Unhealthy weight loss leads to unsafe participation in matches. A minimum wrestling weight is determined at the beginning of the wrestling season by body weight, body composition, and specific gravity of urine. The weight is determined by finding the wrestler’s mass without any fat plus five percent for fat. Five percent body fat is the lowest healthy percent, so when cutting weight for a match, the wrestler will not be able to go below five percent and still wrestle. Currently, the NCAA uses hydrostatic weighing together with skin folds for determining the lowest wrestling weight. These methods are not always very accurate. New methods have been developed such as air displacement plethysmography. Air displacement plethysmography is a densitometric method that relies on measurement of mass and volume to calculate body density. Densitometry is the measurement of density by measuring the time a projected wave takes to go out and return to a sensor. Advantages of air displacement plethysmography are it requires less technical expertise, it is more efficient and comfortable than hydrostatic weighing. Testing showed that air displacement plethysmography had very similar results to hydrostatic weighing, but some major variations cause questions. The study evaluated the accuracy of air displacement plethysmography for measuring body density compared to the current method. The study included 66 division 1 collegiate wrestlers, some from each weight class. In a hydrated and dehydrated state, air displacement plethysmography and current tests were similar.
Utter, Alan C., Fredric L. Goss, and Pamela D. Swan. "Evaluation of Air Displacement for Assessing Body Composition of Collegiate Wrestlers." Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise 35.3 (2003): 500-5.
1 comment:
That's a very interesting new way. I would not expect this to be a method to measure weight for wrestlers/
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