Team Best

Tan – A fact of bodybuilding

Written by Josh on September 14th, 2010

I’d say probably one of the most frustrating things for me about a competition is tan.

Tanning Beds
I’m not big on tanning in a bed… I have a little bit of fear of using them actually. While I’m in the tanning bed I’m thinking – will I go blind? will I get skin cancer? The other thing I think about while I’m tanning is… what a waste of time – laying here to make my skin darker – how stupid.

For my first contest, I used the tanning bed a lot. For my second contest, I didn’t use the tanning bed at all.

Tanning Products
Another frustrating thing is that nobody agrees on what product(s) to use. Do you use the spray tan service provided at the contest? Some people only use Dream Tan. Some people hate Dream Tan and would never use it. Some people love Jan Tana – it provides the best color. Jan Tana turns some people’s skin green. Some people just use several coats of Pro Tan. Some people use a combination of Pro Tan and Dream Tan.

Shine
If you use Dream Tan you shouldn’t need another product for shine… but if you do, use Pam. Don’t use Pam on top of Dream Tan because it will run and become a mess – instead, mix baby oil into the Dream Tan before putting it on. This product makes you too shiny, this product doesn’t make you shiny enough. Don’t use butter flavored Pam. Don’t use Pam at all, instead use a product that was designed for making your muscles defined and shine.

No way to practice
The most frustrating thing is that you really can’t practice your tan. You can practice your posing, you can practice your routine, but you never really know how your tan is going to be the day of the competition. I don’t want to apply coats and coats of Pro Tan and a couple coats of Dream Tan at 5 weeks out because I’ll be looking like an idiot – especially at work. It’s bad enough looking that way on the day of the competition.

This year’s tan strategy
I’ve really been struggling to come to a decision on what tanning strategy to use this year. It’s pretty much a crap shoot, in my opinion. I have seen some pretty bad tans though – and you hate to see 29 weeks of hard training, dieting, and prep go to waste because your tan is crappy.

So, I’ve use the tanning bed sparingly this year – started about 8 weeks out and went once a week for a couple weeks – then bumped up to two times per week. The reason I’m using the tanning bed at all is because my initial strategy was going to be to get a good base tan, use 4-6 coats of Pro Tan and then use Muscle Sheen for posing oil. I just don’t know that I’ll be dark enough – and again – you hate to lose a couple placings because of tan. So today I ordered the Dream Tan #2. I’ve used it in the past 2 contests with fairly decent success.

So, I guess I won’t know, this year anyways, if Jan Tana would make me look great or if Pro Tan + Pam would make me look awesome.  But, hopefully I have decent color and shine come showtime.

Tags: best of the midwest, bodybuilding, tan