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Look at photos of contests from early days
of bodybuilding and you'll see a lot of competitors standing onstage
with virtually no tan. This is definitely not a good idea. When a
light-skinned bodybuilder stands under the bright lights onstage the
illumination tends to wash him out and makes it difficult for the judges
to see his muscle definition and development.
A good tanning will keep this from
happening. The skin tans to protect itself from the dangerous
ultraviolet rays of the sun. When the skin is exposed to these rays, the
melanin (skin pigment) which has remained from your last tan, but has
faded, becomes dark again this is why you can seem to tan after just one
day in the sun but, in fact, your body has produced no new pigment to
protect you. True tanning, during which new melanin is produced, takes
considerably longer, a week to ten days, so it doesn't pay to stay out
in the sun for long hours a t a time trying to rush a tan.
It is best to tan in stages, twenty
minutes to a half hour a day in the beginning, depending on your skin
type, where you live, the time of year, and the altitude (the higher up
you are, the stronger the ultraviolet rays). If you are fair-skinned and
burn easily, you must take extra caution. But remember, even the darkest
skin can be burned and damaged by the sun if the exposure is long
enough. Experts advise us not to sunbathe (tan) between the hours of
10A.M. and 2P.M, when the rays of the sun are most intense (and can
therefore do the most damage to the skin), but that is exactly the time
when most people prefer to lie out in the sun. Excessive exposure to the
sun tends to cause wrinkles and gives the skin a leathery look and that
the sun's ultraviolet rays can cause skin cancer. Tanning, then, must be
approached with a certain degree of moderation and care.
If you want to spend more time in the
sun - a day at the beach, for example - and you have fair skin, remember
to use some kind of sunscreen to cut down your overall exposure. You can
only tan a little at a time; too much sun will simply cause you to burn
and peel, and the damage that can be done to both health and appearance
by overexposure to ultraviolet rays is all too well documented.
A lot of bodybuilders complain that
they don't have the time to perform tanning or the patience to lie
around in the sun for hours. But there are other ways. World Gym has an
outdoor deck where you can train and tan simultaneously, and a number of
gyms around the country have decks or rooftop facilities that allow you
to do the same thing. You don't always have to be doing only one thing
at a time.
Tanning, by the way, is not just for
fair-skinned bodybuilders. Most darker-skinned bodybuilders like
African-American or Latinos find that spending at least some time
tanning changes the skin texture and depth of tone and adds to their
appearance onstage.
One aesthetic consideration is that you
don't want your face to be darker than the rest of your body. But your
face, and your nose in particular, tends to absorb a lot more sun. So
take care to protect your face by wearing a hat or using a sunscreen to
prevent your nose and forehead from getting burned.
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