Im a figure competitor but have only done two shows, and I have another coming up in 4 weeks. I have a question that Im hoping someone can answer:
The night before my show my trainer usually has me take a diuretic around 3pm and then drop my water at 6pm. My diet stays the same (ie: chicken and potatoe) until around 10pm when I start to fat load. He has me load with rice cakes and regular peanut butter with jam, cheesecake and steak with fries. The week prior to this I drop all my carbs Sun, Mon, Tues and do circuit workouts to get all the glycogen out of my muscle- but my diet is very low sodium (chicken only, without condiments). Wed, Thurs and Fri I load with carbs (potatoe- again no sodium or condiments whatsoever).
Here is my concern- Ive been reading that the days that you dump your carbs you should be adding sodium to your food and that the night before the show you drop your sodium so that you excrete all the subcutaneous fluid through urine. This makes total sense to me, and Im wondering why my trainer would have me add sodium (which makes you hold water) the night before. Is there some piece of information that Im missing here?
He tells me that sodium needs water to survive, and since Im not drinking any water the sodium will help pull all the subcutaneous water into my muscle (???). Is this correct? Can someone tell me what they do for their show prep and which method above is the right one?
Thanks in advance!
The night before my show my trainer usually has me take a diuretic around 3pm and then drop my water at 6pm. My diet stays the same (ie: chicken and potatoe) until around 10pm when I start to fat load. He has me load with rice cakes and regular peanut butter with jam, cheesecake and steak with fries. The week prior to this I drop all my carbs Sun, Mon, Tues and do circuit workouts to get all the glycogen out of my muscle- but my diet is very low sodium (chicken only, without condiments). Wed, Thurs and Fri I load with carbs (potatoe- again no sodium or condiments whatsoever).
Here is my concern- Ive been reading that the days that you dump your carbs you should be adding sodium to your food and that the night before the show you drop your sodium so that you excrete all the subcutaneous fluid through urine. This makes total sense to me, and Im wondering why my trainer would have me add sodium (which makes you hold water) the night before. Is there some piece of information that Im missing here?
He tells me that sodium needs water to survive, and since Im not drinking any water the sodium will help pull all the subcutaneous water into my muscle (???). Is this correct? Can someone tell me what they do for their show prep and which method above is the right one?
Thanks in advance!