‘Too many risks’: Women wrestlers encouraged to wean away from last-day fast weight loss
At any wrestling championships, the common sight is of athletes in raincoats running rounds of indoor mats on eve of competition. Most of them are also fasting. Wrestlers cramming last-minute sweating, dehydrating and starving to force-fit into their weight categories isn’t something new. But is it healthy?
Dr Samuel Pullinger, head of Sports Science at JSW’s Inspire Institute of Sport training centre at Vijayanagar in Karnataka, is trying to wean away the centre’s women wrestlers from this punishing pre weigh-in regime. Often considered a heroic struggle which it is and fairly global, the basis of the practice however is unhealthy.
Having noticed a constant stream of Anterior Cruciate Ligament knee injuries and rash of ligament tears, he has now insisted there would be no more sauna an...