally told me about 2 weeks ago that he advised me to do a show as a shw soon to catch another rebound. I respect his opinion, but ultimately it needs to come from Justin.
When you advised me to shut it down, the tissue was still new. If I had gone and dieted before letting it marinate, I would’ve dieted it all off. I also would’ve missed out on a bunch of my progress and really solidifying my tissue.
I have zero tolerance towards health issues. Ultimately, I’ll walk away from bodybuilding completely if I have a serious health issue. I wish I had taken my digestive issues seriously earlier, as I may have been able to resolve them sooner and drop the inflammation and had an even more productive offseason.
I don’t know if you’ve seen my bloodwork or health markers, but I feel like you are assuming I’m pushing in the red. My bloodwork has always been astonishingly clean. My bp without meds is 120/50. The only thing I sometimes struggle with is my glucose control. And now digestive issues. Praise God they are resolved man. I know Robin Strand ended up with Crohns from pushing food and being chronically inflamed. I don’t want to end up in that situation. Also had some long conversations with Stan about insulin resistance and he gave me some advice awhile back, as he gave himself diabetes under a certain big name coach.
It’s a really nice feeling to know I have all you guys in my corner who truly care about me. But it’s also a fine line where I want to be able to just trust that Justin and I will handle whatever is in front of us the best we can without outside noise. I know your intention is good. It just pushes me to not want to even share updates because of opinions that genuinely don’t impact the plan that Justin and I set.
I respect you and your opinion brother. I appreciate that you care about me and are looking out for me. If I didn’t, I would’ve just responded with a thumbs up or a sarcastic remark.