Wrestling with Temperature

Why Cutting Weight Leaves you Cold & How to Fix It

One of the things I appreciate most about working at EMBR labs is how better understanding the power of temperature on my life enables me to connect dots about my past in ways. One area in particular where I now realize temperature played a huge role was my time wrestling and cutting weight. In this blog post, I’ll explore how wrestling affected my thermal experience and what it teaches everyone about how we experience temperature, starting with cutting weight.

I wrestled at 103 lbs my junior year of high school and was cutting about 5–7 lbs a week to make weight, about 6% of my body weight.

Cutting weight is the process through which a wrestler restricts their food and water intake in the time leading up to weigh-ins in order to compete at the lowest possible weight class. When done correctly, cutting weight can help a wrestler gain an advantage by increasing their strength to weight ratio; however, when done incorrectly, it can negatively affect performance and have serious health consequences. I remember cutting weight all too well. Beyond just a general crabbiness that comes from restricting food and drink, one of the other side-effects I remember well is being cold all the time. My hands always felt freezing, except when I was working out and actively sweating.

It’s Not my Core Temperature.

Looking back on my weight-cutting days through the lens of what I have learned at EMBR, I now understand that the reason I felt cold is because my hands were cold, and that thermal sensation was the focus of my attention. Meanwhile, my body and nervous system were focused on maintaining a 98.6 F core temperature. Because I was restricting my water and food input and giving my body less energy than it needed, it responded by restricting blood flow to my extremities and redirecting it around my core to keep my vital organs functioning. Of course, I was not conscious of this process because I do not feel my core temperature; instead, I was only aware that my hands were cold and never gave any thought to the underlying reason.

When Digestion Leaves You Cold.

As a wrestler you cut weight in the days leading up to competition and the weigh-ins a few hours before you compete. You might think that I would warm up after weigh-ins after I have finally put food and water back into my body. However, before my body could begin to use the energy I consumed, it had to digest that food and heat up the water to body temperature. So while chugging an ice cold Pedialyte quenched my thirst, it also made me even colder, because my body now had to use all this extra energy to heat up the liquid from ~37 F to 98.6 F. This meant all my blood rushed to my stomach to begin warming up the liquid and digesting my food, leaving me colder than before. To combat this sensation, I would bundle up in my coat and try to curl up in the fetal position. More recently, one of the MIT Wrestlers took this one step further and climbed into our equipment bag to make himself a cocoon in which he could be even warmer. Only after the Pedialyte, Gatorade, and water are warmed up, and the food is digested do we feel warm enough to get ready to wrestle.

The cocoon solution is only viable for wrestlers in the lightest weight classes.

Using Temperature to Your Advantage

Wrestlers willingly sacrifice food and water in the name of their sport, and they also often unknowingly give up their thermal comfort in the process. However, cold hands and bodies do not have to be the norm. Wrestlers can choose to have room temperature (or warm) liquids after weigh-ins; they may not offer the same level of refreshment, but they won’t draw as much blood to your stomach and make you feel cold. Non-wrestlers can remember that the key to warming up cold hands and feet is often adding layers around your core; making it easier for your body to maintain its core temperature results in more blood flow to the extremities for warmer fingers and toes. Lastly, we can all appreciate how our conscious thermal sensations provide clues about the unconscious thermoregulatory system in all our bodies helping us maintain a safe stable core temperature.

What’s your trick for warming up cold hands in the winters? Tell us below!

Thanks to David Cohen-Tanugi for help with this post!