Tricks of the competitive lifting trade
23 January 2006If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!
Its odd how the mind works: certain occasions arise that cause my memory banks to fire up and in some deep recess, musty dusty data is retrieved from forgotten storage vaults and appropriate, pertinent information is passed on to others. In this particular instance I have five people entering a powerlifting competition; each needs to weigh in 24-hours before they compete and certain techniques can be applied to improve performance. Ill zero in on one individual to illustrate how power for strength sports can be exponentially magnified. Ron trains at around 190-pounds. His weight limit is 181. Fourteen days prior to the competition he eliminates all refined (manmade carbohydrates) and starchy carbohydrates and lives to near exclusion on lean protein and fibrous carbohydrates saturated fat and sugar have been long gone from his diet. Dropping the refined and starch reduces calories and eliminates carbs that attract water. His still intakes certain water-based carbs such as spinach but generally, other than a little olive oil, his fat is super low and his carb intake is limited to rough vegetables such as cauliflower, cabbage, green bean, carrots, (not too many on account of the sugar) broccoli, bell peppers and onions. Protein is derived from fish, mainly salmon and trout, plus skinless white meat turkey and chicken. A week before the competition all salt (sodium) is totally eliminated other than trace elements contained in some foods (celery, for example) and starting 36 hours before weigh in, his liquid intake is reduced to an absolute minimum. Not totally eliminated, but reduced radically. He has reduced calories, reduced water-absorbing foods, reduced liquid - but has kept his lean protein intake high in order to keep amino content in muscle tissue fed. His last major workout is seven days before he lifts (squat, bench press, deadlift) no more lifting during the week of competition.
Light cardio, walking for 30-40 minutes is done every day to keep his appetite kicking and his metabolism high. We need for him to eat lots of lean protein the week of the competition to stay strong. Fibrous veggies, particularly raw, are to be eaten in unlimited amounts. By not lifting for seven days before the competition the body is allowed to totally heal from any and all training trauma. Muscle tissue is fresh, fed, healed and rested at kickoff. Cardio keeps him from becoming sluggish and lethargic. I got this from the old Morris Weisbrott Polish Training Camp articles run in Strength & Health magazine circa 1965. When Morris would visit the national Olympic lifting camps of the Poles and was amazed to see the athletic activity the Polish team would engage in: starting with early morning mountain walks to build a big breakfast appetite. Many athletes make the mistake of doing nothing the week of a competition and in my experience as a coach on the local, national and international level this leads to sluggish game day performance. Walking is enough but not too much enough to elevate the metabolism and make a man hungry for muscle-sparing protein but not so intense that it cuts into game day performance. Seven days with no sodium and 36-hours with limited water cuts Rons bodyweight from 190 to 181. The weight loss is in the form of water: no water attracting salt or carbs; this is combined with reduced liquid intake. Muscle is spared by firing down lean protein and lots of it. Once Ron weighs in at 4pm on Thursday he immediately begins eating food containing salt and saturated fat every waking hour on the hour. Ron likes pizza and since it contains refined carbs, saturated fat and salt, it makes a great post-weigh in power food for a guy whos been deprived of these nutrients for so long. Eat pizza, drink water, eat pizza, drink water.
. We create a mini-anabolic burst by adding back into Rons body refined carbs, starchy carbs and sodium. Weve purposefully switched direction and now want to attract as much water as possible into his cells. We drink all the water we can as we want cells to hydrate and swell. Adding saturated fat back into the diet cause calories to accumulate at a rate of 9-calories per gram, double the 4-calories per gram rate of protein or carbohydrate. In the 24-30 hour period between weighing in and lifting, Ron eats water-attracting nutrients and saturated fat. A super-hydration occurs and Rons body swells: his leverages improve literally overnight as water retention and muscle swell cause tissue to push outward against muscle fascia confines. Squats, bench presses and deadlifts feel super light as fullness and power are exponentially magnified. Two years ago, the last time I used this tactic; I weighed in Friday at 2pm and tipped the beam at 195.5. The following day I lifted weighing 212. My competitors were dumbfounded. This depletion/re-hydration is a trick of the trade used by insiders. The procedure only works if you have the discipline to do all the front end reductions. Im not relating this tactic for any particular reason other than it happened to pop to the forefront of my brain helping my folks prepare for a competition this coming weekend. This tactic would have no applicability to anyone other than a competitive athlete preparing for competition. Still, I thought it might be of interest to see some of the behind the scenes stuff athletes use. Bodybuilders use similar tactics to achieve a slightly different result. One year I was assigned to do an article on the last 24-hours of preparation used by an IFBB Olympia competitor (finished 6th) and between prejudging and the night show eight hours later this individual ate 14-pounds of fish, steak and red potatoes. He weighed 223 at prejudging at 234 that night looking much fuller, dryer and tighter.
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