The Wonderful World of Weight Cutting Part II

My friend Dustin Silvey, a wrestler, likes to read my blog.  He asked me one day, "Why don't you write a post on weight cutting?"  I said that I didn't know much about it and didn't feel comfortable writing about it.  So, I thought I would interview him and share his experiences with weight cutting, as Dustin was a former MMA athlete and is currently a varsity wrestler.  So we sat down one day and discussed weight cutting.

JK: Thanks for sitting and chattin' with me about weight cutting.  So, let's get to the point - how do athletes cut weight for combat sports?

DS: Instead of explaining how athletes cut weight for combat sports, which if you really wanted to know, you could just Google "how to weight cut" instead, so instead, I am going to tell you how I cut from 76 kg to 68kg in 10 days for the CIS Atlantics competition that took place in February of 2012.

JK: Oh, alright - personal experience is always best.  So how did you do it?  Sounds like a lot of weight?

Dustin Silvey got JK'd

"I have been competing in combat sports for over 20 years and the hardest part for me has been getting to the weight gym. I have always hated the idea of lifting things up and putting them down. To motivate myself, I started educating myself in resistance training, even going as far as getting my CSCS certification and working as a strength and conditioning coach. This did nothing to help my motivation in the resistance department. I enjoyed training other people but as for lifting, I just couldn’t find a good reason.

Then in October of 2011 I was in a wrestling tournament and for one of the 1st times found that I was the weaker athlete. I realized perhaps age was catching up with me. I returned home and asked Jon if he would be my strength and conditioning coach. He came up with a training program that we changed up every four weeks.

I found within two months my muscle size increased, my endurance and recovery increased 10 fold and most important my explosive strength went through the roof. I have also always been plagued by low ankle and hip mobility and now I am able to do squats to my heels.

In February 2012 I placed 3rd in the Atlantics for university wrestling losing my final match by only one point. I do not believe I could have gotten where I did without Jon’s help. For anyone interested in upping their game in sports I would suggest working with Jon. He truly loves his job and seeing his athletes do well. Without him I would not be the athlete I am: at 31 I am in the best shape of my life."

Dustin Silvey M.Sc candidate B.Sc CSCS
Wrestler
St. John's, NL

A Surefire Way to Learn the Clean

Today has been very cool.

I had my first piece on a well respected website called T-Nation.

Some of you may have never heard of T-Nation before, but it's a website dedicated to making you bigger, faster, stronger, better etc.  It's tailored to guys (hence Testosterone-Nation) and features a new article daily.  The worlds top strength coaches all contribute to this website.

This site taught me sooo much when I first started in the industry over 6 years ago.  I had never heard of it until after university.  I've written about T-Nation before HERE.

Crossfit: Strengths, Downfalls and Uncle Rhabdo

Last week, I saw a sign on the bulletin board at school advertising the opening of the very first Crossfit box gym here in St. John’s, Newfoundland. It’s in an industrial part of town so I can only imagine how big the building is and how much great space they have to perform Crossfit-style workouts. Crossfit appeals to the masses because most people associated with it are very lean with chiseled bodies – from the outside looking in, Crossfit looks like the 2nd best thing to being on the Biggest Loser to lose fat and look good naked. (cough, sarcasm, cough)  However, there is more to know about Crossfit before joining the next available class.

I also had the chance to interview my friend Cliff Harvey, ND (www.CliffHarvey.com) about Crossfit.  His answers will be randomly inserted in this post. Cliff is an All-Round Weightlifting World Champion and World Record Holder and former International Vice President of IAWA (International All-Round Weightlifting Association).

What is Crossfit?

For those that don’t know, Crossfit is a style of workout that was founded by Greg Glassman. Glassman opened the first Crossfit gym in 1995 in Santa Cruz, California and was popular among the emergency services including the military and many fire departments. Crossfit incorporates several styles of training into the same program, such as Olympic lifting, power lifting, kettlebell lifting, gymnastics, sprinting, plyometrics, endurance running, medicine ball exercises, rope climbing to name a few. Glassman describes this type of training as “constantly varied [with] functional movements, executed at a high intensity.” Some would argue that this type of training creates a “jack of all trades, but a master of none” while others will claim it develops the “fittest human beings on Earth.”

Effective Weight Training for Triathletes

Adding weight room exercises to your triathlon training won’t just improve muscle, joint and ligament strength, flexibility and mobility, power production and tissue tolerance to injury. It will help you race faster, too.

“Triathletes can benefit greatly from strength training, in particular to reduce the risk of common overuse injuries, like IT Band [lateral thigh and knee] related issues,” says Rick Tkach, a registered massage therapist in Burnaby, BC who has almost 30 years experience in the sport. He adds that the quads are under high demand while on the bike, which can lead to exceedingly tight hip flexors. During the run, the gluteus medius must work hard to maintain a level and stable pelvis, but is prone to weakness.  When weak, the pelvis drops to the side, during single leg stance, placing unnecessary tension along the lateral thigh. Dr. Carla Cupido, a Vancouver-based Chiropractor, states that tightness in the hip flexors, along with weakness in the gluteus medius, are factors contributing to IT Band issues. Lateral knee pain is just an example among a host of other injuries associated with triathletes.

So what are the best exercises to do in the gym to maximize your strength gains and increase your tolerance to injury?  Be effective in the gym with these exercise options:

The Wonderful World of Making Weight for Combat Sports

Reporter: “I am here with the Featherweight MMA Champion of Dream and 5 time Brazilian Jiu Jitsu champion Bibiano Fernandes. So Bibiano, 1st question, what is the hardest part of fighting in mixed martial arts?”

Bibiano: “Making weight.”

Ask any professional or amateur combative athlete and they will tell you the hardest part of competition is making weight. Anyone can drag their sorry ass to the gym and throw some punches at the bag or roll around on the ground practicing submissions. It certainly doesn’t take too many brain cells, or too few for that matter, to step into the ring with someone and punch them in the face, or again, get punched in the face, but making weight, now that’s mental strength. The dreaded weight cut prior to competition is probably more spoken about between teammates than the actual competition. Lately, with young athletes, cutting weight has become “cool”. This is 100% the WRONG thought process about cutting weight. It is not cool, it is a horrible process that if not done correctly can have very detrimental effects on the human body. In this article I will go through what is meant by making weight and some stories about the process and its effects.

Here's Anthony Johnson during a weigh in, making weight and looking ripped.

When is Sloppy too Sloppy?

This morning, while I was checking my crack-book for updates and notifications - I came across a post from a new Facebook friend Anthony Mychal that intrigued me.  Anthony said "This make's me sick" so I decided to watch it.  It's the Liberty Football team weight training in the off season.


Here's the video: