This month I would like to start with a little story. It goes back to my days as a competitive powerlifter. I competed for 12 years in powerlifting and I remember many contests where I had to lose weight. Towards the end of my powerlifting career I was around 196 pounds. He could have competed at 198 lbs. class, but chose to drop down to 181 lbs. class to take a chance on a 500 lb. bench press There weren’t many guys in those days that would bench 500 lbs. at 181 lbs. weight class so it sounded like a good idea.

The first year I was going to do this attempt, I had my best training lift of 475 pounds. for 3 reps in the gym. That would equate to about 530 pounds. form. It was the best training session of my life and my contest was the following week. She was super strong and super ready to “get the job done.” I only had to lose 196 lbs. at 181 lbs. and I had a week to do it. At worst, I KNEW I would finally get my 500 lbs. bench press at 181 lbs. of body weight.

I wanted to stay strong, so I waited until Wednesday of that week to start losing weight, for the Saturday weigh-in at 9 am and the weightlifting contest at 12 noon.

I only ate 3 small meals each day, and they were basically sandwiches and protein shakes. On Friday night she weighed in at 189 pounds. I had to lose 8 more pounds. and I knew he would take my water weight off by the time the weigh-in came around. Heck, he’d have a couple hours to get back on the water, so he could probably compete at a total weight of 195-196 pounds. and finally get that bank of 500.

I didn’t drink any water and sat in my friends’ sauna for a few hours now and then. The weight was being lost. I was tired and didn’t feel very well, but I was losing weight. Also, I was still able to get the water back in my system and race feeling strong.

At 9 a.m. the next morning, he weighed 181 pounds. in the nose. After the weigh-ins I drank Gatorade and water. I tried to eat a little, but my appetite was mostly for water and Gatorade, not solid food. I also ate a banana to restore my potassium level. Long story short, I only bench-pressed 470 lbs. that day. He was good enough to win that particular powerlifting contest, but he was a personal disappointment. I knew something was wrong. The following week at the gym, he weighed in at a comfortable 197 pounds. and my bench press was even better. He hadn’t trained since the meet, but the following Saturday he was pushing a weight that would equal 535 pounds. bench press

What did I learn from this experience?

I’ve learned that if you want to maintain your strength, you better cut weight correctly. If you’re a wrestler or a powerlifter, your goal is to perform at your best. Wrestlers don’t lift the maximum weight to win a match, but it makes sense to assume that if you’re at your best, you’ll fight at your best!

All things being equal, the strongest fighter wins!

With this in mind, here are some guidelines for reducing water weight, in order to fight at your best:

Use proper methods to reduce weight to lose fat first. If you don’t have a lot of fat on your body, you either have to either trick your body into encouraging more fat loss or accept that your body will cannibalize its own muscle for food. You will need to eat 6-7 small protein-focused meals throughout the day.

Not be more than 3 or 4 pounds. on the weight category two days before. Listen carefully. There are some basic physiological truths in this world. You can’t drop 10 pounds in one day and have it come from fat. It has to be dehydration. Dehydration will weaken you if it is severe. I don’t care how tough you are, how good you are at wrestling, who you learned from, etc. If you cut too much overnight, you may win the match or tournament despite poor weight cutting techniques, but you won’t be fighting at your personal best! It won’t matter until you’ve found your match. Be smart with your weight cutting.

Don’t get dehydrated. You should start to “restrict” the water about 15 hours before you weigh yourself. That means you will drink 6 to 8 ounces of water every 3 hours starting 15 hours before your weigh-in. If you feel like you can’t drink water right now and just try to sweat the old-fashioned way, you won’t be able to maintain your strength.

The Super Saturation meal 36 hours before you weigh yourself (assuming you are 3-4 pounds heavier), should over-saturate your muscle cells. To do this, you will have a large carbohydrate meal (pasta, rice, yams, baked potatoes, etc.). Eat as much as you can comfortably eat during this meal. Then restrict carbs for the rest of that day and the day after. Don’t worry, although your body will use stored carbohydrates (now in muscle cells as glycogen) for energy, you will still have glycogen stored in your liver. Your body will be able to use this stored liver glycogen for energy on wrestling day. After the super saturation meal, you will basically eat protein meals.

If I had known then what I know now, I could have made it to my £500. bench press at 181 lbs. class. Instead, I came in at a comfortable 193 pounds. later that year and got my 500 lbs. bench and just missed at 535 lbs. attempt. Learn from my mistakes. Lose your weight properly, consistently, and watch your gains skyrocket!