Cutting weight the wrong way can be deadly

On the eve of the Olympics, I find myself feeling so inspired by the dedication of all the athletes who will be competing. All the training and dieting takes a tremendous amount of discipline and the mind is at least as equally as important as the body if you want to go for the gold.

One of my favourite Olympic sports has always been wrestling.  It is a sport that requires a great combination of physical strength, endurance, and technique.  It wasn’t until I actually competed in freestyle wrestling, however,  that I learned about another big part of the sport – “making weight”.

To compete, athletes must not weigh more than the agreed upon weight by a certain time (usually on the day of or the day before competition) or else be disqualified.  It’s not uncommon, however, for wrestlers, boxers, mixed martial arts fighters, and any other athletes who compete in sports that are divided into weight classes to find themselves 5 or 10 pounds too heavy with only hours before the weigh-in.  Time to cut weight.

Starvation, rubber shirts, layered clothing, stationary bikes, and saunas are some of the tools commonly used to start sweating out water and shedding startling amounts of weight in a short period of time.  However, you are also losing a dangerous amount of electrolytes.  At best, you stress your heart and liver, your brain is foggy, you end up dehydrated, and enter your bout against your opponent in a weakened state.  At worst, like too many young collegiate wrestlers, you wind up dead from complications of severe dehydration such as kidney failure and cardiac arrest.

Instead of using your strong athlete’s will to push your body to dangerous extremes, exercise that discipline to maximize your potential.  If you know that you will be competing, plan a healthy and gradual weight cut that includes proper nutrition.  Not only will your athletic performance benefit, but you will guarantee yourself a much longer career.