Why losing weight fast hurts muscles more
Acute muscle damage as a metabolic response to rapid weight loss in wrestlers
Not medical advice. For informational purposes only. Always consult a healthcare professional. Terms
Surprising Findings
Muscle damage was significantly higher with 5% RWL + training than with training alone — even though the athletes were elite and accustomed to intense training.
People assume trained athletes adapt to stress — but here, their bodies showed worse damage when weight loss was added, suggesting adaptation doesn't protect against RWL-induced harm.
Practical Takeaways
Coaches and athletes should consider delaying or reducing rapid weight loss before intense training blocks to minimize muscle damage.
Not medical advice. For informational purposes only. Always consult a healthcare professional. Terms
Surprising Findings
Muscle damage was significantly higher with 5% RWL + training than with training alone — even though the athletes were elite and accustomed to intense training.
People assume trained athletes adapt to stress — but here, their bodies showed worse damage when weight loss was added, suggesting adaptation doesn't protect against RWL-induced harm.
Practical Takeaways
Coaches and athletes should consider delaying or reducing rapid weight loss before intense training blocks to minimize muscle damage.
Publication
Journal
Biomedical Human Kinetics
Year
2024
Authors
Mirka Lukic-Sarkanovic, Roberto Roklicer, T. Trivic, Marko Manojlovic, Barbara Gilić, A. Milovančev, Carlo Rossi, A. Bianco, Attilio Carraro, Milica Cvjeticanin, P. Drid
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Claims (6)
Trained individuals experience heightened muscle damage and swelling responses when exposed to novel training stimuli, despite prior training experience.
Even without losing weight, intense wrestling-style training can cause measurable signs of muscle damage in wrestlers.
Because losing weight too fast might hurt muscles more, coaches and wrestlers should be careful about how they cut weight before competitions.
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.