Weight Cutting Technique Used on Last Night's (4/13/11) Ultimate Fighter

Hey Guys,

At my gym, traditionally for weight cutting, we always use distilled water, Abeline and a Sauna suit. Last night on the Ultimate Fighter, they used abeline, sauna suit, epsom salt, and wintergreen rubbing alchohol. All they showed was the guy in the tub and they said the entire process would take only 40 mins.

I have been researching this all day and I'm mainly finding body building threads. One of the steps is to take this bath before you go to bed at night. Is the sleep process that important? Besides respiration, I'm not sure how this could help you lose weight. I apologize in advance if that is a dumb question. The reason I'm asking is my weigh-in is at night so I was planning on doing the bath the day of the weigh-in.

Has anyone used this technique? If so, what are your thoughts on it?

Thanks!

I think its just because you will be drained and going straight to bed is the best way to get some rest.....maybe to keep from eating lol I don't know.

I was very interested when i saw this yesterday. Can anyone outline the exact process to do this and what the purpose of these steps are???

Nevermind...i found this on Lew Polleys (the dick wrestling coach) blog...

The weight cut

The coaches headed over to the TUF house to help Ryan with his cut. For guys who are not used to cutting, it can be a difficult process. Plus, we considered – with him being in a house full of competitors – we couldn't be sure if Ryan would get all the help he needed.

He lost four pounds in about 40 minutes. We used a little trick I use to lose the last few pounds. Running kills your legs, and saunas can get unhealthy fast. The bath is not the easiest route either, but we can say it is the least worst of the above options.

Essentially you are lying and relaxing and losing weight. Junior and I were talking about weight cutting and his thoughts on getting down to the 205-pound weight class.

Our strength and conditioning coach sat around saying that Ryan wouldn't lose weight this way – just basically hating on the process. He had never done it, and yet he hated it. They were only watching and hated it.

Even after he lost four pounds in 40 minutes, they hated it.

"The Polley Plunge"

Part 1

4-6 bottles of Green Rubbing Alcohol
3-4 bags of Epson salt
Add water as HOT as you can handle
Cover your body in Abolene
Soak for 20-30 minutes
Part 2

Immediately put on sauna suit and sweats
Put on beanie
Lie on the floor under a blanket for 15-20 minutes

Well if you analyzed what is going on, it looks like the first part puts the subject in to a state where they trap alot of heat in the body, then let the body sweat as hard as it could while they try to not let it cool so the sweating process does not stop. So Abolene traps the heat which is good, hot water ofcourse is the source of heat. As far as epsom salt and alcohol, I am not sure. It could be that epsom salt would raise the boiling point of water, therefore you can use hotter water than 100 degrees celsius without losing heat energy to steam formation, but then you would be scolding yourself, maybe water with epsom salt can hold on to heat energy more effectively and longer than water alone.... Alcohol could be the dissolving agent for epsom salt since Esalt does not really dissolve very effectively by itself.

i believe it kinda works the same when your out at sea and your in the ocean and you get dehydrated faster in the water then you were in a boat, thats where the salt comes in .... but im not quite sure about the rest...and if that guy dropped 10 pounds in 40 min. i need to know the secret so i can do this

A hot bath alone can be a good way to cut the last few pounds. I'm not entirely sure about the green rubbing alcohol but anytime you put salt in your bath you're sucking the water out of your body at a pretty unhealthy rate. The only guy I've ever known to use a salt bath fainted and started "Crappie Flopping" at the weigh-ins. Use with caution.

That kid also looked pretty bad on the weigh ins, when they faced off he looked like he was barely standing where as the other guy seemed way more energetic.

So the salt in the water will dehydrate you faster ? I haven't read or seen anything about people in flotation tanks coming out feeling dehydrated...and they stay in there for an hour or two, with 800 pounds of salt.

Good point Kent, maybe its the rubbing of the alcohol that makes it happen.

i think they put the salt in the water to get the salinity of the water higher than your body (0.8%) which in turn causes fluid from your body to leave to the bath water. im not sure if thats right or not. i have no idea about the rubbing alcohol.

Someday, we'll have same day weigh ins standardized =D, I hate seeing my buddies or anyone put themselves through this process.

I heard the green rubbing alcohol opens the pours wider to allow more fluid to escape.

Edit. Pores.

The water from you're body will leave it if you're in a bath with a higher concentration of salt. It's an osmosis process, it would do the same with any other solute. But I have no idea what the alcohol is for.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by AndyK5

Well if you analyzed what is going on, it looks like the first part puts the subject in to a state where they trap alot of heat in the body, then let the body sweat as hard as it could while they try to not let it cool so the sweating process does not stop. So Abolene traps the heat which is good, hot water ofcourse is the source of heat. As far as epsom salt and alcohol, I am not sure. It could be that epsom salt would raise the boiling point of water, therefore you can use hotter water than 100 degrees celsius without losing heat energy to steam formation, but then you would be scolding yourself, maybe water with epsom salt can hold on to heat energy more effectively and longer than water alone.... Alcohol could be the dissolving agent for epsom salt since Esalt does not really dissolve very effectively by itself.

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Alcohol helps maintain peripheral vasodilation, increasing circulation (and thus heat and water exchange) to the skin. The Epsom salts increase the osmolarity of the water so water leaves the skin via osmosis. If you just soak in a hot bath, you'll absorb more water through the skin than you'll lose by sweating. The high external salt concentration ensures water flows up the solute concentration gradient as rapidly as possible.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by FRANK BARCA

Good point Kent, maybe its the rubbing of the alcohol that makes it happen.

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The source of heat is obviously the hot water. the abolene traps the heat making you sweat more. the salt is drawing the water out of your body and the rubbing alcohol opens your pores making it a very quick process.

Go get colon cleansing. You can lose 3-8 pounds in one day.
I have a friend that owns a spa and offered me a free one, but I don't agree with the procedure. I'd rather run 5 miles a day than stick a tube up my butt.