Water manipulation has been a key for bodybuilding peaking for decades. When it’s time to look their best onstage, bodybuilders will reduce their water intake for several days, possibly in conjunction with the use of diuretics. This pulls all extraneous water from their bodies, allowing their muscles and veins to be more visible onstage. This practice can be dangerous for the internal organs such as the kidneys, which need water to function. Many a pro bodybuilding career has ended due to kidney issues following diuretic use for dropping water.

Recently, bodybuilders have discovered the other end of the spectrum. They have found they can improve their performance in the off-season by forcing their bodies to hold more water. Off-season powerlifters can benefit tremendously from the practice of loading water. The added size doesn’t matter – the numbers you leave on a scale mean nothing at this time. It’s only the numbers you move on the floor of the gym that you are concerned about. For bodybuilders, a screen of water is never something they want in the days before a contest. However, in the off-season, it’s quite harmless and very beneficial for training heavier, protecting the joints, and avoiding injury.

There are a few ways that trainers can cause their bodies to retain more water. The first is very simple – eat more salt! This is called sodium loading. Bodybuilders will cover their food with salt, use copious amounts of condiments, and find other ways to add high amounts of sodium to their diets. They will treat their sodium intake like they do their protein gram intake, meticulously counting up the mg to ensure they don’t get too little per day. The result is a physique carrying five pounds of bloat, which does help in the gym.

To remove the water in this instance, simply discontinue the use of heavy sodium intake, and watch the pounds of water remove themselves in less than 48 hours, and often in only 24. The only potential risk with this method is with your health. Are you comfortable with elevated blood pressure for months at a time? The older you are, the less productive a cycle of this nature will be.

The use of creatine is another popular method of forcing the body to retain more water, in the hopes that the muscles will be able to perform better. A muscle that is completely saturated with water will inevitably be able to move more weight. It will be stronger and it will have much more padding. Users of creatine often report gains of 10 to 25 pounds on their compound lifts (bench press, squats, and deadlifts) within the first two weeks of use.

Many anabolic steroids lead to water retention in the user. The dreaded “moon face” can be obtained with the use of most orals and some injectables. Users of this method will likely be able to bypass the creatine and sodium-loading methods, as AAS will give their bodies far greater water retention with a lot less work!

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