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.
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I moved to Wichita Falls in January of 2009 and didn’t know anybody at all. I became friends with Brent when he would come into the gym and train by himself. Shortly after, I met Chris. I’ll keep the sappy stuff to a minimum, but since then he’s been one of my best friends and is a hard working, hilarious, and caring friend who has always been there for me. You guys see his videos these days and see a guy who is stronger than cat piss, but it wasn’t always so. I want to show you how far he’s come so that you understand that you’re fully capable of it too.

Chris deadlifts 705 at the Raw Challenge at the Arnold:


In early January 2009, Chris wrecked his shoulder doing a jerk in a weightlifting meet (he probably required surgery). A few weeks later he knew he wasn’t going to be able to do the Oly lifts any time soon and wanted to get as strong as possible. This is where our “training relationship” started; we became training partners and I started programming his training. If you’ve never had a true training partner, you’ll know that it’s an intimate relationship where you feed off of their energy when lifting. To this day, I still get exponentially more amped up when Chris is lifting than I ever have for my own lifting.
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Monday’s are devoted to female related topics to help females begin or continue to train. This particular post is borderline irrelevant.

It’s not that I’m above posting about boobs (I’m not), it’s just that I routinely get questions about them. I have a stinking suspicion that the questions are from male readers disguised as women, but, alas, I am a man of the people! The most common questions I get are:
How much do you love boobs?
What if my boobs are too big for cleaning and snatching (the Olympic lifts; stay focused)?
What should a big-boobed woman do about her big boobs when she benches?

Well, my good readers, to answer these questions we will need a lesson in anatomy. Boobs, uncommonly referred to as “breasts”, are a collection of adipose tissue that lay over the pectorals. They are held to the clavicle and pectoral fascia via suspensory ligaments that extend through the mass of the boob to help maintain structural integrity. I find suspensory ligaments interesting. Normal ligaments hold bones together to form joints; their strength is dependent on their cross-sectional area, and they respond to loading by becoming stronger and stiffer. A regular ligament’s strength decreases due to immobilization and lack of stress. This is why un-fit, sedentary, and old people will injure themselves easily (especially when attempting activity that they are not adapted to). Suspensory ligaments are a very different in that one end is anchored on a bone, and the other end attaches to organ tissues, namely boobs, penises, ovaries, eyes, intestines, and so on.

Click to enlarge

Suspensory ligaments of the boob are probably under stress when the boob is subjected to gravity. The modern woman often wears a bra, and this probably relieves the suspensory ligaments of tension and may help prevent the “sagging” appearance of boobs (that is, until “old age” has its effect). We can probably observe middle aged women from primitive or tribal cultures and see a distinction between their level of “boob sag”, yet I don’t think this hypothesis has been scientifically tested. I would also hypothesize that a woman who routinely exercises would maintain the integrity of their suspensory ligaments in a way that keeps them “stronger and stiffer” like their bony ligament cousins; consistent exercise probably staves off the “saggy boob effect” to some extent because of applying stress to the tissues (other than gravity).

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Recap
I started the week by trying to break the myth that all lifting will be perfect all of the time. There were tips for coaches and lifters on how to prepare trainees or the self for successful lifting. Tuesday I readdressed the issue of squatting to depth. I believe most of 70’s Big readers train properly, but just in case they didn’t, they know that a partial squat is not a squat. Wednesday we talked about the 70’s Big Workshop in Australia in April and I complained about lazy betties in the gym. Thursday I gave some pointers on the rack pull to ensure that trainees get the full worth of the movement.

PR Friday is a day where we talk about our training ups and downs. It’s a chance to keep other people on the site updated with your progress. The “regulars” all know who each other are and like to see how their internet friends are doing (“I met a cool guy on the internet”). Post your weekly PR’s, but also your training updates to the comments. You lurkers should jump on it too; we’re all friends here.

Weekly Reading List
[spoiler]Last night I finished reading Joe Abercrombie‘s “Best Served Cold” and really enjoyed it. It was the first stand alone book after “The First Law Trilogy”, which is amazing, and the precursor to the recently released “The Heroes”. “Best Served Cold” introduces some new characters, but also uses some side characters from the trilogy. The pacing seems different, as if this book develops more gradual. Instead of constant diabolical activity, it’s larger in scope and the characters develop and evolve throughout the book. Trust in the fact that Abercrombie won’t bore you with a repetitive plot; the second half of the book functions differently than the beginning. I found it interesting how Abercrombie interweaves grandscale plot points into the ending of the book that will resonate outside of this particular story. Since he’s signed on to do several books in this “world”, the books stand apart from one another yet you can see how he’s developing a behind the scenes plot in addition to the one on stage. Abercrombie’s books fit into the new “gritty fantasy” genre infused with medieval and colonial realism and topped with subtle viking overtones. His characters are dynamic, and, just like in George R. R. Martin’s work, the line between good and evil is blurred. “Best Served Cold” may start as a superficial revenge story, but it ends with the characters inadvertently philosophizing to validate the decisions and changes they’ve made. “Best Served Cold” is gritty, bloody, and poignantly satisfying.

Here are articles that were sent to me or that I found:
You Don’t Coach Exercises… – I don’t know much about Mike Robertson, but I agree with his observation here. The difference between us is that I got bored from coaching one-on-one much faster than he did, and “coaching people” still isn’t enough to harness my creative interest (with respect to one-on-one training). The writing style is pretty raw (particularly the constant page breaks), but I’m not a perfect writer. His message is similar to what I’ve been writing about recently regarding coaching the person in addition to the mechanics.

Art of Manliness collection of “Whole Men” – This may deserve it’s own post, but there are very good snippets of men who had brains and brawn.

The Death of Books Has Been Greatly Exaggerated – An article on how the book industry is still functioning with the advent of e-books and e-readers.

Things Happy People Do Differently (sent by Courtney)[/spoiler]

Q&A

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The rack pull is a great exercise for developing the hamstring’s ability to withstand massive amounts of tension to improve the deadlift lockout. I prefer to program them for “intermediates”, and usually those that are more experienced in that realm. Don’t get hung up on labels like “beginner”, “intermediate”, and “advanced”; I’m merely referring to someone that’s been involved with “intermediate level” programming (typically defined by a weekly stress/adaptation cycle) for at least three to six months. They can be used with less experienced trainees if they have a severe deficiency in hamstring involvement in the deadlift. This post doesn’t aim to be a comprehensive lesson in how to do rack pulls, but highlighting some key points.

Starting Position
Whenever I use the term “rack pull”, I’m referring to one in which the bar starts below the patella (knee cap) and at the upper part of the tibial tuberosity (the bony potrusion on the tibia that is below the patella). Other people may call these “below the knee rack pulls”. This style of rack pull is much harder to do than it’s “above the knee” counter part because it is supposed to remove the quadriceps from pushing the bar up. Instead, it’s aim is to load the hamstrings and force them to extend the hips while the lumbar erectors hold the pelvis in place. I bring your attention to this picture I drew in MS Paint to illustrate this point in a Q&A in January.



Note that the lumbar will help hold the pelvis in a neutral position to allow the hamstrings to stay stretched (left side). If the lumbar fail, then the pelvis will posteriorily tilt and slackens the hamstring (right side).
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