Amateur, high school and college wrestling, in addition to being a sport extremely dependent on physical strength and skill, is a weighty game. Possessing the strength of a 160-pound person, but physically confronting, wrestling, a person with the strength of a 145-pound person, dropping weight to even out his opponent, is normal practice. There is nothing illegal about it, we are not talking about steroids or some physique enhancing drug. We are talking about controlling your body to achieve the goals that your mind has set for itself.

Also, there is a science to losing weight. Do it incorrectly or too quickly and you will not only lose your advantage, but you will give your opponent a huge advantage by dehydrating and losing strength. You will arrive at the game tired and slow, exactly the opposite effect to the one you were looking for.

Let’s get one thing straight before we start, you can’t lose 3lbs of body fat in 1 hour, unless you cut off an appendix and that’s not an option. However, you can lose 3 pounds of total body weight by losing water weight. Remember Biology 101, the body can be made up of 75% water, depending on the physical constitution of the person. The fatter the person, the greater the difference in water weight than a muscular person, for example.

So what we’re really trying to do is remove water (fluid) from the body, which will translate to less body weight. So how do we do this safely?

The first thing we must address is our diet, and I am not referring to eating healthy, I am referring to eating without sodium. Salt is the number one reason a healthy person retains water. There are other health reasons that cause water retention, but those do not apply in our case.

Therefore, if we remove as much salt from the body as possible, the body’s resistance to losing fluids decreases and facilitates the passage of water weight through perspiration.

Perspiration, if you remember, is the body’s natural function of cooling itself when temperatures rise above normal. Therefore, we must generate heat to raise the body’s temperature and force it to cool down through perspiration.

There are probably many different methods, some complex ones like water pills that make a person urinate continuously, to remove fluid from the body, but we’ll be using a tried and true ancient method. Perspiration.

Dress in warm clothing, such as sweatshirts and sweatpants. You’ll notice I use the plural form of shirts and pants because you’ll be layering these clothes, at least two layers and three if possible.

Be sure to wear some kind of hat, preferably a winter sock hat, as the body sheds a lot of heat through the head. We don’t want that to happen in this situation. We want to retain as much internal heat as possible.

Exercise vigorously for at least 10 minutes. This can be jogging, either on the spot or around the gym, jumping jacks, whatever is comfortable for you, but will make you sweat a lot.

After you’ve worked up a good sweat, lie down and have someone wrap you up in a blanket or wrestling mat. This will keep your body temperature high after exercise, so you will continue to extract fluid through perspiration.

After 20 minutes, undress and weigh yourself. Most likely, you have lost more than three kilos, but if not, you still have time to smooth yourself out, with dry clothes, and repeat the procedure.

As with any sudden or drastic body change, there are dangers associated with this procedure. Never perform this procedure alone. Always have a trainer or fighter with quick access to the trainer, with you at all times. After you gain weight, rehydrate with drinks like Gatorade, which are rich in electrolytes.