what do mma fighters take as a supplement to help water retetion

[This is the quaternary post in a iv-part series. You tin find the others here: Function I, Office 2, Part III ]

In role 2 we discussed how "Cutting weight" refers to the process of weight manipulation in the few days leading up to, and following, the weigh-in for a fight. Information technology does non refer to losing trunk fat, per se.

Weight cutting is a process we use to let a fighter to compete heavier than the limit set past his/her weight class.

And so for case, a fighter that is competing in the 77kg division may begin fight week at 83kg, make it downward to 77kg for the weigh-in past "cut weight", and then re-hydrating and re-stocking glycogen to get back up to somewhere around 83kg the following twenty-four hour period for the fight.

Photograph by Vladislav Bychkov

This of course is based off a 24-36 60 minutes lag time between the weigh-in and the fight. In sports where there is a much shorter period between weigh-in and competing, so weight cutting in this style is a disaster.

For case, in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu (BJJ) where weigh-ins have place just before competition, then any attempts to cut weight will fuck you over performance wise, regardless of how much of an advantage y'all feel being heavier than your opponent will bring. The "re-fuelling" window is just likewise short or sometimes fifty-fifty non-existant.

The process lots of fighters go through is sub-optimal at best. And downright stupid at worst. If you still retrieve doing burpees in a sauna whilst wearing a bin purse is the way to brand weight you're in real trouble.

So what's the right approach to take?

Offset of all, information technology'due south important to have the fighter within reasonable sight of the weight they need to make.

About seven days before fight dark yous should have no more than eight-10% of your bodyweight to lose in my opinion.

If you are much heavier than this than either i of two things has happened:

1. You are not lean enough, i.eastward. you should have used smart dieting many weeks earlier this point to get yourself into touching distance of the required weight.
2. You lot are fighting at the wrong weight class buddy! If you lot are lean but still accept a massive amount of weight to lose then you take simply put yourself in a lose-lose state of affairs; you will either not make weight or you will have to pull out and then many stops to make weight that there is not a hope your body volition exist able to perform at its best in the fight.

The exact number that equates to all-time performance volition exist very private. For any particular fighter it could be 5kg (11 lbs), 7kg (15.4 lbs) or even more than 10kg (22 lbs), depending on the weight class and how that individual fighter reacts to that cut.

This is why examination cuts are so important. Yous don't want a fighter trying to cut 10kg in weight for an important fight if the most they've ever done earlier is a couple of kilos. Please be fucking smart about it, eh?

Obviously from this point on there are going to be several factors I would need to take into account before deciding on the precise details, such every bit:

• What sport is information technology? – MMA? Muay Thai? Ammie boxing?
• What weight class is the fight at?
• How much does this fighter cut usually?
• What'due south their game programme for the fight?
• How has the fighter responded to previous cuts?
• What blazon of diet has the fighter been eating up to this point?
• Etc.

Possibly the all-time way to look at this would be to requite you a case study case. Cian, who I mentioned in previous posts, won his fight at 70 kg in devastating fashion in March.

In Jan Cian was at nigh 78kg. So over the course of the next number of weeks he was able to drib a couple of kilos in trunk fat (based on what was outlined in function I & function II ). A week out from fight dark Cian was about 76 kg, leaving 6 kg (13.2 lbs) of a cutting. This was a perfect position to be in equally the cut wasn't so large information technology would impair performance.

Fight Week

Water Load Followed by Restriction

While many have heard of (and probably used) water restriction to cut weight, I'thou not convinced most actually know how it works and so what information technology's achieving.

The water load/restriction cycle is based on trying to dispense something called the renin-angiotensin-aldosterone system (RAAS). This is a hormone system that regulates blood force per unit area and water (fluid) remainder. Specifically, we're focusing on the action of 2 hormones: aldosterone and anti-diuretic hormone (ADH).

Both of these influence water retention, but just via different mechanisms. Essentially, ADH regulates water resorption, while aldosterone regulates sodium resorption (and thus indirectly h2o resorption).

How do we manipulate the activity of these hormones?

When you start taking in a lot of actress fluid, your torso will down-regulate aldosterone. Considering aldosterone's job is to conserve sodium, when you lot down-regulate it'southward activeness you are essentially losing sodium and therefore water by urinating information technology out. So essentially, you potable lots of water, you refuse aldosterone and yous showtime pissing more.

Only here's the cool affair…

When you drib you're water intake, information technology takes quite a while for trunk to realise this and upwards-regulate aldosterone again.

What does this mean? When you suddenly drop from a high water intake to a depression water intake you'll even so urinate at the same frequency. Depression amount of fluid coming in + high amount of fluid going out = meaning water loss = meaning weight loss.

High intake of fluid will suppress anti-diuretic hormone as well and and so it induces diuresis (i.e. pissing out h2o).

Then this was how nosotros structured the water load for Cian, based off a Friday afternoon weigh-in at 1pm:

Mon: 8 litres
Tuesday: 8 litres
Wednesday: 8 litres
Thursday: ane litre
Friday: Few sips until counterbalance-in that afternoon

Carbohydrate Restriction

Carbohydrates are essential for a Muay Thai fighter every bit the intensity demands of the sport mean that a high pct of the free energy supply will exist coming from glucose. This requires a full store of glycogen (the storage for of carbohydrates, which tin be broken downward into glucose) to be present in the muscles (and the liver) for optimal performance.

During the training camp, Cian was consuming plenty of starchy carbohydrates such as sweet potatoes, potatoes, butternut squash, white rice, bananas, etc. in social club to ensure he could perform to his best during sparring sessions.

On the week of the fight there are no starches in the diet until after the counterbalance in. So from Mon until Friday at 1pm Cian was eating about 30g or less of carbohydrates per day. By restricting the carbohydrate intake, Cian was able to completely deplete his glycogen stores over the course of the week.

Naturally, this meant he weighed less. Simply the other office of this is that for every molecule of glycogen stored in the muscle it will take 3 molecules of water pulled in along with information technology. Therefore, loss of glycogen means loss of more water which means more than weight loss.

So all meals this calendar week are made of a combo of protein and fatty. The only difference being in the serving sizes, which get slightly smaller towards the end of the week. Past Th the meal size is very small in comparison to a normal meal Cian would be eating. Steak with dark-green vegetables and coconut oil would exist a typical meal.

The lack of carbohydrates hither isn't a trouble as grooming will be tapered down throughout the final week. Less book, frequency and intensity all round.

Salt Restriction

Many people will have heard that sodium retains water. And so the idea hither is unproblematic. As sodium is limited in the diet it makes the process of flushing water from the body a lot easier. Remove all salt from the diet from 3-4 days out from the weigh-in.

The contrary of this thought will kick in after the weigh-in.

Creatine Removal

As creatine holds water, stopping supplementation of creatine a week before the weigh-in could allow an extra drop in water weight. However, there is a operation do good to having creatine saturation in the musculus when the fight comes around and information technology takes many days to completely load the muscle with creatine. So there is a articulate trade-off. During the rehydration process, I make certain the fighter takes in several doses of creatine in an attempt to become creatine levels in the muscle back up.

Diuretics

For the about function I steer people away from using diuretics. People can really do themselves damage when they mess around with them without agreement what they're really inducing in the body.

That said, there are some natural diuretics that may be useful to help things along in the last couple of days if you feel you lot're in danger of coming in overweight. Dandelion root is quite balmy and is unlikely to have any bad furnishings.  Dosage would be something like 3g per day, split over three equal doses. This should be only used for the last 1-2 days of the cutting and only if y'all feel y'all really need to.

Saunas/Hot Baths/Induced-Sweating

Inducing sweating through saunas, hot baths,  wearing sauna suits, etc. can sometimes be helpful for taking off the final few pounds. You don't desire to exist trying to cut large amounts of weight in this fashion. That is going to hurt your performance in the fight. Yous want to utilize these methods for the terminal few pounds, ideally equally close to the weigh-in as practical.

Later the Counterbalance-In

Rehydration

Plainly, after the weigh-in yous want to begin the rehydration procedure as soon as possible. Information technology's important to notation that hydration is not just water. It also includes balancing mineral electrolytes. And then immediately afterward weighing-in y'all desire to take something that tin kick off the process of addressing these. At present is also a decent time to starting time restocking glycogen (carbohydrate) stores and so including some hands digestible carbs is a good shout. Nearly commercial isotonic sports drinks will take of these so you tin just potable one of those.

I make up my own shake mix of:

Sigma Nutrition Refuel Shakeastward

• 1L of water
• 2g of electrolyte powder
• 3g creatine
• 30g glucose powder
• 20g protein/amino acid pulverisation
• 5g glutamine

I'll have the fighter drink that over a xxx minute period subsequently the weigh-in.

Every hour, a healthy kidney at rest can excrete 0.eight-one.0 litres of h2o.  So taking this equally a guide, aiming for a rehydration strategy of 1L per hour is a decent way to go. Don't just downwards as much h2o equally you can as quickly as possible. Do information technology in a mode that allows you to absorb as much as possible.

Remember, it's non the corporeality of water you lot drinkable that matters per se simply rather information technology's the amount of water that actually makes it to your cells that matters.

And then following the completion of the mail-workout milkshake, they'll consume 1L of fluid per hour, consistently sipping away. This will exist in the course of water for some of the fourth dimension and I'll add in a few of those shakes outlined in a higher place at others, depending on what nutrient is being consumed around that time. The rehydration should keep right upward until about two.5-3.5 hours before the fight. Afterward this point but sip on water as need be.

Y'all'll as well notice that glutamine is also role of that shake. Glutamine helps to increase both h2o  and sodium absorption .

Glycogen Synthesis

While rehydrating is critical, it is not the simply "refuelling" that needs to take place. All those glycogen stores that we wiped out during the weight cut, at present demand to be restocked. This will not only increase weight (glycogen also draws in water with it equally well) simply past maximising storage, the maximum potential amount of carbohydrates will be available to utilise during the fight.

Salt

During the cutting we dropped all salt from the nutrition due to its ability to concord onto h2o. Therefore it's logical that after the cut nosotros want to do the opposite. Therefore add together plenty of salt to all meals postal service counterbalance-in.

UPDATE:

Many of my thoughts and practices have changed slightly over the years and become more refined equally more research has come out and every bit more pro athletes accept tested our protocols. All of my most current thinking and methods is included in the Sigma Weight Cutting System for MMA & Boxing (click for details).

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Source: https://sigmanutrition.com/making-cut-part-iv-weight-cutting/

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