How to Pick the Right Weight Class for Long-Term Progress — with Kedric Kwan

I do think that for any weight class restricted sport in the two-hour weigh-in, it's going to be important to understand where you should be in terms of, you know, the right weight classes.

I know that when it comes to weightlifting, the weight classes do change quite frequently.

And, you know, if you are competing in like the World Championships versus the Olympics, the weight classes are different as well, right? We don't really have that in powerlifting.

So, you know, it's not as complicated.

I've worked with a couple of weightlifters in the past.

So I kind of am aware of the differences in terms of that weight, different weight category change, you know, in a short period of time.

But in terms of the most important thing I would say is that you have to find which weight class is right for you.

I do think that understanding which weight class you're in that you can really maximize your ability and what maximizing your ability means, I would expand on it further, would be important.

So people often say weight classes are high classes in disguise, right? So the taller you are, the likelihood of you being in a higher weight class is greater, right? Because you can remove all muscle tissue, fat tissue, right? But a taller person would likely be heavier just because they have more skeletal structure, right? So they have more bone mass.

So given a larger skeletal structure, they would probably already be heavier.

Not to mention that people who are taller can tend to be able to they can be stronger by maximizing certain leverages you know so you know with more tissue surrounding their joints you know or surrounding their skeleton they tend to be a little bit more you know they tend to perform slightly better let's just say for a good example would be squatting right people who are very tall and lanky i mean naturally you have proportions where people can squat a little bit more upright but let's just say all things being equal somebody who's taller and probably have bigger glutes right would be able to kind of like bounce out of the hole a little bit better compared to someone who is taller the same height but has no like you know additional mass to give them that nice bounce so typically the taller you are you can benefit more from being slightly heavier whether that's fat mass or muscle mass you know people can make certain distinctions not all i mean not all fat mass is bad because like i said sometimes fat mass does improve certain averages people talk about like the squat belly right people give like the nice bounce out of the hole so that is the first thing understanding what weight class you should be in and then the second bit would be your ability to sustain your training and recovery with the energy intake that you consume.

My approach to power nutrition coaching is not so much focused on the weight, right? I think that the unfortunate aspect of powerlifting coaching is that we have to always be mindful of the weight, right? And sometimes over-emphasizing on numbers can be a little bit detrimental mentally, you know, because you know if you are not a weight class restricted athlete you actually don't people don't really care about the weight on the scale right people tend to care about how they look how they feel in their clothing regardless of the weight so the unfortunate thing is that being in a weight class sport you have to be mindful of the weight so the way I framed the approach is not so much of thinking about the weight too much but thinking about what do you have to consume to support your training and recovery and your weight gain is just like a necessary secondary effect right so if you need to eat x amount of food to sustain your training but if your weight goes up that is potentially where you should be in terms of your weight class right there's no point training hard and under recovering and by eating less and being in a constant cycle of energy deficit may also actually increase certain injury risk so that is the second thing of course the next bit would be what if i'm two percent or three percent above my weight class then that is the fact then you can add some form of acute body mass manipulation or people you know we call it weight cutting right weight cutting strategies bring your body weight down prior to competition but a large majority of your time is spent at that sort of like that Goldilocks zone where your training and recovery is being maximized and the weight you're in is just a like a secondary effect of it so those are kind of like the three factors obviously height is a big one your ability to sustain that lifestyle that you need.

And the last but not least is, you know, how much can you lose by performing some form of weight cutting strategy?

So for deciding, you take into account how tall the lifter is.

So what is, is it a proxy for potential? How much of the muscle mass first and then body mass they are able to hold on the frame they are given genetically? Then the second would be how much they need to be consuming to sustain the training protocol they are on, considering their goals and where they're going, and whether they are able to recover from the training protocol they are doing.

And what was the third?

The ability to successfully perform some form of rapid weight cut to make weight for competition.

What do you mean by ability to perform rapid weight cut?

So there's always like, you know, when looking at studies that has been done, especially in powerlifting or any strength sport, which isn't many, right? There's like this zone where most people are quite safe, right? When I say successful, I mean the ability to maximize your chances of performing your best in that particular weight class that you're cutting down to, right? So it's not like, oh, I cut weight, but I absolutely destroyed myself and messed up the whole powerlifting comp.

So in that context, I would say that most of people tend to gravitate towards a roughly 2 to 3.5% weight cut.

That is kind of like the mean of magnitude of weight loss that powerlifters tend to perform.

Of course, when we take into individual variations at the higher end, elite lifters tend to cut a little bit more.

right and if you have a lifter who is very inexperienced to cutting you probably want to start on the slightly lower end there will always have to be a first time right where a lifter decides i'm going to be cutting right and that first time tend to be the hardest because you have no prior experience safe range is roughly 2 to 3.5 percent i think that that is something that most lifters should be able to do i would if someone is new to rapid weight cutting you gravitate towards a lower end you know and if you're an elite lifter there are multiple strategies that you can use to kind of like greater amounts of weight but also it probably requires practice and you know there are certain strategies that you can do to help your body adapt towards a higher amount of weight loss in the final couple of days leading to competition so you can go up to four or five percent and i would probably say that those are the range two to three percent for this general population you know maybe if just under one 1 to 1.5% for someone who is just trialing things out.

And I think that for the upper limit, most elite lifters can cut up to 5%.

Those are certain numbers that I would say can be a good guide.

I do think that for any weight class restricted sport in the two-hour weigh-in, it's going to be important to understand where you should be in terms of, you know, the right weight classes.

I know that when it comes to weightlifting, the weight classes do change quite frequently.

And, you know, if you are competing in like the World Championships versus the Olympics, the weight classes are different as well, right? We don't really have that in powerlifting.

So, you know, it's not as complicated.

I've worked with a couple of weightlifters in the past.

So I kind of am aware of the differences in terms of that weight, different weight category change, you know, in a short period of time.

But in terms of the most important thing I would say is that you have to find which weight class is right for you.

I do think that understanding which weight class you're in that you can really maximize your ability and what maximizing your ability means, I would expand on it further, would be important.

So people often say weight classes are high classes in disguise, right? So the taller you are, the likelihood of you being in a higher weight class is greater, right? Because you can remove all muscle tissue, fat tissue, right? But a taller person would likely be heavier just because they have more skeletal structure, right? So they have more bone mass.

So given a larger skeletal structure, they would probably already be heavier.

Not to mention that people who are taller can tend to be able to they can be stronger by maximizing certain leverages you know so you know with more tissue surrounding their joints you know or surrounding their skeleton they tend to be a little bit more you know they tend to perform slightly better let's just say for a good example would be squatting right people who are very tall and lanky i mean naturally you have proportions where people can squat a little bit more upright but let's just say all things being equal somebody who's taller and probably have bigger glutes right would be able to kind of like bounce out of the hole a little bit better compared to someone who is taller the same height but has no like you know additional mass to give them that nice bounce so typically the taller you are you can benefit more from being slightly heavier whether that's fat mass or muscle mass you know people can make certain distinctions not all i mean not all fat mass is bad because like i said sometimes fat mass does improve certain averages people talk about like the squat belly right people give like the nice bounce out of the hole so that is the first thing understanding what weight class you should be in and then the second bit would be your ability to sustain your training and recovery with the energy intake that you consume.

My approach to power nutrition coaching is not so much focused on the weight, right? I think that the unfortunate aspect of powerlifting coaching is that we have to always be mindful of the weight, right? And sometimes over-emphasizing on numbers can be a little bit detrimental mentally, you know, because you know if you are not a weight class restricted athlete you actually don't people don't really care about the weight on the scale right people tend to care about how they look how they feel in their clothing regardless of the weight so the unfortunate thing is that being in a weight class sport you have to be mindful of the weight so the way I framed the approach is not so much of thinking about the weight too much but thinking about what do you have to consume to support your training and recovery and your weight gain is just like a necessary secondary effect right so if you need to eat x amount of food to sustain your training but if your weight goes up that is potentially where you should be in terms of your weight class right there's no point training hard and under recovering and by eating less and being in a constant cycle of energy deficit may also actually increase certain injury risk so that is the second thing of course the next bit would be what if i'm two percent or three percent above my weight class then that is the fact then you can add some form of acute body mass manipulation or people you know we call it weight cutting right weight cutting strategies bring your body weight down prior to competition but a large majority of your time is spent at that sort of like that Goldilocks zone where your training and recovery is being maximized and the weight you're in is just a like a secondary effect of it so those are kind of like the three factors obviously height is a big one your ability to sustain that lifestyle that you need.

And the last but not least is, you know, how much can you lose by performing some form of weight cutting strategy?

So for deciding, you take into account how tall the lifter is.

So what is, is it a proxy for potential? How much of the muscle mass first and then body mass they are able to hold on the frame they are given genetically? Then the second would be how much they need to be consuming to sustain the training protocol they are on, considering their goals and where they're going, and whether they are able to recover from the training protocol they are doing.

And what was the third?

The ability to successfully perform some form of rapid weight cut to make weight for competition.

What do you mean by ability to perform rapid weight cut?

So there's always like, you know, when looking at studies that has been done, especially in powerlifting or any strength sport, which isn't many, right? There's like this zone where most people are quite safe, right? When I say successful, I mean the ability to maximize your chances of performing your best in that particular weight class that you're cutting down to, right? So it's not like, oh, I cut weight, but I absolutely destroyed myself and messed up the whole powerlifting comp.

So in that context, I would say that most of people tend to gravitate towards a roughly 2 to 3.5% weight cut.

That is kind of like the mean of magnitude of weight loss that powerlifters tend to perform.

Of course, when we take into individual variations at the higher end, elite lifters tend to cut a little bit more.

right and if you have a lifter who is very inexperienced to cutting you probably want to start on the slightly lower end there will always have to be a first time right where a lifter decides i'm going to be cutting right and that first time tend to be the hardest because you have no prior experience safe range is roughly 2 to 3.5 percent i think that that is something that most lifters should be able to do i would if someone is new to rapid weight cutting you gravitate towards a lower end you know and if you're an elite lifter there are multiple strategies that you can use to kind of like greater amounts of weight but also it probably requires practice and you know there are certain strategies that you can do to help your body adapt towards a higher amount of weight loss in the final couple of days leading to competition so you can go up to four or five percent and i would probably say that those are the range two to three percent for this general population you know maybe if just under one 1 to 1.5% for someone who is just trialing things out.

And I think that for the upper limit, most elite lifters can cut up to 5%.

Those are certain numbers that I would say can be a good guide.