Cutting Weight: The perils of cutting weight for competition.

Over the past weekend 5 members of the Crossfit Hoboken Barbell Club Competed in the Larry Mintz Memorial Weightlifting Tournament in Garden City Long Island. Of those 5, 4 athletes including myself had to cut weight in order to make our weight categories. We all made weight on the day, but had very different performances.

Like any sport that has bodyweight categories, Weightlifters try and cut weight in order to lift in a lifter bodyweight category. We do this to achieve a podium position, a lighter qualifying total, or to maximize our power to weight ratio. In lifting its simple, the lighter you are, and the heavier you lift, the better you are. Athletes employ a number of ways to lose the weight. Dieting, cutting carbs, sugars and sodium from your diet. Hot baths, Running with Plastic Bags over your body, chewing gum and spitting, and of course the tried and tested sauna. However, losing weight before competition comes with its own perils and complications. One’s which I am all too familiar with.

Unlike Boxing or UFC, Weightlifters have to weigh in two hours before they compete. This gives them very little time to try and eat and rehydrate after the weight cutting. Take boxers for example, they weigh a full 24 hours before they fight. Take the recent Mayweather Pacquiao fight. The debacle they called the fight of the century.  Both lifters weighed in at around 145lbs (66kg) the day before the fight. If you think they still weighed in the 140’s when they got in the ring you are gravely mistaken. I am thinking more like 155/160 lbs when they actually fought.  How you say, let me explain.

On Sunday morning I competed at a weight of 135.7 lbs (61.7kg). 24 hours later, after plenty of food and re hydration, I weighed 147.2 (66.9kg) that’s an increase of 12 lbs by the next day. The reason for this was that for the entire week before the competition I had been dieting and using the sauna in order to lose the weight. So in the space of 7 days I had lost, and gained 12 lbs (6kg). That’s a lot of weight for a little guy to cut. Too much in fact.

After feeling good with my Snatches, and posting a New Competition record of 95kg (210lbs), I bombed on all three of my attempts in the Clean and Jerk. (Bombed is a weightlifting term for missed all attempts @NSA) I felt pretty good before I snatched, and was elated at my Snatch record, but when it came time to Clean I had nothing left in the tank. I was physically drained and dehydrated. I had no strength left in me. The weight I was attempting 109kg (240lbs) is a warm up weight for me in the gym, but on Sunday it felt like a 305lbs (140kg) front Squat. Others on the team suffered a similar fate, having difficulty with weights that they easily make in the gym.

So what’s the moral of the story you ask. Cutting too much weight, to quickly will drastically affect your performance. You would think I have learned my lesson from passed experiences. At the 1998 Commonwealth Games in Malaysia I had to cut similar weight to get into the 62kg division. I bombed on all my clean and Jerks, when I was hoping for a medal. At last year’s World Masters Championships in Denmark I cut weight to 62kg and lifted significantly under my Personal records. Thankfully I at least got one Clean and Jerk for a Silver Medal.  How I miss the days when I first started competing in Weightlifting when there was the 64kg division. That is my ideal weight. But alas, no more (Thanks to the introduction of female lifters, and the lowering of the number of men’s bodyweight divisions)

From here on out I have one of two choices to make. Gain weight and be a fully fledged 69kg lifter. That would entail a few months or Creatine and Protein in order to get myself in the 70’s kg (152lbs). Or stay where I am 66kg (147lbs), and drop weight over a longer period of time than just a week. For now I am just going to let my bodyweight do what it wants for a month and then decide.

Congratulations again to the team from Crossfit Hoboken on your performance on Sunday.

Ryan Erasmus “Coach” – DNF (still got a PR 95kg Snatch)

Chad Michael – 4^th place men’s 85kg division 214kg Total

Dallas Quano – 2^nd Place Trophy men’s 85 kg division 245kg Total

Madalyn Rodriquez – 2^nd place trophy woman’s 53kg division 132kg Total

Britta Winans – 2^nd place trophy woman’s 63kg division 131kg Total