Issue 020
January 2007
Dehydration, stomach cramps, depression and food cravings – when it comes to dieting, we all suffer. Three months of preparation can come down to three minutes in the ring or in the Octagon.
To most people it will mean little or nothing to them just what we’ve put our bodies through to entertain them, but for us it fills us with a tremendous amount of satisfaction to know our hard work comes down to this. Blood, sweat and tears is no longer a cliché, it’s a medal of honour we wear with pride. Emotion runs high if we win, lose or draw, whether it’s a crowd of 300 or 3000. The adrenaline flows through our bodies just the same.
Dieting for competition is a must for combat sports. Your diet will have an overall effect on your performance come competition day. In this article I’m going to take you through the final week of dieting that an amateur competitor or grappler may use to drop a few pounds to prepare for a competition. This diet will be markedly different from those who are cutting weight, as they will often go to extremes of starving themselves to make their weight category.
The aim of the diet is to ensure you enter the competition on a full tank of gas. The last thing you want is to be gassed out only a few minutes into the competition (assuming you’ve done your cardio of course). As any fighter will tell you, it’s important you can go the distance. An essential part of your fuel will be carbohydrates. This table shows how much you should be looking to eat, based on 7-8g of carbohydrates per kg of body weight.
TIPS
Training
During your final week start tapering off your heavy training. As the competition approaches training that causes muscle fibre damage will slow the recovery process, leaving you to not be less than 100% come show time. This can include plyometrics, heavy weight training, hard running and of course, contact sparring. Reduce your training over the final week and rest almost completely for the final three days.
The Weigh in
The day before the competition continue eating high carbohydrate/low GI foods and do not miss your evening meal, as this is needed to top up muscle glycogen. On the day of the competition, plan to have your main pre-competition meal around 2-4 hours before, as this will help normalise your insulin levels and also your blood sugar. Studies suggest you should consume around 200-300g of carbohydrate leading up to the competition. However, nerves can play a big part on competition day and you may find it impossible to get anywhere near that amount. I suggest you find what works best for you and stick with that.
