Dr. Andy Galpin is a tenured professor and researcher at the Center for Sport Performance at CSU Fullerton. He has a Ph.D. in Human Bioenergetics which sounds like a completely made up word but I assure you it’s 100% legit.
His research involves teaching classes at the university on all the things you might expect (fitness, nutrition, designing exercise programs, etc) but his work in at CSU Fullerton’s BMEP Lab is much more interesting. According to his bio, it’s in the lab that he studies ‘acute responses and chronic adaptations of human skeletal muscle in response to high force/velocity/power and fatiguing exercise from the whole body.’
They take muscle biopsies from MMA athletes, weightlifters, bodybuilders, boxers, and non-athletes to study the size and function of muscle fibers. He’s an expert in the fitness world (he previously appeared as a guest on the Joe Rogan Experience and I’ve got the video below). This week, Dr. Andy Galpin made a guest appearance on the Mark Bell – Sling Shot YouTube channel where he discusses the key differences in cutting weight between combat athletes/fighters and bodybuilders. It basically comes down to two things: hydration status and muscle glycogen levels.
He talks about how despite both types of athletes taking things to the extreme, the needs of bodybuilders are COMPLETELY different from each other and how they should safely manage this when cutting weight:
I definitely found this fascinating. I’ve always known that bodybuilders go to extreme lengths to suck out any and all water weight before competitions but it never occurred to me that they’re able to this because standing on the stage and flexing is basically a mindless task.
Likewise, I haven’t spent a lot of time thinking about the difference of 2-3 pounds can cost a fighter $75K if they don’t successfully cut weight for a fight but doing so dangerously can leave them less alert than they need to be for a fight and they can get their shit kicked in and lights knocked out.
If you wanted to check out that episode of the Joe Rogan Experience with Dr. Andy Galpin you can do so here:
Side note: who the hell has time to listen to 2.5-hour-long Joe Rogan podcasts on the regular? I just don’t understand how millions and millions of guys find time to do this every week. I barely have time to turn on the radio anymore.