Basically, sometime in November I’ll be posing nude for a calendar. I’m not in the greatest of shapes, probably somewhere just under 20%bf at about 210lbs (semblance of abs, separation in pec-delt tie in area, will post a picture with a shoe at some point later), and that’s not something I’m really fussed about fixing right now - I’m mainly lifting for numbers for a few months.
What I am fussed about is being the biggest looking naked guy in this group of naked guys, and I was wondering what exactly I should be doing in the few days before the pictures are taken - carbs, water, salt? Pump workout beforehand? Waste of time when you’re not already under 10%?
Even if it’s pointless, it’s not something I know anything about anyway, so you know, learning and stuff.
[quote]gregron wrote:
“Semblance of abs” “separation in the pec delt tie in”??? You sound about 15 pounds away from contest shape to me
[/quote]
Lol, man, I love the expressions I’ve heard online to describe level of softness/leanness.
Seriously now, for the OP, sometimes even the leanest people out there don’t find much of a visual difference from trying to play around with water, carbs and sodium. In and of itself, it’s always a dicey thing because if your body reacts badly, you can actually end up looking much worse.
Of course this concern only really applies to people that are already considerably lean. I know that in the article another poster listed above, the author (Thibs) presents photos of what a physique might realistically look like at different levels of bodyfat. If you’re not even close to the lower examples given, I wouldn’t really worry too much about messing around with your water.
On the other hand, a little spray tanning isn’t a bad idea. Labrada used to highlight certain muscles with a cue-tip using skin dye before subsequent layers of fake tanner.
Truthfully, based off those pictures I’m probably a 1.5 (although the jump from 1-2 seems a lot more drastic than 2-3 - but maybe I’m being ignorant), so sounds like water manipulation is a bit pointless at this stage. When I’m leaner at some point I’ll experiment with it, see what happens.
Getting a pump should be easy, since we may end up posing with tactical placement of weights anyway, and I’ll look into tanning.
Water manipulation should be left alone in most cases. Firsty, you have to be in really good shape to see significant effects of successful water manipulation. Secondly, it often backfires.
At least the planned protocol should be practiced 3-4 weeks before the actual show or shoot.
What I’ve learned in 20 years of competitive bodybuiling is, that it’s a highly individual thing. What works for one person does not have to work for someone else.
And more often than not, first attempts terribly fail.
[quote]ParagonA wrote:
Water manipulation should be left alone in most cases. Firsty, you have to be in really good shape to see significant effects of successful water manipulation. Secondly, it often backfires.
At least the planned protocol should be practiced 3-4 weeks before the actual show or shoot.
What I’ve learned in 20 years of competitive bodybuiling is, that it’s a highly individual thing. What works for one person does not have to work for someone else.
And more often than not, first attempts terribly fail.
[/quote]
I’ve never tried it myself but yeah from what you have said and others, most people just bodge it and they end up looking better the day after or pre water manipulation lol.
[quote]ParagonA wrote:
Water manipulation should be left alone in most cases. Firsty, you have to be in really good shape to see significant effects of successful water manipulation. Secondly, it often backfires.
At least the planned protocol should be practiced 3-4 weeks before the actual show or shoot.
What I’ve learned in 20 years of competitive bodybuiling is, that it’s a highly individual thing. What works for one person does not have to work for someone else.
And more often than not, first attempts terribly fail.
[/quote]
I’ve never tried it myself but yeah from what you have said and others, most people just bodge it and they end up looking better the day after or pre water manipulation lol.
Koing[/quote]
So true. Looking so much better the day after the show is something that happened to many, if not most competitors at least once.
The ‘funny’ thing is, that even after I had established my sure-fire last week (before a contest, including carb loading and water manipulation) it still happened from time to time.
I believe the whole electrolyte/water balance process is dependent on so many factors, like food intake, hormonal environment, sleep, stress levels that it’s very, very difficulut if not impossible to time it perfectly. At least for natural bodybuilders without the help of duretics and other drugs.
I used to follow very aggressive approaches in deloading/loading/water manipulation. Nowadays I’m much more conservative and just get in shape and then eat a bit more carbs on the day before the contest and stop water intake at 6pm the day before the show.
In my thread there you’ll find the protocol I used to follow (great success with Finibars and Surge WF). But as I said, going with a less complicated approach seems to work equally well.
IMO it’s a waste of time unless you get lean enough for the final stages of a show prep to matter.
I second Stu’s advice on a tan.
You can try to manipulate/cut water but if you’re still holding fat a diuretic, etc won’t get rid of the fat…maybe it will shrink the fat cell but it will still be there and it will still be hiding your muscle.
[quote]ParagonA wrote:
Water manipulation should be left alone in most cases. Firsty, you have to be in really good shape to see significant effects of successful water manipulation. Secondly, it often backfires.
At least the planned protocol should be practiced 3-4 weeks before the actual show or shoot.
What I’ve learned in 20 years of competitive bodybuiling is, that it’s a highly individual thing. What works for one person does not have to work for someone else.
And more often than not, first attempts terribly fail.
[/quote]
I’ve never tried it myself but yeah from what you have said and others, most people just bodge it and they end up looking better the day after or pre water manipulation lol.
Koing[/quote]
So true. Looking so much better the day after the show is something that happened to many, if not most competitors at least once.
The ‘funny’ thing is, that even after I had established my sure-fire last week (before a contest, including carb loading and water manipulation) it still happened from time to time.
I believe the whole electrolyte/water balance process is dependent on so many factors, like food intake, hormonal environment, sleep, stress levels that it’s very, very difficulut if not impossible to time it perfectly. At least for natural bodybuilders without the help of duretics and other drugs.
I used to follow very aggressive approaches in deloading/loading/water manipulation. Nowadays I’m much more conservative and just get in shape and then eat a bit more carbs on the day before the contest and stop water intake at 6pm the day before the show.
In my thread there you’ll find the protocol I used to follow (great success with Finibars and Surge WF). But as I said, going with a less complicated approach seems to work equally well.
[/quote]
Cool. I’ll check it out.
I think if I do a show I’ll go with a nothing fancy approach and just go in as is. For me as a total n00b I’d rather go in knowing my condition then chance it and make it worse. Maybe with more experience or with trial and error later on, I can fine tune a few things 3 weeks out and see what looks better.
