Why Cut Weight?

I was talking today with Connor Felstead about his training and the dilemma he’s in with his weight class. Conner won the Junior National Championship last year in the 69 kg lifter but is feeling a bit of the necessity to move up a weight class.
Connor’s not the only one out there who I talk to about determining weight class. Particularly, most people email me or call me wanting to know how to cut down a weight class. My response to them is always simple: does cutting down a weight class immediately allow you to reach your goals? What I mean by that is, if you cut a weight class will you immediately reach the goals you have set for yourself and your next meet?
So many people want to drop a weight class because they feel they could be able to reach their goals a little faster. Others believe that if they drop a weight class they will just be more competitive all around. The problem with this thinking is that you’re putting the cart before the horse. If your numbers at your current weight class aren’t sufficient enough to achieve your goals in the lower weight class, then what’s the point in cutting? I always advise lifters who approach me with this question to stay in the heavier, more comfortable weight class until their snatch and clean and jerk are high enough to allow them to reach their goals in the very next competition they compete in. When that becomes the case, the conversation can at least get started about whether it’s appropriate or not to cut some weight. Let me give you a good example.
For the majority of my life I competed as a 69 kg lifter. I was not competitive, my numbers always landed me somewhere in the middle of the pack at the end of a national meet, and I wasn’t making great strides towards changing that. Richard Flemming convinced me to go up a weight class to the 77 kg class. Since I really had no reason to stay in 69 class I took his advice. I trained as a 77 kg weight lifter for three years competing in a couple American Opens and a couple National Championships. Honestly, these were some of my best meets. They were not ironically my best numbers but I was certainly the strongest I’ve ever been and the most consistent I’d ever been as a 77 kg lifter who was not messing with cutting weight prior to competition. However, as I approached the 2012 American Open my numbers had reached a level at which I found myself able to be competitive in the 69 kg class. My goal had always been to win a national medal. That national medal could’ve been the National Championships or the American open. I didn’t care I just wanted one. I registered for the 2012 American open as a 77 kg lifter. When the start list came out it was clear that my numbers would be sufficient not only to get me on the podium but possibly to win the whole thing. That’s when I began the weight cut. I did not cut weight for three years in order to allow my numbers to get bigger and better and when the opportunity arose for me to meet a goal I had set for myself over a decade ago, only then did I consider the weight cut.
This is where my principals surrounding cutting weight comes from. Stay heavier. What’s more, stay heavy until you’re in a position to reach the goals you set for yourself at a lower weight class. Cutting weight does hurt your training. Furthermore it does slow your progress. Don’t do it until you know that the delayed progress will be worth the gain and reward.
Try to always have a five sided view of your career and have big picture goals. That helps you in the grind at a higher weight class were you may not be immediately competitive.