Cutting weight is something that plenty of wrestlers have to go through on a daily basis. But for a heavyweight it’s not as common, however, nutrition and dieting are still extremely important. Everyone visualizes the guy at 125-pounds with a salad while the guy at 285 inhales basically whatever he wants.

But those days are gone. And when it comes to multiple time World Team Member Tervel Dlagnev, his nutrition and diet are the most important parts of his success.

“My wife and I eat very clean,” said Dlagnev. “Eating good and being conscious of what I put in my body has always been important. It’s not like I start eating right a few weeks before a tournament, I am always on top of it. Sure, I’ll have a cheat me once in a while, but we’ve adopted the lifestyle of eating clean.”

With his healthy diet and clean eating in check, focusing on his training is simple. Some guys aren’t the type to do a lot of film study, not Dlagnev. He’s a student of the sport and no amount of success will change that. He puts in just as much time watching and learning as he does grinding it out in the room.

“I love to just watch wrestling for pure entertainment,” he said. “If it’s a good match-up between two guys I want to see it. But when I’m watching I want to see what these guys are doing in certain positions. I'll watch lightweight guys to see how they handle certain positions and learn it as opposed to watching my opponents. And by this time, I’ve been wrestling the guys in my weight class for years so learning to perfect my style comes before scouting guys.”



When he gets on the mat his methods may be slightly different than others. Some have a balance between drilling and live wrestling whereas he will only use drilling for certain things.

“I used drilling more for warming up. I’d rather spar some positions and put myself in bad uncomfortable positions while I spar rather than drill it because you can go through the motions in a drill,” said Dlagnev. Only time I’ll really drill something is if I’m unfamiliar with it and want to get comfortable doing it. Otherwise, I rather spar and focus on positions a little more.”

Though he has his methods down to a pretty good science at this time in his career, it’s his back injury that has him looking at his training differently. Despite being limited physically as he recovers, it’s the mental aspects of things that are the most important right now.



 As one of the toughest wrestlers in the world it’s pretty easy to push through the bumps and bruises along the way. That is until one comes along that deserves some special attention. And this one has him taking a different approach to things.

“I have to be smart with how far I push myself,” Dlagnev said. “I’m just getting back on the mat and getting back to training so I’m adjusting things so that I can get back to being comfortable on the mat.”

But no matter the circumstance, he’s got his methods of preparation down and can’t wait to get back to competition.