Same Day Weigh-Ins After weigh-in you should immediately begin refueling your body for best performance. This includes both fluids and food. The best fluids to drink the day of competition would be water or a carbohydrate containing drink, like Gatorade. Fruit juices may cause an upset stomach and the fructose that is contained in them is absorbed slower than other sugars. You should drink 16 oz of fluid per pound lost during cutting (12, 17). This can be adjusted depending on how much time there is before the first match. Your body can absorb 1-1.5 liters of fluid per hour (6). You should experiment with different fluids and with the amount that your body can absorb without feeling too full or having an upset stomach before competition day. The best foods to eat after weigh-in are simple carbohydrate containing foods and some protein. You do not want to eat a lot of fat before the competition because fat takes longer to absorb into the body and can cause and upset stomach. You should eat between 100-300 grams of carbs with some protein, examples of this could be peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, raisins and almonds, watermelon, vanilla wafers and peanut M&M's. This refueling of fluids and food should continue between matches until the competition is over. Make sure to drink at least 8-16 oz of fluids between matches as well. If your stomach does not tolerate food, carbohydrate containing drinks (Gatorade, Powerade) can be used as well to continue to provide your body with enough energy to compete at your best throughout the day.
Day Before Weigh-In If the weigh-in are the night or day before the competition refueling can be much more gradual. This will include drinking fluids as your thirst dictates but a good rule is to drink 16 oz of fluid per pound lost. Again these fluids can contain carbohydrates. The meal the night before should include a lot of carbs, some protein and a little fat. 6-10 grams per kilogram body weight of carbohydrates the night before and the day of will make sure that the muscles have enough energy to perform at your best (17). The day of the competition you should follow similar advice from the same day weigh-in section but there can be more flexibility. 2-4 hours before your first match you should eat the meal containing 100-300 g of carbs with some protein included, see examples above. Fluids should be consumed as thirst dictates (or urine color) and the refueling should continue between each match and throughout the entire competition.
Sodium Citrate Supplementation Sodium Citrate (SC) supplementation has been theorized to help improve performance in wrestling. This happens because SC can counteract reductions in blood plasma levels (which can help if you used weight cutting techniques which included water deprivation), reduce perceived exertion, helps with blood buffering, but will not improve peak power production or maximum power production (1, 15). There is the possibility of having gastrointestinal distress from using this supplement, and while SC may help regain the water weight lost during cutting and reduce perceived exertion, it currently does not show improvements in strength during wrestling related exercises (1, 15).
Creatine Supplementation Creatine can also be used to possibly help counteract the effects of rapid weight cutting. It has been shown that creatine supplementation does help improve performance for repeated short bursts of high intensity activity but does not for endurance sports such as distance running (10). While wrestling does involve short bursts of maximal strength there is also an endurance portion. On competition day, after the weigh-in, creatine could help improve performance throughout the day. Creatine has been shown to prevent the decreases in peak torque and max strength activities during simulated wrestling activities compared to a placebo (10). Creatine shows to have the greatest effects on performance for wrestling when combined with a high carbohydrate diet the days before a competition (10). It is possible that creatine supplementation can also cause increases in body weight because of increased water storage, so supplementation should be tried in the pre- or off-season to monitor body weight changes.
Caffeine Supplementation Caffeine is a common supplement used before competitions to make one become more energetic and possibly to help with confidence. Most of caffeine's effects are probably because it is a central nervous system stimulant and therefore is associated with decreasing the perception of effort one feels (8). The role of caffeine in mobilizing free fatty acids and sparing of muscle glycogen are more limited. Research into caffeine use for wrestlers has shown limited beneficial effects on maximum strength but has reduced the perceived exertion of the wrestlers (12). Caffeine should be used in a limited role if weight cutting involved the loss of large amounts of water weight (2-5% body weight) because caffeine is a diuretic (8). This will counteract the attempt of re-hydrating throughout the day which then can decrease performance.