While millions of Americans made losing weight their New Year’s resolution, shedding pounds is more than a mere resolution for wrestlers—it’s a lifestyle. In a sport where an individual’s success is largely dependent upon maintaining a low weight, wrestlers are consumed by a never-ending cycle of dieting and exercising just to stay competitive.
With 10 different weight classes ranging from 125 pounds to heavyweight, dropping a few pounds could mean the difference between a mediocre season and a championship caliber season. But redshirt junior Colton Palmer explains that cutting weight in a healthy manner and simply cutting weight by any means necessary are two very different approaches.
“If you can cut weight correctly, you can compete at a much higher level than if you just get dehydrated in order to lose weight before a match,” Palmer said, who is 24-8 in the 157-lb. weight class. “If I’m a pound over weight, I’ll either hit the treadmill and get a quick sweat in or do some wrestling drills to get [the weight] off.”
In order for wrestlers to compete at the highest level, they must not only be focused on managing their weight, but also focused on providing their bodies with enough energy to make it through intense daily workouts. The give-and-take relationship between weight management and caloric intake can put a lot of stress on collegiate wrestlers compared with athletes from other sports.
“The day-to-day is much more stressful because if you don’t have enough fluids and food in you and energy to work out, you’re going to have a bad day,” Palmer said. “You’ll get beat up and nobody will care. You have to constantly be aware of what you’re putting in your body. So it definitely adds a lot of stress to the sport.”
Wolfpack wrestlers are required to stay within seven pounds of their weight class at all times to help make shedding weight before matches less agonizing.
However, back in coach Carter Jordan’s wrestling days, rubber suits were worn to sweat up to 15 extra pounds off. Although the use of rubber suits are now forbidden, wrestlers still have methods for cutting weight before weigh-ins.
“If I’m two pounds over, I’ll hop on the treadmill for about 20-25 minutes and I’ll lose the weight no problem,” redshirt junior Darrius Little said, who is 21-6 in the 141-lb. weight class. “Once you’ve been wrestling for a while, you understand your body and how to lose the weight you need to lose.”
The issue of cutting weight has been so embedded into the sport that wrestlers will stop at nothing to try and gain a competitive advantage by maintaining a weight far below their normal weight. In 1997, three collegiate wrestlers died of malfunctions associated with weight loss, which sparked an NCAA investigation and eventually led to new stricter rules governing the sport.
Jordan has first-hand experience of the extent to which wrestlers will go to in order to make their weight. As a high school student, Jordan was hospitalized due to severe dehydration in an effort to make his 133-lb. weight class.
“Some of the things we did to cut weight back in our day were just terrible,” Jordan said. “Wearing rubber suits, purging after eating over and over again; it was very unhealthy.”
With a weight certification process put in place by the NCAA, the N.C. State training staff puts wrestlers through a variety of tests to determine if a wrestler is able to move down to a lower weight class in a healthy way.
Freshmen, in particular, have a hard time adapting to the lifestyle of collegiate wrestling because they do not take the advice of the coaches and nutritionist, according to Jordan.
“Every year, the freshmen come in and don’t listen to us,” Jordan said. “They don’t listen to the nutritionist, they don’t do what we tell them, they don’t eat six small meals a day, and they don’t cut out all the bad things in their diet. Next thing you know, they’re supposed to make their weight and don’t.”
For Little, who wrestled in the 133-lb. weight class his first two seasons for the Wolfpack, moving up to his current 141-lb. weight class has been far less stressful.
“It’s been a lot easier,” Little said. “I still have to watch my weight but for the most part, I eat whatever I want to. My energy level is a lot higher than it was when I wrestled at 133 [pounds].”