Over the years I have seen too many guys screw up months of hard training in the last week more often than not and I am too the point that I want to scream everytime that I hear about someone who is going to carb load, sodium load, decarb, water load, water deplete, take x amounts of this diuretic starting so many days out and so on. You would think that by now the majority of guys would have caught on by now that these methods are at best hit or miss and for the most part DO NOT WORK and will completely ruin what you have worked so hard to acheive. Some of what I will say is science and some is just my opinion and you don’t have to agree with it, but I just thought it would be fun to talk about and maybe actually keep a few guys from making the same mistakes over and over again. Maybe this can be made a sticky for a while.

The standard way (although there are more) to supposedly come into a show full, ripped and dry is to drop your carbs 7-10 out, carb up on Wed, thur, and Fri usually with insulin and tons of pie filling. YUM Then you start dropping your water intake around Wed. and cut it Fri. night. Start taking aldactone on Teus. to lower aldosterone levels. (which wouldn’t need to be done if you are drinking plenty of water) Another aldactone and maybe some lasix or diazide Sat morning if needed, which is usually done since most people can’t tell the difference between and dehydrated muscle and one that is spilled over which only compounds the problem even more and don’t forget, no water all day Sat. Maybe a few sips after prejudging followed by more diuretics and more insulin. I had a guy last year who I prepped for a show beg me to do this standard method on him for his show and after much thought, even knowing what would happen I did what he requested. After all, it was his money. The good news is that this regime is very predictable. He spilled over right on schedule and on Fri morning he was 12 pounds heavier and smooth as a babies ass. I still regreat doing this even though he threw no blame at me. I will never do this gain for no amount of money. It’s either my way or no way! The funny thing is that he came to because he saw a couple of guys I trained and wanted to know how I got them so ripped and dry. Even when I told him how he still didn’t listen. So, I know that no matter what I write in the mini article and how great it may work guys won’t follow it cause it doesn’t seem magical enough.

When I dry someone out for a show I use the same basic plan most of the time. Things do vary slighty depending on how the person’s body is metabolizing and respoding to everything. Most of the time I do not have the luxury of drying someone out from scratch. I am usually the one that a competitor comes to 2 weeks out or less to try and fix someone else’s screw ups. So, my methods are not always the same for this reason. If I went into extreme detail about all the reasons I do what I do this would be book length so I will just touch upon some of the most important aspects of drying out.

I do not like and never have liked the traditional carb up process. It doesn’t work! Most of the time you spill and then to correct the problem people will take diuretics and that makes it worse. You body can only hold approx. 350 grams of glucose in the muscles give or take and the rest will go to the liver and some obviously in the blood stream. How can someone expect to take in a few thousand grams of carbs over a 3 or 4 day period and not spill is beyond me. Most people know that for every gram of glucose you take in you body will need 2.7 grams of water to help with the storage of it. Once you muscles are completely saturated where do you think that some of the extra carbs will go? Your’re going to spill like crazy and all the extra water is going to follow with it. Althought I do carb people up it is not in the traditional sense and you have to be very careful.

Once most guys spill over they will most certainly use diuretics. Yes, I have and still do use them, BUT very sparingly and NOT all the time. ( I have actually dehydrated a person once by using water only by not timing the cut off correctly and the amount of water) They not only pull water from under the skin, but from in the blood stream. This also lowers your sodium levels which in turn lowers your blood pressure. This will cause your body to push plasma out of you veins and outside the blood stream causing even more problems. It is very important to make sure not to go to extremes with your sodium intake. Too much and you will spill and too little you will cramp and be unable to contract your muscle. You need about a 2:1 ratio when it some to sodium and potassium. I do raise up sodium slightly and lower it slighty, but the slighty is the key word here.

I also lower carbs and carb load, but again not to any great degree and not the reasons you might think. I lower the carbs mainly to dry the person out and them raise them little by little so as not to spill. I go to the edge without spilling over. Could the person be fuller? Most likey, but not enough to matter and if they spill they are fucked! Normally I do not start raising carbs till Fri. night or Sat morning. For those of you who think you need 2 to three or more days to carb up are WRONG WRONG WRONG!!!. It takes hours not days. When I diet my guys down, I normally do it will a very low carb diet (contraversy again) I usually will see them on a day BEFORE they carb up. at this time they are always dry and hard. During the carb up phase they will comment on how full and vascular they are around the 4 to 6 hours mark. By the next morning they have spilled. This, you might think is proof that the shitload method should work wonders. NOT SO, but it does or should prove to you at least a couple of things. One, that you do not need days to carb up and two you WILL spill from all the carbs and you will need a couple of days to normalize.

Cutting sodium and lowering water intake is another sure fire way to smooth out. I guarentee you that if you cut your sodium that you will after a few days still have a normal blood level of sodium, and the only thing that you will have succeded in doing is screwing up the delicate balance of your bodies water, sodium and potassium levels leaving you looking smooth. Your body will start producing aldosterone in the absence of sodium to help retain sodium blood levels so nothing has changed. Some will counter with, then why not take aldactone to lower aldosterne levels? I say, why lower water in the first place? Keeping you water intake high will keep aldosterone levels low and keep your muscles full and hard plus you’ll be nice and dry some contest day. Why throw in a bunch of unpredictable drugs if you don’t have too! Remember, lowering water levels will always result in a soft, smooth look to the muscle.

Remember, there are no tricks! A good trainer will know when to change your program based on how your body is responding.

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