For awhile in the late 90’s to early 2000’s Craig Titus and I were training partners. He was always a great friend and he really pushed me in the weight room. Craig had focus in the gym like nobody’s business. He was like me when we trained; always pushing the limits. I’ll go on record right now and declare that nobody at Gold’s Gym Venice trained as hard as me back in the day. I just loved pushing the pain barriers and seeing how much I could handle. Sometimes, I could have pulled back but that’s what made it 
so great. And that’s what made Craig a great training partner. We shared that same mindset. Training together for the time we did forged a bond and we became real tight. Our friendship wasn’t just in the gym. Naw, not only did we both have a penchant for painful training sessions but we also liked to have fun. Well, make that too much fun. Craig had a real addictive personality. Whenever he wanted to do something, he did it and he didn’t look back. We both partied and partied just as hard as each other.
In 2001, Craig and I put a lot of energy into prepping for the IFBB San Francisco Pro. Especially Craig; he really had a great prep that time around. Let’s first take a step back in time and look at where bodybuilding was in 2001. That was during the time Ronnie ruled the Olympia throne and Jay was chasing his coattails. Those days were still kind of like the 90’s. Everyone was in a battle for more and more mass. It was especially true for the top Olympia competitors. We all knew the Olympia was the “Ronnie Coleman Show”. And everyone else was still fighting for enough mass to slip into that 2nd place slot. With that said, I got pretty big that year. Actually, I got super big. That was the biggest I had ever been prepping for a show. I was huge but wasn’t spot on like I needed to be. I remember looking at myself saying “Damn, I’m shocked I’m this big going into a contest”.
Craig and I both flew up to San Fran the day before the show and I was sitting really big at 275. I wasn’t in the best condition going up there but I was sure as hell huge. I still had some water to lose. It was mostly water, but some fat. Craig on the other hand was looking the best he ever looked. Honestly, I thought he looked a lot better than me. He was carrying the craziest condition and size he’s ever carried for that show. I remember how full he was too. He always had a problem with his chest and his chest was even full for this one. When we landed, we got off the plane and just went to our rooms and I said “Damn, I need to do something tonight to sweat some of this fluid out”. What was the logical thing to do? It was to party as hard as we could! We got dressed, met up in the lobby and went out to a local club. As soon as we walked in, it was packed. We glanced around for a minute and I just made a beeline for the dance floor. I danced and danced as hard as I could-- off and on-- for hours. I took breaks for a drink every once in awhile. I remember that night was just like any other night partying with Craig. Clothes were flying off on the dance floor and there were some unusual substances flowing through our veins if you know what I mean.
We made friends at the club and did the usual. I remember having any of the girls I wanted grinding on me. It was probably bad for them because I grinded back a lot harder than they probably bargained for. Hey, I had calories to burn! That night we did a few extra “stimulants” to get our edge so we could party even harder. “Stimulants” as I will call them were always par for the course when you partied with Craig. I knew I had to do them if I had any chance of coming into the show in the condition I needed. So I had a little extra, um, “caffeine”, during the night. The partying didn’t stop on the dance floor either. No way. I had some extracurricular partying going on off the dance floor in the restrooms and in dark corners. The kind that’s a lot more fun than dancing. We’ll call it the “Horizontal Mambo”. And I did a lot of it too. This didn’t just stop and start and stop at certain times. No, we left and had no set plans of coming back at a certain time so we could sleep or anything like that. Nothing made sense about what we did that night. We kept going as hard as we could until it was time we needed to get back to the hotel for our stuff so we could head to the venue to start pumping up. We didn’t even sleep that night! If I’ve ever partied hard; it was then.
I remember getting back to the hotel that morning and putting on my trunks after 8 hours of nonstop dancing and “stimulant” use and looking in the mirror. I was shocked at what I saw. I was like “Damn! I’m ripped”! I still wasn’t 100% where I wanted or needed to be but I looked like a transformed Real Deal. I remember getting there and weighing myself at 275. The day of the show I stepped on the scale at 260. I lost 15 lbs overnight and when I started pumping up it really started to come together for me. I remember getting through prejudging still buzzing and on cloud 9 from the previous night. I thought for a few minutes that Craig might have had me beat. At the night show, when my name was announced as the winner, you could see the disappointment on Craig’s face. He partied just as hard as me and still came in with perfect fullness, hardness and great conditioning. He wasn’t happy. Looking back on that show, I think Craig may have had me but who knows? It was very close. . . guess I did a few more “stimulants” than him?
Looking back at all my partying times and what I’ve done, I think it’s a little silly and I’m not condoning these actions for anyone. But it was a good time while it lasted. I hope you all enjoyed this story. I’ve got plenty more stories of Titus and I doing crazy stuff. I have everything from gym stories to party stories to everything in between. If you want to hear something else in particular from me or have a question to ask or just want to say hi don’t forget to check out my Q&A thread on the RxMuscle forums! I’ll be back soon with another installment of the TRUTH. Stay tuned next time to hear me talk about politics, what really goes on behind the scenes in the IFBB and when I feel I got screwed the worst in my career. I will also give you my opinion of the top 3 most political calls in bodybuilding history. And they probably aren’t what you think they are! Until next time, peace out!
