Cutting Weight for the Female Athlete – Tasha Whelan

As a women whose training partner is a man, I can say cutting weight next to him is very annoying. Doing the same weight cut as my training partner seems to be quite more of a struggle for me than it is for him. Given, as a women, hormones come in to play.  Women, having higher levels of estrogen, which is commonly associated with weight gain by slowing down the metabolism. Progesterone, which plays a big role in women’s menstrual cycles, influences the body to hold on to water a bit more. These are factors that contribute to the greater challenge of cutting weight for women.

I’ve done weight cuts where I just focus on a water weight drop (miserable), and weight cuts where I took the more gradual approach (i.e changing my diet, adding more cardio (ugh))… Neither are enjoyable. It’s exhausting, miserable, and pisses me off.

For someone who competes in the 132 weight class, I find it that much harder to cut down. Changing diet up can really screw up my strength, especially when 90% of the time my diet is very clean, so to clean it up more than it already is, can be quite challenging.

How can I make weight, and preserve as much lean mass, strength, and energy as possible? It’s tough for sure. I have found myself sitting in hot tubs, steam rooms, and saunas, fully clothed doing cardio to just lose .25 of a lb.. UGH!

What I have found to be the “easiest” approach, is the gradually cut. More recently, I sit at about 140 and need to get to 132. I clean my “all ready clean” diet up a bit more… usually 4 to 6 weeks out.. Bye-bye jars of peanut butter (sigh)… No cheat meals, no pancakes.  Hello to lots of chicken salads, salmon, sweet potatoes, and protein shakes. Not too horrible really, as long as you are getting in carbs especially post workout, and keeping enough protein in.

As long as I can drop a few “bad” pounds, preferable 4-5 through diet, and keep the water cut to 5 lbs or less… seems to be the best… but again, HARD, as a women, not having too much weight on you to lose, 1 lb can be painful and disgusting to drop. You have to do what you have to do right…

Water loading prior to the dehydration phase is very important. This helps get the water out easier, along with water pills, dandelion root, and magnesium citrate supplement to help extract the water. Steam rooms, and low intensity cardio for the sweat, but be careful to not expend too much energy at a higher intensity as you will need this to recover.

When cutting, do ask yourself, do I need to do this, is it necessary? If you are competing to compete, to get more experience, then I suggest not cutting weight, not only does it take a physically toll on the body, it is stressful and mentally exhausting as well. If you are looking to break records, or hit a certain lift at a different weight class, then sure, do what you got to do, but do prepare yourself for a challenge, a very tough challenge.

When refueling and rehydrating try to avoid going all out and scarfing down as much food as you can immediately as this is not the best way to go about it. First and foremost, your body needs to rehydrate so get some water, sodium, and electrolytes back in. The first thing I have is Pedialyte. This allows me to have a great start to the rehydration process. This process can easily be done wrong. I myself have taken the route of stacks of pancakes, steaks and omelets, hash browns and whatever else I could “uncomfortable” get in my body to try to get the energy and strength back up. Sodium and water is the first priority, then gradually get food back in.  Don’t get me wrong, go and eat a good amount of food, but I don’t suggest getting terrible full like at Thanksgiving. Your body has just been through a massive depletion and needs time to process what you are putting back in so everything will starting functioning (digestive system) as it should. Be smart, be passionate, and only cut if necessary.

Risk Vs. Reward

Reward

• Being more competitive at a lower weight
• Better chance of breaking records or placing on top
• Putting weight back on after weigh in (weigh more than your competition= stronger)
• Qualifying for bigger competitions

Risk

• Losing strength
• Not recovering well enough from water cut (if part of your personal process)
• Possible psychological effects on the brain due to severe dehydration (i.e. depression, mood swing, aggression etc.)
• Physiological effect on the body (Reduced blood volume, heart must work harder to supply oxygenated blood,
• Dehydration results in reduced muscle blood flow, waste removal, and heat dissipation, all of which are necessary for sustained, high power muscle action in events such as boxing and judo.” (Armstrong, 1992, p.29)
• Feeling like crap during the entire dehydrating process

Keeping the Fire Ablaze – Dan Stephenson

As a fitness professional, I spend a lot of time in the gym.  It can be a wonder of how someone such as myself could keep up a high motivation for training myself and others.  After working with clients all day and spending most of the day inside the gym, motivation does not come easy.  I have learned a few things over the years that have helped me to continue to drive myself to train as hard as I need to and to push my clients in the same way.

For the fitness professional

• Find a different gym to train at other than where you work.

If you work in a gym, chances are most people know you and feel comfortable enough to approach you whenever they see you “available” in their eyes.  This is a good thing for business but it can be a problem when it comes to your personal workouts.  I suggest that you get the heck out of there whenever you can and train at a different gym.  Being unknown or at least keeping to yourself is sometimes necessary to get the work in that you need and to keep your focus during your training sessions.

• Plan your schedule wisely

One of the greatest things about working as a personal trainer is the freedom to manage your own schedule.  Conversely, one of the worst things is that your schedule is at the mercy of your clients.  This often leads to trainers working split shifts.  Many trainers can manage the split shift just fine but it does take some planning ahead to pull it off successfully. 

Be sure to prioritize yourself into your schedule setting boundaries of when you are “available to clients” and “unavailable to clients.”  This includes limiting the extra-early morning clients and the late-night clients that turn a 10-12 hour day into a 14 hour day.  Plan your shifts so that you can provide an honest quality service to all of your clients and to get in your own quality training sessions throughout the week.

For the competitor

• Find a gym that supports your sport/style of training

This should be a big priority for those who are serious about their training.  It is hard to improve your deadlift in a gym that doesn’t allow chalk, doesn’t have bumper plates, and frowns upon loud crashing weights.  It is also helpful to get in an environment with like-minded people and people that are stronger than you.  You might be the biggest fish in the pond but there is always the ocean.

• Remember that your competition may out-train you

While you may want to take a day off or only push yourself so far, just remember that you are giving your competition the chance to out-train you.

For the general public

• Establish a few realistic, specific, and time sensitive goals

Goals are important.  More precisely, specific goals are important.  They provide your training with purpose and help to establish a means to measure progress; both of which are motivating.  Training with purpose and recognizing (and celebrating) progress is a good way to keep motivation alive.

• Find your “Fitness Identity”

Finding a fitness identity can be tricky for some but once you have it, it does wonders for motivating your training.  A fitness identity is a trait that one can identify with that is related to fitness.  An example of this would be associating an activity, such as running, to an individual.  “I run often, therefore, I am a runner,” or “I train to improve my total, therefore, I am a powerlifter.”

Once a fitness identity is established, training purpose is established or reinforced and you may find that other aspects such as nutrition and lifestyle choices may coincide more with the new found fitness identity.

To summarize, your training needs to be a priority if you truly want to reach your goals.  As Adrian would say, “Good things come to those who wait… go out and f*cking earn it!”

Randal P - Alpha Athlete

Alpha Project Athlete Intro, Randall Pattee

 

 

I'm originally from Medford, Oregon. Studied briefly at Oregon State before deploying to Iraq in 2003 with the Oregon National Guard B-Co 2-162 Infantry. I currently live in Portland, Oregon and train at Elite Performance Center. I've lifted on and off since high school in the late nineties, but the last 3 years have been the most consistent and serious. I've been powerlifting for one year. I've competed 1 deadlift only and 4 full power meets, most recently at USPA Nationals in Las Vegas. I lift in the 181 lb class mostly. I have 7 USPA raw state records for 181 and 198 but still have a very long way to go before I'm competetive with the upper echelon of lifters in my class.

 

USPA Nationals Recap

 

Nationals was an unfortunate meet for me, I went in expecting a much better total than what I got. I had cut for about 6 weeks leading into it, gradually tapering calories from 3k to 2500. I lost about 13lbs and was at around 184-185 the week of the meet. After fasting for 36 hours or so I made weight Friday morning. I didn't have to do any time in the sauna or anything like that. I hit the buffet right after weight ins, and I think that was a mistake in hind sight. I got full after just a plate and it kind of put a damper on my appetite for the rest of the day. Next time I plan on drinking a bunch of water/gatorade for at least an hour before I go stuff myself, that way my body is prepared to process a bunch of incoming food. So the first thing I learned is that I really need to strategize my rehydration after making a notable weight cut.

 

The day of the event my lifting was scheduled to start at 3 PM, but the event was not run very smoothly as far as time goes. They had a hall of fame induction ceremony before the PM session, by the time it was all said and done, we starting lifting some time between 7 and 8 pm. I had been down in the lifting area since 2:45 ready and waiting to lift. I had a bunch of team mates there and wanted to cheer them on and hang out, but I should have just gone back to the room and relaxed for another 5 hours instead. I didn't really eat much the day of the event because normall if I was going to lift at 3 pm I would just need a moderate meal to be fine. I definitely could have planned better and had more food in my bag for this kind of situation.

 

So by the time I was warming up, I wasn't feeling great about the weights. I hit my opener squat at 451 lbs, narrowly missed 475 on 2nd, then had it staple me on 3rd. Bench opener 260 was good, but I missed the 2nd at 280 because I didn't have a good bar path. I came back for my 3rd attempt to repeat 280. It was an absolute grinder, I pressed and locked it out within the rules. Unfortunately after pressing it, for what seemed like forever, I totally skipped the rack command and got red lights. That was disappointing, but I know that I can do it in competition next time. I actually started to get a bit of a second wind for deadlifts. My 500 opener felt good and fast. In an attempt to beat out one of the JR competitors for 3rd in overall, I bumped my 2nd deadlift up to 550 from my original planned 525. I was under the impression that all the Jrs would be included in the open for placing as well. This was a big mistake, I should have clarified this before ever switching my attempts. My 2nd attempt, 550, got out in front of me and I dropped it cause I was going forward. I think I was just too fired up and should have just picked it up. I repeated 550 on my 3rd attempt and got it up but had a hitch, so get 3 reds.

 

I ended up with a 1212 total, the exact same as a meet I did last November. That was a real kick in the nuts. I met a ton of cool people down there and learned a lot though. I don't meant this write up to sound like a laundry list of excuses. There were plenty of other lifters in my exact same situation that absolutely dominated the platform that night. I just chalk it up as a learning experience and continue to get stronger.

The Alpha Project Training Update – 6 Weeks – Tasha Whelan and Dan Stephenson

Tasha and I have been fortunate enough to have Adrian work with us “hands-on” a few times on our bench press technique in addition to online coaching through the Alpha Project.  Since working with Adrian, he has had us focus on dialing in our technique and rotating different accessory exercises to bring up our bench presses.

As you might imagine, when you alter your technique, it can usually be a big step forward, or a temporary step backwards in terms of strength.  In my case, it was the latter for the first few weeks.  Although frustrated that I wasn’t able to move the same weight as I had once moved, I stuck with the program and slowly but surely the weight has come back to the bar.  I can feel a difference in the bar path and shoulder strength from what Adrian has suggested.

Tasha has had a faster turnaround with her strength gains.  With the help of Adrian, she has been able to put an extra 10lbs on her bench over the past 6 weeks

.

The Alpha Project has been a great experience overall and has brought in some assistance exercises that Tasha and I have not been using previously.  The addition of the targeted exercises for the triceps, pecs, and shoulders has made an impact in our ability to handle heavier weights more efficiently.

We are looking forward to continuing the Alpha Project into our prep for the IPL World’s meet this November.  Our confidence is building and so are the numbers.  We will keep you all updated as to how this meet turns out.

Sincerely,

Tasha and Dan

Breaking through Mental Blocks - Dan Stephenson

You can be your own worst enemy when it comes to training.  Hitting new PR’s can be more of a mental game than it is physical strength.  Try these three strategies the next time you gear up to set a personal record.

Visualization

There is a saying that “on competition day, a champion athlete has already completed his/her task 1,000 times over in the mind.”  I’m not entirely sure who said it but it speaks truth.  Repeatedly visualizing every step that needs to take place in order for you to complete a lift will do wonders for your nerves when you actually attempt the lift.  Mental practice is key to continuing to see success.  Many of times, our worst habits will surface when the weight gets heavy enough.  This is one strategy to gain more focus and eliminate the mental clutter when you attempt your next PR lift.

Change your Warm-up Sets

I can almost guarantee that you have done the same weights in your warm-up sets leading to the top weight for the past few months.  Am I wrong? 

Try changing up your loading pattern for your next workout.  Instead of going up by the same plate increments each time, try making different jumps up in weight for each set.  For example, instead of going from 135lbs to 185lbs, skip 185 and go to 195.  This works well in your first few warm-up sets because taking a bigger jump has less of an impact on your overall performance.  You might find that you can move some weights easier because you haven’t exhausted yourself too much on the lighter sets.

You might even try playing around with more or less sets with fewer reps working your way up in weight.  The point of warm-up sets is to prepare the body for the heavier weight NOT to fatigue you before you get there.

Blind Sets

If you have a training partner that you trust and that knows your strength well, have them choose your weights for you for your next work out.  Try your best not to add-up what is on the bar and just lift it.  In this way, you can cut out all of the mind games that you play on yourself when attacking a certain weight.  There will be no expectations only assumptions as to how that weight may feel.  You might find yourself lifting a weight you have never lifted before and assume that it is lighter than it truly is.

Reduce and Prevent Shoulder Pain - Dan Stephenson

Poor posture combined with heavy lifting and poor exercise programming (or lack of any programming) can wreak havoc on the shoulders. If you find yourself with achy shoulders or care enough to keep them healthy, then keep reading. Here are three tips that you can do to help reduce and prevent shoulder pain from occurring.

It’s advisable to consult your doctor before beginning any exercise program and even more important if you currently suffer from shoulder pain.

1. Improve Your Posture- Most of us sit for hours each day with hunched shoulders and rounded backs. This not only has a negative long term impact on the spine, but it also affects the shoulders and surrounding muscles. Continuously putting your body in a poor position, such as hunched over a computer screen for hours on end can lead to tightness and shortening of the pectoral muscles. This can lead to muscular imbalances and increase the risk of injury.

Do this: Make a conscious effort to improve your posture throughout the day. Sit up tall, pull your shoulders back, and sit in the back of your chair. To develop this habit, set a simple calendar reminder for every two hours during your work day.


2. Improve Thoracic Mobility - The thoracic spine is the middle section of the spine that is attached to the ribs. Having poor movement in this area will often affect the available range of motion for the shoulder. Try this: slump your shoulders forward like you just heard some very depressing news and then try to lift your arms overhead. Didn't work too well? Now try standing up tall with a proud chest and lift your arms overhead. See the difference?

Do this: Improve muscle tissue quality through foam rolling and soft tissue work (maybe even a massage). Focus these efforts on the mid-back. Be sure to also target the chest and lat muscles of the back. Then work on improving the range of motion in the thoracic spine through stretching and mobility drills. These can serve as part of warm-up before a workout or can be done by themselves throughout the day.


3. Strengthen Shoulder Muscles - In order to counteract poor posture habits and tightness in the front of the shoulder, most people can benefit from strengthening the muscles on the posterior, or backside, of the body rather than the anterior, or front, of the body.

Do this: Organize your workouts so that for every anterior-focused exercise you perform (e.g. any type of press), you also perform two posterior-focused exercises (e.g. any pulling or rowing motion). Also, spend time developing the smaller, deep muscles of the rotator cuff. Simple exercises to strengthen the rotator cuff require only a band or light weight.

See a knowledgeable fitness professional to learn more and design a workout program to fit your needs. If you experience chronic shoulder pain or have an injury, visit a physical therapist for a thorough evaluation.

Training with Strength Bands: Beyond Speed Work - Dan Stephenson

A good pair of strength bands can be a very useful and portable tool for anyone in the gym.  If your gym doesn't have these readily available, I would suggest purchasing a set and carrying them with you to the weight room.  The most common uses for strength bands in the fitness world are for speed work by applying them to a barbell (variable or accommodated resistance methods) and mobility drills (joint traction and distraction).  There are plenty of other ways to utilize a set of strength bands.  Below are just a few of the ways in which I commonly use bands in my own training or with clients that I work with.

Band Over-and-back Chest Stretch

Using a band instead of PVC pipe for this warm-up allows some “give” for those that need it.  You can also pull against the band better than you can against a PVC pipe.  I will utilize this as a warm-up or occasionally in between sets of heavy pressing.

Band Single Arm Chest Press

This drill is great for teaching tightness in a bench press.  The band, when tucked under the arm, provides a good feel of how your shoulder position should be during a bench press.  Use this as an instructional drill and as a warm-up for pressing.

Band Chest Press and Band Pushup

This drill works well as another bench press warm-up and for some a good strength exercise.  For a more advanced version, try bringing down into a pushup.

Band Overhead Triceps Extension

This works well for those with cranky elbows and tight chest and shoulders.  Also another good heavy pressing warm-up.

Band Triceps Pressdown

A great way to burn out your triceps with burning out your elbows.  Those with elbow pain will appreciate band work as it can be easier on the joints.

Band Pull Apart

This is one of my favorite drills.  I’ll use it to warm-up before heavy presses and in between heavy presses.  It is a great exercise to work the rear shoulders and mid to upper back.

Band 45-degree Hip Extension

This is great variation to the 45-degree hip extension or low back extension.  With the constant and increased tension at the top of the movement with the bands, you can focus on feeling the hips drive the movement.  I try to mimic a deadlift lockout at the top of this exercise, locking out the hips and avoiding too much extension or “hyperextension” of the hips and low back.

Band Deadlift

This has to be one of my current favorites for teaching someone how to deadlift.  The bands are unloaded in the bottom making it safe to perform for virtually anybody.  The increase in band resistance at the top can help an athlete “feel-out” the muscles that drive the movement.  This way, when the athlete transitions to barbell deadlifts, they can have a focus of what muscles to fire to drive the movement from.

I also like the bands for warming up my deadlift and to work on a light speed set in between heavy sets.

Band Ab Pull-ins

One of my favorite ab training exercises.  I like that this variation is done standing; just as in the squat and deadlift.  Note here that the goal is flex the abs and not the hip flexors.  This will create a rounding in the back, the hips should stay fairly still.  I will work this with my breathing; exhale and tighten up as much as I can at the bottom of the movement.

Band Assisted Pullups

This method is quite common and it is likely that you have seen this before.  I prefer this method for people over using the assisted pull-up machines with the counter balance weight.  The bands provide the feet to move more freely than the machines and the assistance decreases towards the top of the movement requiring more strength to finish the movement.