

Man’s oldest sport, commonly known today as wrestling has been around since the first Olympic games in Greece. In its existence, other sports have come and gone, but since it began, wrestling has only evolved from its primitive form. To the ancient people, sports were a way to honor the Gods and glorify the victors, but today people long for competition and thirst for the win. One aspect of the sport that all wrestlers face is cutting weight. Cutting weight is defined as “the practice of rapid weight loss prior to competition” (Lee). With evolution comes new strategies, and athletes today are born competitors. They will do anything necessary to gain the upper hand over their opponent, and I know this because I have wrestled since the age of five (a total thirteen years). I sacrificed thanksgiving dinner, weekends with friends, and summer vacations because I had to make a specific weight for a tournament or camp. Although the athlete can gain an advantage, cutting weight still has too many negative impacts it can induce on the male and female athletes, therefore it should be researched and analyzed further.

If executed properly, fighters who cut a significant amount of weight will better their chances of winning. The proper way to cut weight and ensure maximum performance starts with the right diet, gradually losing the weight, and staying hydrated as long as possible. Complex carbohydrates, water, proteins, vitamins and minerals will fuel the body maximizing weight loss during practice. Gradually losing the weight will put less stress on the body because it has time to react to the slow decrease in nutrients and will function better. Dehydration is inevitable, but the longer the fighters are hydrated the more time they have to hone their skills for competition. Once dehydration kicks in, the simplest day to day tasks become much more difficult. In his article, Lee states “In a professional bout, after weigh-ins, fighters are given 24 hours to rehydrate before the competition. This means that a fight weighing in at 170lbs on Friday could show up to the Saturday fight weighing 190 or 200lbs” (Lee). The weight cut is successful when the athlete comes into the competition rehydrated and at a larger size. Not all combat sports have the luxury of 24 hours to rehydrate. In the South Carolina High School League, competition for wrestling begins only one hour after the official weigh-ins. The same cutting weight principles apply, but instead of showing up to compete twenty pounds overweight the athlete would show up five pounds overweight. The size advantage is the reason participants cut weight because the bigger they are, the harder they strike, the more strikes they can take before going down, and the more tired their opponent will get (Lee). These are the keys to victory for the athletes, and every one of them cut weight. The first level of competition is trying to either make the size margin smaller or larger depending on which athlete is viewed. The smaller fighter wants to decrease the margin, while the larger fighter wants to increase the margin. When cutting weight is done right, the athletes will gain a size advantage and have a huge effect on the outcome of the match.

The most prominent drawback to cutting weight is becoming dehydrated because of the way one’s body reacts to dehydration. Water is one of the most vital resources to the human body, and the amount of water in the average adult human body is around 50% to 65% (Helmenstine). Since the body is composed of a lot of water it holds great importance and performs many functions. Water is the primary building block for cells, it is an insulator to the brain, spinal cord, organs and fetus, water lubricates joints, and flushes waste and toxins from the body (Helmenstine). When dehydrated, all of these tasks are negatively affected, and throughout the body there is discomfort and is shown by lethargy, decreased functionality, and decreased aerobic performance (workouts, exercises, and competitions). One of the most important organs, the brain, when only mildly dehydrated (4 to 8 hours without water or a drop of 1.5% loss of body weight), losses energy, headaches begin to occur, and one’s attention span decreases (Heid). In his article, Heid wrote “The study team concluded that, as a result of their dehydration the teens’ brains had to work harder to function normally” (Heid). When approaching severe dehydration, the affects intensify. At the point of severe dehydration, the brain can even shrink, and when rehydration occurs the brain can swell because the water deprived cells absorb too much water. When dehydrated, the bodies blood flow starts to decrease and that can have an impact on the muscles, skin, tissues, and kidneys. Since blood cannot reach the muscles, the strength is greatly affected, and one’s ability to workout, practice, and compete is hindered. Imagine walking up a single flight of stairs and being completely out of breath because that is just dehydration affecting the endurance of one’s muscles. Since the blood flow is drastically changed, it is common for the fighters to pass out during workouts or when exercising. The heart works harder by pumping more and more, but it loses efficiency because the blood does not get far. This is another example of the body exerting more effort to do the everyday tasks that everyone performs. The tissues are affected by the blood flow, and as a result nutrients are not able to be carried throughout the body as effectively. The acid count begins building up because the blood flow to the kidneys decreases and the body stops removing toxic waste and acid from the body, which leads to an increased risk of sickness or bad feelings. The skin begins to heat because blood is not flowing to the skin, which leads to a decrease in the ability to regulate the bodies temperature. Making the body sweat becomes far more difficult than before because there is not any water in the body to get rid of. Urine is important because it expels toxins, but when dehydrated, urine output decreases. This keeps toxic waste inside the body for a longer period of time, which increases the risk of becoming ill. An imbalance of electrolytes occur because there is an unhealthy increase of potassium and sodium. The eyes are affected by becoming dry and vision is blurred. There is an increased chance for a concussion because the brain becomes weaker. It is evident that the body, when in a dehydrated state, goes into massive shock. In a recent study, it is found that 39% of MMA fighters were entering competition while dehydrated (some article). The study shows the relevancy of dehydration because almost 40% of the fighters are dehydrated when competition comes around. These fighters do not even have enough time to rehydrate, and that has a huge negative impact on their performance.  If an athlete were to compete in this state, they would most definitely lose the match, and it is sad to see a talented fighter be bogged down because they do not have any gas in the tank. The worst part about cutting weight is reaching dehydration because the body responds poorly to the loss of water.

Now we know that cutting weight really throws the body for a loop, but what does this mean for the athlete on a long-term scale. Since the athlete’s career is long, they surround themselves with this unhealthy lifestyle of starving or dehydrating themselves for weigh-ins, followed by competition, then their weight jumps back up because the athlete binge eats. It is a cycle that is harmful to the individual and impacts their life. The main three long-term effects are eating habits, organ damage, and eating disorders. Eating habits is the least extreme of the three because it is a habit and can be overcome if someone is to create a healthy habit. In the article Long-Term Effects of Cutting Weight in Wrestling, Wayne states “According to health writer and certified health counselor Maya Paul, the eating habits you develop during childhood follow you into your adult life” (Wayne). If the young athletes only experience the wrestling lifestyle, it can hurt their eating habits long term because they would often binge eat or eat way more than what satisfies them. If someone follows the pattern through junior high, high school, and college, it can ensue similar eating patterns in adulthood (Wayne). For the athlete, this creates a problem both physchologically and physically. Eating can cause euphoria or a release of dopamine, which could make it a pastime or a way to deal with one’s problems. This could harm the athlete’s psyche as he or she becomes dependent on eating to fulfill themself. Eating patterns could also be troublesome physically because as the person ages their metabolism slows down, they become less active, and they just cannot do as much as their young counterparts. The person would be more likely to gain weight. However, if the person would like to maintain their figure, they would have to go through more strict efforts because their body is not in its prime and it just takes more energy to maintain itself. Another long-term effect would be on the organs because of the strenuous fluctuation in weight all those years of competing. Since dehydration is a popular practice for losing weight, the organs will be affected negatively. In his article, Wayne states “… severe dehydration can cause lasting damage to your kidneys and heart. As the 1997 deaths of three college wrestlers from dehydration weight loss proved, it can even be fatal – which is perhaps the longest-term effect of all” (Wayne). As stated in this quote, three college wrestlers died because they cut so much weight to the point that their organs stopped functioning. To give another example of damaged organs, In the article Weight Cutting: Solving ‘the biggest problem in combat sports’, Harris states “The tipping point was blood… “I was peeing blood,” Miller said. “And my kidneys hurt”” (Harris). This MMA fighter had suffered a kidney infection after not fighting for months. His kidneys were damaged from the weight cutting process, and the fighter also says “… I wouldn’t be surprised if it took a couple years off my life” (Wayne). In this case, the fighter is even aware that the many years he spent competing could result in his demise sooner rather than later because his organs were aged when he made weight all those times. Again, on the long-term scale the organs are effected negatively by the weight cutting process. Lastly, cutting weight can lead to lasting eating disorders. In the article, Wrestlers starvation effects, Purritaw says “A long term eating disorder study at Columbia University published a conclusion of a “direct correlation between having an eating disorder as a teen and continuing that disorder well into adulthood”” (Purritaw). For the sake of clarity, assume a teen wrestler develops a binge-eating disorder during a wrestling season. The disorder might go from developing during a season, to persisting during off season, to staying with the individual through their athletic days and their adult life. The evidence is frightening for the athletes that have long careers because they adapt to the lifestyle and become accustomed to it. The bright side is today people are more aware of the affects, and regulations are beginning to pop up. This is healthy for the sport because whatever eliminates the cutting weight process will bring more spectators and athletes. Whether it is a different way to group individuals for competition or new regulations that stops unhealthy weight loss. In South Carolina, at Lexington High School, before the wrestlers can choose a weight class, their urine is tested to determine how much weight their body can drop in a healthy way based on hydration and body fat. Cutting weight can have long-term side effects that include eating habits, organ damage, and eating disorders. 

Lastly, women are a big part of sports and they also compete in the combat sports of wrestling, MMA, and boxing. What is it like when women undergo the cutting weight process. Like men, the female body is affected the same way, but have a few differences when it comes to practice and hormones. First off, the lesser of the two, practice is different because unlike males, most females lack the experience because they did not have an opportunity to join a combat sports club when they were children. Also, the males have experienced coaches on weight cutting and they do not have to be concerned with the primary gender-related hormonal issue (Benjamin). As for hormones, female fighters face difficulties making weight because rhythmic estrogen levels that regulate the menstrual cycle and oral-contraceptives can cause fluctuations in weight because fluid retention and increase in appetite (Benjamin). As a result, the male weight cutting techniques of dehydration and sweating will not produce the same effect for women trying to make a weight class. Women also need more fat than men because it is necessary for women to carry out their hormonal processes. It is also common for elite women to lose their menstrual cycles because they do fall under a certain fat percentage. For this reason, women undergo more effort to make weight because they are fighting against the female hormonal process to make the weight. There is a small difference between male and females during the weight cutting process due to experience in the sport, but the big difference between male and females is due to the hormones of the sexes. The females have to go through more effort to make weight because the menstrual cycle, oral-contraceptives, and fat percentage.

The most constant and prevalent themes of combat sports are making a specific weight and competition. In the paper cutting weight was discussed to harm the body. The most prominent way it harms the body is through dehydration because it affects the muscles, skin, tissues, and kidneys. Another way cutting weight harms the body is through the long-term effects of eating habits, organ damage, and eating disorders. Lastly, cutting weight harms females in similar way to males except the female hormones make cutting weight much harder for women. Since wrestling and combat sports have been around for 5000 years (“History…”), it has faced many changes and rules and regulations have been made. With cutting weight being a big issue, research and studies should be encouraged in order to come to a conclusion that betters the sports. Cutting weight clearly impacts the athletes negatively, and for that reason changes or more regulations should be made. Today, progress is made and there is hope for a better way to group individuals that ensures the athletes health is unaffected. The only thing that should be answered after a fair match is, who was the better athlete? Although the athlete can gain an advantage, cutting weight still has too many negative impacts it can induce on the male and female athletes, therefore further research should be encouraged to evolve and better the prehistoric sports.
