Are wrestlers risking their long-term health?

Instead of stressing over a few extra holiday pounds, grab your sweats and head over to the blistering Pottruck wrestling room, where wrestlers can drop 10 pounds in a single two-hour practice.

A 10-pound practice is only one aspect in the weekly cycle that wrestlers must endure to make weight. Wrestlers routinely compete in a weight class below their natural weight, so that, while they may be competing at 149 pounds, they have the muscle mass of their natural weight of 160 pounds. Junior Jack Kitchen wrestles at 174 pounds but said, "If I was just lifting weights and doing my thing, I'd weigh around 200 pounds."

Getting down to wrestling weight is a potentially dangerous endeavor - three college wrestlers died during weight-loss workouts over the span of six weeks in 1997.

While there are short-term risks to rapid weight loss, Dr. Stella Volpe, Penn's endowed chairwoman of nutrition, also stresses the long-term dangers.

"It can negatively affect their metabolism - slowing it down and making it more difficult to lose weight each time," she said. "In addition, electrolyte imbalances occur with this rapid weight loss, which can lead to heart dysrhythmias" - abnormal heart rhythms - "and even death."

Penn wrestling coach Zeke Jones, who doesn't have a Ph.D. but was himself an Olympic medalist as a wrestler, said plainly, "There are no long-term risks. The only risk is in the short term, which would be if kids get too dehydrated."

Jones emphasizes dealing with it in the most healthful manner.

"We try to get weight under control early in the season so that we can focus on wrestling," he said.

However, the NCAA has instituted several safeguards in recent years. It stipulates that wrestlers must maintain five-percent body fat. While that number seems low, it is standard for collegiate wrestlers.

"For men, on average, the minimum percent body fat to have that is healthy is actually three percent," Volpe said. "So five-percent body fat is not too low for men, especially if they have attained this via healthy eating, weight training and aerobic activity."

Like many wrestlers, Kitchen goes through a weekly routine that gets him to his weight in time for a match.

"I check my weight everyday and try to lose one or two pounds before each practice," Kitchen said. "Starting one or two days before the match, I start cutting down on fluids and just eat enough to get through workouts."

Wrestlers weigh in an hour or two before a competition. But by the time the match gets underway, wrestlers may have put back on up to eight pounds through eating and drinking. According to Jones, the strategy is not to eat as much as one can but to get rehydrated and to get some energy for the match.

Cutting weight is not a factor for all wrestlers. According to Jones, it is not even a factor for most.

"Ninety percent of wrestlers don't have a weight-control issue," Jones said.

The issue lies with the remaining 10 percent. Gradual weight loss is the most healthful strategy, but, on rare occasions, a wrestler may find himself 10-pounds overweight the night before a match. In those cases, he is forced to eschew healthful weight-loss methods.

"You throw on some sweats and you go work out," Kitchen said. "You do something that's slow, so you are sweating but not expending lots of energy. Then you a eat a little so that you can go work out again."

The 10 pounds lost in a night or in a practice are mostly water weight, and there are serious risks associated with this level of dehydration.

"A wrestler who rapidly cuts weight will be weaker than one who doesn't, even if they replenish fluids before a match," Volpe said.

But Jones points out that cutting weight does not lead to this level of dehydration.

"They don't [get to that point] because they have to be hydrated and they have to prove it with a test."

The test Jones refers to is the NCAA certification process, in which wrestlers must make weight while the officials monitor body fat and hydration. This process happens at the beginning of each season and is more strenuous for freshmen, who have to submit a more extensive test.

While there are inherent risks in rapid weight loss, the team is taking the precautions to make it as safe as possible.

"We pay attention to" the wrestlers, Jones said. "We put them on the scale. We check them; we communicate with them; we have them meet with a nutritionist. They're getting interactions from the coaching staff, a nutritionist and the NCAA safeguard committee."

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