Kinematic indicators in combat sports athletes in a pre-competitive dehydrated status

Background & Study Aim: To attain the right weight in competition, most of combat sports athletes who must be included in a determined weight category, resort to the dehydration. The aim of this study was knowledge about influence of three training stages combat sports athletes (base, specific and pre-competitive) on their level of dehydration and their body composition and muscle strength. Material & Methods: Sixty-four competitive athletes participated in this study: 38 Olympic Greco-Roman wrestlers from Spanish national team; 26 judo athletes from Portuguese national team. By means of Inbody Biospace 230 bio-impedance method, an anthropometric study was practiced to all of them in each phase of the investigation, to know body weight, skeletal muscular mass, and body water and fat mass percent. For the measurements of the muscle strength manifestations, the system Isocontrol 5.2 was used. Results: One out of every four athletes is usually dehydrated, being women those who tend to dehydrate more than men. The greater dehydration is during the training base stage. Wrestlers tend to dehydrate more than judo athletes. Hydrated athletes have better indicators in the muscle strength manifestations. The most affected indicators in the dehydrated ones are: muscle strength, muscle power and muscle strength production average. The dehydrated ones have smaller values of skeletal muscular mass. Conclusions: Dehydration in combat sports negatively affects the athletes performance diminishing their muscle strength levels as much in the training as in the competition, being women most prone to dehydrate than men. Wrestlers use more pre-competitive dehydration than judo athletes, reason why it is recommendable a performance protocol to avoid situations that can affect to the athlete health and performance.