I have procrastinated on writing this article for too long already, seeing
as how it's been slightly over a week since the actual meet, but I guess I had my reasons for putting it off.
The main reason being that the first time I started typing this out I quickly realized it was
going to turn into a full flege novel. I also wanted to figure out how to best discuss the experience without giving away all the secrets. So with that said, this will be my much abbreviated
write up on how I dropped a little over 10 pounds in less than three hours to
make weight by 0.1 pounds, and then how I managed to put those 10 pounds, plus
another 8, back on before the day was over.
I strongly encourage you to do some research on the effects of dehydration before you even contemplate doing something similar. Dehydration can have devastating effects on athletic performance and can be extremely dangerous if done incorrectly or taken too far. The process is also absolutely miserable, but at the same time it is doable. It requires extreme attention to detail in the days leading up to the weigh ins and during the short window that you have between weighins and the meet, in which you have to completely rehydrate and replenish your body. There is a lot of planning involved from food and fluid choices, to supplementation, and other considerations, but I will not get into that now. If someone needs more info or has questions, leave comments here or contact me, and I will try and help, but for the sake of keeping this write up from turning into something that rivals "War and Peace" in terms of length, I will not be discussing any of the finer details here.
Let's begin...
I decided a couple months out from this past meet that I was going to
compete at 220 instead of 242 this time. There were two main reasons for making
that decision:
1) My knowledge and attention to the nutrition side of lifting has increased
tremendously since I last competed, and as a result I have leaned up
considerably.
2) This one's simple. The same lifts performed at 220, as compared to 242, make me a
much stronger competiter at the national level.
From the beginning there was no way I was going to make 220 out right, so I
knew it was going to require some serious water manipulation on my end. Not to
mention a 24 hour weighin, to allow adequate time to rehydrate and replenish my
glycogen stores. I did a lot of research and talked with a couple guys who have
experience with successfully dehydrating themselves and subsequently
rehydrating themselves, all in time to step on the platform the next day and
deliver dominating performances. Big thanks to Paul Nguyen and Jamie Lewis.
Both of whom are absolute beasts. If you are unfamiliar with either, check out
Google and YouTube, and be prepared to be impressed. Jamie is the all-time
world record holder for raw total without knee wraps at 181 and Paul deadlifts
around 700 pounds while competing at 165.
The best way to drop water weight is through a combination of increased
urination and sweating. Increasing urination is easily done with the use of a
couple of very safe, but very effective over the counter diuretic supplements.
The bulk of the weight loss however comes from simply sweating out a large
volume of water. There's various ways to do this, but the best way is through
the use of hot baths. What do I mean by a hot bath? Fill a bathtub as high as
possible and completely submerge yourself with the hottest water you can stand
that doesn't actually burn your skin. It should be slightly painful and
will be absolutely miserable, otherwise you are doing it incorrectly. DO NOT, under any
circumstance, think that exercise induced sweating is the way to go
about this. There are numerous reasons why this is a terrible idea, but I will
not get into here.
For my first time dropping water like this for a meet, I decided to try and
keep it to around 10 pounds, an amount that I was told would be easily doable,
and that would allow for an easy recovery (rehydrating and refeeding). I didn't
want to be pushing the limits straight out the gate. I did perform two trial
runs leading up to the meet, so that I would know what to expect going in.
Anyone who decides to do this should absolutely perform at least one trial run.
My weight leading up to this meet stayed around 235 for the most part, but I
did allow it to drift up to 240ish for a couple weeks. The highest my morning
bodyweight topped out at was 244, one morning after a large backload. About two
weeks out I started limiting my carbs slightly and started gradually bringing
my weight back into the target range. I ended up a couple days out, weighing around 234.
From there I simply cut carbs completely the last three days prior to weighins
and that got me down to 230.4 upon waking the day of weighins.
Friday morning weighins were from 10:00 am to 11:00 am, so I woke up at 6:00
and immediately began my "sweat". Initially, I would submerge myself
for 10 minutes, then get out and towel off, and then leave the bathroom and
cool off in a normal temperature room for 10 minutes before repeating the
cycle. I did three rounds this way and my weights were as follows:
Upon Waking - 230.4 lbs
After Round 1 - 227.8 lbs
After Round 2 - 226.8 lbs
After Round 3 - 224.8 lbs
There were some inconsistencies in there as you can see, but these were due
to things such as having to compensate for a tube that didn't come close to
accomodating my size and therefore having to figure how to maximize the amount
of my body I could submerge and also figuring out the best way to plug the
overflow so that I could get the water level in the bath all the way to the top
of the tub. I clearly fixed the problem for round 2. When everything is done
correctly, weight loss per round should decrease fairly linearly as the rounds
increase.
Not sure why, other than maybe the fact that I was utterly miserable, but at
this point I decided to switch up the way I was doing things. Keep in mind that
a small bathroom, with the door closed and the fan off, quickly turns into a
sauna due to the temperature of the water in the tub. What I did, was change to
the way Matt Kroc does his water cuts, which involves a 30 minute rotation, with
10 minutes spent submerged in the hot bath, 10 minutes sitting in the sauna
(bathroom), and then 10 minutes in a cool room. I had experimented with both
ways prior to the meet and found both to be very effective. Just two different
ways to skin a cat. The main thing I like about Matt's way is that it kept me
out of the hot bath for 20 minutes rather than just 10. Unless you've done hot
baths before to sweat off weight, you don't understand how absolutely miserable
they are, so you won't be able to appreciate the dread of going back into the
hot bath. The combination of the increased body temperature from the hot bath
and the heat of the sauna like conditions in your bathroom doesn't really allow
you to cool off, so even just sitting in the bathroom your body continues to produce ungodly amounts of sweat in an effort to cool itself. Results were as follows:
After Round 4 - 222.8 lbs
After Round 5 - 221.6 lbs
After Round 6 - 220.6 lbs
I stopped my "sweat" at this point as I actually thought I had a
little more room to spare than I really did. I was under the impression that my
scale was a little on the high side, but as I later found out, it was pretty
much dead on. I finished my "sweat" in a little over two and a half
hours and with a total weight loss of about 10 pounds.
I weighed in an hour later at 220.4 and made weight by 0.1 pounds. The upper
limit for the 220 weight class is technically 220.5 pounds because the 220
weight class is actually just the equivalent, in pounds, of the 100 kg weight
class, so therefore 100 kg = 220.46 lbs.
Weigh In - 220.4 lbs
The mission is now halfway accomplished. Now it is time to rehydrate and refeed the body.
While properly dropping the water and making weight is important, it is even more important that you effectively rehydrate by putting all that water (plus some extra) back into your body and that body holds onto that water. Not to mention, you must be able to effectively replenish your glycogen stores. If you screw this part up, then prepare for the most pathetic, embarrassing, and miserable performance of your life.
From the moment I stepped off the scale, the remainder of the day was a non-stop assault of carefully selected foods, liquids, vitamins, electrolyte supplementation, and other over the counter supplements, and all with pretty specific timing. Keep in mind that I put on 18.2 pounds in the 12 hours between the time I weighed in and the time went to sleep that night, which is actually lower than what I was shooting for. That means the volume of food and liquids I consumed weighed in excess of 18 pounds. The first meal or two after weighins was fun, but from there it turned into a chore, and by the time I went to sleep it was miserable.
I'm not going to get into anymore details, but I will say that it was overall a great experience. A miserable experience, but a successful. It got the job done and still allowed me to perform near 100%. I learned some things this first time through that I will apply next time I do this and I expect even more effective water manipulations in the future.
I am willing to help people with this process if they are interested in learning more, but that will be at my own discretion. If you are doing this in an attempt to make a lower weight class so you can attempt to barely hit an elite total, then you are way off the mark.
Feel free to leave comments and ask questions here or shoot me an email.
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