Outside the Ring | Teen Ink

Outside the Ring

November 19, 2014
By TKirk SILVER, Wilmington, Delaware
TKirk SILVER, Wilmington, Delaware
5 articles 0 photos 0 comments

The life of a wrestler inside the ring is brutal, and physically demanding and tiring. Many do not realize that the same struggle maintains outside the ring. Although it is a bit physically depressing, it relies more on your mentality. Exercise, diet, and weight are the three things that make a wrestler. From day one of learning the ropes they know they will constantly have to watch their weight, diet, and keep up on their exercise. There may be a few wrestlers who may eat junk food, rarely exercise, and don’t care for their weight. I hope not at the same time, because that is not a wrestler at all.


True wrestlers will be the one to turn over everything food related, to count the calories, fat content, proteins, and even carbohydrate amount.Your goal is to be as low body fat percentage, and have good muscle mass. For four grueling months you have to stay a certain weight, not going over a single ounce of the weight class. This means you will practically need to burn off more than you eat. Sometimes you may need to turn away meals, run till your body tightens, and your vision fades. To some it may be frightening and just stupid. To a wrestler it is a way of life. Whenever something pushes you and brings you to your knees, you need to stand back up and push back. You can’t allow things to rule you. Wrestling will ready you for anything that comes in life.


Before wrestling people may have tended to eat pizza, junk, high fat contents, and food from fast food places. During wrestling you’re eating as little fat content as possible, watching your calorie count, exercising till moving is not possible, and making sure they meet or are under their needed weight. Chicken, brown rice, mixed nuts, vegetables, fruits, fish, and salads become a very known path for wrestlers. Pop-tarts, whole milk, burgers, and cheese become the enemy. Once I have gone almost eighteen hours without eating, rarely drinking here and there just to barely make my weight just on the dot. The things you would sacrifice for a single thing is crazy.
People fantasize over the perfect physique, yet only sit there and do nothing about it. Others go out chase and build their own way to it. Nothing in life comes easy. Every thing that faces you is a challenge. Health is an important role in that. You need to be healthy to fight for things. If not, it may take it away from you. If you are not healthy it may become a habit. Habits can either make you, or break you down to be even called a disease. They are super hard to change about you. Once they become common, it will be hard to just fit into something else.


Wrestling and health combine so well coaches can tell what you ate from the way you wrestle and lift that day. Health is very crucial. You need to keep a close eye on it a all times, or five pounds can sneak up on you. It is very easy to over eat, not exercise, and just lay doing nothing all day every day. For wrestlers that is the bottom. The prey, that the predators eat to survive. Wrestlers want and crave to be top, till they become that. Until they are the alpha, a lion, a beast. Something that is above all. 


The author's comments:

This story will relate and wrestlers can have a common story with this.


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