Water intake before competition and your conditioning
Translated by Janar Rückenberg
Water intake before a competition often decides more than it appears from the audience. A bodybuilder can be strong, symmetrical and have dieted properly, but if fluids are handled wrong, the physique ends up soft, flat or just “almost ready.”
The simple truth: competition condition isn’t built on a drop in body fat percentage alone. Muscle fullness, the amount of subcutaneous water, carbohydrate loading and salt balance all work together. If one of them goes off, even the best work looks worse on stage.
Why does water intake affect competition condition?
Every bodybuilder who has competed or prepared for a show knows the feeling: everything seems to be done. The training is done. The diet has been followed. The bulking phase didn’t go too far. And yet something is missing on stage. The muscle isn’t as hard, the separation doesn’t show and the veins don’t “pop” the way you hoped.
If you look at bodybuilding photos from the 1960s or from the first Mr. Olympia contests, the difference from today’s stage condition is very clear. By current criteria, the physiques of that era were often much more watery. Over the past 20 years, training, diet and pre-contest preparation have become more precise. Today, judges reward extreme dryness, muscle separation, definition, striations and vascularity.
That doesn’t mean peak condition is easy. Even very good bodybuilders often reach the stage in a condition that is “almost there.” Not bad, but not maximal either. Some nail one show and miss the next. There are several possible reasons: too little training, too much weight gained in the bulking phase, too deep a diet or, conversely, too lax a diet.
But there are also those who do almost everything right. They track their menu, sacrifice time, money and family life, practice posing and stay disciplined. Then the competition arrives and the body doesn’t look as dry as it should. So what actually happens?
Very often the problem is connected to water intake and dehydration. Too little water is drunk, especially in the last week before the show. In bodybuilding, water is one of the most misunderstood nutrients. People fear it, even though it is actually essential for building condition.
Water intake, dehydration and the body’s response
The human body is tied to water on every level. About 70% of body mass is water. The food we eat is also roughly 70% water. A fluid loss of just 10% can cause serious health problems, and a 20% loss can be life-threatening. A person can survive for weeks without food, but only a few days without water, and in harsh conditions sometimes only a few hours.
Blood is approximately 90% water. It carries nutrients to the tissues and helps remove lactate and metabolic waste. Muscles are about 75% water. Water helps maintain body temperature, keeps tissues moist and allows the joints to move normally. Typically, you get about 2.5 – 3.5 liters of water per day from drinks and food combined.
If not enough water passes through the kidneys, removing waste products becomes harder. The liver then has to work harder. That’s bad news for a bodybuilder, because the liver is also involved in recovery, metabolism and fat burning. When the body senses a fluid shortage, it starts holding on to water. Urine output falls and water reabsorption in the kidney tubules increases.
That’s the paradox many people overlook: the earlier and harder water is restricted, the stronger the body’s urge to retain it can become. Fluid that collects under the skin gives the bodybuilder exactly the watery look they most want to avoid.
The hormone aldosterone plays an important role here. When fluid levels drop, the adrenal glands start secreting more aldosterone. This increases water reabsorption. In practice, diuretics and antagonist hormones that suppress the action of aldosterone are sometimes used, but such methods belong to a risky area that requires experienced supervision. For the average gym-goer, this is not a playground.
If water is forced out of the body, muscle fibers lose their density and hardness. The muscle can go flat. The end result is a smooth physique where definition and relief are gone. Frankly, that’s exactly the opposite of what you want to see on stage.
How does water intake work during loading?
Carbohydrate manipulation, i.e. depleting and loading, is an old topic in bodybuilding. After carbohydrate depletion comes the reload: muscle glycogen stores are filled again. If it succeeds, the muscle looks fuller, tighter, more massive and more detailed. After depletion, the muscles’ capacity to store glycogen may increase; this is called supercompensation.
This is where water comes in. Loading doesn’t work well if the body is dehydrated. Carbohydrates are ultimately broken down into glucose in the body. For glucose to move into the cell unimpeded and be converted into glycogen, it has to be bound to enough water. The original text emphasizes a 3 : 1 ratio, i.e. three parts water for every one part glucose.
Insulin helps move glucose into the cell, but if there isn’t enough fluid in the body, the process can’t work at full capacity. Glucose stays circulating in the bloodstream and the liver starts dealing with it. Some of it may go toward replenishing liver glycogen stores, while the excess may move toward fat synthesis, especially when there is a lot of glucose in the blood along with newly formed fatty acids.
A well-known claim is that the body only starts converting extra calories into fat after 72 hours. The original text also refers to a study in which the dietary fats consumed were radioactively labeled and mass deposition began to take place after roughly 72 hours. In the context of loading, though, the point is a practical one: when there is a lot of active glucose in the blood but the muscle can’t take it up well because of a lack of water, the result is worse.
This is why many bodybuilders fear loading. They have seen how a botched load leaves the body puffy and soft. But the cause may not be loading itself. Often the problem is that loading is done without enough water. The muscles can’t fill up with carbohydrates, and the body doesn’t look the way it should.
This also explains a familiar phenomenon: many bodybuilders look better 1 – 2 days after a competition than on competition day. After the show, people start eating and drinking. Only then does the body get enough water, and the cells begin to take up glucose better and store glycogen. The muscle becomes fuller, and the physique can look harder and more powerful.
At the same time, this may no longer be true peak condition, because the timing has passed. If there wasn’t an adequate amount of water at the right time for loading, subcutaneous softness could also have developed. Without understanding this, people often assume that loading itself caused the wateriness, and they fear the next load even more.
Translator’s note: in fact, the fear of loading is justified to some extent, because competition conditioning is ruined if you overload (consume more carbohydrates during loading than the muscles can store), which also gives a watery look. But that is a topic for the future, as it is a subject of its own.
Water intake and sodium in the final week
So how much water do you need? There is no single answer that suits everyone. People differ, muscle mass differs and sweating differs. The original article states that Dr. Howard Flacks, a weight-loss specialist from Beverly Hills, recommended 2.7 – 2.8 liters a day to patients. A bodybuilder preparing for competition often needs more, because muscle mass and training load are greater than in an average person.
Water isn’t the only thing to take into account, though. Another big topic is salts, especially sodium and potassium. Bodybuilders know that excess sodium can promote subcutaneous and extracellular fluid retention. At the same time, dehydration makes the sodium problem worse, because elevated aldosterone levels also promote sodium reabsorption.
When the body is adequately supplied with water, the kidneys are better able to remove excess sodium. A small amount of sodium from food then doesn’t automatically mean a watery look. But if sodium is cut for too long, the body may start to excrete potassium as well. The result is low sodium and low potassium levels. That is not a good place to step on stage from.
The original logic goes like this: if the potassium concentration exceeds the sodium concentration, more water may shift from under the skin into the muscle cells, because the body tries to balance the extracellular and intracellular environments. That is why eliminating sodium completely for a long period is not a good idea. The goal isn’t to throw the body into panic, but to time the changes so that the body doesn’t have a chance to switch straight into holding mode.
In practical terms, this means that sodium concentration is kept up during the pre-competition period and restricted only one day before the competition. At the same time as sodium is restricted, potassium is sometimes used as a supplement. Another condition is that fluid intake stays high enough in the final week too. Cutting water and salt too early can give the opposite result.
Water restriction does have its place, though. The original text recommends doing it roughly 1 day before the competition. Some bodybuilders start the evening before, others only on the morning of competition day. Experiences differ, but the idea is the same: before that, loading and hydration must be done properly.
Translator’s note: anyone who has read carefully will see that the timing of sodium and water restriction actually overlaps, and neither is cut very long before going on stage!
A practical check before you go on stage
The week before a competition is not the time for big experiments for the first time. Loading needs practice. The relationship between water, carbohydrates, sodium and potassium is too important to copy blindly from someone else’s plan. What works for one person can give another a soft, flat result.
A good practical starting point is to watch how your body reacts already during the diet. Does the muscle go flat on low water? Does adding carbohydrates fill out the muscle or make the subcutaneous look softer? Does your urine become too dark and scant? These signs often tell you more than some random “drying out” trick.
During loading, muscles need water to synthesize glycogen from glucose. Once glycogen is stored in the muscle, it doesn’t simply leave until the body needs energy. If the muscles are adequately loaded and fluid is restricted only afterward, the result can be a more massive, denser and drier look.
The rise in aldosterone production after fluid restriction is not instant. The kidneys can keep flushing out water for several more hours. That is why restricting fluids the evening before a competition or on the morning of it can work better than weeks of avoiding water. Muscle glycogen binds water, so the muscle stays fuller and the subcutaneous look can stay drier.
The most important thing is not to confuse two different things: adequate hydration during prep and a short period of water restriction right before you step on stage. The first helps your diet, recovery and loading work. The second is a timing tool. If the first part isn’t in place, the second won’t save your conditioning.
FAQ: water intake before a competition
Should you restrict water for the entire final week?
Generally, no. The core message of the original article is the opposite: even in the final week, your fluid intake needs to stay high enough, especially during loading. Prolonged restriction can increase the effect of aldosterone and make the body hold on to water.
Why does the body sometimes look better 1 – 2 days after a competition?
After a competition, people eat and drink more. Once the body finally gets enough water, glucose moves into the muscle cells more efficiently and glycogen stores fill up. As a result, the muscle can look harder, fuller and more massive.
Do you need to cut sodium out completely?
Restricting sodium for too long is not a good idea. The original recommendation was to keep sodium high during the pre-competition period and to restrict it only one day before the competition, while keeping an eye on potassium and fluid balance.
Author: Janar Rückenberg
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Source: WHO – physical activity.
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