29 Dec Five Rehydration & Filling Out Mistakes
By: Brian Carroll
Now that we have covered how to make weight and some of the mistakes when cutting weight, we are going to cover another very important part of the making weight process – putting it back on properly and setting yourself up to perform well.
You’re not out of the woods yet, cowboy. You made the cut properly by using the Cutting Weight EBook manual and are ready to fill back out. Here are a few tips for you to keep in mind to avoid some very big and costly mistakes I have made.
1. Not using IV bags. This is probably the least important of the 5 but it’s still important and why I’ve added it to the list. Have you ever gotten off the scale, had a quick drink or 5 and had 3-4000ml of fluid run through you after a 10% weight cut? I have for every significant cut over the last 11 years and the only feeling that matches this after days of starving, being thirsty and grumpy is sex, and/or the giant burger or French Toast breakfast you will soon be eating. I cannot suggest much more than you should consider getting with a medical professional and go the extra mile to get the much needed fluids in you ASAP. This is is very big if you happen to get sick during a cut (i.e: dry heaves, heat exhaustion or severe cramping).
2. Being on their feet too much and dumping adrenaline. A lot of big meets have multiple days of lifting and it’s easy to get stuck at a competion watching a friend or teammate lift and being on your feet all day combined with yelling, screaming, and dumping adrenaline from the ups and downs of a day of people you care about lifting. Not to mention, that if you’re at a meet all day then usually you are not resting or eating/drinking as much as you should be and are distracted. Being on your feet all day and not resting won’t hurt everyone but I can say for a fact that resting in the hotel away from distractions is a better idea for most of the people I’ve worked with, advised and lifted with.
3. Not doing a small workout prior bed the evening before competition (break a sweat). Get a small pump session before you go to bed after a day full of eating and drinking. Break a little sweat, get a little work in, start to go ‘there’ mentally and make sure that your muscles are filled out. You want all of that good food and fluid that you have consumed is going into your muscles and not your belly or just under your skin. I’ve found drinking a Gatorade, taking a little caffeine (if it’s not too late in the day) to make sure you’re warm and breaking a sweat works very well to ensure you are filling out properly.
4. Focusing on food and not fluid. I’m not going to say that food is not important but fluid especially for the first 4-6hr IMO is very important since it’s what is the most depleted and where the weight loss stems from. What I won’t say is that food is not important. Carbs and sodium should be the focus after fluids. Protein should be the least important on your list unless you mainly eat a HIGH protein diet most the time, but in most cases you won’t want to worry about it as much. I go into great detail about what fluids and how I advise it to be done in my book Cutting Weight.
5. Changing diet too much from the norm. Sounds simple right? You get overzealous and super hungry from being pretty much starved for a couple of days at times. I know the last cut, I drank a lot of fluid the day before each time I urinated, but I didn’t eat much the final 2 days leading in as my appetite goes into the shitter. Once one starts feeling better, it’s likely that the appetite comes back with a vengeance. One big mistake is going apeshit with food that you are not used to and end up on the toilet all day flushing your gains away. This is not a good way to fill out. Unless you have an iron stomach, I suggest you bring your own food, snack on what you usually do as now is not the time to try new foods out. Keep to the usual and try not to deviate too much. One thing you can control 100% is what you put in your mouth. If you aren’t prepared then it’s your fault. It’s very easy for an empty stomach to become upset. Make sure to have some meds on hand as well.
Brian Carroll
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