A
Akira
Guest
It is the night before the show and assuming that you have done your homework you now have one more chance to ruin your contest preparation. In addition to a hard, cut body a sure fire way to impress the judges is to step onto the stage with a tremendous amount of vascularity. That is the blood vessels must appear full.
A common practice among novice competitors is, in an effort to remove water from their skin, to severely curtail the consumption of water for the last 24 hours prior to the show. Unfortunately, dehydrating the body, or depriving the body of its most important fluid, ultimately leads to a reduction in blood pressure which will lead to less vascularity and smaller muscles with little or no effect on "water in the skin". Once again the "do not shock the body" principle arises. Understanding that we do not want a bloated stomach on contest day, the best way to ensure this vascularity is by consuming small but frequent amounts of water that in total are close to our normal consumption. Assuming that you did not do anything stupid with your electrolytes (sodium and potassium) then any excess water will promptly be deposited in the toilet and not in your skin.
Should you drink only distilled water at this point? I honestly believe that most competitors think that spring water comes directly from the salt mines judging by the way that they avoid it just prior to a contest. In fact there is only 5 mgs. per cup of sodium in most spring water. Based on our evaluations of precontest diets of competitors, most competitors tend to show potassium to sodium ratio of 3 to 1 or greater. This ratio should be no higher than 2 to 1. Since we observe that the average precontest dietary potassium intake is on the order of 4000 mgs. then it is hard to imagine that spring water would have even the slightest adverse effect on the competitor. In fact it is interesting to watch competitors who are cramping take extra potassium when in fact their cramping was most probably due to too much potassium in the first place.
Finally, it is extremely important that on the morning of your show you consume a small amount of complex carbohydrates to give your body the energy it needs to compete and to make the muscles look full. In addition, if you have been using high quality supplements (that should not have the large amount of sodium that is hidden in some products on the market) you should take them the morning of the show. ~ David A. Spindel
A common practice among novice competitors is, in an effort to remove water from their skin, to severely curtail the consumption of water for the last 24 hours prior to the show. Unfortunately, dehydrating the body, or depriving the body of its most important fluid, ultimately leads to a reduction in blood pressure which will lead to less vascularity and smaller muscles with little or no effect on "water in the skin". Once again the "do not shock the body" principle arises. Understanding that we do not want a bloated stomach on contest day, the best way to ensure this vascularity is by consuming small but frequent amounts of water that in total are close to our normal consumption. Assuming that you did not do anything stupid with your electrolytes (sodium and potassium) then any excess water will promptly be deposited in the toilet and not in your skin.
Should you drink only distilled water at this point? I honestly believe that most competitors think that spring water comes directly from the salt mines judging by the way that they avoid it just prior to a contest. In fact there is only 5 mgs. per cup of sodium in most spring water. Based on our evaluations of precontest diets of competitors, most competitors tend to show potassium to sodium ratio of 3 to 1 or greater. This ratio should be no higher than 2 to 1. Since we observe that the average precontest dietary potassium intake is on the order of 4000 mgs. then it is hard to imagine that spring water would have even the slightest adverse effect on the competitor. In fact it is interesting to watch competitors who are cramping take extra potassium when in fact their cramping was most probably due to too much potassium in the first place.
Finally, it is extremely important that on the morning of your show you consume a small amount of complex carbohydrates to give your body the energy it needs to compete and to make the muscles look full. In addition, if you have been using high quality supplements (that should not have the large amount of sodium that is hidden in some products on the market) you should take them the morning of the show. ~ David A. Spindel
