Wrestlers and Thanksgiving Eating: a few tips!

It's Thanksgiving day today, and my wife Michelle and I will be getting together with family to enjoy good company and great food!

I'm sure many wrestlers all over the world tend to stress about Thanksgiving because they are concerned about all of the eating and then having to make weight soon after...

Here are my thoughts...

Eat all you want to on Thanksgiving!

That's right... don't skimp. I want you to eat until you're content even if you are going to drop down a weight class. Hey, your Gramma would be upset if you didn't have a piece of her homemade Pumpkin Pie... so don't disappoint her.

Eat up because you will stuff the muscle cells full of glycogen and get a Leptin load in your body. This means your muscles will be ready for whatever you throw at them... the day after Thanksgiving!

The day after Thanksgiving is the best day to strength train. You will feel a monster pump like you've never felt before. Of course, you can't do this all the time or you'll never make weight. Just do it today!

Now, if you are concerned about your weight, make sure tomorrow's workout is a strength training workout... not cardio or jogging.

Jogging or cardio won't do much to use up the muscle glycogen and kick-start your weight-cutting process. Strength training, on the other hand will do exactly that. If you hit the gym tomorrow, be sure to do a full body 'flushing' workout. That means you will choose one or two exercises for each bodypart and do one set of 20-25 reps on each set to failure. This will necessitate lighter weights because of the high reps.

Here's a sample flushing program to do:

Squats or Leg Press - 1x20-25
Leg Curls or Stiff Leg Deadlift - 1x20-25
Bent Rows - 1x20-25
Chinups - 2xmax reps
Bench Press - 1x20-25
Standing Shoulder Press - 1x20-25
Barbell Curl - 1x20-25
Pushups - 1x max reps
Crunches - 1x max reps

That's it... and it works great. You'll get a huge pump and feel great. Plus, your body will have no choice but to use the food that was stored from Thanksgiving dinner. You'll jump-start your body to make weight, without the guilt.

Happy Thanksgiving to you and your family!!