Why am I more vascular at night than during the day? If I get up during the night I am even more vascular than when I went to bed. I am always more vascular for the evening show than prejudging as well. How do I take advantage of this night vascularity and make it happen for prejudging?

I wonder if it's related to your body temperature? For my last show, I started taking 1000mg of L-Arginine every hour as soon as I woke up the day of the show. That really helped me.

Dwayne

JHB - Vascularity seems to have several different factors that drive it. Firstly some people simply are more vascular than others - so there is a physiological factor in play, but beyond that - Dwayne is correct in thinking that body temperature has a lot to do with it. Your body will naturally route blood to it's surface in order to cool itself, so if you are cold - vascularity diminishes, if you are warm or hot vascularity is more prominent. This is one reason why it is good to stay covered up and warm before pre-judging especially if the venue is cool or cold temperature wise. Other big factor is related to when you last ate and what you ate. Certain foods will promote more vascularity because they tend to draw more water into the blood vessels and into your muscles (gets there by way of your circulatory system). In this regard sodium can be a vasolidator as can certain higher glycemic foods. Also if you do not have enough water in your system it will work against vascularity. So it is rather complicated but for a show if you do the following it should help you be more vascular: stay warm (keep your body temp up as opposed to being "cold", have enough water in your system to effectively shuttle the nutrients that you are consuming into your muscles (drink enough water the few hours before pre-judging to allow this to occur - thus drinking zero or close to zero water the 8 hours before pre-judging would work against you, 4-8oz of water per hour will normally work in your favor. In the same regard a moderate amount of both sodium and higher glycemic carbs in the 2-3 hour time frame prior to pre-judging will also serve to make you more vascular and fuller. Hope that is helpful.

Thanks for the tips! I will try them Nov.6 in Louisville.

what class are you competing in?

I'll be at the show..not as a competitor, but to check out what some of the teens competition as well as LHW.

good luck.

I will be in the Masters Lightweight, Novice Lightwieght, and considering the Open Middleweight. My name is Joe Preston. Look me up and say hello.

VA

Made some great points. I agree, especially with staying hydrated and warm. If you are dehydrated you will have a hard time getting vascular regardless of what you do.

Some other things tha tmay help

Muscle Synergy
Double the dose in the moring. Try 16 when you get up and then 16 again before pumping up back stage. Pump up should be done in your warm up gear. Forget the guys that want to look good in their trunks pumping up. Judges are not watching the pump up room.

Ultra 40
Kick it up, alot. Try doubling to 8 per meal the last two days. The night before take a bunch before bed. This can be somehwat diuretic so make sure you do not cut water too drastically. The B vitamins will increase blood cell count which will increase the amount of oxygen the blood can carry which will increase blood volume and with it vascularity.

Best of luck!

Ray

I can't say any of the sugestions worked miracles because I was still MUCH more vascular for the evening show. However I did take first place in the Masters Lightweight this weekend in Louisville, KY. Thanks again for the help!

Great job Joe!

Have you tried to figure out the factors that contributed to making you more vascular for the night show? Things to look at: What did you do between pre-judging and the night show water and food wise? What did you do before pre-judging in these areas? If vascularity comes and goes it has more to do with food and water intake, minerals/electrolytes and body temp than anything else. If you were more vascular at night it was obviously not an issue of body fat levels obscuring vascularity so it has to be the other factors. One thing that is a factor, that is very hard to controll is stress and cortisol levels. Almost everyone who competes is less stressed after pre-judging than they are before.

I need to read up more about that or get enlightened by Aram and fitdoc who probably have already done the research.

Congrats again on a job well done!

Just stumbled across this post, I am experiencing the same thing recently. I'm about 6 weeks out right now. I really am alot more vascular at night. Did you or anyone else reading this figure out why this is and how to manipulate vascularity for the morning, namely the morning of my show

Stay very warm.

I would have the similar. Here's one reason. High protein diet is already a good natural diuretic. You're asleep for at least 6 hours. That's 6 hours of no fluids, under the covers allowing the blood to be toward the outside of the body trying to maintain a good temp thoughout.

I tried to stay covered with sweats until that last moment.

Frank

Here is my .02

Later in the day we are

More hydrated
Have more electrolytes
Have more amino acids
Have more vitamins (specifically B)
A bit more relaxed AFTER prejudging...stress as VA pointed out can play a huge role.

So I would expect one to be more vascular at night.

So what do you think Ray - lets lobby to move pre-judging to the night after the show - I think that most people will look better then -

Sounds fine by me!

No stairs going from the pump up room to the stage either. I have a hard enough time getting lines.

Ray

I was just flipping through my psychology book and found an interesting section and recalled reading this post sometime in the past. The textbook talks about the body and mind following patterns. One of the patterns we naturally follow is body temp. which in the majority of people increases by an average of 2 to 3 degrees in the evening. I think it said between 6 and 8 o'clock? Just thought I'd throw that out.

I have the same problem too. I really think mine is nervs before prejudging. Don't know about others but when I'm nervous I am cold-despite staying in sweats. Guess I just need to find a way not to be nervous

Has anyone ever tried going for a jog in a sweatsuit before prejudging? I am always pumped and vascular after a good sweaty jog outside. I may try it in the spring because I am planning on competeing.

Mecca,

I would not do that. The running on your legs would cause lactic acid to build up. Plus you dont want pumped legs while at prejudging.

This is why you do not lift legs 7-10 days prior to going on stage. You will lose definition by doing this.

Good point, after I jog I have veins hanging every where on my upper body but my legs and back are pumped up, I never thought of it that way...

HOWEVER: With all due respect to the above posts, the judges are NOT looking for vascularity! I learned this from Roger R. during a seminar just before my first competition at the Northern in 2003.

sjm