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The Weight Cut Hannah Boyl

   Wrestling season is      and refueling strategies.  the off-season.2 If a last-
                            There is also evidence     minute weight loss strat-
upon us which means the     to suggest that chronic    egy is needed the athlete
topic of weight cutting     weight cycling can af-     may implement at low
is bound to come up in      fect strength gains dur-   residue/fiber diet, salt re-
some context or another.    ing the season and in-     striction, or fluid manipu-
Whether you’re an ath-      crease injury risk.        lation but only for 48-72
lete attempting to make                                hours before competition
weight, a parent of an         Many of the conse-      and with an adequate
athlete, or someone with    quences related to RWL     rehydration and refueling
an opinion on whether or    can be attributed to       protocol.3
not this practice should    dehydration. There are
be allowed in sport, it’s   numerous ways that            Not only must you have
being talked about.         dehydration acts on the    a weight management
                            body. (For more informa-   plan, but also a rehydra-
    Rapid weight loss       tion on this, read last    tion and recovery plan.3
(RWL) is a common           month’s article or con-    When the athlete is re-
method of weight reduc-     tact me.) It is hypoth-    covering, there should
tion in order to meet the   esized that dehydration    be at least 75% of the
requirements for weight     can increase the risk      weight lost during the cut
classes. Unfortunately,     of concussion as well.     restored before competi-
there have been some        This should be an im-      tion begins.2 Consump-
negative psychological      portant factor to take     tion of carbohydrate-
and physiological effects   into consideration when    electrolyte beverages
documented in relation to   planning weight loss       and simple carbohydrate,
RWL.1 Negative psycho-      and recovery for ath-      salty foods can help the
logical effects include a   letes.                     body recover adequately.
decrease in short term                                 A moderate amount of
memory, concentration          While there are known   protein (20-25g) will help
and self-esteem, and an     consequences to repeat     with muscle repair as
increase in confusion,      weight cuts for sport,     well as enhance fluid ab-
rage, fatigue, and depres-  this doesn’t seem to       sorption and tolerance in
sion. These outcomes        be something that will     the stomach.4
can have adverse conse-     be going away anytime
quences when it comes       soon. That being said,         Be smart about your
to competition perfor-      it is important that we    weight cut. Have weight
mance. A lack of short-     are choosing the best      loss and recovery plans
term memory may inhibit     options for cutting and    in place to make sure
the ability to remember     refueling.                 your level performance
coach instruction and                                  is at its very best. If you
decrease in the ability to      A weight manage-       need assistance in ensur-
concentrate could allow     ment plan should be        ing weight cuts are done
for the athlete to become   developed in the off-      correctly or have ques-
easily distracted. Physio-  season. Ideally the        tions about how to re-
logically, performance in   athlete is reaching and    cover before competition,
both aerobic and anaero-    maintaining a weight       seek advice from a nutri-
bic space can decline de-   that is within 3-4% of     tion professional.
pending on the refeeding    competition weight in

46 • Sports Finest Magazine DEC 2018 sportsfinestMagzine.com 989 545 0735 kelly@sportsfinestmagazine.com
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