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Amateur wrestling, high school and college, besides being an extremely physical strength and skill dependent sport, is a game of weight. To posses the strength of a 160 pound person, but physically confront, by wrestling, a person with the strength of a 145 pound person, by dropping weight in order to equal your opponent, is normal practice. There’s nothing illegal about it, we’re not talking steroids or some physical enhancing drug. We’re talking controlling your body to reach goals your mind has set.
Besides, there is a science to dropping weight. Do it incorrectly or too quickly and you will not only lose your advantage, you’ll give your opponent a huge advantage by dehydrating and losing strength. You’ll enter the match tired and sluggish, the exact opposite effect you were striving for.
Let’s get one thing straight before we begin, you can not lose 3 lbs of body fat in 1 hour, not unless you cut an appendage off and that’s not an option. However, you can lose 3 lbs of overall body weight by losing water weight. Remember Biology 101, the body could be consisted of 75% water, depending on the person’s physical make up. The fatter the person the greater the difference in water weight than a muscular person, for example.
So what we really are attempting to do is rid the body of water (fluid), which will translate into less body weight. So how do we safely do this?
The first matter we must address is our diet, and I’m not talking just eating healthy, I’m talking eating sodium free. Salt, is the number one reason a healthy person retains water. There are other health reasons which cause the retention of water, but those do not apply in our case.
Therefore, if we eliminate as much salt from the body as possible, the body’s resistance to losing fluid decreases making it easier to pass water weight through perspiration.
Perspiration if you recall, is the body’s natural function to cool itself when temperatures rise above normal. Therefore, we must create heat to raise the body’s temperature and force it to cool itself by perspiring.
There are probably many different methods, some complex such as water pills which causes a person to continually urinate, to rid the body of fluid, but we’ll use an old tried and true method. Sweating.
Dress yourself in warm clothing such as sweat shirts and sweat pants. You notice I use the plural form of shirts and pants because you will put on layers of these clothes, at least two layers and three if possible.
Be sure to wear a hat of some sort, preferably a winter sock hat, as the body gets rid of a tremendous amount of heat through the head. We don’t want that to occur in this situation. We want to retain as much internal heat as possible.
Exercise vigorously for at least 10 minutes. This can be jogging, either in place or around the gym, jumping jacks, what ever you find comfortable, but which will work up a good sweat.
After creating a good sweat, lay down and have someone wrap you in a blanket or wrestling mat. This will cause the body temperature to remain high after exercising, which will continue to extract fluid through perspiration.
After 20 minutes, unclothe and weigh in. You most likely have lost more than three pounds, but if not, you still have time to redress, with dry clothes, and repeat the procedure.
As with any drastic or sudden body change, there are dangers associated with this procedure. Never perform this procedure alone. Always have a coach or an wrestler with quick access to the coach, with you at all times. After making weight, re-hydrate with drinks such as Gatorade which are high in electrolytes.
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