Effect Of Nutrition Intake And Changes In Body Composition On Incidence Of Injury In Collegiate Wrestlers

The purpose was to investigate acute and longitudinal nutrition practices, changes in body composition, and incidence of injuries in Division I male collegiate wrestlers across the competitive season. Data were collected from 28 student-athletes of the Appalachian State University Wrestling team via survey questionnaires, 3-day food records, and Dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry (DXA) whole body scans for body mass (BM), fat-free mass (FFM), and body fat (BF) percentage. In-season competition and practice injury data were collected from the team’s Certified Athletic Trainer. Student’s t-tests were used to compare differences in continuous data, and Chi-square tests were used to compare differences in categorical variables. Wrestlers significantly changed their BM from pre- to mid-season (80.2 ± 14.9 vs 77.9 ± 14.9, p<0.001), FFM (63.5 ± 10.7 vs 62.0 ± 10.6, p<0.001), and BF (16.5 ± 2.6% vs 15.9 ± 2.8%, p=0.020). Of the 28 participants, 9 wrestlers experienced at least one injury during the season. Changes in BM, FFM, and BF were not significantly different nor were methods of weight loss or mass lost immediately prior to competition between injured and un-injured wrestlers. Future research should focus on dietary interventions to manipulate body composition to determine a relationship between nutrition and injury risk.