To Cut or not to cut for competition.

The latest blog post is written by Coach Beá, and it's about a very important topic - Cutting for Competition. 
If you've been coached by me you will know that I feel quite strongly about cutting, or rather not cutting, for competition - particularly in your early competitions. 

​I'll let Beá explain the rest.

---

The ultimate debate of powerlifting
To cut or not to cut?
Most powerlifting coaches would tell you, likely as a straight answer, don’t.
​But then whenever we hear the success stories from the elites & champions, there’s always a mention of some sort of ‘making weight’, ‘water cut’, ‘fasting’ and other stuff. 
So why are we, coaches, so against the idea of cutting body weight when it always seems to be part of the winning tool kit. 
The explanation is that famous phrase ‘it depends.’ But rest assured, in this post I will answer this question.

Firstly, what do we mean by cutting/making weight?
In powerlifting, in order to make sure the competition is fair for everyone, contestants are divided into age and bodyweight categories. We use Wilks, GL Points or Dots to calculate the score for each lifter based on their bodyweight, total and other factors, the highest score wins.
The common understanding, unfortunately, is misleading as the majority of beginners still believe they have to aim for squeezing themselves into the lower body weight category and try to max out the highest total they can possibly hit there.
Now...does this in any way, shape or form, resemble a ‘growth mindset’?
For instance, a male lifter who weighs 87kg, which is in the middle between the two body weight categories, 83kg & 93kg. 
This athlete can make the decisions to lose 5kg and cut their strength alongside their size, increase stress levels or sit still and comfortable and take advantage of extra fuel and enhanced recovery rate and maybe even put on a kilo or two knowing it still will be absolutely fine for the comp.
When people cut calories and body size that also means cutting potential gains: - gains for heavier lifts, recovery and overall, a heavier total on meet day.
Novice lifters, who are still progressing very fast in technique and/or strength, should never worry about cutting weight for this reason.
You might win the upcoming competition and take a gold medal home. But you also hindered your potential development by limiting the calorie intake and accumulating higher levels of fatigue (pushing your maxes with decreasing body weight).
This means that whilst you got a gold at a smaller comp the one you qualified for will be harder now due to the aforementioned factors. 
Whilst you’re struggling, your competition is already back in training enjoying calorie surplus and just being an absolute unit.
‘If I wanna become like the elites, I must do what they do..’ 
Ask anyone of the current world champs, if they’ve done any of the ‘fancy stuff’ when they competed at their first comp? 
-No, they did not.
Elite Powerlifters, the ones who've been in the sport for over 5 years, are not making progress as quickly anymore. They are pushing their biological limitations, and their recovery rate has slowed down over the years. They have to really push their limits and are likely to make a fraction of an increase in total compared to that of a beginner. 
They have to use every little trick left in the magic hat if they want to get a higher/better score and they’re provided with all the professional aid in order to get the required result.

Most recent example, Evie Corrigan (52kg- ), winner of Sheffield, the biggest IPF event of the history,. When Evie started the comp prep she was a 57kg- lifter but was comfortably sitting at 54kg, for her losing 2kg made little to no alteration to strength levels and it also meant a higher chance to get close to hit the highest % over the current world records. 
For her cut she has assistance from nutritional coach as well and her powerlifting coach. They went through every scenario and drew up every possibility for both 52kg & 57kg category just to make sure it’s indeed a worthy call to make with everything’s at stake.


Social Media
Social media plays a huge part in overwhelming and distracting rookie lifters from what priority to focus on when prepping for meet day. 
To clarify for the first 3-5 competitions the biggest goal for any lifter should be to make every attempt, get 9/9 and gain competition experience. 
What do we mean by ‘experience’ isn’t just being there, it means answering the following; 

• How did you feel on the day, were you nervous or more excited? 
• Warm ups felt better or worse than on a normal training day? 
• In warm ups, did you follow the same routine or did you make more aggressive jumps than you normally would?
• Did you hit 9 out of 9?
• If you didn’t, how many was a miss, what was the cause?
• Technical errors or Strength issue?
• Did you make the right call for your attempt selection?

One dangerous aspect of cutting weight for competition is the impact of dehydration. Which will result in a lack of minerals as well as a lack of energy. This is due to the absence of sugars which the body would naturally need for survival.
This puts the athlete in a really unsustainable condition if not monitored, or controlled adequately.

The least people would experience who are dehydrated during comp is occasional cramping up but this can quickly turn into total passing out and other, even more severe long lasting damage to the metabolism and to the musculature.

It’s crucial that whoever decides to undergo this kind of drastic act, create a sustainable - realistic plan and follow it through.
There are different weigh in times for different body categories throughout the day, so not eating all morning for your 2pm weigh in would be a shot-in-the-foot move.
This is a whole other science just like powerlifting itself and so it shouldn’t be taken lightly.
There’s many useful resources for game day planning, which would also talk about the different approaches on how people can execute weight cuts and still enhance their comp performance.
And most importantly, athletes, immediately after they successfully weighed in, are to hurry re-hydrating and re-fuelling within the allocated 2 hours prior to the lift off.
Without a well laid out plan, you not only make your competition day harder than necessary, but you also risk potentially bombing out due to poor performance.
So to answer this longing question: Cut or not to cut?
It depends, are you…
A, a beginner lifter who is still developing in physique and gaining experience in competing.

B, a veteran lifter, who’s been competing for years and likely to be at their biological threshold for strength levels and would need a more dramatic approach to increase total?
If you admit to being A, it’s great because the longer you stay in a rookie mindset, then the more potential you will still have to become a freaking beast.
If you’re B, with your experience you are likely to have professional powerlifters in your social circle who are experienced enough, and can guide you on this topic on a qualified level.

---

You'll see Beáta next competing in Olympic Weightlifting in July, but if you'd like to be coached by her then get in touch via the website or find her on instagram @prhousecoaching.