Today’s post is written by Quest Athletics lifter/coach Brooks Conway. He routinely cuts over six pounds of body weight for his meets and has developed a method based on wrestling experience, advice from fighters, and what he’s learned from a world-class coach. I’ve gotten weight-cutting advice from Brooks in the past for my lifters, and I thought you all would benefit from his advice.
Cutting Weight
by Brooks Conway
It’s not always necessary to cut weight. For example, if you’re doing your first meet, there’s absolutely no reason to lose weight. Go have fun; you don’t need to add any stress to the process. However, if you want to be competitive, it’s time to consider what weight class you’re going to be strongest. If you’re 170 pounds and beginning to post some pretty big numbers, it’s worth it to cut the 5 pounds rather than lift with the 181s and have mediocre results. The question always comes down to: do the benefits of cutting the weight (being the biggest in the weight class) outweight the costs (possible loss of strength and mental strain)? Consult a doctor before beginning any diet or a weight cutting program concocted by a math major.
The most important aspect of cutting weight is the smart manipulation of water. I put emphasis on the word smart because any idiot can wear a sauna suit, run around in circles for 3 hours, and sweat off 6 pounds. But the aforementioned idiot certainly won’t be able to lift to his full potential two hours later. I use a simple water loading/depleting template a buddy of mine who fights on the amateur level gave me. Six days out until three days out, drink 1.5 to 2 gallons of water. Two days out, drink 1 gallon. Day before, drink half a gallon (all of it before 4pm if you have a 7am weigh in, spread it out through the full day if you have a 2pm weigh in). One thing to consider when doing this is that drinking excessive amounts of water is liable to flush out a lot of important vitamins and minerals from your body. I typically have a Powerade Zero as 32oz of my daily water allowance to get some electrolytes in. I also take extra amounts of our Ultra MEGA-4 Mineral Complex because minerals are just as likely to get flushed out of your system as electrolytes. Water loading/depleting works because if your body isn’t receiving ample amounts of water, it holds on to every ounce you put in because it’s in survival mode and doesn’t know when the next time it will receive water. If your body is receiving plenty of water, it readily excretes it, knowing more is on the way. Your body doesn’t adjust very quickly though. For example, the first day of consuming 1.5-2 gallons of water you may not piss as much as you expect, but on day 6 (the day before the meet) you will continue to piss almost as much as you were the previous few days because your body thinks more water is on the way.
CONTINUE READING
There’s a few other things to consider that are going to determine how much water your body is holding onto. Sodium is the most important thing to take into account. Six days out, you DO NOT want to limit your sodium. Don’t go out of your way to consume extra sodium either, but if you begin to limit your sodium for a full week, while consuming 2 gallons of water for four days of that week, bad things will happen (Editor’s Note: low sodium concentrations, AKA hyponatremia, means that the body’s cells swell with too much water and can cause mild symptoms like diarrhea, headaches, and fatigue, but can also cause more serious problems like heart, kidney, and brain problems).
Beginning two days out, keep your sodium to a bare minimum. You can’t, nor would you want to, cut sodium out entirely. I would aim to consume under 500mg/day the two days before the meet. The next thing to consider is creatine consumption. I no longer take creatine monohydrate, I take our Jacked Stack which has Kre-Alkalyn which seems to make me hold on to a little less water weight while still giving me the strength gains (I’m not going out of my way to promote our supplements, but I legitimately do live on quest products). If you’re taking creatine monohydrate, after your last heavy squat workout, cut your dosage down to 3mg/day (under 200lbs BW) or 5mg/day(over 200lbs BW) to maintain the stores
in your system. On the Kre-Alkalyn I take 3-4.5mg/day while training and cut it down to 1.5mg/day while cutting. If you are a jabroni and take creatine year round, do not alter anything. Lastly, consume extra B-vitamins, as these seem to help with the excretion of water. I take Kroger brand B-complex, and typically take about 9 tablets the last two days before the meet. Also, if you drink coffee, make your first drink of the day 8oz more than you typically drink on the day before the meet. Caffeine is a natural diuretic.
You made weight. Congrats. The next two hours are far more important than everything you did the previous week (Editor’s Note: USAPL and USAW weigh-ins begin two hours prior to the start of the lifting session). The second you get off the scale, begin drinking a Pedialyte. Don’t chug it because it will probably make you sick, but also don’t sip too slowly because you only have two hours until the meet starts. Pedialyte will help to get the electrolytes back in your system. Aim to finish the bottle in fifteen minutes. Next consume the saltiest thing you can stomach. Sometimes Sherman, the owner and head coach at Quest Athletics, has me put packets of salt in my Pedialyte. Other times, I’ll have something like a sub sandwhich because of the high sodium content in the lunch meat. Don’t go crazy and eat something your body isn’t used to after dieting for a meet. After this, begin sipping on either another Pedialyte or a Gatorade. If you cut less than 4-5 pounds, do half Pedialyte and half water (Gatorade can also be used here, though it’s not as effective at Pedialyte). Consume at a little slower pace than the first pedialyte, because you’re likely to begin feeling full at this point. Assuming you’re warming up 45 minutes out (an hour and fifteen minutes after the weigh in) try to have most of the second pedialyte finished before you begin warming up. Again, after you squat, immediately eat something with a decent amount of sodium, and begin sipping on a Gatorade. Next thing to consider is your creatine. Typically, I begin to re-up my creatine stores the night before weigh-in because it won’t make me hold much water within 12 hours. With the Kre-Alkalyn, I take 6mg the night before, 6mg upon waking the day of weigh-in, then 6mg after squat. This could be overkill, but I want to make sure I’m getting as much back in my system as possible. If I were doing monohydrate, I would do 10mg the night before, 10mg morning of, and 10mg after the squat.
Something else to consider is your bowel movements. I think the myth that John Wayne had 40 pounds of impacted feces in his colon has been debunked at this point, but nonetheless, if you have waste waiting to be passed, that’s just dead weight. Primarily, the extra water should be enough to ensure you’re going once or twice a day. If you’re not, and especially if you’re going less than once a day, consider either a fiber supplement or a mild stool softener/laxative (emphasis on mild, no one wants to shit their singlet.. seen it happen). A pharmacist once told me miralax is the mildest. I was taking Green Vibrance before the meet and that helped keep me pretty damn regular. It’s the green powder made of barley grass, broccoli powder, spirulina, and probably the CEO’s grass clippings from the lawn of his million dollar mansion because that stuff is expensive.
What’s a good weight to train at or begin this water depletion at? If you have 48 hour weigh ins, you can take all of this to a much more extreme level. But with a two hour weigh in you have to be realistic. Sherman says 4%, or in extreme cases 5%, over the weight class is the most you want to train at more than a month out. For 183 thats 190-192. For 205 thats 213-215. To use this template to cut weight I would suggest being within 2.5% of the weight class, for 183 thats 187.5 (almost exactly what I weighed the day before the arnold). If you have more weight than that to cut, you need to look at your diet farther out than a week or consider moving up a weight class. Remember: the goal is to make the weight class while retaining all your strength, not just to make a weight class for the hell of it. My old roommate is a natural bodybuilder and he did my macros for 12 weeks before the Arnold becuase I was creeping up in the mid 190s after an enjoyable Christmas break. I ate within the confines of what I thought was good for my body (grass-fed beef, brown rice, steel cut oats, etc.), but he adjusted the carb/fat/protein amounts I consumed per day as my weight changed. This was extremely effective as opposed to just guessing portions, but also made me go out of my mind some days when I din’t feel like weighing a chicken breast. He offers this service at a price for anyone interested. Lastly, don’t gain a whole bunch of extra weight in the offseason just for the sake of it. I only recommend this if you are gaining weight slowly and methodically through proper nutrition, but your current weight happens to not match up with your weight class. You can bet if they had a 188 weight class, I wouldn’t cut to 181/183 just for the hell of it.
The more times you go through this, the better you will be able to adjust the finer details to fit your body. This is just what has worked best for me with the limited knowledge I’ve rounded up in my 3 years of powerlifting and during high school wrestling.
Brooks Conway
Quest Nutrition and Athletics
Brooks works for Quest Nutrition and Athletics in Duluth, GA and is a recent grad of UGA. He has been powerlifting for three years under multi-time USA head coach Sherman Ledford. He’s a two time collegiate national medalist, North American Champion, and recently received best junior lifter at the Arnold. His best numbers are 672 squat, 451 bench, and 655 DL with a 1769 total and 538 wilkes. And for the gear haters, he pulled 600 raw at 181 as a teenager.
Video of Brooks at 2011 Collegiates (where he cut over 6 pounds).
Excellent Post on a relevant topic, thanks Brooks!
Great read.
I’ve done a more simplified version of this method for numerous grappling/kickboxing tournaments over the years. This seems to be Wrestling Weight Cutting 101 for any wrestler who was even remotely competitive in school. I got this same plan/method from a former wrestler I trained with.
I really think more emphasis needs to be made about eating right and watching your diet well before the weigh ins (weeks, maybe months out). You touched on this at the end of the article, but I would have liked to know his take on the discipline it takes in the run-up to the actual weigh ins.
There’s a common miconception among people who’ve never cut weight (in a healthy way) that you can treat your body like shit and just hit the sauna for a few hours right before you hit the scales.
Cutting weight is an art form that’s misunderstood by most people.
Greg Everett/Robb Wolf have some thoughts/experiences on this too: http://robbwolf.com/2011/05/31/the-paleo-solution-episode-82/
There’s a transcript there if y’all don’t want to download the podcast. The question starts down at the bottom of pg. 16.
Thanks for the post, im 24 days out from a meet and am flirting with the class under me. Going to use this for sure
At what level of training is creatine necessary?
This is very interesting and helpful. My day-to-day weight these days is 195 so I’m not really considering thinking about going down a class unless I think I could actually win something there, powerlifting is just a hobby/motivation to lift thing for me. Question: when you say someone who takes creatine year round is a jabroni, are you just joking and meaning like a meat head type dude, or are you implying that it’s a bad idea? I just take it every day because it’s cheap and I don’t see any reason not to take it daily. Actually I’m not convinced the stuff does anything. Could you expand on that please? I have a meet in 9 days. Should I take an extra few doses the night before/morning of?
Nice article, Brooks. That’s pretty darn close to the template I’ve used over the last two years for meets, and I typically cut 6-9 pounds with no effect on performance that I’ve noticed. My only difference is that I’ll cut down on my carb intake the week of the meet as well to help shed a few extra pounds due to the glycogen depletion.
Wow, that is definitely a process.
@Maslow
Im certain you have read somewhere about people saying creatine messes up your liver and so should be cycled. If this were true then taking it year round would be a shitty choice, but personally i don’t see how a molecule that is in our body already could do this.
As for it’s effectiveness it’s mode of action makes perfect sense when considering the bodies energy systems.
I followed the water idea and by coincidence the caffeine and protein idea. The day before I also ate watery vegetables like peppers and cucumbers so I had something in my belly and almonds for some calories.
I spit in a cup as well while sucking on lemons to assist with saIvation (likely not necessary) but gave me peace of mind.
I was 6lbs over 3 days before. And it worked like a charm. No loss of strength. Totally bitchy I’ll admit, but I felt good physically. I weighed in 2lbs under the cut off.
I normally don’t have to cut but being a female, water retention can periodically be an issue as it was this past weekend.
If I find myself in this situation again, I’ll follow this plan. It worked well.
I cut 12-13 lbs in about a day (193 lbs to 181 lbs) for 24 hour weigh ins and it affected my 2rd and 3rd attempts.
I followed about the same plan as above with water increase to flush electrolytes and then water decrease to rehydration after the weigh in with pedialyte/Gatorade/water. I also limited myself on food the day before the meet until after weigh ins in the evening. I think the lack of food is what hurt me the most.
What foods do you recommend eating to keep up strength and not add additional weight? Angdesj talked about watery vegetables but I’m not a cow; I eat cows.
Also I’m right around 200lbs so I’m not planning any more drastic cuts anytime soon. My next meet is going to be at 198lbs.
Dear Justin,
Hopefully this is a question for the Q&A.
The past months I’ve my hips have been bothering my during squats. Eventually it got so bad I felt them all the time. I have always done hip mobility/flexibility training and made sure not to sit all day, but apparently there was a problem with my glutes not firing enough/not being strong enough in comparison to my hip flexors.
So I’ve temporarily dropped low-bar squatting for high bar/front squat work and have included more single-leg and glute work. In addition, I’ve begun focusing on “pushing my hips through” and flexing my glutes at the top of squats and deadlifts in order to increase the involvement of the glutes.
Do you have any experience with this? Any tips? I already have a standing desk to compensate and go for walks/mob/foam roll a lot.
I also watched Chris’ deadlifts and he does not “push his hips through” at the top. Any reason for that?
Kind regards and thanks.
I’m not sure what your original issue was or is, and I’m not sure what you’re interpreting as “push the hips through”. I would say that a “push the hips through” cue would only promote a position where the knees shift under the bar, therefore slackening the hamstrings and removing them from extending the hip into lockout (talking about deadlift).
If you want my thoughts on your original issue or injury, then you need to be very specific where you feel the pain. If you can take a picture and point (or use MS Paint) and point to where your pain is, then I might be able to help.
–Justin
@yosh
I’m no cow either, however not eating meat for one day was purposeful. Watery vegetables and almonds was to take in calories that wouldn’t sit in my gut like a piece of steak. In the am the day before I had a protein drink, I this helped me cut weight AND keep my strength.
But I am curious to hear what other options are possible.
@ Leeuwer….I’m not Justin so I defer to anything he may say but I struggled with almost the exact same problem and it caused debilitating back and hip pain. Things I did to fix it were obviously any anterior hip mob from Kstar, the key with these is you really have to contract your ass when doing them. Also do Kstar’s “hip opener mob” BEFORE you squat and hit the couch stretch at least 5 times a day. I would be hesitant to start high bar squatting or front squatting because that is just going to transfer more tonnage to the front of your legs which is what is already being worked. I would have someone check your squat form because if it is just a little bit it off it could be exacerbating the problem. To get your glutes firing the best thing I’ve used are RDLs where you contract your glutes for a second or two at the top of each rep. Go real light and do sets of 15ish. Don’t be afraid to incorporate a couple sets of standard glute bridges in your warm up also. They are stupid but would probably help. Lastly, role your quads with a lacrosse ball, best way for me is to jab the ball over your knee while laying on top of it and then hinge that same knee, do 5-10 hinges and then move the ball up the leg. Your quads are probably fried if your hip flexors are too tight. Lastly I would stick the lax ball in your periformis (no homo) and roll around on that. The key is consistency, if you don’t do this shit everyday your body will revert back to the way it was.
Justin, did you just say that your weight is somehow down into the 180’s?!?! Or is that article written by that Brooks guy?
You clearly did not read very well. Look again.
–Justin
Good stuff – I will be doing a dry run this month to see how much I can cut this way so that I will know what to expect for my June comp.
Is there any way to hear more about the general diet/programming tweaks that take place about a month out from a comp? Brooks mentions getting quality stuff in (grass fed beef, brown rice, etc.) but vaguely addresses macro breakdown and nutrient timing.
Currently I’m running a diet similar to the basic Greyskull Swole outline but with no carbs in the shakes.
Something I noticed was lacking here was any reference as to what to eat the day before weigh ins… Any time I have cut weight for a meet I didn’t eat at all for 24 hours before weigh ins, is this supposed to be implied? I would have assumed some sort of information about how much you should be eating would be important?
@Leeuwer
Hit these mobs:
I had a ball of nasty hip tightness going on and I hit the first MWOD I linked and felt like a new human being. Also, take a LAX ball and hunt for the soreness by the illiac crest and mob that stuff out.
While I appreciate the time you took to link certain mob videos, we don’t know anything about Leeuwer’s pain, where it’s at, or what is causing it. Because of that, it’s impossible to give him mobility recommendations that can help his issue. It probably isn’t going to hurt him, but there is the possibility that it could (particularly soft tissue work with a lacrosse ball, depending on the injury/issue).
This should be an advisory for readers to stay in their lane until there’s adequate information to help. Also, I don’t recognize your username, which means that you haven’t posted enough for me to trust you giving other readers advice, so keep all of this in mind in the future.
–Justin
Sorry about crossing a line Justin I did not any harm with my post. You are very right in the fact that there wasn’t enough info given on the hip issue subject. It sounded very similar to an issue I was having that I just currently figured out and am stoked to have fixed so I got a little excited when I thought I could help someone else. I appreciate the website and keep up the good work. Again I am mucho mucho sorry. Thanks.
I wouldn’t say you crossed the line, good sir, it’s just that his original question was so vague, it’s hard to give him any advice. I’d rather get some facts before there’s a random suggestion (even if it’s helpful). There are fitness and strength discussion boards full of non-informed people trying to help other non-informed people, and I want to make sure someone gets good advice here, whether it’s from me, or regular readers that I trust.
–Justin
Justin,
Thanks for the reply.
A more accurate/anatomic situation of the problem is this:
http://img844.imageshack.us/img844/2950/quadriceps60.jpg
According to my therapist, the tightness is in the pectineus muscle. (not the illiopsoas, as I stated earlier)
The pain occurs mainly when I squat below parallel, though prolonged sitting also causes it, presumably due to my hip flexors tightening up. To combat this I’ve made a standing desk and do more mobility throughout the day (working on a Master’s Thesis, lots of computer work).
When I keep my torso absolutely straight, as during a front/high bar squat, there is little pain. However, the moment the load increases and I stop moving the bar primarily with my hips(instead of my quadriceps), I feel pain.
Here’s a video of my low-bar squatting. I realize my upper body in the final two reps of the 180kg is too far forward, this is not something that I allow to happen often.
With “pushing the hips through” I mean going into Posterior pelvic tilt.
I do understand that Anterior pelvic tilt is needed at the bottom of the squat, as you outlined in your posts on the matter, to create tension on the hamstrings.
Based on what I’ve read by Cressey, Robinson, Contreras and a few other sources, I need to go into posterior PT at the top of the squat to allow the glutes to contract. Since I have a tendency to walk around in a slight anterior pelvic tilt, I’ve paid a lot attention to this, by sitting less and lengthening my hip flexors through various means(foam rolling, stretching)and focusing on mobility, while strengthening the glutes. I do glute bridges and RDLs, both one- and two-legged.
Stretching appears to make the problem worse, so I’ve temporarily stopped doing that in favour of more mobility work.
Also, I noticed it is mainly my left glute which does not contract properly, causing me to twist my hip slightly when I walk. I actively pay attention to this and have this been doing more single-legged glute work and various lunges/step-ups in order to correct this imbalance.
Any help is greatly appreciated.
@bohdi & magillaguerrilla: thank you very much for the efforts! I will most definitely look into that. Of course we’ll have to hear if it’s applicable to my situation first, but thanks nevertheless.
All righty, let’s get started on this.
First, your squat stance is too wide. That would definitely help something like the pectineus (or other adductors) get a little agitated, especially if they haven’t been worked on as you’ve gotten stronger (or if at the time of injury, you did too much too soon, or too much training).
Second, you descend into your squat too fast, especially on the lighter warm-ups. When squatting, especially the low bar squat, think ‘control down, fast up’. You do not want to go down exceptionally slow, but you don’t want to fall into the bottom. Falling into the bottom means you hit the bottom without tension. Instead of rebounding off of the tension (due to proper mechanics and tension on relevant muscles), you’ll rebound off connective tissue — this would put exceptional stress on the tendons and muscle bellies, especially given the fact that your stance is a bit wide.
Third, I don’t remember if I specifically said to be anteriorily rotated at the bottom of a squat, but think of it more as a “neutral pelvis” position that favors neither anterior or posterior tilt. In someone that is hypermobile, or someone who hangs out in extension frequently like you, thinking of anterior rotation would put the lifter in too much extension and cause problems (at other muscle groups, or at the sacral/lumbar junction). Given that we know you hang out in extension, you’ll have to think of being neutral. Kelly Starrett’s “thumb in the belly button, thumb on the sternum” example is what you need to think about. If you put your thumbs in those locations with your chest properly lifted (for thoracic extension), that distance between thumbs should not change during the lift (if you anteriorily rotate, that distance would increase as it elongates your abs). Does this make sense?
Fourth, I am not a fan of cuing posterior pelvic tilt at the top of the squat for the same reasons I’m not a fan of the anterior tilt at the bottom. When people think posterior tilt, they will tuck their butt underneath them and this promotes flexion at that sacral/lumbar junction. The last thing I want for a guy with 650 pound on his back is for him to tuck his butt under and go into flexion. As with the previous case, stay in netural position. Besides, if you’re thinking “flex the glutes” at the top, all it’s accomplishing is an isometric squeeze since the weight has already been locked out. It doesn’t do anything for the completion of the lift, whether it’s a deadlift or a squat, but especially a squat. The glutes are utilized at the bottom ROM of the squat because the hip is in deep flexion and external rotation. The gluteus maximus and medius both help externally rotate and extend the hip, so they are absolutely being used. It is possible to squat in a way that is very forward, and this would reduce their inclusion at the bottom, but this is why I have talked at length about toe and knee angle during the squat (particularly this, also this). Assuming the mobility exists, a “more forward toe angle” will help improve the torque at the hip, which essentially means those external rotators are being used to their potential, which allows the adductors to be used better, and subsequently distributes the force application across the thigh more efficiently. Again, isometrically contracting the glute at the top of a squat is not going to develop the glutes any better than their proper involvement in a good squat. Note that the lifter should not seep into anterior rotation at the top of the squat either. Standing “straight and tall” is usually enough to avoid either anterior or posterior tilt at the top.
Fifth, this angle of you squatting is not very good to analyze the squat mechanics. However, I did have a good angle of your feet and ankles. As I watched them during your squats, I noticed that they rotate in as you hit the hole. In other words, your arch drops (“navicular drop”) as you hit the bottom. This is the catalyst for your knees shifting significantly as you hit the bottom. Before I noticed this going on in the squat, I noticed that your right foot angle was rotated out as you walked back to the camera. So I rewatched different parts of the video several times of you walking and then watched the squatting again, and lo and behold, everything going on would make me suspect you have collapsed arches (maybe just in the right foot, like I do). Now that I watched some more reps, your knee shifting is primarily limited to the right knee, yet that is the foot that is collapsing in (the left foot not so much). I assume your right hip is the injured one? In any case, your foot position during the squat is very important. You can probably slightly adjust your toe angle to be more “in” and bring your stance in a bit (make marginal changes, test it with lighter weight). You need to start thinking about squatting on the outsides of your feet. You’ll be amazed at how much your lateral quads and external rotators get worked when you do.
Sixth, you notice that the pain is different with vertical squatting. This is probably due to the more acute angle of the hips during the low bar (low bar has acute hip, obtuse knee — high bar or front squat has obtuse hip, acute knee). I don’t mind you high barring (especially since you’re doing RDLs). These internal hip things can persist for a while. But, despite the therapist saying your muscle is tight, it doesn’t necessarily mean it’s inflexible right now. Right now it’s irritated and may even have scar tissue. It may even be that working on it makes it unhappy. If you’ve been massaging it and stretching it, give it some time off from that and then try some joint approximation stuff (via a band on proximal hip, anterior distraction). Continue to take it through a full ROM (whether with body weight squats, lunges, or otherwise) to give it some blood flow and get it to work. If you’ve gone a few days of this protocol and it hasn’t improved, then maybe apply a light(er), relatively speaking, massage. Always ice it after you do anything with it, and be sure to ice it every day. Kelly Starrett would tell you to ice it four times a day.
Methinks if you make the stance and toe angle adjustment and stop dive bombing down into your squat, then you’ll help the matter. You also need to start working on your foot issue (at least figure out what’s going on). I suggest reading this and this.
Let me know how it goes,
–Justin
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I had a hard time finding women’s experiences using water loading to cut weight for powerlifting. I did it this week for the first time. Pretty standard, extra water/salt on monday and tuesday, wednesday super low salt and extra water, then thursday I had a protein shake and half a gallon of water before 11 then nothing but a few diuretics throughout the rest of the day. This morning (Friday) I weighed 4 lbs less than I normally do, although I needed to losed 6.5. After an hour in the steam room, 10 minutes in and 10 minutes out I had .5 lbs left to lose. 15 minutes on the elliptical took care of that. I had started my period yesterday too, which always causes me to weigh a few lbs more than usual and I think it is why it was harder to lose as much. I drank some pedialyte and a coke afterward and felt fine.
Justin, I can’t begin to thank you enough for the enormous effort you’ve put into this.
Squat stance: will be brought in and descent will be slowed down. This makes a ton of sense.
I just tried the thumb on belly button/sternum position and I have got it. If holding this position turns out to be a problem I will try it during the squat with some tape.
No exaggerated posterior pelvic tilt, check.
A possible mobility movement for getting my knees to point more forward would also increase the involvement of my gluteus medius and maximus … I will do my best to integrate this into my squat form.
I had no idea that my feet and ankles performed any kind of rotation.. the concept of navicular drop is also new to me, but I’ve looked into it.
I do indeed have a collapsed arch, but I’m not sure which foot is worse. I once had orthopedic soles made. I will begin tomorrow with the changes in squat practice.
Ice, check. Already doing plenty of mobility and some massage myself, but this does indeed irritate it if I do it too often.
Funny, as I skim over the “Foot Drills” article I immediately notice this quote on Russ Ebbets Foot Drills: “Done daily these six drills will eliminate […] virtually all knee problems.”
Since I’ve had knee problems for years and have to be very careful with the balance in my workload and squatting/sprinting frequency, this sounds quite hopeful.
Many thanks, again. I begin tomorrow and shall give you an update in a week or two.
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article I immediately notice this quote on Russ Ebbets Foot Drills: “Done daily these six drills will eliminate […] virtually all knee problems.”
http://www.gobrainev.com/
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I know this is super old and probably nobody is going to answer, but I’m considering entering a meet at the end of April and I’m currently at 153 lbs… seems kinda silly not to get down to 148 by then? I have wild water weight fluctuations, I’m pretty sure if I just cut out carbs for a day or two and drank some water I’d be at that weight even without doing a serious water cut like this article describes. Oh and I do have the option of doing the weigh in 24 hrs before.
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