Methods to keep away from a disastrous WEIGHT CUT
By Coach Dustin Myers, CSCS
Are your wrestlers slicing weight the WRONG method?
Ah, sure…the proverbial elephant within the room – weight slicing. Personally I’m an enormous proponent of wrestlers NOT slicing weight, significantly at the highschool or youth degree, however till we now have a serious tradition change it would stay part of the game. Even when an athlete isn’t slicing a considerable amount of weight the truth of being caught between two weights (say, an athlete that walks round at 190lbs) often leaves us with one possibility and that’s taking off some water weight earlier than weigh ins. Nevertheless, like most issues, there are proper methods and much more mistaken methods to go about it, with many athletes taking off weight in methods that may be detrimental to efficiency and their well being.
What to keep away from:
1. Do NOT restrict your water consumption early within the week. The simplest mistake to make is to restrict water as you’re bringing your weight down. A chronically dehydrated physique turns into a sponge, retaining any water that is available in and making it laborious to really lose extra water when it comes time to make weight.
Answer: keep hydrated ingesting 1 gallon of water or extra per day all week
2. Do NOT skip meals. Even when bringing your weight down in the course of the week your physique nonetheless wants gasoline for restoration. Ravenous your self will trigger your metabolism to grind to a halt and your physique will go right into a catabolic state, consuming away on the muscle you labored so laborious to realize.
Answer: proceed to eat small nutrient dense meals 3-4 occasions per day the complete week. Restrict carbohydrates to fruits, veggies, and low glycemic advanced carbs like quinoa and brown rice – ideally after coaching. Excessive fats meals equivalent to eggs, avocado, and nuts will present power and fulfill starvation even in small quantities.
3. Do NOT work laborious to take off the burden. When it comes time to make weight, you ought to be roughly the identical variety of kilos over you can safely lose in a single apply. When you usually sweat off 4lbs every apply then your aim ought to be to stroll round not more than 4lbs over by the top of the week – however the bottom line is to lose that final 4lbs by expending the LEAST quantity of power doable.
Answer: use low depth actions equivalent to biking and stance movement to sweat. I’d suggest working solely at the start to get your sweat going then proceed with decrease depth actions.
4. Do NOT gorge after weigh ins. As tempting as it may be, don’t pig out after making weight.
Answer: Rehydrate first – I like to recommend 32oz of Water with Max Effort Muscle Amino Restoration instantly – then soak up some easy carbs equivalent to a banana. 20minutes or so later deal with your self to a peanut butter and jelly sandwich and proceed to drink water.
5. Do NOT get behind the 8-ball. It is pure to have an enormous cheat meal(s) after competing and keep in mind that your physique goes to be a sponge after being dehydrated. Do not let that saturday night time bloat carry over into monday or tuesday.
Answer: the day after competing get sweat with some lengthy, sluggish, low depth energetic restoration. You won’t really feel like driving the bike for an hour the morning after your match title, however it would assist work out the soreness and do away with the bloat out of your victory feast – and make the subsequent weight lower that a lot simpler.
These are just some ideas to verify your weight lower isn’t a catastrophe. I’d a lot somewhat see wrestlers eat wholesome, carry heavy all season, and revel in wrestling!
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