In a previous post “Motivation To Get Ripped” I mentioned that booking a photo shoot can be one of the greatest motivators to sculpt your body into a work of art, as well as the greatest reward by showcasing your results as art. Today I’m going to share the strategies that I used to prepare for my photo shoot during the final week leading up to the event.
If you do a Google search for contest prep you will find a variety of strategies that people use during the final week leading up to a contest or an event such as a photo shoot. As just about everyone who has ever gone through this experience will attest, it takes some trial and error to really see how your body responds to the strategies.
You may have heard stories about competitors looking better the day after a photo shoot or contest. The day of the contest or photo shoot they come in “flat”, because their muscles are dehydrated and depleted of glycogen. After they have a cheat meal and drink some water they end up looking better. This was a mistake that I made during my first photo shoot. I depleted my water big time for a few days as well as glycogen and I didn’t refeed.
Having only gone through the process of prepping for a photo shoot 3 times, I am definitely no expert on the topic and am still learning how my body responds to the timing of each strategy. I still feel that you can learn from my experiences, which is why I am sharing these strategies with you today.
There is one very important point that I must emphasize before we get into the specific strategies… and that is to come in as lean as you possibly can before you apply these strategies. These strategies are not a secret to burn a bunch of fat during the final week. These strategies are designed to reduce the amount of water that is held between your skin and your muscle, as well as pull the water into your muscles themselves to fill them up, making your skin look tight… commonly referred to as “shrink wrapped”.
My recommendation is to come in as ripped as you can be 2 weeks prior to the photo shoot. This takes the pressure off of you to shed the last bit of fat in the final week… so all that you have to focus on is the water and carb manipulation.
My second recommendation is to not do anything too extreme during the final week leading up to the photo shoot. I spent a great deal of time reading up on how many other fitness models and bodybuilders prepare for contests and photo shoots. In the end I decided to take the simplest approach to ease myself into this experience and to avoid any negative reactions to the strategies.
I chose not to manipulate my sodium, potassium, or take any kind of natural diuretic such as dandelion root. I may however experiment with these strategies for my next photo shoot. Throughout all of my reading I noticed that many people responded in a unique way to the sodium loading followed by sodium depletion, which kind of scared me off a bit. What I do plan on doing for the next photo shoot is to cut out sodium during the last 3 days leading up to the photo shoot. Unfortunately, the night before my previous photo shoot I ate out and had chicken that was extremely high in sodium. I am certain that I would have come in looking drier and more “shrink wrapped”, had I not consumed that meal.
Here’s how I prepared for the previous photo shoot…
T-minus 6 Days: Carb Depletion and Water Load
On this day I reduced my carb intake to around 100 grams and drank close to 3 gallons of water.
NOTE: You will want to be close to a bathroom during this water loading phase as you will be peeing like crazy.
T-Minus 5 Days: Carb Depletion and Water Load
Same as the day before
T-Minus 4 Days: Carb Depletion and Water Load
Same as previous two days.
NOTE: Many people like to perform high rep, reduced rest, glycogen depleting workouts during these first 3 days to help fully deplete their glycogen stores. I personally opted to just stick to my workouts as usual during this time.
T-Minus 3 Days: Carb Loading and Water Load
This was a fun day. It always feels great to replenish your glycogen stores 😉 I bumped up my carbs to approximately 300 grams on this day. The sources of carbs came from oats, potatoes, and bananas.
As I mentioned earlier, I don’t think that you should be doing anything drastically different during this final week. So far, the past 4 days are identical to what I would do on a normal week with the exception of drinking a lot more water.
Being inexperienced with this process I was expecting to look bloated from drinking all of this excess water. To my surprise it had the opposite effect. I was peeing out all of the water and more. From what I’ve read, drinking excess water like this temporarily can have a diuretic effect.
T-Minus 2 Days: Carb Loading and Cut Back On Water
On this day I increased my carbs to 320 grams and cut my water back to what I would normally drink, which is approximately 12-14 glasses.
T-Minus 1 Day: Carb Loading and Cut Out Water
Continued with the 320 grams of carbs on this day and cut my water out completely at 11:00 am (24 hours prior to photo shoot).
From this experience I realize that I cut water out too soon. Next time I will experiment with cutting water out completely for just the 12 hours leading up to the photo shoot.
Today’s events were not ideal for the day prior to a photo shoot. I participated in a charity golf event and ended up getting a bit of a sunburn on my head and neck.
Also, the dinner, which I was hoping would be better was very high in sodium. I could taste that the chicken breast was soaked in it.
However, I did everything that I could to make the best of the situation. I had a meal replacement for breakfast along with some left over Shepherd’s Pie. I then had left over Shepherd’s pie at the golf course just before the event began. At the turn I had an oatmeal pancake. Then I had the 2 chicken breasts and didn’t bother with the carbs because they were even saltier than the chicken.
I came home and had another oatmeal pancake and some ground chicken. 2 hours later I had a bowl of oatmeal and blueberries along with some ground chicken on the side. I had a little more oatmeal before bed. Honestly, I think that’s the most healthy carbs that I’ve ever ate in an entire day.
Morning of Photo Shoot: Carb Load and No Water
One thing that was really cool this morning was seeing the separation down the middle of that lower abdominal region. I’ve never seen that separation before on myself. It was WAY cool to see a line right down the middle of my abs directly to my pelvis. That’s CRAZY!!!
I had an oatmeal pancake for breakfast. No coffee and no water.
I had one more meal after this, which was also an oatmeal pancake. I also had a small glass of red wine before I left for the photo shoot.
This experience was absolutely unbelievable! I have never felt sexier than I did during the photo shoot, which has caused me to reflect on the benefits of sculpting an incredible physique. There’s no doubt that vanity plays a big role in motivating an individual to transform their body. We want to look great and feel great. We want to look attractive to members of the opposite sex. When you finally achieve your goal you realize the impact that your aesthetically pleasing physique has on you emotionally. Your self confidence goes through the roof.
…but when you achieve that goal and go through the experience of a photo shoot it takes that confidence, swagger, and feeling of total sex appeal to a whole new level. This photo shoot has been the greatest reward that I could have ever given myself. I have never felt more proud.
One thing that I have noticed is that I am more vascular with some water in me. Part of me is thinking that when I go through this again I will eat some chocolate and drink some water 30 minutes before the photo shoot.
I was talking with Angie about how this photo shoot was much different from the last one that we did. The last time I didn’t eat anything before the photo shoot and I looked flat. Also, I went on a massive binge after the photo shoot the last time.
This photo shoot I ate quite a bit before the pictures. After the photo shoot I barely even felt like eating. What I did want was water, which I drank quite a bit of.
What Will I Do Different?
For my next photo shoot I will come in even more ripped that my previous photo shoot… and I’ll be showcasing more muscle… wooo hooo!
I plan on following the carb depletion, water loading, carb loading, and water depletion the same, with the exception of cutting out the water for only 12 hours instead of 24.
I will make sure that I cut out all sodium during the last 3 days… no exceptions and no excuses.
I will bump up my potassium during the last 2 days and take dandelion root during the last 24 hours.
I’m going to be bringing on some of my fitness model friends and fellow body sculptors to share their experiences and what has worked best for them.
I’m incredibly ecstatic to hear of so many Metabolic Masterpiece customers taking the leap and booking their photo shoots this year. This is going to be one heck of a memorable experience. I can’t wait to see them showcasing their results and displaying them as art work.
It’s time to ROCK!
Sculpt a Masterpiece,
Scott Tousignant
About The Author
Scott Tousignant, BHK, is a Certified Fitness Consultant with a passion for transforming fitness enthusiasts into physique artists. His most recent program, Metabolic Masterpiece guides you through the process of sculpting your body into a work of art, by applying what Scott has coined, “The A.T.T.R.A.C.T. Formula.
With his synergistic, boredom busting body sculpting workouts you will melt stubborn fat and gain muscle while skyrocketing your metabolism!