Larry Wheels has been a famous powerlifter for years now. He has racked up over 5 million followers on Instagram and nearly 3 million YouTube subscribers. In terms of the fitness industry, these are very high numbers. Larry Wheels is 28 years old and gets up to 308 lbs at his heaviest weight. He has set countless records in the world of powerlifting. His bench press is 661 lbs, his squat is 952 lbs, and a 1,042 lbs deadlift. This brings his grand total to an outstanding 2,655 lbs. These are record numbers. However, all of this success was not enough for Larry Wheels because he decided to also compete in a Classic bodybuilding show.
Wheels has competed in a previous bodybuilding show. In 2018, he attempted an open division bodybuilding show. However, he did not have enough mass at his height to be able to compete with some of the other competitors. He ended up taking the 11th overall placement at this show. At the 2023 Arnold Sports Festival, Wheels is quoted saying, “Open Bodybuilding…I didn’t see how I can be very competitive because, at my height, I need to put on an unrealistic amount of muscle. That just wasn’t happening — and if I was to pull that off, I’d be extremely unhealthy in doing so. With Classic, I’m already as big as I need to be. If not, I have to gain a few more pounds and then cut down to the cutoff at 220 or 230.”
This means that Wheels decided to switch to a division that does not require quite as much muscle mass. He decided to make this switch in order to preserve his health and not take as many harmful substances that would be required of him to keep competing in the open division. Since 2018, Larry Wheels took a break from bodybuilding, until now.
In November of 2023, Wheels competed in his first competition in the Classic Division. He ended up ranking first place in a very respectable competition. However, the more impressive feat was him taking the second overall placement in the amateur olympia. The Olympia is seen as the biggest event in all of bodybuilding. Imagine the Super Bowl, but of bodybuilding. It is a very big deal.
With this success, Wheels also went through a very aggressive and hard preparation time. Larry Wheels had to lose close to 50 lbs and maintain as much muscle mass as possible. This was a very challenging time for Wheels as he, admittedly, was never that lean. He says he was much happier when he was 280 lbs as opposed to 230 lbs. He was constantly fighting the craving to indulge in food. He was missing being able to eat how he wanted to.
Even with all of his hard work and dieting, Wheels was still 8 lbs too heavy for the weight cap come time of peak week. For those who are unfamiliar with the term peak week, it refers to the week directly before the competition in which bodybuilders will “fine-tune” their physiques through slightly adjusting their diet and water intake. It directly follows weeks of a very strict diet and just allows bodybuilders to make the last changes that they need. This gave Wheels just one week to lose 8 lbs!
Due to these very extreme circumstances, Wheels did things that are very dangerous for his health and could have done a lot more damage than what was truly done. Wheels ended up completely starving himself to drop those final pounds of water. However, the most damage was done after the show. Wheels ended up gaining a whopping 53 lbs back over the course of 5 days. This is due to the fact that he ate terribly following the show. He thought of having cheat meals as a reward for following a very strict diet.
However, after starving your body for that long, it is not safe to suddenly eat however you want.This is known as an eating disorder called “refeed syndrome.” His reward and “cheat meal” very quickly became over 20,000 calories. This caused him to retain nearly 50 lbs of water. This was incredibly dangerous for his heart, kidneys, and other vital organs. You can see noticeable swelling around his body from all of the water, which can be a sign of the body shutting down.
While Larry Wheels did amazing at his show, he did take a very dangerous approach to achieve this success.