For the more wrestling inclined, this type of ritual is compressed into a weekly rotation. Here is a typical (if brief) example of an amateur wrestler's week:
- First of all, if you're on or under weight, do what you have to to stay there. No reason for you to work harder than you have to.
- Night after last weigh-in/tournament -- Eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow we die!
- First day of cutting weight -- Denial. You have all week, so you can practice normally.
- A few more days -- Practice hard, maybe even use sweats and exercise machines, but eat relatively normally.
- Night before weigh-in -- Uh-oh. Stop drinking water. Some people start their spitting routine now, and haircuts aren't uncommon.
- 12 hours before WI -- Morning run (before school), probably shouldn't shower (don't want to absorb that moisture, now do we?). Try not to sleep through all your classes, ok?
- 6 hours before WI -- This is about the same time "normal" people are eating lunch. I tend to use this time to amass food for after the WI, or use my pity factor to get some quick cash. If you've been spitting, you've probably run out of saliva. If you haven't been, start using gum or hard candy to induce salivation. If you're all out, you might want to run.
- 3 hours before -- School's out, or you don't have class. Now we get down to work: depending on how far away you are, either start running or sleep.
- 2 hours before -- Some sort of pre-WI practice, usually for those not needing to lose weight to pound on those that do. Coaches like to set up 3-on-1 round-robins to get the heavies to work harder.
- 1 hour before --The waiting. If your coaches and teammates and yourself have done your/their jobs, you should be on or under weight. You just have to wait for it to be time to weigh in.
- After WI -- Get water. Right away. You need to start getting your body ready for the physical and mental beating that wrestling wreaks upon you, so get hydrated and eat the best possible food you can. And look out for the next weigh in. When you're clear and copius, you're hydrated.
Of course, cutting weight cannot compete at all for being easily on weight. By my senior year in high school, I could lose 10lbs in practice no problem, just from hard work. In fact, my typical yo-yo weight went between 142lbs and 134lbs, day in and day out.
note: this information is from my experience in high school amateur wrestling in the state of Michigan. Your milage may vary, and don't get yourself killed, because I won't take responsibility for it.