Gear, Water retention, Diuretics and AI's

[psycintosh]

Hey guys,

Just trying to get my head around this topic of diuretics,AI's and water retention pre contest.

I Did my first show about half a year, and I feel as if the diuretics my coach gave me (aldactone,hctz,amiloride) made me look worse than I did a few days out (after starting to load on carbs).

When it comes to natural bodybuilding I see many of the well known guys such as Layne Norton and 3DMJ talking about not cutting out sodium or water for show day (and it does make sense because muscle is aprox 70% water right?) and sodium will keep the blood volume high and make you more vascular.

The one statment that bothers me to see is "you should not manipulate water/sodium unless you are on AAS"

so this is steroid.com and most of us do use AAS

Is it a must to run diuretics while on AAS to dry out for a show?

Can't you just get really shredded (like 4%) , up your AI to like 1mg Adex ED and cruise into the show still using AAS to keep your hard and full? or will you retain water this way??

I mean extracellular water retention from test is just from the estrogen conversion right?

[Bonaparte]

I mean extracellular water retention from test is just from the estrogen conversion right?

No, most steroids also cause water retention by interfering with the renin-angiotensin system (or increased ADH secretion). This is why even non-aromatizing steroids can cause water retention (like Var and Anadrol).

[NACH3]

Hey guys,

Just trying to get my head around this topic of diuretics,AI's and water retention pre contest.

I Did my first show about half a year, and I feel as if the diuretics my coach gave me (aldactone,hctz,amiloride) made me look worse than I did a few days out (after starting to load on carbs).

When it comes to natural bodybuilding I see many of the well known guys such as Layne Norton and 3DMJ talking about not cutting out sodium or water for show day (and it does make sense because muscle is aprox 70% water right?) and sodium will keep the blood volume high and make you more vascular.

The one statment that bothers me to see is "you should not manipulate water/sodium unless you are on AAS"

so this is steroid.com and most of us do use AAS

Is it a must to run diuretics while on AAS to dry out for a show?

Can't you just get really shredded (like 4%) , up your AI to like 1mg Adex ED and cruise into the show still using AAS to keep your hard and full? or will you retain water this way??

I mean extracellular water retention from test is just from the estrogen conversion right?

I'd go this route over diuretics - I've seen some even switch over from Dex to Letro to drop more water(but most I'd assume drop their oils like a wk or so out but knowing when to time this is crucial etc) but you still need to manipulate sodium and water imho -

I'm no competitor bug have worked with some recently

[psycintosh]

Thanks for the answers guys! gives me some stuff to think about

[charger69]

I compete and i competed natural at first. You still need to manipulate the water and salt (at least that is what i was taught and did). The manipulation is about the same because you really do not want AAS in your system for competition. That is what the experts here have advised.
I am still expirementing with the whole dehydration thing and am using the advice provid d here. We will see what happens. I was looking flat for the competition because i started dehydrating like 5 days before.