Cutting?

HammerHeadGym

Do powerlifters cut weight before a comp, like boxers and other similar weighed competitors?

Not just dieting in the lead up to the event, but some form of exercise to sweat 3 or 4 kilos out before the weigh in?

And if not, why not?

ali.c

Interesting question, not sure but I presume it depends on how close they are to the fitting into their weight class like all other sports?

Also my understanding of training for power lifting is that they do a training cylcle designed so as they peak right on time for the competiton, not so sure what messing about with cals and nutrition at the end of that cycle would do.

Maybe Hanley can enlightened us on this one?

Malteaser!

Maybe Hanley can enlightened us on this one?

Unfortunately hanley is banned so will be unable to answer that question Ali!!

i know that typically he's drop a kilo and a half to two kilos before a competeition to make weight though!

amazingemmet

I know some competitors that compete in the lighter weight classes cut right down before with one example i know of competeing somewhere about 4-5%bf and totaling ten by bw

t-ha

Yes they do - Matt Kroczaleski is a very good example. He wrote about it here: http://www.elitefts.com/documents/cutting_weight.htm

Obviously a PLer's main concern will be being at full strength for competition time so the weight is lost and regained again in the shortest time possible & using exercise to get the sweat going is largely out as it saps strength.


Personally I recently competed in a submission wrestling championship in the U83kg class. I typically walk around at 90 - 92kg, but dropped weight (some muscle and alot of fat) in the three weeks leading up to the event to 86kg & then used glycogen depletion and a small amount of dehydration to come in at 81.9kg for the weigh-in. By fight-time a few hours later I was 86kg again & feeling strong.

Same theory applies, alot of people use dehydration techniques too far out. Don't start dehydrating until you're within 24hrs of the weigh-in & rehydrate asap (initially with water only, then with a drink containing electrolytes) and only use non-exerting techniques for it (i.e. only sipping water, saunas, wearing layers to bed etc.) or you'll make yourself much weaker.

Malteaser!

Matt K can do what he does because he has the luxury of a 48 hour weigh in. If he's competing on sunday he weighs in on friday. This gives him LOADS of time to rehydrate and get the 20-somethin-lbs he lost back on again.

I would imagine Emmet's friend also competes with at least a 24hours weigh in. If you've such a long period of time between the weigh in and actual comp then dehydrating's a viable option. But for any less than a 24 hour weigh in, forget it.

There just isn;t enough time to lose and regain the weight you need to be at full power. When people talk abou cutting for a comp it generally means they've been training at the weight they're cutting from and if they cant get that weight back on immediately after weigh in then they're gonna be at a significant disadavantage because they're leverages will be all screwed up and their gear probably won't work properly.

Bottom line, for a 48 hour weigh in, go absolutely mad. 24 hours you can still lose 5+kg and come in on top form, but for a same day weigh in you better be damn careful what you do or you might just **** up an entire training cycle.

Cutting weight for fighting is probably a lot different to cutting weight for powerlifting. Since fighting is mostly skill based you're not gonna lose all that much of an advantage if you do take your weight down. But with powerlifting it's so dependant on mass and bodyweight that if you're off by even 3-5kg then you run the serious risk of doing extremely badly.

I know Hanley dropped almost 5kg in a week coming up to last years world championships (2 hour weigh in) and he said he'd never do it again. Since then the most he's dropped for compeition is 3kg and even then it requires a massive effort immediately post weigh in to gain all the weight back. Think 2 hours of straight eating and drinking.

Dragan

Malteaser! wrote:

for fighting is probably a lot different to cutting weight for powerlifting. Since fighting is mostly skill based you're not gonna lose all that much of an advantage if you do take your weight down.

I would disagree. FIghters can win or lose based on weight cutting. Needing to lose a silly amount of weight in a short time can leave fighters drained and tired. They are then facing up to 15 mins to an hour of non stop work depending on their sport and frankly they will gas and lose.

In fighting, weight cutting is everyting and ****ing it up can cost you your fight.

Monty_123

t-ha wrote:

Personally I recently competed in a submission wrestling championship in the U83kg class. I typically walk around at 90 - 92kg, but dropped weight (some muscle and alot of fat) in the three weeks leading up to the event to 86kg & then used glycogen depletion and a small amount of dehydration to come in at 81.9kg for the weigh-in. By fight-time a few hours later I was 86kg again & feeling strong.

T-ha how did you lose that weight in that time? Like what techniques? Loads of cardio??

Clive

Dragan is correctamundo. Weight cutting is something that needs to be learned for any sport with a day before weigh-in.

t-ha

Monty_123 wrote:

T-ha how did you lose that weight in that time? Like what techniques? Loads of cardio??

92 -> 86 was done with a tonne of training. Kickboxing & Sub Wrestling training tends to make me drop weight very quickly unless I deliberately account for it. I keep a training journal here (should link roughly to where I was 92kg) so you can see what else I was up to training-wise. There's alot of circuits & strength endurance sessions etc., which are all great for dropping weight.

Diet-wise, obviously had to dial it in, but still had a good amount of protein, carbs and fat in it. The carbs weren't that low (maybe 150g/day?), but I guess for the amount of training I was doing they were.

As for 86 ->81.9, I cut carbs down to about 50g/day just before the comp and did loads of low intensity cardio to drop gylcogen weight & only sipped water from Friday evening (after training) until after the weigh-in. It was a temporary weight drop & I put it all back on before fighting.