Freestyle wrestling training | Self healing injuries | How to stay in shape

 Amateur wrestling at the high school and collegiate level in the United States often involves exercise and
thermal dehydration as well as food and fluid restriction to "make weight". Available evidence suggests this is the
opposite of what is optimal for high-intensity exercise performance. A high-intensity taper will substantially
improve performance when conducted after a period of high-volume high intensity training. Additionally,
dehydration of approximately 3-4% of body weight will most definitely impair muscular endurance during highintensity exercise although it likely will not impair maximal
muscular strength or power. Even more gradual weight loss
practices over a few days, which result in a reduction of body
weight by approximately 3.3 to 6% will result in impaired
performance as assessed by wrestling specific tests. It would seem
of paramount importance for wrestlers to maintain a highcarbohydrate diet of approximately 8-10 g carbohydrate/kg body
weight/day to maintain training intensity and optimize
performance during individual matches and tournaments. Thus, the
evidence would suggest that, prior to competition, collegiate
wrestlers should be: 1) tapered, 2) in the euhydrated state, and 3)
have ingested a high carbohydrate diet, rather than undergo rapid
weight loss prior to competition.