In Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, there are are so many different ways to make weight, and sometimes it can become very confusing as to how or what you are going to do.
The most important is to slowly lose weight before the competition so as to reached your desired weight division. Sometimes, after all that dieting effort, you are still a few pounds overweight the day before or even an hour before the competition. In that case, you have to cut weight.
Cutting weight is the term used where you must sweat and eat as little as possible in order to make weight. This is the most common technique used to make weight in not just BJJ, but also judo, wresting, and boxing.
The best best bet is the sauna. Some grapplers can lose up to 6 kgs in the sauna depending on what weight division and also how much muscle mass they have. How much muscle is very important because the muscle is 70% water, therefore the more muscle you have the more water you can lose in the sauna.
If you cannot find a sauna here are a couple of options.
– Put on a lot of layers of winter clothing and go for a run or sit on an exercise bike and ride hard.
– Rug up and sit in a car with the heater turn on full blast.
– Turn the hot shower on in the bathroom and let it get nice and steamy sit in there and sweat it out. (Just don’t burn yourself.)
– Sit in a hot bath and sweat that way.
In this video, BJJ champion Pati Fontes was able to lose 3 pounds in order to make weight last minute for the IBJJF No Gi World Championships.
This film shows the struggle of jiu jitsu athletes to win top level competition. Parents please watch before sharing with your children.
