If you're ready show off your muscles and hit the competition stage, then you need to make sure your body is prepared. This extends beyond having the biggest muscles on stage. You need to take care of hair, skin, and shed excess water. The three sections below will help you out with everything you need to know.

Hair Removal

Guys will often have hairy backs, hairy chests, underarms of course, and hairy legs. However, when it comes to competition time you want to eliminate all of that hair. Ladies are well-versed in waxing, lasering, and shaving, but many guys only shave their face, so they are unfamiliar with what to do. First off, lasering is costly and takes time. If you end up competing full time in the future, it might be something to consider, but for your first competition you should focus on: shaving, waxing, or cream.

For your back and chest you should go to a salon and get a wax. You could have your girlfriend, or a training partner shave your back, but waxing will give you a smoother surface and a professional won't nick your skin and leave you with a cut.

Legs can be shaved, but underarms should be done with hair removal cream. Test out a small spot to make sure you won't break out with a rash and that the cream works for you. Razors can cause in skin bumps, which is defiantly not something you want come competition day.

Tan

You should strive for a deep, dark tan. You want it to look organic, as if you spent time at the beach. The best way to do this is to hit the tanning salon a few times a week, during the two months leading up to the competition. That way you can get a base tan, and then maintain it. You won't risk burning yourself and looking like a lobster on stage. Don't overdo it because you don't want to look like old leather. Make sure to use the proper sunscreen, as well as lip balm. You don't want to get peeled skin or chapped lips.

A very important point is to either tan nude, or at the very most tan in the exact swimsuit you will wear on stage. If you wear something else, you might get on stage and pale, visible tan lines will show up, which is definitely not going to win over the judges.

Cut Water The Right Way

Once you've dropped down to the lowest bodyfat percentage you can reach, you will want to cut water. This is done in the days leading up to the competition. It makes you look shredded and is a trick every bodybuilder uses. However, you should do it the healthy way. Don't take diuretics because they can damage your body. What you should do is follow the "drink water to cut water" plan. Basically you drink lots of water 5 days out, then cut the amount down each day until you are drinking only a tiny bit of water on competition day. Your body will continue to urinate, not realizing yet that it is being deprived of water. What you are doing is increasing the amount of vasopressin (an anti-diuretic hormone) in the body and encouraging urine. Typically this is a 5 day process which ends on competition day.