Throughout their careers, wrestlers must deal with the physical and mental toll that cutting weight has on them.\u00a0 In order to compete in their weight class, each individual wrestler has to conform their bodies to reach their targeted weight.\u00a0 This has been shown to have serious mental and physical effects on their bodies.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u00a0Every high school and college wrestler has had to deal with these consequences to compete in the sport that they love, including the Cortland wrestlers. A junior on the Red Dragon wrestling team, Adam Barker, said the effort of cutting weight has impacted his relationship with the sport.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cSometimes it effects my mental health and I think of how brutal the sport is but I have never questioned wanting to not wrestle because of it,\u201d said Barker.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Many wrestlers struggle more mentally rather than physically over this process. In the Journal of Strength and Conditioning research, it is found that cutting weight for a match over the time span of a few days can effect psychological function.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
If you have never been around someone actively trying to make their weight you might not be aware of the struggles these athletes endure.\u00a0 The process of preparing for a tournament or a match looks slightly different than that of an athlete of another sport.\u00a0 Wrestlers weigh themselves prior to the match to see how many pounds they need to either gain or lose before they can compete in their weight class.\u00a0 <\/p>\n\n\n\n
When determining which weight class they will be wrestling in, both the coach and the player normally have an input.\u00a0 At a school such as Cortland, the athlete decides by competition factors and what is attainable for them.\u00a0 Most weight class changes are made during the off season which allows wrestlers an extended time to bulk for their upcoming season.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In high school, wrestlers are at the age where they are still growing which makes cutting weight much more challenging.\u00a0 They often find themselves in weight classes that are no longer attainable for their growing bodies which forces them to lose weight at a more rapid pace before matches.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIn high school I struggled during matches from not having enough energy after cutting weight,” said Barker.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Through all stages of competition wrestlers find themselves having to cut weight before matches and tournaments.\u00a0 Cutting weight certainly effects them mentally and physically but for most it does not hinder their love for the sport. Athletes in every sport put their bodies through things in order to compete at the highest level and wrestling is certainly no exception.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Throughout their careers, wrestlers must deal with the physical and mental toll that cutting weight has on them.\u00a0 In order to compete in their weight class, each individual wrestler has to conform their bodies to reach their targeted weight.\u00a0 This has been shown to have serious mental and physical effects on their bodies.\u00a0 \u00a0Every high […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":283,"featured_media":1317,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1316","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","entry"],"featured_image_src":"https:\/\/sites.cortland.edu\/dragon-chronicle\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/43\/2023\/02\/20221019-D16045-wrestling-room.jpg","featured_image_src_square":"https:\/\/sites.cortland.edu\/dragon-chronicle\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/43\/2023\/02\/20221019-D16045-wrestling-room.jpg","author_info":{"display_name":"Brianna Rindell","author_link":"https:\/\/sites.cortland.edu\/dragon-chronicle\/author\/brianna-rindell\/"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.cortland.edu\/dragon-chronicle\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1316","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.cortland.edu\/dragon-chronicle\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.cortland.edu\/dragon-chronicle\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.cortland.edu\/dragon-chronicle\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/283"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.cortland.edu\/dragon-chronicle\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1316"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sites.cortland.edu\/dragon-chronicle\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1316\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.cortland.edu\/dragon-chronicle\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1317"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.cortland.edu\/dragon-chronicle\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1316"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.cortland.edu\/dragon-chronicle\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1316"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.cortland.edu\/dragon-chronicle\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1316"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}