Drying out: Why bodybuilding’s favourite phrase is mostly a myth
“DRYING OUT ” is one of the most commonly used phrases in bodybuilding, especially during peak week. But the idea that you can simply remove water from under the skin to improve condition is largely a myth — and often misunderstood.
You spend 16 or more weeks getting all the fat off your body, so where is the water now holding in those final few days? If a full, hard, hydrated muscle is 70 per cent water, what are you drying out, exactly? Or do you mean flattening out?
You see, true “drying out” the way most competitors imagine it – selectively pulling water from under the skin while keeping muscles full – is not really possible in the way it is often described.
Muscle is mostly water – and you need it
Skeletal muscle is about 70 per cent water, most of it stored inside the muscle cell along with glycogen. That intracellular water is what gives muscles their hard, round, stage-ready look. Strip it away and you lose fullness fast. That makes you look out of condition.
When competitors aggressively dehydrate, they are not just draining “water under the skin”, they are also flattening the very muscle volume they worked months to build. That is why a truly “dry” muscle (in the literal sense) looks soft and depleted, not granite-hard.
You cannot tell the body to only lose water from beneath the skin. Fluid balance is systemic; dehydrate and you will pull water from everywhere – including inside the muscle cells. In fact, the body's complex monitoring system maintains a 70/30 balance of intracellular/extracellular water all the time. You really cannot cheat the system.
The goal of peak week is not to lower total body water, it is to shift water into the muscle cell. That means:
- Fully loading glycogen (each gram pulls 3 g of water into the cell)
- Keeping sodium and potassium balanced
- Avoiding last-minute inflammation or digestive bloating
The only real reason to “dry out”
There is one scenario where pulling a little water can help – if you have “filled to spill” during carb loading. Spillover means excess carbs and water end up outside the muscle cell, softening your look. In that case, strategic fluid or electrolyte manipulation might help move it back.
But here is the truth: in a perfectly executed prep, you could walk into show day drinking normally and still look shredded, vascular, and “dry” – because the water is exactly where it should be.
Peak week should be about managing water distribution, not chasing dehydration. The fuller the muscle cell, the drier you will look – and that comes from smart glycogen loading and electrolyte balance, not from cutting water to a trickle.
PCA Pro and judge Neil Andrews published a social media post on this very subject, which is definitely worth watching HERE.
Dryness is not about how little water you have in your body. It is about how much of it you have got in the right place.
REFERENCES:
- Costill DL, et al. "Muscle water and electrolytes following varied levels of dehydration in man." J Appl Physiol. 1976;40(1):6-11.
- Fitts RH. "Cellular mechanisms of muscle fatigue." Physiol Rev. 1994;74(1):49-94.
- Schoenfeld BJ. "The mechanisms of muscle hypertrophy and their application to resistance training." J Strength Cond Res. 2010;24(10):2857-2872.
- Shirreffs SM, Maughan RJ. "Restoration of fluid balance after exercise-induced dehydration." J Appl Physiol. 1998;84(6):1889-1895.
- Olsson KE, Saltin B. "Variation in total body water with muscle glycogen changes in man." Acta Physiol Scand. 1970;80(1):11-18.
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