If you believe ESPN The Magazine's people (and, really, why would they lie?) the "Body Issue" is their top selling publication annually. This year we got to technically see Bryce Harper, Odell Beckham Jr., Ali Kreiger, Aly Raisman and 20 other athletes naked. We're told it's a chance to see the pro athlete body, which (to us, anyway) sounds like the modern day equivalent of people saying they bought Playboy for the articles.
To get in shape for this year's edition, the 23-year-old Harper took his body to the next level by ramping up his diet and workout regimen before his photo shoot. It seems to defeat the purpose of showing us the functional athlete body, but also seems to be the modern day equivalent to renting some shit for your house right before MTV Cribs stops by.
According to The Washington Post, Harper's crunch-time routine:
"[It] consisted of three workouts and six meals a day until it consisted of none, that final week when Bryce Harper consumed only juice. Seven different raw juices. Over the final two weeks, before he exposed each of his muscles to ESPN’s photographers, he put salt in his drinking water so he could hydrate himself without gaining weight.
If you're wondering what type of juice he downed so you can emulate it without any further research, he gave some details:
"Green four times a day, a watermelon-strawberry combo in the morning, a red cayenne-and-coconut concoction midday, and an almond-milk protein mixture before bed."
Harper also made it clear that he went au natural because baseball players get a bum rap when it comes to athlete perceptions. Somehow a game where the all-time greatest player was Babe Ruth gets a rep for having players that don't look like athletes. Says Harper:
“I did it for baseball,” he said. “Baseball players have such a bad rap of, like, we don’t work out or we’re not strong or this or that. Guys work so hard in baseball, it’s incredible. But people don’t know that. I wanted to show them, ‘Hey, this is our sport. This is who we are.’”
[via Washington Post]
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