The best way to keep away from a disastrous WEIGHT CUT
By Coach Dustin Myers, CSCS
Are your wrestlers chopping weight the WRONG method?
Ah, sure…the proverbial elephant within the room – weight chopping. Personally I’m an enormous proponent of wrestlers NOT chopping weight, significantly at the highschool or youth degree, however till we’ve a serious tradition change it would stay part of the game. Even when an athlete is just not chopping a considerable amount of weight the fact of being caught between two weights (say, an athlete that walks round at 190lbs) normally leaves us with one choice and that’s taking off some water weight earlier than weigh ins. Nevertheless, like most issues, there are proper methods and much more fallacious 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 might be bringing your weight down. A chronically dehydrated physique turns into a sponge, retaining any water that is available in and making it exhausting to really lose extra water when it comes time to make weight.
Answer: keep hydrated consuming 1 gallon of water or extra per day all week
2. Do NOT skip meals. Even when bringing your weight down through the week your physique nonetheless wants gas 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 exhausting to achieve.
Answer: proceed to eat small nutrient dense meals 3-4 instances per day the whole week. Restrict carbohydrates to fruits, veggies, and low glycemic advanced carbs like quinoa and brown rice – ideally after coaching. Excessive fats meals reminiscent of eggs, avocado, and nuts will present vitality and fulfill starvation even in small quantities.
3. Do NOT work exhausting to take off the load. When it comes time to make weight, you ought to be roughly the identical variety of kilos over which you could safely lose in a single observe. When you usually sweat off 4lbs every observe then your purpose needs to be to stroll round not more than 4lbs over by the tip of the week – however the secret is to lose that final 4lbs by expending the LEAST quantity of vitality doable.
Answer: use low depth actions reminiscent of biking and stance movement to sweat. I’d suggest working solely in the beginning 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 reminiscent of 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 a great sweat with some lengthy, sluggish, low depth energetic restoration. You may not really feel like using the bike for an hour the morning after your match title, however it would assist work out the soreness and eliminate the bloat out of your victory feast – and make the following weight minimize that a lot simpler.
These are just some ideas to verify your weight minimize is just not a catastrophe. I’d a lot somewhat see wrestlers eat wholesome, raise heavy all season, and revel in wrestling!
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