What are you willing to risk in order to lose weight? Giving up soda, candy, and other treats is an extremely minimal task compared to what most wrestlers go through. Are you willing to starve yourself, cut out liquids, or work your body to extreme levels of pain? Are you willing to risk your life for that final weigh in goal? Losing weight is a common goal for many citizens in the United States and in many other countries as well. The people who are looking to lose weight are generally overweight and want to become healthier and stronger in the process of losing weight. Wrestlers, on the other hand, are losing weight to qualify for a lower weight class. 78% of wrestlers are already in great shape, yet also have unrealistic weight goals placed on them. Why should they be punished to lose weight when they are strong, fit, and ready to compete all year round? Nine out of ten wrestlers at West Salem High School give up sweets or soda constantly to be the best athlete they can be during all of their sports. Adding water to the list of things they cannot consume is a horrible consequence for losing that final pound because water is a huge factor in losing or gaining weight. Dieting and dehydration can lead athletes to more extreme habits like anorexia nervosa or bulimia nervosa. Most wrestlers use dangerous techniques to lose weight rapidly. The use of saunas, harsh diets, deliberate dehydration, and induced vomiting are just a few strategies for wrestlers use to compete at a lower weight class. The dangers with cutting weight are very serious and can cause a lot of damage to the body. Many of these strategies can cause death in extreme cases. Cutting weight should be eliminated from wrestling because it hurts both the ...
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...ger. It trains their mind into thinking that food is just an optional thing and not a necessity. In reality this “self discipline” is truly damaging the body and putting the body at risk later in life.
In conclusion, wrestlers should not cut weight rapidly or starve themselves. It can lead to psychological damage, damage to the wrestler’s current body, and their future health. They are willing to risk their lives, but we all should want them to rethink before they do such a thing. We need to show our care and compassion for saving a life. Coaches could take the next step and punish a wrestler for loosing weight too fast and make them sit out. Coaches should also educate the team on how to eat nutritiously and safely. All in all, the behavior of wrestlers has improved in the past twenty years, but there is more that everyone can do to help stop the cutting of weight.
"They (wrestlers) think they are indestructible. But I’ll tell you what -- those three athletes thought they were indestructible, too. And they aren’t around to talk about it."Wrestlers believe that it is mind over body; they can accomplish anything and nothing bad will ever happen to them. So, LaRosa’s behavior on that fatal day in November wasn’t anything out of the ordinary for many college wrestlers. He was wearing sweats over a rubber suit and riding a stationary bike in a steam-filled shower room. His body temperature reached 108 degrees. He was trying to make weight for his match the next day, and wrestling’s rules did little to discourage such dangerous practices. The logic in wrestling is to make the lowest weight you can in the weigh-ins, which are 24 hours before the match. Then you can replenish and rehydrate your body over the course of the 24 hours between the weigh-in and the match. This will give you an advantage in the competition because you really will be bigger and stronger then most of the wrestlers in that lower weight class.
According to the Sports Medicine and Arthroscopy Review’s article on the female athlete triad, in the past forty years, American women have become increasingly involved in athletics as a result of laws allowing them to participate in sports. (Lebrun and Rumball) For instance, Cathy Rigby won eight Olympic gold medals in gymnastics during the ‘60’s and 70’s when these laws were just coming into effect. (Brunet) Nevertheless, there is an ugly hidden underbelly to the many benefits of women’s increased participation in sports. Many sports have very high standards for body image, which has led to the increasing prevalence of three “separate… but interrelated conditions” collectively known as the female athlete triad. (Lebrun and Rumball) Despite Cathy Rigby’s aforementioned success, an article by Dr. Michael Brunet reveals that she was severely affected by the most well-known of the female athlete triad: the eating disorder. This eventually caused her to suffer cardiac arrest twice. (Brunet) These effects are not limited to elite athletes, however; high school athletes are also affected by the triad, particularly those participating in sports “in which leanness is perceived to optimize performance” or which use “specific weight categories.” (Lebrun) The three components of the triad, osteoporosis, amenorrhea, and disordered eating, are increasingly becoming an unfortunate effect of distorted body image on sports.
Time to point out the obvious: pro-wrestling is not a sport. Why? Because pro-wrestling involves no sport[ing]. Wrestlers do not show up to work every day trying to do all they can to win; they show up to work trying to do all they can to do their job, which is entertain the fans. However, this line of thinking often leads to another conclusion: If pro wrestling is not a sport, then wrestlers are not athletes. This could not be further from the truth. What pro wrestlers do in the ring day in and day out may not be sport, but it is athletic activity on the most demanding level. It is high time that the men and women who work harder than any other professional athletes got a little respect.
Of the 258,000 athletes that wrestle in high school, only 7,408 are able to continue their career as a wrestler in college (NCAA 1). These 2.7% of wrestlers are faced with multiple adversities from making weight, to the long seven minutes of nonstop action on the mat. Although the seven minutes go buy quick when spectating, when you 're on the mat it seems never ending. A lot of work goes behind ones success on the mat. To be successful in college wrestling on must cut weight efficiently, lift weights, and warm up effectively before every match.Among college wrestlers, cutting weight is a big part of their lives. College wrestlers often believe that cutting weight will improve their chances of winning. They do this be dehydrating themselves before weigh ins, then shortly after weigh ins replenishing their fluids as fast as possible. For this technique to be effective the athletes must do it right. If not done right, the wrestler will only weaken or fatigue themselves before the competition. As the college wrestler rushes to replenish his water, electrolytes, and glycogen after weigh ins, they think by competition they will be hydrated and that their muscles will be fueled again, but it does not work that way. Replenishing body fluids takes 24-48 hours, and muscle glycogen replenishment can can up to 72 hours. Not only does cutting weight have short term effects, but has long term effects as well. This includes organ damage, eating disorders, and unhealthy eating habits.
The drive to compete can encourage wrestlers to lose weight, whether or not they have excessive body fat (Perriello 58). The major motivation for wrestlers to lose weight is the hope of achieving greater success at a lower weight class. According to Vito Perriello, “the perception may be based on the myth that wrestling at a lower weight for the same height improves leverage and provides an advantage over one’s opponent.”(58). Another reason wrestlers may drop to a lower weight class is to avoid competing against a wrestler in the athlete’s more natural weight who is significantly better or to help the team fill an empty spot. Although most wrestlers like to try and lose weight, there is no reason to believe that wrestling performance will improve simply by losing weight (Wrestling Nutrition and Weight Control). A major reason wrestlers decide to drop a weight class is because they believe they will be stronger and they may need to avoid tougher
If one tries to manipulate kids, or even adults, into not eating junk food, when the opportunity does arise they will most likely chose the unhealthy version. It should be up to the parents on what their kids eat, and they should most definitely make them eat healthy, and foster healthy eating habits. Whenever those kids do grow up, it should then be their responsibility to eat healthy, and hopefully they will continue on eating healthy. That does not mean that they will though, but in the end they should learn their own way, and on their own time. This is American, it is a FREE country, so we should decide when and what we want to eat. It should also be our responsibly to take care of ourselves, and our bodies, and more important, our health. We cherish it more if we have to spend our own money on medical bills and medication. People need to realize if they want to eat out more than they eat in, they should exercise more regularly. All in all, consumers should have the right to eat whatever they want, whenever they want, because they should have to pay for their own medical supplies to keep themselves alive. If they want to slowly kill themselves by eating too much McDonalds, let them. If they have to money to keep buying unhealthy food, then they should have the money for all their medical
The more deaths that were taken place within the industry, the more the industry kept being looked at by the media. The media began to get ahold of medical reports from doctors stating the cause of deaths and how many wrestlers have died from it. Swartz stated “ at least 65 wrestlers died in that time, 25 from heart attacks or other coronary problems -- an extraordinarily high rate for people that young, medical officials say”(Behind fun façade…). Once this all became public to the world wrestling promoters and those who were in high position of power began to take action. It took a high number of tragedies for the company to realize the difference between right from wrong and to understand that the wrestlers are human being as well and do also have a health
Turning someone’s health for entertainment show is unethical. The NBC show “The Biggest Loser” has been accused of putting entertainment before health with its focus on competitive weight loss where contestants absolutely at a greater risk of exhaustion, dehydration, and stress to win cash.
Before the company started their drug testing policies the death of wrestlers were increasing. Wresters would admit to using drugs during the time they were working for World Wrestling Entertainment. Levy stated, He used steroids and more than 200 pain pills daily before he kicked the habit a few years ago”(Behind Fun Façade…). This was the way to help wrestlers from feeling the pain but to also keep ...
People all over the world like to watch sports, but is it worth the money and entertainment it provides if the athletes die for it? Wrestling is one of the sports where athletes inflict self harm through extreme weight loss. What motivates these athletes attempt such a life-threatening weight loss technique, a spot on their college wrestling team. This prompts athletes to go on an extreme workout plan that put their lives at risk. Why is the NCAA allowing this to happen? Three athletes have already lost their lives through extreme dieting, how many more have to die before the NCAA does something about this? If this continues, wrestling shouldn't even be a sport anymore. The NCAA needs to ban all extreme weight loss techniques.
CLAP, CLAP, CLAP, CLAP, echoes through my head as I walk to the middle of the mat. "At 160lbs Aidan Conner of La Junta vs. Rodney Jones of Hotchkiss." All I can think of is every bead of sweat, every drip of blood, every mile, every push up, every tear. Why? All of this: just to be victorious. All in preparation for one match, six minutes. For some these six minutes may only be a glimpse, and then again for some it may be the biggest six minutes of their life. Many get the chance to experience it more than once. Some may work harder and want it more than others, but they may never get the chance. All they get is a moral victory. Every kid, every man comes into the tournament with a goal. For some is to win, for some is to place, others are just happy to qualify. These six minutes come on a cold frigid night in February at a place called the Pepsi Center. Once a year this gathering takes place when the small and the large, the best of the best, come to compete in front thousands of people. I am at the Colorado State Wrestling Championships.
"Cutting weight" is a term that refers to a wrestler's attempt to lose a certain amount of weight in order to compete in a particular weight category in wrestling competitions. Some wrestlers choose to lose weight so they can find a spot on the team, said Keith Healy, varsity wrestling coach of the nationally ranked team at Smallville High School.
When they see the wrestlers they are so much bigger than they thought. The wrestlers have big and powerful wrestlers. They are always in top condition. The smaller wrestlers still have muscles but they are not as powerful as the bigger ones. The smaller wrestlers rely on their speed to win their matches.
... the former. Health problems in America are approaching a point where it is no longer important who is technically to blame; rather our efforts should be focused on moving away from such unhealthy eating habits to begin with. The prevalence of overweight and obese Americans has created matters of greater concern, and it is time that mindful eating make a comeback. Public schools are beginning to enforce healthy diets in attempt to get their young students on the right track before it is too late, and it is movements such as this that our country needs more of. American culture may resist this kind of change at first, but, as Dr. Albers advises, we need to resist the “magnetic force” that is unconscious snacking, and move forward in a way that utilizes the vast technology and resources that Americans have available to them in a healthier, more constructive manner.