Preparing for a Fitness or Sports Shoot: Why the Standard Recipe from the Internet Does Not Apply
Water loading, dehydrating, cutting salt? The recipe circulating for the week before a shoot comes from bodybuilding competition and is wrong for a photo shoot. What counts instead: polas, a realistic timeline before the shooting day, the trial day at, the three-in-a-row rule and mental training.
Written by
Tobi Deckert
Reading Time
9 minutes
The week before the shoot: what the internet says — and why it is wrong here
Search for “preparing for a fitness shoot” and you get almost the same answer everywhere: load water, then dehydrate, cut the salt, carb up the day before. I think none of that belongs here.
Not because the recipe is invented — in bodybuilding it has its place. But because it comes from a competition context and this is simply the wrong context. We are on a photo shoot, and nobody hands out points. You have to suit the client. Anyone who half-dehydrates for a shooting day is flat on set, concentrates worse and delivers less across eight hours — and you can see it in the pictures.
The modelling business has a completely different, far simpler mechanism for this problem. And it is practically never explained online, because it is unspectacular: polas.
Polas: how the client sees in advance what they are getting
Polas — once Polaroids — are a current same-day snapshot with no development time: a few phone selfies, no make-up, no styling, no elaborate lighting. That is precisely the point. You see what someone naturally looks like, not what they look like on a retouched sedcard.
The standard outfit is a neutral white or grey T-shirt without logos plus blue jeans. The client can also specify something else — for a fitness shoot typically without clothes, so in boxer shorts, so they can see the build and there are no surprises on the day.
These views are requested and sent as standard:
Portrait
Medium shot
Full body — head to toe
Palms — back and front of the hands
Profile — right and left
If it matters to the client that the body is in shape, you send the current state — which you have not trained specially for either. And then the client decides whether it suits them. In practice this works every single time, because changing your body completely within a few days is unrealistic. Unless you eat excessively before the shoot — and that is something you control yourself.
And that is exactly where the standard recipe falls apart. It tries to produce something in one week that the client never ordered. They saw the polas and booked on that basis. Turning up looking different from your polas does not solve a problem, it creates one.
The timeline before the shooting day
Since “what do I do and when?” is the question people actually search for, here is the honest answer in table form. The interesting column is the one on the right.
Point in time | What actually happens | What does not happen |
Request and casting, usually 2 to 4 weeks ahead | send polas: current state, no styling, in the requested views | no crash diet, no bulking programme, no last-minute cutting |
3 days to 2 weeks ahead | rehearse the movement, run a trial day if needed, film a reference clip from the intended camera angle | no water loading, no salt depletion, no diet switch |
The evening before | time the sleep cycles, leave the table early, run the sequence through your head | no alcohol, no sitting at the bar until late |
The morning of the shoot | normal morning routine, breakfast matched to the shooting plan | no giant breakfast buffet before the spa scene — but no fasting either |
10 minutes before the take, only if definition is required | a few bodyweight exercises to get blood evenly into the whole musculature | no isolated pumping of individual muscles |
During the shoot | powder against sweat, or deliberate water spray for continuity | no starving, no cutting across the shooting day |
Pump before the take, breakfast buffets and the lower limit
On the shooting day itself I do my normal morning routine at most — that one is described in detail in how I stay fit and healthy. It depends on what the client wants, and an exaggeratedly pumped fitness model is not always what is needed; very often a healthy, athletic build is exactly right.
When definition genuinely is wanted — because a fitness product is being marketed and a certain level belongs to the campaign — then I do a few bodyweight exercises before the take, using my bolster, which is my own product. That wakes up the whole musculature and gets blood in evenly, so veins and definition become visible. It makes more sense than doing one specific exercise to fire up a single muscle. But it is genuinely rare that this is needed.
The second point is not about the body at all, it is about the shooting plan. If I am shooting a hotel spa area, there is no sense in demolishing a giant breakfast buffet beforehand — you can see it. This is not about satisfying my hunger, it is about looking, for a short window, the way the client wants: not stuffed.
But there is a lower limit as well. Starving yourself for a shoot or eating nothing on the day makes just as little sense. It is not healthy — and you would notice it in the pictures. A day on a piece of training equipment is physically harder than it looks: many angles, many takes, spread across the whole day. Start with an empty tank and you are useless after the lunch break.
Sweat and continuity
A few beads of sweat can be covered with powder and make-up — that is standard and takes seconds.
Sometimes, though, the sweat is deliberately wanted. Then water is sprayed on from the very first setup so that continuity holds from the start, meaning the shots still match each other in the edit. There are also glossy sprays these days, so it looks consistently as if you were sweating evenly. That gets used a lot and makes sense when it is the intended look.
But I notice more and more: things should happen naturally — and then they look best. If it is genuinely hard, you sweat, and then it should look hard. The target audience spots the difference between real and sprayed effort more often than productions assume.
Bruises, tattoos, sunburn — and the myths that do not exist
I have not run into that particular problem yet. The aim is always not to get injured in the first place, and hopefully that stays avoidable. As a last resort, a great deal can be covered with make-up.
Ten years ago people still discussed whether to hide a tattoo under a fabric sleeve. Today tattoos are everyday. Stills get retouched anyway, and in video the cuts are usually so fast that it makes no difference and you do not even see it. A black eye from a boxing match would be another story — but it should not get that far to begin with.
And since the question about secret tricks comes up so often: there are no real myths in the modelling business. Every model basically knows how it works. Cutting weight deliberately or applying bodybuilder tricks — practically nobody does it. It would be silly too: you do not score points here, you have to suit the client and the persona. This is marketing, not a competition. I eat consciously anyway, and a shoot changes nothing about that. Eating well only for a shoot and shovelling in highly processed fast food the rest of the time makes no sense.
The real preparation: not the body, the ability
On my kind of shoot the actual preparation sits somewhere else entirely. Not in the body, but in making sure the movement lands on the day.
Training and rehearsals belong right at the top — I want the action to land perfectly and my performance to come across. The problem attached to that is an economic one: as a rule, no client wants to pay for training. Which is exactly why it matters to clarify in advance what a model can do, what is wanted and what is genuinely deliverable. Which body type and which skill level actually fit which campaign is covered in fitness model, bodybuilder or sports model?
How much preparation is needed hangs entirely on complexity:
Bitburger — a short mountain bike scene, riding down a trail: I did not have to train for that.
Yodobashi — on a jetboard: a completely new piece of equipment that no model could have commanded at the time. Even for me it was a steep learning curve.
Everything else sits between those two poles. And how much lead time a scene needs is a planning question, not a fitness question — there is more on that in the complete guide to planning an outdoor shoot.
The trial day, the three-in-a-row rule and what it costs
Some shoots include a trial day with a modest fee — and I think that is fair. We are talking 350 to 500 euros net — that applies to me personally. It is always a difficult conversation: you could argue that using a piece of sports equipment is fun. On the other hand it is still a job being performed. That has to be discussed case by case, and as a rule it does get invoiced.
My own benchmark for “does it land?” is simple and has never changed: if I can deliver the required take three times in a row, it will land in front of the camera too. I apply the same three-in-a-row rule to tricks in every sport; why repeatability matters more than maximum difficulty is described in more depth in sport double or stunt double.
Rather than making claims, I prefer to show the production a clip I filmed myself — and specifically from the camera angle they might want. I coordinate that with the DoP beforehand. It saves discussion on the day, because everyone has the same image in their head. Which angles actually work for sports scenes is in camera angles and DIY rigs.
On lead time: if everything is communicated in good time, three days are enough. That surprises a lot of people, but it is logical — the preparation is not a body cure, it is an alignment.
Mental preparation: the game in your head
I used to compete at contests and had to produce a lot of tricks on command. In front of a camera it is exactly the same mental game.
There is a method every professional athlete uses — genuine mental training: you picture the scene over and over in your head, especially before falling asleep, and walk through it mentally. At some point you only translate the thoughts into movement, and the biomechanics of the body follow the thoughts.
It works astonishingly well, and it surprises me every time. It is the part of the preparation that costs nothing, takes no slot in the shooting plan and still delivers the most.
What belongs in the call sheet
I always find the call sheet very standardised. Times, addresses, contacts — all there. What is missing is the part a sports or fitness shoot is actually about.
You could ask about the skills in far more detail in advance. Then the production would have certainty about whether a model can really do what is being demanded — instead of finding out on the day, when the time window is already running. A copyable briefing template with the six points I consider useful is in fitness model, bodybuilder or sports model?. Whether you go through an agency or ask directly makes a difference to that alignment, by the way — see booking a model: agency or direct.
Planning a fitness or sports shoot and want to know in advance what can realistically be prepared and what cannot? Send a booking request.
FAQ
What should I do in the week before a fitness shoot?
Not what most of the internet says. Water loading, dehydrating and salt depletion come from bodybuilding competition and do not belong on a photo shoot. What does make sense: send current polas, rehearse the movement that is required, time your sleep and keep eating normally. The client booked on the basis of the polas — on the day you should look the same.
What are polas and what are they for?
Polas are current same-day shots with no development time: phone selfies without make-up, without styling, without elaborate lighting. Standard views are portrait, medium shot, full body, palms front and back, and profile right and left. For a fitness shoot often in boxer shorts, so the client can see the build. They are the reason crash programmes before a shoot are pointless.
Do you have to pump up before the take?
Only if definition is explicitly part of the campaign. Then I do a few bodyweight exercises to get blood evenly into the whole musculature so that veins and definition show. That makes more sense than an isolated exercise for a single muscle — and it is genuinely rare that it is needed.
What does a trial day before a shoot cost?
With me a trial day sits in the range of 350 to 500 euros net. If sports equipment, specific expertise, a special execution, materials or a screening are involved, it can be more. Whether and how it is paid depends on the effort involved and is discussed case by case. As a rule it does get invoiced.
How much lead time does a sports scene need?
If everything is communicated in good time, three days are enough. Lead time depends on complexity: I did not have to train for a short mountain bike scene, whereas a completely new device like a jetboard was a steep learning curve. My benchmark is the three-in-a-row rule — if the take lands three times in a row, it lands in front of the camera.
What about sweat, tattoos and bruises?
Powder covers beads of sweat. If sweat is wanted, water or a glossy spray is used from the first setup so continuity holds. Tattoos are everyday now, stills get retouched anyway, and they barely register in a fast video edit. Bruises can be covered with make-up — better still is not letting it get that far.
More posts