My first powerlifting meet is in 6 days, weigh-in is 5 days from today. I need to make weight for the 181.5 division. I weighed 192 lbs (5’10") yesterday upon starting this cut process, heaviest I’ve ever been. I’m usually something like 13%-15% body fat. My plan:
Day 1: 192 oz. water, plenty of salt
Day 2: 192 oz. water, plenty of salt
Day 3: 192 oz. water, plenty of salt
Day 4: 48 oz. water, no salt, no carbs
Day 5: 24 oz. water, no salt, no carbs
Day 6: 16 oz. water, no salt, no carbs
Day 7: no intake until after weigh-in
Day 8: Meet
Day 1 completed yesterday, working on Day 2 today.
Will this work? How much strength will I lose? Thoughts? Advice? Bad plan? Anything helps, thanks.
your current lifts do you think you will win your class?
if not and it is your first meet i would not cut and just use this first meet as a learning experiance see what you can do
If I can compete in 181.5 I have a shot at winning, and in the running for the Michigan state record in classic raw squat if I hit my goal. That’d make me pretty happy. If I have to compete in 198 lb class, I’m likely to be way too far behind to have even shown up. I know it’s not about winning and shouldn’t worry about “looking stupid,” but honestly I have no business going up against the numbers of the 198 lb guys.
What numbers are you hitting that you? If your about to take a record in the 181 class you should do good against the average 198s. I just did a meet last week and totaled 1500 in the 181 class cut from 188 to 175.75 and lost a little weight in squat about 20 lbs in bench and almost nothing on deadlift. But everyone is different. Since its your first meet I’d either enter in the 198 class and hit what you know you can hit or cut to 181 and be prepared to lose a good bit off of your lifts since its your first cut I am fairly certain youll lose more strength than I did. Lastly on the water l load I was able to get away with drinking a gallon of water till up to the day before weigh in. The day before I went to 32 oz and no water the next day till after weigh in. Was 179 the day of weigh in and hit the sauna for 50 total minutes the day of weigh in to drop a few extra lbs.
O and make sure your openers are light enough to hit saw a lot of grinding in the warm up room only to hit an opener and miss everything else. Guy in the warm up room was warming up with me, I’m second from last with my opener and just pulled 405 I tell him I’m doing 1 more rep with 495 before I’m done (565 opener) and ask what he wants he said he’s gonna pull 430 than a double with 455. I asked what his opener was he said 475. I told him that was a horrible idea I don’t know if he did warm up that way or not but I did see he missed his second and third attempts
My openers are very light, stuff I can really smoke, 88-89% of current maxes. 2nd lifts are still automatic stuff in the gym, hopefully just as automatic on Sunday. 3rd lifts are actually just 98ish%, I don’t want to try to PR in my first meet, and I’m making the assumption that I’ll be weaker.
1500 is way, way out of my league, Was that raw or equipped? Either way, still massive and I don’t believe this event will have that kind of competition in my division (APF/AAPF Michigan State Meet, AAPF classic raw 82.5kg division). So impressive man.
With that said, I get it… what’s the point of trying to beat guys that aren’t the best? No point in being the strongest of the weak. Even if my goal of a 1315 total won, it’s still just a 1315 total. But, I planned on cutting down for the this meet from the start just to see if I got what it takes, and I’m already waist deep in the lousy part of the cut, so, I’m gonna try to see it to the end.
Last 24 hours is gonna be the worst, if you’re going to stop cutting (which I think most people here will suggest) best to do that now. A 1300+ total is enough to win at most meets at 198 and in the off chance a freak 181 shows up all you would’ve accomplished is hindering your performance and making your first meet harder. I cut weight for my first meet and even won, but if I could go back I wouldn’t. It’s already going to be insane and stressful and weird and awesome enough, the last thing you need is another wildcard like a weight cut throwing you off. My opinion.
I did that raw with knee sleeves, if your not too worried about your total then you could do wha I did pretty much and see how much you can get away with cutting and see how much strength your able to keep for next time. In november I’ll cut to just 181 and try 1650+ I want to get to where I’m competing with the top guys