Wrestling

The wrestling team huddles up a er practice on Dec. 6. Photo by Emerson Elledge.

Weighing the options

Wrestlers look to lose weight while maintaining mental health

Wrestling is a physically demanding sport, but the mental challenges that come along with the activity tend to be overlooked. While the athletes are conditioned to build their muscles and expertise in a match, they are also expected to lose drastic amounts of weight and maintain their weight loss. is abrupt weight loss is expected of most wrestlers, with the exceptions being heavyweight or lightweight wrestlers, who o en maintain their weight naturally. In order to achieve this weight loss, wrestlers follow extreme diets and exercise in full sweatsuits with the goal of losing weight. Sophomore Tucker Arnold, who went from 200 pounds to 182 pounds in one month, views the expectation to lose weight as a sacri ce to improve his performance and his strength, as well as a way to improve his physical health. “I have more energy to do things like working out [a er dieting],” Arnold said. However, the ends may not justify the means when it comes to the long term e ects of weight loss. e habits used by many wrestlers to achieve weight loss lines up with some of the criteria that the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics sets for disordered eating, namely chronic weight uctuations, rigid rituals surrounding food consumption and exercise as well as preoccupation with dieting. Although o en confused, eating disorders and disordered eating are very di erent. e American Psychiatric Association de nes eating disorders as “behavioral conditions characterized by severe and persistent disturbance in eating behaviors and associated distressing thoughts and emotions,” and examples of such are Anorexia Nervosa and Bulimia Nervosa. Whereas disordered eating is de ned by the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics as “a range of irregular eating behaviors that may or may not warrant a diagnosis of a speci c eating disorder.” Essentially, anyone diagnosed with an eating disorder has disordered eating, but not everyone that has disordered eating patterns could be diagnosed with a speci c eating disorder. Sophomore Sam Webb was a former member of the wrestling team, but le for concerns for his health a er receiving a concussion mid-season last year. Last year, he was expected to lose 20 pounds in three weeks. “I would wake up right before my rst class to make eggs,” Webb said. “ en at lunch, I would have a couple of strips of turkey lunch meat. I would have something small for a snack in between, and then I just have regular dinner.” Although Webb was strict with his diet and his exercise, to the point where he lost 10 pounds in the rst two days of his regiment, he was unable to lose all of the weight before certi cation. “I was sitting there at 163 [and I was told] to go run it o ,” Webb said. “I went back to the locker room, put on full sweats. It was tucked into my socks, [I] put on a sweatshirt and got out there. I ran dead sprint for about an hour and a half. I lost maybe two pounds.” While losing weight is a struggle that some wrestlers have to deal with, it is not always necessary to be a successful member of the team. “I have never had to gain or lose weight,” sophomore Antón Menéndez said, “But a lot of other guys do lose weight.”

Emerson Elledge elledeme000@hsestudents.org