Need advice from body builders/professional trainers/martial

bluexiii

Hi,

I am looking for some advice as to the best way to train for my current scenario.

I am a martial artist and am training for a series of fights at a tournament at the end of July. I will be in both standup fighting and grappling events, and each match will probably range about 3min in length. I am guessing these two events will be on two different days, so I will probably have 4-5 matches on each day.

I normally fight in the heavy weight division at anywhere between 210-220. The heavyweight division is 190+, with light heavyweight being 180-189. This year I have decided to get crazy and try to cut weight to 189 for the fight. 190-195 is probably going to be the weight I will try to stay at long term (I have always had a little pudge that I am not getting rid of) as I think 189 will probably be hard to maintain long term (I am 6'1 and have a fair amount of muscle...I'd feel like a tooth pick at 189).

So question is, what is the best way for me to continue dropping weight but get beefed up for the fight? I have been increasing my cardio like crazy (running 6mi per day this week on top of the martiala arts training and weight lifting I do). I just switched over from endurance lifting (reps of 10+) to strength training (reps of 4-6).

Can anyone offer any other advice for me? Thanks in advance.

rbc_racing

When is your weigh in for the match? If you have an over/under allowance you can usually make weight by dropping water weight prior to the weigh in. Nothing like a good run in a sweat suit to take a few lbs off! Your best bet will be looking into wrestling and boxing weight cutting methods, I'm no expert but those guys all drop weight like crazy for the weigh in, then are allowed some leeway prior to the matches.

firegirlred

As an endurance runner and a martial artist, my advice (and only my opinion) would be to get rid of your dietary deficit. Building muscle is nearly impossible in a caloric deficit, and if you're building, your weight is going to go up. But most importantly for you, don't diet to lose weight for a match. You won't find yourself in fighting condition if you are. Trust me. If you're building, you'll raise your metabolic rate and lose weight anyway.

My background is that I earned my first black belt when I was 15, my second a year ago. I'm an endurance runner (half marathon in 1:55, marathon in 4:13).

Most importantly, though, I'm a career firefighter and for the last decade, I've been pushing to build strength in order to "keep up with the boys."

bluexiii

When is your weigh in for the match? If you have an over/under allowance you can usually make weight by dropping water weight prior to the weigh in. Nothing like a good run in a sweat suit to take a few lbs off! Your best bet will be looking into wrestling and boxing weight cutting methods, I'm no expert but those guys all drop weight like crazy for the weigh in, then are allowed some leeway prior to the matches.

I'm trying to avoid cutting water weight..I feel like that's to much stress on the body just a couple days before the fights.

bluexiii

As an endurance runner and a martial artist, my advice (and only my opinion) would be to get rid of your dietary deficit. Building muscle is nearly impossible in a caloric deficit, and if you're building, your weight is going to go up.

My background is that I earned my first black belt when I was 15, my second a year ago. I'm an endurance runner (half marathon in 1:55, marathon in 4:13).

Most importantly, though, I'm a career firefighter and for the last decade, I've been pushing to build strength in order to "keep up with the boys."

Well I still need to cut weight. I know I'll probably have to cut weight first and then try to beef up, or switch off and on every couple weeks until I get to where I want.

firegirlred

You might lose what you can until the end of may, then give yourself eight weeks to focus on building and eating clean?

Megooo19

I'm no expert but my boyfriend has been a wrestler for many years and I know that when he cut weight he'd eat a lot of eggs in the morning and chow mein and hour or so before his workouts because it didnt upset his stomach. I know they ran about 6 miles a day so good job on that! After thier runs they would go work out for another 2-3 hours doing drills and wrestling each other. I'm sure that if you give yourself an adequate amount of time your running and weight training will get you were you need to be. I know also like other people have said right before a weigh in he would go on a long run and wouldnt eat or drink anything the night before and the day of. Then after weigh in he'd eat and drink a ton. Good luck!