Throughout a season full of training and making weight, wrestlers are under a large amount of stress. They have a winning attitude in place and are putting in the tough work needed to constantly be making weight while completing rigorous training sessions. Wrestlers accomplish things that some may not realize or recognize unless they are a part of the wrestling team.

Wrestlers have to “make weight”, which is where they are weighed in for their weight group. If they are even the slightest bit over, they will not have a match, meaning that their opponent will win by default. This concept puts a lot of pressure on wrestlers to be making weight.

“Making weight can negatively affect me [by] causing stress [if] I’m overweight and don’t have much time to cut what I need to [and] having no energy when I’m trying to be on weight,” freshman Timothy Crafelli said.

There are times where wrestlers only eat one time a day, if at all, and when they do it is very small portions. Another way that wrestlers lose weight is through their water weight. This means that spitting saliva will eventually help them to lose weight. When wrestlers participate in this, they often use gum to increase salvation; as a result, they will spit into a bottle quite frequently.

As perplexing as it sounds, a five pound difference between opponents is a large difference, which gives the bigger wrestler a huge advantage. This is why it is important to get as close to the target weight as possible without going over.

Throughout the process of losing weight, wrestlers are also training as if the conditions are normal; however, they are anything but normal. Their bodies have very little fuel to keep them going and no energy to carry them through practices.

Not only does the lack of nutrition affect their physical performance and physique, but this can also affect life outside of their training. For example, there are still things that they need to get done throughout the day such as errands, homework, etc. Without any energy and constantly feeling fatigued, this makes the little tasks seem more than little. Homework can feel like it’s never-ending and the overall workload feels a lot more hefty.

Another way that this can affect wrestlers is through mood. Constantly being low on energy can lead to tiredness and overall moodiness. Without the fuel to get on through the day, time will feel much slower.

Once wrestlers make their weight, immediately they have the ability to eat proper food, instead of a small portion. The small amount of time in-between weigh-ins and the match only allows for a small snack to be eaten, but anything is better than nothing.