Doing weight techniques
There are so many different ways to gain weight and it can sometimes be very confusing to know how or what to do. Weight gain can be easy or difficult; it all depends on how you approach it.
There are many things to consider when preparing for a competition. This can include dieting before competition, sauna, starving yourself, or moving up a weight division. In this article I am going to give a brief summary of the different techniques that people use and the theory behind each one. This will not be an article on what to do exactly, it is a summary of the techniques used, for more information please do some research.
Dieting before the competition
Many people believe in dieting before competition. To burn the last bit of fat so that their entire body weight is all muscle, they typically diet with a low-protein dinner or no dinner at all. To lose weight you must burn MORE calories than you put into your body. Many studies suggest that having 3 meals a day slows down your basal metabolic rate or BMR (metabolism), but by having 6 small meals a day, your BMR always increases, resulting in the burning of more calories throughout the day.
Depending on how much weight you have to lose, you may need to start dieting 6 weeks before the competition.
Diet is considered by many to be the most difficult opponent of judo. Dieting requires discipline and constant monitoring and can be very mentally draining when preparing meals, knowing what and what not to eat, as well as eating enough so you don’t get exhausted or sick.
Low carb diet:
Low carbohydrate diets are very popular. There are many versions, but they are all very similar. The same says they consume carbohydrates for breakfast and lunch, but none after 2pm, and a protein dinner, while others say they do not eat at all.
A very important rule of thumb when talking about diet is, ‘If you are losing weight, don’t change your diet. Once you stabilize, change your diet. “Make sure you speak to a professional or do your own research on dieting so that you are doing all the right things. Experience has shown me that on a low carb diet I don’t start to lose weight for about 2 weeks, so in those 2 weeks weeks I was training like crazy and since I was not losing weight, I was dieting even harder and more strict and I ended up exhausted and contracting some kind of illness like the flu. body; we are all different so listen to your body and adjust your diet accordingly .
The dark side of low carb diets
The human body uses 4 sources of energy, these are fats, carbohydrates, proteins and alcohol. But the brain (the human body’s control center) only uses carbohydrates for energy. It doesn’t use any other source of energy, so if your muscles don’t have energy, neither does your brain. This is why on a low carb diet you are tired, lethargic, sleepy, and mentally drained. Many athletes do not like to follow a low carb diet because a low carbohydrate diet cannot train as intensely or for that long. This is bad because before a competition you want to train 100% without feeling tired, exhausted and mentally drained.
Using a low carb diet (and dieting in general) is all about trial and error, the more times you compete and weight, the better you will know how your body reacts and feels.
Low residue diets
Low residue (fiber) diets are mainly used in the last week or week and a half prior to competition. The stomach can hold an average weight of 4 kg in a man (75 kg) and in a girl (60 kg) 2 kg and it cannot take up to 1 week to get rid of that weight from the stomach. Low fiber diets are used not to flush the stomach, but to make sure that what is eaten does not stay in the stomach. It goes in and out due to the fact that it contains minimal fiber. These diets are great because you can eat things like white bread, cookies, rice bubbles, etc. and you know they won’t stay in your stomach without weighing you down.
Another negative aspect of low fiber diets is the fact that these foods do not contain vitamins and minerals. I recommended that in any diet you should take multivitamins and minerals to supplement those that may be lacking in your regular diet.
Diuretics
Diuretics are a medicine used to remove fluids and food from the body by making you go to the bathroom a lot. I personally have never used diuretics but I have friends who have used them before. Some athletes take celery lozenges and this supposedly makes you go to the bathroom more often.
Another technique that people do is to drink up to 6 liters of water a day 2 weeks out of competition and you can imagine how often you would go to the bathroom drinking so much. Then in the last week, they drank as little as possible. The theory behind this is to trick your body into believing that it is retaining water to continue flushing.
I think this is bad for 2 reasons. Your bladder works too hard and the human body is smarter than that.
Also, 2 weeks after the competition, I would not want to weigh 2 kg more due to excess water, mentally that is not good.
One of the most popular theories is that drinking caffeine makes you dry, this is true to some degree. Let me explain: if you drink 1 liter of water, your body can retain 600 ml and therefore excrete 400 ml. Caffeine is a diuretic, which means that if you drink 1 liter, your body will only retain 200 ml and excrete the rest. So, people assume it helps you lose weight, but actually your body clings less, that’s all.
This theory is similar to the negative calorie theory with celery.
Cutting weight
Losing weight is the term used when you must sweat and eat as little as possible to gain weight. This is the most common technique used to gain weight not only in judo, but also in wrestling, boxing, and even horse racing. Some athletes can lose up to 6 kg in the sauna depending on their weight division and also their muscle mass. The amount of muscle is very important because muscle is 70% water, therefore the more muscle you have, the more water you can lose in the sauna.
There are 4 ways to lose weight in the sauna.
With their clothes on: Some athletes go into the sauna with a lot of clothes on and sweat that way. This is a great way to warm up quickly, but once you start to sweat your clothes get wet and I think it cools you down, causing less sweat to excrete from the skin.
Work out there: push-ups, boxing, star jumping, whatever comes to your mind. What these athletes don’t understand is that once their body temperature rises, they start to sweat. These athletes don’t know that once their core temperature rises, they will start to sweat, not only does it keep rising, once it rises, it stays at that level. Sweat can only come out so fast and any more exercise will waste your energy.
I have found that many women cannot lose a lot of weight in the sauna, I recommended these girls to go for a run or exercise in the sauna.
Sit in swimmers: I think sitting in the sauna is the best way to reduce weight. Just sit there and continuously wipe all the sweat from your body. This will encourage more sweat to come out.
Baby Oil: Some people put baby oil all over their skin and the theory behind this is to clog the pores of the skin. This will increase your core temperature, resulting in more sweat. I think this method is stupid because why does it make it difficult for your body to sweat by clogging your pores? Shouldn’t I let the sweat come out?
How long are you in the sauna?
Some people like to sweat in a big hit (it saves money, too), but if you have something to lose and don’t mind paying, try losing weight for a couple of days. For example, if I fight on Sunday, I will do a little sauna on Friday and then I feel arvo and maybe if I am lucky and I am underweight, I will have some dinner. This all depends on the athlete and how comfortable they are doing it the way they want.
Don’t I lose weight in the sauna?
I don’t know why, but some women just don’t lose weight in the sauna. For these people I recommend buying a sauna suit and going for a run or bike ride or something like that. Just fix your carpet and go ahead, maybe these girls need to go exercise in the sauna that can help them.
Can’t find a sauna?
If you can’t find a sauna, here are a couple of options.
Put on lots of layers of winter clothing and go for a run or sit on a stationary bike and ride hard.
– Put on a carpet and sit in a car with the heat turned on to maximum.
– Turn on the hot shower in the bathroom and let it get nice and steamy, sit there and sweat. (Just don’t burn yourself).
– Sit in a hot bath and sweat like that.
Should I move up a weight division?
If you’re sick of lifting weights and sauna and everything in between, move up a weight division. It all depends on what you want to do in judo. Are you a recreational or competitive gamer, even then what are your goals? Can you move up in a weight division and remain competitive internationally, if not nationally? It all depends on what you want from judo.
Some athletes, especially heavyweights, can afford to lose some weight, as long as they are faster than their heavier opponents. For example, Kurt Angle would give away around 10kg when fighting. Another example is the heavyweight girl from Slovenia. She fights +78 and only weighs 85 kg. She is so fast and strong that she was ranked second at the 2007 world championships.
To learn more about the different ways to gain weight, ask some of the older competitors how they did it. Also do some research on the internet and find what is best for you, remember that trial and error is the only way to comfortably perfect the weight.
I hope this report has helped you think about how you will tackle the problem of gaining weight next time.
Matt D’Aquino