Reach Your Peak

Whether it's for a contest, photo shoot, or just a day at the beach, follow my simple steps to a perfect peak every time.

Written By Jim Stoppani, PhD

Updated March 28, 2024

If you noticed those three little letters after my name (P-h-D), it should come as no surprise to you that I think science is cool. After all, I'm a scientist.

But I don't mean cool in a "geek is cool" kind of way. I mean it in a hardcore, badass, bodybuilding way. Bodybuilding is science. How do muscles grow? Science. How do I get stronger? Science. How do I strip body fat? Science. Science allows me to maintain a body weight of 220 pounds and a body-fat level of 5% year-round without the use of drugs. And when I need to drop my body fat to under 5% and squeeze out every ounce of muscle-blurring water from under my skin to get that ultra-ripped look, I rely on science.

Now it's your turn.

Maybe you're getting ready for a bodybuilding or fitness competition. Maybe you have a photo shoot to get ready for. Or maybe you're going on a beach vacation and want to look ripped when you shed your clothes. Whatever the reason, my seven scientific steps will help you reach your physical peak for what we'll refer to as "peak day."

Follow these 7 steps – in this specific order – based on when you want to hit your peak:

Step 1: Load up on Sodium

About two weeks from peak day, you'll actually want to start loading up on sodium (salt). How much water your body holds is closely related to how much sodium it holds. However, your body will only hold so much water, regardless of how much sodium you consume. When you first increase sodium levels, your body will hold more water. But after maintaining high sodium levels for several days, your body will adapt and end up holding about the same amount of water as when your sodium intake was low. This step will help you shed more water when you finally cut your sodium intake. More on that in Step 4.

How to do it: Increase sodium levels by choosing higher-sodium foods and, of course, salt your food. While there's no precise daily dose of sodium to hit, you should be shooting for at least 3,000-4,000 mg per day.

Note: Protein sources like cottage cheese, low-fat cheeses, lean deli meats, smoked salmon, sardines, anchovies, canned tuna, and chicken are good sources of sodium. Other places you can get extra sodium include canned and jarred vegetables.

Step 2: Drop the Carbs

If you're serious about looking your best, you should already be eating a low-carb diet of around 0.5 grams per pound of body weight daily leading up to the peak date. However, one week before peak day, it's time to really cut carbs in an effort to deplete your body's glycogen levels. Glycogen is the storage form of carbs in your body. Whether it's the starch from bread and potatoes or the sugars in fruits and candies, your body converts these carbs into glucose. Glucose can be burned for immediate fuel, and it can be stored in muscles and the liver for later use. To store glucose, the body connects glucose molecules into a long chain known as glycogen.

Dropping carbs to as few as possible serves two purposes. The more immediate effect is to ramp up fat burning. When you consume no carbs, your body is forced to turn to body fat as a major fuel source. This will help burn off those last few pounds of body fat and get you that much leaner. The other effect dropping carbs to nil has on your body is that it depletes your body's glycogen stores. Glycogen stored in muscle holds water; it literally pulls water into the muscle, filling it up much like a water balloon. The more glycogen you store in your muscles, the more water is pulled in and the bigger your muscles blow up.

So why would you want to deplete glycogen? It's actually in an effort to store more glycogen when you carb load later in the week. Research has discovered that when you deplete muscle glycogen levels and then carb load, your muscles are able to store significantly more glycogen than normal. More on this in Step 6.

How to do it: On days seven, six and five before the peak date, only eat protein and small servings of vegetables (about 1 cup) for meals. The only time you will be allowed real carbs is immediately after workouts with your post-workout protein shake. Then you can have 20-30 grams of carbs, preferably fast-digesting, such as dextrose (as in Post JYM fast carbs), Wonka Pixy Stix, Wonka Sweet Tarts, gummy bears, sorbet, angel food cake or even plain sugar. On days four and three before peak day, you'll need to drop even the post-workout carbs to really deplete glycogen levels. If you're using Post JYM - and you should be - you can nix the dextrose. This is why I kept the carbs in Post JYM separate from the active matrix ingredients.

Note: Be sure you're working out with both weights and cardio every day during days seven to three before the peak day. It's also a good idea to do a whole-body workout, using high reps (15-20) and minimal rest (30-60 seconds) between sets on day three before the peak day. This is essential for adequately depleting muscle glycogen levels.

Step 3: Keep Taking Creatine HCL

With carbs almost absent in the final week, you'll need a solid energy source to power you through your workouts. It's critical to keep intensity levels up during workouts to burn up stored glycogen. Creatine is a great energy source during workouts. Few people realize that creatine's main function in the muscle is to provide a quick source of energy. When you're banging out reps, your muscles need ample amounts of energy in the form of ATP to keep contracting. In simple terms, creatine provides the energy needed to make ATP quickly.

Most people worry about taking creatine when trying to peak, due to potential bloating, which can blur muscle definition. After all, creatine attracts water. While the water that creatine pulls inside the muscles is a good thing for keeping muscles full, any creatine that sits outside the muscles will pull more water there, too. And that leads to more water being retained under the skin, which can lead to a bloated, water-retained look.

While creatine monohydrate has been shown to increase water levels outside the muscle (under the skin), as well as inside, one form of creatine that appears to not draw water under the skin is creatine hydrochloride (HCL). One study found that subjects taking creatine HCL absorbed significantly more creatine into their bloodstream than when they took creatine monohydrate. Although the study did not measure creatine uptake into the muscle fibers, it's very likely that creatine HCL also gets taken up into muscle cells better than creatine monohydrate.

My own experience with creatine HCL and the thousands, if not millions, of people who have switched from creatine monohydrate to creatine HCL on my advice, suggests this is the case, based on the significantly greater gains in muscle size and strength realized with creatine HCL. Because creatine HCL is better taken up into the muscle, none is left sitting around outside the muscle causing water retention under the skin. The proof is in the photos. I take 2 grams of creatine HCL before and after every workout via Pre JYM and Post JYM during the final week before my peak day. And as you can see from my photos, I'm not retaining any water under my skin.

How to do it: Take 2 grams of creatine HCL before and after every workout (including cardio workouts). Your best method of getting this creatine HCL is through Pre JYM and Post JYM. (Click on the hyperlinks to purchase them.) You should even take HCL on your peak day.

Step 4: Drop the Sodium

One week before the peak day, it's time to cut out as much sodium as humanly possible. Now that your body water levels have adjusted to a higher sodium intake of several grams per day, dropping sodium levels to just hundreds of milligrams will purge all the excess water from your body.

How to do it: On day seven before the peak date, keep sodium under 2,000 mg. On day six before the peak date, keep sodium under 1,000 mg. On days five, four and three before the peak date, keep sodium under 600 mg. And on days two and one before the peak date, as well as the peak date, try to keep sodium as far fewer than 500 mg as possible.

Note: Read labels on EVERYTHING you eat or drink. Meats, such as chicken breast, beef, and fish, contain about 60-80 mg of sodium per 3 ounces. This should be one of the only places where you are getting in sodium. However, you should even read the labels on the meats you are purchasing to make sure that sodium or saline is not being added to them. A lot of chicken is injected with sodium solutions. Only buy chicken, meat or fish that lists sodium content on the label. Don't use any sauces or marinades, as these will almost always include sodium. Read the ingredients of any spices you use to ensure that salt is not included.

Eggs and protein powders are two unexpected sources of sodium (excecpt for Iso JYM – see below note). One whole egg only provides about 6 grams of protein, yet it contains 65 mg of sodium. That's the same amount of sodium in 3 ounces of chicken or beef, which provide about 20+ grams of protein. The protein-to-sodium ratio of eggs doesn't make them the best choice during this final week.

Low-sodium, whole-food sources of protein will be key here. Many protein powders, including Pro JYM, provide almost 200 mg of sodium per scoop. Only eat fresh vegetables to keep sodium levels down. Do NOT eat any cooked food at restaurants. There's no way to tell how the food was stored or cooked, which likely included something with sodium. The only food that's safe to eat at a restaurant is sashimi.

Does that mean no protein powder during this time? No! My Iso JYM Clear Isolate Whey Protein has only 10mg of sodium per scoop, so feel free to have Iso JYM even on low sodium days. There is no lower sodium protein source than that.

Step 5: Drink Water

One week from the peak day, it's time to drink a LOT of water. This will flush out any remaining sodium in your body, which will make all that water you're drinking work to rid your body of excess water. It sounds counterintuitive, but it works!

How to do it: You should shoot for 1.5 – 2 gallons of water per day.

Note: Instead of counting every glass of water you drink, an easy method to make sure that you are hitting your 1.5-2 gallon mark is to buy gallon jugs of water. When the two gallons are empty, you've hit your mark. I find that drinking water from larger containers like this also makes it much easier to consume so much water. It just seems less daunting to drink two one-gallon containers than 30 eight-ounce glasses.

Step 6: Cut Water

The last two days before the peak day, you'll need to limit your fluid intake. As I mentioned, the amount of water your body holds is closely related to the amount of sodium your body holds. Since you are now limiting sodium and guzzling water like a fish, you only have a few days before your body adjusts to the low sodium levels and starts to hold more water despite the low sodium intake. To avoid this, you'll need to severely cut back on water the last two days before the peak day.

How to do it: On day two before the peak date, keep water intake to less than 0.5 gallons. On day one before the peak date, try to limit water intake to less than 20 ounces. On the peak date you can drink water, but do so slowly. Watch how your body responds to small sips throughout the day. If there's any sign of your muscle hardness starting to get blurred from water intake, stop drinking.

Note: Be careful! Dehydrating your body can be very dangerous. If you experience severe headaches, dizziness, nausea, weakness, severe muscle cramps, or your urine color turns a brown or greenish brown, start drinking more water immediately.

Step 7: Carb Load

Two days before the peak date, it's time to restock, er, overstock, your muscle glycogen levels. You not only want to look as shredded as possible on your peak day, but you also want to look as big and muscular as possible. As I explained earlier under Step 2, going for several days on little to no carbs depletes muscle glycogen levels. That allows your muscles to store significantly more glycogen than they normally could. Since glycogen pulls water into the muscles, this essentially works to fill up your muscles like a water balloon. This not only helps you to look bigger, but also can help you get more shredded. That's because as you fill your muscles with glycogen, they pull water into the muscle. A good deal of that water will come from under the skin. So by carb loading in these last few days, you're not only helping your body look bigger and fuller, but you're also helping your body get that ultra-shredded look.

How to do it: The first 24 hours is the most critical time window for carb loading. So be sure to pound as many carbs as possible. Shoot for 3-4 grams of carbs per pound of body weight.

Note: Carbs can come from fast-digesting sources, such as fat-free candy and white potatoes, or slower-digesting sources like sweet potatoes or yams. If you think oatmeal, rice or pasta are good carb sources, think again. Remember, you're limiting water intake and these carb sources are made with water, which these carbs absorb. You need carb sources that are as dry as possible.

You also need carb sources that provide zero milligrams of sodium. You'll be getting sodium from your protein sources, so be sure that your carb sources are not a source of unwanted sodium. Be sure to read all labels carefully. Besides potatoes (be sure to bake them and not boil them), good dry, sodium-free carbs include Wonka Pixy Stix, Wonka Sweet Tarts, certain flavors of Bear Naked Granola and air-popped popcorn that you pop yourself.

You can also eat some fruit during the first day of carbing up. But it needs to be freeze-dried and sodium free. During the second day of carb loading, I would suggest forgoing any type of fruit. The reason is that fruit contains fructose. One problem with fructose is that the body does not use it well. The majority of fructose you eat gets converted to glucose by the liver. However, if the liver is stocked with glycogen, it will convert fructose into fat instead. That's the last thing you want.

During the first day of carb loading, your liver and muscles are not stocked up with glycogen, so any fructose you consume will be converted to glucose. But on the second day of carb loading, there's a bigger risk of converting fructose into fat since the liver becomes stocked with glycogen. This is another reason why I recommend that you stick with Wonka Pixy Stix and Wonka Sweet Tarts. Most candy companies use sugar (which is half glucose and half fructose) or high-fructose corn syrup, which has even more fructose. Yet Wonka Pixy Stix are pure dextrose (glucose) and Sweet Tarts are made with only dextrose and maltodextrin, which is simply a chain of glucose molecules attached together. These are one of the few candies that you can buy that don't contain any fructose.

What to do on Peak Day

What to eat and drink on the day you’re peaking for depends on how you look. Use this last day to “fix” any problems you may have. And what problems might those be? Well, let’s see…

Up Your Sodium if You’re Flat

You might wake up on your peak day and find that you’re a little “flat” because you’ve lost too much water in the muscles. What does that mean? It means you need more sodium. You’ve depleted sodium to the point that you dropped not only extracellular water, but also you dropped too much intracellular water – the water in the muscles. Less water in the muscles will make you look flat.

So what you’ll do in this case is eat high-sodium foods. But you want to do so very, very gradually throughout the day and monitor your body in the mirror. So if you wake up flat on peak day, go get a fast food meal because it will be loaded with sodium. And yes, it will also be loaded with carbs and fat and protein, but that will help you fill out.

But remember, you’re still not drinking much water, which is why you can eat these high sodium foods. If you eat the high-sodium meal but also have lots of water, that water is going to be retained because of all the sodium. You want the water to go into the muscles to fill them up, but if you have too much water it will spill over and you’ll “blow up” – meaning, the water will get under the skin, instead of just in the muscles, which will blur your definition.

So, eat the high-sodium foods gradually, not all at once. And keep looking in the mirror to see how your muscles are responding and how your abs are looking. You don’t want to overdo it. Add the sodium slowly and just sip on the water instead of guzzling it. If you feel like your muscles aren’t filling up, have a little more water, but still keep it slow and gradual.

Keep the Carbs High

And what about carbs? You still want to be eating high carbs on your peak day because you want the muscles to be full. And that’s why you’re able to enjoy a fast food meal that’s loaded with carbs, as well as sodium, without having a problem, provided you’re not drinking too much water. In fact, the sodium could help to pull water from the extracellular space into the muscles, which is a good thing.

Sip on Creatine HCL

One last thing: creatine HCL. I told you earlier in this article that you want to take HCL even on peak day. But how do you do that with taking in too much water? Simple: Just put a bare minimum of water into your Pre JYM or Post JYM (say, 12 ounces) and sip on it gradually throughout the day.

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