Desempenho e perda de peso: efeitos da perda rápida de peso na aptidão física e comportamento em atletas de jiu-jitsu

Abstract

To reach for competitive equity among athletes, combat sports event organizing committees seek to establish parameters to level and balance combat actions. One of the criteria used is the definition of weight categories, established from the amount of body mass of the athlete (weight categories). In this direction, some athletes use strategies to quickly reduce their body mass given the possibility of obtaining competitive advantages, fighting in lower weight categories, and, consequently, facing lighter opponents. This research aims to verify the existence of effects of weight loss on morphofunctional and behavioral parameters of jiu-jitsu (BJJ) athletes. For this, 18 male jiu-jitsu athletes, with minimum blue belt graduation, systematic training routine, and competitive history participated in the research. The study was carried out in a controlled situation and divided into two experiments: experiment 1, athletes submitted to anthropometric, neuromuscular, and simulated combat assessments in three phases (no weight loss; loss of up to 3%; loss of ≤5%); experiment 2 comparisons between athletes who managed and failed to lose weight. According to the results of the study, no effects of weight loss on neuromuscular tests were observed, and the weight loss occurred due to the majority reduction in lean mass. As a conclusion, it is possible to infer that: weight loss of up to 5% in a period of 15 days and without recovery time does not cause changes in performance in BJJ athletes, weight loss is mainly due to loss of lean mass.