Cutting Weight for a Judo Competition: My Approach

So this is the first time I take the professional approach for making weight, cutting down by 5 kg’s (11 lbs) in 4 days.

Until last time I never really needed to cut, because I was always floating around my competitive weight: 1kg up or down, no problem.

Now though, things were different. Having recently added some 3-4 kg’s lean muscle mass -from drinking fresh Icelandic Colostrum (Broddur), I needed to sweat it.

When I had to make the cut once previously, I badly underestimated my weight -not having checked, 1st mistake!- and ended up suffering -SUFFERING, I tell you!- 4 hours in the sauna.

NOT nice. That day, for some reason, I was 2 kg’s heavier than usual and the weight just would not come off! I was dizzy, woozy, weak.

Next day I was still weak. Not good, since that was comp day. Funny story?

That day, after carbing up like crazy, LOTS of good foods, fluids, salt, everything? I was still about 2 kg’s lighter than my starting-weight the day before. Bummer.

Well, it just was one of those days, but I vowed to make sure that’s not gonna happen to ME again!! I knew all the theory, but had no practical experience.

So this time around I took 4 days (yes, on the low side, but just enough as it turns out), and I used the proper protocol.

1st day: about 10 liters of fluids all in all. No salt.

2nd day: about 6 liters fluids, no  salt.

3rd day: 1 liter, no salt, 8x 750mg Kaleroid (potassium chloride), 1 glass of red wine pm, 1 loritin 10 mg, magnesium chloride. Sauna for a good hour. Just 1.5 kg’s off target; NO problems.

4th day: 1.5 kg’s off in the am, cut out all foods and fluids till after weigh-in. Sauna as needed. This is gonna be EASY.

Weigh-In Results: I made weight with a kilo to spare! And, significantly, without any additional sauna...

So total sauna time was a good hour on day 3, that’s all! 6kg’s in 4 days and it was that easy…this protocol rocks! 🙂

So there you have it: Do it right, don’t suffer like I did 1st time around. If the weight’s not coming off, you can consider hot immersion baths, that’s what they do in the UFC, since it’s more effective than Sauna.

Like that you can drop up to 2 lbs in an hour, or a total of 30+ lbs in 20 hours.

Re-Feed/Carb-Up:

After the weigh-in, make sure to regain all your weight to be at your best come competition time. Lots of carbs, fluids, salt, eat to your heart’s desire and then some.

You want to regain really everything, otherwise you might be tired, woozy and weak. NOT something you want at the best of times, certainly not during a hard match!!

If you do this right, you should be as fresh and strong as before the cut, if not more so.

Good Luck now and many an Ippon to you,

Mark

Here’s a picture from later that day:

BTW, I did not cut out carbs for this, since I’m on HCLF (High Carb Low Fat) nutrition and never wanna go low carb again…but it worked like a charm, just the same!

Note: isn’t a fresh, cool, ripe pear THE most refreshing and re-hydrating thing? I think so… 🙂

UPDATE: Now I used this system for the second time, for the Nordic Championships taking place in Iceland 2015, and I must say I’m a believer. 7.5 kg in 5-6 days with just 1 hour sauna…

NO problem! It works…reliably so.

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