HOW TO LOOK RIPPED FOR A PHOTO SHOOT

Preparation Before Muscle Photo shoot , More definitions to your Muscle

Here's the methods I used to get ripped for my "16 week" photo shoot. If you think you look good enough already, then you don't need to do this. It's not necessary. But, if you really want to try to get that little extra bit of definition, then these tips can help.

If you are not already on my standard fat loss diet, it will take about four weeks. I am assuming you have already been on a low fat, fatloss diet for at least two weeks, so you will only need two weeks to get ready for the shoot. Just continue on with your fat loss diet, while making these changes:

Two weeks from shoot:
¨ Discontinue use of any product that has unnecessary sugar, dairy, and white flour. This will prevent the usual bloating and "thick skin" look that accompanies the ingestion of these foods. This includes any MRP that contains maltodextrin or any other simple carbohydrate.
¨ Stop taking creatine (you will be reloading later on).
¨ Stop taking vandyl sulfate.
¨ Start tanning, slowly. Tanning helps to get rid of some of the excess water
beneath the skin. Darker skin also brings out your definition and cuts.

7 days from shoot:
¨ Have your last leg workout. For your legs to look ripped and vascular you
must allow then to fully recuperate and heal. If they are swollen or sore
from working out, they will look smooth.

5 days from shoot:
¨ Reduce your carbohydrate intake to 50g or less for the next 3 days. Your goal is to deplete your muscles of glycogen. Once depleted, you will begin loading up on carbs for the last 2 day. This depletion and reloading will cause your muscles to overcompensate by taking more glucose into the muscles, making them look much larger, harder and more full!
¨ Begin to lower your sodium intake. Excess sodium leads to water retention. Do not cut your sodium all at once, though. This will cause your body to compensate by retaining water. When you slowly reduce your sodium intake, your body continues to flush out excess sodium thinking
more is on the way.
¨ Start taking 1,000-2,000 mg of potassium each day. This will help to offset the effects of the sodium reduction by keeping your cells hydrated.
¨ Start reloading with plain creatine (no sugar). Load six times per day for the next 4 days. Reloading helps push more creatine into your muscles.
¨ Increase your cardio to five times this week

4 days before shoot:
¨ Start drinking at least one gallon of distilled water each day. Distilled
water has no salt.

3 days from shoot:
¨ Start taking vitamin B6. It helps to reduce water retention beneath the skin.
¨ Stop tanning. Each time you tan, you skin becomes swollen and inflamed. This will give your skin time to heal.

2 days from shoot:
¨ Perform a very light workout.
¨ Cut out salt completely.
¨ Start taking 1000mg of Dandelion Root three times per day. This is a natural diuretic which will flush out excess water.
¨ After your cardio session, start loading carbs. Begin eating about 50g every three hours for the next 2 days. Be careful not to overdo it, otherwise you may look smooth.

1 days before shoot:
¨ Perform very light workout.
¨ This is the last day of cardio.
¨ Drink only 2/3 gallon of water today.
¨ Shave all hair from chest, back, arms and legs. If you have a lot of hair use
barber clippers first, then use a razor in the shower.
¨ To further increase your vascularity and definition, before bed drink 8oz. of
red wine (or Grand Marnier) and 50ml of glycerol with 16oz of water. This
will really bring out your veins!

Morning of shoot: (assuming shoot is at noon)
¨ Only sip a small amount of water when thirsty.
¨ Eat a very small meal consisting of mostly complex carbs (brown rice, whole grains) at least 3 hours before your shoot. Along with that meal be sure to take 20g of vandyl sulfate and creatine.

20 minutes before photo shoot
¨ Drink glycerol/wine mixture (see above)
¨ Pump up for shoot with high reps and very low weight. If you don't have weight equipment, just do a lot of push-ups, and pull-ups.


From the Desk of A n t h o n y E l l i s
ÓCutting Edge Publishing 1999, 2000 s All rights reserved

Add these 10 strategies to your fat-loss plan and get cut, sliced, diced and ripped faster than you ever thought possible. By: jerry Kindela

That lean look, the one where ham-glute tie-ins are readily visible, where the slightest exhalation or contraction reveals abdominal plates with clear edges, where the long and medial heads of your triceps easily display their crosshatching – these and all the other visual treats of being shredded can be yours. Getting ripped may not be as easy you’d like it to be, but virtually every healthy reader of MMI can achieve it. Whatever fat-loss, get-ripped-to-thebone plan you may be on, add the following 10 strategies to your program to push your metabolism through the roof. These are time-tested suggestions, and you’ve got nothing lose by trying them … ‘ cept a boatload of fat – and faster than you thought possible. ( As an aside, just to prove in advance that you’ll be rewarded for trying out these strategies, read Strategy 10 first )

STRAtegy 1 : Eat Enough Protein Daily

According to RDA guidelines, an armchair general doesn’t need more protein than 0.8 g per 2.2 pounds of lean body mass. But the second you start hoisting iron plates, your body will require increased protein intake if you want to turn it into a flab-burning, musclebuilding machine.

Some nutrition gurus will tell you that eating anything at all will boost your metabolic rate – its called digestion. Yet of three macronutrients, protein boosts that rate the most ( up to 200 calories per day ) , since it requires a great deal of energy to digest and absorb. Amino acids are much harder to break down than fats or carbohydrates. This doesn’t mean, however, that you need megadoses of protein. According to research, ingesting more than 1.5 grams per kilogram of bodyweight will not in fact result in improved metabolic response.

One efficient way to figure out your ( rough ) daily protein need is to estimate the weight at which you believe you’ll look good ( get your head out of the clouds and be realistic here ) and then multiply that number by .8 grams. For a 175 pounder, the protein requirement would be 140 grams. You weigh 200 pounds? You would need 160 grams. That’s 23 grams and 26 grams, respectively, per meal ( on a six-meal-per-day schedule), which is roughly equivalent o a four-ounce serving of skinless chicken breast..

After monitoring the effect for approximately four weeks, adjust intake as necessary. If you seem to have reached a plateau in fat loss or muscle gain increase protein intake slightly. If you’ve gained alittle fat, decrease protein intake slightly and monitor for another few weeks

STRATEGY 2 : Eat Five or Six Meals a Day

Lee labrada was known for carrying his food wherever he went – to the gym, to the mall, to business meetings – no matter where he was, when his schedule called for a feeding, Lee ate! His success gaining muscle and getting ripped is testament, in part, to his nutritional discipline. The sport of bodybuilding is nife with tales of athletes who would allow nothing to prevent them from eating on a fixed schedule, roughly every two-and-a-half to three hours.

Thre are anumber of metabolic benefits to holdings a strict routine in regards to your meal intake. Elevated insulin levels inhibit fat burning, but eating on a multi-meal schedule stabilizes blood sugar and thus insulin levels. Eating regularly also helps your liver and muscle tissue store glycogen more efficiently, which prevents the body from utilizing hard-earned muscle tissue for energy. Additionally, improved glycogen efficiency allows you to recover better from training.

While eating six times per day allows your furnace to keep burning fat, the periodicity of meals keeps your body’s nutrient stores at optimal levels. So when you start pushing hard under the iron, you’ll be able to keep performance levels high even though you’re on a fat-loss plan. Your body will have adequate nutrients in reserve for you to train effectively.

Because your body processes macronutrients more efficiently on a six-meal-a-day plan, fat moves through the system more rapidly . hence, less fat is stored or absorbed, while much of the remainder is sent to the porcelain god.

Note: when you start on a six-a-day plan, you will have to eat despite the lack of hunger signals. Los angeles nutrition wizard phil Goglia, who has helped a number of pro bodybuilders get shredded, refers to the early portion of such a program as the induction phase. Once your body has become accustomed to being fed this regularly and this efficiently, it will signal hunger almost to the minute every few hours.

STRATEGY 3 : Don’t Miss Workouts

Studies show that hard weight training can elevate calorie burning for several hours after you’ve left the gym . however, for this effect you need to keep rest time beetwen sets brief, that is, one minute or less. If you’re doing singles or below –six-rep sets that require several minutes’ rest time, you will not experience the same elevated metabolic rate post-workout.

STRATEGY 4 : Eat a Variety of Carbs

Just Because you know which low energy-dense carbs ( squash, cucumber, celery, lettuce, etc.) to eat on your shredding plan, don’t become maniacal with types and amounts. You already know that the body’s response to lack of variety can be stagnation and plateaus. You also know that only changing up your workout, routine, intensity, or rest time will results in renewed gains. Well, it’s no different with being overly rigid about macronutrient intake , particularly when it comes to carbohydrates.

If you want to continue shedding adipose tissue, you can’t allow the body to get contented with the status quo. Just as you manipulate growth with training adjustment, you should do the same with carb manipulation. Keep the metabolic furnace revved by consuming sweet potatoes, brown rice or yams instead of white rice or baked potatoes, brown rice or yams instead of white rice or baked potatoes. Double up on salads and water-packed vegetables, which require a lot more digestive energy than they themselves contain. Avoid limiting yourself to the same-old same-old carbs.

STRATEGY 5 : Carb Deplete Occasionally

Most fat-loss programs reach homeostasis – that is, the body finds a rhythm and sticks to it. But often, this rhythm means yet another weight-loss plateau . To avoid such stagnation, do a low-carb day or two every two or three weeks, lowering carb intake to roughly 125 grams per day ( the equivalent of approximately three-and-a-half medium potatoes ). Since carbs are essential for heart and brain function, it may bot be safe to eat fewer than the recommended 125 grams per day.

When carb intake Is reduced so dramatically, The body will start hunting for alternative energy sources, and in the process the shock to the system will pull the body out of its homeostatic state. As soon as you return to your normal carbohydrate intake levels, the glycogen-depleted tissue will quickly absorb the newly arrived glycogen, sucking it into the cells for energy. Your metabolic rate will jump a notch or two and you’ll be back in a hyped fatloss mode.

Do not try this if you are diabetic or suffer from periods of hypoglycemia. Low-carb days can lead to irritability, anxiety and other sucjh problems, so pick your low-carb days wisely.

The last few meals of the day should be high in low-energy-density carbs. Among all types of high-water-content carbs, you can pack in all of the green salads, squash, zucchini, celery, cucumber and asparagus ( you’re on a fat-loss plan so don’t whine about the smell ) you want for your last two meals of the day. They fill you up, provide enough fiber to improve transit time of food through, and out of the system more rapidly ( minimizing it’s absorption ) and hype the body’s overall metabolic response.

If you want to eat heavier, less waterpacked, carbs, do so during the first three or four meals of the day. This way, you’ll load the system with plenty of glycogen early on in the day and your training efforts won’t suffer

STRATEGY 7 : Vary the Amount of Carbs

As noted earlier, the body loves homeostasis, because that’s the place where it needs to do just enough work to get along. Feed it same amount of carbs daily, and you risk slowing down fat loss. In order to keep the system surprised, occasionally shock the body by lowering carb intake one day by a couple of hundred calories, increasing it by 300 calories the next day, dropping it again by 400 to 500 calories the third day, and them return to your normal carbohydrate level on day four. The body will respond by adapting – that is, it will continue to lose fat.

STRATEGY 8 : Hydrate often

Without adequate fluids, the body simply cannot convert carbs to energy efficiently. Since 70 percent of muscle tissue is water, it relies on consistent hydration to keepfunctioning, and when you’re depleted of fluid, the muscle cells simply cannot load up with energy nutrients or amino acids. Not only+ will your training suffer during your fatloss plan, but the process of the breakdown, especially from under the skin, relies on hydrolysis. That is, if you want to lose fat, you have to keep the body well hydrated.

So, avoid becoming dehydrated – if you’re thirsty, you’ve just reached the initial stage of dehydration and have slowed down your fatloss. At the very least, drink fluids immediately. Better still, drink water throughout the day to stay well hydrated.

Depending on the intensity, you can lose up to three liters of water during a session, so hydrate well during the day and especially before hitting the gym. Then continue sipping water throughout the workout.

While it seems like a lot, consider drinking between four and six liters of water per day, closer to the maximum on the training days, you’ll keep your system humming along, you’ll keep shedding fat, and you’ll survive and even thrive in your training sessions.

STRATEGY 9 : Eat Breakfast

Never, Ever skip breakfast, arguably the most important meal of the day, especially when you want to hype your metabolism and keep losing fat. Research shows that those who eat breakfast lose more fat than those who skip meal. According to Barbara Rolls, nutrition professor at Penn State University and author of The Volumentrics Weight Control Plan, says, “ Your metabolism slows down during sleep, and it doesn’t rev back up until you eat again, “ if you wait until midmorning or lunchtime for your first meal of the day, your metabolism won’t kick into high gear until then. You need to stoke the furnace immediately upon rising, or if you work out first thing in the day, eat within 90 minutes after the training session.

STRATEGY 10 : Have a Cheat Day

After you’ve been on a flab-shedding plan for about five weeks, you can take one more metabolism-boosting step and improve your mental well being in the process. By this point of your fat-shedding plan, your system should be humming along at a pretty steady pace, but you may hate the thought of yet another day of limited food choices. Enter the cheat day, wherein you can eat to your gut’s content, without compromising your fat loss efforts. While it seems counterintuitive and counterproductive in this manner, the cheat day allows you to eat with relative impurity scrambled eggs, bacon, pizza, ice cream, hamburgers, the works.

Of course, even with a cheat day there are basic guidelines. As the day moves forward, your food choices should become cleaner and cleaner. That is, if you start the day with bacon, eggs and pancakes, for example, your mid-day meal may be pizza or burgers and fries, but dinner should be something like sushi or a lean steak with baked potato ( no sour cream ) and veggies.

What this approach does is tell your body that the famine is over and that it should stop hoarding fat, especially around the viscera. With these signals, the body launches into a heightened metabolic state. What you must do on the day after cheat day is jump right back on the fat-loss bangwagon, train hard, and you’ll find that you’ll continue to move closer and closer to your shredded desires.