You hear the same sob story all the time—“I came in too flat." "I don’t know what happened! I followed that sodium depletion diet I saw in that muscle magazine, but my muscles looked stringy and I looked like I only dieted for a few days!" "I looked like the second coming of Frank Zane last week!"

This is a common defense for a bodybuilder who has unwisely neglected the mineral sodium in his quest for contest worthy dryness (this bodybuilder also most likely didn't get into the condition he needed to be in before the final week). If you aren't shredded before you start the final week of your preparation, you can't blame sodium or anything else for that matter for how you look on the day of the contest.

Let me start off by saying that sodium isn't the enemy. I don’t know what got lost along the path of basic human physiology, but somewhere along the line, it was contorted that the less sodium you have in your body on contest day the better. Not only that but the earlier you start cutting sodium the better. As it goes in American society, this fad was latched on to like Rocky’s raw egg concoction.

Pre-contest dieting has been made out to be a very complex science. In all reality, it is, but that is why you read articles by people like me—to help you sift through all the crap and intense physiology to extract what you really need to succeed and make yourself sound competent. That being said, much of what has been written on all these drastic sodium reduction diets has trickled through the muscle mags based on what the professionals do. Well, news flash! The professionals are using anabolics! And that changes things because steroids can cause a significant amount of extracellular water retention, forcing those professionals to cut sodium way more than the average non-androgen using bodybuilder needs to. So while most professionals represent the ideal in what you want to achieve with your physique, they aren't to be looked to when it comes to pre-contest diet methods.

OK, so we have cleared up two important concepts so far—sodium isn't to be cringed at pre-contest and don't blindly follow Jay Cutler’s final pre-contest strategy. Now, let’s get to the fun stuff!

Sodium is a primary electrolyte and mineral that is essential for human life. It plays a key role in nerve impulse transmission and muscular contraction. It works to regulate body fluid and, when increased above normal levels, can cause body tissues to hold water. This explains why we can feel bloated the morning after eating a supersized meal at McDonald’s the previous evening. Most foods these days contain a good amount of sodium because of their salt content, which helps to preserve the food and prevent microorganisms from forming. Salt also makes things taste good! There are taste buds on the tongue specifically for salt.

People will look at sodium’s role of fluid regulation and come to the logical conclusion that if increases in sodium cause fluid retention, decreasing sodium will rid the body of fluids and make the muscles more defined. Sounds good, right? Well, not quite. When sodium levels drop drastically below normal, the kidney senses this and secretes hormones, namely aldosterone that reduces the excretion of electrolytes and fluids in the urine. This causes the body to retain water and thus prevents one from reaching that ever elusive dryness. You have to remember that the human body wasn't created to compete in bodybuilding competitions. The body likes to maintain homeostasis and it will do everything it can to remain homeostatic. This is a very important principle because when you start introducing techniques to attempt to override the body, you will fail. You can't outsmart it. However, you can manipulate it into achieving what you want, especially when it comes to sodium intake.

For example, take the concept of sodium loading. This process is pretty straightforward in that you dramatically increase sodium above normal levels for a few days before gradually cutting it down until contest day. When the sodium is increased, water is retained, as you've learned, so the body will want to get rid of this extra water because it loves homeostasis, as you've also learned. So the body is going to work overtime to rid the water. Thus, when you start reducing sodium, the body is still going to be working just as hard at taking out the water. Imagine when you have been running hard on a treadmill for a while and then step off of it. You still feel like you're on the treadmill, right? Your body is still used to that motion and thus continues to do it. Sodium acts no differently when it starts to be reduced after a loading period. This overtime work will clear any extracellular water from the body, making your physique full, ripped, and dry for the stage.

Below is how this process looks numerically. (It's important to note that very little scientific evidence exists for sodium loading and depletion techniques. What follows is from practical experience from myself and other competitive bodybuilders.)

12 days out for a 200-lb bodybuilder

Day 1–5: Sodium load by adding salt to all meals. Totals should fall around 6000–7000 mg per day.

Day 6: Reduce sodium to 5000 mg

Day 7: Reduce sodium to 4000 mg

Day 8: Reduce sodium to 3000 mg

Day 9: Reduce sodium to 2000 mg

Day 10: Reduce sodium to 1500 mg

Day 11: Reduce sodium to 1000 mg

Day 12 (contest day): 2000 mg a few hours before pre-judging

I've have explained the theory behind the loading and the gradual reduction leading up to the contest, but why is sodium increased again the day of the show? Well, your cells are pretty devoid of sodium, so when it's reintroduced, those cells will soak it up and take it to the right places (intracellular) to fill you back out. You'll avoid the excessive bloated look some bodybuilders carry on show day due to an overly drastic reduction leading up to the show. What happens with them is they start to flatten out and get nervous that they're looking too small, so they resort to the other extreme and take in way too much sodium around contest time. This leads to a mess of subcutaneous (outside the cell) water retention. You won't have this problem because you will have loaded properly and reduced smartly.

So now you have the truth about sodium. Hopefully, more scientific literature comes out soon, backing up the quality content that supports what I have written in order to better educate aspiring bodybuilders so they can prepare for contests safely. However, you can use this information to your advantage whether you're getting ready for a contest or a vacation with your family. Don't make sodium's manipulation more complicated than it needs to be. Remember to follow the basic physiological principles, and if everything else in your diet is up to par, prepare to see yourself as ripped as ever!