Fake A Beach Body

For some, beach season simply means warmer weather and more time playing golf; for others, it’s a time when they want to bare their bodies and show off what they’ve been working hard to achieve over the winter months in the gym. The problem that occurs for some, however, is that over the winter months, they’ve really let their diet slide and now have much more fat than they’d like accumulated over their freshly built muscles. Since fat loss can be a slow process, particularly if you want to maintain as much muscle as possible, this could translate to trouble in terms of you getting that "ripped" beach body you covet. Luckily, all hope isn't lost: As long as you know a few quick tricks, you can get yourself looking fully beach ready in time for summer. Here are the points you must consider when you try to fake a beach body.

The enhanced muscle-tissue buildup factor

Have you ever noticed that immediately after a workout your muscles look a lot fuller than normal? Most guys refer to this as a "muscle pump" and notice their confidence levels soar after a good session as they feel they’ve made some real progress. What this actually consist of is a buildup of muscular byproducts that were created during the lifting session. As time passes, your body will work toward removing this buildup and eventually your muscles will return back to their usual size. If you’re smart, you can take advantage of this process when it comes to looking warm-weather ready when  you want to fake a beach body. If you know you’re going to be at the beach in a few hours, schedule your workout right before. If you aren’t able to have a full gym session beforehand, don’t stress about it too much; just drop down and do a quick set of 20 to 50 push-ups (depending on how many you can handle), some quick ab work, a few tricep dips, and a set of pull-ups, if you have a bar you can hang from.  This will get the blood flowing to the muscle tissue, which also serves to help temporarily increase their size and add more definition. The important thing to remember, regardless of whether you’re doing a quick few exercises at home or are going to the gym to do a full-fledged workout, is that you want to focus on slightly higher reps for this workout with less rest time between sets. This is the best way to develop a maximum level of muscle byproduct accumulation, which is exactly what you’re going for at this point. Note that this will mean you're lifting slightly lighter weights, but again strength is not our primary objective at this point.

Get rid of water retention

If the situation is slightly different and you have about a week to prepare and fake a beach body -- maybe you're going on vacation somewhere warm and will want to you look your best -- then you can do a few more things to help get the look you are going for.

Everyone on a normal, mixed diet will generally have a fair amount of glycogen stored in their muscle tissue. This is normal and is needed to help maintain the intense workouts that got you your body like that in the first place. What you can do, however, is work toward reducing this amount of stored muscle glycogen because with every gram of muscle glycogen you lose, your body will also lose a corresponding four grams of water (muscle glycogen causes water retention in the body, which explains why you look bloated and your weight goes up after a very high carbohydrate meal). So, in order to effectively get rid of some of this stored water, cut your carb intake the week prior to your beach appearance. Since you will not be taking as many carbohydrates in through your diet, your body will not replenish them to the same extent after each workout as it normally would, hence water will be excreted from the system instead of retained. If you wish to speed up this process try and gear your workouts again to ones that are higher rep/volume in nature, since this will help utilize the most muscle glycogen (rather than, say, doing six sets of five reps, when you’re shooting for maximal strength production). Do keep in mind that while this process occurs you will start to feel more fatigued as the week goes on, since muscle glycogen essentially is fuel for the muscles, and without replenishment they will have less fuel to run off.

Alter your skin's appearance

Finally, the last step to take in your efforts to fake a beach body is to hit the tanning bed or invest in a good self-tanning lotion or spray. Tanned skin naturally shows off more muscle definition, which gives you the appearance of looking leaner. If you think about it, all the bodybuilding competitors tan to a great extent and then slather their bodies in oil to increase the amount of definition. While you shouldn’t go to this extreme since it looks obviously unnatural and frequent use of tanning beds pose a great risk to your skin, getting a slight tan will really go a long ways toward helping you make a few pounds seem to disappear. Also, consider one of the many hair removal products available after you’ve become more tanned. While some guys do shy away from the thought of removing hair from their bodies, when you have nicely defined muscles and a dark tan, hairless skin really can up your sex appeal to women. Further, without the hair in the way, your muscles may look even more defined. Don’t think you should remove all your hair from a specific region either, consider strategically removing it in the areas you want to look most defined (lowerabs for instance), while keeping the hair in place in the surrounding region (chest).

GET READY FOR SAND AND SUN

So, the next time you’re starting to feel panic set in because you are about to head into a situation where you’ll likely be topless and aren’t quite sporting the body you’d like, take comfort in knowing that if you follow these tips, you can dramatically change your appearance in a very short term. Obviously, the better approach will always be planning ahead to ensure you have enough time to get to your desired body-fat levels through a proper diet and exercise program, but when time is working against you these factors become a great second alternative.