My first Submission Grappling Tournament is Saturday the 29th. For those curious you can find the rules here: http://www.lockflow.com/article_view.php?id=1063
In any event, I currently weigh 147 lbs at 5’2’’ and plan to come in at 140 lbs for the weigh-in on the 28th. My thoughts so far are that it will be hard to drop any real appreciable fat in that period (not that I have much to begin with) but water should be fine.
What are some strategies for cutting water that any wrestlers/boxers on board have used sucessfully?
-Fireplug
first off, good luck and congratulations on actually competing. takes a lot of guts to get out there and do it. weight cutting is not overly complicated. i would guess that as a grappler and T-Nation member you are already in pretty good shape. decent metabolism? if you can do an early morning weigh-in, skip dinner the night before and hit the sauna. you’ll probably sleep off a pound or two as well. no sauna? fine, sauna suit. no sauna suit? fine, sweat suit with garbage bag underneath. walking around like that for a while will sweat off a ton of weight. honestly, it’s replenishing your fluids that is the hard part. buy yourself some elecrtolyte enhanced water. a lot of it. if you sweat off 7 pounds, you’ll need to replace a decent amount of that before you compete. any other questions, just ask.
JB discussed this on one of his articles. I suggest you look for it as it tells you how to correctly lose the water weight for weigh-in and then how to replenish the water back before you wrestle. But what the above poster said is basically it, just without the timings and ammounts etc.
Good luck, and good work.
[quote]invictaWW wrote:
first off, good luck and congratulations on actually competing. takes a lot of guts to get out there and do it. weight cutting is not overly complicated. i would guess that as a grappler and T-Nation member you are already in pretty good shape. decent metabolism? if you can do an early morning weigh-in, skip dinner the night before and hit the sauna. you’ll probably sleep off a pound or two as well. no sauna? fine, sauna suit. no sauna suit? fine, sweat suit with garbage bag underneath. walking around like that for a while will sweat off a ton of weight. honestly, it’s replenishing your fluids that is the hard part. buy yourself some elecrtolyte enhanced water. a lot of it. if you sweat off 7 pounds, you’ll need to replace a decent amount of that before you compete. any other questions, just ask.[/quote]
Thanks! It will be nice to actually roll with someone my own weight, besides the female fighters we have. I am aware of the use of sauna suits, but have never used one. What would you reccomend to replenish with? I have gatorade powder, but if there is something better that would be great.
-Fireplug
i use “smart water” which i buy in the organic section of my supermarket. just water and electrolytes! pedialyte is good too. don’t laugh.
Well, just an update for you guys. I cut about 5 lbs of water today. I dropped another 2 last night and am on target for my weigh in tomarrow. I should have 2-3 hours before competition to rehydrate.
-Fireplug
I would think that drinking some Surge right after the weigh-in would be a good idea also. Then have your meal about 45 minutes later.
[quote]ztrac79 wrote:
I would think that drinking some Surge right after the weigh-in would be a good idea also. Then have your meal about 45 minutes later.[/quote]
NOOOOOO! The insulin spike would severely deplete glycogen before you compete, which is certainly not what you want. Do not treat this like a workout at all, as that it is certianly NOT what it is (how is a weigh-in comparable to working out?). Carb-up afterwards, because you will most likely be depleting your body of carbohydrates. The easiest way to make weight is to lose water weight before, as it is the quickest to lose and fastest to gain back. You should cut carbs when dropping water weight because they make you retain water.
[quote]invictaWW wrote:
i use “smart water” which i buy in the organic section of my supermarket. just water and electrolytes! pedialyte is good too. don’t laugh.[/quote]
Smart Water is awesome, I have a bunch in my fridge for my upcoming submission tourny on may 20th, it works like a charm
[quote]KombatAthlete wrote:
ztrac79 wrote:
I would think that drinking some Surge right after the weigh-in would be a good idea also. Then have your meal about 45 minutes later.
NOOOOOO! The insulin spike would severely deplete glycogen before you compete, which is certainly not what you want. Do not treat this like a workout at all, as that it is certianly NOT what it is (how is a weigh-in comparable to working out?). Carb-up afterwards, because you will most likely be depleting your body of carbohydrates. The easiest way to make weight is to lose water weight before, as it is the quickest to lose and fastest to gain back. You should cut carbs when dropping water weight because they make you retain water.[/quote]
In Berardi’s The Grappler’s Guide To Sports Nutrition he recomends drinking a recovery drink that has both fast digesting carbs, (and perhaps protien), he also recomends that the drink contain electrolytes such as sodium and potassium. He lists Surge and also another, as they are a good choice for rehydrating the body, and refueling.
you’ll find a lot of good suggestions on this. My suggestion, pick the techniques that sound good and practice them, simulating as closely as possible what will happen.
Deplete, make weight, carb up, wait for 7 hours for your match (hahaha) then wrestle. Practice this, it is the type of little thing that can help/hurt performance and after all the other prep you’d hate to lose because you cramped or had an energy crash.
Well, I had a great time on Saturday. I ended up weighing in a little under my weight class (138 in the 140). I forgot that I would lose a few more pounds while sleeping.
Speaking of which, I don’t know if it was excitement or dehydration but I had a terrible time slepping on Friday. My heart was racing and I couldn’t relax.
The event itself was good, but I was the only entrant into my weight class in the Novice division (there were far more in the expert). So, they merged mine with the next highest: 141-155 lbs. Also, one of the Junior competitors had to be brought up because he weight 218lbs. So, I ended up grappling him, the 218lber and a guy who weighed 145.
Overall I did pretty well considering the weird circumstances. Thanks for all the help!
-Fireplug