Unfortunately, it looks like I will be traveling for work the Wednesday and Thursday before my competition in 3 weeks. I was planning on doing a coat of ProTan each of those nights but I will be on the road...does anyone have any tips for applying this to yourself? I usually have my husband help me but I won't have that option this time.

Quick question...why are you applying a couple coats of protan so far in advance of your contest?

Secondly, i see you're from royal oak. I lived in southfield until last june. I trained at lifetime in novi. Where do you train?

Hi Fitdoc,
Since I am kinda fair, my trainer told me to apply the first coat Wed night, second Thurs and third coat on Friday (the show is on Sat).

I train at the Lifetime Fitness in Troy. I love it there!

Hey Gymgirl,
Congratulations on your upcoming show. I'm usually stuck applying Protan on my own, especially when I travel out of state. I use a small paint roller pad attached to a short extention handle which you can pick up at any store which sells house paint and supplies. I pour the Protan in a paint pan and use the the extention handle to apply the stain on my back. I usually do it in the hotel bathroom where there are multi angle mirrors available. I'll use the Protan applicator pad to do the rest of my body.
I am fairly dark, so I do 2 coats on Friday night and another on Saturday morning. Remember to take your Protan and applicator to the show just in case you need some touch-ups.

Good luck in your show!
Aram

Oh i'm sorry, i misunderstood you. I thought you meant you will be applying the protan 3 weeks in advance of your contest. The method your trainer advised is totally reasonable. I'm a dark-skinned African-American and i apply 4 coats of protan starting the wed before a sat contest.

I was in the same boat as yourself when i competed in the Team Universe last year. I applied the protan on myself except for my back. I had to find another competitor in the hotel to help with my back.

Beverly competitor Tom House (on this board) has a method of applying protan to one's entire body by oneself. Hopefully, he'll see this post. If not, you can email him at Housefitness@webtv.net or call him at 218.727.2721.

By the way, Tom welcomes phone calls and put his phone number in his NNN article in v8#3, so please dont think i'm divulging private information.

Dont stress over pro-tanning alone, GymGirl, it is very manageable ... Unfortunately since they updated this board, I have not had access to it from home, so I am only able to frequent on occassion from work ... I heard FitDoc mention my name from afar, and when he talks I ALWAYS listen ... Aram has about the best technique that I have found for applying Pro-Tan to the back ... in fact from the look of what he has accomplished lately, he seems to have a LOT of best techniques ... congrats 'young' man ... I too have used the paint roller and pan method, but a couple of caveats there are that I prefer to use the 'sponge' type of mini-rollers instead of the 'cloth/cotton' typical paint roller type, as one time I came away looking a tad 'fuzzy' from the roller losing its napping on my back ... felt like I should start growling, kind of looked like a bear ... I usually also take it a step farther and use the little foam brush that comes with the Pro-Tan, taped to my modified (metal), precisely bent spatula handle to finish it off ... the roller works great for getting it on, but it kind of 'blanket' coats the skin ... I prefer to apply my Pro-tan as if I was painting or staining wood, in the direction of the grain, or in this case, muscle (if I ever got lucky enough to see striations) ... this may seem like splitting hairs, but I think it can make a difference, especially on those last few coats that you apply without showering off between coats and it gets pretty thick ... the directional application can give the illusion of muscle direction ... I have since gone to using Dream Tan as a final coat, and have yet to find a way to do that effectively for the center portion of my back, but it is a great way to make new friends at a competiton, kind of I'll 'scratch' your back, if you 'scratch' mine ... good luck, and have fun ... thanks for asking ... tom