Even without losing weight, intense wrestling-style training can cause measurable signs of muscle damage in wrestlers.

After intense wrestling training, wrestlers' blood shows higher levels of certain proteins that signal muscle damage.

When wrestlers quickly lose 5% of their body weight before a match and also train hard, their muscles show more signs of damage than when they train just as hard without losing weight.

Losing 5% of body weight quickly makes muscle damage worse than just training hard without losing weight.

Both heavy lifting with few reps and light lifting with many reps cause muscle damage, but neither does it more than the other.

Because losing weight too fast might hurt muscles more, coaches and wrestlers should be careful about how they cut weight before competitions.