Antropomotoryka nr 57 [2012]. - Akademia Wychowania Fizycznego ...

Dariusz Boguszewski, Katarzyna Boguszewska, Jakub AdamczykFigure 7. Average results of medicine ball throw of judoists,reducing and non-reducing body weight (“+” competitors whohave carried out the coaching plan; “–“ competitors who havenot carried out the coaching plan), (* significance at p < 0.05;** significance at p < 0.01)the results from the point of view of the fulfillment of theinitial targets, it turned out that the sportsmen who didnot fulfill them achieved significantly higher STAI resultsthan the remaining ones. The differences were: p = 0.05in the reducing group and p = 0.0076 in the group notreducing the body weight, respectively (Fig. 8).Figure 8. Average points STAI – state anxiety of judoists reducingand non-reducing body weight (“+” competitors who have carriedout the coaching plan; ”–“ competitors who have not carried outthe coaching plan), (* significance at p < 0.05)DiscussionAlthough the negative impact of body weight reductionupon the contender’s organism has been proved [7, 8],the reduction of body weight is common in those sportsin which competition is divided into weight categories(boxing, kickboxing, wrestling, judo, weight lifting) aswell as in those sports where there are no formal weightlimits but contender’s body weight is a factor havinginfluence upon competitive results (ski jumping, climbing,some track and field competitions). The weightloss problem concerns the majority of the competitivesportsmen in these sports.In the research group, over half of the contendersreduced body weight before contests. Some of themhad been doing that for many years and before everycontest. The sportsmen lost average of 4.1 kg, whichequals 5.4% of body weight. In comparison, accordingto research by Kinigham and Gorenflo, 77% ofyoung American wrestlers reduced their body weightby over 2.27 kg [13]; British wrestlers and boxers, byan average of 5–10% [17]. The speed of these reductionsvaries. For instance, according to Japanese research,among judo contenders it amounts to 2.8 kga day [18], and among Australian body builders, 1.4kg a day [19].Body weight reduction concerns younger andyounger contenders. The average age of beginning topractice BWR in the researched group of judoists was15.5 years. According to Smith et al., British boxersaged 14–16 years reduce their body weight an averageof 2.8% [20].The leading method of reducing body weight is limitingthe amount of food [21] or limiting or eliminatingsome energetic substrates from the diet [22]. Additionalmethods are limiting the amount of liquids, intensifyingphysical effort or exercise in warmer, airtight suits. Itreferred to judoists, kick boxers [11], karatekas, andweightlifters [21].The majority of contenders feel the negative effectsof BWR. The principal reason here is the decrease ofglycogen supply, blood buffer capacity, volume of plasma,density of plasma proteins and triacylglycerols, B6vitamin and magnesium, and the increase of free fatacids and cholesterol in plasma [7, 12, 22, 23]. Duringthe gradual body weight reduction, anaerobic capacitydoes not diminish; however, the slowed re-synthesis ofglycogen and the loss of proteins from muscles mayinfluence competitive results. [24]. Ziemlanski provedthat rapid loss of 5% of body weight lowers physicalcapacity even by 30%, no matter which BWR methodwas used [25]. Physical effort combined with diet restrictionsincrease plasma activity of keratin kinesis,which indicates damage to muscles, which increasesrisk of injury [7].The negative impact of BWR on a contender’s psychologicalcondition was also proved [21]. The psychologicalfactor seems to be of no lesser importance, andin combat sports may be even crucial, as the results ofthe conducted research seem to suggest.– 32 –